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.