(1.) None that read the scriptures can find any appearance of design in the penmen thereof, to advance themselves or families. Moses, indeed, had the burden of government, but he did not affect the pomp and splendor of a king; neither did he make any provision for his family, so as to advance them to great honours in the world, which it was in his power to have done: the laws he gave, rendered those of his own tribe, to wit, that of Levi, incapable of, and not designed for kingly government; and the highest honour of the priesthood, which was fixed in that tribe, was conferred on his brother’s children, not his own. (2.) The prophets were very few of them great men in the world, not advanced to great places in the government; the esteem and reputation they had among the people at any time, was only for their integrity, and the honour conferred on them by God; and the apostles were plain men, who drove on no design to gain riches and honours from those to whom they preached the gospel; but, on the other hand, they expected nothing but poverty, reproach, imprisonment, and, at last, to die a violent death: therefore, how can it be supposed that they were subtle designing men, who had some worldly advantage in view? It is plain that they had no design but to do what God commanded, and to communicate what they had received from him, and shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, whatever it cost them. The apostle Paul was so far from endeavouring to enrich himself by preaching the gospel, that he tells the church, _I seek not your’s, but you_, 2 Cor. xii. 14. and how he was fortified against the afflictions, which he foresaw would attend his ministry, when he says, Philip, iv. 11, 12. _I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound, to be full, and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer want_: and he was not only content to bear afflictions, but, when called to it, he professes himself to _take pleasure in reproach, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake_, 2 Cor. xii. 10. Hitherto we have proved, that the penmen of scripture were men of such a character, that they would not designedly impose on mankind. But some will say, might they not be imposed on themselves, and think they were divinely inspired, when they were not? To this it may be answered, that if they were deceived or imposed on themselves, when they thought they received the scripture by divine inspiration, this must proceed from one of these two causes: either,