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
have bin witness'd to by persons of all Nations and those not single but collective Bodies and Societies even as many as there have bin Christian Churches throout the world And the same that are its Attestors have bin its Guardians also and by their multitudes made it a very difficult if not an impossible thing to falsify it in any considerable degree it being not imaginable as I shew'd before from St. Austin all Churches should combine to do it and if they did not the fraud could not pass undetected and if no eminent change could happen much less could any new any counterfeit Gospel be obtruded after innumerable Copies of the first had bin translated into almost all Languages and disperst throughout the world 52. THE Imperial Law compil'd by Justinian was soon after his death by reason of the inroads of the Goths and other barbarous Nations utterly lost in the Western world and scarce once heard of for the space of five hundred years and then came casually to be retriv'd upon the taking of Amalsis by the Pisans one single Copy being found there at the plundering of the City And the whole credit of those Pandects which have ever since govern'd the Western world depends in a manner on that single Book formerly call'd the Pisan and now after that Pisa was taken by the Florentines the Florentine Copy But notwithstanding this the body of the Civil Law obtains and no man thinks it reasonable to question its being really what it pretends to be notwithstanding its single and so long interrupted derivation I might draw this parallel thro many other instances but these may suffice to shew that if the Scriptures might find but so much equity as to be tried by the common mesures of other things it it would very well pass the test 53. BUT men seem in this case like our late Legislators to set up new extraregular Courts of Justice to try those whom no ordinary rules will cast yet their designs re-require should be condemn'd And we may conclude 't is not the force of reason but of prejudice that makes them so unequal to themselves as to reject the Scriptures when they receive every thing else upon far weaker grounds The bottom of it is they are resolv'd not to obey its precepts and therefore think it the shortest cut to disavow its autority for should they once own that they would find themselves intangled in the most inextricable dilemma that of the Pharisees about John Baptist If we say from heaven he will say why then did you not believe him Mat. 21.25 If they confess the Scriptures divine they must be self-condemn'd in not obeying them And truely men that have such preingagements to their lusts that they must admit nothing that will disturb them do but prevaricate when they call for greater evidences and demonstrations for those bosom Sophisters will elude the most manifest convictions and like Juglers make men disbelieve even their own senses So that any other waies of evidence will be as disputable with them as those already offer'd which is the third thing I proposed to consider 54. IT has bin somtimes seen in popular mutinies that when blanks have bin sent them they could not agree what to ask and were it imaginable that God should so far court the infidelity of men as to allow them to make their own demands to set down what waies of proof would perswade them I doubt not there are many have obstinacy enough to defeat their own methods as well as they now do Gods 'T is sure there is no ordinary way of conviction left for them to ask God having already as hath also bin shew'd afforded that They must therefore resort to immediat revelation expect instant assurances from heaven that this book we call the Bible is the word of God 55. MY first question then is in what manner this revelation must be made to appear credible to them The best account we have of the several waies of revelation is from the Jews to whom God was pleas'd upon new emergencies signally to revele himself These were first dreams secondly visions by both which the Prophets received their inspirations Thirdly Vrim and Thummim Fourthly the Bath-col as they term it Thunder and voice from Heaven Let us consider them distinctly and see whether our Sceptical men may not probably find somwhat to dispute in every one of these And first for dreams it is among us so hard to distinguish between those that arise from constitution prepossession of phancy diabolical or divine infusion that those that have the most critically consider'd them do rather difference them by their matter then any certain discriminating circumstances and unless we had som infallible way of discerning our dependence on them may more probably betray then direct us 'T is unquestionable that usually phancy has the greatest stroke in them And if he that should commit himself to the guidance of his waking phancy is not like to be over-wisely govern'd what can we expect from his sleeping All this and more may doubtless be soberly enough objected against the validity of our common dreams 56. BUT admit there were now such divine dreams as brought their evidence along with them yet sure 't is possible for prejudic'd men to resist even the clearest convictions For do we not see som that have made a shift to extinguish that natural light those notions which are interwoven into the very frame and constitution of their minds that so they may sin more at ease and without reluctancy and sure 't is as possible for them to close their eies against all raies from without too to resist revelation as well as instinct and more likely by how much a transient cause is naturally less operative then a permanent An instance of this we have in Balaam who being in these nightly visitations prohibited by God to go to Balack and tho he knew then what he afterwards saies Num. 23.19 that God was not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent yet he would not take God at his first word but upon a fresh bait to his covetousness tries again for an answer more indulgent to his interest Besides if God should thus revele himself to som particular persons yet 't is beyond all president or imagination that he should do it to every man and then how shall those who have these dreams be able to convince others that they are divine 57. 'T IS easy to guess what reception a man that produces no other autority would have in this ludicrous Age he would certainly be thought rather to want sleep then to have had revelations in it And if Jacob and the Patriarchs who were themselves acquainted with divine dreams yet did not believe Josephs any man that should now pretend in that kind would be sure to fall under the same irony that he did to be entertain'd with a behold this dreamer cometh Gen. 37.19 58. THE second
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
the highest degrees of perfection but to reprove that preposterous course many take who lay the greatest weight upon those things on which God laies the least and have more zeal for oblique intimations then for express downright commands nay think by the one to commute for the contemt of the other For example fasting is recommended to us in Scripture but in a far lower key then moral duties rather as an expedient and help to vertue then as properly a vertue it self And yet we may see men scrupulous in that who startle not at injustice and oppression that clamorous sin that cries to heaven who pretend to mortify their appetites by denying it its proper food or being luxurious in one sort of it and yet glut their avarice eat up the poor and devour widows houses Mat. 23. 37. TO such as these 't would be good advice to fix their attention on the absolute commands to study moral honesty and the essentials of Christianity to make a good progress there and do what God indispensably requires and then it may be seasonable to think of voluntary oblations but till then they are so far from homage that they are the most reprochful flattery an attemt to bribe God against himself and a sacrilege like that of Dionysius who took away Apollo's golden robe and gave him a stuff one 38. THE second thing requisit in our reading is application this is the proper end of our attention and without this we may be very busy to very little purpose The most laborious attention without it puts us but in the condition of those poor slaves that labor in the mines who with infinit toil dig that ore of which they shall never partake If therefore we will appropriate that rich tresure we must apply and so make it our own 39. LET us then at every period of holy Writ reflect and look on our selves as the persons spoke to When we find Philip giving baptism to the Eunuch upon this condition that he believe with all his heart Act. 8. let us consider that unless we do so our baptism like a thing surreptitiously obtain'd conveis no title to us will avail us nothing 40. WHEN we read our Saviours denunciation to the Jews except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Lu. 13.5 we are to look on it as if addrest immediatly to our selves and conclude as great a necessity of our repentance In those black catalogues of crimes which the Apostle mentions 1 Cor. 6.10 and Gal. 5.19 20 21. as excluding from the Kingdom of heaven we are to behold our own guilts arraign'd and to resolve that the same crimes will as certainly shut heaven gates against us as those to whom those Epistles were immediatly directed In all the precepts of good life and Christian vertue we are to think our selves as nearly and particularly concern'd as if we had bin Christs Auditors on the Mount So proportionably in all the threats and promises we are either to tremble or hope according as we find our selves adhere to those sins or vertues to which they are affixt 41. THIS close application would render what we read operative and effective which without it will be useless and insignificant We may see an instance of it in David who was not at all convinc'd of his own guilt by Nathans parable tho the most apposite that was imaginable till he roundly appli'd it saying thou art the man 2 Sam. 12. And unless we treat our selves at the same rate the Scripture may fill our heads with high notions nay with many speculative truths which yet amounts to no more then the Devils theology Ja. 2.19 and will as litte advantage us 42. IT now remains that we speak of what we are to do after our reading which may be summ'd up in two words Recollect and practice Our memories are very frail as to things of this nature And therefore we ought to impress them as deep as we can by reflecting on what we have read It is an observation out of the Levitical Law that those beasts only were clean and fit for sacrifice that chew'd the cud Lev. 11.4 And tho the ceremony were Jewish the moral is Christian and admonishes us how we should revolve and ruminate on spiritual instructions Without this what we hear or read slips insensibly from us and like letters writ in chalk is wip't out by the next succeeding thought but recollection engraves and indents the characters in the mind And he that would duly use it would find other manner of impressions more affective and more lasting then bare reading will leave 43. WE find it thus in all Sciences he that only reads over the rules and laies aside the thoughts of them together with his Book will make but a slow advance whilest he that plods and studies upon them repetes and reinforces them upon his mind soon arrives to an eminency By this it was that David attaind to that perfection in Gods Law as to out-strip his teachers and understand more then the Ancients Psal 119.99 100. because it was his meditation as himself tell us ver 97.99 44. LET us therefore pursue the same method and when we have read a portion of Scripture let us recollect what observable things we have there met with what exhortations to vertue or determents from vice what promises to obedience or menaces for the contrary what examples of Gods vengeance against such or such sins or what instances of his blessing upon duties If we do this daily we cannot but amass together a great stock of Scripture documents which will be ready for us to produce upon every occasion Satan can assault us no where but we shall be provided of a guard a Scriptum est which we see was the sole armor the captain of our salvation us'd in his encounter with him Mat. 4. ver 4.7 and 10. and will be as successful to us if we will duly manage it 45. THE last thing requir'd as consequent to our reading is practice This is the ultimate end to which all the fore-going qualifications are directed And if we fail here the most assiduous diligence in all the former will be but lost labor Let us mean never so well attend never so close recollect never so exactly if after all we do not practice all the rest will serve but to enhance our guilt Christianity is an active Science and the Bible was given us not merely for a theme of speculation but for a rule of life 46. And alas what will it avail us that our opinions are right if our manners be crooked When the Scripture has shew'd us what God requires of us nay has evinc'd to us the reasonableness of the injunctions the great agreeableness which they have to the excellency of our nature and has backt this with the assurance that in keeping of them there shall be a great reward Ps 19.11 if in the midst of such importunate invitations to life we will chuse death we are
The lively Oracles given to us or The Christians birthright duty in the custody use of the holy Scripture burg sculp THE Lively Oracles given to us OR The Christians Birth-right and Duty in the custody and use of the HOLY SCRIPTURE By the Author of the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN c. Search the Scriptures Jo. 5.39 At the THEATER in OXFORD 1678. And are to be Sold by William Leak at the Crown in Fleet-street Lond. Beilby Thompson of Escrick Imprimatur JO. NICHOLAS Vice Cancell Oxon. Junii 10. 1678. THE PREFACE IN the Treatise of the Government of the Tongue publisht by me heretofore I had occasion to take notice among the exorbitances of that unruly part which sets on fire the whole course of nature and its self is set on fire from hell Jam. 3.6 of the impious vanity prevailing in this Age whereby men play with sacred things and exercise their wit upon those Scriptures by which they shall be judg'd at the last day Joh. 12.48 But that holy Book not only suffering by the petulancy of the Tongue but the malice of the heart out of the abundance whereof the mouth speaks Mat. 12.34 and also from that irreligion prepossession and supiness which the pursuit of sensual plesures certainly produces the mischief is too much diffus'd and deeply rooted to be controul'd by a few casual reflections I have therefore thought it necessary both in regard of the dignity and importance of the subject as also the prevalence of the opposition to attemt a profest and particular vindication of the holy Scriptures by displaying their native excellence and beauty and enforcing the veneration and obedience that is to be paid unto them This I design'd to do in my usual method by an address to the affections of the Reader soliciting the several passions of love hope fear shame and sorrow which either the majesty of God in his sublime being his goodness deriv'd to us or our ingratitude return'd to him could actuate in persons not utterly obdurate But whereas men when they have learnt to do amiss quickly dispute and dictate I found my self concern'd to pass somtimes within the verge of controversy and to discourse upon the principles of reason and deductions from Testimony which in the most important transactions of human life are justly taken for evidence In which whole performance I have studied to avoid the entanglements of Sophistry and the ambition of unintelligible quotations and kept my self within the reach of the unlearned Christian Reader to whose uses my labors have bin ever dedicated All that I require is that men would bring as much readiness to entertain the holy Scriptures as they do to the reading profane Authors I am asham'd to say as they do to the incentives of vice and folly nay to the libels and invectives that are levell'd against the Scriptures If I obtain this I will make no doubt that I shall gain a farther point that from the perusal of my imperfect conceptions the Reader will proceed to the study of the Scriptures themselves there tast and see how gracious the Lord is Ps 34.8 and as the Angel commanded Saint John Rev. 10.9 eat the Book where he will experimentally find the words of David verified Ps 19.7 The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light to the eies The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desir'd are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then hony and the hony-comb Moreover by them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward It is said of Moses Ex. 34.29 that having receiv'd the Law from God and converst with him in Mount Sina forty daies together his face shone and had a brightness fixt upon it that dazled the beholders a pledg and short essay not only of the appearance at Mount Tabor Mat. 17.1 where at the Transfiguration he again was seen in glory but of that greater and yet future change when he shall see indeed his God face to face and share his glory unto all eternity The same divine Goodness gives still his Law to every one of us Let us receive it with due regard and veneration converse with him therein instead of forty daies during our whole lives and so anticipate and certainly assure our interest in that great Transfiguration when all the faithful shall put off their mortal flesh be translated from glory to glory eternally behold their God see him as he is and so enjoy him Conversation has every where an assimilating power we are generally such as are the men and Books and business that we deal with but surely no familiarity has so great an influence on Life and Manners as when men hear God speaking to them in his Word That Word which the Apostle Heb. 4.12 declares to be quick and powerful sharper then any two-edg'd sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The time will come when all our Books however recommended for subtilty of discourse exactness of method variety of matter or eloquence of Language when all our curious Acts like those mention'd Act. 19.19 shall be brought forth and burnt before all men When the great Book of nature and heaven it self shall depart as a scroul roll'd together Rev. 6.14 At which important season 't will be more to purpose to have studied well that is transcrib'd in practice this one Book then to have run thro all besides for then the dead small and great shall stand before God and the Books shall be open'd and another Book shall be open'd which is the Book of Life and the dead shall be judg'd out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20.12 In vain shall men allege the want of due conviction that they did not know how penal it would be to disregard the Sanctions of Gods Law which they would have had enforc'd by immediat miracle the apparition of one sent from the other world who might testify of the place of torment This expectation the Scripture charges every where with the guilt of temting God and indeed it really involves this insolent proposal that the Almighty should be oblig'd to break his own Laws that men might be prevail'd with to keep his But should he think fit to comply herein the condescention would be as successless in the event as 't is unreasonable in the offer Our Savior assures that they who hear not Moses and the Prophets the instructions and commands laid down in holy Scripture would not be wrought upon by any other method would not be
not according to it there is no light in them Esay 8.20 So that the veneration which they had before acquir'd was still anew excited by fresh inspirations which both attested the old and became new parts of their Canon 27. NOR could it be esteem'd a small confirmation to the Scriptures to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books for nothing less then divine power and wisdom could foretell and also verify them Upon these grounds the Jews universally through all successions receiv'd the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles and lookt upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them that their Masorits numbred not only the sections but the very words nay letters that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem'd so sacred A farther testimony and sepiment to which were the Samaritan Chaldee and Greek versions which being made use of in the Synagogs of Jews in their dispersions and the Samaritans at Sichem could not at those distances receive a uniform alteration and any other would be of no effect Add to this that the Original exemplar of the Law was laid up in the Sanctuary that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him and transcribe it with his own hand that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation teach it his children and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead And now sure 't is impossible to imagin any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced or irrefragably testified nor any thing believ'd upon stronger evidence 28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews that they did thus own these Writings as divine appears not only by the Records of past Ages but by the Jews of the present who still own them and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews as he must be most absurdly sceptical that shall deny they must be so to us Christians also who derive them from them and that with this farther advantage to our Faith that we see the clear completion of those Evangelical prophecies which remain'd dark to them and consequently have a farther Argument to confirm us that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are certainly divine 29. THE New has also the like means of probation which as it is a collection of the doctrin taught by Christ and his Apostles must if truly related be acknowleged no less divine then what they orally deliver'd So that they who doubt its being divine must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preacht to be so or else distrust the fidelity of the relation The former strikes at the whole Christian Faith which if only of men must not only be fallible but is actually a deceit whilst it pretends to be of God and is not To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendous miracles with which the Gospel was attested such as demonstrated a more then human efficacy And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain 30. 'T IS true there have bin by God permitted lying miracles as well as true ones have bin don by him Such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt in opposition to the other of Moses but then the difference between both was so conspicuous that he must be more partial and disingenuous then even those Magicians were who would not acknowledg the disparity and confess in those which were truly supernatural the finger of God Exod. 8.19 Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted that false Prophets should arise and do signs and wonders Deut. 13.1 Mat. 24.11.24 as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommended a deceiver before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver'd to the sons of men by the God of truth Whether the trick of a Barchochebas to hold fire in his mouth that of Marcus the heretic to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear bloud or that of Mahomet to bring a Pidgeon to his ear ought to be put in balance against all the miracles wrought by Moses our Savior or his Apostles And in a word whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus deserve to rival those of the Evangelists It is a most just judgment and accordingly threatned by Almighty God that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie 2 Thes 2.11 But still the Almighty where any man or devil do's proudly is evidently above him Exod. 18.11 will be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged Rom. 3.4 31. BUT if men will be Sceptics and doubt every thing they are to know that the matter call'd into question is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution probability and testimony First for probability let it be consider'd who were the first promulgers of Christs miracles In his life time they were either the patients on whom his miracles were wrought or the common people that were spectators the former as they could not be deceiv'd themselves but must needs know whether they were cur'd or no so what imaginable design could they have to deceive others Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not As for the Spectators as their multitude adds to their credibility it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter obvious to their senses so do's it also acquit them from fraud and combination Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatcht in the dark in close Cabals and privat Juncto's That five thousand men at one time and four thousand at another should conspire to say that they were miraculously fed when they were not and all prove true to the fiction and not betray it is a thing as irrational to be suppos'd as impossible to be parallel'd 32. BESIDES admit it possible that so many could have join'd in the deceit yet what imaginable end could they have in it Had their lie bin subservient to the designs of som potent Prince that might have rewarded it there had bin som temtation but what could they expect from the reputed son of a Carpenter who had not himself where to lay his head Nay who disclaim'd all secular power convei'd himself away from their importunities when they would have forc'd him to be a King And consequently could not be lookt on as one that would head a Sedition or attemt to raise himself to a capacity of rewarding his Abettors Upon all these considerations there appears not the
estimate when he pronounces them more to be desir'd then gold yea then much fine gold Psal 19.10 2. TO speak first of the Historical part the things which chieflly recommend a History are the dignity of the subject the truth of the relation and those plesant or profitable observations which are interwoven with it And first for the dignity of the subject the History of the Bible must be acknowledged to excel all others those shew the rise and progress of som one people or Empire this shews us the original of the whole Universe and particularly of man for whose use and benefit the whole Creation was design'd By this mankind is brought into acquaintance with it self made to know the elements of its constitution and taught to put a differing value upon that Spirit which was breath'd into it by God Gen. 2.7 and the flesh whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.19 And when this Historical part of Scripture contracts and draws into a narrow channel when it records the concerns but of one Nation yet it was that which God had dignified above all the rest of the world markt it out for his own peculiar made it the repository of his truth and the visible stock from whence the Messias should come in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 18.18 so that in this one people of the Jews was virtually infolded the highest and most important interests of the whole world and it must be acknowledg'd no Story could have a nobler subject to treat of 3. SECONDLY as to the truth of the relation tho to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it The most undoubted symtome of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality Now this is very eminent in Scripture writers they do not record others faults and baulk their own but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message Ex. 4.13 his provocation of God at the waters of Meribah Num. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behavior towards God with as great aggravations as any of his enemies could have don Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel neither omits nor extenuates his sin all he seems to speak short in is his repentance Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners 4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults so neither did any nearness of relation any respect of quality bribe them to a concelement Moses relates the offence of his sister Miriam in mutining Num. 12.1 of his brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf Ex. 32.4 with as little disguise as that of Korah and his company David tho a King hath his adultery and murder displaied in the blackest characters and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his tresures do's not escape a remark Nay even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the sacred Writers but they freely tax their crimes the Israelites murmurings in the wilderness their Idolatries in Canaan are set down without any palliation or excuse And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude as the Canaanites are for their abominations So that certainly no History in the world do's better attest its truth by this evidence of impartiality 5. IN the last place it commends it self both by the plesure and profit it yields The rarity of those events it records surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration and that mixture of sage Discourses and well-coucht Parables wherewith it abounds do's at once please and instruct How ingenuously apt was Nathans Apologue to David whereby with holy artifice he ensnar'd him into repentance And it remains still matter of instruction to us to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin is set out with such particularity that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst His own lust with Bathsheba was answerd with Amnons towards Thamar his murder of Vriah with that of Amnon his trecherous contrivance of that murder with Absoloms traiterous conspiracy against him So that every circumstance of his punishment was the very echo and reverberation of his guilt A multitude of the like instances might be produc'd out of holy Writ all concurring to admonish us that God exactly marks and will repay our crimes and that commonly with such propriety that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings then the very sufferings themselves Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the historical part of Scripture that flow so easily and unconstrein'd that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them therefore 't would be impertinent here to multiply instances 6. LET us next consider the prophetic part of Scripture and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind The prophetic Books are for the most part made up as the prophetic Office was of two parts prediction and instruction When God rais'd up Prophets 't was not only to acquaint men with future events but to reform their present manners and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect so they are Watch-men and Shepherds in another Nay indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end their gift of foretelling was to gain them autority to be as it were the seal of their commission to convince men that they were sent from God and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end the denouncing of judgments being the most frequent theme and that design'd to bring men to repentances as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh And in this latter part of their office the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence 7. WITH what liberty and zeal do's Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboths murder and foretel the fatal event of it without any fear of his power or reverence of his greatness And Samuel when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection do's passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin 1 Sam. 15.17 Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the prophetic Writings the same truth of prediction and the same zeal against vice 8. FIRST for the predictions what signal completions do we find How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfil'd where repentance has not interven'd He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities both under the Assyrians and Babylonians and especially under the Romans would think their oppressors had consulted it and transcrib'd their severities thence And even these Nations who were the instruments of accomplishing those dismal presages had their own ruins foretold and as punctually executed And as in Kingdoms and
thankfulness upon this very account of the excellency of its designs 76. NOR need we borrow the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh them in we may do it in our own scales for they exactly answer the two properties above mention'd of profit and diffusiveness which in secular concerns are the standard rules of good designs For first it is the sole scope and aim of Scripture the very end for which 't was writ to benefit and advantage men and that secondly not only som small select number som little angle or corner of the world but the whole race of mankind the entire Universe and he that can imagin a more diffusive design must imagin more worlds also 77. NOW for the first of these that it is the design of the Scripture to benefit men we need appeal but to Scripture it self which surely can give the best account to what ends 't is directed and that tells us it is to make us wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 In which is comprehended the greatest benefit that mans nature is capable of the making us wise while we live here and the saving us eternally And this sure is the most generous the most obliging design that 't is possible even for the Creator to have upon the creature and this is it which the holy Scripture negotiates with us 78. AND first the making us wise is so inviting a proposal to humanity that we see when that was much wiser then now it is it caught at a fallacious tender of it the very sound of it tho out of the devils mouth fascinated our first Parents and hurried them to the highest disobedience and certainest ruin And therefore now God by the holy Scriptures makes us an offer as much more safe as it is more sincere when he sends his Word thus to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths Ps 119.105 to teach us all that is good for us to know our affectation of ignorance will be more culpable then theirs of knowledg if we do not admire the kindness embrace the bounty of such a tender 79. NOW the making us wise must be understood according to the Scripture notion of wisdom which is not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world which come to nought as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2.5 but that wisdom which descends from above Ja. 3.17 which he there describes to be first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy Indeed the Scripture usually comprehends these and all other graces under Wisdom for it makes it synonymous to that which includes them all viz. the fear of the Lord. Thus we find throout the whole Book of Proverbs these us'd as terms convertible In short Wisdom is that practical knowledg of God and our selves which engages us to obedience and duty and this is agreeable to that definition the Wise man gives of it The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way Pro. 14.8 Without this all the most refin'd and aerial speculations are but like Thales's star-gazing which secur'd him not from falling in the water nay betrai'd him to it In this is all solid wisdom compris'd 80. THE utmost all the wise men in the world have pretended to is but to know what true happiness is and what is the means of attaining it and what they sought with so much study and so little success the Scripture presents us with in the greatest certainty and plainest characters such as he that runs may read Hab. 2.2 It acquaints us with that supreme felicity that chief good whereof Philosophy could only give us a name and it shews us the means marks us out a path which will infallibly lead us to it Accordingly we find that Solomon after all the accurate search he had made to find what was that good for the sons of men he shuts up his inquest in this plain conclusion Fear God and keep his commandments for God shall bring every work unto judgment Eccles 12.13 14. The regulating our lives so by the rules of Piety as may acquit us at our final account is the most eligible thing that falls within human cognizance and that not only in relation to the superlative happiness of the next world but even to the quiet and tranquillity of this For alas we are impotent giddy creatures swai'd somtimes by one passion somtimes by another nay often the inter fearing of our appetites makes us irresolute which we are to gratify whilst in the interim their strugling agitates and turmoils the mind And what can be more desirable in such a case then to put our selves under a wiser conduct then our own and as opprest States use to defeat all lesser pretenders by becoming homagers to som more potent so for us to deliver our selves from the tyranny of our lusts by giving up our obedience to him whose service is perfect freedom 81. WERE there no other advantage of the exchange but the bringing us under fixt and determinat Laws 't were very considerable Every man would gladly know the terms of his subjection and have som standing rule to guide himself by and Gods Laws are so we may certainly know what he requires of us but the mandats of our passions are arbitrary and extemporary what pleases them to day disgusts them to morrow and we must alwaies be in readiness to do we know not what and of all the Arbitrary governments that men either feel or fear this is doubtless the most miserable I wish our apprehensions of it were but as sensible and then we should think the holy Scripture did us the office of a Patriot in offering us a rescue from so vile a slavery 82. AND that it do's make us this offer is manifest by the whole tenor of the Bible For first it rowzes and awakes us to a sense of our condition shews us that what we call liberty is indeed the saddest servitude that he that committeth sin is the servant of sin Jo. 8.34 that those vices which pretend to serve and gratify us do really subdue and enslave us and fetter when they seem to embrace and whereas the will in all other oppressions retains its liberty this tyranny brings that also into vassallage renders our spirits so mean and servile that we chuse bondage are apt to say with the Israelites Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians Ex. 14.12 83. AND what greater kindness can be don for people in this forlorn abject condition then to animate them to cast off this yoke and recover their freedom And to this are most of the Scripture exhortations addrest as may be seen in a multitude of places particularly in the sixth chapter to the Romans the whole scope whereof is directly to this purpose 84. NOR do's it only sound the alarm put us upon the contest with our enemies but it assists us in it furnishes us with that whole
knows it but also by its prescribing those things which are in themselves best and which a sober Heathen would adjudg fittest to be rewarded And as to our temporal happiness I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd man whether any thing can contribute more to the peace and real happiness of mankind then the universal practice of the Scripture rules would do Would God we would all conspire to make the experiment and then doubtless not only our reason but our sense too would be convinc'd of it 93. AND as the design is thus beneficial so in the second place is it as extensive also Time was when the Jews had the inclosure of divine Revelation when the Oracles of God were their peculiar depositum and the Heathen had not the knowledg of his Laws Ps 147. ult but since that by the goodness of God the Gentiles are become fellow-heirs Eph. 3.6 he hath also deliver'd into their hands the deeds and evidences of their future state given them the holy Scriptures as the exact and authentic registers of the covenant between God and man and these not to be like the heathen Oracles appropriated to som one or two particular places so that they cannot be consulted but at the expence of a pilgrimage but laid open to the view of all that will believe themselves concern'd 94. IT was a large commission our Savior gave his Disciples go preach the Gospel to every creature Mar. 16.15 which in the narrowest acception must be the Gentile world and yet their oral Gospel did not reach farther then the written for wherever the Christian Faith was planted the holy Scriptures were left as the records of it nay as the conservers of it too the standing rule by which all corruptions were to be detected 'T is true the entire Canon of the New Testament as we now have it was not all at once deliver'd to the Church the Gospels and Epistles being successively writ as the needs of Christians and the encroachments of Heretics gave occasion but at last they became all together the common magazine of the Church to furnish arms both defensive and offensive For as the Gospel puts in our hands the shield of Faith so the Epistles help us to hold it that it may not be wrested out of our hands again either by the force of persecution or the sly insinuations of vice or heresy 95. THUS the Apostles like prudent leaders have beat up the Ambushes discover'd the snares that were laid for us and by discomfiting Satans forlorn hope that earliest Set of false teachers and corrupt practices which then invaded the Church have laid a foundation of victory to the succeeding Ages if they will but keep close to their conduct adhere to those sacred Writings they have left behind them in every Church for that purpose 96. NOW what was there deposited was design'd for the benefit of every particular member of that Church The Bible was not committed like the Regalia or rarities of a Nation to be kept under lock and key and consequently to constitute a profitable office for the keepers but expos'd like the Brazen Serpent for universal view and benefit that sacred Book like the common air being every mans propriety yet no mans inclosure yet there are a generation of men whose eies have bin evil because Gods have bin good who have seal'd up this spring monopoliz'd the word of Life and will allow none to partake of it but such persons and in such proportions as they please to retail it an attemt very insolent in respect of God whose purpose they contradict and very injurious in respect of man whose advantage they obstruct The iniquity of it will be very apparant if we consider what is offer'd in the following Section SECT IV. The Custody of the holy Scripture is a privilege and right of the Christian Church and every member of it which cannot without impiety to God and injustice unto it and them be taken away or empeacht BESIDES the keeping of the divine Law which is obsequious and imports a due regard to all its Precepts commonly exprest in Scripture by keeping the commandments hearkning to and obeying the voice of the Lord walking in his waies and observing and doing his statutes and his judgments there is a possessory keeping it in reference to our selves and others in respect whereof Almighty God Deut. 6. and elsewhere frequently having enjoin'd the people of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might and that the words which he commanded them should be in their heart he adds that they shall teach them diligently to their children and shall talk of them when they sit down in their houses and when they walk by the way and when they lie down and when they rise up and that they bind them for a sign upon their hand and that they shall be as frontlets between their eies and that they shall write them upon the posts of their house and on their gates So justly was the Law call'd the Scripture being written by them and worn upon the several parts of the body inscrib'd upon the walls of their houses the entrance of their dores and gates of their Cities and in a word placed before their eies wherever they convers'd 2. AND this was granted to the Jews as matter of privilege and favor To them saies Saint Paul Rom. 9.4 pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law And the same Saint Paul at the 3. chap. 2. v. of that Epistle unto the question what advantage hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision answers that it is much every way chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God This depositum or trust was granted to the Fathers that it should be continued down unto their children He made a covenant saies David Ps 78. v. 5. with Jacob and gave Israel a Law which he commanded our Fore-fathers to teach their children that their posterity might know it and the children which were yet unborn to the intent that when they came up they might shew their children the same Which Scripture by a perpetual succession was to be handed down unto the Christian Church the Apostles on all occasions appealing unto them as being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Act. 13.27 and also privatly in their hands so that they might at plesure search into them Jo. 5.39 Act. 17.11 Hereupon the Jews are by Saint Austin call'd the Capsarii or servants that carried the Christians books And Athanasius in his Tract of the Incarnation saies The Law was not for the Jews only nor were the Prophets sent for them alone but that Nation was the Divinity-Schole of the whole world from whence they were to fetch the knowledg of God and the way of spiritual living which amounts to what the Apostle saies Galat. 3.24 That the Law was a Schole-master to bring us unto
describing the offices in the public Assemblies We feed our faith with the sacred Words we raise our hopes and establish our reliance 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week and there perform'd the duties of fasting praier and hearing the holy Scriptures concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee Luk. 18.12 in conformity hereto the Christians also their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies which were the daies of Station so frequently mention'd in Tertullian and others the first writers of the Church Tertullian expresly saies that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety the fourth and sixth day of the week and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts to wit those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday Where by the way we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church and the Litanies then appointed so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3.15 whereof Josephus against Appion saies That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws he will tell every thing readier then his name for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing they retain them imprinted in their minds So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth The whole life of a Christian saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity there his sacrifices are praiers and praises before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures and Psalms and Hymns at the time of his meals Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist to Donatus 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks Serm. 5. We Christians saies he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which have fill'd all Countries under Heaven For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians but also the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Samaritans and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein such as Origen who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla Saint Chrysostom who translated the New Testament Psalms and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify Saint Jerom who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution and when diverse did faint in that trial and basely surrender'd them we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons did not according to the Romish equity punish the innocent by depriving them of that sacred Book because the others had so unworthily prostituted it tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks Ages and Sexes 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort The Word saies he is not hid from any it is a common light that shineth to all men there is no obscurity in it hear it you that be far off and hear it you that are nigh 21. TO this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta whom he directs in the education of her young daughter and advises that instead of gems and silk she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture wherein not gold or skins or Babylonian embroideries but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith will recommend its self Let her first learn the Psalter and be entertain'd with those songs then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue let her pass then to the Gospels and never let them be out of her hands and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures let her learn the Prophets the Heptateuch or books of Moses Joshua and Judges the books of Kings and Chronicles the volumes of Ezra and Esther and lastly the Canticles And indeed this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd female sex skilful in the Scriptures that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned as a familiar friend in the mysterious mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind as the poor are in their addresses to the rich but invites all with lowly speech feeding with manifest truth and exercising with secret And Ep. 1.21 tells the devout Proba that in this world where we are absent from the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight the soul is to think it self desolate and never cease from praier and the words of divine and holy Scripture c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons house-holders and people engag'd in trades and secular professions telling them that the reading of the Scripture is a
great defensative against sin and on the other side the ignorance thereof is a deep and head-long precipice that not to know the Law of God is the utter loss of salvation that this has caus'd heresies and corruption of life and has confounded the order of things for it cannot be by any means that his labor should be fruitless who emploies himself in a daily and attentive reading of the Scripture 24. I am not saies the same St. Chry. Hom. 9. on Colos 3. a Monk I have wife and children and the cares of a family But 't is a destructive opinion that the reading of the Scripture pertains only to those who have addicted themselves to a monastic life when the reading of Scripture is much more necessary for secular persons for they who converse abroad and receive frequent wounds are in greatest need of remedies and preservatives so Hom. 2. on Mat. Hearken all you that are secular how you ought to order your wives and children and how you are particularly enjoin'd to read the Scriptures and that not perfunctorily or by chance but very diligently 25. LIKEWISE Hom. 3. on Laz. What saiest thou O man it is not thy business to turn over the Scripture being distracted by innumerable cares no thou hast therefore the greater obligation others do not so much stand in need of the aids of the Scripture as they who are conversant in much business Farther Hom. 8. on Heb. 5. I beseech you neglect not the reading of the Scriptures but whether we comprehend the meaning of what is spoken or not let us alwaies be conversant in them for daily meditation strengthens the memory and it frequently happens that what you now cannot find out if you attemt it again you will the next day discover for God of his goodness will enlighten the mind It were endless to transcribe all the Exhortations of the ancient Doctors and Fathers of the Church they not only permitted but earnestly prest upon all Christians whatever their estate or condition were the constant reading of the holy Scripture Nor indeed was their restraint ever heard of till the Church of Rome had espous'd such doctrins as would not bear the test of Scripture and then as those who deal in false wares are us'd to do they found it necessary to proportion their lights accordingly 26. THIS Peter Sutor in his second Book cap. 22. of the Translation of the Scripture honestly confesses saying that whereas many things are enjoin'd which are not expresly in Scripture the unlearned observing this will be apt to murmur and complain that so heavy burthens are laid upon them and their Christian liberty infring'd They will easily be with-drawn from observing the Constitutions of the Church when they find that they are not contain'd in the Law of Christ And that this was not a frivolous suggestion the desperat attemt of the Romanists above mention'd in leaving out the second Commandment in their Primers and Catechisms which they communicate to the people may pass for an irrefragable evidence For what Lay-man would not be shockt to find Almighty God command not to make any graven image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth that no one should bow down to them nor worship them when he sees the contrary is practic'd and commanded by the Church 27. BUT would God none but the Romamanist were impeachable of this detention of Scripture there are too many among us that are thus false and envious to themselves and what the former do upon policy and pretence of reverence those do upon mere oscitancy and avow'd profaness which are much worse inducements And for such as these to declaim against detention of the Scripture is like the Law-suits of those who contend only about such little punctilio's as themselves design no advantage from but only the worsting their Adversaries and it would be much safer for them to lie under the interdict of others then thus to restrain themselves even as much as the errors of obedience are more excusable then those of contemt and profaness 28. AND here I would have it seriously consider'd that the Edict of Diocletian for the demolishing the Christian Churches and the burning their Bibles became the character and particular aggravation of his most bloudy persecution Now should Almighty God call us to the like trial should Antichristian violence whether heathen or other take from us our Churches and our Bibles what comfort could we have in that calamity if our contemt of those blessings drove them from us nay prevented persecution and bereft us of them even whilst we had them in our power He who neglects to make his constant resort unto the Church which by Gods mercy now stands open or to read diligently the holy Scriptures which by the same divine Goodness are free for him to use is his own Diocletian and without the terrors of death or torments has renounc'd if not the Faith the great instruments of its conveiance and pledg of God Almighties presence among the sons of men 29. BUT what if men either upon the one motive or the other will not read yet the Scriptures continue still most worthy to be read they retain still their propriety for all those excellent ends to which God design'd them and as the Prophet tells the Jews Ez. 2.5 whether they will hear or whether they will forbear they shall know there has bin a Prophet among them so whether we will take the benefit or no we shall one day find that the holy Scriptures would have made us wise unto salvation If thro our fault alone they fail to do so they will one day assume a less grateful office and from guides and assistants become accusers and witnesses against us SECT V. The Scripture has great propriety and fitness toward the attainment of its excellent end WE are now in the next place to consider how exactly the holy Scriptures are adapted to those great ends to which they are directed how sufficient they are for that important negotiation on which they are sent and that we shall certainly find them if we look on them either intrinsically or circumstantially For the first of these notions we need only to reflect on the third part of this discourse where the Scripture in respect of the subject Matter is evinc'd to be a system of the most excellent Laws backt with the most transcendent rewards and punishments and the certainty of those confirm'd by such pregnant instances of Gods mercies and vengeance in this world as are the surest gages and earnests of what we are bid to expect in another 2. NOW what method imaginable can there be used to rational creatures of more force and energy Nay it seems to descend even to our passions and accommodates it self to our several inclinations And seeing how few Proselytes there are to bare and naked vertue and how many to interest and
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