22. Chapter IX.

Chapter IX.

Ecclesiastical Helps in the interpretation of the Scripture.

Thirdly. There are means and helps for the interpretation of the Scripture which I call ecclesiastical. I mean those which we are supplied with by the ministry of the church in all ages. And they may be referred to three heads, under which their usefulness to this purpose is pleaded: which are —

1. Catholic or universal tradition;

2. Consent of the fathers;

3. The endeavors of any persons holy and learned who have gone before us in the investigation of the truth, and expressed their minds in writing, for the edification of others, whether of old or of late.

These things belong to the ministry of the church. And so far as they do, they are sanctified ordinances for the communication of the mind of God to us.

1. It is pleaded by some that the Scripture is to be interpreted according to catholic tradition, and not otherwise. And I acknowledge that we should be inexpressibly obliged to those who would give us an interpretation of the whole Scripture, or of any book in the Scripture, or of any one passage in the Scripture, relating to things of mere supernatural revelation, according to that rule, or by the guidance and direction of it. But I fear no such tradition can be evidenced, unless it is of things that are manifest in the light of nature, whose universal preservation is an effect of the unavoidable reason of mankind, and not of any ecclesiastical tradition. Moreover, the Scripture itself is testified to be the word of God, unanimously and uninterruptedly by all Christians. And hereby, all divine truths are conveyed down from their original, and delivered to us. But a collateral tradition of any one truth or doctrine besides that of Christ and the apostles, cannot be proved. And if it could be proved, it would not be a means of the interpretation of the Scripture except objectively, as one place of Scripture interprets another — that is, it would belong to the analogy of faith, contrary to which, or in opposition to which, no place ought to be interpreted. It is foolish, therefore, to pretend that this is the rule of the interpretation of Scripture actively, as though we could certainly learn the meaning of Scripture by it, in part or in whole. And whatever some may boast, no man living can prove his interpretation of any one place to be dictated by or suitable to universal tradition, in any other way than as he can prove it to be agreeable to the Scripture itself. That is, unless we acknowledge, without proof, that what the mind and sense is of some men who call themselves "The Church" at present, was the mind of Christ and his apostles, and of all true believers since then; and that it is infallibly so. But this pretense has been abundantly and sufficiently disproved — though nothing seems to be proved to the minds of men who are fortified against all evidences of truth, by invincible prejudices.

2. The joint consent of the fathers or ancient doctors of the church is also pretended as a rule of Scripture interpretation. But those who make this plea are apparently influenced by their supposed interest in doing so. No man of ingenuousness who has ever read or considered them, or any of them, with attention and judgment, can abide by this pretense. For it is utterly impossible that they should be an authentic rule for others, if they so disagree among themselves, as they will be found to do — not so much in articles of faith, maybe, as in their exposition of Scripture, which is the matter under consideration. About the former, they express themselves diversely; in the latter they really differ, and frequently. Those who seem most earnestly to press this dogma upon us, are those of the church of Rome. Yet it is hard to find one learned man among them who has undertaken to expound or write commentaries on the Scripture, that on all occasions he gives us the different senses, expositions, and interpretations of the fathers, of the same places and texts; and that is where any difficulty occurs perpetually. But the pretense of the authoritative determination of the fathers in points of religion has been so disproved, and the vanity of it is so fully revealed, that it is altogether needless to further insist on it. Those who seem to have discovered a middle way between their determining authority on the one hand, and the efficacy of their reasons on the other — with a due veneration for their piety and ability (which all sober men allow) — only trifle. They speak words whose sense neither they nor any others can understand.

3. We therefore say that the sole use of ecclesiastical means in the interpretation of the Scripture is in the due consideration and improvement of that light, knowledge, and understanding in, and those gifts for, the declaration of the mind of God in the Scripture. This is what he has granted to and furnished them with, who have gone before us in the ministry and work of the gospel. God in a special manner, in all ages, took care that the doctrine of the gospel should be preached viva voce (vocally) to the present edification of the body of the church. So likewise, almost from the beginning of its propagation in the world, and shortly after the decease of the apostles and that whole divinely-inspired society of preachers and writers, he stirred up and enabled various persons to declare by writing, what their apprehensions were, and what understanding God had given them in and about the sense of the Scripture. Of those who designedly wrote comments and expositions on any part of the Scripture, Origen was the first. His fooleries and mistakes — occasioned by the prepossession of his mind with platonic philosophy, confidence in his own great abilities (which indeed were singular and admirable), along with the curiosity of a speculative mind — did not discourage others from endeavoring, with more sobriety and better success, to write entire expositions on some parts of the Scripture. Among the Greeks were Chrysostom, Theodoret, Aretine, Oecumenius, and Theophylact. Among the Latins were Jerome, Ambrose, Austin, and others. These have been followed, used, and improved by innumerable others in succeeding ages. Especially since the Reformation, the work has been carried on with general success, and to the great advantage of the church. Yet it has not proceeded so far but that the best, most useful, and profitable labor in the Lord’s vineyard which any holy and learned man can engage himself in, is to endeavor to contribute further light in the opening and exposition of Scripture, or any part of it.

Now, all these are singular helps and advantages to the right understanding of the Scripture. They have the same kind of advantage as to that single end of light and knowledge, which preaching the word is, if used with sobriety, judgment, and a due examination of all, by the text itself. As for the exposition of the fathers, it is a ridiculous imagination, which would oblige us to believe contradictions and open mistakes, for any man to authenticate them so far as to bind us to an assent to their conceptions and dictates, just because they are the fathers. Even so, they will not be despised by any but those who have not been conversant in them. It is easy to discern from them all, by the diversity of their gifts, ways, and designs in the exposition of Scripture, that the Holy Spirit distributed to them as he pleased.

Just as this should make us revere his presence with them, and his assistance to them, so it calls for the freedom of our own judgments to be exercised about their conceptions. As for those of latter days, the names of the principal and most eminent of them include Bucer, Calvin, Martyr, and Beza. Their names are now condemned and despised by many — mostly by those who never once seriously attempted the exposition of any chapter in the whole Scripture. Yet those who firmly design to grow in the knowledge of God and of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, do and will always bless God for the assistance he gave these men in their great and holy works, and in the benefit which they will receive by their labors.

These are the outward means and advantages which are requisite as helps to attain a right understanding of the mind of God in the Scripture. And they are to be used as anyone’s calling, opportunity, ability, and work require. Now, concerning them all I will only say that the Spirit of God makes them useful and prosperous according to the counsel of his own will. In their use, some are prone to lean on their own understandings, and consequently to wander in and after the imaginations of their own minds, thereby corrupting the word of God, and endeavoring to pervert his right ways. Others he leaves in the shell of the text, to exercise their skill about words, phrases, and expressions, without leading them into the spiritual sense of the word, which is its life and power. In some, he blesses these means to their full and proper end, but not unless they are in compliance with the spiritual means and duties insisted on before. From what has been discussed concerning the work of the Spirit of God in revealing to believers the mind of God in the Scriptures, or the sense of that revelation made of it in the Scriptures, two things seem to follow —

First. That those who do not have that assistance granted to them, or that work of his wrought in them, cannot understand or apprehend the truth or doctrine of faith and obedience revealed in the Scripture. For if that work of the Spirit is necessary to this, which they are not made partakers of, then how can they come to any knowledge or understanding in it?

Secondly. That those who are so influenced and guided must understand the whole Scripture rightly, and be freed from all mistakes in their conceptions about the mind of God.

Both of these are contrary to the experience of all men in all ages. Many persons are visibly destitute of any saving work of the Holy Ghost on their minds, as is evident in that no renovation or reformation of life ensues from it. And yet they have attained a great acquaintance with the truth as it is revealed in the word. And there are many who are truly enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit, and yet they fall into various errors and mistakes, which the differences and divisions among them openly proclaim. The Scripture itself supposes that there may be diversity of judgment about spiritual things among those who are really sanctified and believers. A brief answer to both these exceptions will lead this discourse to its close. I therefore say to the first:

1. That there are in the declaration of the mind of God in the Scriptures, various things that are common to other writings, both as to their matter and the manner of their delivery. Such are the stories of times past that are recorded in it, the computation of times, the use of words, phrases of speech both figurative and proper, artificial connections of discourse, various sorts of arguments, and the like — all of which anyone may come to the understanding of, and be able to make a right judgment concerning, without any special assistance of the Holy Spirit. The things about which they are conversant,330 are the proper object of the reasonable faculties of the mind, provided there is a common blessing on their endeavors and exercise.

2. The main doctrines of truth declared in the Scripture are proposed in such distinct, plain enunciations, in propositions accommodated to the understandings of rational men, that persons who use disciplinary and ecclesiastical helps may learn, know, and understand the sense, meaning, and truth of the doctrines that are so proposed and declared to them, without any special work of saving illumination on their minds. That is, if they attend to the study of them without prejudice, or prepossession by false notions and opinions, and with freedom from the bias of carnal and secular interests and advantages, and from the leaven of tradition. The propositions of truth in the Scripture — I mean those which are necessary to the great ends of the Scripture — are so plain and evident in themselves, that it is the fault and sin of all men who are endowed with rational abilities, if they do not perceive them, and do not assent to them upon the evidence of their truth or of the mind of God, in those places of Scripture in which they are declared. This is the substance of what we plead against the Papists concerning the perspicuity of the Scripture.

3. Considering the natural vanity of the mind of man — its proneness to error and false imaginations, the weakness of judgment with which it is accompanied in all things — whatever it attains in the knowledge of truth, is to be ascribed to the guidance of the Spirit of God, although not working in or upon the mind by a communication of saving light and grace; for,

4. The knowledge of truth thus to be attained is not that illumination which we are inquiring into; nor does it produce those effects of renewing the mind, and transforming it into the image of the things known, with the fruits of holy obedience, which are inseparable from saving illumination. In answer to the second pretended consequence of what we have discussed, I say —

1. That the promise of the Spirit, and accordingly the communication of him, to teach, instruct, guide, and lead us into truth, is suited to that great end for which God has made the revelation of himself in his word — namely, that we might live to him here according to his will, and be brought to the enjoyment of him hereafter, to his glory.

2. That to this end, it is not necessary that we understand the direct sense and meaning of every single text, place, or passage in the Scripture, nor that we should obtain the knowledge of every thing revealed in it. It suffices, in answer to the promise and design of the work of the Holy Ghost, that the knowledge of all truth necessary to be known to that end, is communicated to us, and that we have a right understanding of the sense of the Scripture, so far as to learn that truth by the use of the means appointed to that end.

3. We are not hereby absolutely secured from particular errors and mistakes, no more than we are from all actual sins by the work of the Spirit on our wills. While we live in this world, both kinds only have a tendency towards perfection. There is no faculty of our souls that is absolutely and perfectly renewed in this life. But the wills of believers are so far renewed and changed by grace, as to preserve them from those sins which are inconsistent with a holy life according to the tenor of the covenant. Yet this leaves a possibility of many infirmities and actual sins. So too, their minds are so far renewed as to know and assent to all truths necessary to our life of obedience, and a right understanding of the Scripture in which they are revealed. Yet this may be consistent with many mistakes, errors, and false apprehensions, to our great damage and disadvantage. But with this must be added that the teachings of the Spirit of God as to all divine truths whatsoever — both in their objective revelation in the word, and in the assistance he gives us by his light and grace to perceive and understand the mind and whole counsel of God in that revelation — are such that, it is not without our own guilt, as well as from our own weakness, that we fall into errors and misapprehensions about any Scripture proposals that concern our duty to God. And if all who believe would freely forego all prejudices or preconceived opinions, and cast off all impressions from worldly considerations and secular advantages — giving themselves up humbly and entirely to the teaching of God in the ways of his own appointment, some of which have been insisted on before — we might "all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," Ephesians 4:13. These things may suffice to illustrate the work of the Holy Ghost in our illumination, with respect to the external objective cause of this, or the holy Scripture itself. The Preservation of God’s Word

There is yet another work of the Holy Ghost with respect to the Scripture, which although it does not fall directly under the present consideration of the ways and means of saving illumination, yet the whole of what we have discussed is so resolved into it, in the order of an external cause, that it may justly claim a remembrance in this place. And this is his watchful care over the written word, in preserving it from destruction and corruption, from its first writing to this very day.

It is sufficiently evinced that it has been under the special care of God, not only by the event of its entire preservation, considering the opposition it has been exposed to, but also by the testimony of our Savior as to the books of the Old Testament; and those of the New are certainly of no less esteem or use: Matthew 5:18, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no way pass from the law." The context declares that the law means the whole writings of the Old Testament. And what he affirms — that it will not by any means pass away, i.e., not be abolished or corrupted — he takes upon himself to preserve and secure it. The Scripture in itself is subject to two things:

1. Destruction or abolition, as to the whole or any necessary part of it.

2. Corruption of the writing, by changes, alterations, and falsifications in its copies. And both of these have been attempted, both before and since the time of the promulgation of the gospel, the stories of which are known. And yet it came off safe from all, not only without ruin, but without wound or blemish. For anyone to suppose that this has been done by chance, or by the care of men alone, without the special watchful providence and powerful actings of the Spirit of God, in the pursuit of the promise of Christ that it shall not fail — which expressed a care that God had taken on himself to make good from the beginning331 — neglects the consideration of the nature of all human affairs. It neglects the revolutions they are subject to, and the deceit and violence with which the Scriptures have been attacked, with the insufficiency of the powers and diligence employed for their preservation. It also countenances the atheistic notion that God has no special regard for his word and worship in the world. Indeed, for a man to think and profess that the Scripture is the word of God, given to men for the ends which it declares, and of that use for which it must exist, and not believe that God has always taken special care of its preservation — of its purity and integrity, beyond the ordinary ways of his providence in the rule of all other things — is to be senseless and foolish, and to entertain thoughts of God (of his goodness, wisdom, and power), that are infinitely unworthy of Him and them. Of late, some opinions have been invented and maintained concerning the integrity and purity of the Scriptures. I conceive these take away from the reverence of that relation which the Scripture has in its integrity and purity, to the care and glory of God. Hence, some maintain that some books written by divine inspiration, and given to the church as part of its canon (or rule of faith and obedience), are utterly lost and perished. They say that the law and Scripture of the Old Testament before the captivity, though written in the Hebrew tongue (which they say was not originally the language of Abraham, derived from Eber, but of the posterity of Ham in Canaan), are not in the letters or characters which are now in use; but were written in those which a few wicked idolaters called Samaritans used and possessed. These were left to them by Ezra; and new characters were invented by him, or borrowed from the Chaldeans for the use of the church. They say that the vowels and accents, by which alone the true reading and sense of it is preserved, are a late invention of some Masoretic rabbins. And they say that the original text is corrupted in many places; and so it may and ought to be corrected by translations, especially that of the LXX. And there are various other such imaginations, which they countenance with uncertain conjectures and fabulous stories.

I cannot help but wonder how some seem to take shelter in their opinions, especially that of preferring the translation of the LXX to the original Hebrew text, or as they foolishly say, "the present copy of it" in the church of England, whose publicly authorized and excellent translation takes no more notice of that translation, nor has any more regard for it when it differs from the Hebrew (as it does in a thousand places), than if it had never been in the world. No translations are in common use in the whole world except those that were directly translated out of the Hebrew original, except for some part of the vulgar Latin. I truly believe that those very Christians who contend that a preference be given to the LXX — now that they have gotten their ends, or at least attempted them, in procuring a reputation for learning, skill, and cunning, by their writings about it — would not dare to advise that a translation be made and composed from that, for the use of that church which they adhere to (be that what it will), to the rejection and exclusion of that which was taken from the original. And to have two recommended for common use, so discrepant as they would be found to be, would certainly be of more disadvantage to the church than they can compensate for by all their endeavors otherwise. Indeed, I am apt to think that they will not be very urgent for an alteration to the church’s translation in those particular instances in which they hope they have won themselves a great reputation in proving the mistakes of the Hebrew, and in manifesting how it may be rectified by the translation of the LXX. For whatever thoughts may be in their minds concerning their learned disputes, I have no doubt that they have more reverence for God and his word, than to assault it with such violence, on any pretense whatever.

Therefore, just as the integrity and purity of the Scripture in the original languages may be proved and defended against all opposition, with whatever else belongs to it, so we must ascribe their preservation to the watchful care and powerful operation of the Spirit of God, absolutely securing them throughout all generations