apostle Paul, when he says, _three and twenty thousand died_, or fell,
_in one day_, speaks of those who died by the immediate hand of God, by
the pestilential distemper that was sent among them; but, besides these,
there were many more that died by the hand of public justice for this
sin; for in that chapter in Numbers, verse 4 and 5. we read of the
_heads of the people being hanged up before the Lord, and the judges
being ordered to slay every man his men that were joined unto
Baal-peor_. These died by the sword of justice, and it is no great
impropriety to say, that such died in a mediate way, by the plague, or
sword of God; the sword is one of his plagues, as well as pestilential
diseases, and is frequently so styled in scripture: now we cannot
suppose that fewer died of this latter plague, if that be the import of
the word, than a thousand; so that Moses gives the number of all that
died, whether by God’s immediate hand, or by the sword of the
magistrate, pursuant to his command: but if it be reckoned too great a
strain upon the sense of the word plague, to admit of this solution, let
it be farther observed, that, in the 9th verse, where Moses gives the
sum total of those that died, it is not said that they were such who
died _of_ the plague, but _in_ the plague; that is, those that died in
or soon after the time that the plague raged among them, whose death was
occasioned by this sin, were _four and twenty thousand_; so that these
two places of scripture are so far from contradicting, that they rather
illustrate one another.
_Object._ 6. Another contradiction is pretended to be between Gal. i. 8.
where the apostle says, _Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed_; 2 Cor. xi. 4. _If he that cometh, preacheth another
Jesus whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which
ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye
might well bear with him._ In one place he speaks against those who
preach another gospel; in the other he says, they may be borne with;
which seems to be a contradiction.
_Answ._ For the reconciling and accounting for the sense of these two
scriptures, let us consider, that in the former of them the apostle
pronounces them that preached another gospel accursed, and therefore,
doubtless, they were not to be borne with, or allowed of; therefore it
must be enquired what he means when he says, in the other scripture,
that such may be well borne with; now this scripture will, without the
least strain or force upon the words, admit of one of these two senses.
1. It may be considered as containing a sarcasm, by which the apostle
reproves their being too much inclined to adhere to false teachers: if,
says he, these bring you tidings of a better Spirit, a better gospel,
then bear with them; but this they cannot do, therefore reject them; or,
2. The words may be rendered, instead of _ye might well bear with him,
ye might well bear with me_, as is observed in the marginal reference;
the word _him_ being in an Italic character, as will be elsewhere
observed,[38] is not in the original, and therefore _me_ may as well be
supplied as _him_, and so the meaning is this; ye bear with false
preachers, are very favourable to them, and seem a little cold to us the
apostles; so that I am afraid, as is observed in the foregoing verse,
lest your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ; you can bear with these false teachers, and will you not bear
with me? as he says, ver. 1. _Would to God you could bear with me a
little in my folly, and indeed bear with me._ It is a sign religion is
at a low ebb, when it is with some difficulty that professors are
persuaded to bear with those that preach the pure gospel of Christ, who
are too prone to turn aside to another gospel. Take the words in either
of these senses, and they exactly harmonize with that text in Galatians,
and not, as the objectors pretend, contradict it.
_Object._ 7. Another charge of contradiction, which is brought against
scripture, is, that our Saviour saith, Matth, x. 34. _Think not that I
am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a
sword_: this is contrary to Christ’s general character, as a _prince of
peace_, Isa. ix. 6. and to the advice he gives his disciples, not to use
the sword, because _such shall perish by it_, Mat. xxvi. 52. and what be
saith else, _My kingdom is not of this world_, John xviii. 36. and
therefore not to be propagated by might or power, by force or civil
policy, or those other carnal methods, by which the kingdoms of this
world are advanced and promoted.
_Answ._ For the reconciling this seeming contradiction, let it be
considered, that Christ did not come to put a sword into his followers
hands, or to put them upon making war with the powers among whom they
dwell, for the propagating the Christian religion; his gospel was to be
advanced by spiritual methods: in this sense, the design of his coming
was not to send a sword, but to bring spiritual peace to his people; but
when he saith, I came to send a sword, it implies that his coming, his
kingdom and gospel, should occasion persecution and war, by reason of
the corruption of men; this the gospel may do, and yet not put men upon
disturbing their neighbours, or making war with them; and this is not
contrary to Christ’s general character of coming to be the author of
spiritual peace to his people.
_Object._ 8. Another contradiction is pretended to be between 1 Kings
viii. 9. and Heb. ix. 4. in the former it is said, _There was nothing in
the ark but the two tables, which Moses put there_; in the latter, that
_there was the golden pot, that had manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and
the tables of the covenant_.
_Answ._ This seeming contradiction may easily be reconciled: for we
suppose it true that there was nothing in the ark but the two tables, as
it is said in the former of these scriptures; therefore to explain the
latter agreeably to it, two senses may be given of it.
1. It is not necessary to suppose, that the apostle means, in the ark
was the golden pot, &c. but in the holiest of all, which he mentions in
the foregoing verse; therefore the meaning is, as in the holiest of all,
there was the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, so in it was
the golden pot and Aaron’s rod: but because there may be an objection
against this sense, from its being said in the words immediately
following, that over it were the cherubims of glory shadowing the
mercy-seat, where it refers to the ark, and not to the tabernacle, or
holiest of all; if therefore the cherubims were over the ark, then the
other things must be supposed to be in it, which objection, indeed, is
not without its force, unless we suppose that the words[39] may be
rendered _in the higher parts of it_, to wit, of _the holiest of all,
were the cherubims of glory above the mercy seat_, and accordingly the
meaning is this; that within this second vail was not only the ark, the
golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, &c. but also the cherubims of glory,
which were above them all: but since the grammatical construction, seems
rather to favour the objection, there is another sense given of the
words, which sufficiently reconciles the seeming contradiction, _viz._
2. When it is said,[40] that therein, or in it, to wit, the ark, was the
golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, the meaning is,
they were near it, or beside it, or some way or other fastened, or
adjoining to it, in some inclosure, in the outside of the ark, whereas
nothing was in it but the two tables; so that there is no real
contradiction between these two scriptures.
Many more instances of the like nature might have been given, but,
instead thereof, we shall rather chuse to lay down some general rules
for the reconciling seeming contradictions in scripture, which may be
applied by us in other cases, where we meet with the like difficulties.
As,
1. When two scriptures seem to contradict each other, we sometimes find
that this arises from the inadvertency of some who have transcribed the
copies of scripture, putting one word for another; though it may be
observed,
(1.) That this is not often found; for as great care has been taken in
transcribing the manuscripts of scripture, as in any manuscripts
whatever, if not greater.
(2.) If there have been mistakes in transcribing, it is only in a few
instances, where there is a likeness between two words, so that one
might easily be mistaken for the other; and this ought not to prejudice
any against the scripture, for it only argues, that though the inspired
penmen were infallible, the scribes that took copies of scripture for
common use were not so.
(3.) When there is any such mistake, it may generally be rectified by
some other copy, that has the word as it really should be: it is so in
our printed Bibles, in some editions of them we find mistakes, as to
some words, that may be rectified by others, which are more correct; and
if so, why may not this be supposed to be in some written copies
thereof, that were used before printing, which is but a late invention,
was known in the world, from which all our printed copies are taken?
2. When the same action in scripture seems to be ascribed to different
persons, or the same thing said to be done in different places, there is
no contradiction, for the same person, or place, is sometimes called by
various names: thus Moses’s father-in-law, who met him in the
wilderness, and advised him in the settling the government of the
people, is called, in one place, Jethro, Exod. xviii. 1. and in another
Hobab, Numb. x. 29. So the mountain, from which God gave the law to
Israel, is sometimes called mount Sinai, Exod. xix. 20. and at other
times Horeb, Deut. i. 6.
3. Chronological difficulties, or seeming contradictions, arising from a
differing number of years, in which the same thing is said to be done,
may be reconciled, by computing them from the different epocha’s, or
beginnings of computation: as it is said, Exod. xii. 40. _The sojourning
of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and
thirty years_; but, when God foretels this sojourning, it is said, Gen.
xv. 13. _Thy seed shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and
shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years_: now
the four hundred and thirty years takes its beginning of computation
from Abraham’s being called to leave his country, and sojourn in the
land of promise, as in a strange land; this was four hundred and thirty
years before Israel went out of Egypt; but the four hundred years
mentioned in Genesis, during which time his seed should sojourn, takes
its beginning of computation from his having the promised seed, or from
the birth of Isaac, which was twenty-five years after his leaving his
country; from that time to the children of Israel’s going out of Egypt
was four hundred and five years; and the five years above four hundred
are left out, as being an inconsiderable number, which is very agreeable
to our common way of computing time, when a large even number is
mentioned, to leave out a small one of four or five years, more or less,
as in the instance here mentioned, especially when time is expressed by
centuries, as it is here; for it is said, in ver. 16. _in the fourth
generation_, that is, after the fourth century of years, _they shall
come hither again_.
4. When, by comparing the years of the reign of several of the kings of
Judah and Israel, mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we
find that some are said, in one of them, to have reigned three or four
years longer than the account of the years of their reign, mentioned by
the other, the seeming contradiction may be reconciled, by considering
him as beginning to reign before his father’s death, as Solomon did
before David died; or from his being nominated as his father’s
successor, and owned as such by the people, which was sometimes done to
prevent disputes that might arise about the matter afterwards; and
sometimes, when a king was engaged in foreign wars, in which he was
obliged to be absent from his people, and the event hereof was
uncertain, he appointed his son to reign in his absence, from which time
he had the title of a king, though his father was living: or when a king
was superannuated, or unfit to reign, as Uzziah was when smote with
leprosy; or when he was weary of the fatigue and burden of government,
he would settle his son, as his viceroy, in his life-time, on which
account the son is sometimes said to reign with his father: thus many
account for that difficulty, in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9. where it is said,
_Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign_; but in 2 Kings
xxiv. 8. he is said to have been _eighteen years old when he began to
reign_: the meaning is, that when he was eight years old, he was
nominated as his father’s successor; but when he was eighteen years old,
he began to reign alone, his father being then dead.
5. Scriptures that seem to contradict one another may not treat of the
same, but different subjects, as to the general design thereof: thus,
that seeming contradiction between the apostles Paul and James is to be
accounted for; the former says, Gal. ii. 16. _Knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ_;
but the other says, Jam. ii. 24. _That by works a man is justified, and
not by faith only._ The apostle Paul speaks of a sinner’s justification,
or freedom from the condemning sentence of the law in the sight of God,
which gives him a right to eternal life, in which respect he looks for
it out of himself, and, by faith, depends alone on Christ’s
righteousness; in this sense, works do not justify: whereas the apostle
James, when he asserts, that _a man is justified by works, and not by
faith only_, intends that our profession and sincerity therein is
justified; that is evidenced, not by our having just notions of things,
or an historical faith, such as the devils themselves have, but by those
works of holiness, which are the fruits of it; this is the only
justification he treats of, and therefore doth not in the least
contradict the apostle Paul, who treats of another kind of
justification, in which works are excluded.
6. When two scriptures seem to contradict one another, they may
sometimes be reconciled, by considering the same thing absolutely in one
place, and comparatively in the other: thus, in many scriptures, we are
commanded to extend that love to every one in their several relations,
which is due; and yet our Saviour says, Luke xiv. 26. _If any man come
to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren and sisters, he cannot be my disciple_: this is to be
understood comparatively, that is, our love to the creature ought to
bear no proportion to that which is due to God.
7. Scriptures that seem to contradict one another, often speak of
different persons, or persons of different characters: thus it is said,
Luke vi. 36. _Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful_; or,
_Judge not, that ye be not judged_, Matt. vii. 2. This respects persons
in a private capacity, and therefore doth not contradict those other
scriptures that are applied to magistrates in the execution of public
justice; to such it is said, Deut. xix. 21. _Thine eye shall not pity,
but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot._
8. Two contrary assertions may be both true in differing respects; thus
our Saviour says in one place, _The poor ye have always with you, but me
ye have not always_, Matt. xxvi. 11. and in another, _Lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the world_, chap. xxviii. 20. these are both
true, one respecting Christ’s bodily presence, as man, in which respect
he is not now with us; the other his spiritual and powerful influences,
whereby he is always present with his people as God.
9. We must take notice of different times or dispensations, in which
respect those laws or ordinances, which were to be received and observed
as a rule of faith and duty at one time, may not be so at another; thus
circumcision is recommended as a duty, and a privilege to the Jews
before Christ’s time, in which respect the apostle reckons it among the
advantages which they formerly had above all other nations, Rom. iii. 1,
2. but when the gospel dispensation was erected, and the Jewish œconomy
abolished, it was so far from being an advantage, that the observance of
it was deemed no less than a subversion of the gospel, as the apostle
says, Gal. v. 2. _If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you
nothing_; and the same apostle gives a very diminutive character of
those institutes of the ceremonial law, which he calls, in his time,
_weak and beggarly elements_, such as had a tendency to bring them again
_into bondage_, and blames them for observing the Jewish festivals, such
as days, months, times, and years; to wit, the new moons, feasts of
weeks, or of years, such as the seventh year, or the jubilees, and tells
them, on this occasion, _I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you
labour in vain_, chap. iv. 9, 10, 11. so that what was a duty and a
privilege in one age of the church, and enjoined with the greatest
strictness, and severest punishments on those that neglected it, is
forbid, as a sin in another age thereof, without the least shadow of
contradiction between those scriptures, which either enjoin or forbid
it: thus, when our Saviour first sent his twelve disciples to preach the
gospel, he commanded them, _Not to go in the way of the Gentiles_, Matt.
x. 5. to wit, so long as he was here upon earth, or till they had
finished their ministry among the Jews, to whom the word was first to be
preached; but afterwards, when the gospel was to be spread throughout
the world, he gave them a commission to _preach the gospel to all
nations_, chap. xxviii. 19. which accordingly they did, as apprehending
there was no contradiction between the former prohibition and the
present command.[41]
IV. The divine authority of scripture may be further proved from the
scope and design of the whole, which is to give all glory to God.
It may be observed, concerning the scripture, that the advancing the
divine perfections, and debasing the creature, is the great end designed
by God in giving it; and we find that whatever doctrine is laid down
therein, this end is still pursued. Now scripture-doctrines are designed
to advance the glory of God, either directly or by consequence.
1. As to the former of these, the scripture abounds with instances, in
which God is adored or set forth, as the object of adoration, that is,
as having all divine perfections, and as doing every thing becoming
himself as a God of glory: thus he is described herein, as the _Lord
most high and terrible, a great King over all the earth_, Psal. xlvii.
2. and _glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders_, Exod.
xv. 11. and as _the true God, the living God, and an everlasting King_,
Jer. x. 10. and as _the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and
mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments_,
Dan. ix. 4. and it is also said, _Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and
the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that
is in the heaven, and in the earth is thine: thine is the kingdom, O
Lord, and thou art exalted as Head over all_, 1 Chron. xxix. 11. These,
and such-like adorable perfections, are not only occasionally ascribed
to God in scripture, but every part thereof displays his glory in a
manner so illustrious, as gives ground to conclude, that the great
design of it is to raise in us becoming apprehensions of him, and to put
us upon adoring and worshipping him as God.
2. It may, by a just consequence, be said to give all the glory to him,
as it represents the emptiness, and even nothingness of all creatures,
when compared with him, and hereby recommends him, as all in all: when
it speaks of the best of creatures, as veiling their faces before him,
as acknowledging themselves unworthy to behold his glory, and as
deriving all their happiness from him; and when it speaks of man as a
sinful guilty creature, expecting all from him, and depending upon him
for grace sufficient for him; and when it speaks of God, as the author
and finisher of faith, in whom alone there is hope of obtaining mercy
and forgiveness, grace here, and glory hereafter, and lays down this as
the sum of all religion; we must certainly conclude that its design is
to give all glory to God.
Now let us consider the force of this argument, or how the general scope
and design of scripture, to give all glory to God, proves its divine
authority. Had it been the invention and contrivance of men, or if the
writers thereof had pretended they had received it by inspiration from
God, and it had not been so, then the great design thereof would have
been to advance themselves; and they would certainly have laid down such
a scheme of religion therein, as is agreeable to the corrupt appetites
and inclinations of men, or would tend to indulge and dispense with sin,
and not such an one as sets forth the holiness of God, and his infinite
displeasure against it.
And as for salvation, the penmen of scripture, had they not been
inspired, would certainly have represented it as very easy to be
attained, and not as a work of such difficulty as it really is; and they
would also have propagated such a religion, as supposes the creature not
dependent on, or beholden to God for this salvation, and then the
scripture would have detracted from his glory; but since, on the other
hand, its general design is to give him the glory due to his name, this
is a convincing evidence of its divine original.
From the general design of scripture, as being to give all glory to God,
we may infer,
(1.) That whenever we read the word of God, we ought to have this great
design in view, and so not consider it barely as an historical narrative
of things done, but should observe how the glory of the divine
perfections is set forth, that hereby we may be induced to ascribe
greatness to God, and admire him for all the discoveries which he makes
of himself therein.
(2.) The scriptures’ general design should be a rule to us in the whole
of our conversation, wherein we ought to give all glory to God: whatever
we receive or expect from him, or whatever duty we engage in, let us act
as those, that not only take the scripture for our rule, but its general
scope and design for our example.
(3.) Whatsoever doctrines are pretended to be deduced from, or to
contain the sense of scripture, which, notwithstanding, tend to
depreciate the divine perfections, these are to be rejected, as contrary
to its general scope and design.
V. Another argument may be taken from the character of the penmen of
scripture; and here let them be supposed to be either good men, or bad:
if good men, then they could not give themselves such a liberty to
impose upon the world, and pretend that they received that from God,
which they did not; and if they were bad men, they neither could nor
would have laid down such doctrines, as centre in, lead the soul to God,
and tend to promote self-denial, and advance his glory in all things;
since this is to suppose the worst of men to have the best ends, which
we can never do; for, as our Saviour says, Matt. vii. 16. _Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?_ He is speaking of false
prophets, who were to be known by their fruits; wicked men will have bad
designs, or are like the corrupt tree, which bringeth forth evil fruit.
But, on the other hand, if persons deliver that which carries in it such
internal evidence of divine truth, and have such a noble design in view,
as the securing the honour of God, and promoting his interest in the
world, these must certainly be approved of by him, and concluded to be
good men; and if so, then they would not impose a fallacy on the world,
or say that the scripture was given by divine inspiration, when they
knew it to be otherwise.