write them down in order that he might know the Certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed From whence I infer that supposing St. Luke performed what he promised his Gospel must contain a full Declaration of the Christian Religion For First by promising to give an Account of those Things which were surely believed among Christians he engaged himself to give an entire Account of Christianity unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of Christianity which the Christians of that Time did not surely believe Secondly In promising to give an Account of those Things of which he had a perfect Understanding from the first and in which his Theophilus had been instructed he also engages himself to give a compleat Account of the whole Religion unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of this Religion which St. Luke did not perfectly understand and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed Thus also St. John testifies of his Gospel Chap. 20. 31. These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name And if it be objected that by these Things the Apostle only means the Miracles of Christ which are the Motives of our Belief and not his Doctrines which are to be believed by us this is notoriously false since by these Things St. John means his Gospel in which not only the Miracles but the Doctrines of Christ are contained and therefore in his first Epistle chap. 5. 13. he saith These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe or continue to believe on the name of the Son of God Where by These Things it 's plain he means only that Christian Doctrine which he had been teaching throughout the whole Epistle From which two Places I argue that all Things necessary to eternal Life are written because he expresly tells us that These Things were written to this end that they might beget and nourish in us that Faith by which we may obtain eternal Life but if that Faith which these written Things was designed to beget in us be not sufficient to eternal Life then were these Things written in vain and the End of writing them which was that we might obtain eternal Life by believing them was wholly frustrated but if that Faith were sufficient to eternal Life then these written Things which begot that Faith and were the Object of it must contain in them all Things necessary to eternal Life for how can they beget in us a Faith that is sufficient to eternal Life unless they propose to our Faith all Things that are necessary thereunto And thus I have endeavoured to demonstrate from Scripture it self which all agree is the Word of God and consequently the most concluding Authority in the World that the Holy Scripture is in it self a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners to direct Men to eternal Life And if this be so I would fain know by what Warrant or Authority any Man or Church can pretend to obtrude upon the Faith of Christians any unwritten Traditions or Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Worship not recorded in Scripture as of equal Authority with those recorded in Scripture and equally necessary to the eternal Happiness of Men. For that there have been such bold Imposers in the Christian World Irenaeus assures us in the 2d Chapter of his 2d Book against Heresies where he tells us of a sort of Hereticks who taught that the Truth could not be found in the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknown for as much as it was not delivered by Writing but by Word of Mouth And these Hereticks 1 De Praescrip Haeret c. 25. as Tertullian observes confessed indeed that the Apostles were ignorant and that they did not at all differ among themselves in their Preaching but said they revealed not all Things unto all Men some Things they taught openly and to all some Things secretly and to a few which secret Things were the unwritten Traditions which they sought to impose upon the Faith of Christians And how far the Church of Rome it self doth in this matter tread in the Footsteps of these ancient Hereticks is but too notorious For thus in the Preface of their Catechism it is expresly affirmed by the Council of Trent that the whole Doctrine to be delivered to the Faithful is contained in the Word of God which Word of God is distributed into Scripture and Tradition And in the Councel it self they declare and define that the Books of Scripture and unwritten Traditions are to be received and honoured with equal pious Affection and Reverence In which Words they expresly own another Word of God besides the Scripture viz. Tradition which they equalize with the Scripture it self And this is almost verbatim the very Assertion which both Irenaeus and Tertullian condemn for Heresy and as they are the same so we find they are grounded on the same Authority For those very Texts of Scripture which those ancient Hereticks urged for their Tradition are urged by Bellarmin for the Tradition of his Church Thus for their Tradition as Irenaeus and Tertullian acquaints us they urged that of St. Paul We speak Wisdom among them that are perfect and also O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust and again That good Thing which is committed to thee keep All which Texts are urged by Bellarmin in his 4th and 5th Books de Verbo Dei in behalf of that Tradition which the Church of Rome contends for And 't is something hard that that which was damned for Heresy in the Primitive Church should be made an Article of Faith in the present Roman Not that we do disallow of Traditions universally received in all Churches and Ages for we frankly acknowledge that what is now contained in Scripture was Tradition before it was Scripture as being first delivered by Word of Mouth before it was collected into Writing and therefore whensoever it can be made evident to us that there are any unwritten Doctrines bearing the same Stamp of Divine Authority with those that are written we are ready to recive them with the same Veneration as we do the Scriptures themselves For it is not their being written that doth authorize them but their being from God and our Saviour and his Apostles and therefore when once it 's made appear to us that Christ or his Apostles taught so and so that is sufficient to command our Assent and Submission whether it be made appear from Scripture or Tradition So that the Reason why we embrace some Doctrines and reject others is not merely because the one are written and the other not but because to us who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles it can never be made so evident that what is not written was taught by
end should we read the Scripture seeing the only End of Reading is to learn the Sense of what we read which according to this Principle is not to be learnt from Scripture So that though there be no other wise End of reading the Scripture but only to learn from it what it means yet it seems for Men to read it for this End is a perfect Labour in Vain seeing it is not from the Scripture but from the Church that they are to learn the Meaning of Scripture For as for the Scripture if these Men are to be believed it is nothing but a heap of unsensed Characters so they expresly term it But what do they mean by it Is it that the Scripture consists of a company of Letters and Syllables and Words that carry with them no determinate Sense that God Almighty hath written and published a Book to the World that means nothing If so then when the Church by its infallible Authority pretends to expound the Scripture Her meaning is not to expound the Sense of it but to impose a Sense on it which was never in it for how can She expound the Sense of a Book which hath no Sense in it If the Church is to expound the Sense of Scripture the Scripture must have a certain determinate Sense in it before She expounds it for to expound the Sense of That which hath no Sense is Nonsense And if the Scripture hath a certain Sense in it antcedently to the Church's Exposition of it why do they call it a parcel of Vnsensed Characters If their Meaning be only this that the Sense of Scripture as it is delivered in Scripture is so obscure and ambiguous that without the infallible Exposition of the Church we can never be certain what it is besides that this is notoriously false the Scripture in all necessary Points both of Faith and Manners being so very plain and clear that any Man that reads it with an unprejudiced Mind may be as certain of the Sense of it as he can be of the Sense of any Writing and consequently of the Sense of any written Exposition of the Church besides this I say it is evident that whatever these Men pretend it is not meerly because of the obscurity of Scripture that they oblige Men to ground their Faith upon the Church and not upon the Scripture For they own as well as we that in many Things the Scripture is very plain and clear and yet they will by no Means allow Men to ground their Belief of these things upon the Authority of Seripture but all must be resolved into the Authority of the Church By which it is evident That if all the Scripture were as plain as the plainest Scriptures they would still contend for the Necessity of Mens relying upon the Church and not upon the Scripture and consequently that the true Reason why they contend for it is not because the Scripture is obscure but because they are resolved to advance their Church's Authority We own as well as they that where the Scripture is obscure Men ought to be guided by the Authoty of the Church which we freely allow to be the best Expositor of Scripture But the true State of the Difference between them and us is this That whereas we require plain Men to judge of plain Things with their own Understandings and all Men so far forth as they are capable to judge for themselves in Matters of Religion and not content themselves to see with the Church's Eyes where they are able to see with their own nothing will satisfie these Men but to have all Men as well Wise as Simple surrender up their Faith and Judgment to the Church and wink hard and believe what-ever the Church believes purely because the Church believes it Whatever they pretend therefore the Truth of the Case is this They will by no means allow us to believe upon the Authority of Scripture not because the Scripture is obscure though this they pretend for were it never so plain the Case would be the same but because they are sensible that this will inevitably subvert their usurped Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of Men. But we must believe upon the Authority of the Church and who is this Church I beseech you Why they themselves are this Church So that whereas God hath published a Book called the Bible on purpose to declare his Mind and Will to the World here are started up a Sort of Men that call themselves the Church who very gravely tell us Sirs You must not so much as look into this Book or if you do must not believe any one Word in it upon its own Credit and Authority For though we do confess it is the Word of God yet we are the sole Judges of the Sense of it and therefore whatsoever we decalre is its Sense how unlikely soever it may seem to you you are bound in Conscience to receive and believe it for this very Reason because wedeclare it In short you must resign up your Eyes your Faith your Reason and Vnderstandings to us and see only with our Eyes and believe only with our Faith and judge only with our Judgment and whithersoever we shall think fit to lead you you must tamely follow us without presuming to examine whether we lead you right or wrong But yet after all to induce us thus to inslave our Understandings to them they themselves are fain to appeal to Scripture and allow us in some Things to judge of the Sense of it and to believe those Things upon its Authority For no wise and honest Man will ever believe either that They are the Church or the infallible Judges of the Sense of Scripture without some Proof and Evidence and for this this they are fain to produce several Texts of Scripture such as Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Now supposing that to be true which is notoriously false viz. that those Texts do necessarily imply that They are the only true Catholick Church and that as such they are constituted by God infallible Judges of Scripture yet before I can believe so I must judge for my self whether this be the Sense of them or no and if I judge it is I must believe that they are the Church and infallible upon the Scripture's Authority and not theirs for their Authority is the Thing in debate and I cannot believe upon it before I believe it So then though we must believe nothing else upon Scripture Authority yet upon this very Authority we must believe that they are the Church and that they are infallible which are the fundamental Principles of their Religion that is to say we must believe as much upon Scripture Authority as will sever their turn and no more But may I be certain of the Truth of these two Fundamental Principles upon Scripture Authority or no If I may why may I not as well be infallibly certain upon the same Authority
know very well that the Roman Church is at best but a Part of the Church universal and we know no Right that any Part hath to impose upon the Whole and to oblige it to believe whatsoever she proposes meerly because she proposes it Secondly Because in Fact we are very well assured that the Roman Church is so far from being a sincere Preserver of Tradition that there is no Church in the World hath more studiously attempted to counterfeit and deprave it of which innumerable Instances are given by our Authors many of which are now acknowledged even by their Authors to be true For even their Vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible it self which they prefer before the Originals is confessed by themselves to abound with manifest Errors and Corruptions and even to the very Canon of the Bible they have added sundry Apocryphal Books which we certainly know the Primitive Tradition never admitted as Parts of the sacred Scripture and it is notorious to all the World how many Books and Writings they have forged and how many of the Writings of the Ancients they have gelded and interpolated to defend and support those pretended Traditions which they have imposed upon the World as Articles of Faith And after she hath been guilty of so many apparent Falsifications we cannot but think it a very hard Case that we should still be obliged to believe her upon her own bare Word For in the third Place at this rate of Proceeding we must in many Instances condemn the Traditions of the Primitive Church in Complement to those of the present Roman which if we believe our own Eyes and the most authentick Histories and Records of those Times do expresly thwart and contradict one another and since if we would never so fain we can never believe both Parts of a Contradiction we must in believing the one give the Lye to the other Nay Fourthly and lastly though we should be perswaded as we think we have Reason to be that many of the Traditions of the present Church of Rome are not only not mentioned in Scripture but directly contrary to it as for Instance their performing Divine Service in an unknown Tongue which we think is as contrary to 1 Cor. 14. as one Proposition can be to another yet if that Churches Definitions do by their own Authority oblige our Faith we must believe her against Scripture it self And this we think intollerable that any Church or Christian should be obliged to believe the unwritten Word of the Church of Rome in a Matter wherein upon the most diligent and impartial Search they are verily perswaded it contradicts the written Word of God and if the Sentence of the one or t'other must be made void we think it is very reasonable that the Voice of her pretended unwritten Word should be silenced by that more certain one of the lively Oracles of God But after all if what I have endeavoured to prove be proved viz. that the Holy Scriptures are a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners to conduct us to eternal Life this will be enough to evacuate all that is pretended for this unwritten Word of God For God and Nature we know do nothing in vain and therefore if one Word of God be sufficient viz. that which is written what need have we of this other which is unwritten And so I have done with the first necessary Property of a Rule of Faith viz. that it be full and shewn at large that the Holy Scripture is so as to all Things necessary to Salvation and therefore shall now proceed to II. The Second viz. That it be clear and intelligible to those whose Faith and Manners are to be regulated by it I do not mean when I say that the Scripture is clear and plain and intelligible to all those to whom it is a Rule of Faith and Manners that it is throughout so in all its Proposals For it cannot be denied but there are many Things not only in St. Paul's Epistles but also in other Parts of Scripture hard to be understood and such as do not only exceed the Apprehension of common Capacities but also puzzle the Understandings of the most acute and profound Enquirers But that which I assert is this That all those Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Manners which are necessary for Men to believe and practise in order to their Attainment of eternal Life are so plainly and clearly revealed in Scripture that there is no honest teachable Mind that is capable of understanding common Sense but may from thence received full Information of them upon faithful and diligent Enquiry And though in some Texts these Necessaries are not so plainly proposed as in others yet in some Text or other they are all of them so plainly proposed that no Man can read the Scripture and still be ignorant of them without being wilfully blind for which there is no Remedy either in the Scripture or out of it And this I shall endeavour to prove 1. From the express Testimony of Scripture 2. From the avowed Design of writing the Scripture 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture 4. From the Obligation that lies upon us under Pain of Damnation to believe and receive all those Necessaries to Salvation contained in it 1. From the express Testimony of Scripture it is evident that in all Things necessary to Salvation at least the Scripture is clear and plain For to be sure if in any thing the Scripture be plain it is in those Things that are most necessary to be believed and known and therefore if it be obscure in these Things we may reasonable presume it is plain in nothing But that it is in many Things plain and easy to be understood is evident from its own Testimony For thus of the Mosaick Law it is expresly affirmed by Moses This Commandment which I command thee this day it is not hidden from thee neither is it far off Deut. 30.11 Where Moses speaks not only of the Ten Commandments which consisting for the most part of Laws of Nature are upon that Account more easy to be understood but of all the Commandments of Moses in general whether Ceremonial Judicial or Natural For so v. 16. This Commandment we find contains as well the Statutes and Judgments as the Commandments of the Law all which must take in the whole Mosaick Institution And accordingly Ps 119.105 David calls this Word of God a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path which how could it be if it did not burn clear enough to guide and direct him and if it did then to be sure it burnt clear enough to direct him in those Things wherein it was most necessary for him to be directed Again in the 19th Ps v. 7 8 we are told that the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple and that the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes But how can any Law make
evident to any one that reads it to be sure among these Things are contained all that is necessary for Men to know and understand 2. From the avowed Design of writing the Scripture it is also evident that in all Things necessary it is plain and clear For thus concerning the Old Testament St. Paul tells us that whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 And if they were written for our Learning and Instruction to be sure they were so written as to teach and instruct us that is plainly and clearly especially as to those Things wherein we have most need to be instructed And then as for the New Testament St. Luke tells his Theophilus that the Reason of his writing his Gospel was that he might know the certainty of those things that were surely believed among Christians and wherein he himself had been instructed And if it were to ascertain us of the Principles of Christianity that he wrote his Gospel certainly he would take care to write it after such a Manner as that those that read it might understand it otherwise he must run counter to his own Design Thus also St. John saith that he wrote his Gospel that Men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God but how could his Gospel induce Men to believe This unless it be so written as that Men may understand it And so also for his Epistles he tells us that he wrote them that they that believed in Jesus might know that they have eternal Life and that they may believe or continue to believe on the name of the Son of God And if this were his End to be sure he would take care to write so as that they might understand otherwise how could they know by his Writing that they had eternal Life or be moved thereby to continue to believe on the name of Jesus For there is nothing can create in Men either Knowledge or Faith but what they understand Seeing therefore the great End of Writing the Scripture was to instruct the World in the great Things of Religion either we must say that both the Writers of the Scripture and the Holy Ghost that inspired them were defective in Skill or in Care so to write as to obtain this End or that their Writings are an effectual Means to obtain it which it is impossible for them to be unless they are plain and clear as to the great Things of Religion In short every wise Agent pursues his End by the most proper and effectual Means and I would fain know whether to write plainly or obscurely be the most proper Means to instruct Men by Writing if to write plainly then either the Apostles wrote so or they were not wise Agents since to instruct was the great End of their Writing The most natural Way of conveying to Mens Minds the Notices of Things is by Words either spoken or written and seeing whatsoever can be spoken in plain and intelligible Words may be written in the same Words there can be no doubt but those Words will be as intelligible when they are written as when they are spoken for why should the same Words be more obscure when conveyed to us by our Eyes than when conveyed to us by our Ears Seeing then the Sense of Scripture may be as plainly conveyed by Words written as by Words spoken and seeing that even those who deny the Plainness of Scripture do yet allow that the Sense of it may be plainly conveyed by Words spoken or which is the same thing Oral Tradition if the Scripture be not plain it can be resolved into no other Reason but this that God would not have it so for there is no Doubt but he could have spoken as plainly as Men and have written as plainly as he spoke and therefore if he hath not done so it was because he would not but to say that he would not write those Things plainly which he thought necessary for all Men to know and which he wrote on purpose that all Men might know is to say that he would and would not at the same time or that he wrote them on purpose that Men might know them and yet that he wrote so as that they might not know them 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture it is also evident that in all necessary Things it is plain and clear That God doth not only allow but will and rquire us to read the Scripture I shall shew at large hereafter when I come to treat of searching the Scripture Supposing therefore at present the Thing to be true I would fain know to what purpose should God require us to read the Scripture if in those things which are necessary for Men to know and believe it be not plain and intelligible Doth God require us to read it for the sake of reading it or for the sake of understanding it If the former reading any other Book might as well have answered God's End as reading the Scripture because reading is reading whatsoever it be that we read if the later then either the Scripture is plain and intelligible as to all those Things which he requires us to understand or he requires us to read it in vain For to what Purpose should we read that we may understand if that which we are to read be not plain enough to be understood by us As for Instance the Bereans Acts 17.11 are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily now I would fain know was this a Virtue in them or was it not If not why are they commended for it if it were it was certainly their Duty What was the Intendment of it was it only that they might be expert Readers Why are they so commended for reading the Scriptures above any other Book seeing that reading any other Book would have done as well for that Purpose as reading the Scriptures But the Text it self tells us that the Intendment of their reading the Scripture was that they might know whether those things were so or no which St. Paul had preached to them but how should they know this by reading the Scripture if the Scripture which they read were not plain enough to be understood by them Again St. Paul gives this as a great Commendation of his Son Timothy that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures whence by the Way we may learn that it is not so great a Reproach to our Church as the Romanists intend it for that we permit Women and Children Tinkers and Coblers to read the Scripture But I pray what was the Meaning of Timothy's knowing the Holy Scripture from a Child Was it that he knew the Words of it only or the Sense of it also If the former a Parrot may be taught as much as Timothy had learned and consequently deserve as high a Commendation as he if the later then
extinguish Christianity they examined not only the Bishops and Clergy but also the People of all Degrees and both Sexes many of whom as well Women as Men owned that they had Bibles but rather chose to die than to deliver them up and many others who to avoid Death delivered up their Bibles and are therefore branded with the ignominious Name of Traditors for which they were excluded the Communion of the Church and could not be readmitted without a long and severe Penance But it is impossible the People could have been Traditors if they had had no Bibles to deliver up and therefore being so is an undeniable Argument that the People were then allowed the Use of the Scripture as well as the Priests And by the way it 's very strange that any Community of Christians should think that a proper Way to extinguish Heresie which those Heathen Persecutors made use of to extinguish Christianity But that in those first Ages these People were allowed the Use of the Bible is a case so plain that they who of later Ages have thought meet to repeal this Allowance have never been able to produce so much as one probable colour of Primitive Authority to warrant their practice And though in other Points they not only claim but ravish Antiquity in despite of Modesty as well as Truth yet here they are so abandoned of all pretence to it that they are not able to produce so much as one Passage of any Primitive Father that seems to discourage the People from Reading the Scripture and much less that forbids them so to do And 't is notorious to all the World That in the Primitive Ages when the Latin was the Vulgar Language of the Romans the Bible was translated into that Language for the Use and Instruction of the People but when through the many Incursions of the Barbarous Nations into the Roman Empire this Language was worn out by degrees and instead of being the vulgar became an unknown Tongue to that People the Governours of that Church having to serve their own secular Ends introduced into it sundry corrupt Doctrines and Practices which they feared the Light of the Scripture might detect to the People they thought it most advisable not to translate it into the New Vulgar but to let it remain lockt up from their Cognizance in the Old Latin which by this Time very few except the Clergy understood And when for some Time it had lain hid from them in an unknown Tongue they proceeded at last wholly to forbid the Use of it to the Laity So that about the Ninth and Tenth Ages which all argee were over-cast with gross Darkness and Ignorance the Scriptures were shut up like the Sybilline Oracles in the Capitol and none but the Priests were allowed to Read and Consult them And though upon the Commencement of the Reformation the Bible was for some time set forth again in sundry vulgar Languages among the People yet did the Guides of that Church soon find it necessary for Defence of their own Vnscriptural Doctrines and Practices to remit it to its old Confinement For First The Council of Trent in the Fourth Rule of their Index Expurgatorius forbids the Laity to read or so much as to have the Bible in the Vulgar Language though translated by those of their own Church without a Licenee in Writing from the Bishop of the Diocess or the Inquisitor and this upon Pain of not receiving Absolution of their Sins unless they delivered up those their Bibles to their Ordinary To which Rule Pope Clement the Eighth afterwards added observation That hitherto by the Command and Practice of the Holy Roman and Vniversal Inquisition the Faculty of granting such Licences for reading or keeping Bibles in the Vulgar Tongue or any Summaries or Historical Compendiums of the said Bibles is taken away which is to be inviolably observed And in the Index of Prohibited Books published by Pope Alexander the Seventh not only those Bibles that are translated and printed by Hereticks but also all Bibles in any Vulgar Tongue are absolutely forbidden And though where the Reformation hath prevailed they are forced against their own Laws more freely to indulge the Use of the Scripture to their People yet in those Countries where they are sole Masters this Priviledge is very rarely granted And now being thus necessitated to deprive the People of the Light of the Scripture lest they should thereby discover their Errors and Corruptions it was necessary for them to invent some plansible Pretences to justifie a practice so contrary both to Scripture and Primitive Antiquity and so enormously derogatory to the common Right of Christians and when it must be done it is a very hard Case if Men of Wit and Learning cannot find something to say for any thing Now the two main Pretences that are urged in this Case are First That a general permission of the Use of Scripture to the People must necessarily open a wide Door to Errors and Heresies Secondly That it will prove an unavoidable occasion of great Corruptions in Manners 1. That a general Permission of the Use of Scripture to the People must necessarily open a wide Door to Errors and Heresies because there are many Things in Scripture which are hard to be understood and which the Vnlearned who are unqualified to understand them aright will be apt to wrest into a wrong Sense to their own Destruction To which I answer 1. That this Reason holds as good against the writing and publishing the Scripture at first in Languages that were vulgarly known to the People as against the Translating them now into the vulgar Languages For the Hebrew in which the Old Testament was written was the vulgar Language of the Jews and the Greek in which the New Testament was written was then the most vulgar Language of the Jews and Gentiles and yet notwithstanding there were the same hard Things then in the Scripture as now and the People were as unlearned then and as apt to wrest these hard Scriptures to their own Destruction then as now yet God notwithstanding thought fit to write and publish it in Languages that were most known to the People and therefore either we must say that he did not take that Care that he ought to have done to prevent Errors and Heresies or that this is no good Reason why the People should be debarred of the Scripture in their own vulgar Language For why should not the Writing the Scriptures at first in the vulgar Languages as much open a Door to Heresie as the translating them afterwards seeing it is neither their being written in the Vulgar Language nor their being translated into the Vulgar Language but their being in the Vulgar Language that is here pretended to set open this dangerous Door to Heresies 2. This Objection strikes with equal force against God's writing and publishing the Scripture to the People as against their reading and consulting it For that God wrote these Scriptures
to the People and that in so doing he not only gave them a Right but also laid on them an Obligation to Read them I have already shewed If therefore the Reading the Scripture by the People be such an unavoidable In let of Error and Heresie as this Objection pretends it was doubtless very unadvisedly done of God to publish such a dangerous Book to the World which those for whom he published and to whom he directed it cannot familiarly converse with without eminent Peril of being infected with Heresie And if the Scripture be such a quarrelsome Knife as these Men say it is that the People can hardly touch it without cutting their Fingers they are certainly more beholding to the Church for taking it from them than they are to God for bestowing it on them 3. This Objection makes as much at least against the Priests Reading the Scripture as the People For most of those Heresies that have been broacht to the People were first brewed by the Priests from whose Lips the People do commonly derive their Errors as well as their Knowledge Witness those famous Heresies with which the Christian World hath been so distracted from one Generation to another such as the Novatian the Donatist the Arian the Pelagian the Eutichian the Eunomian all which Counterfeits and a great many more were first coined by the Clergy and dispersed for current Christianity among the Laity And therefore if this Pretence that the Reading of Scripture opens a Gap to Heresie be a sufficient Reason why the Laity should not Read it it is a much more sufficient Reason why the Clergy should not Read it For it requires Skill and Learning as well to wrest the Scripture into such false Senses as are likely to impose upon the World as to interpret it into its true Sense and I am very sure that it ordinarily requires more Wit and Art to extort from the Scripture probable Errors than it doth to discover by it necessary Truth and if so then if the danger of letting in Heresies is a true Reason why any should not Read it it is much more a true Reason why the Learned should not Read it than the Vnlearned and confequently why the Priests should not Read it than the People seeing the former are more qualified to extract Heresies from it than the later If therefore this Objection signifie any Thing it must be this That it is a very dangerous thing for any Body to Read the Bible that this same Divine Book which God thought fit to publish to the World and which the Primitive Church thought fit to oblige all that were able to Peruse and Study is now become such a dangerous Inlet of Heresie that like Pandora's Box you can no sooner open it but Swarms of Errors and False Doctrines will presently fly abroad into the World so that it would be very well for the World if it were either utterly extinguished or hid in some inaccessible Repository where no Mortal Eye might ever approach it 4 This Objection expresly contradicts our Saviour and the Primitive Fathers For Matt. 22.29 our Saviour tells the Sadducees who were cavilling with him about the Resurrection Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Had therefore the Sadducees been of the same Mind with our Objectors they would doubtless have told him by your good Leave Sir in this Point you your self are in an Error for in all Probability had we known the Scripture or been intimately acquainted with it we should have err'd much more Either therefore our Saviour was mistaken in charging the Errour of the Sadducees upon their Ignorance of Scripture or our Objectors are mistaken in making it so necessary an Expedient for the Prevention of Error to forbid the People being acquainted with Scripture for 't is plain He and They are of quite Different Opinions in the Case But whatever their Opinion is I am sure the Primitive Fathers were of the same Opinion with our Saviour For Irenaeus writing of the Valentinian Hereticks * Lib. 3. c. 12. All those Errors they fall into because they know not the Scriptures So St. Jerom †In Ep. ad Ephes l. 3. c. 4. We must search the Scriptures with all Diligence that so as being good Exchangers we may know the lawful Coyn from the Copper And elsewhere That infinite Evils arise from Ignorance of the Scriptures and that from this Cause the greatest Part of Heresies have proceeded St. Chrysostom is of Opinion that if Men would be conversant with the Scriptures and attend to them they would not only not fall into Errors themselves but be able to rescue those that are deceived and that the Scriptures would instruct Men both in right Opinions and good Life And to name no more Theophilact tells us that nothing can deceive them who search the Holy Scriptures for that saith he is the Candle whereby the Thief is discovered But it seems according to Modern Experiments this Candle of Scripture rather serves to light the Thief into the House than to discover him when he is there and therefore it is thought necessary for honest Men's security either that it should be wholly extinguished or at least hinder'd from giving Light by being shut up in a dark Lanthorn of an Vnknown Tongue But when they who were once the honest Men are become the Thieves it is no wonder that they should thus change their Note and complain of the Light of this Candle as dangerous to them which heretofore they esteemed their greatest Securith I am sure the Reason assigined by St. Peter why some Men wrested the Scriptures to their own Destruction was not their reading the Scripture but contrary wise their not reading it enough which they that are unlearned saith he wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Vnlearned in what Why doubtless in the Holy Scripture For as to humane Learning St. Peter himself was as unlearned as they and if it were their being unlearned in Scripture that occasioned them to wrest it into an heretical Sense then it is not Mens reading the Scripture that leads them into Heresy but their not reading it enough To say therefore that the Peoples reading the Scripture is an Inlet of Heresy and to say no it is not their reading it but their not reading it enough is the Inlet of Heresy is an express Contradiction the former our Objectors say the later our Saviour his Apostles and the Primitive Church say and I think it is no hard Matter to determine which of these two Contradictions we ought to believe 5. And lastly According to this Objection the best Way to keep Men from being Hereticks is to deprive them of all Means of arriving at the Knowledge of the Truth And this I confess is a very certain Way though not a very Honest one Let Men know nothing of Religion and to be sure they cannot be Hereticks it being impossible for Men to err in their Conceptions of those Things whereof
they have no Notion Put out a Man's Eyes and you certainly prevent his being imposed upon by false Medium's of Sight to mistake one Colour or Figure for another And yet I fancy most Men would think this a cruel Kind of Courtesy But if Men must not be allowed Scripture to instruct them in the Truth for this Reason because it may occasionally mislead them into Errors and Heresies then they must be allowed no Means of Instruction that may occasion them to err and consequently no Means at all there being no imaginable Means of Instruction which may not be an Occasion of errors and Heresies Is the Scripture it self in its own Nature an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy or not If you say it is consider before you say it how it could consist with the Truth and Veracity of God to publish such a Book to the World as tends in its own Nature to seduce and mislead the Understandings of those that read it If you say it is not so in it self but only that it may be so accidentally I would fain know what Means of Instruction is there which may not accidentally become an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy and therefore if this be a sufficient Reason to deprive Men of Scripture it is sufficient to deprive them of all other Means of Instruction And seeing the Knowledge of Religion is the Food of Mens Souls to keep them in Ignorance for fear they should err is to deny them Food for fear they should surfeit There is no doubt but Men whose Minds are tinctured with Heretical pravity will be apt enough to extract the Poison of Error out of the clearest Conveyances and Discoveries of Truth but what then Do not bad Men ordinarily apply the best Things to the worst purposes If Men fall into Heresy by reading the Scripture where lies the Fault not in the Scripture sure no Christian will Pretend that and if it be in themselves in their Pride or Vain-glory or Covetousness or Sensuality as it is demonstrable it is is it just that All should be deprived of it because some ill Men have made an ill Use of it Some Men have surfeited by Eating and Drinking is it just that all Mankind therefore should be deprived of Meat and Drink Suppose a Prince pretending to be an infallible Geographer should issue out a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to travel at Midnight and should assign this as the Reason of it that he had been certainly informed that several of them had lost their Way at Noon and wandred into Bogs and Precipices by the Light of the Sun would any one imagin this to be the true Reason or rather would not every one believe that his true Design was to keep his People in Ignorance of the Roads and Situation of his Country that so they might never be able to discover the Errors of his Maps which would perhaps discover him to be not only a fallible Geographer but also a very erroneous one And where the People are forbid travelling in the Light of the Scripture whatever may be pretended wise Men will believe that the true Reason is not to prevent the Peoples falling into Errors but to prevent the discovering the Errors of those to whose Guidance and Direction they are wholly and solely subjected And this I conceive is a sufficient Answer to the first Objection viz. That the Allowance of the Scripture to the People is a dangerous Inlet of Error and Heresy I proceed therefore to the Second which is this Object 2. That there are many Things recorded in Scripture which are very apt to suggest lewd Thoughts to the People and thereby to corrupt their Manners as particularly the many bad Examples therein related which are of a very contagious Nature and consequently dangerous for the People to converse with In answer to which I desire these four Things may be seriously considered 1. That this Objection strikes as much against the Scripture it self as against the People's reading it For what worse Thing can be said of the Scripture than this that it is such an infectious Book so apt to excite impure Thoughts in Mens Minds and to kindle lewd Affections in their Hearts that it is by no Means fit the People should read it Should this be said to a Turk or a Heathen who had never read one Word in the Bible he would certainly conclude it to be nothing but a Canto of Ribaldries written for no other End but to provoke and entertain the lascivious Inclinations of Mankind And certainly had our Objectors but as much Reverence for this Holy Book as they pretend they would rather oblige their People to read it than with-hold it from them upon a pretence that doth so scandalously reflect upo its Reputation If there be any such Passages in Scripture as are apt to start lewd Thoughts in Mens Minds the utmost that can be fairly pretended is That those Passages ought to have been left out of the Peoples Bibles or at least to have been left untranslated But to urge this as a Reason why all the rest of the Scripture should be denied to the People insinuates as if the whole were nothing else but a meer Kennel of contagious Obscenities For to urge that for a Reason why the Scripture in general should not be read by or to the People which at most is only a Reason why some few Passages of it should not be read by them is to suppose the whole Scripture to be made up of such Passages as are apt to infuse vicious Thoughts into the People than which what can there be supposed more false in it self or more derogatory to the Scripture 2. This Objection if it proves any Thing doth as well prove that it was unfit for God to publish the Scripture to the People as it is for the People to read it For is it fit that He who is a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity should publish such Things to the World as are apt to engender impure Thoughts in Mens Minds And yet though Mens Minds were as apt to imbibe impure Thoughts when these Things were first published as they are now this hindred not God from publishing them to the World in such languages as are best known and understood by the People Either therefore God did not so well know what is apt to corrupt Mens Minds as our wise Objectors or he was less concerned than they to preserve them for being corrupted or what they object is both false and scandalous For to say That the wise and holy God hath published such Things to the World as his Ministers find necessary to conceal from the World lest its Thoughts should be corrupted by them is in effect to say that his Ministers are grown wiser than he or are more concerned for the Interest of Holiness than he If the Vicious Examples for instance that are recorded in Scripture are more apt to deprave Men than to instruct