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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75017	The lively oracles given to us. Or the Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture. By the author of the Whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679, attributed name.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683, attributed name.; Fell, John, 1625-1686, attributed name.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675, attributed name.; Burghers, M., engraver.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1151B; ESTC R3556	108,574	250

The lively Oracles given to us or The Christians birthright duty in the custody use of the holy Scripture burg sculp THE Lively Oracles given to us OR The Christians Birth-right and Duty in the custody and use of the HOLY SCRIPTURE By the Author of the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN c. Search the Scriptures Jo. 5.39 At the THEATER in OXFORD 1678. And are to be Sold by William Leak at the Crown in Fleet-street Lond. Beilby Thompson of Escrick Imprimatur JO. NICHOLAS Vice Cancell Oxon. Junii 10. 1678. THE PREFACE IN the Treatise of the Government of the Tongue publisht by me heretofore I had occasion to take notice among the exorbitances of that unruly part which sets on fire the whole course of nature and its self is set on fire from hell Jam. 3.6 of the impious vanity prevailing in this Age whereby men play with sacred things and exercise their wit upon those Scriptures by which they shall be judg'd at the last day Joh. 12.48 But that holy Book not only suffering by the petulancy of the Tongue but the malice of the heart out of the abundance whereof the mouth speaks Mat. 12.34 and also from that irreligion prepossession and supiness which the pursuit of sensual plesures certainly produces the mischief is too much diffus'd and deeply rooted to be controul'd by a few casual reflections I have therefore thought it necessary both in regard of the dignity and importance of the subject as also the prevalence of the opposition to attemt a profest and particular vindication of the holy Scriptures by displaying their native excellence and beauty and enforcing the veneration and obedience that is to be paid unto them This I design'd to do in my usual method by an address to the affections of the Reader soliciting the several passions of love hope fear shame and sorrow which either the majesty of God in his sublime being his goodness deriv'd to us or our ingratitude return'd to him could actuate in persons not utterly obdurate But whereas men when they have learnt to do amiss quickly dispute and dictate I found my self concern'd to pass somtimes within the verge of controversy and to discourse upon the principles of reason and deductions from Testimony which in the most important transactions of human life are justly taken for evidence In which whole performance I have studied to avoid the entanglements of Sophistry and the ambition of unintelligible quotations and kept my self within the reach of the unlearned Christian Reader to whose uses my labors have bin ever dedicated All that I require is that men would bring as much readiness to entertain the holy Scriptures as they do to the reading profane Authors I am asham'd to say as they do to the incentives of vice and folly nay to the libels and invectives that are levell'd against the Scriptures If I obtain this I will make no doubt that I shall gain a farther point that from the perusal of my imperfect conceptions the Reader will proceed to the study of the Scriptures themselves there tast and see how gracious the Lord is Ps 34.8 and as the Angel commanded Saint John Rev. 10.9 eat the Book where he will experimentally find the words of David verified Ps 19.7 The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light to the eies The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desir'd are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then hony and the hony-comb Moreover by them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward It is said of Moses Ex. 34.29 that having receiv'd the Law from God and converst with him in Mount Sina forty daies together his face shone and had a brightness fixt upon it that dazled the beholders a pledg and short essay not only of the appearance at Mount Tabor Mat. 17.1 where at the Transfiguration he again was seen in glory but of that greater and yet future change when he shall see indeed his God face to face and share his glory unto all eternity The same divine Goodness gives still his Law to every one of us Let us receive it with due regard and veneration converse with him therein instead of forty daies during our whole lives and so anticipate and certainly assure our interest in that great Transfiguration when all the faithful shall put off their mortal flesh be translated from glory to glory eternally behold their God see him as he is and so enjoy him Conversation has every where an assimilating power we are generally such as are the men and Books and business that we deal with but surely no familiarity has so great an influence on Life and Manners as when men hear God speaking to them in his Word That Word which the Apostle Heb. 4.12 declares to be quick and powerful sharper then any two-edg'd sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The time will come when all our Books however recommended for subtilty of discourse exactness of method variety of matter or eloquence of Language when all our curious Acts like those mention'd Act. 19.19 shall be brought forth and burnt before all men When the great Book of nature and heaven it self shall depart as a scroul roll'd together Rev. 6.14 At which important season 't will be more to purpose to have studied well that is transcrib'd in practice this one Book then to have run thro all besides for then the dead small and great shall stand before God and the Books shall be open'd and another Book shall be open'd which is the Book of Life and the dead shall be judg'd out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20.12 In vain shall men allege the want of due conviction that they did not know how penal it would be to disregard the Sanctions of Gods Law which they would have had enforc'd by immediat miracle the apparition of one sent from the other world who might testify of the place of torment This expectation the Scripture charges every where with the guilt of temting God and indeed it really involves this insolent proposal that the Almighty should be oblig'd to break his own Laws that men might be prevail'd with to keep his But should he think fit to comply herein the condescention would be as successless in the event as 't is unreasonable in the offer Our Savior assures that they who hear not Moses and the Prophets the instructions and commands laid down in holy Scripture would not be wrought upon by any other method would not be

slight the words of any of these who can so much to our cost second them with deeds Now God has all these titles of jurisdiction He is the great King Ps 48.2 Nor was it only a complement of the Psalmists for himself owns the stile I am a great King Mal. 1. He is the Judg of all the World Gen. 18. yea that Ancient of daies before whom the Books were open'd Dan. 7.10 He is our Lord and Master by right both of creation and redemtion and this Christ owns even in his state of inanition yea when he was about the most servile imploiment the washing his Disciples feet when he was most literally in the form of a servant yet he scruples not to assert his right to that opposite title You call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am Jo. 13. Nor are these emty names but effectively attended with all the power they denote Yet so stupid are we that whilst we awfully receive the dictates of our earthly Superiors we slight and neglect the Oracles of that God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords When a Prince speaks we are apt to cry out with Herods Flatterers the voice of a God and not of a man Act. 12. Yet when it is indeed the voice of God we chuse to listen to any thing else rather then it But let us sadly remember that notwithstanding our contemts this word shall as our Savior tells us judg us at the last day Jo. 12.48 7. A second sort of acquir'd Autority is that of reputation When a man is famed for some extraordinary excellencies whether moral or intellectual men come with appetite to his discourses greedily suck them in nor need such a one bespeak attention his very name has don it for him and prepossest him of his Auditors regard Thus the Rabbies among the Jews the Philosophers among the Greeks were listened to as Oracles and to cite them was by their admiring Disciples thought a concluding argument Nay under Christianity this admiration of mens persons has bin so inordinate that it has crumbled Religion away in little insignificant parties whilst not only Paul Apollo or Cephas but names infinitly inferior have become the distinctive characters of Sects and and separate Communions So easily alas are we charm'd by our prepossessions and with itching ears run in quest of those doctrins which the fame of their Authors rather then the evidence of truth commend to us 8. AND hath God don nothing to get him a repute among us has he no excellencies to deserve our esteem Is he not worthy to prescribe to his own creatures if we think yes why is he the only person to be disregarded or why do we so unseasonably depart from our own humor as not to give his Word a reverence proportionable to that we pretend for him nay which we actually pay to men of like passions with our selves A contemt so absurd as well as impious that we have not the example of any the most barbarous people to countenance us For tho som of them have made very wild mistakes in the choice of their Deities yet they have all agreed in this common principle that whatever those Deities said was to be receiv'd with all possible veneration yea such a deference gave they to all significations of the divine will that as they would undertake no great enterprize without consulting their Auguries so upon any inauspicious signs they relinquisht their attemts And certainly if we had the same reverence for the true God which they had for the false we should as frequently consult him We may do it with much more ease and certainty we need not trust to the entrails of Beasts or motion of Birds we need not go to Delphos or the Lybian Hammon for the resolving our doubts but what Moses said to Israel is very applicable to us the Word is nigh thee Deut. 30.14 That Word which David made his Counsellor Psal 119.24 his Comforter ver 50. his Tresure ver 72. his Study ver 99. And had we those awful apprehensions of God which he had we should pay the like reverence to his Word Did we well ponder how many titles of Autority he has over us we should surely be asham'd to deny that respect to him in whom they all conspire which we dare not deny to them separately in human Superiors 9. A second motive to esteem mens words is the kindness of the speaker This has such a fascinating power as nothing but extreme ill nature can resist When a man is assur'd of the kindness of him that speaks whatever is spoken is taken in good part This is it that distinguishes the admonitions of a friend from the reproches of an enemy and we daily in common conversation receive those things with contentment and applause from an intimte and familiar which if spoken by a stranger or enemy would be despis'd or stomach'd So insinuating a thing is kindness that where it has once got it self believ'd nothing it saies after is disputed it supples the mind and makes it ductile and pliant to any impressions 10. BUT what human kindness is there that can come in any competition with the Divine it surpasses that of the nearest and dearest relations Mothers may forget yet will not I forget thee Isa 49.15 And the Psalmist found it experimentally true When my Father and my Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up Ps 27.10 the tenderest bowels compared to his are adamant and flint so that 't is a most proper epithet the Wise man gives him O Lord thou lover of souls Wis 11.26 Nor is this affection merely mental but it attests it self by innumerable effects The effects of love are all reducible to two heads doing and suffering and by both these God has most eminently attested his love to us 11. FOR the first we cannot look either on our bodies or our souls on the whole Universe about us or that better World above us but we shall in each see the Lord hath don great things for us Psal 114. Nay not only our enjoiments but even the capacity to enjoy is his bounty Had not he drawn mankind out of his original clay what had we bin concern'd in all the other works of his Creation So that if we put any value either upon what we have or what we are we cannot but account our selves so much indebted to this his active love And tho the passive was not practicable by the divine Nature simply and apart yet that we might not want all imaginable evidences of his love he who was God blessed for ever linkt his impassible to our passible nature assum'd our humanity that he might espouse our sorrows and was born on purpose that he might die for us So that sure we may say in his own words greater love then this hath no man Io. 15.13 12. AND now t is very hard if such an unparallel'd love in God may not as much affect us

describing the offices in the public Assemblies We feed our faith with the sacred Words we raise our hopes and establish our reliance 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week and there perform'd the duties of fasting praier and hearing the holy Scriptures concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee Luk. 18.12 in conformity hereto the Christians also their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies which were the daies of Station so frequently mention'd in Tertullian and others the first writers of the Church Tertullian expresly saies that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety the fourth and sixth day of the week and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts to wit those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday Where by the way we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church and the Litanies then appointed so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3.15 whereof Josephus against Appion saies That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws he will tell every thing readier then his name for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing they retain them imprinted in their minds So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth The whole life of a Christian saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity there his sacrifices are praiers and praises before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures and Psalms and Hymns at the time of his meals Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist to Donatus 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks Serm. 5. We Christians saies he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which have fill'd all Countries under Heaven For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians but also the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Samaritans and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein such as Origen who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla Saint Chrysostom who translated the New Testament Psalms and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify Saint Jerom who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution and when diverse did faint in that trial and basely surrender'd them we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons did not according to the Romish equity punish the innocent by depriving them of that sacred Book because the others had so unworthily prostituted it tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks Ages and Sexes 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort The Word saies he is not hid from any it is a common light that shineth to all men there is no obscurity in it hear it you that be far off and hear it you that are nigh 21. TO this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta whom he directs in the education of her young daughter and advises that instead of gems and silk she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture wherein not gold or skins or Babylonian embroideries but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith will recommend its self Let her first learn the Psalter and be entertain'd with those songs then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue let her pass then to the Gospels and never let them be out of her hands and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures let her learn the Prophets the Heptateuch or books of Moses Joshua and Judges the books of Kings and Chronicles the volumes of Ezra and Esther and lastly the Canticles And indeed this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd female sex skilful in the Scriptures that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned as a familiar friend in the mysterious mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind as the poor are in their addresses to the rich but invites all with lowly speech feeding with manifest truth and exercising with secret And Ep. 1.21 tells the devout Proba that in this world where we are absent from the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight the soul is to think it self desolate and never cease from praier and the words of divine and holy Scripture c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons house-holders and people engag'd in trades and secular professions telling them that the reading of the Scripture is a