by Robert Barclay

“ But lastly, If this commendation of the Jewish Bereans might infer that the scriptures were the only and principal rule to try the apostle's doctrine by, what should have become of the Gentiles? How should they ever have come to have received the faith of Christ, who neither knew the scriptures, nor believed them? ”

“ What should then become of Christians, if they had not received that Spirit, and those spiritual senses, by which they know how to discern the true from the false? It is the privilege of Christ's sheep indeed that they hear his voice, and refuse that of a stranger; which privilege being taken away, we are left a prey to all manner of wolves.
[The Scriptures are not the principal ground of truth.] ”

“ For as we never lay claim to the Spirit's leadings, that we may cover ourselves in any thing that is evil; so we know, that as every evil contradicts the scriptures, so it doth also the spirit in the first place, from which the scriptures came, and whose motions can never contradict one another, though they may appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind eye of the natural man, as Paul and James seem to contradict one another. ”

“ This answers well to our purpose, since our adversaries now do also exalt the scriptures, and think to have life in them; which is no more than to look upon them as the only principal rule and way to life, and yet refuse to come unto the Spirit of which they testify, even the inward spiritual law, which could give them life: so that the cause of this people's ignorance and unbelief was not their want of respect to the scriptures, which though they knew, and had an high esteem of, yet Christ testifies in the former verses, that they had neither seen the Father, nor heard his voice at any time ”

“ For as we freely acknowledge that their authority doth not depend upon the approbation or canons of any church or assembly; so neither can we subject them to the fallen, corrupt, and defiled reason of man: and therein as we do freely agree with the Protestants against the error of the Romanists, so on the other hand, we cannot go the length of such Protestants as make their authority to depend upon any virtue or power that is in the writings themselves; but we desire to ascribe all to that Spirit from which they proceeded. ”

“ This is the great work of the scriptures, and their service to us, that we may witness them fulfilled in us, and so discern the stamp of God's Spirit and ways upon them, by the inward acquaintance we have with the same Spirit and work in our hearts. The prophecies of the scriptures are also very comfortable and profitable unto us, as the same Spirit enlightens us to observe them fulfilled, and to be fulfilled ”

“ Peter himself declares this to have been the end of his writing, 2 Pet. i. 12, 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth; yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance.
God is teacher of his people himself; and there is nothing more express, than that such as are under the new covenant, need no man to teach them: yet it was a fruit of Christ's ascension to send teachers and pastors for perfecting of the saints. ”

“ For though God doth principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit, yet he sometimes conveys his comfort and consolation to us through his children, whom he raises up and inspires to speak or write a word in season, whereby the saints are made instruments in the hand of the Lord to strengthen and encourage one another, which doth also tend to perfect and make them wise unto salvation; and such as are led by the Spirit cannot neglect, but do naturally love, and are wonderfully cherished by, that which proceedeth from the same Spirit in another ”

“ The proposition itself declares how much I esteem them; and provided that to the Spirit from which they came be but granted that place the scriptures themselves give it, I do freely concede to the scriptures the second place, even whatsoever they say of themselves; which the apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places, Rom. xv. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17. The holy scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Jesus Christ. ”

“ But as to this part we shall produce divers arguments hereafter. As to what is affirmed, that the Spirit, and not the scriptures, is the rule, it is largely handled in the former proposition; the sum whereof I shall subsume in one argument, thus,
If by the Spirit we can only come to the true knowledge of God; if by the Spirit we are to be led into all truth, and so be taught of all things; then the Spirit, and not the scriptures, is the foundation and ground of all truth and knowledge, and the primary rule of faith and manners:
But the first is true, therefore also the last. ”

“ When we doubt of the streams of any river or flood, we recur to the fountain itself; and having found it, there we desist, we can go no farther, because there it springs out of the bowels of the earth, which are inscrutable. ”

“ And for our parts, we are very willing that all our doctrines and practices be tried by them; which we never refused, nor ever shall, in all controversies with our adversaries, as the judge and test. We shall also be very willing to admit it as a positive certain maxim, That whatsoever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, be accounted and reckoned a delusion of the devil. ”

“ But besides these which are before mentioned, herein doth the law and the gospel differ, in that the law, being outwardly written, brings under condemnation, but hath not life in it to save; whereas the gospel, as it declares and makes manifest the evil, so, being an inward powerful thing, it gives power also to obey, and deliver from the evil. ”

“ For the ancients themselves, even of the first centuries, were not agreed among themselves concerning them; while some of them rejected books which we approve, and others of them approved those which some of us reject. It is not unknown to such as are in the least acquainted with antiquity, what great contests are concerning the second epistle of Peter, that of James, the second and third of John, and the Revelations, which many, even very ancient, deny to have been written by the beloved disciple and brother of James, but by another of that name. ”

“ These can have no immediate knowledge of the rule of their faith; so their faith must needs depend upon the credit of other men's reading or relating it unto them; where either the altering, adding, or omitting of a little word may be a foundation in the poor hearer of a very dangerous mistake, whereby he may either continue in some iniquity ignorantly, or believe a lie confidently. ”

“ That which displeaseth me is, that men should first affirm that the scripture is the only and principal rule, and yet make a great article of faith of that which the scripture can give us no light in. ”

“ So that that which is good for another to do, may be sinful to me; for as masters will have their servants to obey them, according to their good pleasure, and not only in blindly doing that which may seem to them to tend to their master's profit, whereby it may chance (the master having business both in the field and in the house) that the servant that knows not his master's will may go to the field, when it is the mind of the master he should stay and do the business of the house, would not this servant then deserve a reproof, for not answering his master's mind? ”

“ Next, the very nature of the gospel itself declareth that the scriptures cannot be the only and chief rule of Christians, else there should be no difference betwixt the law and the gospel; as from the nature of the new covenant, by divers scripturesdescribed in the former proposition, is proved. ”

“ Lastly, That cannot be the only, principal, nor chief rule, which doth not universally reach every individual that needeth it to produce the necessary effect; and from the use of which, either by some innocent and sinless defect, or natural yet harmless and blameless imperfection, many who are within the compass of the visible church, and may, without absurdity, yea, with great probability, be accounted of the elect, are necessarily excluded, and that either wholly, or at least from the immediate use thereof. ”

“ But further, the various readings of the Hebrew character by reason of the points, which some plead for, as coeval with the first writings, which others, with no less probability, allege to be a later invention; the disagreement of divers citations of Christ and the apostles with those passages in the Old Testament they appeal to; the great controversy among the fathers, whereof some highly approve the Greek Septuagint, decrying and rendering very doubtful the Hebrew copy, as in many places vitiated, and altered by the Jews ”

“ Lastly, If we look to this place according to the Greek interpretation of the Septuagint, our adversaries shall have nothing from thence to carp; yea, it will favour us much; for there it is said, that the law is given us for an help; which very well agrees with what is above asserted.
[Obj. 2.] Their second objection is from John v. 39. Search the scriptures, &c. ”

“ Laod. Can. 58. in Cod. Ec. 163. Conc. Laod. held in the year 364 excluded from the canon Eccl the Wisdom of Solomon, Judith, Tobius, the Maccabees, which the council of Carthage, held in the year 399, received. ”