acceptable, and perfect will of God, Rom. xii. 2. The Gospel is the perfect law, or doctrine of liberty, the apostle James speaks of, chap. i. 25. which proclaims the glorious liberty of the children of God by Christ; and it is perfect.

v. From the integral parts of them: the Scriptures, containing all the books that were written by divine inspiration. Whatever mistakes may be made, through the carelessness of transcribers of copies, they are to be corrected by other copies, which God, in his providence, has preserved; and, as it seems, for such purposes: so that we have a perfect canon, or rule of faith and practice.

vi. This may be further evinced from the charge that is given, "not to add unto, nor diminish from, any part of the sacred writings, law, or gospel:" Deut. iv. 2. and xii. 32. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. Now if there is nothing superfluous in the Scriptures, to be taken from them; and nothing defective in them, which rqeuires any addition to them: then they must be perfect.

VII. This may be argued from the sufficiency of them to answer the ends and purposes for which they are written. As, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim. iii. 16. There is no spiritual truth, nor evangelical doctrine, but what they contain. There is not a sin that can be named, but what the Scriptures inveigh against, forbid, and correct. They instruct in every thing of a moral or positive nature, and direct to observe all that is commanded of God and Christ; and now writings by which such ends are answered, must needs be perfect and compleat.

VIII. The Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto salvation, 2 Tim. iii. 15. In short, the Scriptures contain all things in them necessary to be believed, unto salvation; and, indeed, they are written for this end, that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, they might have life through his name, John xx. 31. I proceed,

III. To prove the perspicuity of the Scriptures; not that they are all equally clear and plain; some parts of them,

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and some things in them, are dark and obscure; but then by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, or those more dark passages with those that are clearer, they may be plainly understood. They are like a full and deep river, in which the lamb may walk, and the elephant swim, in different places.

The perspicuity of the Scriptures may be urged-1. From the author of them, the Father of lights.-2. From the several parts of them, and what they are compared unto. The law, or legal part of them, is represented by things which are light, Prov. vi. 23. The evangelical part of the Scriptures, or the gospel, is compared to a glass, in which may be clearly beheld, the glory of the Lord.-3. From other testimonies of Scripture, particularly from Deut. xxx. 11. 14. Rom. x. 6—8. The whole of Scripture is a light that shineth in a dark place.-4. From exhortations to all sorts of people to read them and who are commended for so doing, Deut. xvii. 19. John v. 39. Acts xvii. 11. Rev. i. 3.-5. From all sorts of persons being capable of reading them, and hearing them read, so as to understand them. Believers, and regenerate persons of every rank and degree, have knowledge of them, whether fathers, young men, or little children, 1 John ii. 12-14. Nor is the public preaching of the word, and the necessity of it, to be objected to all this; since that is, as for conversion, so for greater edification and comfort, and for establishment in the truth, even though it is known; and besides, it serves to lead into a larger knowledge of it, and is the ordinary means of guiding into it, and of arriving to a more perfect acquaintance with it, 1 Cor. xiv. 3. 2 Pet: 1. 12. Acts viii. 30, 31. Eph. iv. 11-13. So that it may be concluded, upon the whole, that the Scriptures are a sure, certain, and infallible rule to go by, with respect to things both to be believed and done. The only certain and infallible rule of faith and practice. And,

IV. There seems to be a real necessity of such a rule in the present state of things. Nothing else was, and nothing less than the Scriptures are, a sufficient rule and guide in matters of religion; even not the light of nature and reason, so much

Let one of the most exalted

talked of, and so highly exalted. genius be pitched upon, one of the wisest and sagest philosophers of the Gentiles, that has studied nature most, and arrived to the highest pitch of reason and good sense; for instance, let Socrates be the man, who is sometimes magnified as divine, and in whom the light of nature and reason may be thought to be sublimated and raised to its highest pitch, and yet it must be a very deficient rule of faith and practice; for he himself bewails the weakness and darkness of human reason, and confessed the want of a guide. The light of nature and reason considered in large bodies of men, in whole nations, will appear not to be the same in all. The insufficiency thereof, as a rule and guide in religion, will further appear by considering the following particulars.

1. That there is a God may be known by the light of nature; but who and what he is, men, destitute of a divine revelation, have been at a loss about. Multitudes have gone into polytheism, and have embraced for gods almost every thing in and under the heavens; not only the sun, moon, and stars, and mortal men have they deified; but various sorts of beasts, fishes, fowl, creeping things, and even forms of such that never existed.

II. Though the light of nature may teach men that God, their Creator and Benefactor, is to be worshipped by them, yet a perfect plan of worship, acceptable to God, could never have been formed according to that; hence the Gentiles, left to that, and without a divine revelation, have introduced modes of worship the most absurd and ridiculous, as well as cruel and bloody.

III. By the light of nature men may know that they are not in the same condition and circumstances they originally were; but in what state they were made, and how they fell from that estate, and came into the present depraved one, they know not; and still less how to get out of it, and to be cured of their irregularities.

IV. Though, as the apostle savs, the Gentiles without the law, do by nature the things contained in the law; and are a law

to themselves, which shew the work of the law written on their hearts; their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another, Rom. ii. 14, 15. and so have some notion of the difference between moral good and evil; yet this is not so clear and extensive, but that some of the greatest moralists among them, into the most notorious vices.

gave

v. Though in many cases reason taught them that certain vices were disagreeable to God; how to reconcile him to them and recommend themselves to his favour, they were quite ignorant; and therefore took the most shocking and detestable methods for it, as human sacrifices, and particularly, burning their innocent infants.

VI. Men may, by the light of nature, have some notion of sin as an offence to God, and of their need of forgiveness from him but then they cannot be certain of it from thence, or that even God will pardon sin at all, the sins of any man; and still less how this can be done consistent with his holiness and justice.

VII. The light of nature leaves men entirely without the knowledge of the way of salvation by the Son of God. Some have thought that Socrates had some notion of it; who is made to say, "It is necessary to wait till some one teaches how to behave towards God and men."

VIII. The light of nature is far from giving any clear and certain account of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery; as for the immortality of the soul, the heathens rather wished it to be true, than were fully satisfied of it. In what a low manner do they represent the happiness of the future state; by walking in pleasant fields, by sitting under fragrant bowers, and cooling shades, and by shelter from inclement weather; by viewing flowing fountains, and purling streams; by carnal mirth, feasting, music, and dancing: and the misery of it, by being bound neck and heels together, or in chains, or fastened to rocks, and whipped by furies, with a scourge of serpents, or doomed to some laborious service. But not the least hint is given of the presence of God with the one, nor of his absence

Plato in Alcid. 2. p. 459.

from the other. Let us therefore bless God that we have a better rule and guide to go by; "a more sure word of prophecy to take heed unto:" let us have constant recourse unto it, as the standard of faith and practice; and try every doctrine and practice by it, and believe and act as that directs us, and fetch every thing from it that may be for our good, and the glory of God.

OF THE NAMES OF GOD.

PROPERLY speaking, since God is incomprehensible, he is not nominable; and being but one, he has no need of a name to distinguish him; and therefore Plato says he has no name. So when Moses asked the Lord, what he should say to the children of Israel, should they ask the name of him that sent him to them, he bid him say, I am that I am; that is, The eternal Being, the Being of beings; nevertheless, there are names of God in the scriptures taken from one or other of his attributes, which are worthy of consideration.

The names of God, as Zanchy* observes, some of them respect him as the subject, as Jehovah, Lord, God: others are predicates, what are spoken of him, or attributed to him, as holy, just good, &c. Some respect the relation the divine. persons in the Godhead stand to each other, as Father, Son, and Spirit: others the relation of God to the creatures; and which are properly said of him, and not them, as Creator, Preserver, Governor, &c. some are common to the three divine Persons, as Jehovah, God, Father, Spirit; and some peculiar to each, as the epithets of unbegotten, begotten, proceeding from the Father and the Son: some are figurative and metaphorical, taken from creatures, to whom God is compared; and others are proper names, by which he either calls himself, or is called by the prophets and Apostles, in the books of the Old and New Testament.

De Natura Dei, l. 1. c. 4.