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A53727
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A short and plain answer to two questions: I. Where was your religion before Luther? II. How know you the Scriuptures to be the word of God? By a Protestant.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing O806A; ESTC R214595
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12,344
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27
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oftimes Canonized for the greatest Saints One would be apt to suspect they Worship no other Deity but the Pope and that whilst they pronounce his Holiness the secret Reservation may be his Wickedness I have heard indeed of a Pope that made this Question unless perhaps it were spoken by way of Exclamation Quantum lucri ista fabula de Christo nobis peperit And this seems to be the proper language of that Church For if they did believe the New Testament to be ought but a Fable they could not allow those Doctrines and Practices that are every where visible amongst them For I reckon that imposing upon the Conscience things unrevealed and beyond all possibility of belief upon no less penalty than the Inquisition here and Damnation hereafter is the very next door to Infidelity and Atheism How can he be said to believe the Truth that would force another to believe a Lie So that whilst our Adversaries would seem to question the grounds upon which we assent unto the Scriptures it 's more than probable they themselves do not believe them at all I nothing doubt for all that but there are within the Romish Church thousands of pious and devout Souls whose Education and other unhappy Circumstances God will in great Mercy consider and though under gross Error and much Ignorance will bring them through the power of his Grace unto Salvation If their Foundation be upon the Rock though they have built thereon Hay and Stubble they may indeed suffer loss but shall escape utter Ruine I think too there are amongst them some Learned Men as the Jansenists and perhaps some others whose Lives and Principles are far better than the rest and who by an odd kind of fatality preserve their Station in that Church These if they pursue their own Rules and Practice according to what they Write shall not I hope smart with the rest when God comes to visit their iniquity But as for those designing Men whose business it is to prie into the Cabinets of Princes and to influence the Affairs of Kingdoms for the advantage of the Catholick Cause who though Priests affect to be Ministers of State not of Jesus Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World they whose Gospel is Fire and Sword and their glad tidings of Salvation some Bloody Massacre whose Faith is in the Pope and whose Heaven it is to be Courted and Canoniz'd by a Scarlet Whore I look upon these to be a Generation of the vilest Wretches that ever the Earth bore and in a far worse condition than Turks or Pagans And yet these are the Men that would have me receive the Scriptures upon their Credit who are the great Shame and Discredit of that Holy Christian Religion contained therein and whose Lives are one entire contradiction thereunto I suppose it will not be denied that had we no inspired Writings at all to direct us there were nevertheless many reasons to believe the Being of God Scarce any People under Heaven so brutish as not to have some impressions of a Deity Scarce any Person in the World so profligate as not to have some checks of Conscience Besides what Arguments may be drawn from the Beauty of Providence and Harmony of the Creation Now the very Notion of a God includeth Goodness and the Notion of Goodness supposeth a God One is the Stream the other is a Fountain Let any Man trie how he can phansie the Stream that should proceed from no Original Fountain at all It is not imaginable sure that any Creature should be in the World or that good things should be bestow'd upon any Creature but they must proceed from some Original and that can be nothing else but God blessed for ever From whence I argue thus If the invisible things of him from the Creation be clearly seen being understood by the things that are made much more may the visible Characters of Divine Goodness every where evident in the Scriptures be clearly concluded to be from God Will any man object and say Where are those visible Characters of Divine Goodness contained in the Scriptures Many People cannot see them True indeed and there are some too that cannot see the Sun but then they are blind and cannot see any thing at all The Sun illuminates the material visible World and the Scripture gives us a prospect of a Spiritual World and lets us see things Divine but then we must have Eyes and if we complain of darkness in the Meridian light where 's the fault Now if any Man will say he can see no marks nor footsteps of Divine Goodness in the Scriptures I would ask him whether health and vigour of body whether easiness and pleasure of Mind are good things or not And whether he would choose to lie upon a Rack or a Bed of Roses Or suppose a Man by his own default and wilfulness in going astray be fallen into a Pit where he is certain either to be stung with Vermine or to die by wild Beasts or famish to Death Would he not account it a kindness not only to be delivered from the present danger but conducted throughout the remainder of his journey in such a way as is both safe and easie If he answer in the Affirmative he yields the Cause if he deny he must be a Mad Man past all sense of understanding of good or evil Now if I pursue our Adversaries to the Gates of Bedlam they must excuse me if I there bid farewell and follow them no further The summ is this That which teacheth us the best way imaginable to preserve health in our Bodies and peace in our Souls to live comfortably at Home and profitably to our Neighbours to Honour our Creator and know our selves to avoid Misery and attain Happiness must needs be an excellent Rule very much for our good and must proceed from the true Fountain of all Goodness But such is the Scripture therefore it is the Word of God Thus far I have considered the Scripture in reference chiefly to its Utility Let us now observe it a little with respect to its Verity For sometimes it happens that a thing may be useful which yet is not exactly true As for Example Decimal Arithmetick resolves a Question speedily but not altogether exactly yet it will come so near the truth as not to miss the 10000th part of a Farthing And a Clock will follow the Motion of the Sun for a weeks time with the Errour only of some few Minutes but neither the one nor the other in strictness of speech can be said to be true though both are very useful But now if the Scriptures appear to be both useful in the highest degree and infallibly true it must needs speak the very great Perfection of those Sacred Writings They may be distinguished into four parts according as they contain 1. Things related or matter of History 2. Things fore-told or matter of Prophesie 3. Things to be done as matter of Action or
Word of God In the first place then I shall consider what would be said by our Adversaries in Answer to those extravagant Questions I mention'd even now and if I mistake their Sense in this matter I pray do you inform me better by the next opportunity For I seldom come in their Company and when I do if they forbear I am not forward to raise Disputes I suppose therefore they would tell me That these Questions are about such things as all the World takes for granted upon the Evidence of Sense and the uniform Experience of all Ages that thus to deny Principles were to turn Sceptick and so take the ready way never to come to any Conclusion just as if one that pretended to the Mathematicks should deny the Definitions and Postulata of Geometry which have endured the Test of most Ages and as the common Notions and Sentiments of Mankind have bid defiance to all Exceptions Who would trouble his head to Argue with such a Person as should deny that two and three make five or that the whole is bigger than the half We find by daily experience and no body can perswade us to the contrary that when the Sun is above the Horizon we can see our way before us the Objects that are about us and how to do our business which in the dark we cannot do If any Man walk in the day saith our Saviour he stumbleth not Why Because he seeth the light of this World he needs not that any Man should tell him it is light he sees it himself and his own sight is beyond all other Mens Arguments But if a Man walk in the dark he stumbleth and when Night cometh Men cannot work So that these Questions you propound are altogether unquestionable 1. From the undeniable Evidence of our Senses 2. From the clearest inferences of Reason And 3. From the universal acknowledgment of Mankind In this manner I presume they would answer my Queries nor do I know any better way And just thus it is in the Case before us for from these very grounds it will appear that the Scriptures have proceeded from God The Sun doth not more plainly direct our Steps than the Scriptures do our Lives and Actions The first enlightens our Natural and the latter our Moral walking The one makes us discern the Creatures that are about us the other teaches how to use them to our greatest Comfort and highest Advantage By the one we may conclude there is a God as he is knowable by the things that are made by the other we are instructed what to think of Him and how to behave our selves in reference to Him and to our Neighbour The Scriptures are a Lamp unto our Feet and a Light unto our Ways and whilst we take heed thereunto we walk securely and never fail to find the benefit thereof but when we forsake their Conduct we fall into a thousand Errours and mischiefs oftimes discovered to our outward Senses in the discomposure of our Bodies and detriment of our Estates often too in the trouble and disorder of our Minds and not seldom in both these respects at once As for Example the Scripture Commands us to live soberly to love our Neighbour to feed the hungry to forgive injuries and to deal justly with all Men. And what are the consequences of our Obedience in these things Why these some sleep a healthful Body a peaceful Soul a chearful Life Bread to eat the love of Neighbours the Prayers of the Poor and a kind of universal Respect and deference which vertue doth command wherever it comes But then our Disobedience to these Precepts is usually follow'd with restless Nights racking Pains anxious Thoughts scaring Dreams trembling fears perplexing doubts the hatred of some the Curses of others and the just condemnation of all It 's true there are some reserv'd Cases God doth sometimes trie a vertuous Soul with Afflictions and often makes a Soul vertuous by Afflictions He doth again sometimes feed the Epicure unto the day of Slaughter and court the Vicious by Temporal Enjoyments to reclaim them Yet in the mean time the Good are born up with peace of Mind and expectation of a Crown and the Wicked are busied in stupefying their Senses to abate the Sting of Conscience and fear of Hell But not withstanding these reserv'd Cases I dare adventure to affirm that there is not any thing in the World whereof I am more certain than that the Scripture is a most excellent Rule for the Government of my Life and Actions and the ground of this Assurance in a great measure is taken from Sense I am no more assured that the Sun shines or the Fire warms than I am that my Conformity to the Scriptures is highly advantageous to me The Sun is not more necessary to the being of Mankind than the Scriptures are to his well-being The one gives natural Life and light to the Creation the other enlightens the Mind and teaches how to manage our Lives and the Blessings thereof to the best purpose Without the first the World would be a Chaos without the later it would be a kind of Hell Now the very first step of Reason infers the Conclusion For from whence should such a Treasure of Wisdom and Truth proceed but from the inexhaustible Fountain of all Goodness God Almighty And let any Man in the World unto whose hands Divine Providence shall bring it carefully peruse that Book and consider well the vast Stock of Wisdom the immense Treasures of Love and Bounty therein contained Let him observe the excellent Rules it propounds so fitted for all purposes and occasions of Humane Life that an universal Conformity to it would make Heaven upon Earth Let him mark how all the Disorders and Miseries Contentions and Blood-shed in the World proceed from Mens disobedience thereunto and do Constitute the formal Reason of Hell it self And in a word let him observe that whatever he doth well and which afterwards leaves him a grateful Relish and easiness of Mind is done according to the Precepts of that Book and whatever he doth amiss which leaves a Sting and Poyson behind it is nothing else but a deviation from that Rule I say Let him but diligently read and impartially consider these things and he can be no better assured that there is a God who is Good and Wise Merciful and Just than that the Holy Scriptures are the Result of his Goodness and Mercy towards the Sons of Men and that they do contain a declaration of his Mind with respect unto us and the Rule of our Duty in relation to him Why might not our Adversaries demand of us how we come to be certain that God is Righteous and the Devil Wicked Is it lest the Question should recur upon themselves For since so many of their holy Fathers have been so Flagicious as History makes mention and since Villany is so far Patronized by their Church that the blackest Criminals in that Communion are