OF T H E H 0 L y s c R I p T u R E s. XV Argument, that they belong to God, as the Author and Parent of them : ~'.being rea– fonable to derive that from God, os a Book of illS own DJcl:atcs, about wmch he has exercifed a peculiar Care. \Vere not the Bibk what it pretends to be, there had been nothing more fuitable to the Nature of God, and more becoming divine PiOvidenct:, than long ji11ce to have .blotted it out of the World: For why ih:>u}d he fuffer a Book to .continue from the Beamnmg of Tm1es, fallly pretcndmg hJS Name and Authomy? How do learned Men" accufe Time of Injuries, tor [wallowing up the Works of many excellent Aut hors; and bewail the Lofs of d1vers of Livy's Decades, and other choice Books which are now no where to be found! Nay, though the Romans were fa careful for th; Prefervation of the Books of the Sybils, that they locked them up in Places of greatefr Safety, and appointed fpecial Officers to}oak after them ; yet n1any Ages fince they are gone and penlhed, and only fame few Fragments do now remam. Whereas, on ~he contrary, the Bible, notw~:h!tandmg part of Jt was thejirjt Book m the World, (as we proved in the fecond Argument) and though the Craft of Satan, and the Rage of Mankind, have from tune to t1me combined utterly t() fupprefs !t; yet 1t has borne up its Head, and remains not only extant, but whole and entire, withom the leafl Mmi– lation or Corruption. Antiocbu.< Epipbanes, when he fet up the 1\.bomination of Dero– lation in the Jewiih Temple, in the Days of Maccabeus, with urmo£1: Diligence made jearch after their Law, and wherefoever he found it, immediately burnt or ddl:royeq it, and threatened Death, With exymfire 1: urtures, to any that fl1ould conceal qr retam it. In like manner, fince C))rifl, the Tyrant Dioclejian, about the Year 3co, with a full purpofe to root out Chrifiianity for e"er o~Jt of the World, publiil1es an E<;licr, .that the Scriptures lhould every where be burnt and ddtroyrd; and whofoever ihould prefume to keep them, lhould be moll (everely tormented: Yet God permitted then) .not to quench the Light of thefe divine Laws. But the Old Teflament, above two Jumdred Years before the Incarnation of Cluifi, was tra~fiated into Greek, the mo£1: Jlouriihing and fpreading Language at that Tinie in the World ; and about thirty Years before Chrifl, it was paraphrafed into Chaldee; and at this Day, both Old and New Teftamenrs are extant, not only in their original Languages, but in moft other Tongues and Languages that are fpoken upon the Face of the Earth, which 110 other Book can pretend to. So that all Endeavors that have from the very firfr been bent again£1: it, bave been vanquilhed; and remarkable Judgments and Vengeance ,lhewed on all fuch as have been the moO: violent Oppofers of it. And further, whereas even thofe to whom it was outwardly committed, as the Jews lir£1:, and the Antichrifrian Church of apo!latized Rome afterwards, nor only fell into Opinions and Pracrices abfolutely in– -confifrent with it, but alfo built all their prcfent and future lnterefrs on thofe Opinions .and Pracrices ; yet none of them could ever obliterate one Line in it, not even of thole ,Places which make malt againfr their obllinate Errors and DefeCtions: But for their ·OWn Plea, .they both are forced to pretend additional Traditions, for the Jl..fijhua, Talmud, and Cabala of the Jews, and the oral Traditions of the Papifrs, all proceed from one and the fame Ground, viz. a wicked Pretence, that the Scriptures, though divine Trmhs, and the Word of God, yet do not contain all God's Will; bm that there are thefe other unwritten Verities handed down, one fays from Mofes, and the other fays from St. Peter, &c. by Word of Mouth. Since therefore the Bible hath rhus wonderfully (urmounted all Difficulties and Op– :pootJons, for fa many Generatwns, and m fo many Dangers, and again£1: fo many En– deavors to root it out of the World, we may, (according to that Maxim in Philofo– phy, Eade;;z eft Caufa procreans & confervans; the procreating and conferving Caufe of Thmgs, 1s one and the fame) conclude, that rhe fame God is the Author of it, who hath rhus by his fpecial Providence preferved it, and faithfully promifed, and cannot Lie, that Heaven and Earth foal/ pafs away, but one Iota or Titt!e of his Word jha!l not pafs away. X. The Scriptures did not only furvive, bm have triumpbed over, all the Oppofi– tionsofthe Devil and thevVorld. That Succefs wherewith the Gofpel was attended e~en 1n lt~ Infancy, the m1ghty and marvellous prevailings of it wherever it came, nor– wahfr~ndmg the many and great Difadvantages it was to encounter, are a thong and Hrefi!hble Argument that lt was from Heaven. That a Doctrine direCtly oppoGte to the whole corrupt Intere£1: of human Nature, and to the Wifdom and Will of Man, .l Cor. i. 21. Rom. viii. 7· carried on and publilhecl by but a few, and thofe, to outward
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