scripturarum divinarum vacollabit autheritas is a necessary foundation for other subsequent graces that are required in the Christian Religion and without which foundation all godlinesse and religion would in a short time fall to the ground no theologicall grace can be without saith and faith cannot stand if the authority of the Scriptures fall If beleeving can be no foundation of Christian religion why doth the holy Ghost give to faith the name of foundation Heb. 6.1 In these words not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God none will deny that the beleeving the Scriptures to be the word of God is both the ground and an effentiall part of a right faith towards God And therefore if the Apostle calleth faith towards God a foundation he must needs imply that faith towards the Scriptures is a foundation You cavill at the Ministers for saying they testifie to the truth and to their solemn league and covenant Sion Col. visited p. 3. do they mean say you that they give the same testimony to their solemn league and covenant which they do to the truth I observe your scornfull estranging expression Answ Their Covenant You disclalm it it seems you had as good to throw it off in your lines as in your life The Covenant is the Sectaries Shiboleth he cannot speak it plain you deal with the Covenant as the Spaniel with the water when you were swimming for your lives it did bear you up but now you are got to shore safe as you think you shake it off Why is it that throughout this Section you do so undervalue the covenant Is it for the good it hath done to the kingdome or the hurt you fear it may do to you or do you desire to make it break because you cannot make it bend and change as often as your interest doth But to your question do the Ministers give the same testimony to the Covenant that they do unto the truth of Christ I suppose you love to testifie much alike to both As for the Ministers you cannot inforce an equalizing or a prelation of either to other out of these their words And to our solemn league and covenant AND was wont to be a note copulative not comparative And yet I suppose the Ministers testifie with the same integrity and unfainednesse to the one with which they do to the other But note this zealot Paramount for the truths of Christ he who by denying the Scriptures fears not to destroy the word of truth thinks his ears defiled when with the covenant the Ministers do but name the word Truth Like the hypocriticall Pharisees who feared not to be murderers of Christ and yet were afraid of defilemenâ— by going into the Hall Joh. 18.28 I know not what testimony the Covenant is capable of Sion Col visited p. 4. unlesse they will call a regular full and through observation of it a testimony to it the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall not a verball reformation You answer your self Ans You say a reall reformation is the best testimony to the covenant True And therefore say I not the only testimony Secondly Doth a reall observation of the covenant hinder a verball testimony to it nay doth it not enforce it I might deservedly question my reality for God and his cause If I would not expresse that reality in words upon occasion given 'T is possible indeed for the verball profession to be without the reall but not possible for the reall to be without the verball but you say the covenant is not capable of a verball testimony to it Alas poor Covenant It seems thou maist be well thought of but not well spoken off Thou maist be capable of a verball opposition and deniall as of being called an old almanack out of date but not of a verball approbation Thy wound is broader it seems then thy plaister But Thirdly How is it that you plead so much for the reall observation of the Covenant I fear not to further the reall but to hinder the verbal I dislike your pâ—ng of zeal for a reall reformation you plead for it only to get the greater advantage against it your heat of zeal for the covenant is like that of some herbs hot in the mouth cold in the stomack To inrich their title they add Sion Col. visited p. 4. As also against the errours and heresies c. Tell not the Ministers of loving rich titles Ans either for themselves or their books your boasting of your selves is as ridiculous as nausecus I pray who are they that assume to themselves or have beâ—owed upon them these titles in print The richly â—nointed A Preacher to the two greatest Congregations in England A heart the best headed and a head the best hearted of all the sons of men A man that hath the gifts and graces of ten thousand rare men met in one Men who look upon the word of Christ as impartially as men made of flesh and bloud are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out Are not these swelling words these are enriched titles Mat. 21.28 Phil. 2.3 doth this savour of the spirit of Christ and his Gospel he was lowly in heart and bids each to esteem other better then themselves But they add against errours They had need for you are daily adding to errours But this touching of errours is the touching the apple of your eye and the gainfull occupation of your silver shrines 'T is observeable that all along in your book you give not the Reader the least intimation of a dislike of any particular errour though never so damnable mentioned in all the Catalogue Only in your 〈◊〉 age you tell the world that errouts are a great grief to 〈◊〉 heart and that you oppose them in your Ministery 't is a good to beleeve it as to go where 't is done you dare not come neer an expression of dislike to errours by twelve score and now the Ministers expresse their zeal against them how doth your render nature make you weep for Tammuz But there is no further matter if consequence in these words against the errours heresies Sion Col. visited p. 4. and blasphemies of the times c. then in the foregoing words A testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ Therefore these passages are broadly Tautologicall To rectifie you The Ministers in testifying for the truth c. Answ owned the Confession of faith and the doctrines of truth heâ—d forth in the Scripture and in saying against the errours beresies c. they disclaim and discover the things that are opposite unto them they have not the Sectarian art to be friends to truth and to be silent when errours that destroy truth are broached to look toward heaven and earth at the same instant The two fore-mentioned branches are therefore as far from being Tautologicall as you from being either Logicall or
was to answer hâ—s accusations against the Ministers for their transcribing his Errours in their Testimony My book would have swolne into a large volume had I handled the Points according to their own extent and according to the helps afforded by our Divines But I hope I have done enough to shew that he had no cause to complain of the Ministers transcriptions and that all his pretended allegations out of the Fathers Bucer and Mâ— Ball help him not at all but rather speak against him My multiplied occasions have hindered me from so speedy and large an Answer as may be expected but as it is Reverend and beloved friends you have it and my self to serve you in the things of Christ WILLIAM JENKYN From my Study at Christ Church Load Errata Page 4. marg read Paulâ—s voluit p 8. marg l 30. read de Christo l. 35. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 8. l 23. r upheld p. 20. l 23. r. wherein you say c. p â—â— l ult r. tells mâ— it is to c p 23. l. 34. r. it is from God written p. 31. marg r abijcere possit p. 41. l. 24 r. and that truly l. 11. r. you did speak to c. p. 45. l. 33. â—â—jutorium p. 48 marg r. contendunt p 52. marg r Bacer in Iob 6.44 p. 5â— l 32. r with the fathers p. 52 marg r. etesiph ΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΟΕΠῚΣΚΟΠΟΣ OR The Busie Bishop RELIGION never had greater enemies then those of her own house Sion Coll. visited p. 1. And a little after It was never well with RELIGION since the Ministers c. Answ Your work is to kill Religion but your way to do so Ans I perceive is to kisse it You seem to make towards the lips of Religion but your aim is at her fifth rib You advance her head in your Preface but 't is to break her neck in your book In the pretence of your Preface you raise up Religion to the clouds In the performance of your book you lay it among the clods for must not Religion needs fall to the ground when her foundation upon which she stands is pluckt away And takes not â—e away the foundation of religion who denies the Scripture to be that foundation Div. Authority of the Scripturâ—â— p. 18. And doth not John Goodwin deny the Scripture to be that foundation of Religion What else is the English of these words in terminis his own viz. Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originals are the foundation of Christian Religion Away with your hypocriticall exclamations against the enemies of Religion and your Crocodiles tears in that Religion cannot be well for the Ministers were your wit but hair to keen as your will we should in a short time neither have Religion nor Minister left among us But to your stuff The greatest enemies to Religion are in her own house Sion Col. visit p. 1. Answ True For of your own selves saith Paul shall men arise speaking penverse things to draw away Disciples after them Act 20.30 And if of all that are in Religions own house heretikes be her greatest enemies What will become of John Goodwin It was never well with Christian Religion since the Ministers of the Gospel so called by themselves Sion Col. visit p 1. and so reputed by others for want of knowing better cunningly vested that priviledge of the Church of being the pillar and ground of truth in themselves First Answ For the Lectio Your meaning I suppose was and had not rage against the Ministers made you write non-sense you would have said thus The Ministers cunningly vested themselves in or with the priviledge of the Church and not as you doe The Ministers vested the priviledge of the Church in themselves A man may be vested in or with a priviledge but it 's very improper to say a priviledge is vested in or with a man as improper as to say a garment is vested in the man that wears it t were better to say the man is vested in the garment It s a sign your pen is drunk with madnes it doth so stagger and stammer These faults of pure weaknesse I should not regard did I observe either humility in you under the sense of greater in yourself or ingenuity in you in passing by smaller in others But why finde I fault with the vest the phrase of your book The dusty cloaths of your words are good enough for the crooked carcasse of your matter This is Titubare in limite for I may well call the matter crooked if to be true be to be straight for I finde two abominable falsities within the space of two lines 1. That the Ministers of the Gospel are only so reputed by men for want of knowing and considering better 2. That they have vested themselves with the priviledge of being the ground and pillar of truth 1. You say these Ministers of the Gospel are only so reputed for want of considering better Answ 1. 'T is your sorrow to see that they are so much as reputed Ministers But Sir 't is your sin to say they are no more then Ministers reputed If they be no Ministers why disprove you not their calling Why bring you not an argument in stead of a scoff against them But you may write thus with much praise from your deluded followers and little pains to your feeble self 2. Tell me of one man either Minister or private Christian differing from the subscribers only in the point of Independency who dares say thus with you I have heard sundry of the Synodicall dissenters preach and professe the contrary 3. Or are you now got a step or two above Independency acknowledge you any Ministers of the Gospel at all whether your self or any other I observe that you who were wont to stile your self The Minister of a Church such an one as 't is in Colemanstreet now in this last Pamphlet as if you had a minde to be lookt upon under another consideration word your self only Iohn Goodwin a servant of God and men I am sure of men I doubt whether of God haply the Delilah of a Congregation hath entised you to be tampering with the lock of our Ministery you have yeelded already to cast off the word Minister by the next you may have cast off the thing too 4. If you do account your self a Minister I pray tell me in your next which way you had your Ordination whether by that way which the Ministers of London had theirs who you say are no Ministers at all or whether you had it by a Culinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one of your allies You tell the subscribers afterward of sacred unction in a jeer but know that no unction is the lesse sacred for not coming out of the kitchin Secondly You say The Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of the Church of being the ground and pillar of truth and it was â—â—ver happy since Answ I
but it bears the Image of weak and unworthy ones If the subscribers be learned and pious I fear they are as unlike you Answ as you say they are unlike their own Testimony But if their Testimony be not for piety and learning like themselves truly friend this your work is for impiety and ignorance just like you a thing upon which John Goodwin fecit need never be written And yet the first side in your late book against the Authority of the Scriptures in my apprehension was very unlike you I mean the verses under your picture which are a very jeer to you The verses say that in you are gathered the perfections of ten thousand men with their gifts and graces c. when as many know that you have more heresies and errours met in you then are dispersed among some thousands in the world and if your heresies unles you are lately impoverished could be bequeathed to ten thousand sectaries they might every one have a childes portion and have sufficient to live like such men when you are dead and gone It was therefore a passage as pernicious as proud which dropt from your pen in your Epistle to your book called The divine Authority of Scriptures where you say that you will endeavour when you are gone that your followers may have your spirit among them A single portion of it would be far too much Rom 12.2 'T were better it might be transformed while you live then be transmigrated when you die The Ministens book is a Testimony against the truths of Josus Christ It testisieth against this pretious truth of Jesus viz. Sion Col visi p. 2. No writing whatsoever whether originals or translations are the foundation of Christian religion wheneas this is asserted for a truth by the great Apostle 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation can no man lay but Jesus Christ T is a mercy that since you have so little of integrity Ans you have no more of intellect Think you your self able to woo thâ— Scripâ—res to afford you weapons against themselves Can you prove out of the Scripture that there is no Scripture You say Christ is the only foundation therefore not the Scripture But doth the one hinder the other May not Christ be the only foundation in point of mediation and the Scripture in point of manifestation and discovery May not Christ be the foundation upon which I build for salvation and the Scripture the foundation upon which I ground the knowledge of this Saviour I pray answer Whether do you ground your knowledge and belief that Christ is the only foundation of salvation upon this your cited place 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation c If you do not why do you alledge it to prove that Christ is the only foundation If you do ground your belief of Christ his being the only foundation upon this place why do you bring this Scripture to prove that Christ his being the foundation hinders the Scripture from being so Is it possible that the known distinction of â—ssendi and engâ—oscendi principium quod quo or a foundation personall and scripturall should be bid from the eyes of this seducer in chief Therefore do I acknowledge the Scriptures to be the foundation of religion because they are appointed by God for the sole manifestation of his will concerning our salvation by Christ we building our confidence that Christ is the only Saviour upon the Scripture which saith so Is my dependence upon a friend for a favour any hinderance to me from building my confidence upon his word also nay do I not therefore build any hopes upon him because upon his word his word revealing his will you do wickedly therefore and weakly to oppose Christ and his word Give me one protestant writer that ever argued thus with you The word is not our foundation because Christ is so I am sure the Apostle saith Eph. 2.20 that we are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles that is their doctrine and yet Christ was the corner stone for all that If you doubt whether by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles be meant their doctrine concerning Christ Consult our learned and judicious expositours of that place * Quin fundamentum bâ—â— pro doctrina sunatur minâ—è dubâ—um est neque euim patriarch as nomin at aut pâ—oâ— reges sed â—oâ— solos qui offiâ—â—uÌ„ habehant docendiâ—â—aque locet Poulue fidem Ecclesie in â—ac doctrinâ— debere esse fundatam Calv. in loc Doctrinam Apostolorum prophetarum fundamento aedificij comparaâ— Pâ—sc inâ—oc Nos affirmamâ—â— sundamentuâ— illud quo nitititur ecclesiae fides esse doctrinam propheticaÌ„ ApostolicaÌ„ de Ceristo Rolloc in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chryl â—n loe Paulus per Apostolorum fundamentum doctrinaâ— Aposto lorum intelligit Whâ—t Q 2. con 4 de Monarch Pet. p 55â— Vid Chamier de Canone lib. 6. cap. 8. Calvins words are Quin fundamentum hic pro dectrinâ sumatur minime dubiumest and there 's no doubt saith he hut the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles is here put for doctrine Paul names not here the Patriarchs or godly Kings but those only who had the office of teaching and the faith of the Church is founded upon their doctrine Thus far Calvin In like manner Piscator who saith that Paul compareth the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets to the foundation of a house See also what that learned Scot M. Rolloc saith upon the place We affirm that the foundation upon which the faith of the Church is updeld is the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets of Christ To the same purpose also Chrysâ—stome and in their Controversies the learned Whitaker and Chamier who will inform you if understood You complain that this passage of yours is ranked among infamous and pernitious errours viz. That it is no foundation of Christian Religion to believe that the Scriptures are the word of God Believing you say of the Scriptures is an act of man Now no act of man is the foundation of Christian religion Only Christ is the foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 1. In that place of Hagiom out of which this infamous errour is taken you deal craftily or which is most like cloudily for your aim was to prove him guiltlesse who denieth the being of the Scriptures and not that forbeareth the believing of them For your argument Christ is the foundation and therefore not any act of man as the beleeving of the Scriptures 't is very false and feeble for though no act unto which man is enabled by God such as beleeving is a foundation in that sense in which Christ is upon whom we build the hope of our salvation to be obtained by his mediation Yet beleeving of the Scriptures as it is an assenting to a main and prime Credendum viz. that the Scriptures are by divine inspiration Arg lib 1. de doct Christ cap. 37. Tiâ—ubabit sides si
distinctnesse your writings throughout have more of words then matter and yet more of mud then either But At your command I shall consult the pages wherein you would be thought to say The Scriptures are the Word of God In the former as also pag. 17. where you seem to be most full in declaring your sense You say to this purpose That you grant the matter and substance of the Scripture The gracious counsels to be the Word of God as That Christ is God and man that he died that he rose again c. You are come to a high pitch of ingenuity I assure you These things you having said you thinke you may lawfully charge the Ministers with craft and wickednesse for setting down barely that conclusion of yours pag. 18. Questionles no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originals are the foundation of Christian Religion 1. But what will please you The Subscribers are in some strait how to content you when they only set down the conclusion and result of your words you say they deal wickedly because they expresse no more and when they cite a whole page you say they doe it that they may represent you to the Reader for a man of monstrous and prodigious errours one of which cannot be expressed or contained in fewer words then would fill a whole page Yet on the other side If they pitch only upon the errour you say they cite your words barely and suppresse craftily your sense 2. Though the Subscribers did set down this your Conclusion without reciting your long-winded passages which you premise yet deserve they not this your reviling Div. author of Scrip p. 18. as if they had wrong'd you For the conclusion being the result of the premisses if your conclusion be crazie and hereticall your premises must needs be so too and therefore the setting of them down would not have helped you at all and if the conclusion be not hereticall why doe you not defend it against the accusation of the Subscribers which you neither doe nor dare to doe but only send the Subscribers to the thirteenth page leaving the poor eighteenth to mercie 3. Suppose you had in the thirteenth page written the truth therefore ought you not to be blamed for writing errours in the eighteenth page Nay ought you not the rather to be blamed Suppose that found truths were laid on the top of your book might you not be blamed for laying rotten errours at the bottome Satan knows that the one must make the other vendible and the Subscribers did but labour herein to spoil his mercat 4. I suppose the subscribers did not set down your sense concerning the divine Authority of the Scriptures in the thirteenth page because it had no relation either clear or doubtfull to the passage in this eighteenth page For in the thirteenth page you say you assert the Scriptures to be the word of God and here in the eighteenth page you come with your Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian Religion But you seem to complain that you who have granted the Scriptures i.e. the gracious counsels matter substance of them to be the word of God should be blamed though you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever is the foundation of Christian religioâ— but mistake not for though you have granted what no Papist nay what no christian in a sense did ever yet deny yet upon what ground have you granted even this you give the reader nothing to shew for this grant but only your good nature and ingenuity you tell me pag. 13. that you beleeve the precious counsells matter and substance of the Scripture to be of divine authority but though you beleeve so yet what ground give you me to beleeve so with you none I am sure p. 10. Div. Autho. where you deny both the English Scriptures and the Hebrew and Greek Originals themselves to be the word of God Div. Autho. p. 10. Nor give you me any ground to beleeve with you that the counsells of the scriptures are the word of God in p. 12. when you say That they who have the greatest insight into the originall languages yea and who beleeve the Scriptures unto salvation Div. Autho. p. 12. cannot upon any sufficient ground beleeve any originall copie under heaven whether Hebrew or greek to be the word of God with a world of such stuff Nor give you any ground to beleeve the matter counsells c. of the Scripture to be the word of God p. 18. where you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian religion much lesse in that of Hag. p. 38. where in regard of the mortality of words you make the meaning of the originalls impossible to be certainly understood nay by all these passages of yours you hinder me from beleving as much as in you lieth that the matter substance counsells c. of the Scriptures are the word of God for how can any beleeve the matter substance c. of the Scripture to be the word of God when as he must be uncertain whether the written word or Scriptures wherein that matter is contained are the word of God or no I suppose when you say that the matter of the Scriptures represented in translations and originals is the word of God p. 17. you suppose that it should be beleeved for such but upon what ground ought I to beleeve it I hope you will not say because a province of London-Ministers saith it is to be beleeved nor barely because the spirit tels me is to be believed for the word of God 2 Pet. 1 19. for the spirit sends me to the written word and bids me by that to trie the spirits and tells me I must beleeve nothing to be from God or for my own eternall good but what I finde written I therefore desire to go to the written word as revealâ—d by God for the building my confidence upon the counsells and matter of the Scriptures as pardon through Christ c. But then J. Goodwin tels me this written word is not Gods word nor are any writings in the world Originals or Translations to be lookt upon as such If so they must be the word of vain man and so I have no more to shew for the precious truths that Christ died for sinners and lost man c. then mans word I pray consider what are become of your disciples to use your own phrase their soul provisions their hope of eternall blessednesse when as thus you deny the written word How doth my soul pitty your poor deluded followers who have such a soul starving or soul-poysoning shepheard set over them the Lord knows I hardly write these things with dry eyes Whereas therefore you send the subscribers and readers to your pages alledged I shall do the like and desire them to take notice that you make no distinction between the res credenda and the ratio
credendi the matter to be beleeved and the ground of beleeving that thing the objectum materiale formale fidei the matters to be beleeved are those precious truths of God which you name p. 13. and such like the ground of beleeving them is the revelation of God in his written word Nor can any one beleeve those truths with a divine faith as the truths of God Hoc verbum quod multis vicib is multisque modâ—â—olim Deus proserre voluâ—t visum est ei lem literis libris ad Ecclosie suae usum consignare unâ— codem sem per manente verbo etsi non uno modo tradito Riv. Cat. Oath Par. 9. â— unlesse he first beleevs that they are revealed and made known by God This Revelation of God hath alwaies been the foundation of faith and as the Apostle Heb. 1.1 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath afforded this at divers times after divers manners to his Church sometimes by a lively voice at other times by writing the authority of the revelation being the same the manner of revealing divers * But now since the truths of God were expressed in writing what is the grouad of your faith but this it is written and if you deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the words and say that they are not from divine inspiration you must of necessity also deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the matter and hold that the matter which you say is only the word of God is unworthy of a Christians belief I pray what course took Christ and his Apostles to prove their doctrinall assertions Mat 44.6.7.10 Mat. 1.2 Mar. 9.12 Mar. 11.17 Luk. 18.31.22.37 24 44 46. Joh. 10.34 Act. 13.33 15.85 Rom. 3.4 10.81 9.13 11.26 12 19. 14 11. 13.9 â—â— 1 Cor. 1.19 1 Cor. 1.31 1 Cor. 2.9 9.9 1 Cor 15.54 2 Cor 9.9 Gal. 3.13 4.22 Heb 10.7 1 Pet. 11.6 Mar. 15.28 Act. 8.32.35 Rom. 9.17 10.11 11.2 Gal. 4. â—0 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Pet. 2.6 Mat. 21.42 26 56 Luk. 24.27.45 Act. 17.2 11. 18.28 Rom. 1.2 16.26 1 Cor. 15 3. and the matters they taught but by the Scriptures and when they would render them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for belief they evermore tell how it is written Consult with the places in the margin and you will finde that the matter substance precious counsells c. contained in the Scriptures are proved to be credenda things to be beleeved because they are written deny then the written word as you do in terminis to be the word of God and what formall object hath faith poor faith without a written word Yeeld your self to that evident Scripture Joh. 20.31 These things are written that yee might beleeve that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that beleeving ye might have lift through his name God makes these matters Christ is the son of God and life is to he had through his name to be the objects and matter of my belief but God makes the ratio or ground of my beleeving of these matters to be their revelation by writing See also Act. 14.24 Paul saith he beleeved all that was written in the Law and the prophets So Rom. 15.4 Things were written aforetime that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope So if you beleeve not Moses writings how shall you beleeve my words Joh. 5.47 6. Therefore doth not your sending me only to the counsels matter substance of Translations and Originals as the Word of God and your deniall that the written Word is such clearly shew That you send me not to that Word of God which the Scripture every where speaks of but to some other the Scripture using to call the written Word of God the Scripture and very often though in a Translation The command of Christ Joh. 5.39 is to search the Scriptures and were not they the written Word How readest thou Luk. 10.26 Vnderstandest thou what thou readest Act. 8.30 and what Scriptures were those the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by inspiration of God meaneth the Apostle neither Originals nor translation or both rather It were easy to shew how in this point of your deniall the Scriptures for the foundation as faith and Scriptures oppose you so likewise sundry holy and learned writers that have had occasion to touch upon the subject Let these following asserting the Scriptures for the word of God and so the foundation of faith and Christian Religion suffice for the vindication of the written word from the contempt you cast upon it a Quo plenius impressius tam ipsum quam dispositiones voluntates adiremus instrumentum adjecit literaturae si quis velit de Deo inquirere inquisitum invenire invento credere credito deservire Tertul. Apol. cap. 18. That we might go to God his counsells and will more fully and vigorously he added the instrument of writing if any would enquire of God finde him beleeve in him and serve him Tertullian b Non per alios salutis nostrae dispositionem cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuâ—um Irenaeus Advers Here 's lib. 3. cap. 1 vide lib. 3. c. 2. We know not Gods disposall or ordering of our salvation but by those by whom the Gospel came to us which they formerly preached afterward by the counsell of God delivered to us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our faith Irenaeus c Singuli Sermones syllabae apices puncta in divinis Scripturis plena sunt sensibus Hier in cap. 1. ad Eph. The severall speeches syllables tittles points in the divine Scriptures are full of sense Hier. d Persuasisti mihi Domine Deus non eos qui crederent libros tuos quos tantâ omnibus serè gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos sed eos qui non crederent nec audiendos esse si qui forte mihi dicerent unde scis illos libros unius veracissimi Dei spiritu esse humano generi ministratos id ipsum enim maximè credendum erat Aug Conf lib. 6. O my Lord God thou hast perswaded me not that they who beleeved thy books which thou hast founded with so much authority in almost all nations were to be blamed but those who beleeved them not and that those were not to be heard who might haply say to me whence dost thou know that those books were administred to man-kinde by the Spirit of the only most true God for this thing was chiefly to be beleeved Augustine e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 1. in Mat. If it be blame-worthy to stand in need of the writing of the Scripture and not to imbrace the grace of the spirit how great a fault is it after the enjoyment of
know not whether you who subvert the whole Scripture intend not also to pervert this 1 Tim. 3.15 By the Church her being the ground and pillar of truth all the Orthodox agree to be meant the Church her maintaining and holding forth the truth now the Church holds up and holds forth the truth either in a way common to all Christians mutuall exhortations a way of profession and practice c. or in a way peculiar to â—ome a ministeriall way of preaching the Word administration of the Sacraments c. If you say the Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of being the pillar and ground of truth the first way 't is ridiculously false profession of the truth being common to the community every one in the Church If you mean as you must needs that Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of pillars in the second respect viz. of Ministery 't is odiously false for the Lord Jesus himself and not themselves vested them with the priviledge of holding forth truth by way of Office Christ gave some Pastors and teachers Eph. 4.11 God hath set some in his Church 1 Cor. 12.38 And if in this respect you intend that religion is so miserable because all in the Church may not preach the Word administer Sacraments and because Ministers do c. Speak out Sir It follows not because the Church holds forth the truth therefore that all may hold it forth as Ministers in it Learned Calvin * Galest is sapientia soliue Eâ—clesiae ministe vio censerva tur Quantum ergo onus pastâ—o vibas incumb t quitam inaesti mabilis thesâ—u â—icusâ—odiae prâ—esunt Pauâ—uâ— volnit propâ—sita offâ—â—â— magnitudâ—â—e admoaito esse pastores quaâ—td illuâ— side diligentiâ reveren ia almini lrare debeonr Etenin quam borribilis sutura est ultio si eorii cuâ—pi intercidat veritas Ecclesiâ— enin ideo colâ—â—na est veritatis quia suo â—inisterio can tuetur as propagat Ergo elogium boc al ministeriun verbi refertur quo sublato concideâ— Dei veritas Sustinetur Dei veritas pâ—ra Evangelâ—â— praed cattane Calv. in 1 Tint 3.15 upon this place 1 Tim. 3.15 will inform you better by whom and what the Church in that place of Timothy maintains and preserves the truth Weigh the quotation Quantum onus ergo c. how great a burden therefore â—â—eth upon the Pastors who are to keep so inestimable a treasure as the truth Ecclesia ideo c. Therefore is the Church the pillar and ground of truth because she defends it with the Ministery of the word And â—logium hoc c. This commendation is to be referred to the Ministery of the word which being taken away the truth fals The truth is sustained by the pure preaching of the Word And the subscribers their ministeriall zeal for the truth both in presse and pulpit is the occasion of your rage against them I confesse you may have a further aim viz. to gratifie your deluded followers whose design is to raze and levell the Church of Christ and to preach as well as John Goodwin as indeed they may soon do but the main ground of your rage against these holy men is because they discover your errours You strike at the lanthorn because of the candle in it At the pillar because of the proclamation the Gospel that hangs upon it At the shepherds because they defend their flocks Were it not for these Ministers you would do well enough you think with the people mean while remember Omnis Apostata est osor sui ordinis Religion never had greater enemies then renegadoes The Ministers of the Gospel claim Nebuchadnezzars preregative among men over the truths of God Sion Col visited p. 1. Whom he would he slew whom he would he saved alive The Nebuchadnezzars are among your selves Ans You have his Palace A Babel for such is your way His property pride far surmounting your Palace and take heed even you in particular lest his portion be also yours The heart of a beast given unto you by God for abusing the heart of a man For the truths of God slain by the Ministers I know none unlesse you mean old heresies lately vampt in your alley for new truths where what ever is strange is true O the patience of the God of truth to suffer you to voice prodigious heresies the truths of God so entitle the true God to so many untruths against God Those which you call truths and yet say are slain by the ministers will continue errours till you prove the contrary And whereas you say that the Ministers slay them did the word spare them the Ministers would do so too who dare do nothing against the truth but for the truth and for their saving some errours alive I pray prove what those errours are and the next edition of the testimony will not be wanting in due severity I wish nothing to the Ministers but good Sion Col visi p 1. Ans Devout soul that can curse and blesse in one breath Two lines off you blasted the Ministers with the title of murderous Nebuchadnezzars and here you blesse them with desires of all good to them but whereas you say you wish nothing in your praier but good to the Ministers I fear you do nothing in your preaching but hurt to the people I wish the Ministers had been in print without their own knowledge or consent Sâ—on Col. visi p. 1. Ans Your grief is not that the book was printed with their but without your consent however the Ministers are bound to interpret charitably this wish of yours that they had been in print without their consent because you your self have sped so well by being in print without your consent when your Church set forth that 〈◊〉 ridioulous paper in commendation of you wherein they extold you to the clouds where indeed you alwaies are when you write Then you were in print against your consent the verses put under your effigies which say that you have the perfections of ten thousand men gathered in you this was against your consent too I warrant you I take care how the Authour will get into your favour again So I might maintain honourable thoughts of their persons Sion Col. visited p. 1. which I have alway laboured to doe my witnesse is oâ— high Is your witnesse on high Answ So is your Judge too but take heed your punishment be not below mock not God nor deceive your self Though I am still opposed by them in my way Sion Col. visited p. 2. Ans You cannot say that you have been opposed by them in Gods way and 't is a mercy for you to be opposed in your own way your way is the way of Balaam and it was an Angel that stopt him in his way The Image stampt upon the Testimony and the men whose names are affixed Sion Col. visited p 2. are very unlike the names subscribed are learned and pious