John Owen · 68 of 123

Book VI. Part I. The Reason of Faith. · Chapter III. · Part 2

(1.) The church is said to be the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15; which is the only text pleaded with any sobriety to give countenance unto the assertion of the authority of the Scripture with respect unto us to depend on the authority of the church. But the weakness of a plea to that purpose from hence hath been so fully manifested by many already that it needs no more to be insisted on. In short, it cannot be so the pillar and ground of truth that the truth should be, as it were, built and rest upon it as its foundation; for this is directly contrary to the same apostle, who teacheth us that the church itself is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone,” Eph. ii. 20. The church cannot be the ground of truth, and truth the ground of the church, in the same sense or kind. Wherefore, the church is the pillar and ground of truth, in that it holds up and declares the Scriptures and the things contained therein so to be.

(2.) In receiving any thing from a church, we may consider the authority of it, or its ministry. By the authority of the church in this matter, we intend no more but the weight and importance that is in its testimony; as testimonies do vary according to the worth, gravity, honesty, honour, and reputation of them by whom they are given: for to suppose an authority, properly so called, in any church, or all the churches of the world, whereon our reception of the Scripture should depend, as that which gives it authority towards us, and a sufficient warranty to our faith, is a nice imagination; for the authority and truth of God stand not in need nor are capable of any such attestation from men. All they will admit of from the children of men is, that they do humbly submit unto them, and testify their so doing with the reasons of it. The ministry of the church in this matter is that duty of the church whereby it proposeth and declareth the Scripture to be the word of God, and that as it hath occasion, to all the world. And this ministry also may be considered either formally, as it is appointed of God unto this end, and blessed by him; or materially only, as the thing is done, though the grounds whereon it is done and the manner of doing it be not divinely approved.

We wholly deny that we receive the Scripture, or ever did, on the authority of the church of Rome, in any sense whatever, for the reasons that shall be mentioned immediately. But it may be granted that, together with the ministry of other churches in the world, and many other providential means of their preservation and successive communication, we did de facto receive the Scriptures by the ministry of the church of Rome also, seeing they also were in the possession of them; but this ministry we allow only in the latter sense, as an actual means in subserviency unto God’s providence, without respect unto any especial institution.

And for the authority of the church in this case, in that sense wherein it is allowed, — namely, as denoting the weight and importance of a testimony, which, being strengthened by all sorts of circumstances, may be said to have great authority in it, — we must be careful unto whom or what church we grant or allow it: for let men assume what names or titles to themselves they please, yet if the generality of them be corrupt or flagitious in their lives, and have great secular advantages, which they highly prize and studiously improve, from what they suppose and profess the Scripture to supply them withal, be they called church or what you please, their testimony therein is of very little value, for all men may see that they have an earthly worldly, interest of their own therein; and it will be said that if such persons did know the whole Bible to be a fable (as one pope expressed himself that purpose), they would not forego the profession of it, unless they could more advantage themselves in the world another way. Wherefore, whereas it is manifest unto all that those who have the conduct of the Roman church have made, and do make to themselves, great earthly, temporal advantages, in honour, power, wealth, and reputation in the world, by their profession of the Scripture, their testimony may rationally be supposed to be so far influenced by self-interest as to be of little validity.

The testimony, therefore, which I intend is that of multitudes of persons of unspotted reputation on all other accounts in the world, free from all possibility of impeachment, as unto any designed evil or conspiracy among themselves, with respect unto any corrupt end, and who, having not the least secular advantage by what they testified unto, were absolutely secured against all exceptions which either common reason or common usage among mankind can put in unto any witness whatever. And, to evidence the force that is in this consideration, I shall briefly represent, [1.] Who they were that gave and do give this testimony, in some especial instances; [2.] What they gave this testimony unto; [3.] How, or by what means, they did so:—

[1.] And, in the first place, the testimony of those by whom the several books of the Scripture were written is to be considered. They all of them, severally and jointly, witnessed that what they wrote was received by inspiration from God. This is pleaded by the apostle Peter in the name of them all: 2 Pet. i. 16–21, “We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” This is the concurrent testimony of the writers both of the Old Testament and the New, — namely, that as they had certain knowledge of the things they wrote, so their writing was by inspiration from God. So, in particular, John beareth witness unto his Revelation: chap. xix. 9, xxii. 6, “These are the true and faithful sayings of God.” And what weight is to be laid hereon is declared, John xxi. 24, “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.” He testified to the truth of what he wrote; but how was it known to the church, there intended, (“We know that his testimony is true,”) that so it was indeed? He was not absolutely αὐτόπιστος, or “one that was to be believed in merely on his own account;” yet here it is spoken in the name of the church with the highest assurance, “We know that his testimony is true.” I answer, This assurance of theirs did not arise merely from his moral or natural endowments or holy counsels, but from the evidence they had of his divine inspiration; whereof we shall treat afterward.

The things pleaded to give force unto this testimony, in particular, are all that such a testimony is capable of, and so many as would require a large discourse by itself to propose, discuss, and confirm them. But supposing the testimony they gave, I shall, in compliance with my own design, reduce the evidences of its truth unto these two considerations: 1st. Of their persons; and, 2dly. Of the manner of their writing:—

1st. As to their persons, they were absolutely removed from all possible suspicion of deceiving or being deceived. The wit of all the atheistical spirits in the world is not able to fix on any one thing that would be a tolerable ground of any such suspicion concerning the integrity of witnesses, could such a testimony be given in any other case; and surmises in things of this nature, which have no pleadable ground for them, are to be looked on as diabolical suggestions or atheistical dreams, or at best the false imaginations of weak and distempered minds. The nature and design of their work; their unconcernment with all secular interests; their unacquaintance with one another; the times and places wherein the things reported by them were done and acted; the facility of convincing them of falsehood if what they wrote in matter of fact, which is the fountain of what else they taught, were not true; the evident certainty that this would have been done, arising from the known desire, ability, will, and interest, of their adversaries so to do, had it been possible to be effected, seeing this would have secured them the victory in the conflicts wherein they were violently engaged, and have put an immediate issue unto all that difference and uproar that was in the world about their doctrine; their harmony among themselves, without conspiracy or antecedent agreement; the miseries which they underwent, most of them without hope of relief or recompense in this world, upon the sole account of the doctrine taught by themselves; with all other circumstances innumerable, that are pleadable to evince the sincerity and integrity of any witnesses whatever, — do all concur to prove that they did not follow cunningly-devised fables in what they declared concerning the mind and will of God as immediately from himself. To confront this evidence with bare surmises, incapable of any rational countenance or confirmation, is only to manifest what brutish impudence, infidelity, and atheism, are forced to retreat unto for shelter.

2dly. Their style or manner of writing deserves a peculiar consideration; for there are impressed on it all those characters of a divine original that can be communicated unto such an outward adjunct of divine revelation. Notwithstanding the distance of the ages and seasons wherein they lived, the difference of the languages wherein they wrote, with the great variety of their parts, abilities, education, and other circumstances, yet there is upon the whole and all the parts of their writing such gravity, majesty, and authority, mixed with plainness of speech, and absolute freedom from all appearance of affectation of esteem or applause, or any thing else that derives from human frailty, as must excite an admiration in all that seriously consider them. But I have at large elsewhere insisted on this consideration; and have also, in the same place, showed that there is no other writing extant in the world that ever pretended unto a divine original, — as the apocryphal books under the Old Testament, and some fragments of spurious pieces pretended to be written in the days of the apostles, — but they are, not only from their matter, but from the manner of their writing, and the plain footsteps of human artifice and weakness therein, sufficient for their own conviction, and do openly discover their own vain pretensions. So must every thing necessarily do which, being merely human, pretends unto an immediate derivation from God. When men have done all they can, these things will have as evident a difference between them as there is between wheat and chaff, between real and painted fire, Jer. xxiii. 28, 29.

Unto the testimony of the divine writers themselves, we must add that of those who in all ages have believed in Christ through their word; which is the description which the Lord Jesus Christ giveth of his church, John xvii. 20. This is the church, — that is, those who wrote the Scripture, and those who believe in Christ through their word, through all ages, — which beareth witness to the divine original of the Scripture; and it may be added that we know this witness is true. With these I had rather venture my faith and eternal condition than with any society, any real or pretended church whatever. And among these there is an especial consideration to be had of those innumerable multitudes who, in the primitive times, witnessed this confession all the world over; for they had many advantages above us to know the certainty of sundry matters of fact which the verity of our religion depends upon. And we are directed unto an especial regard of their testimony, which is signalized by Christ himself. In the great judgment that is to be passed on the world, the first appearance is of “the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,” Rev. xx. 4; and there is at present an especial regard unto them in heaven upon the account of their witness and testimony, chap. vi. 9–11. These were they who, with the loss of their lives by the sword, and other ways of violence, gave testimony unto the truth of the word of God. And to reduce these things unto a natural consideration, who can have the least occasion to suspect all those persons of folly, weakness, credulity, wickedness, or conspiracy among themselves, which such a diffuse multitude was absolutely incapable of? Neither can any man undervalue their testimony but he must comply with their adversaries against them, who were known generally to be of the worst of men. And who is there that believes there is a God and an eternal future state that had not rather have his soul with Paul than Nero, with the holy martyrs than their bestial persecutors? Wherefore, this suffrage and testimony, begun from the first writing of the Scripture, and carried on by the best of men in all ages, and made conspicuously glorious in the primitive times of Christianity, must needs be with all wise men unavoidably cogent, at least unto a due and sedate consideration of what they bear witness unto, and sufficient to scatter all such prejudices as atheism or profaneness may raise or suggest.

[2.] What it was they gave testimony unto is duly to be considered; and this was, not only that the book of the Scripture was good, holy, and true, in all the contents of it, but that the whole and every part of it was given by divine inspiration, as their faith in this matter is expressed, 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. On this account, and no other, did they themselves receive the Scripture, as also believe and yield obedience unto the things contained in it. Neither would they admit that their testimony was received if the whole world would be content to allow of or obey the Scripture on any other or lower terms; nor will God himself allow of an assent unto the Scripture under any other conception, but as the word which is immediately spoken by himself. Hence, they who refuse to give credit thereunto are said to “belie the Lord, and say, It is not he,” Jer. v. 12; yea, to “make God a liar,” 1 John v. 10. If all mankind should agree together to receive and make use of this book, as that which taught nothing but what is good, useful, and profitable to human society; as that which is a complete directory unto men in all that they need to believe or do towards God; the best means under heaven to bring them to settlement, satisfaction, and assurance of the knowledge of God and themselves; as the safest guide to eternal blessedness; and therefore must needs be written and composed by persons wise, holy, and honest above all comparison, and such as had such knowledge of God and his will as is necessary unto such an undertaking; — yet all this answers not the testimony given by the church of believers in all ages unto the Scriptures. It was not lawful for them, it is not for us, so to compound this matter with the world. That the whole Scripture was given by inspiration from God, that it was his word, his true and faithful sayings, was that which, in the first place, they gave testimony unto, and we also are obliged so to do. They never pretended unto any other assurance of the things they professed, nor any other reason of their faith and obedience, but that the Scripture, wherein all these things are contained, was given immediately from God, or was his word; and, therefore, they were always esteemed no less traitors to Christianity who gave up their Bibles to persecutors than those who denied Jesus Christ.

[3.] The manner wherein this testimony was given adds to the importance of it; for, — 1st. Many of them, especially in some seasons, gave it in, with sundry miraculous operations. This our apostle pleadeth as a corroboration of the witness given by the first preachers of the gospel unto the truths of it, Heb. ii. 4, as the same was done by all the apostles together, Acts v. 32. It must be granted that these miracles were not wrought immediately to confirm this single truth, that the Scripture was given by inspiration of God; but that the end of miracles is to be an immediate witness from heaven, or God’s attestation to their persons and ministry by whom they were wrought. His presence with them and approbation of their doctrine were publicly declared by them. But the miracles wrought by the Lord Christ and his apostles, whereby God gave immediate testimony unto the divine mission of their persons and infallible truth of their doctrine, might either not have been written, as most of them were not, or they might have been written and their doctrine recorded in books not given by inspiration from God. Besides, as to the miracles wrought by Christ himself, and most of those of the apostles, they were wrought among them by whom the books of the Old Testament were acknowledged as the oracles of God, and before the writing of those of the New, so that they could not be wrought in the immediate confirmation of the one or the other. Neither have we any infallible testimony concerning these miracles but the Scripture itself, wherein they are recorded; whence it is necessary that we should believe the Scripture to be infallibly true, before we can believe on grounds infallible the miracles therein recorded to be so. Wherefore, I grant that the whole force of this consideration lieth in this alone, that those who gave testimony to the Scripture to be the word of God had an attestation given unto their ministry by these miraculous operations, concerning which we have good collateral security also.

2dly. Many of them confirmed their testimony with their sufferings, being not only witnesses but martyrs, in the peculiar church notion of that word, grounded on the Scripture, Acts xxii. 20; Rev. ii. 13, xvii. 6.

So far were they from any worldly advantage by the profession they made and the testimony they gave, as that in the confirmation of them they willingly and cheerfully underwent whatever is evil, dreadful, or destructive to human nature, in all its temporary concerns. It is, therefore, unquestionable that they had the highest assurance of the truth in these things which the mind of man is capable of. The management of this argument is the principal design of the apostle in the whole 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews; for, having declared the nature of faith in general, namely, that it is the “substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen,” verse 1, — that is, such an assent unto and confidence of invisible things, things capable of no demonstration from sense or reason, as respects divine revelation only, whereinto alone it is resolved, — for our encouragement thereunto and establishment therein, he produceth a long catalogue of those who did, suffered, and obtained great things thereby. That which he principally insists upon is, the hardships, miseries, cruelties, tortures, and several sorts of deaths, which they underwent, especially from verse 33 to the end. These he calleth a “cloud of witnesses,” wherewith “we are compassed about,” chap. xii. 1, giving testimony unto what we do believe, that is, divine revelation, and in an especial manner to the promises therein contained, unto our encouragement in the same duty, as he there declares. And certainly what was thus testified unto by so many great, wise, and holy persons, and that in such a way and manner, hath as great an outward evidence of its truth as any thing of that nature is capable of in this world.

3dly. They gave not their testimony casually, or on some extraordinary occasion only, or by some one solemn act, or in some one certain way, as other testimonies are given, nor can be given otherwise; but they gave their testimony in this cause in their whole course, in all that they thought, spake, or did in the world, and in the whole disposal of their ways, lives, and actions, — as every true believer continueth to do at this day. For a man, when he is occasionally called out, to give a verbal testimony unto the divine original of the Scripture, ordering in the meantime the whole course of his conversation, his hopes, designs, aims, and ends, without any eminent respect or regard unto it, his testimony is of no value, nor can have any influence on the minds of sober and considerate men. But when men do manifest and evince that the declaration of the mind of God in the Scripture hath a sovereign divine authority over their souls and consciences, absolutely and in all things, then is their witness cogent and efficacious. There is to me a thousand times more force and weight in the testimony to this purpose of some holy persons, who universally and in all things, with respect unto this world and their future eternal condition, in all their thoughts, words, actions, and ways, do really experiment in themselves, and express to others, the power and authority of this word of God in their souls and consciences, living, doing, suffering, and dying in peace, assurance of mind, and consolation thereon, than in the verbal declaration of the most splendid, numerous church in the world, who evidence not such an inward sense of its power and efficacy. There is, therefore, that force in the real testimony which hath been given in all ages, by all this sort of persons, not one excepted, unto the divine authority of the Scripture, that it is highly arrogant for any one to question the truth of it without evident convictions of its imposture; which no person of any tolerable sobriety did ever yet pretend unto.

5. I shall add, in the last place, the consideration of that success which the doctrine derived solely from the Scripture, and resolved thereinto, hath had in the world upon the minds and lives of men, especially upon the first preaching, of the gospel. And two things offer themselves hereon immediately unto our consideration:— (1.) The persons by whom this doctrine was successfully carried on in the world; and, (2.) The way and manner of the propagation of it; both which the Scripture takes notice of in particular, as evidences of that divine power which the word was really accompanied withal. (1.) For the persons unto whom this work was committed, I mean the apostles and first evangelists, were, as to their outward condition in the world, poor, low, and every way despised; and as unto the endowments of their minds, destitute of all those abilities and advantages which might give them either reputation or probability of success in such an undertaking.

This the Jews marked in them with contempt, Acts iv. 13; and the Gentiles also generally despised them on the same account. As they afforded our apostle no better title than that of a “babbler,” chap. xvii. 18, so for a long time they kept up the public vogue in the world, that Christianity was the religion of idiots and men illiterate. But God had another design in this order of things, which our apostle declares upon an admission of the inconsiderable meanness of them unto whom the dispensation of the gospel was committed: 2 Cor. iv. 7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” The reason why God would make use of such instruments only in so great a work was, that through their meanness his own glorious power might be more conspicuous. There is nothing more common among men, or more natural unto them, than to admire the excellencies of those of their own race and kind, and a willingness to have all evidences of a divine, supernatural power clouded and hidden from them. If, therefore, there had been such persons employed as instruments in this work, whose powers, abilities, qualifications, and endowments, might have been probably pretended as sufficient, and the immediate causes of such an effect, there would have been no observation of the divine power and glory of God. But he who is not able to discern them in the bringing about of so mighty a work by means so disproportionate thereunto, is under the power of the unrelievable prejudices intimated by our apostle in this case, 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.

(2.) The means which were to be used unto this end, — namely, the subduing of the world unto the faith and obedience of the gospel, so erecting the spiritual kingdom of Christ in the minds of men who before were under the power and dominion of his adversary, — must either be force and arms, or eloquence, in plausible, persuasive reasonings. And mighty works have been wrought by the one and the other of them By the former have empires been set up and established in the world, and the superstition of Mohammed imposed on many nations. And the latter also hath had great effects on the minds of many. Wherefore, it might have been expected that those who had engaged themselves in so great a design and work as that mentioned should betake themselves unto the one or other of these means and ways; for the wit of man cannot contrive any way unto such an end but what may be reduced unto one of these two, seeing neither upon the principles of nature nor on the rules of human wisdom or policy can any other be imagined. But even both these ways were abandoned by them, and they declared against the use of either of them: for as outward force, power, and authority, they had none, the use of all carnal weapons being utterly inconsistent with this work and design; so the other way, of persuasive orations, of enticing words, of alluring arts and eloquence, with the like effects of human wisdom and skill, were all of them studiously declined by them in this work, as things extremely prejudicial to the success thereof, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. But this alone they betook themselves unto, — they went up and down, preaching to Jews and Gentiles “that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and rose again, according to the Scriptures,” chap. xv. 3, 4. And this they did by virtue of those spiritual gifts which were the hidden powers of the world to come, whose nature, virtue, and power, others were utterly unacquainted withal. This preaching of theirs, this preaching of the cross, both for the subject-matter and manner of it, without art, eloquence, or oratory, was looked on as a marvellous foolish thing, a sweaty kind of babbling, by all those who had got any reputation of learning or cunning amongst men. This our apostle at large discourseth, 1 Cor. i. 17–31. In this state of things, every thing was under as many improbabilities of success, unto all rational conjectures, as can be conceived. Besides, together with the doctrine of the gospel that they preached, which was new and uncouth unto the world, they taught observances of religious worship, in meetings, assemblies, or conventicles, to that end, which all the laws in the world did prohibit, Acts xvi. 21, xviii. 13. Hereupon, no sooner did the rulers and governors of the world begin to take notice of them and what they did, but they judged that it all tended to sedition, and that commotions would ensue thereon. These things enraged the generality of mankind against them and their converts; who therefore made havoc of them with incredible fury. And yet, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, and against all these oppositions, their doctrine prevailed to subdue the world to the obedience thereof. And there may be added unto all these things one or two considerations from the state of things at that time in the world, which signalize the quality of this work, and manifest it to have been of God; as, —

[1.] That in the New Testament, the writers of it do constantly distribute all those with whom they had to do in this world into Jews and Greeks, which we render Gentiles, the other nations of the world coming under that denomination because of their preeminence on various accounts. Now, the Jews at that time were in solidum possessed of all the true religion that was in the world, and this they boasted of as their privilege, bearing up themselves with the thought and reputation of it everywhere and on all occasions; it being at that time their great business to gain proselytes unto it, whereon also their honour and advantage did depend. The Greeks, on the other side, were in as full a possession of arts, sciences, literature, and all that which the world calls “wisdom,” as the Jews were of religion; and they had also a religion, received by a long tradition of their fathers, from time immemorial, which they had variously cultivated and dressed with mysteries and ceremonies, unto their own complete satisfaction. Besides, the Romans, who were the ruling part of the Gentiles, did ascribe all their prosperity and the whole raising of their stupendous empire to their gods and the religious worship they gave unto them; so that it was a fundamental maxim in their policy and rule, that they should prosper or decay according as they observed or were negligent in the religion they received; as, indeed, not only those who owned the true God and his providence, but, before idolatry and superstition had given place unto atheism, all people did solemnly impute all their achievements and successes unto their gods, as the prophet speaks of the Chaldeans, Hab. i. 11; and he who first undertook to record the exploits of the nations of the world doth constantly assign all their good and evil unto their gods, as they were pleased or provoked. The Romans, in especial, boasted that their religion was the cause of their prosperity: “Pietate et religione atque hâc una sapientia, quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes nationesque superamus,” says their great oracle [orator?] Orat. de Har. Resp., 9. And Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a great and wise historian, giving an account of the religion of the Romans and the ceremonies of their worship, affirms that he doth it unto this end, “that those who have been ignorant of the Roman piety should cease to wonder at their prosperity and successes in all their wars, seeing, by reason of their religion, they had the gods always propitious and succourable unto them,” Antiq. Rom. lib. ii. The consideration hereof made them so obstinate in their adherence unto their present religion, that when, after many ages and hundreds of years, some books of Numa, their second king, and principal establisher of their commonwealth, were occasionally found, instead of paying them any respect, they ordered them to be burnt, because one who had perused them took his oath that they were contrary to their present worship and devotion! And this was that which, upon the declension of their empire, after the prevalency of the Christian religion, those who were obstinate in their Paganism reflected severely upon the Christians; the relinquishment of their old religion they fiercely avowed to be the cause of all their calamities; — in answer unto which calumny, principally, Austin wrote his excellent discourse, De Civitate Dei.