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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23752	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.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1149; ESTC R170102	108,974	240

Imprimatur JO. NICHOLAS Vice Cancell Oxon. Junii 10. 1678. 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. The lively Oracles given to us or The Christians birthright duty in the custody use of the holy Scripture 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 where as 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 te 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 of 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 perswaded by that which they allow for irresistible conviction

tho one rose again from the dead Luke 16. 31. THE LIVELY ORACLES GIVEN TO US Or the Christians Birth-right and Duty in the custody and use of the HOLY SCRIPTURE SECT I. The several Methods of Gods communicating the knowledg of himself GOD as he is invisible to human eies so is he unfathomable by human understandings the perfection of his nature and the impotency of ours setting us at too great a distance to have any clear perception of him Nay so far are we from a full comprehension that we can discern nothing at all of him but by his own light those discoveries he hath bin pleas'd to make of himself 2. THOSE have bin of several sorts The first was by infusion in mans creation when God interwove into mans very constitution and being the notions and apprehensions of a Deity and at the same instant when he breath'd into him a living soul imprest on it that native religion which taught him to know and reverence his Creator which we may call the instinct of humanity Nor were those principles dark and confus'd but clear and evident proportionable to the ends they were design'd to which were not only to contemplate the nature but to do the will of God practice being even in the state of innocence preferrable before an unactive speculation 3. BUT this Light being soon eclips'd by Adams disobedience there remain'd to his benighted posterity only som faint glimmerings which were utterly insufficient to guide them tho their end without fresh aids and renew'd manifestations of God to them It pleas'd God therefore to repair this ruine and by frequent revelations to communicate himself to the Patriarchs in the first Ages of the World afterwards to Prophets and other holy men till at last he reveled himself yet more illustriously in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. 4. THIS is the one great comprehensive Revelation wherein all the former were involv'd and to which they pointed the whole mystery of Godliness being compris'd in this of Gods being manifested in the flesh and the consequents thereof 1 Tim. 3. 16. whereby our Savior as he effected our reconciliation with God by the sacrifice of his death so he declar'd both that and all things else that it concern'd man to know in order to bliss in his doctrin and holy life And this Teacher being not only sent from God Jo. 3. but being himself God blessed for ever it cannot be that his instructions can want any supplement Yet that they might not want attestation neither to the incredulous world he confirm'd them by the repeted miracles of his life and by the testimony of those who saw the more irrefragable conviction of his Resurrection and Ascension And that they also might not want credit and enforcement the holy Spirit set to his seal and by his miraculous descent upon the Apostles both asserted their commission and enabled them for the discharge of it by all gifts necessary for the propagating the Faith of Christ over the whole World 5. THESE were the waies by which God was pleased to revele himself to to the Forefathers of our Faith and that not only for their sakes but ours also to whom they were to derive those divine dictats they had receiv'd Saint Stephen tells us those under the Law receiv'd the lively Oracles to deliver down to their posterity Act. 7. 38. And those under the Gospel who receiv'd yet more lively Oracles from him who was both the Word and the Life did it for the like purpose to transmit it to us upon whom the ends of the world are come By this all need of repeted Revelations is superseded the faithful deriving of the former being sufficient to us for all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. 6. AND for this God whose care is equal for all successions of men hath graciously provided by causing Holy Scriptures to be writ by which he hath deriv'd on every succeeding Age the illuminations of the former And for that purpose endowed the Writers not only with that moral fidelity requisite to the truth of History but with a divine Spirit proportionable to the great design of fixing an immutable rule for Faith and Manners And to give us the fuller security herein he has chosen no other pen-men of the New Testament then those who were the first oral Promulgers of our Christian Religion so that they have left to us the very same doctrin they taught the Primitive Christians and he that acknowledges them divinely inspir'd in what they preach'd cannot doubt them to be so in what they writ So that we all may injoy virtually and effectively that wish of the devout Father who desir'd to be Saint Pauls Auditor for he that hears any of his Epistles read is as really spoke to by Saint Paul as those who were within the sound of his voice Thus God who in times past spake at sundry times and in diverse manners to our Fathers by the Prophets and in the later daies by his son Heb. 1. 1 2. continues still to speak to us by these inspir'd Writers and what Christ once said to his Disciples in relation to their preaching is no less true of their writings He that despiseth you despiseth me Luk. 10. 16. All the contemt that is at any time flung on these sacred Writings rebounds higher and finally devolves on the first Author of those doctrins whereof these are the Registres and Transcripts 7. BUT this is a guilt which one would think peculiar to Infidels and Pagans and not incident to any who had in their Baptism listed themselves under Christs banner yet I fear I may say of the two parties the Scripture has met with the worst treatment from the later For if we mesure by the frequency and variety of injuries I fear Christians will appear to have out-vied Heathens These bluntly disbelieve them neglect nay perhaps scornfully deride them Alas Christians do this and more they not only put contemts but tricks upon the Scripture wrest and distort it to justify all their wild phancies or secular designs and suborn its Patronage to those things it forbids and tells us that God abhors 8. INDEED so many are the abuses we offer it that he that considers them would scarce think we own'd it for the words of a sensible man much less of the great omniscient God And I believe 't were hard to assign any one so comprehensive and efficacious cause of the universal depravation of manners as the disvaluing of this divine Book which was design'd to regulate them It were therefore a work worthy another inspired writing to attemt the rescue of this and recover it to its just estimate Yet alas could we hope for that we have scoffers who would as well despise the New as the Old and like the Husbandmen in the Gospel Mat. 21. 36. would answer such a succession of messages by repeting the same injuries 9. To such as these 't is I confess

is against error and learn how little is got by that policy which controles the divine Wisdom 14 NOR can they take shelter in the example of the primitive Christians for they in the constant use of the holy Scriptures yielded not unto the Jews Whereas the Jews had the Scriptures read publicly to them every Sabbath day which Josephus against Appion thus expresses Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it Parallel to this was the practice of the primitive Church perform'd by the Lector or Reader of which Justin Martyr in his 2. Apol. gives this account On the day call'd Sunday all that abide in towns or the countries about meet in one place and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read so far as there is place So Tertullian in his Apol 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 sais he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which h●ve 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 th●t 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 bands 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 semale 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

and Apostolical Tradition and there found our actings from whence their order and origation began 8. IT is true Bellarmine reproches this discourse as erroneous but whatever it might be in the inference which Saint Cyprian drew from it in it self it was not so For Saint Austin tho sufficiently engag'd against Saint Cyprian's conclusion allows the position as most Orthodox saying in the fourth Book of Baptism c. 35. Whereas he admonishes to go back to the fountain that is the Tradition of the Apostles and thence bring the stream down to our times 't is most excellent and without doubt to be don 9. THUS Eusebius expresses himself in his second Book against Sabellius As it is a point of sloth not to seek into those things whereof one may enquire so 't is insolence to be inquisitive in others But what are those things which we ought to enquire into Even those which are to be found in the Scriptures those things which are not there to be found let us not seek after For if they ought to be known the holy Ghost had not omitted them in the Scripture 10. ATHANASIUS in his Tract of the Incarnation saies It is fit for us to adhere to the word of God and not relinquish it thinking by syllogisms to evade what is there clearly deliver'd Again in his Tract to Serap of the holy Ghost Ask not saies he concerning the Trinity but learn only from the Scriptures For the instructions which you will find there are sufficient And in his Oration against the Gentiles declares That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the truth 11. AGREEABLE to these is Optatus in his 5. Book against Parmen who reasons thus You say 't is lawful to rebaptize we say 't is not lawful betwixt your saying and our gain-saying the peoples minds are amus'd Let no man believe either you or us All men are apt to be contentious Therefore Judges are to be call'd in Christians they cannot be for they will be parties and thereby partial Therefore a Judg is to be lookt out from abroad If a Pagan he knows not the mysteries of our Religion If a Jew he is an enemy to our baptism There is therefore no earthly Judg but one is to be sought from heaven Yet there is no need of a resort to heaven when we have in the Gospel a Testament and in this case celestial things may be compar'd to earthly So it is as with a Father who has many children while he is present he orders them all and there is no need of a written Will Accordingly Christ when he was present upon earth from time to time commanded the Apostles whatsoever was necessary But as the earthly father finding himself to be at the point of death and fearing that after his departure his children should quarrel among themselves he calls witnesses and puts his mind in writing and if any difference arise among the brethren they go not to their Fathers Sepulcher but repair to his Will and Testament and he who rests in his grave speaks still in his writing as if he were alive Our Lord who left his Will among us is now in heaven therefore let us seek his commands in the Gospel as in his Will 12. THUS Cyril of Ierus Cat. 4. Nothing no not the least concernment of the divine and holy Sacraments of our Faith is to be deliver'd without the holy Scripture believe not me unless I give you a demonstration of what I say from the Scripture 13. SAINT Basil in his Book of the true Faith saies If God be faithful in all his sayings his words and works they remaining for ever and being don in truth and equity it must be an evident sign of infidelity and pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written In which Books he generally declares that he will write nothing but what he receives from the holy Scripture and that he abhors from taking it elsewhere In his 29. Homily against the Antitrinit Believe saies he those which are written seek not those which are not written And in his Eth. reg 26. Every word and action ought to be confirm'd by the testimony of the divine●y inspir'd Scriptures to the establishment of the Faith of the good and reproof of the wicked 14. SAINT Ambrose in the first Book of his Offic. saies How can we make use of any thing which is not to be found in Scripture And in his Instit. of Virgins I read he is the first but read not he is the second let them who say he is second shew it from the reading 15. GREG. Nyssen in his Dial. of the soul and resurrect saies 'T is undeniable that truth is there only to be plac'd where there is the seal of Scripture Testimony 16. SAINT Jerom against Helvidius declares As we deny not that which is written so we refuse those which are not written And in his Comment on the 98. Ps. Every thing that we assert we must shew from the holy Scripture The word of him that speaks has not that autority as Gods precept And on the 87. Ps. Whatever is said after the Apostles let it be cut off nor have afterwards autority The one be holy after the Apostles the one be eloquent yet has he not autority 17. SAINT Austin in his Tract of the unity of the Church c. 12. acknowledges that he could not be convinc'd but by the Scriptures of what he was to believe and adds they are read with such manifestation that he who believes them must confess the doctrin to be most true In the second Book of Christian doctrin c. 9. he saies that in the plain places of Scripture are found all those things that concern Faith and Manners And in Epist. 42. All things which have bin exhibited heretofore as don to mankind and what we now see and deliver to our posterity the Scripture has not past them in silence so far forth as they concern the search or defence of our Religion In his ●ract of the good of Widowhood he saies to ●ulian the person to whom he addresses What shall I teach you more then that we read in the Apostle for the holy Scripture settlos the rule of our doctrin that we think not any thing more then we ought to think but to think so●erly as God has dealt to every man the mesure of Faith Therefore my teaching is only to ex●ound the words of this Doctor Ep. 157. Where ●ny subject is obscure and passes our compre●ension and the Scripture do's not plainly afford its help there human conjecture is presum●●ous in defining 18. THEOPHILUS of Alex. in his second Paschal homily tells us that 't is the suggestion of a diabolical spirit to think that any thing besides the Scripture has divine autority And in his third he adds that the Doctors of the Church having the Testimony of the Scripture lay firm foundation of their doctrin 19. CHRYSOSTOM in his third Homily