Slur upon the Word of God and question'd its Divine Authority But Dr. L. further adds pag. 542. That it was one Fundamental of the Sadducees Faith That no Article in Religion ought to be admitted which cannot be made out plainly from the Five Books of Moses From hence it appears that they did not believe the other Books of Scripture to be of equal Authority with the Pentateuch nor sufficient of themselves to establish any Doctrine of Faith Now whereas the Doctor argues and proves out of his Rabbins that the Sadducees and Samaritans us'd and read and believ'd all the other Books as well as the Pentateuch and that they were not ignorant of 'em nor accounted 'em Tales and of no value and again that those Books were known to 'em and of Authority among ' em All this I readily grant for they doubtless highly esteem'd the rest of the Scripture and â—inâ—d it in confirmation of any Doctrine reveal'd by Moses as we Christians do the Primitive Fathers tho' uninspir'd I have been longer on this trivial Subject than I intended Only let the Reader mark how the two Ministers are here Advocating for the Samaritans and Sadducees as they before undertook the Protection of the other Jews In good time the Dissenters will comprehend these also Some of the Quakers and Anabaptists the Modern Sadducees and Mahometans I mean the Socinians and almost all the Nation of Schismaticks and Hereticks are in their Interests already The Samaritans and Jews are happily coming into the Confederacy 7. The Rector laid down this Observation also We diminish from the Word when we lay it aside as not necessary or not the Supreme Rule of Faith Hereunto Mr. O. answers This implys as if there were some other at least subordinate Rules of Faith We know no other Rule of Divine Faith but the Holy Scripture The Man thinks verily he has caught me now But I am not afraid to say there are many subordinate Rules of Faith and do pretend here to teach him them because he seems to be ignorant of them I reckon then that whatsoever confirms or illustrates any Doctrine is a Subordinate Rule of Faith for whatsoever doth make manifest is Light Eph. 5. 13. Such are the ancient Creeds Catechisms Decrees of Councils Testimony of Fathers Consent of Adversaries the Instructions of Parents the Dictates of Wise and Good Men the Voice of Conscience the Light of Natural Reason the Preaching of the Word the Intimations of Providence and lastly Universal Tradition every one of which when it administers Light to the Divine Truths contain'd in the Word of God are Subordinate Rules of Faith But of all these Universal Tradition may on very good Grounds be accounted a Rule For I ask Mr. Owen why he believes the Scripture to be Divinely inspir'd but because 't is transmitted unto us as such by Universal Tradition The Excellency of its Moral Precepts the high Strains and noble Flights of Piety which we meet with there renders it worthy every good Man's Acceptation true but they prove not that 't was written by Inspiration For then Plato and Seneca St. Ignatius and St. Clemens Romanus the Seven Wise Men of Greece and Mr. O. may reckon himself the eighth if he please and a thousand other celebrated Authors might lay claim to Inspiration The Miracles reported in Scripture to have been wrought by the Authors or Divine Writers of the Books do not evince 'em to have been written by Inspiration until it be first made out that those Writers did work those Miracles and this cannot be proved at this time of day but by Tradition So then it is the Universal Testimony of the Church in conjunction with that vein of intrinsick Goodness and Piety running through all the Holy Scriptures which convinces us that they were deliver'd by Persons inspir'd and authoriz'd thereto by God Tradition therefore is at least a Subordinate Rule of Faith and confirms the Divine Authority of the Books of Scripture Another perhaps would affirm it the first and leading Rule But I give Mr. O. liberty to assign it which place he pleases Only I ask whether this Minister of the Gospel who pretends to be a Teacher of others and a Guide of the Blind was ever yet able to give a solid Reason of his own Faith and of the Hope that is in him He can never do it without the help of Tradition The Rector added under this Head some things concerning the Sufficiency Perspicuity and Supreme Authority of the Scripture which this Critick being it seems in a better humour than ordinarily that Generation of Men are is pleas'd out of his great Condescension to declare Are well Asserted But I must confess I like not the Rector one jot the better for this Commendation and yet wish I could in any measure return his Complement and let him know that he has said any one thing well and wisely in his Remarks Master said those vile and Hypocritical Pharisees and Herodians we know that thou art true and teachest the way of God in Truth c. when at the same time they had a design upon Jesus Christ to puzzle and insnare him with a cramp Question So my Adversary here notwithstanding his Commendations has something against the Rector Some Men can never be pleas'd and the Remarker is one of that number I perceive Tell me says he is it lawful to Impose indifferent things His words are Were this Principle practically acknowledg'd it would soon heal our breaches c. As who should say did we once lay aside Vnscriptural Terms of Communion and thereby Practically acknowledg the Sufficiency Perspicuity and Supreme Authority of the Scriptures all would be well in a trice an end then would be put to our Divisions Verily if this would do the feat I would embrace it with both arms I 'd do any thing for the purchase of so valuable a Blessing But how comes this wise Seer to look so far before him as to assure us of this good issue the experiment has been once made already but without success Time was when Episcopacy was exploded and the Unscriptural Terms of Communion here complain'd of laid aside but were our breaches soon healed It was so far from that that they were not healed at all nor ever will be upon the Presbyterian and Congregational Principles Our Division were increas'd and multiply'd Schisms and Heresies grew to be as numerous as the Heads of Hydra In short I know no way of healing our Breaches but that every Man should obey them that have the Rule over 'em in all lawful things q.d. which are not forbidden by God For why should any one presume to scruple or call that unclean which the Lord has not made so They are much more superstitious who abhor a Surplice than they who wear it I lastly observ'd that We diminish from the Word when we add any thing to it I mention'd the Apocrypha which the Romanists insert
Sophister represents the Case but for the Peoples appointing their own Ministers of Tables Therefore he read the Place Ye the People 5. That 't is no unusual thing for the Error of one Man or a few to be imputed to the rest of that Party Thus to make use of his own instance Haman's Offence was reveng'd upon many Thousands of the Persons and Saul's upon Seven of his Children And thus the Note-maker fell foul upon the whole Body of the Episcopal Church for a supposed fault of my L. Bishop of Salisbury Ay but the Cameronian was an Ignorant Man happily I had thought there were no Ignoramus's among the Presbyterians If a Man will believe 'em hereabouts all their Geese are Swans Every little Mushroom as soon as he first prickt up his Ears in the Pulpit is immediately cry'd up as an Angel sent from Heaven tho' he sprung out of the Earth as it were but a few days before CHAP. V. Being a Reply to Mr. Owen's Third Chapter THE Minister goes on and objects That no Protestant Dissenters have ever urg'd the corrupt Reading in favour of a Popular Government of the Church in their Writings 'T is a bold Touch this to be so positive in a Negative Has he read all their Writings I 'll give him an Example of one who tho' he urg'd it not in Writing or in Print yet alledg'd it in a Disputation One Mr. Jolly some while ago since dead at Duckenfeild Hall produc'd that Text in the 6th Act as alter'd into Ye against the Reverend Mr. Ellison Rector of Ashton-under line I have Permission from the said Mr. Ellison to assure the World of this under his Name and Testimony and which he will be ready to verifie any other way that shall be reasonably requir'd of him Take another of the like kind There is a Gentleman now living at Bolton ready upon demand to attest the Truth of what I here relate who heard some Dissenters in a Dispute about Religion cite Acts 6. as the Cameronian did But being told 't was false Printed they reply'd that they Reading it so in several and especially the Scotch Bibles knew not but it was as true as the other These Dissenters were not 't is confest Ministers but doubtless had been furnish'd with this Argument grounded on this false Reading by some of their Leaders who ought to have dealt with 'em more sincerely 'T is remarkable here how they more especially appeal'd to the Scotch Bibles I believe Mr. Owen will be wiser than to give us another Catalogue of the corrupted Editions in Scotland tho' he has in part promis'd it I shall be beholden to him if he 'l be pleas'd to answer my Expectation herein since I have not my self interest enough among 'em to procure an Accompt I hope by this time Mr. O. is in some reasonable Measure satisfy'd The Remarker further argues that Had the Corruption been design'd in favour of the Dissenters it would have been promoted when they were uppermost To fortifie this Objection he has taken pains to examin the Editions of most years from 1640 to 1696 and observes that most of the faulty Editions happen'd in the Reign of King Charles the Second when the Bishops had the Management of the Press that the faulty Editions amount to Thirty-eight according to his Collection almost equal in number to the other which were not corrupted Let us now see what is to be said unto all this 1. I cannot tell whether the Dissenters would have promoted the Corruption when they were uppermost I am sure there was no need of doing it after they had gain'd their Point by another Method that of the Sword By the way we never heard of altering Religion in England by Dragoons till the Presbyterians first oblig'd this Kingdom with that new Invention in the late Civil War 2. Tho' far the greater number of faulty Editions were set forth in King Charles the Second's days when the Dissenters were undermost yet they may be suppos'd to have promoted the Corruption even then I never yet could learn but they found Means at all times to influence the Press in spight of Authority 3. The Bishops had not in King Charles the Second's Reign the Management of the Press That had been a long while in the hands of Men having receiv'd it by Patent to them and to their Assigns who claim it as their Freehold and Inheritance nor can they easily be controul'd in their Business The Lawyers in Westminster Hall will tell you as much The Bishops have nothing to do no Authority to Print License Order Over-look or to Correct the Impressions of the Bible but the King's Printers have the sole Power lodg'd in them and for the Errors committed in Printing are answerable to the King or to the Law only 'T was needful to set the ordinary Reader streight in this matter because the Remarker has so often harpt upon it and entertain'd us with a great deal of stuff which having no Foundation of Truth betrays his Ignorance or Malice against his Superiors unto whom he owes more Deference 4. 'T is acknowledg'd by Mr. Owen that there have been â—8 Editions faulty in this Place besides those in Scotland and at Oxford of late and besides Mr. Clark's and Mr. Baxter's false Prints and the same repeated in their Form of Church Government Who can believe an Erratum to have been thus often repeated by Chance Let the Minister give us an instance of any other mistake in Printing whereupon depends any Controversie in Religion so frequently committed in different Volumes in so many Presses by so many Printers and in so many distant Places at Cambridge Oxford London and Edinburgh and it shall suffice Till then I desire to be excus'd if I continue to believe and assert the Text to have suffer'd by design Here I must acknowledge my self beholden to the Remarker who by the great Pains he has taken in hunting after the corrupted Editions has strengthen'd my Argument and left no Place for his defence of the Dissenters To justifie my self yet further against the Censures of some Men who have believ'd that the Charge which I exhibited against the Dissenters in my Sermon was not sufficiently made out by such Proof or Circumstances as might have been expected in a thing of this nature I shall here present the Reader with a Parallel Case which I find in A B. Laud's Speech in the Star Chamber It begins p. 64. The Puritans had in a Label accus'd the Prelates That to justifie their Proceedings they the Bishops had forg'd a new Article of Religion brought from Rome giving them full Power to alter the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church at a Blow and had foisted it into the Beginning of the 20th Article Anno 1628. The Clause complain'd of is The Church the Libeller expounded it the Bishops has Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies the Libeller said in Matters of Faith This
veteri Romano sequitur à ligno eoquo modo affertur à Sancto Cyprian Just Mart. Tertulliano Sancto Leone Papa in hymno Ecclesiastico Regnavit à ligno Deus Besides this most ancient Father and Martyr and the most Learned too of all others in and before his time has produced a great many Examples of the like kind and not a few whole Periods or smaller Sections intirely expung'd which the Jews then living and disputing with him were not able to deny or any ways palliate So that all the pretended Care of the Jews notwithstanding the Hebrew Copy had been corrupted early in the Second Century and according to Vossius soon after the Destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian and remains so unto this present time I must not pass over Vossius's main Argument but will represent it in very few words He shews that the Ancient Jews believed their Messiah would come about the 6000 Year from the Creation and that they expected him about the time when Jesus was born those two Periods being coincident It follows hence 1. That they believ'd the World 6000 years old at the Birth of Jesus 2. That the Ancient Hebrew Copies reckon'd 6000 years from Adam to Jesus else the Jews could not have been in expectation of the Messiah when Jesus was born if their Chronology had then been the same as it is this day 3. From the whole it must be confest that the Modern Hebrew Copies are corrupted the World according to them being at the Birth of Jesus but about 4000 years old The 2000 years wanting in the present Hebrew are supply'd in a great measure by the Seventy's Copy in the Chronology of the Patriarchs the Remainder are made good out of the Intervals of the Judges of Israel and the Reigns of the Persian Kings which the Jews have shorten'd and drawn the Christians into their Error Hereunto may be added another Observation near of kind unto the former St. Luke Chap. 4. 35 36 v. affirms Sala was the Son of Cainan Cainan the Son of Arpbaxad But Gen. 11. 12 v. Sala is reckon'd the immediate Son of Arphaxad and Cainan quite left out in the Hebrew Copy whereas the Vatican Seventy agrees with St. Luke which is a Demonstration that the Jews have corrupted the Hebrew By this one Artifice of theirs are lost 130 years I expect here the Remarker or the Note-maker will for the sake of the Hebrew give the Holy Evangelist such another Character as upon the like occasion their Friend Jerom did That Corruption of Psal 22. 16. v. is known and acknowledg'd by all The Jews read it thus As a Lion instead of They pierced my hands and my feet So the Evangelist Mark 15. 24. and the Seventy more truly have it the difference is but the half of a very small Letter sc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is less than that between Y and W and the Epenthesis of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is common among 'em in other Cases But after all this it was nothing to me or to my Argument in the Sermon whether the Jews corrupted the Seventy only or the Hebrew also or both I 'll suppose it was the Seventy only which is all Mr. O. contends for yet still my Bill of Indictment laid against the Jews must be found For the Scripture is the Word of God in whatever Language 't is written They who would excuse the Jews for Corrupting the Seventy only and not the Hebrew in good time will defend the Corrupting the English Version only and not the Original Greek But if the latter Defence will not bring off the false Cameronian neither will the former justifie the faithless Jews I wish then the Jews the Scotch Presbyterians and Mr. O. in the name of his Brethren in England to concert these Matters among ' emselves for the Good of Christendom The Rector briefly noted that the Samaritans and Sadducees rejected all but the Five Books of Moses and the Minister calls this a Vulgar Error let us see on what Grounds Mr. Owen pleads that whereas Josephus affirms The Sadducees to have receiv'd the Law only the Historian in another place explains himself as if he meant The written Law in Opposition to the Oral In proof whereof he sends me back unto the 13th b. and 18 Chap. I am there and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But now I will shew that the Pharisees having receiv'd from the Fathers many things as legal which were not written in the Law of Moses deliver'd them unto the People And for this cause the Sadducees rejected them alledging that those things only were to be accounted Legal which were written sc in the Laws of Moses but that they ought not to observe the Traditions of the Fathers I will not insist upon this that some Learned Men have thought the Prophetical Books of Scripture were by the Sadducees reckon'd among the Oral Traditions of the Fathers nor will I deny tho' there be reason to doubt that Josephus's Passage in his Eighteenth Book is to be understood in the same Sense as that in the Thirteenth Book and that they explain one another However this be he speaks only of the Traditions added unto the Laws of Moses which the Sadducees rejected but not a Syllable concerning the Prophetical Writings which whether the Sadducees rejected or not remains still to be examin'd Mr. O. assures us 't is a Vulgar Error But Mr. Pool in his Synopsis informs me 't was the constant Opinion of the Fathers and never contradicted til Scaliger and Drusius of late advanc'd the contrary Opinion I hope the Minister will not thrust down the Fathers into the Vulgar Forme The Sadducees in all Probability would never have deny'd the Resurrection if they had entertain'd a just esteem of the Prophetical Books Hence our Lord overlooking all the other more plain and convincing Testimonies in the Prophetical Writings singl'd out that of Moses Exod. 3. 6. I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham c. as the most proper and effectual Argument ad Hominem in proof of the Resurrection which the Sadducees on their own Principles cou'd not deny tho' they might have avoided the other But the Remarker sends me to the Learn'd Dr. Lightfoot for further satisfaction herein Vol. 2. pag. 541 542. I am content to stand to this Gentleman's Judgment Dr. Lightfoot then pag. 541. grants that the Samaritans might so reject all the Books of the Old Testament except the Pentateuch as to forbid their being read in the Synagogues Even this Concession alone were I should think sufficient to my purpose The Sadducees and Samaritans forbad the rest of the Scripture to be read in the Publick Congregations If the Hagiographa and Prophets were now by a Positive Order forbid to be read in our Churches we should have Mr. O I question not soon about our Ears as Men that put a