I. First, then, for its supreme authority. There is no occasion now to
enter into proofs of its inspiration. That all scripture is given by
inspiration of God, we may regard as an admitted truth: we are not
dealing with the infidel, but with those who profess to believe the
Scriptures: we are to receive it “not as the word which man’s wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth:” to listen to it, “as it is
in truth, the word of God.” All that we are concerned with now is the
supreme authority, which, being inspired, it possesses over man. Our
object is to point out, that as the word of God, it has absolute
authority in all its statements of divine truth, and that just as the
written law is the one rule for the nation’s government, so the written
word is the one rule of the Church’s faith. Who can reveal the truth of
God but God himself? “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit
of God.” And when God speaks, who shall dare to give an opposing
judgment? “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord!” Let us strive then
to realize this fact, that the Bible comes direct from “God, who cannot
lie;” that it is his own statement of his own divine purposes; that He
has, as it were, put his seal and signature to it, to mark it as his own;
that he has brought it forth amongst us with the solemn preface, “Thus
saith the Lord;” and there can then be no doubt left as to its certain,
its invariable, its unfailing, its authoritative truth. There it stands,
unshaken in its supremacy: like the Sun in heaven, beyond the reach of
man’s attack: like the great mountains, immoveable by man’s effort. “Thy
word is truth,” saith the Saviour, certain, unfailing, unerring truth;
and though multitudes may deny, though thousands may resist, though the
whole body of unconverted men may hate its message, it is still truth;
the pure, unmixed, unadulterated truth of God. Nor can any amount of
human evidence rival its authority. Multiplication does not make
inspiration. Ten thousand butterflies do not make an eagle; nor can the
human intellect, however multiplied, be measured for a moment with the
mind of God. Thus, if it were to fall out, (which thanks be to his grace
it never can), that all living men, of all ages and all ranks, were to
agree in the denial of any one doctrine of the gospel; if all the great,
all the learned, all philosophers, and all divines; all that now live, or
ever have lived, were to concur in one united opinion, and that opinion
were in opposition to the Bible; then all must be wrong, and the Bible
must be right; for they are men, and the Holy Ghost is God; and “Let God
be true, and every man a liar.”
Now, we fully admit that the Church of Rome does not openly deny the
supreme authority of Scripture, but it virtually sets it aside by two
principles: the one, that it is not complete; the other, that it cannot
be understood without the interpretation of the Church. We must examine,
therefore,