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
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
consideration and partly because these can be argumentative to none who are not qualified to discern them Let those who doubt the divine Original of Scripture well digest the former grounds which are within the verge of reason and when by those they are brought to read it with due reverence they will not want Arguments from the Scripture it self to confirm their veneration of it 45. IN the mean time to evince how proper the former discourse is to found a rational belief that the Scripture is the word of God I shall compare it with those mesures of credibilty upon which all human transactions move and upon which men trust their greatest concerns without diffidence or dispute 46. THAT we must in many things trust the report of others is so necessary that without it humane society cannot subsist What a multitude of subjects are there in the world who never saw their Prince nor were at the making of any Law if all these should deny their obedience because they have it only by hear-say there is such a man and such Laws what would become of goverment So also for property if nothing of testimony may be admitted how shall any man prove his right to any thing All pleas must be decided by the sword and we shall fall into that state which som have fancied the primitive of universal hostility In like manner for traffic and commerce how should any Merchant first attemt a trade to any foreign part of the world if he did not believe that such a place there was and how could he believe that but upon the credit of those who have bin there Nay indeed how could any man first attemt to go but to the next Market Town if he did not from the report of others conclude that such a one there was so that if this universal diffidence should prevail every man should be a kind of Plantagnus fixt to the soil he first sprung up in The absurdities are indeed so infinite and so obvious that I need not dilate upon them 47. BUT it will perhaps be said that in things that are told us by our contemporaries and that relate to our own time men will be less apt to deceive us because they know 't is in our power to examin and discover the truth To this I might say that in many instances it would scarce quit cost to do so and the inconveniences of trial would exceed those of belief But I shall willingly admit this probable Argument and only desire it may be applied to our main question by considering whether the primitive Christians who receiv'd the Scripture as divine had not the same security of not being deceiv'd who had as great opportunities of examining and the greatest concern of doing it throly since they were to engage not only their future hopes in another world but that which to nature is much more sensible all their present enjoiments and even life it self upon the truth of it 48. BUT because it must be confest that we who are so many Ages remov'd from them have not their means of assurance let us in the next place consider whether an assent to those testimonies they have left behind them be not warranted by the common practice of mankind in other cases Who is there that questions there was such a man as William the Conqueror in this Island or to lay the Scene farther who doubts there was an Alexander a Julius Caesar an Augustus Now what have we to found this confidence on besides the faith of History And I presume even those who exact the severest demonstrations for Ecclesiastic Story would think him a very impertinent Sceptic that should do the like in these So also as to the Authors of Books who disputes whether Homer writ the Iliads or Virgil the Aeneids or Caesar the Commentaries that pass under their names yet none of these have bin attested in any degree like the Scripture 'T is said indeed that Caesar ventured his own life to save his Commentaries imploying one hand to hold that above the water when it should have assisted him in swiming But who ever laid down their lives in attestation of that or any human composure as multitudes of men have don for the Bible 49. BUT perhaps 't will be said that the small concern men have who wrote these or other the like Books inclines them to acquiesce in the common opinion To this I must say that many things inconsiderable to mankind have oft bin very laboriously discust as appears by many unedifying Volumes both of Philosophers and Schole-men But whatever may be said in this instance 't is manifest there are others wherein mens real and greatest interests are intrusted to the testimonies of former Ages For example a man possesses an estate which was bought by his great Grand-father or perhaps elder Progenitor he charily preserves that deed of purchase and never looks for farther security of his title yet alas at the rate that men object against the Bible what numberless Cavils might be rais'd against such a deed How shall it be known that there was such a man as either Seller or Purchaser if by the witnesses they are as liable to doubt as the other it being as easy to forge the Attestation as the main writing and yet notwithstanding all these possible deceits nothing but a positive proof of forgery can invalidate this deed Let but the Scripture have the same mesure be allowed to stand in force to be what it pretends to be till the contrary be not by surmises and possible conjectures but by evident proof evinc'd and its greatest Advocats will ask no more 50. A like instance may be given in public concerns the immunities and rights of any Nation particularly here of our Magna Charta granted many Ages since and deposited among the public Records to make this signify any thing it must be taken for granted that this was without falsification preserved to our times yet how easy were it to suggest that in so long a succession of its keepers som may have bin prevail'd on by the influence of Princes to abridg and curtail its concessions others by a prevailing faction of the people to amplify and extend it Nay if men were as great Sceptics in Law as they are in Divinity they might exact demonstrations that the whole thing were not a forgery Yet for all these possible surmises we still build upon it and should think he argued very fallaciously that should go to evacuate it upon the force of such remote suppositions 51. NOW I desire it may be consider'd whether our security concerning the holy Scripture be not as great nay greater then it can be of this For first this is a concern only of a particular Nation and so can expect no foreign attestation and secondly it has all along rested on the fidelity of its keepers which has either bin a single person or at best som small number at a time whereas the Scriptures
9. 2 Cor. 4.11 who in his first homily on Saint Mat. farther declares that the Scriptures are easy to be understood and expos'd to vulgar capacities 13. He saies again Hom upon Esay that th Scriptures are not mettals that require the help of Miners but afford a tresure easily to be bad to them that seek the riches contain'd in them It is enough only to stoop down and look upon them and depart replenish'd with wealth it is enough only to open them and behold the splendor of those Gems Again Hom. 3. on the second Ep. to the Thess 2. All things are evident and strait which are in the holy Scripture whatever is necessary is manifest So also Hom. 3. on Gen. 14. It cannot be that he who is studious in the holy Scripture should be rejected for tho the instruction of men be wanting the Lord from above will inlighten our minds shine in upon our reason revele what is secret and teach what we do not know So Hom. 1. on Jo. 11. Almighty God involves his doctrin with no mists and darkness as did the Philosophers his doctrin is brighter then the Sun-beams and more illustrious and therefore every where diffus'd and Hom. 6. on Jo. 11. His doctrin is so facile that not only the wise but even women and youths must comprehend it Hom. 13. on Gen. 2. Let us go to the Scripture as our Mark which is its own interpreter And soon after saies that the Scripture interprets it self and suffers not its Auditor to err To the same purpose saies Cyril in his third Book against Julian In the Scripture nothing is difficult to them who are conversant in them as they ought to be 14. It is therefore a groundless cavil which men make at the obscurity of the Scripture since it is not obscure in those things wherein 't is our common interest it should be plain which sufficiently justifies its propriety to that great end of making us wise unto salvation And for those things which seem less intelligible to us many of them become so not by the innate obscurity of the Text but by extrinsic circumstances of which perhaps the over-busy tampering of Paraphrasts pleased with new notions of their own may be reckon'd for one But this subject the Reader may find so well pursued in Mr. Boyls Tract concerning the stile of Scripture that I shall be kindest both to him and it to refer him thither as also for answer to those other querulous objections which men galled with the sense of the Scripture have made to its stile 15. A third circumstance in which the Scripture is fitted to attain its end is its being committed to writing as that is distinguish'd from oral delivery It is most true the word of God is of equal autority and efficacy which way soever it be deliver'd The Sermons of the Apostles were every jot as divine and powerful out of their mouths as they are now in their story All the advantage therefore that the written Word can pretend to is in order to its perpetuity as it is a securer way of derivation to posterity then that of oral Tradition To evince that it is so I shall first weigh the rational probabilities on either side Secondly I shall consider to which God himself appears in Scripture to give the deference 16. FOR the first of these I shall propose this consideration which I had occasion to intimate before that the Bible being writ for the universal use of the faithful 't was as universally disperst amongst them The Jews had the Law not only in their Synagogues but in their privat houses and as soon as the Evangelical Books were writ they were scatter'd into all places where the Christian Faith had obtain'd Now when there was such a vast multitude of copies and those so revered by the possessors that they thought it the highest pitch of sacrilege to expose them it must surely be next to impossible entirely to suppress that Book Besides it could never be attemted but by som eminent violence as it was by the heathen Persecutors which according to the common effect of opposition serv'd to enhance the Christians value of the Bible and consequently when the storm was past to excite their diligence for recruiting the number So that unless in after Ages all the Christians in the world should at once make a voluntary defection and conspire to eradicate their Religion the Scriptures could not be utterly extinguish'd 17. AND that which secures it from total suppression do's in a great degree do so from corruption and falsification For whilest so many genuine copies are extant in all parts of the world to be appeal'd to it would be a very difficult matter to impose a spurious one especially if the change were so material as to awaken mens jealousies And it must be only in a place and age of gross ignorance that any can be daring enough to attemt it And if it should happen to succeed in such a particular Church yet what is that to the universal And to think to have the forgery admitted there is as a learned man saies like attemting to poison the sea 18. ON the other side oral Tradition seems much more liable to hazards error may there insinuate it self much more insensibly And tho there be no universal conspiracy to admit it at first yet like a small eruption of waters it widens its own passage till it cause an inundation There is no impression so deep but time and intervening accidents may wear out of mens minds especially where the notions are many and are founded not in nature but positive institution as a great part of Christian Religion is And when we consider the various tempers of men 't will not be strange that succeeding Ages will not alwaies be determin'd by the Traditions of the former Som are pragmatic and think themselves fitter to prescribe to the belief of their posterity then to follow that of their Ancestors som have interests and designs which will be better serv'd by new Tenets and som are ignorant and mistaking and may unawares corrupt the doctrin they should barely deliver and of this last sort we may guess there may be many since it falls commonly to the mothers lot to imbue children with the first rudiments 19. NOW in all these cases how possible is it that primitive Tradition may be either lost or adulterated and consequently and in proportion to that possibility our confidence of it must be stagger'd I am sure according to the common estimate in seculars it must be so For I appeal to any man whether he be not apter to credit a relation which comes from an eie-witness then at the third or fourth much more at the hundredth rebound as in this case And daily experience tells us that a true and probable story by passing thro many hands often grows to an improbable lie This man thinks he could add one becoming circumstance that man another and whilst most
men take the liberty to do so the relation grows as monstrous as such a heap of incoherent phancies can make it 20. IF to this it be said that this happens only in trivial secular matters but that in the weighty concern of Religion mankind is certainly more serious and sincere I answer that 't is very improbable that they are since 't is obvious in the common practice of the world that the interests of Religion are postpon'd to every little worldly concern And therefore when a temporal advantage requires the bending and warping of Religion there will never be wanting som that will attemt it 21. BESIDES there is still left in human nature so much of the venom of the Serpents first temtation that tho men cannot be as God yet they love to be prescribing to him and to be their own Assessors as to that worship and homage they are to pay him 22. BUT above all 't is considerable that in this case Sathan has a more peculiar concern and can serve himself more by a falsification here then in temporal affairs For if he can but corrupt Religion it ceases to be his enemy and becomes one of his most useful engins as sufficiently appear'd in the rites of the heathen worship We have therefore no cause to think this an exemt case but to presume it may be influenc'd by the same pravity of human nature which prevailes in others and consequently are oblig'd to bless God that he has not left our spiritual concerns to such hazards but has lodg'd them in a more secure repository the written Word 23. BUT I fore-see 't will be objected that whilst I thus disparage Tradition I do vertually invalidate the Scripture it self which comes to us upon its credit To this I answer first that since God has with-drawn immediate revelation from the world Tradition is the only means to convey to us the first notice that this Book is the word of God and it being the only means he affords we have all reason to depend on his goodness that he will not suffer that to be evacuated to us and that how liable soever Tradition may be to err yet that it shall not actually err in this particular 24. BUT in the second place This Tradition seems not so liable to falsification as others It is so very short and simple a proposition such and such writings are the word of God that there is no great room for Sophistry or mistake to pervert the sense the only possible deception must be to change the subject and obtrude supposititious writings in room of the true under the title of the word of God But this has already appear'd to be unpracticable because of the multitude of copies which were disperst in the world by which such an attemt would soon have bin detected There appears more reason as well as more necessity to rely upon Tradition in this then in most other particulars 25. NEITHER yet do I so farr decry oral Tradition in any as to conclude it impossible it should derive any truth to posterity I only look on it as more casual and consequently a less fit conveiance of the most important and necessary verities then the writen Word In which I conceive my self justifi'd by the common sense of mankind who use to commit those things to writing which they are most solicitous to derive to posterity Do's any Nation trust their fundamental Laws only to the memory of the present Age and take no other course to transmit them to the future do's any man purchase an estate and leave no way for his children to lay claim to it but the Tradition the present witnesses shall leave of it Nay do's any considering man ordinarily make any important pact or bargain tho without relation to posterity without putting the Articles in writing And whence is all this caution but from a universal consent that writing is the surest way of transmitting 26. BUT we have yet a higher appeal in this matter then to the suffrage of men God himself seems to have determin'd it And what his decision is 't is our next business to inquire 27. AND first he has given the most real and comprehensive attestation to this way of writing by having himself chose it For he is too wise to be mistaken in his estimate of better and worse and too kind to chuse the worst for us and yet he has chosen to communicate himself to the latter Ages of the world by writing and has summ'd up all the Eternal concerns of mankind in the sacred Scriptures and left those sacred Records by which we are to be both inform'd and govern'd which if oral Tradition would infallibly have don had bin utterly needless and God sure is not so prodigal of his spirit as to inspire the Autors of Scripture to write that whose use was superseded by a former more certain expedient 28. NAY under the Mosaic oeconomy when he made use of other waies of reveling himself yet to perpetuate the memory even of those Revelations he chose to have them written At the delivery of the Law God spake then viva voce and with that pomp of dreadful solemnity as certainly was apt to make the deepest impressions yet God fore-saw that thro every succeeding Age that stamp would grow more dim and in a long revolution might at last be extinct And therefore how warm soever the Israelites apprehensions then were he would not trust to them for the perpetuating his Law but committed it to writing Ex. 31.18 nay wrote it twice himself 29. YET farther even the ceremonial Law tho not intended to be of perpetual obligation was not yet referr'd to the traditionary way but was wrote by Moses and deposited with the Priests Deut. 31.9 And after-event shew'd this was no needless caution For when under Manasses Idolatry had prevail'd in Jerusalem it was not by any dormant Tradition but by the Book of the Law found in the Temple that Josiah was both excited to reform Religion and instructed how to do it 2. Kings 22.10 And had not that or som other copy bin produc'd they had bin much in the dark as to the particulars of their reformation which that they had not bin convei'd by Tradition appears by the sudden startling of the King upon the reading of the Law which could not have bin had he bin before possest with the contents of it In like manner we find in Nehemiah that the observation of the Feast of Tabernacles was recover'd by consulting the Law the Tradition whereof was wholly worn out or else it had sure bin impossible that it could for so long a time have bin intermitted Neh. 8.18 And yet mens memories are commonly more retentive of an external visible rite then they are of speculative Propositions or moral Precepts 30. THESE instances shew how fallible an expedient mere oral Tradition is for transmission to posterity But admit no such instance could be given 't is argument enough that
second Book 47. c. tells us that the Scriptures are perfect as dictated by the word of God and his spirit And the same Father begins his third Book in this manner The disposition of our salvation is no otherwise known by us then by those by whom the Gospel was brought to us which indeed they first preach'd but afterward deliver'd it to us in the Scripture to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith Nor may we imagin that they began to preach to others before they themselves had perfect knowledg as som are bold to say boasting themselves to be emendators of the Apostles For after our Lords Resurrection they were indued with the power of the holy Spirit from on high and having perfect knowledg went forth to the ends of the earth preaching the glad tidings of salvation and celestial praise unto men Each and all of whom had the Gospel of God So Saint Matthew wrote the Gospel to the Hebrews in their tongue Saint Peter and Saint Paul preach'd at Rome and there founded a Church Mark the Disciple and interpreter of Peter deliver'd in writing what he had preach'd and Luke the follower of Paul set down in his Book the Gospel he had deliver'd Afterward Saint John at Ephesus in Asia publish'd his Gospel c. In his fourth Book c. 66. he directs all the Heretics with whom he deals to read diligently the Gospel deliver'd by the Apostles and also read diligently the Prophets assuring they shall there find every action every doctrin and every suffering of our Lord declared by them 5. THUS Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions c. 6. It is not lawful for us to introduce any thing of our own will nor make any choice upon our arbitrement We have the Apostles of our Lord for our Authors who themselves took up nothing on their own will or choice but faithfully imparted to the Nations the discipline which they had receiv'd from Christ So that if an Angel from heaven should teach another doctrin he were to be accurst And c. 25. 'T is madness saies he of the Heretics when they confess that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing nor taught things different to think that they did not revele all things to all which he enforces in the following chapter In his Book against Hermogenes c. 23. he discourses thus I adore the plenitude of the Scripture which discovers to me the Creator and what was created Also in the Gospel I find the Word was the Arbiter and Agent in the Creation That all things were made of preexistent matter I never read Let Hermogenes and his journy-men shew that it is written If it be not written let him fear the woe which belongs to them that add or detract And in the 39. ch of his Prescript We feed our faith raise our hope and establish our reliance with the sacred Words 6. IN like manner Hippolytus in the Homily against Noetus declares that we acknowledg only from Scripture that there is one God And whereas secular Philosophy is not to be had but from the reading of the doctrin of the Philosophers so whosoever of us will preserve piety towards God he cannot otherwise learn it then from the holy Scripture Accordingly Origen in the fifth Homily on Leviticus saies that in the Scripture every word appertaining to God is to be sought and discust and the knowledg of all things is to be receiv'd 7. WHAT Saint Cyprians opinion was in this point we learn at large from his Epistle to Pompey For when Tradition was objected to him he answers Whence is this Tradition is it from the autority of our Lord and his Gospel or comes it from the commands of the Apostles in their Epistles Almighty God declares that what is written should be obei'd and practic'd The Book of the Law saies he in Joshua shall not depart from thy mouth but thou shalt meditate in it day and night that you may observe and keep all that is written therein So our Lord sending his Apostles commands them to baptize all Nations and teach them to observe all things that he had commanded Again what obstinacy and presumtion is it to prefer human Tradition to divine Command not considering that Gods wrath is kindled as often as his Precepts are dissolv'd and neglected by reason of human Traditions Thus God warns and speaks by Isaiah This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrins the commandments of men Also the Lord in the Gospel checks and reproves saying you reject the Law of God that you may establish your Tradition Of which Precept the Apostle Saint Paul being mindful admonishes and instructs saying If any man teaches otherwise and hearkens not to sound doctrin and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ he is proud knowing nothing From such we must depart And again he adds There is a compendious way for religious and sincere minds both to deposit their errors and find out the truth For if we return to the source and original of divine Tradition human error will cease and the ground of heavenly Mysteries being seen whatsoever was hid with clouds and darkness will be manifest by the light of truth If a pipe that brought plentiful supplies of water fail on the suddain do not men look to the fountain and thence learn the cause of the defect whether the spring it self be dry or if running freely the water is stopt in its passage that if by interrupted or broken conveiances it was hindred to pass they being repair'd it may again be brought to the City with the same plenty as it flows from the spring And this Gods Priests ought to do at this time obeying the commands of God that if truth have swerv'd or fail'd in any particular we go backward to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition and there found our actings from whence their order and origination began 8. IT is true Bellarmine reproches this discourse as erroneous but whatever it might be in the inference which Saint Cyprian drew from it in it self it was not so For Saint Austin tho sufficiently engag'd against Saint Cyprians conclusion allows the position as most Orthodox saying in the fourth Book of Baptism c. 35. Whereas he admonishes to go back to the fountain that is the Tradition of the Apostles and thence bring the stream down to our times 't is most excellent and without doubt to be don 9. THUS Eusebius expresses himself in his second Book against Sabellius As it is a point of sloth not to seek into those things whereof one may enquire so 't is insolence to be inquisitive in others But what are those things which we ought to enquire into Even those which are to be found in the Scriptures those things which are not there to be found let us not seek after For if they ought to be known the holy Ghost had not omitted them in the Scripture
10. ATHANASIUS in his Tract of the Incarnation saies It is fit for us to adhere to the word of God and not relinquish it thinking by syllogisms to evade what is there clearly deliver'd Again in his Tract to Serap of the holy Ghost Ask not saies he concerning the Trinity but learn only from the Scriptures For the instructions which you will find there are sufficient And in his Oration against the Gentiles declares That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the truth 11. AGREEABLE to these is Optatus in his 5. Book against Parmen who reasons thus You say 't is lawful to rebaptize we say 't is not lawful betwixt your saying and our gain-saying the peoples minds are amus'd Let no man believe either you or us All men are apt to be contentious Therefore Judges are to be call'd in Christians they cannot be for they will be parties and thereby partial Therefore a Judg is to be lookt out from abroad If a Pagan he knows not the mysteries of our Religion If a Jew he is an enemy to our baptism There is therefore no earthly Judg but one is to be sought from heaven Yet there is no need of a resort to heaven when we have in the Gospel a Testament and in this case celestial things may be compar'd to earthly So it is as with a Father who has many children while he is present he orders them all and there is no need of a written Will Accordingly Christ when he was present upon earth from time to time commanded the Apostles whatsoever was necessary But as the earthly father finding himself to be at the point of death and fearing that after his departure his children should quarrel among themselves he calls witnesses and puts his mind in writing and if any difference arise among the brethren they go not to their Fathers Sepulcher but repair to his Will and Testament and he who rests in his grave speaks still in his writing as if he were alive Our Lord who left his Will among us is now in heaven therefore let us seek his commands in the Gospel as in his Will 12. THUS Cyril of Ierus Cat. 4. Nothing no not the least concernment of the divine and holy Sacraments of our Faith is to be deliver'd without the holy Scripture believe not me unless I give you a demonstration of what I say from the Scripture 13. SAINT Basil in his Book of the true Faith saies If God be faithful in all his sayings his words and works they remaining for ever and being don in truth and equity it must be an evident sign of infidelity and pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written In which Books he generally declares that he will write nothing but what he receives from the holy Scripture and that he abhors from taking it elsewhere In his 29. Homily against the Antitrinit Believe saies he those which are written seek not those which are not written And in his Eth. reg 26. Every word and action ought to be confirm'd by the testimony of the divinely inspir'd Scriptures to the establishment of the Faith of the good and reproof of the wicked 14. SAINT Ambrose in the first Book of his Offic. saies How can we make use of any thing which is not to be found in Scripture And in his Instit of Virgins I read he is the first but read not he is the second let them who say he is second shew it from the reading 15. GREG. Nyssen in his Dial. of the soul and resurrect saies 'T is undeniable that truth is there only to be plac'd where there is the seal of Scripture Testimony 16. SAINT Jerom against Helvidius declares As we deny not that which is written so we refuse those which are not written And in his Comment on the 98. Ps Every thing that we assert we must shew from the holy Scripture The word of him that speaks has not that autority as Gods precept And on the 87. Ps Whatever is said after the Apostles let it be cut off nor have afterwards autority Tho one be holy after the Apostles tho one be eloquent yet has he not autority 17. SAINT Austin in his Tract of the unity of the Church c. 12. acknowledges that he could not be convinc'd but by the Scriptures of what he was to believe and adds they are read with such manifestation that he who believes them must confess the doctrin to be most true In the second Book of Christian doctrin c. 9. he saies that in the plain places of Scripture are found all those things that concern Faith and Manners And in Epist 42. All things which have bin exhibited heretofore as don to mankind and what we now see and deliver to our posterity the Scripture has not past them in silence so far forth as they concern the search or defence of our Religion In his Tract of the good of Widowhood he saies to Julian the person to whom he addresses What shall I teach you more then that we read in the Apostle for the holy Scripture settles the rule of our doctrin that we think not any thing more then we ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt to every man the mesure of Faith Therefore my teaching is only to expound the words of this Doctor Ep. 157. Where any subject is obscure and passes our comprehension and the Scripture do's not plainly afford its help there human conjecture is presumtuous in defining 18. THEOPHILUS of Alex. in his second Paschal homily tells us that 't is the suggestion of a diabolical spirit to think that any thing besides the Scripture has divine autority And in his third he adds that the Doctors of the Church having the Testimony of the Scripture lay firm foundation of their doctrin 19. CHRYSOSTOM in his third Homily on the first of the Thessal asserts that from the alone reading or hearing of the Scripture one may learn all things necessary So Hom. 34. on Act. 15. he declares A heathen comes and saies I would willingly be a Christian but I know not who to join my self to for there are many contentions among you many seditions and tumults so that I am in doubt what opinion I should abuse Each man saies what I say is true and I know not whom to believe each pretends to Scripture which I am ignorant of 'T is very well the issue is put here for if the appeal were to reason in this case there would be just occasion of being troubled but when we appeal to Scripture and they are simple and certain you may easily your self judg He that agrees with the Scripture is a Christian he that resists them is far out of the way And on Ps 95. If any thing be said without the Scripture the mind halts between different opinions somtimes inclining as to what is probable anon rejecting as what is frivolous but when the testimony of holy Scripture
Christian and the interest they have therein then is the ancient course of Penance establisht by the the practice of all the first Ages and almost as many Councils whether general or local as have decreed any thing concerning disciplin with the penitentiary Books and Canons which were written for the first eleven hundred years in the whole Christian world For if even the unbaptiz'd Catechumen and the lapst sinner notwithstanding their slender knowledg in the mysteries of Faith or frail pretence to the privilege thereof had a right to the state of Audience and was oblig'd to hear the Scripture read surely the meanest unobnoxious Laic was in as advantagious circumstances and might not only be trusted with the reading of those sacred Books but might claim them as his birth-right 10. I may justly over and above what has bin hitherto alleg'd impute to the Governors of the same Church and their withholding from the Laity the holy Scripture the many dangerous errors gross ignorances and scandalous immoralities which have prevail'd among them both It is no new method of divine vengeance that there should be like people like Priest Hos 4.9 and that the Idol shepherd who led his flock into the ditch should fall therein himself Mat. 15.14 And as the Prophet Zachary describes it c. 11.17 The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eie his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eie shall be utterly darkned 11. BUT no consequence can be more obviously deducible from that practice then that men should justify the with-holding of the Scripture by lessening its credit and depreciating its worth which has occasion'd those reproches which by the writers of the Church of Rome of best note have bin cast upon it As that it was a Nose of wax a leaden rule a deaf and useless deputy to God in the office of a Judg of less autority then the Roman Church and of no more credit then Esops Fables but for the testimony of the said Church that they contain things apt to raise laughter or indignation that the Latin Translation in the Complutensian Bible is placed between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint Version as our Savior was at his Crucifixion between two thieves and that the vulgar Edition is of such autority that the Originals ought to be mended by it rather then it should be mended from them which are the complements of Cardinal Bellarmin Hosius Eckius Perron Ximenes Coqueus and others of that Communion words to be answer'd by a Thunderbolt and fitter for the mouth of a Celsus or a Porphyrie then of the pious sons and zealous Champions of the Church of Christ 12. T IS to be expected that the Romanists should now wipe their mouths and plead not guilty telling us that they permit the Scripture to the Laity in their mother Tongue And to that purpose the Fathers of Rhemes and Doway have publisht an English Bible for those of their communion I shall therefore give a short and plain account of the whole affair as really it stands and then on Gods name let the Romanists make the best of their Apology 13. THE fourth rule of the Index of prohibited Books compos'd upon the command and auspice of the Council of Trent and publish'd by the autority of Pius the fourth Sixtus the fifth and Clement the eighth runs thus Since 't is manifest by experience that if the holy Bible be suffer'd promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue such is the temerity of men that greater detriment then advantage will thence arise in this matter let the judgment of the Bishop or Inquisitor be stood to that with the advice of the Curat or Confessor they may give leave for the reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue translated by Catholics to such as they know will not receive damage but increase of Faith and Piety thereby Which faculty they shall have in writing and whosoever without such faculty shall presume to have or to read the Bible he shall not till he have deliver'd it up receive absolution of his sins Now to pass over the iniquity of obliging men to ask leave to do that which God Almighty commands when 't is consider'd how few of the Laity can make means to the Bishop or Inquisitor or convince them or the Curat or Confessor that they are such who will not receive damage but encrease of Faith and Piety by the reading of the Scripture and also have interest to prevail with them for their favor herein and after all can and will be at the charge of taking out the faculty which is so penally requir'd 't is easy to guess what thin numbers of the Laity are likely or indeed capable of reaping benefit by this Indulgence pretended to be allowed them 14. BUT besides all this what shall we say if the power it self of giving Licences be a mere shew and really signifies just nothing In the observation subjoin'd to this fourth rule it is declar'd that the Impression and Edition thereof gives no new faculty to Bishops or Inquisitors or Superïors of regulars to grant Licences of buying reading or retaining Bibles publisht in a vulgar Tongue since hitherto by the command and practice of the holy Roman and universal Inquisition the power of giving such faculties to read or retain vulgar Bibles or any parts of Scripture of the Old or New Testament in any vulgar Tongue or also summaries or historical compendiums of the said Bibles or Books of Scripture in whatsoever Tongue they are written has bin taken away And sure if a Lay-man cannot read the Bible without a faculty and it is not in any ones power to grant it 't will evidently follow that he cannot read it And so the pretence of giving liberty owns the shame of openly refusing it but has no other effect or consequence And if any Romanist among us or in any other Protestant Country enjoies any liberty herein 't is merely by connivance and owed to a fear least the Votary would be lost and take the Bible where it was without difficulty to be had if strictness should be us'd And should Popery which God forbid become paramount the Translations of the Scripture into our Mother Tongues would be no more endur'd here then they are in Spain and they who have formerly bin wary in communicating the Scriptures remembring how thereby their errors have bin detected would upon a revolution effectually provide for the future and be sure to keep their people in an Egyptian darkness that might it self be felt but that allow'd the notices of no other object They would not be content with that composition of the Ammonite to thrust out all the right eies of those that submitted to them 1 Sam. 11.2 but would put out both as the Philistins did to Samson that they might make their miserable captives for ever grind in their Mill Jud. 16.21 15. BUT this heaviest of judgments will never fall upon the reform'd Churches till by their vicious
practice and contemt of the divine Law they have deserted their profession and made themselves utterly unworthy of the blessings they enjoy and the light of that Gospel which with noon-day brightness has shin'd among them Upon which account I suppose it may not be impertinent in the next place to subjoin som plain directions and cautionary advices concerning the use of these sacred Books SECT VIII Necessary cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scriptures IT is a common observation that the most generous and sprightly Medicins are the most unsafe if not appli'd with due care and regimen And the remark holds as well in spiritual as corporal remedies The Apostle asserts it upon his own experience that the doctrin of the Gospel which was to som the savor of life unto life was to others the savor of death 2 Cor. 2.15 And the same effect that the oral Word had then the written Word may have now not that either the one or the other have any thing in them that is of it self mortiferous but becomes so by the ill disposition of the persons who so pervert it It is therefore well worth our inquiry what qualifications on our part are necessary to make the Word be to us what it is in it self the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 Of these som are previous before our reading som are concomitant with it and som are subsequent and follow after it 2. OF those that go before sincerity is a most essential requisit by sincerity I mean an upright intention by which we direct our reading to that proper end for which the holy Scriptures were design'd viz. the knowing Gods will in order to the practicing it This honest simplicity of heart is that which Christ represents by the good ground where alone it was that the seed could fructify Mat. 13.8 And he that brings not this with him brings only the shadow of a Disciple The word of God is indeed sharper then a two-edged sword Heb. 4.12 but what impression can a sword make on a body of air which still slips from and eludes its thrusts And as little can all the practical discourses of holy Writ make on him who brings only his speculative faculties with him and leaves his will and affections behind him which are the only proper subjects for it to work on 3. TO this we may probably impute that strange inefficaciousness we see of the Word Alas men rarely apply it to the right place our most inveterat diseases lie in our morals and we suffer the Medicin to reach no farther then our intellects As if he that had an ulcer in his bowels should apply all his balsoms and sanatives only to his head 'T is true the holy Scriptures are the tresuries of divine Wisdom the Oracles to which we should resort for saving knowledg but they are also the rule and guide of holy Life and he that covets to know Gods will for any purpose but to practice it is only studious to entitle himself to the greater number of stripes Luk. 12.47 4. NAY farther he that affects only the bare knowledg is oft disappointed even of that The Scripture like the Pillar of fire and cloud enlightens the Israelites those who sincerely resign themselves to its guidance but it darkens and confounds the Egyptians Ex. 14.20 And 't is frequently seen that those who read only to become knowing are toll'd on by their curiosity into the more abstruse and mysterious parts of Scripture where they entangle themselves in inextricable mazes and confusions and instead of acquiring a more superlative knowledg loose those easy and common notions which lie obvious to every plain well meaning Reader I fear this Age affords too many and too frequent instances of this in men who have lost God in the midst of his Word and studied Scripture till they have renounc'd its Author 5. AND sure this infatuation is very just and no more then God himself has warn'd us of who takes the wise in their own craftiness Job 5.12 but appropriates his secrets only to them that fear him and has promis'd to teach the meek his way Psal 25.9.14 And this was the method Christ observ'd in his preaching unveiling those truths to his Disciples which to the Scribes and Pharisees his inquisitive yet refractory hearers he wrapt up in parables not that he dislik'd their desire of knowledg but their want of sincerity which is so fatal a defect as blasts our pursuits tho of things in themselves never so excellent This we find exemplifi'd in Simon Magus Acts 8. who tho he coveted a thing in it self very desirable the power of conferring the holy Ghost yet desiring it not only upon undue conditions but for sinister ends he not only mist of that but was after all his convincement by the Apostles miracles and the engagement of his Baptism immerst in the gall of bitterness and at last advanc'd to that height of blasphemy as to set up himself for a God so becoming a lasting memento how unsafe it is to prevaricate in holy things 6. BUT as there is a sincerity of the Will in order to practice so there is also a sincerity of the understanding in order to belief and this is also no less requisit to the profitable reading of Scripture I mean by this that we come with a preparation of mind to embrace indifferently whatever God there reveles as the object of our Faith that we bring our own opinions not as the clue by which to unfold Scripture but to be tried and regulated by it The want of this has bin of very pernicious consequence in matters both of Faith and speculation Men are commonly prepossest strongly with their own notions and their errand to Scripture is not to lend them light to judg of them but aids to back and defend them 7. OF this there is no Book of controversy that do's not give notorious proof The Socinian can easily over-look the beginning of Saint John that saies The Word was God Jo. 1.1 and all those other places which plainly assert the Deity of our Savior if he can but divert to that other more agreeable Text that the Father is greater then I. Among the Romanists Peters being said to be first among the Apostles Mat. 10.2 and that on that Rock Christ would build his Church Mat. 16.18 carries away all attention from those other places where Saint Paul saies he was not behind the very chiefest of the Apostles 2 Cor. 11.5 that upon him lay the care of all the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 and that the Church was not built upon the foundation of som one but all the twelve Apostles Revel 21.14 So it fares in the business of the Eucharist This is my body Mat. 26.26 carries it away clear for Transubstantiation when our Saviors calling that which he drunk the fruit of the vine Mat. 26.29 and then Saint Pauls naming the Elements in the Lords Supper several times over Bread and