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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

Apostles and that it is attested by an uninterrupted testimony of all the intervening Ages the suffrage of all Christian Churches from that day to this And sure they who embraced the doctrin are the most competent witnesses from whence they received it 40. YET lest they should be all thought parties to the design and their witness excepted against it has pleased God to give us collateral assurances and made both Jewish and Gentile Writers give testimony to the Antiquity of Christianity Josephus do's this lib. 20. chap. 8. and lib. 18. chap. 4. where after he has given an account of the crucifixion of Christ exactly agreeing with the Evangelists he concludes And to this day the Christian people who of him borrow their name cease not to increase I add not the personal elogium which he gives of our Savior because som are so hardy to controul it also I pass what Philo mentions of the religious in Egypt because several Learned men refer it to the Essens a Sect among the Jews or som other There is no doubt of what Tacitus and other Roman Historians speak of Christ as the Author of the Christian doctrin which it had bin impossible for him to have don if there had then bin no such doctrin or if Christ had not bin known as the Founder of it So afterward Plinie gives the Emperor Trajan an account both of the manners and multitude of the Christians and makes the innocence of the one and the greatness of the other an Argument to slacken the persecution against them Nay the very bloody Edicts of the persecuting Emperors the scoffs and reproches of Celsus Porphyri Lucian and other profane opposers of this Doctrin do undeniably assert its being By all which it appears that Christianity had in those Ages not only a being but had also obtain'd mightily in the world and drawn in vast numbers to its profession and vast indeed they must needs be to furnish out that whole Army of Martyrs of which profane as well as Ecclesiastic writers speak And if all this be not sufficient to evince that Christianity stole not clancularly into the world but took its rise from those times and persons it pretends we must renounce all faith of testimony and not believe an inch farther then we see 41. I suppose I need say no more to shew that the Gospel and all those portentous miracles which attested it were no forgeries or stratagems of men I come now to that doubt which more immediatly concerns the Holy Scripture viz. whether all those transactions be so faithfully related there that we may believe them to have bin dictated by the spirit of God Now for this the process need be but short if we consider who were the pen-men of the New Testament even for the most part the Apostles themselves Matthew and John who wrote two of the Gospels were certainly so and Mark as all the Ancients aver was but the Amanuensis to Saint Peter who dictated that Gospel Saint Luke indeed comes not under this first rank of Apostles yet is by som affirm'd to be one of the seventy Disciples however an Apostolical person 't is certain he was and it was no wonder for such to be inspired For in those first Ages of the Church men acted more by immediat inflation of the Spirit then since And accordingly we find Stephen tho but a Deacon had the power of miracles and preacht as divinely as the prime Apostles Act. 7. And the gift of the Holy Ghost was then a usual concomitant of conversion as appears in the Story of Cornelius Acts 10.45 46. Besides Saint Luke was a constant attendant on Saint Paul who derived the Faith not from man but by the immediat revelation of Jesus Christ as himself professes Gal. 1.12 and is by som said to have wrote by dictat from him as Mark did from Saint Peter Then as to the Epistles they all bear the names of Apostles except that to the Hebrews which yet is upon very good grounds presum'd to be Saint Pauls Now these were the persons commissionated by Christ to preach the Christian doctrin and were signally assisted in the discharge of that office so that as he tells them it was not they who spake but the spirit of the Father that spake in them Mat. 13.11 And if they spake by divine inspiration there can be no question that they wrote so also Nay indeed of the two it seems more necessary they should do the later For had they err'd in any thing they orally deliver'd they might have retracted and cured the mischief but these Books being design'd as a standing immutable rule of Faith and manners to all successions any error in them would have bin irreparable and have entail'd it self upon posterity which agreed neither with the truth nor goodness of God to permit 42. NOW that these Books were indeed writ by them whose names they bear we have as much assurance as 't is possible to have of any thing of that nature and that distance of time from us For however som of them may have bin controverted yet the greatest part have admitted no dispute whose doctrins agreeing exactly with the others give testimony to them And to the bulk of those writings it is notorious that the first Christians receiv'd them from the Apostles and so transmitted them to the ensuing Ages which receiv'd them with the like esteem and veneration They cannot be corrupted saies Saint Austin in the thirty second Book against Faustus the Manich. c. 16. because they are and have bin in the hands of all Christians And whosoever should first attemt an alteration he would be confuted by the inspection of other ancienter Copies Besides the Scriptures are not in som one Language but translated into many so that the faults of one Book would be corrected by others more ancient or in a different Tongue 43. And how much the body of Christians were in earnest concern'd to take care in this matter appears by very costly evidences multitudes of them chusing rather to part with their lives then their Bibles And indeed 't is a sufficient proof that their reverence of that Book was very avowed and manifest when their heathen Persecuters made that one part of their persecution So that as wherever the Christian Faith was receiv'd this Book was also under the notion we now plead for viz. as the writings of men inspir'd by God so it was also contended for even unto death and to part with the Bible was to renounce the Faith And now after such a cloud of testimonies we may sure take up that ill-applied saying of the high Priest Mat. 26.65 what farther need have we of witnesses 44. YET besides these another sort of witnesses there are I mean those intrinsic evidences which arise out of the Scripture it self but of these I think not proper here to insist partly because the subject will be in a great degree coincident with that of the second general

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

I confess vain for man to address nay 't were insolence to expect that human Oratory should succeed where the divine fails yet the spreading infection of these renders it necessary to administer antidotes to others And besides tho God be blest all are not of this form yet there are many who tho not arriv'd to this contemt yet want som degrees of that just reverence they owe the sacred Scripture who give a confus'd general assent to them as the word of God but afford them not a consideration and respect answerable to such an acknowledgment To such as these I shall hope it may not be utterly vain to attemt the exciting of those drowsy notions that lie unactive in them by presenting to them som considerations concerning the excellence and use of the Scripture which being all but necessary consequences of that principle they are supposed to own viz. that they are Gods word I cannot much question their assent to the speculative part I wish I could as probably assure my self of the practic 10. INDEED were there nothing else to be said in behalf of holy Writ but that it is Gods word that were enough to command the most awful regard to it And therefore it is but just we make that the first and principal consideration in our present discourse But then 't is impossible that that can want others to attend it since whatsoever God saies is in all respects compleatly good I shall therefore to that of its divine original add secondly the consideration of its subject matter thirdly of its excellent and no less diffusive end and design and fourthly of its exact propriety and fitness to that design which are all such qualifications that where they concur nothing more can be requir'd to commend a writing to the esteem of rational men And upon all these tests notwithstanding the cavil of the Romanists and others whose force we shall examin with the unhappy issue of contrary counsels this law of God will be found to answer the Psalmists character of it Ps 19.7 The Law of God is perfect and will appear that the custody and use thereof is the birth-right and duty of every Christian All which severals being faithfully deduced it will only remain that I add such cautions as will be necessary to the due performance of the aforesaid duty and our being in som degree render'd perfect as this Law of God and the Author thereof himself is perfect Mat. 5.48 SECT II. The divine Original Endearments and Authority of the Holy Scripture MENS judgments are so apt to be biast by their affections that we often find them readier to consider who speaks then what is spoken a temper very unsafe and the principle of great injustice in our inferior transactions with men yet here there are very few of us that can wholly divest our selves of it whereas when we deal with God in whom alone an implicit faith may securely be reposed we are nice and wary bring our scales and mesures will take nothing upon his word which holds not weight in our own balance 'T is true he needs not our partiality to be justified in his sayings Psal 51.4 His words are pure even as the silver tryed seven times in the fire Psal 12.6 able to pass the strictest test that right reason truly so called can put them to Yet it shews a great perverseness in our nature that we who so easily resign our understandings to fallible men stand thus upon our guard against God make him dispute for every inch he gains on us nor will afford him what we daily grant to any credible man to receive an affirmation upon trust of his veracity 2. I am far from contradicting our Saviors Precept of Search the Scriptures Jo. 7. or Saint Pauls of proving all things 1 Thes 5.21 we cannot be too industrious in our inquest after truth provided we still reserve to God the decisive vote and humbly acquiesce in his sense how distant soever from our own so that when we consult Scripture I may add reason either 't is not to resolve us whether God be to be believed or no in what he has said but whether he hath said such and such things for if we are convinc't he have reason as well as religion commands our assent 3. WHATEVER therefore God has said we are to pay it a reverence merely upon the account of its Author over and above what the excellence of the matter exacts and to this we have all inducements as well as obligation there being no motives to render the words of men estimable to us which are not eminently and transcendently appliable to those of God 4. THOSE motives we may reduce to four first the Autority of the Speaker secondly his kindness thirdly his wisdom and fourthly his truth First for that of Autority that may be either native or acquired the native is that of a parent which is such a charm of observance that we see Solomon when he would impress his counsels assumes the person of a Father Hear O my children the instructions of a Father Prov. 4.1 And generally through that whole Book he uses the compellation of my Son as the greatest endearment to engage attention and reverence Nay so indispensible was the obligation of children in this respect that we see the contumacious child that would not hearken to the advice of his Parents was by God himself adjudged to death Deut. 21.20 5. NOR have only Gods but mens Laws exacted that filial reverence to the dictats of Parents But certainly no Parent can pretend such a title to it as God who is not only the immediate Father of our persons but the original Father of our very nature not only of our flesh but of our spirits also Heb. 12.9 So that the Apostles Antithesis in that place is as properly applied to counsels as corrections and we may as rightly infer that if we give reverence to the advices of our earthly Parents much more ought we subject our selves to this Father of our spirits And we have the very same reason wherewith to enforce it for the Fathers of our flesh do as often dictate as correct according to their own plesures prescribe to their children not according to the exact mesures of right and wrong but after that humor which most predominates in themselves But God alwaies directs his admonitions to our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.11 So that we are as unkind to our selves as irreverent towards him whenever we let any of his words fall to the ground whose claim to this part of our reverence is much more irrefragable then that of our natural Parents 6. BUT besides this native Autority there is also an acquired and that we may distinguish into two sorts the one of dominion the other of reputation To the first kind belongs that of Princes Magistrates Masters or any that have coercive power over us And our own interest teaches us not to

not according to it there is no light in them Esay 8.20 So that the veneration which they had before acquir'd was still anew excited by fresh inspirations which both attested the old and became new parts of their Canon 27. NOR could it be esteem'd a small confirmation to the Scriptures to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books for nothing less then divine power and wisdom could foretell and also verify them Upon these grounds the Jews universally through all successions receiv'd the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles and lookt upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them that their Masorits numbred not only the sections but the very words nay letters that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem'd so sacred A farther testimony and sepiment to which were the Samaritan Chaldee and Greek versions which being made use of in the Synagogs of Jews in their dispersions and the Samaritans at Sichem could not at those distances receive a uniform alteration and any other would be of no effect Add to this that the Original exemplar of the Law was laid up in the Sanctuary that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him and transcribe it with his own hand that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation teach it his children and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead And now sure 't is impossible to imagin any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced or irrefragably testified nor any thing believ'd upon stronger evidence 28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews that they did thus own these Writings as divine appears not only by the Records of past Ages but by the Jews of the present who still own them and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews as he must be most absurdly sceptical that shall deny they must be so to us Christians also who derive them from them and that with this farther advantage to our Faith that we see the clear completion of those Evangelical prophecies which remain'd dark to them and consequently have a farther Argument to confirm us that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are certainly divine 29. THE New has also the like means of probation which as it is a collection of the doctrin taught by Christ and his Apostles must if truly related be acknowleged no less divine then what they orally deliver'd So that they who doubt its being divine must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preacht to be so or else distrust the fidelity of the relation The former strikes at the whole Christian Faith which if only of men must not only be fallible but is actually a deceit whilst it pretends to be of God and is not To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendous miracles with which the Gospel was attested such as demonstrated a more then human efficacy And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain 30. 'T IS true there have bin by God permitted lying miracles as well as true ones have bin don by him Such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt in opposition to the other of Moses but then the difference between both was so conspicuous that he must be more partial and disingenuous then even those Magicians were who would not acknowledg the disparity and confess in those which were truly supernatural the finger of God Exod. 8.19 Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted that false Prophets should arise and do signs and wonders Deut. 13.1 Mat. 24.11.24 as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommended a deceiver before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver'd to the sons of men by the God of truth Whether the trick of a Barchochebas to hold fire in his mouth that of Marcus the heretic to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear bloud or that of Mahomet to bring a Pidgeon to his ear ought to be put in balance against all the miracles wrought by Moses our Savior or his Apostles And in a word whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus deserve to rival those of the Evangelists It is a most just judgment and accordingly threatned by Almighty God that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie 2 Thes 2.11 But still the Almighty where any man or devil do's proudly is evidently above him Exod. 18.11 will be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged Rom. 3.4 31. BUT if men will be Sceptics and doubt every thing they are to know that the matter call'd into question is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution probability and testimony First for probability let it be consider'd who were the first promulgers of Christs miracles In his life time they were either the patients on whom his miracles were wrought or the common people that were spectators the former as they could not be deceiv'd themselves but must needs know whether they were cur'd or no so what imaginable design could they have to deceive others Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not As for the Spectators as their multitude adds to their credibility it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter obvious to their senses so do's it also acquit them from fraud and combination Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatcht in the dark in close Cabals and privat Juncto's That five thousand men at one time and four thousand at another should conspire to say that they were miraculously fed when they were not and all prove true to the fiction and not betray it is a thing as irrational to be suppos'd as impossible to be parallel'd 32. BESIDES admit it possible that so many could have join'd in the deceit yet what imaginable end could they have in it Had their lie bin subservient to the designs of som potent Prince that might have rewarded it there had bin som temtation but what could they expect from the reputed son of a Carpenter who had not himself where to lay his head Nay who disclaim'd all secular power convei'd himself away from their importunities when they would have forc'd him to be a King And consequently could not be lookt on as one that would head a Sedition or attemt to raise himself to a capacity of rewarding his Abettors Upon all these considerations there appears not the

God has by his own choice of writing given the preference to it Nor has he barely chosen it but has made it the standard by which to mesure all succeeding pretences 'T is the means he prescribes for distinguishing divine from diabolical Inspirations To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word there is no light in them Isai 8.20 And when the Lawier interrogated our Savior what he should do to inherit eternal life he sends him not to ransac Tradition or the cabalistical divinity of the Rabbins but refers him to the Law What is written in the Law how readest thou Luk. 10.26 And indeed throout the Gospel we still find him in his discourse appealing to Scripture and asserting its autority as on the other side inveighing against those Traditions of the Elders which had evacuated the written Word Ye make the Word of God of none effect by your Tradition Mat. 15.6 Which as it abundantly shews Christs adherence to the written Word so 't is a pregnant instance how possible it is for Tradition to be corrupted and made the instrument of imposing mens phancies even in contradiction to Gods commands 31. AND since our blessed Lord has made Scripture the test whereby to try Traditions we may surely acquiesce in his decision and either Embrace or reject Traditions according as they correspond to the supreme rule the written Word It must therefore be a very unwarrantable attemt to set up Tradition in competition with much more in contradiction to that to which Christ himself hath subjected it 32. Saint Paul reckons it as the principal privilege of the Jewish Church that it had the Oracles of God committed to it i.e. that the holy Scriptures were deposited and put in its custody and in this the Christian Church succeeds it and is the guardian and conservator of holy Writ I ask then had the Jewish Church by vertue of its being keeper a power to supersede any part of those Oracles intrusted to them if so Saint Paul was much out in his estimate and ought to have reckon'd that as their highest privilege But indeed the very nature of the trust implies the contrary and besides 't is evident that is the very crime Christ charges upon the Jews in the place above cited And if the Jewish Church had no such right upon what account can the Christian claim any Has Christ enlarg'd its Charter has he left the sacred Scriptures with her not to preserve and practice but to regulate and reform to fill up its vacancies and supply its defects by her own Traditions if so let the commission be produc'd but if her office be only that of guardianship and trust she must neither substract from nor by any superadditions of her own evacuate its meaning and efficacy and to do so would be the same guilt that it would be in a person intrusted with the fundamental Records of a Nation to foist in such clauses as himself pleases 33. IN short God has in the Scriptures laid down exact rules for our belief and practice and has entrusted the Church to convey them to us if she vary or any way enervate them she is false to that trust but cannot by it oblige us to recede from that rule she should deliver to comply with that she obtrudes upon us The case may be illustrated by an easy resemblance Suppose a King have a forreign principality for which he composes a body of Laws annexes to them rewards and penalties and requires an exact and indispensable conformity to them These being put in writing he sends by a select messenger now suppose this messenger deliver them yet saies withall that himself has autority from the King to supersede these Laws at his plesure so that their last resort must be to his dictats yet produces no other testimony but his own bare affirmation Is it possible that any men in their wits should be so stupidly credulous as to incur the penalty of those Laws upon so improbable an indemnity And sure it would be no whit less madness in Christians to violate any precept of God on an ungrounded supposal of the Churches power to dispense with them 34. AND if the Church universal have not this power nor indeed ever claim'd it it must be a strange insolence for any particular Church to pretend to it as the Church of Rome do's as if we should owe to her Tradition all our Scripture and all our Faith insomuch that without the supplies which she affords from the Oracle of her Chair our Religion were imperfect and our salvation insecure Upon which wild dictates I shall take liberty in a distinct Section farther to animadvert SECT VI. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture hat towards the attainment of its excellent end AGAINST what has bin hitherto said to the advantage of the holy Scripture there opposes it self as we have already intimated the autority of the Church of Rome which allows it to be only an imperfect rule of Faith saying in the fourth Session of the Council of Trent that Christian faith and discipline are contain'd in the Books written and unwritten Tradition And in the fourth rule of the Index put forth by command of the said Council the Scripture is declar'd to be so far from useful that its reading is pernicious if permitted promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue and therefore to be withheld insomuch that the study of the holy Bible is commonly by persons of the Roman Communion imputed to Protestants as part of their heresy they being call'd by them in contemt the Evangelical men and Scripturarians And the Bible in the vulgar Tongue of any Nation is commonly reckon'd among prohibited Books and as such publicly burnt when met with by the Inquisitors and the person who is found with it or to read therein is subjected to severe penalties 2. FOR the vindication of the truth of God and to put to shame those unhappy Innovators who amidst great pretences to antiquity and veneration to the Scriptures prevaricat from both I think it may not be amiss to shew plainly the mind of the primitive Church herein and that in as few words as the matter will admit 3. FIRST I premise that Ireneus and Tertullian having to do with Heretics who boasted themselves to be emendators of the Apostles and wiser then they despising their autority rejecting several parts of the Scripture and obtruding other writings in their steed have had recourse unto Tradition with a seeming preference of it unto Scripture Their adversaries having no common principle besides the owning the name of Christians it was impossible to convince them but by a recourse to such a medium which they would allow But these Fathers being to set down and establish their Faith are most express in resolving it into Scripture and when they recommend Tradition ever mean such as is also Apostolical 4. IRENEUS in the

is produc'd the mind both of speaker and hearer is confirm'd And Hom. 4. on Lazar Tho one should rise from the dead or an Angel come down from heaven we must believe the Scripture they being fram'd by the Lord of Angels and the quick and dead And Hom. 13. 2 Cor. 7. Is it not an absurd thing that when we deal with men about mony we will trust no body but cast up the sum and make use of our counters but in religious affairs suffer our selves to be led aside by other mens opinions even then when we have by an exact scale and touchstone the dictat of the divine Law Therefore I pray and exhort you that giving no heed to what this or that man saies you would consult the holy Scripture and thence learn the divine riches and pursue what you have learnt And Hom. 58. on Jo. 10.1 'T is the mark of a thief that he comes not in by the dore but another way now by the dore the testimony of the Scripture is signified And Hom. on Gal. 1.8 The Apostle saies not if any man teach a contrary doctrin let him be accurs'd or if he subvert the whole Gospel but if he teach any thing beside the Gospel which you have receiv'd or vary any little thing let him be accurs'd 20. CYRIL of Alex. against Jul. l. 7. saies The holy Scripture is sufficient to make them who are instructed in it wise unto salvation and endued with most ample knowledg 21. THEODORET Dial. 1. I am perswaded only by the holy Scripture And Dial. 2. I am not so bold to affirm any thing not spoken of in the Scripture And again qu. 45. upon Genes We ought not to enquire after what is past over in silence but acquiesce in what is written 22. IT were easy to enlarge this discourse into a Volume but having taken as they offer'd themselves the suffrages of the writers of the four first Centuries I shall not proceed to those that follow If the holy Scripture were a perfect rule of Faith and Manners to all Christians heretofore we may reasonably assure our selves it is so still and will now guide us into all necessary truth and consequently make us wise unto salvation without the aid of oral Tradition or the new mintage of a living infallible Judg of controversy And the impartial Reader will be enabled to judg whether our appeal to the holy Scripture in all occasions of controversy and recommendation of it to the study of every Christian be that heresy and innovation which it is said to be 23. IT is we know severely imputed to the Scribes and Pharisees by our Savior that they took from the people the key of knowledg Luk. 11.52 and had made the word of God of none effect by their Traditions Mat. 15.6 but they never attemted what has bin since practiced by their Successors in the Western Church to take away the Ark of the Testament it self and cut off not only the efficacy but very possession of the word of God by their Traditions Surely this had bin exceeding criminal from any hand but that the Bishops and Governors of the Church and the universal and infallible Pastor of it who claim the office to interpret the Scriptures exhort unto and assist in the knowledg of them should be the men who thus rob the people of them carries with it the highest aggravations both of cruelty and breach of trust If any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy saies Saint John Revel 22.19 God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this Book What vengeance therefore awaits those who have taken away not only from one Book but at once the Books themselves even all the Scriptures the whole word of God SECT VII Historical reflexions upon the events which have happen'd in the Church since the with-drawing of the holy Scripture T WILL in this place be no useless contemplation to observe after the Scriptures had bin ravisht from the people in the Church of Rome what pitiful pretenders were admitted to succeed And first because Lay-men were presum'd to be illiterate and easily seducible by those writings which were in themselves difficult and would be wrested by the unlearned to their own destruction pictures were recommended in their steed and complemented as the Books of the Laity which soon emprov'd into a necessity of their worship and that gross superstition which renders Christianity abominated by Turks and Jews and Heathens unto this day 2. I would not be hasty in charging Idolatry upon the Church of Rome or all in her communion but that their Image-worship is a most fatal snare in which vast numbers of unhappy souls are taken no man can doubt who hath with any regard travail'd in Popish Countries I my self and thousands of others whom the late troubles or other occasions sent abroad are and have bin witnesses thereof Charity 't is true believes all things but it do's not oblige men to disbelieve their eies 'T was the out-cry of Micah against the Danites Jud. 18.24 ye have taken away my Gods which I have made and the Priest and are gon away and what have I more but the Laity of the Roman communion may enlarge the complaint and say you have taken away the oracles of our God and set up every where among us graven and molten Images and Teraphims and what have we more and 't was lately the loud and I doubt me is still the unanswerable complaint of the poor Americans that they were deni'd to worship their Pagod once in the year when they who forbad them worship'd theirs every day 3. THE Jews before the captivity notwithstanding the recent memory of the Miracles in Egypt and the Wilderness and the first conquest of the Land of Canaan with those that succeeded under the Judges and kings of Israel and Iuda as also the express command of God and the menaces of Prophets ever and anon fell to downright Idolatry but after their return unto this day have kept themselves from falling into that sin tho they had no Prophets to instruct them no miracles or government to encourage or constrain them The reason of which a very learned man in his discourse of religious Assemblies takes to be the reading and teaching of the Law in their Synagogues which was perform'd with great exactness after the return from the captivity but was not so perform'd before And may we not invert the observation and impute the Image-worship now set up in the Christian Church to the forbidding the reading of the Scriptures in the Churches and interdicting the privat use and institution in them 4. FOR a farther supplement in place of the Scriptures whose History was thought not edifying enough the Legends of the Saints were introduc'd stories so stupid that one would imagin them design'd as an experiment how far credulity could be impos'd

Wine The Bread that we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ the Cup that we bless is it not the Communion c. 1 Cor. 10.16 And again He that eats this Bread and drinks this Cup unworthily c. 1 Cor. 11.29 can make no appearance of an Argument 8. THUS men once engag'd ransac for Texts that carry som correspondency to the opinions they have imbibed and those how do they rack and scrue to bring to a perfect conformity and improve every little probability into a demonstration On the other side the contrary Texts they look on as enemies and consider them no farther then to provide fences and guards against them So they bring Texts not into the scales to weigh but into the field to skirmish as Partizans and Auxiliaries of such or such opinions 9. BY this force of prepossession it is that that sacred Rule which is the mesure and standard of all rectitude is it self bow'd and distorted to countenance and abet the most contrary tenets and like a variable picture represents differing shapes according to the light in which you view it And sure we cannot do it a worse office then to represent it thus dissonant to it self Yet thus it must still be till men come unbiast to the reading of it And certainly there is all the reason in the world they should do so the ultimate end of our faith is but the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 and we may be sure the Scripture can best direct us what Faith it is which will lead us to that end 10. WHY should we not then have the same indifference which a traveller hath whether his way lie on this hand or that so as it be the direct road to his journies end For altho it be infinitly material that I embrace right principles yet 't is not so that this should be right rather then the other and our wishes that it should be so proceed only from our prepossessions and fondness of our own conceptions then which nothing is more apt to intercept the clear view of truth It therefore nearly concerns us to deposit them and to give up our selves without reserve to the guidance of Gods Word and give it equal credit when it thwarts as when it complies with our own notions 11. WITHOUT this tho we may call Scripture the rule of Faith and judg of controversies yet 't is manifest we make it not so but reserve still the last appeal to our own prejudicat phancies and then no wonder tho we fall under the same occoecation which our Savior upbraids to the Jews that seeing we see not neither do we understand Mat. 13.14 For he that will not be sav'd Gods way will hardly be so by his own He that resolves not impartially to embrace all the Scriptures dictats comes to them as unsincerely as the remnant of the Jews did to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them which he no sooner had don but they protest against his message Jer. 42.20 and may expect as fatal an event 12. BUT there are a set of men who deal yet more insincerely with the Word that read it insiduously on purpose to collect matter of objection and cavil that with a malicious diligence compare Texts in hope to find contradictions and read attentively but to no other end then to remark incoherences and defects in the stile which when they think they have started they have their design and never will use a quarter of the same diligence in considering how they may be solv'd or consulting with those who may assist them in it For I think I may appeal to the generality of those who have rais'd the loudest clamors against the Scripture whether they have endeavor'd to render themselves competent judges of it by inquiring into the Originals or informing themselves of those local Customs peculiar Idioms and many other circumstances by which obscure Texts are to be clear'd And tho I do not affirm it necessary to salvation that every man should do this yet I may affirm it necessary to him that will pretend to judg of the Bible and he that without this condems it do's it as manifest injury as a Judg that should pass sentence only upon the Indictment without hearing the defence 13. AND certainly there cannot be any thing more unmanly and disingenouos then for men to inveigh and condemn before they inquire and examin Yet this is the thing upon which so many value themselves assuming to be men of reason for that for which the Scripture pronounces them brute beasts viz. the speaking evil of those things they understand not 2 Pet. 2.12 Would men use due diligence no doubt many of those seeming contradictions would be reconcil'd and the obscurities clear'd and if any should after all remain he might find twenty things fitter to charge it on then want of verity or discourse in the inspir'd writers 14. ALAS what human writing is there of near that Antiquity wherein there are not many passages unintelligible And indeed unless modern times knew all those national customs obsolete Laws particular Rites and Ceremonies Phrases and proverbial Sayings to which such ancient Books refer 't is impossible but som passages must still remain obscure Yet in these we ordinarily have so much candor as to impute their unintelligibleness to our own ignorance of those things which should clear them the improprieties of stile to the variation that times make in dialects or to the errors of Scribes and do not presently exclame against the Authors as false or impertinent or discard the whole Book for som such passages 15. AND sure what allowances we make to other Books may with more reason be made to the Bible which having bin writ so many Ages since past thro infinit variety of hands and which is above all having bin the object of the Devils and wicked mens malice lies under greater disadvantages then any human composure And doubtless men would be as equitable to that as they are to others were it not that they more wish to have that false or irrational then any other Book The plain parts of it the precepts and threatnings speak clearer then they desire gall and fret them and therefore they will revenge themselves upon the obscurer and seem angry that there are som things they understand not when indeed their real displesure is at those they do 16. A second qualification preparatory to reading the Scripture is reverence When we take the Bible in our hands we should do it with other sentiments and apprehensions then when we take a common Book considering that it is the word of God the instrument of our salvation or upon our abuse of it a promoter of our ruin 17. AND sure this if duly apprehended cannot but strike us with a reverential awe make us to say with Jacob Gen. 28.17 surely God is in this place controle all trifling phancies and make us read not for custom or divertisement but with

those solemn and holy intentions which become the dignity of its Author Accordingly we find holy men have in all Ages bin affected with it and som to the inward reverence of the mind have join'd the outward of the body also and never read it but upon their knees an example that may both instruct and reproach our profaness who commonly read by chance and at a venture If a Bible happen in our way we take it up as we would do a Romance or Play-book only herein we differ that we dismiss it much sooner and retain less of its impressions 18. IT was a Law of Numa that no man should meddle with divine things or worship the Gods in passing or by accident but make it a set and solemn business And every one knows with how great ceremony and solemnity the heathen Oracles were consulted How great a shame is it then for Christians to defalk that reverence from the true God which heathens allow'd their false ones 19. NOW this proceeds somtimes from the want of that habitual reverence we should alwaies have to it as Gods word and somtimes from want of actual exciting it when we go to read for if the habit lie only dormant in us and be not awak'd by actual consideration it avails us as little in our reading as the habitual strength of a man do's towards labor when he will not exert it for that end 20. WE ought therefore as to make it our deliberat choice to read Gods word so when we do it to stir up our selves to those solemn apprehensions of its dignity and autority as may render us malleable and apt to receive its impressions for where there is no reverence 't is not to be expected there should be any genuine or lasting obedience 21. SAINT Austin in his Tract to Honoratus of the advantage of believing makes the first requisit to the knowledg of the Scriptures to be the love of them Believe me saies he every thing in the Scripture is sublime and divine its truth and doctrin are most accommodate to the refreshment and building up of our minds and in all respects so order'd that every one may draw thence what is sufficient for him provided he approach it with devotion piety and religion The proof of this may require much reasoning and discourse But this I am first to perswade that you do not hate the Authors and then that you love them Had we an ill opinion of Virgil nay if upon the account of the reputation he has gain'd with our Predecessors we did not greatly love before we understood him we should never patiently go thro all the difficult questions Grammarians raise about him Many employ themselves in commenting upon him we esteem him most whose exposition most commends the Book and shews that the Author not only was free from error but did excellently well where he is not understood And if such an account happen not to be given we impute it rather to the Interpreter then the Poet. 22. THUS the good Father whose words I have transcrib'd at large as being remarkable to the present purpose he also shews that the mind of no Author is to be learnt from one averse to his doctrin as that 't is vain to enquire of Aristotles Books from one of a different Sect Or of Archimedes from Epicurus the discourse will be as displeasing as the speaker and that shall be esteem'd absurd which comes from one that is envi'd or despis'd 23. A third preparative to our reading should be praier The Scripture as it was dictated at first by the holy Spirit so must still owe its effects and influence to its cooperation The things of God the Apostle tells us are spiritually discern'd 1 Cor. 2.14 And tho the natural man may well enough apprehend the letter and grammatical sense of the Word yet its power and energy that insinuative perswasive force whereby it works on hearts is peculiar to the spirit and therefore without his aids the Scripture whilst it lies open before our eies may still be as a Book that is seal'd Esai 29.11 be as ineffective as if the characters were illegible 24. BESIDES our Savior tells us the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown Mat. 13.17 And unless we have som better guard then our own vigilance he is sure enough to prosper in his attemt Let it therefore be our care to invoke the divine Aid and when ever we take the Bible into our hands to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation that we may find its effects in our hearts Let us say with holy David open thou mine eies O Lord that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Blessed art thou O Lord O teach me thy statutes Ps 119. Nay indeed 't wil be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent a praier so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular that if we transcribe not only the example but the very words I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously 25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir'd of us at the time of reading the Scripture which consists principally in two things The first of these is attention which is so indispensably requisit that without it all Books are alike and all equally insignificant for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads the wisest discourses signify no more to him then the most exquisit music do's to a man perfectly deaf The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred then those of another Book 't is the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir'd and he that considers only the former may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book 26. WE must therefore keep our minds fixt and attent to what we read 't is a folly and lightness not to do so in human Authors but 't is a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contemt and disvalue then to hear a man speak and not at all mind what he saies yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God who hear or read his Word and give it no attention Yet I fear the practice is not more impious then it is frequent for there are many that read the Bible who if at the end of each Chapter they should be call'd to account I doubt they could produce very slender collections and truly 't is a sad consideration that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those who read it as som preach the Gospel Phil. 1.15 out of envy and strife How curiously do men inspect nay ransac and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation read with such a retchless