An Apology for the True Christian Divinity. Robert Barclay

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СКАЧАТЬ of the Holy Spirit, and that the Errors which may be supposed by the Injury of Times to have slipt in, are not such but that there is a sufficient clear Testimony left to all the Essentials of the Christian Faith; we do look upon them as the only fit outward judge of Controversies among Christians; and that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary unto their Testimony, may therefore justly be rejected as false. 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. 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.

      Thus far we have shewn both what we believe, and what we believe not, concerning the Holy Scriptures, hoping we have given them their due Place. But since they that will needs have them to be the only, certain, and principal Rule, want not some Shew of Arguments, even from the Scripture itself (though it no where calls itself so) by which they labour to prove their Doctrine; I shall briefly lay them down by Way of Objections, and answer them, before I make an End of this Matter.

      §. VII.

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      Obj. 1.Their first Objection is usually drawn from Isaiah viii. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no Light in them. Now this Law, Testimony, and Word, they plead to be the Scriptures.

      Answ.To which I answer; That that is to beg the Thing in Question, and remains yet unproved. Nor do I know for what Reason we may not safely affirm this Law and Word to be Inward: But suppose it was Outward, it proves not the Case at all for them, neither makes it against us; for it may be confessed, without any Prejudice to our Cause, that the outward Law was more particularly to the Jews a Rule, and more principally than to us; seeing their Law was outward and literal, but ours, under the New Covenant (as hath been already said) is expresly affirmed to be Inward and Spiritual; so that this Scripture is so far from making against us, that it makes for us. To try all Things, by what?For if the Jews were directed to try all Things by their Law, which was without them, written in Tables of Stone; then if we will have this Advice of the Prophet to reach us, we must make it hold parallel to that Dispensation of the Gospel which we are under: So that we are to try all Things, in the first Place, by that Word of Faith which is preached unto us, which the Apostle saith is in the Heart; and by that Law which God hath given us, which the Apostle saith also expresly is written and placed in the Mind.

      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.

      Here, say they, we are commanded, by Christ himself, to search the Scriptures.

      Answ. 1.I answer, First, That the Scriptures ought to be searched, we do not at all deny; but are very willing to be tried by them, as hath been above declared: But the Question is, Whether they be the Only and Principal Rule? Which this is so far from proving, that it proveth the contrary; Search the Scripture, &c.for Christ checks them here for too high an Esteem of the Scriptures, and neglecting of him that was to be preferred before them, and to whom they bore Witness, as the following Words declare; For in them ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they which testify of me: and ye will not come unto me, that ye might have Life. This shews, that while they thought they had Eternal Life in the Scriptures, they neglected to come unto Christ to have Life, of which the Scriptures bore witness. 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; neither had his Word abiding in them; which had they then had, then they had believed in the Son. Answ. 2.Moreover, that Place may be taken in the Indicative Mood, Ye search the Scriptures; which Interpretation the Greek Word will bear, and so Pasor translateth it: Which by the Reproof following, seemeth also to be the more genuine Interpretation, as Cyrillus long ago hath observed.

      §. VIII.

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      Obj. 3.Their third Objection is from these Words, Acts xvii. 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all Readiness of Mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those Things were so.

      Answ. 1.Here, say they, the Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures, and making them the Rule.

      I answer; That the Scriptures either are the principal or only Rule, will not at all follow from this; neither will their searching the Scriptures, or being commended for it, infer any such Thing: For we recommend and approve the Use of them in that Respect as much as any; yet will it not follow, that we affirm them to be the principal and only Rule.

      Answ. 2.Secondly, It is to be observed that these were the Jews of Berea, to whom these Scriptures, which were the Law and the Prophets, were more particularly a Rule; The Bereans searching the Scriptures, makes them not the only Rule to try Doctrines.and the Thing under Examination was, whether the Birth, Life, Works, and Sufferings of Christ, did answer to the Prophecies concerning him; so that it was most proper for them, being Jews, to examine the Apostle’s Doctrine by the Scriptures; seeing he pleaded it to be a fulfilling of them. It is said nevertheless, in the first Place, That they received the Word with Chearfulness; and in the second Place, They searched the Scriptures: Not that they searched the Scriptures, and then received the Word; for then could they not have prevailed to convert them, had they not first minded the Word abiding in them, which opened their Understandings; no more than the Scribes and Pharisees, who (as in the former Objection we observed) searched the Scriptures, and exalted them, and yet remained in their Unbelief, because they had not the Word abiding in them.

      Answ. 3.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? The Athenians instanced.We see in the End of the same Chapter, how the Apostle, preaching to the Athenians, took another Method, and directed them to somewhat of God within themselves, that they might feel after him. He did not go about to proselyte them to the Jewish Religion, and to the Belief of the Law and the Prophets, and from thence to prove the coming of Christ; nay, he took a nearer Way. Now certainly the principal and only Rule is not different; СКАЧАТЬ