against vain Philosophy II. Col. 8. From whence we may note that the Scriptures themselves assign the Original of Heresies and teach us to beware of it so far are they from leading us into them Thirdly And there is a third Cause of them mentioned in Scripture also viz. the Traditions of men VII Mark 7 8. And thus Firmilian observes in his Letter to St. Cyprian That Marcion the Disciple of Cerdo a great while after the Apostles induxit sacrilegaem adversus Deum traditionem brought in a sacrilegious Tradition against God Apelles also consenting to his Blasphemy added multa alia nova many other Novelties which were more grievous and directly opposite to Faith and Truth And so did Valentinus and Basilides who rebelled against God's Church by their wicked Forgeries And thus St. Hierom introduces Hereticks maintaining their Errours in the very Dialect of the now Roman Doctors We are the Sons of those wise men who from the beginning delivered unto us the Apostolical Doctrine c. Lib. VII in Esaiam Cap. XIX But S. Cyprian every where appeals from all pretended Tradition whatsoever unto the Dictates of our Lord and his Apostles i. e. unto Scripture-Tradition Particularly in that famous Epistle of his to Pompeius All religious and simple minds have a compendious means both to lay aside Errour and to find out Truth nam si ad divinae traditionis caput originem revertamur cessat error humanus for if we go back to the Head and Original of Divine Tradition there is an end of humane Errour And a little after he tells us what he means by this Divine Tradition when he saith If there be any doubt any wavering about the Truth let us return ad originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam Traditionem to our Lord 's Original or beginning both the Evangelical and Apostolical Traditions that is to the Doctrines delivered in the Goâ—pels and in the Writings of the Apostles Fourthly Another Spring of Heresie were pretended Revelations Thus the Cataphrygae as the same Firmilian tells us novas Prophetias usurpare conantur endeavoured also to make use of new Prophecies And a little after We know they cannot have Christ who challenge to themselves their false Prophecy against the Faith of Christ And whence they had their Illuminations who in the bosom of the Roman Church invented a Fifth Gospel which threatned the overthrow of our four is not hard to resolve Not out of the Holy Scriptures we may be sure and therefore the taking away them from the people will not prevent all Heresies but they will start up as they have done from other Causes and they will the sooner start up if the Scriptures be neglected II. But I desire it may be further considered that as Heresies will spring up from other Causes though men do not read the Scriptures so Lay-men have not been always the Devisers of them but they to whom none deny the liberty of reading the Holy Books For the most pernicious Heresies that have been in the Church had their beginning from Priests as appears by Arius and Nestorius And indeed no man can frame an Heresie but he that is of excellent Parts as St. Hierom's opinion is whose words are these upon the X. of Hosea No man can devise and set up a Heresie but he that is ardentis ingenii of an extraordinary Wit and hath gifts of Nature created by God the great Artificer such was Valentinus such was Marcion whom we read to have been most learned such was Bardesanes whose Wit the Philosophers themselves admired And therefore either the Scriptures must be wholly laid aside the greatest men for Learning and Parts being apt to abuse them if they be not humble and thoroughly good or men must be taught how to prepare themselves for the reading of them and what to seek for there and then any body may safely take them into their hands and make them their constant Companions III. It must likewise be further considered that there is something else to be feared beside Heresie and that is stupid ignorance or gross Infidelity which Experience shows us have followed upon the taking the Scriptures from the people even as darkness comes and covers the Earth when the light is withdrawn from it And ought we not in all reason to be as studious and solicitous to prevent these as to prevent Heresie Since they are no less dangerous or rather more dangerous by far even for this reason because they make men liable to fall into the most sottish Superstitions if not into down-right Idolatry which is a worse thing than Heresie How Images came to be Lay-mens Books it is needless to relate the matter being very plain and how Image-Worship thence arose and how fatal this hath been to the vulgar people I have not room to discourse nor how Legends of Saints were invented full of absurd and incredible stories which have disgraced the Doctrine of Christianity and tempted many to disbelieve the true History of our Saviour's and his Apostles Miraculous Operations But this is certain that they were devised to supply the place of the Holy Scriptures that the people might have something to entertain them when they were taken away from them It was the effect at least of that these fabulous stories being recommended to the peoples affection when they were frighted from medling with the Bible as a dangerous Book nay when it 's credit was disgraced by many words of reproach Which we in this Church think our selves bound to wipe off by recommending it to the peoples best affection and constant perusal as a means to preserve them from sottish ignorance and stupid Impostures and all vain Superstitions and false Worship IV. Nor is it easie for our people by this means to fall into Heresie because they have the liberty of reading the Scriptures but interpreted to them by the Ministry of the Church whereby they are taught continually to have recourse to their Pastors and by sundry Tracts Expositions and Paraphrases allowed by publick Authority Particularly in the beginning of the Reformation care was taken that Erasmus his Paraphrase should be placed in every Parish-Church of the Realm in which he doth not follow his own private Fancy but like a truly great Man represents the sense of the ancient Doctors of the Church V. Now if after all this men do fall into Heresie it must be imputed to some other Cause than their reading the Scriptures For if they had minded them they would have learnt to be humble modest peaceable tractable to their Guides and to take heed of those who cause Divisions and are proud and dote about Questions and strises of Words and that creep into houses to instill private Doctrines and very frequently lead men from the Scriptures to pretended Revelations or Traditions That is they would not have faln into any sort of Heresie but kept unto the wholesom words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is
Search the Scriptures A TREATISE Shewing that all CHRISTIANS Ought to READ the HOLY BOOKS WITH DIRECTIONS To them therein In Three PARTS LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1685. Introduction THE Holy Scriptures as the first Homily of our Church teaches all its Children in the very beginning of it are such a Fountain and Well of Truth that as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God must apply their minds to be acquainted with them without which they can neither sufficiently know God and his Will nor their own Office and Duty For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to love and what to look for at God's hands at length And therefore these Books ought to be much in our hands in our eyes in our ears in our mouths but most of all in our hearts Vnto which sort of Discourse which is grounded upon the VI. Article of our Religion they of the Church of Rome are wont to make a double Exception One is That there are some things necessary to be believed and practised which are not to be found there but must be received from ancient Traditions The other is That those Truths which are delivered in the Holy Scriptures are not so clear and perspicuous that common people should be intrusted with the reading of them Now to the First of these there hath been some time ago a plain Answer made in a Discourse about Traditions Therefore this Treatise is intended only as an Answer to the Second Exception For the maintaining of which they are wont to alledge among other places those remarkable words of St. Peter in his Second Epistle the Third Chapter and Sixteenth Verse Where having made mention of St. Paul's Epistles which treated of the same matter that he had just before explained he says In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Behold say they how dangerous it is for common people to meddle with the Holy Scriptures which being compared by St. Paul himself to a two edged Sword ought not to be put into their hands for fear they destroy themselves therewith It is true indeed the same St. Paul teaches us Rom. XV. 4. that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning and are profitable as he writes elsewhere 2 Tim. III. 16. for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness But this notwithstanding there are say they such difficulties and obscurities in the Holy Scriptures as we learn from this great Apostle St. Peter that they ought not to be thought profitable for all people but rather hurtful to them that are ignorant who therefore ought not to read them By which single Instance the Reader may learn if he mark it well what sort of Interpretations of Scripture we are like to have if we trust to them alone and do not see with our own eyes when these very words of St. Peter do plainly teach us the quite contrary Doctrine to that which they would establish by them I. For they are so far from containing a Reason why the people should not read them that First they evidently suppose the common people even the unlearned among them did in those days read the Scriptures Else they could not have wrested them as the Apostle says they did and complains of that but not of their reading them And II. Secondly These words do not affirm the whole Scripture to be hard to be understood but only some part of it St. Paul's Epistles at the most or rather the things of which St. Peter had been treating And not all of them neither but only some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some few things which would require pains and diligent attention of mind to comprehend the meaning of them And III. Thirdly The Apostle doth not say that all who read those difficult passages are in danger to wrest them but only the unlearned and unstable who abuse the plainest Truths to their own ruine As for others they may read even the hardest places in St. Paul's Epistles safely enough nay receive great profit from thence as well as from other Scriptures and they who wrest them are not to leave reading them but to grow in true Christian knowledge and in Stability of mind These are the three Parts of the insuing Discourse In treating and reading of which Let us pray to God as the second Homily concludes that we may speak think believe live and depart hence according to the wholsom Doctrine and Verities of these holy Books And by that means in this World have God's defence favour and grace with the unspeakable solace of peace and quietness of Conscience and after this miserable life enjoy the endless Bliss and Glory of Heaven PART I. THat the Right of God's People to read the Holy Scriptures is not at all prejudiced by these words of St. Peter appears from hence That the Wresting of the Scriptures by the unlearned and unstable doth suppose that even such persons did then read them Which overthrows the Conclusion which they of the Roman Church endeavour to draw from this place For there had been no possibility of perverting their sense if they had not been in their hands at that time as they are in ours now And yet the Apostle doth not reprehend their medling with them but their Ignorance and their heedlesnes which was the cause they misunderstood them and might have been prevented by a little diligence and care without throwing them quite away For the fault was not there but in themselves who came to the perusal of holy things with unprepared minds Now for the establishing of this Truth that the people were not then and therefore ought not now to be debarred the liberty of reading the holy Books which God our Saviour hath left unto his Church as a common Inheritance you may be pleased to weigh these things following which will fully settle your minds in this perswasion I. First That the ancient People of God the Jews were not only permitted but required by God himself to be so conversant in the Law of Moses and so well acquainted with it as to be able to teach their Children God's Commandments and for that end to talk of them when they sate in their houses or walkt by the way when they lay down and when they rose up nay to write them upon the doors of their houses and on their gates that whensoever they went out or came in they might have them before their eyes and be put in mind of them Deut. VI. 6 7 8. This the Lawgiver thought a matter of so great importance that a little after in the very same Book he enjoyns it over again for fear they should neglect it Chap. XI 18 19 20. For the very Root and
Promises before they come to pass Therefore let us I beseech you with great diligence apply our selves to the reading of holy Writings for thereby we shall be furnished with Divine knowledge if we frequently make them our study it being impossible that he should be neglected by God who with earnest diligence and fervent desire imploys himself in these Divine things but if no man can be found to teach us the Lord himself will come from above into our hearts and inlighten our minds and shine into our understandings and reveal those things that are hidden and instruct us in those things wherein we are ignorant provided we will contribute all that lies in us to the business Fourthly This he illustrates by the Example of the Eunuch in the VIII of the Acts whom he magnifies in several places of his Works as I shall have occasion to observe upon several accounts belonging to this matter particularly here for not neglecting to read the Prophet Isaiah though he himself was a Barbarian and ignorant what the Prophet said but because he did what he could and with all the diligence he was able he obtained a Guide from God Consider here I beseech you how beneficial it was to this man that he did not omit reading no though he was in a journey on the high-way Let those hearken to this who will not do so much at home but look upon this as a by-business because they cohabit with a wife or are listed Souldiers and have the care of children and must look after their servants and have a great deal of business in the World which they imagine sufficiently excuses them from troubling themselves with reading the Holy Script res For see here all this confuted in this Barbarian a man of business and in his journey c. who was so studious and intent upon his reading that nothing could divert him from it as he proceeds to show in that Homily with a great deal of Eloquence which will be more pertinently alledged under some of the other general Heads I only observe one thing more under this Fifthly That he urges this obligation they had upon them to read the Holy Scriptures from this Argument That otherwise they would not be able to instruct their Children and Families as he tells them they were bound to do from the forenamed Precept of St. Paul Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms c. Observe saith he how the Apostle declines all that might deter them from this business Because there is great pains to be taken in the reading some Scriptures and it is a laborious business to understand them therefore he commends the Psalms that he might at once delight their minds and make the labour easie to them Now your Children are acquainted with Satanical Songs and Dances like to those who keep Victualling-houses and Dancing-masters but none of them knows so much as one Psalm Hence all our mischiess for like to the Soil in which the Plant is set will be the fruit Teach thy Children therefore to chant the Psalms those that are full of Philosophy For Example those straightway that teach temperance or rather before all those about avoiding ill company with which the Book begins For upon this score the Prophet enters upon his work with this admonition Blessed is the man that walketh not in the way of the ungodly c. and again 26.4 I have not sat with vain persons and again XV 4 in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Like to these thou wilt find many more concerning bridling the appetite of meat and drink and all the pleasures of the belly concerning keeping the hands from theft against covetousness and that riches are nothing nor glory neither nor all the rest of like nature If from a Child thou accustom him to these Notions by little and little thou wilt advance him to sublimer apprehensions For then he will understand the Hymns which have nothing humane in them but are things more Divine For the heavenly Powers sing Hymns not Psalms c. By which repeated Exhortations it appears these were not hasty thoughts which on a sudden sprung up in him when he was in the heat of his discourse but the deliberate constant and setled sense of his mind which was highly concerned to bring all the people committed unto his charge to a more familiar acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures This will still more fully appear in the Second Proposition which he maintains and that is such as may perfectly put to shame the Doctrine of the present Roman Church For it is this II. That it is more necessary for a Lay-man to read the Scriptures than for a Monk or those that are sequestred from the World To this purpose he discourses in his second Sermon upon St. Matthew This is the plague that now infests us and corrupts all that you imagine the reading of the Scriptures belongs to Monks only and not to you that have wives and children and worldly business whereas it is more necessary for you than for them For they that live in the World being most exposed to the danger of being wounded have most need of medicines to preserve them that is or to cure them Thus likewise in the third Sermon upon Lazarus before mentioned he discourses to this effect Let no man tell me I am ingaged in pleading Causes the publick business lies upon me I have a Trade I must live by my handy work I have a wife and family in short I am a man of the World and it is not for me to read the Scriptures but for those who have bid an adieu to it What dost thou say man is it not thy business to turn over the Scriptures because thou art distracted with worldly cares For that very reason it is more thy business than theirs For they have less need of the defence of the Scriptures than we have who are tossed in the midst of the waves of business They are as it were in the Haven they are secure and enjoy perfect tranquillity it is we who fluctuate in the midst of the Sea who are obnoxious whether we will or no to innumerable sins and therefore have perpetual need of the comfort and the assistance of the Holy Scriptures What can more effectually represent the sense of the ancient Doctors than this unless it be what follows out of the XXI Homily upon Genesis upon those words Noah begat three Sons Let us not bring forth those frigid words I am a worldly man I have a wife the care of children lies upon me as the manner of many is to excuse themselves when we bid them labour to be good and apply their study to read the Holy Scriptures That doth not belong to me say they have I renounced the World am I a Monk What dost thou say man Doth this belong to Monks only to study
times and one Let us ever be telling our selves that it is God who speaks unto us by his Son in these Holy Books that this is the Rule of Life whereby we must be judged that we must stand or fall before God according as we keep these Sayings that Nothing is comparable to being beloved of God Nothing so desirable as to have our Faith found to honour and praise and glory at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ And then we shall deny our selves and our own desires commodities and interests that God's Will may be done by us the whole World will seem inconsiderable in our eyes and we shall easily forgo any thing that He will not allow us to keep according to the fundamental Rule of our Religion He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me I conclude this Part of my Discourse with the words of one of the Homilies of our Church in the second Part of the Exhortation to the reading and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures As concerning the hardness of Scripture he that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong meat yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk and defer the rest till he wax stronger and come to more knowledge For God receiveth the learned and unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And the Scripture is full as well of low valleys plain ways and easie for every man to use and to walk in as also of high hills and mountains which few men can climb unto And whosoever giveth his mind to Holy Scriptures with delight study and burning desire it cannot be saith St. Chrysostom that he should be left without help He that asketh shall have and he that seeketh shall find and he that knocketh shall have the door open If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue reading praying asking of others and so by still knocking at the last the door shall be opened as St. Augustine saith Although many things in the Scripture be spoken in obscure Mysterics yet there is nothing spoken under dark Mysteries in one place but the self same thing in other places is spoken more familiarly and plainly to the capacity both of learned and unlearned And those things in the Scripture that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every mans duty is to learn them to print them in memory and effectually to exercise them And as for the dark Mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them until such time as it shall please God to open them unto him but not lay aside the reading of the whole because of the darkness of such places And briefly to conclude as St. Augustine saith by the Scripture all men may be amended the weak be strengthened and the strong be comforted So that surely none be Enemtes to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant that they know not how wholesom a thing it is or else so sick that they hate the most comfortable Medicine that should heal them or so ungodly that they would wish the people still to continue in blindness and ignorance of God The End of the Second Part. PART III. I AM arrived now at the last of those Three things I propounded to be treated of in the beginning of this Book That all who read the Scriptures are not in danger to wrest them to their own hurt but only the unlearned and the unstable Such men will wrest them from their true meaning but so they will other Discourses as well as the Scriptures and the most clear and perspicuous things are liable to be perverted by them as well as the dissicult In this we shall soon be satisfied if we consider briedy whom the Apostle St. Peter means by Vnlearned and Vnstable which will also clearly direct us what course we are to take that we may not wrest the Scriptures as such men do Now there is no great difficulty to know who these are if we mind the proper use of words and the place where they are used I. VNLEARNED AND for the first of these the Vnlearned the Apostle cannot be thought to have respect to such as are ignorant in those parts of Knowledge which are now commonly called Learning for so the Apostles themselves were generally ignorant and unlearned IV. Acts 13. but to those who are ignorant of such things as the Holy Scriptures treat of and ought to be learnt by all Christians This I think all will allow and then they are more particularly meant who are not skilled in the first Principles of Religion Men that know not or mind not those common Natural Truths upon which all Religion is built nor are acquainted with those plain unquestionable Principles of Christianity before mentioned in the Second Part of this Discourse These I take to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here spoken of who have not learnt so much as the first Elements or as the Apostle speaks VI. Heb. 1. the word of the beginning of Christ who wanting the foundation of true Knowledge will be apt to wrest every thing they read from its proper meaning Such there were even in the School of Christ as St. Paul himself teaches us who were ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. III. 7. They frequented that is the Christian Assemblies where they received good Instructions but their nanghty affections would not suffer the known Doctrines of Christianity to find entertainment in their minds Which Doctrines are such as these That there is one God who is perfectly just and perfectly good and knows the very thoughts of the heart and changes not And that He hath sent Jesus Christ his only begotten Son the Eternal Word who was before all Worlds to take our Nature upon him to dye for our sins to rise again that he may be the Judge of all And that He hath sent the Holy Ghost from the Father to teach us those Rules of Faith and Holy life whereby we shall be judged at the last Day when he will raise up our dead bodies and give to those who have done good everlasting Life but send those who have done evil into everlasting Fire These and such like which depend on these and are coherent with them are the Christian Learning which they that did not know and believe and accordingly practise as I shewed in the foregoing Discourse must needs be very great strangers to the Holy Books and be so far from reaping any profit by them that they would rather corrupt and abuse them to the support of their own uncertain vain or absurd imaginations Nor were they secure from this danger when they had learnt them unless they were likewise so fixed in their minds that they were constantly guided by them For the Apostle here teaches us that
King should be furnished with a Copy of the Law and keep it by him that he might read therein all the days of his life and learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them XVII Deut. 18 19. Nay the more to imprint the words of this Book upon his mind the Law enjoyns this as a duty belonging to the King himself saying He shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites Which though some are pleased to think a Priviledge indulged only to the King the Jews who are willing enough to excuse themselves from such laborious things constantly affirm that every private man was bound to do the same and that though the King had done it before as others were obliged to do yet being exalted to the Throne he was bound to do it over again out of the most authentick Records that it might be the more imprinted on his mind and work in him a greater reverence thereof This Maimonides grounds upon those words XXXI Deut. 19. which concern them all Now therefore write ye this Song for you as if he had said Write the Law for your selves of which this Song is a part for they were not wont to write the Law by parcels Wherein perhaps they go too far but there is little doubt to be made that pious Kings took care the people should be acquainted with the Law as well as themselves imitating that pious Prince Josiah who after a long forgetfulness of the Holy Scriptures having a Copy of the Law brought to him which was found in the Temple not only caused it to be read in the ears of the people but as the Jews with great reason affirm commanded the Priests and Scribes to write Copies of it and deliver them to the people For how should they be able to perform the words of the Covenantwritten in that Book unto which Josiah ingaged them 2 Kings XXIII 2 3. unless they knew them And how should they know them more than they had done formerly if they did only once barely hear them Which might give them some present sense of their duty but could not be remembred unless they had the words they were to perform constantly before their eyes There might much more be added on this subject but this is sufficient to introduce what follows II. THAT what was thus enjoyned by Moses and practised by the people of the Jews our Saviour confirmed by his Command or at least by his approbation saying V. John 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me Some indeed translate the words thus Ye search the Scriptures for in them c. and so they are a plain acknowledgement of what was then in use nay an approbation if not commendation of their diligence in turning over the holy Books wherein they hoped to find so great a Treasure as Eternal life But if they be rendred as we and as many of the Romanists themselves translate them Search the Scriptures then they are a Command wherein our Blessed Saviour requires what Moses had formerly done and charges them not to neglect this duty of making a diligent inquiry into the meaning of the holy Writings for there they would find plain testimonies concerning the Messiah and be satisfied that he was the Christ whom they expected And I cannot see how this Precept may be safely disobeyed But as our Lord in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus XVI Luke 29. brings in Abraham sending the Rich mans Brethren unto Moses and the Prophets i. e. to their Writings for they themselves were dead and gone for their instruction from whom they might learn enough to keep them from coming into that place of Torment So we in like manner ought to tell men if they will know how to be saved they must repair to Christ and his Apostles and out of the Gospel and Apostolical Instructions learn the way to Heaven and how to escape Eternal damnation For there can be no good reason alledged why the Jews should be permitted nay commanded to read Moses and the Prophets and we not be allowed but forbidden to read the words of Christ and his Apostles For we are as much concerned or rather more in these as they were in them and they are not harder to be understood by us than the old Scriptures were by them we have the same means the same helps that they had if not far better to prosit by them and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore it is no fault in our Preachers now but an honest discharge of their duty to say to their people as Origen doth to his in his second Homily upon Isaiah Would to God we did all practise that which is written Search the Scriptures And as St. Basil in his Second Book of Baptism Cap. 4. Let us obey our Lord who saith Search the Scriptures and let us imitate the Apostles who inquired of the Lord himself the interpretation of his own words learning the truth and wholesomness of what He saith in one place by what He speaks in another So far were these great and Holy men from discountenancing the reading of the Holy Scriptures that they most earnestly press every body to it as I shall show more fully before I have done III. LET us now further consider that the Apostles of our Lord were concerned that what they wrote concerning the Christian Doctrine should be read not only by the Elders of the Church to whom their Writings were directed but be communicated to all the Members thereof who were under their Instruction This appears from St. Paul's most solemn Charge in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians that it should be read to all the holy Brethren 1. v. 27. Who should read it to them but the Bishops and Pastors of the Church Who no doubt first received it but were not to keep it to themselves but impart it to the whole Community And if they read it to the whole Society we cannot think they refused to give Copies of it to them if any desired it that they might read it themselves Or rather they took care to disperse this Letter of their own accord among their Flock as they did also send it to other Churches whereby by it became common to the whole Christian World And it was a matter of such great importance that all the people should be acquainted with his sense that his Charge is in the form of an Adjuration That if they neglected him the Command should be obeyed for the Adjuration sake For Adjurations were dreadful to the ancient Christians though now alas wo be to us they are little regarded They are words of Theophylact. And to the same effect Theodoret glosses He adds an Adjuration contriving that all might have the
profit of the reading this Epistle For perhaps otherways they that first received it might not have given it unto all As much as to say He was afraid lest the Epistle should be suppressed and read but by few and therefore he requires them for the love of God and as they hoped for mercy from our Lord that it should be read unto all Which teaches us that the Word of God ought not to be concealed from the poorest Members of the Church who are concerned in it as much as the greatest And that if the Apostle were now alive and should write to the Churches we may be confident he would be more earnest if it be possible in this matter graviore contestatione adjurans c. as Musculus writes adding greater weight o his Adjuration and beseeching nay charging the Governours of the Churches who now with all their might oppose the peoples reading of his Epistles that as they expected the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who was the Witness of what he said and would be their Judge they would take care that all his words should be diligently communicated to the Faithful It may not be amiss to take notice that to the same purpose S. Paul writes also in his Epistle to the Colossians IV. 16. where he commands that this Epistle being read among them in that Church they should take care to have it read in that of Laodicea by sending that is a Copy of it to them and the Colossians on the other side should read the Epistle of the Laodiceans that is the Epistle which he had sent to that Church as some Theophylact observes anciently understood it or the first Epistle to Timothy which was written by him as others he saith observe from Laodicea These are plain demonstrations that the Writings of the New Testament were intended to be the common portion of all God's people as those of the Old had always been IV. AND thus I shall now proceed to show they understood it by representing that reading of the Scriptures was lookt upon as a Duty and carefully practised by pious people according to the forenamed injunction of our Blessed Lord and the solemn obtestation of the Apostle For the same Apostle tells us that his Son Timothy from his infancy had known the Holy Scriptures which will not now be allowed in the Roman Church to grown Christians without a special licence no not to Regulars as they call them whose whole business it is to be Religious but may not have any part of the Bible in their own Language without a faculty from their Superiors Read 2. Tim. III. 15. and comparing it with the fifth verse of the first Chapter you will sind that he received this early knowledge he had of the Scriptures from his Grandmother and Mother for his Father was not a Jew but a Greek and therefore they were not ignorant in the Scriptures but had made it their business to understand them so well that they were able according to the Law of Moses to teach them their Children Which they began to do saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their cradles as we speak in our Language that is as Josephus admirably explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately upon the first indication that they have any perception of other things For so he writes in the Book before named If any man ask any one of our Nation concerning the Laws he will tell him all things more readily than his own name for learning them straightway as soon as we come to have any knowledge of things we retain them deeply ingraven upon our minds Thus the Talmudists also discourse at five years old they put their Children to the Bible Whereby they arrive at such a proficiency that in these latter Ages they have been able to tell any thing that is there So Ribera a famous Jesuit relates in his Commentaries upon V. Micah 2. I knew a Jew saith he at Salamanca who was sufficiently unlearned of whom when I inquired in the Spanish Language because he understood no Latine about several things both in the Historical and in the Prophetical Books he stopt me immediately upon the first mention of them from proceeding further and repeated them all himself without Book in the Hebrew Tongue Which I relating to another Jew who was become Christian he told me it was no wonder for they committed all these things to memory from their Childhood Which may very well put those Christians to the blush who are as careful and vigilant to keep not only their Children and Youth but Elder people also from reading the Holy Scriptures as the Jews are to bring them into acquaintance with them And it is the more shameful because even the Proselytes that is they of other Nations who embraced the Jewish Religion were allowed this liberty no less than the natural Jews themselves Which is apparent in the History of the Eunuch belonging to the Queen of Ethiopia whom St. Philip found VIII Acts 28. reading the Prophet Isaiah as he was in his journey home-ward from Jerusalem agreeable to the Precept of the Law before mentioned that the Divine Writings should be their Companions when they walkt on the way as well as when they were within doors This Eunuch was a man of a strange Country bred up in the Court of Ethiopia which was the softest they say and most effeminate of all Nations yet being converted to the Jewish Religion he had so much care of his Soul as to read the Prophetical Books the hardest of all the old Scriptures The sense of which he confessed to Philip he did not understand but that did not hinder his reading them And because he read them with a pious mind God sent him an Interpreter who improved his knowledge and advanced him from a Jew to be a Christian clothing the Blackmore as Erasmus expresseth it with the Snow-like fleece of the immaculate Lamb. Which that great Man justly alledges as an Argument why every one should read the Scriptures though they do not understand every thing that they read If they do it honestly and piously how do we know saith he but that they may fare as well as the Eunuch did who felt his heart touched in the reading by the Spirit of God V. CERTAIN it is you may further observe that this was not only practised in the first and best times of Christianity but it was accounted a noble quality in those who were seriously conversant in the Holy Scriptures As they of the City of Beraea may teach us who hearing St. Paul preach that Jesus was the Christ which he confirmed no doubt out of the Scriptures did not presently reject what he said because it crossed their Opinion as a neighbouring City had done but were more noble saith the Text XVII Acts 11. or better bred than those of Thessalonica searching the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Which is so far from being censured as a piece of
presumption that God blessed these pious endeavours and gave them a right understanding as a reward of their search into the Scriptures according as it there follows therefore many of them believed And thus St. Peter also in this very Epistle Chap. I. 19. commends his Country-men who attentively read and considered the Prophetical Writings We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts The plainest meaning of which words to me seems to be this That it was a laudable and praise-worthy thing in those Jewish Converts to whom he writes who as yet were but weak in the Faith that they did give heed to the Writings of the ancient Prophets which they took to be the surest ground of their Faith for in them they would sind the Lord Jesus plainly descrihed if they compared what the Apostles preached with that which they foretold as the Beraeans did Those Writings indeed of the Prophets did but obscurely treat of Christ in comparison with the discoveries of him in the Gospel and the Apostolical Writings which he compares to the Day-star and the old Prophets but to a Candle shining in a dark place yet the one would lead them to the other and by taking attentive heed to the Prophetical Writings they would in time find the day dawn and the Day-star arise in their hearts that is arrive by degrees at clearer demonstrations and a fuller and brighter knowledge of Christian Truths delivered by our Saviour and his Apostles who being the Light of the World gave light even to the ancient Prophecies To conclude this particular they were so far from discouraging any Christians in their reading the Holy Scriptures that they commend those who read even the hardest Books among them Those words are very remarkable I. Revel 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein Which comfortable incouragement I do not see why we may not with the greatest satisfaction apply to our selves now as they did then to quicken us to read and hear the things contained therein For though we do not certainly understand every one of those Prophecies yet there are abundance of most excellent instructions and admonitions incouragements and consolations interspersed throughout that Book which make it sit to be read by Christian people for their direction and support And we may likewise from hence take the confidence to argue in this manner If a Blessedness be pronounced to those that read or hear that Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein then they cannot be accursed who for the same end read other holy Books where such instructions and comforts are more plentifully and plainly and on purpose delivered nor can they expect God's blessing who prohibit the reading even of those easie and more familiar Scriptures which are accommodated by the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to the most vulgar capacity Every one ought to drink of these Fountains nor would I forbid saith Erasmus very piously those that thirst after Christian knowledge to read even those Books which are not so open but like a Fountain sealed up Because they will reap this fruit at least that they will come more sit to the hearing of Sermons which touch upon or allude to those more obscure passages They will hear also those things more willingly of which they have already some knowledge and understand those things more easily of which they have a small taste VI. AND there is the greater reason for it because the Holy Scriptures are a considerable part of our compleat Spiritual Armour without which we shall lie so open to the assaults of our Enemies that it will very much hazzard our Salvation And why should we be exposed to any danger when we may defend our selves by the use of those weapons which God himself hath provided for us Or how can they be Friends to our Souls who would expose us by taking those weapons out of our hands Read the VI. Ephes 11. c. Where the Apostle exhorting them to put on the whole Armour or compleat Armour of God that they might be able to stand against all the wiles of the Devil in the following Verses enumerates the several parts of this Armour and the last piece of it but one is v. 17 the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God This shews that as while we have Enemies to fight withal and very powerful subtil Enemies we have need of all sorts of Weapons that God hath furnished us withal for our defence so we are not completely appointed for our defence without this weapon the Word of God no more than a Souldier is without his Sword And therefore they who go about to deprive us of this leave us in great part naked to our Spiritual Enemies By wresting that weapon out of our hands whereby we should beat them off There is not one of the Devils temptations ye may observe IV. St. Matth. but our Saviour vanquished it by this weapon telling him it is so and so written and the Tempter had no more to say nor knew what to oppose thereunto And therefore our safety lies in the same Divine Armory of the Holy Scriptures unto which we ought to have resort upon all occasions and there furnish our selves with such holy Precepts Examples Promises and Threatnings as we may have ready at hand to oppose to every temptation It is usually said as I noted in the beginning that men may wound themselves with a Sword as soon as their Enemies and therefore it is not safe to let every body take this weapon into his hand But was not the Apostle as much aware of this as we Were not the Holy Scriptures as liable to be perverted then as now And we by this reason shall leave neither Sun in Heaven nor any good Creature here upon Earth as a great Man of our own somewhere speaks for they have been all wretchedly abused to very ill purposes by evil men And besides this it is not true that men may as soon hurt themselves as their Enemies with this Sword For who but mad men or desperate persons run that weapon into their own bodies wherewith they should defend their lives And who but they that are distracted themselves will suppose the generality of Christians to be such a frantick fort of people that they are not to be trusted with the means of their preservation but must have even the bread of life taken from them for fear they surfeit of it But this will be more fully answered hereafter and that which I have next to represent to your consideration will give great satisfaction to it which is this VII THAT the greatest Doctors in the Church have most earnestly exhorted the people with all the Rhetorick they could invent to give themselves leisure
and easie to such as faithfully practise their most plain and easie Precepts but hard and difficult to be understood aright of such as wilfully transgress them There is nothing more perspicuously set down in Holy Scripture than this as would be easie to show if it would not inlarge this Book too much from such words as those of St. Peter God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore should we admit of any Authority equivalent to the Holy Scriptures the question would still remain Whether the Insallibility of that Authority could take away that blindness of heart which by God's just Judgment falls upon all those who detain the Truth of God in Vnrighteousness If for their disobedience to evident and plain Truths God punish them with such spiritual darkness that they discern not his Will revealed in his written Word no other infallible Authority can inlighten them and make those scales fall from their eyes which hinder their sight in the means of their Salvation They will everlastingly go on in darkness because having Light presented to them they preferred darkness before it Those naughty affections which have kept the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ from shining into them will close their eyes so fast that no other Light will open them But they must either receive and follow the plain directions of Holy Scripture and recover their sight by a sincere practice of known Duties or walk on still in darkness and remain in the shadow of death to the end of their days Unto which plain direction if men would unfeignedly submit if thereby they were not led to the understanding of harder Scriptures they would however have this benefit that they would be secured from misunderstanding them My meaning is that by understanding believing and keeping close to the practice as well as knowledge of the easie and evident Truths of the Gospel we should be preserved from putting any dangerous interpretation upon those places which are hard and difficult Ignorant of them we might continue or perhaps mistake their meaning but still innocently so as not to do hurt to our selves or others by them An illustrious Example of which we have in St. Austin's Book De Fide Operibus Where discoursing Chap. XV. upon that place of St. Paul 1 Cor. III. 12 13. which he takes to be one of those which St. Peter saith are hard to be understood in his Epistles he tells us that some understood the building gold silver precious stones upon this foundation to be meant of adding good works to Faith in Christ and building Wood hay stubble upon it to be meant of those that held the same Faith but did evil From whence they fansied that by certain pains of Fire such evil men might be purged to obtain Salvation by virtue of the Foundation that is by a right Faith only because the Apostle saith v. 15. they should be saved yet so as by fire But if this be a true interpretation of this place saith that Excellent Father then all those places of Scripture which have no obscurity no ambiguity in them must be taken to be false As for Example that of St. Paul in the same Epistle Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no Charity I am Nothing and that of St. James What doth it profit brethren if a man say he hath faith but hath no works Can faith save him And that place also will be salse Be not deceived neither fornicators nor they that serve Idols nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God And that also The Works of the slesh are manifest which are adultery fornication uncleanness c. of which I tell you again as I have done formerly that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God These are all false if that interpretation be true St. Paul contradicts himself and in this obscure place clashes with his plain words for according to this Exposition if men only believe and be baptized they shall be saved by fire though they persevere in such wicked courses as those now mentioned And then I do not see to what purpose our Lord said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments telling him what belongs unto good manners And how will that be true which he tells us he will say to them on his left hand Go ye cursed c. whom He sends to Hell-fire not because they did not believe on him but because they did not do good works Thus that Father goes on heaping up a great many other places which evidently speak to the same purpose and then concludes If therefore these things and innumerable others which may be found in the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity be false then that sense may be true concerning the wood hay and stubble viz. that they shall be saved by sire who only holding Faith in Christ have neglected good Works Si autem vera clara sunt c. but if these things be both true and also clear then without doubt another sense of the Apostle's words is to be sought for And they are to be put into the number of those which S. Peter saith are hard to be understood which men ought not to pervert to their own destruction by endeavouring from them against the most evident Testimonies of the Scripture to make the most lewd people secure of obtaining Salvation though they pertinaciously continue in their wickedness not at all changed by amendment or repentance As for the true sense of that Scripture though he ventures at it yet he saith in the next Chapter he had rather be informed by those who are more learned and more understanding who can so expound it as to let all those things above mentioned remain true and unshaken in which the Scripture most openly avows that Faith profits Nothing unless it be that which the Apostle defines that is Faith which worketh by love but without Works cannot save men neither without fire nor by fire Still he sticks to this Rule as most certain and unmoveable that whatsoever sense be given of an obscure Scripture it contradicts not those Scriptures which are more plain especially those which teach us to live well and show the necessity of it which none that love the Truth as it is in Christ will ever prejudice by any interpertation of Scripture whatsoever It is out of my way to attempt the true meaning of the place now mentioned having no other business in hand at present but to show that by adhering as this Holy man did to the evident Truths in the Scripture they will never permit us to put any bad and pernicious sense upon those that are less evident Let us stick as he did to this Rule and we shall either put an harmless sense upon them or none at all But then we must as I said be heartily in love with these plain Truths and frame our lives according to
obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile For there is no respect of persons with God II. Rom. 6 7 c. If these words be not intelligible there can be no such thing as plain speaking in the World And it is as plainly and intelligibly written that God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness XVII Acts 31. when he will make good all his Promises and Threatnings and that our Lord Christ is that great Person by whom He will judge it All our labour all our Art can never make a Proposition to be understood if all these things which I have mentioned which are the substance of Religion be not obvious and clear to all who will take the pains to read the Holy Scriptures and consider them And therefore they do a great injury to the Grace of God and to the Care and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ the Head of the Church who endeavour to perswade us the Holy Scriptures are so obscure that it is not fit the people should look into them for fear of mistaking and running themselves into dangerous Errours and Heresies They may do so though they do not read the Scriptures by following their own vain imaginations and by dreaming upon that which they hear out of the Scriptures or which starts up in their own fancy but if they look into the Scriptures to know how to be saved and have no other end nor neglect humbly to implore the Divine guidance they cannot mistake but may be easily and fully satisfied For God hath told usall that Jesus is the Saviour and that he is the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey Him and his Commandments wherein we are to obey Him as they are not grievous so they are obvious and may be met withall every where if we have a mind to learn them and he hath set Pastors and Teachers in his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. IV. Ephes 11 12 13. So that no man having such directors can miss the way that leads to Eternal life unless both he and they will wilfully shut their eyes and on purpose turn aside from the path which the Holy Scripture shows unto them And if the words of the Spirit of God which are as bright as a Lamp to give light unto our feet may be mistaken or abused then no man no company of men no Interpreter no Council can draw up any words but they may be perverted by those who have no mind to be directed by them but are concerned to put another sense than they intended upon them And indeed it is no slight Argument that the Holy Scriptures are easie to be understood in all things necessary for our Instruction because God would have all even the meanest capacity to read them as I have proved in the foregoing Part of this work beyond any reasonable contradiction It would have been in vain to require men to search the Scriptures as not only God but his Church in ancient times did if they could not readily there meet with satisfaction The Doctors of the Church of Rome I know argue the quite contrary way therefore you should not read them because they are obscure But which will you chuse to believe God who bids you read them from whence you may conclude they are not obscure or men who bid you not read them because they are obscure You may most safely conclude they are not obscure because God bids you read them for this is a right Conclusion from Divine Premisses whereas the other Conclusion that you should not read them is drawn from a false Supposition directly contradictory to what follows from the Command of God to be conversant in them which is that they are not so obscure but in things necessary we may easily understand them Otherwise our Blessed Lord the Wisdom of the Father would not have bidden men search them nor would his Apostles have ceased to imploy their pains till they had made such things plainer if they had not thought they had set them down so plainly in their Writings that no man who would read could be ignorant of them That 's another thing worthy observation That the very End for which the Gospel was written by the Apostles reproves this Pretence of obscurity St. John tells us it was that we might believe XX. Joh. ult These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name By whose Authority did St. John write or by whose assistance did he perform this work Was it not by our Saviour's and by the guidance of the Holy Ghost And to what purpose was he inspired but to work Faith in those mens Souls who read his Writings And what Faith was this only the belief of some few things which are clear enough but not sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation No such matter He wrote that we might have so much Faith as should give us Eternal life through Christ Jesus Now who can believe that he who wrote by that Spirit which perfectly knew the several Tempers and Capacities of every Age and with an intention to breed saving Faith in their Souls should yet write so obscurely that he could not be understood of them for whose good and benefit he wrote Nothing but interest that is nothing but that very wicked Temper which blinded the Jews and made them deny our Saviour and crucifie him can induce a man to be of this opinion It will be replyed I know by some that however here is a confession that some things are hard to be understood and therefore it is best to keep the Scriptures from the people because they may do themselves hurt by those things Unto which I have answered already that if they seek for Nothing but Salvation and how to please God in order thereunto they will not do themselves hurt by any thing they meet withal in the Holy Writings But for further satisfaction I shall proceed to give a brief account of the second thing I propounded to be considered which is II. THAT the Apostle doth not say some things cannot be understood but that they are hard to be understood There is some labour required to the understanding them which if we will take we may comprehend their meaning It would be a long Work to examine what things in St. Paul's Epistles the Apostle St. Peter may be thought to point at as difficult to be understood But the inquiry might be very much shortned by one
small observation which may be sufficient to inform us That if men take heed the Scriptures are not so difficult to be understood as Laziness and careless Reading and Interest would make them It is only this to what the word WHICH relates when the Apostle saith In WHICH are some things c. Whether to St. Paul's Epistles or to those things which St. Peter is treating of in this Chapter as St. Paul doth in some of his Epistles And it is manifest to those who will be at so much pains as to ask any honest man that understands the Original Language that it refers not to all St. Paul's Epistles but to those things of which St. Peter had been discoursing For the words are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which Epistles but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which things or among which things some are hard to be understood Now that which St. Peter had been speaking of is the Coming of our Lord concerning which he saith St. Paul also had written and therefore it is most reasonable to determine that S. Peter here means that in those things which St. Paul had written in his Epistles about Christ's Coming there were some things not so easie to be understood as the rest And what great matter is it if we be ignorant of some things relating to his Coming since we know and are certain by undoubted words of the Apostles that He will come and come to render unto all according to their works Let us believe this and then we shall find no difficulty in the use which St. Peter makes of it in the eleventh verse What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness It would be very ill for us if Christ should come now and find us instead of reforming our lives by practising the plain Truths of the Gospel disputing against that Gospel and casting reflections upon it as an obscure Book which is more apt to breed Heresies than to teach men the way to Heaven And whensoever He doth come it will not be easie for some men to answer this Charge which will be brought against them of aspersing his Will and Testament on this fashion as if it were apt to make his Children fall out and not rather agree together in pious Love and Charity But let those who are concern'd look to that let us who enjoy the liberty of reading his Holy Will and are incouraged so to do only endeavour as St. Paul speaks to have our conversation as becomes the Gospel And when we meet with any thing which we do not understand therein let our next thought be that there is enough which we do understand and that if we practise it and will take pains we may in time understand the rest as far as concerns us in our state and condition of life For it is easie to show that if we extend the meaning of St. Peter further as we are wont to do and look into all those parts of St. Paul's Epistles that are thought the hardest to be understood we may with some diligence and observation comprehend the meaning of them well enough And till we use that diligence we ought not to accuse the Scriptures of obscurity but our selves of negligence All it is true cannot use that diligence which is necessary to understand him in all points because their business will not permit it but it is as true that as it is not necessary they should understand him in all things so if they could use that diligence which is requisite they might for any thing that can be seen in St. Peter's words understand him thoroughout For he only saith there are difficult things in St. Paul but difficulties are short of impossibilities and we see very great difficulties in other matters overcome by mens industry and God's blessing And therefore they may be overcome here by those who make it their business and have capacity to comprehend his meaning And if they do not understand every particular expression or passage yet his scope and drift in the whole discourse may with careful attention and observation be clearly discerned At least there is Nothing in St. Peter's words which contradict this and therefore they are vainly alledged to prove the obscurity and difficulty of the Scriptures when they can extend but to some places of Scripture i. e. St. Paul's Epistles and but to some things in them nay but to some things I have shown in one particular Discourse in them about the Coming of Christ which have no further obscurity in them neither but what is only an exercise of our diligence by which they may be understood But just thus other places are wrested to prove the obscurity of the Scriptures I will instance in one or two The Abridger of Controversies fears not to alledge the VIII Acts 30 31. to this purpose Where St. Philip asks the Eunuch if he understood what he read and he confesses he did not but asks him again How can I except some man should guide me From whence he concludes they are not easie to be understood To which the Reply is so easie that he must have a film before his eyes who doth not see that this place is an Argument against them that alledge it For it proves as I showed in the first Part that men did then read the Scriptures though they did not understand what they read And it proves not that the Eunuch understood Nothing but only that he did not understand that particular place which St. Philip found him reading And that was a place in a Prophecy which hath some obscurity in it till it be accomplished though not afterward And it was but one thing he did not understand in that Prophecy for he knew what the Prophet said but could not tell of whom I pray thee tell me saith he to the Evangelist of whom speaketh the Prophet of himself or of some other That was all the inquiry the difficulty lying in that one single point and in that also only for a time for by the help of an Interpreter he soon understood the Prophecy was fulfilled and in whom it was fulfilled So that this very place hath now no difficulty at all in it unto us when we read it though it was at that time difficult to him What a number of insufficiencies are there in this allegation as Bishop Montague justly complains to prove the Scriptures are hard to be understood All that can be made of it is that one place of Scripture was obscure in a particular case and in one point only of that case and at that time and I may further add to a stranger who was not of the Jewish Nation and so was not from the beginning acquainted with their Books who notwithstanding with a little help presently found it was no longer hard to be understood but very easie as it is now to us This is enough both to show how insufficient the proofs are which are brought
not only the Vnlearned but the Vnstable also wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction II. VNSTABLE WHO those are is now easier to determine if what hath been said of the other be admitted They are such as do not stedfastly believe what they have learnt who having entertained the Truth do not stick to those Principles of Natural Light and plain Revelation nor are setled in them but sometimes believe them and sometimes question or disbelieve them Such persons the same St. Paul also describes in the Christian Church who were tossed up and down with every wind of Doctrine and could six no where but rolled in uncertainty from one Opinion to another till they lost themselves in Infidelity IV. Eph. 14. The Principles they had received were floating in their mind and never came to any certain constant resolution which made them apt on all occasions to pervert the Scriptures according as their own Fancy or the confident suggestion of some bold Seducer inclined them For some men deliver the vainest Conceit with such an assurance and earnest Zeal that they may be well compared to a violent blast which carries those along with it who are not setled and confirmed in their Belief I may make many more words about this but I shall scarce make it plainer and therefore I will not endeavour it But now desire you to mind what course these words thus explained direct us to take that we may be preserved from abusing the liberty we have of consulting on all occasions with the Oracles of God There is some Learning you see required to the understanding of the Holy Scriptures But you need not go far to seek it for it consists only in the knowledge of such Natural Truths as are ingraven upon our own minds and of those plain Doctrines of Christianity which are revealed in God's Word so clearly that there is no Controversie about them especially of the great Design of Christianity which St. John expresses in this short Sentence These things write I unto you that ye sin not This is very solid and deep Learning to know that the first and chief End of Divine Writings is to teach us to live well and the next follows in the next words of St. John 1. II. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous c Be not discouraged if contrary to the grent Design of Christianity you fall into sin but hope for Mercy through the Propitiation made by Christ Jesus who will intercede for the sius of those who heartily make this their main design and business not to sin Which Truths of both sorts we must take some pains to six in our rainds and root in our hearts that our belief of them may not be shaken by any other perswasion whatsoever much less by any sudden conceit which starts up in our minds or is suggested to us by others And the way to do that is to live by them for nothing settles knowledge so much as saithful practice according to it especially when we are setled in this practice For those St. Peter calls unstable Souls in the Chapter before this v. 14. apt to be beguiled and insnared who had not arrived at a setled resolution and an habitual course of well-doing Now when this is done which must be our first Work there is but one Rule which I shall propose because if well followed it comprehends all in it to make our reading the Holy Scriptures safe and secure Which is this Never to admit any Interpretation of Scripture from others or fasten any sense upon them our selves which contradicts those known Truths which we have learned and in which we are fixed as the undoubted Mind and Will of God They must be the measure of all the rest by them we must judge of all things whether they be true or false Whatsoever overthrows them and will not consist with them must be rejected It must not make us doubt of them but they must make us conclude it is a safe Interpretation And on the other side whatsoever agrees with them though it should happen not to be the proper meaning of a place of Scripture into which we inquire it can do no harm if it be entertained And here now I shall do these three things First Show how we are to use this Rule Secondly How necessary it is to keep to it Thirdly How readily thereby we may salve many seeming difficulties in the Holy Scripture at least pass by them safely if we observe it I. Concerning the first I shall only say these two things I. First That we must never admit any Interpretation on a sudden till we have examined how it agrees with the Principles of known and undoubted Truth Fancy will be suggesting things to us and if we be not attentive will sometimes insinuate very absurd Notions into our Belief Here therefore our care and labour is required to bring along with us to the reading of Holy Scripture such a sense of God and of our known Duty to him and of the end and intention of Religion that it may be ready at hand to correct our extempore conceits and apprehensions which will be forward to mislead us And if they represent any thing to us which makes Him unjust or unmerciful if they plainly lead us to negligence and carelesness in our Duty if they strike at the end of the Commandment which is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned we must as suddenly lay them aside as they obtrude themselves upon us For that cannot be the Mind of God which crosses the Natural Notions we all have of Him or thwarts the plain Revelations He hath made of his blessed Nature and Will or tends to make us less diligent in his service less zealous of good works unto which we are created and formed in Christ Jesus that we should walk in them II. Ephes 10. And we are all concerned to watch carefully lest any thing of this kind insinuate it self to the high dishonour of Almighty God and the infinite hazard of our immortal Souls And to watch not only when we are reading the Holy Scriptures but II. Secondly At all other times we must use due care lest our thoughts lead us to form any Opinions which are contrary to the known Principles of Humanity and Christianity The thoughts of men are restless and are apt to cast themselves into a thousand shapes and frame innumerable conceits Now if we let any settle in our minds which agree not with the Truths I have often named they will not fail to be intermedling when we read the Scriptures and draw it to speak in their favour contrary to its meaning There is no private Opinion which we have received but we are naturally desirous to have it justified and confirmed and therefore we had need take care to entertain none that are inconsistent with Piety for they will be sure to catch at every
that being thus entred we cannot continue in that state unless according to our holy purpose we bring forth the fruit of good Works And in like manner what he saith of God's hardening mens hearts is not difficult to be understood by those who are not unlearned and unstable but are skilful in the Principles of natural Knowledge and of true Christianity and who are rooted in them so that they hold them fast whatscever expressions there may be that seem to contradict them But it is time to draw towards a Conclusion of this Treatise which shall end as it began The Doctrine of this Church it appears is most pure and sincere in this Point and most conformable to what we find delivered by the holy Doctors of Christianity in the best Ages And therefore no Member of it ought to be perswaded for any reason to lay aside the reading of the Holy Scriptures when there is a more pious course to which they themselves direct us Which is to learn those things well which we cannot misapprehend if we mind them and which will keep us from misapprehending all other things if we stick to them and will not desert them Let that be your first business to learn all General Truths which comprehend the Particular in them And when you have learnt them receive no particular Opinion which crosses those general Truths for you may be sure it is false because one Truth cannot cross another and all Conclusions must be judged by the prime Truths which ought to stand unmoveable But above all let us establish those Truths in our minds and hearts which teach us to be good For there is no Dispute about this that we ought to be devoutly Religious and sober and just and temperate in all things meek also humble patient ready to do good and to forgive And if we exercise our selves continually in the practice of these and such like Vertues which are evidently taught us in the Holy Books they will preserve us from making any ill use of any thing we read there and teach us to turn all we read into our nourishment and increase in true Godliness Hear the First Homily of our Church in the conclusion of it In reading God's Word he most profiteth not always that is most ready in turning of the Book or in saying of it without Book but he that is most turned into it that is most inspired with the Holy Ghost most in his heart and life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth he that is daily less and less proud less wrathful less covetous and less desirous of worldly and vain pleasures he that daily for saking his old vicious life increaseth in Vertue more and more And to be short there is nothing that more maintaineth Godliness of mind and driveth away Vngodliness than doth the continual reading or hearing of God's Word if it be joyned with a godly mind and a good affection to know and follow God's Will For without a single eye pure intent and good mind nothing is allowed for good before God OBJECTION THE great Objection against all that hath been said is That notwithstanding these Directions Lay-men we see do abuse the Holy Scriptures and which is more the reading of them hath bred infinite Heresies and therefore the safest course is to forbid them to be read by the common people ANSWER I. TO the first part of which an Answer hath been returned already That there is nothing in the World so useful and necessary but it is liable to be abused and yet it must not therefore be kept out of the hands of vulgar people for their common benefit What more useful nay necessary than fire and yet malicious or negligent people may burn the best house that is with it which they should only warm But besides this I have one short Reply more to make That none have been more guilty of abusing the Holy Scripture than they who ought to have been Guides to the Church and People of God by a sound interpretation thereof Examples of which I am not disposed to name unless any shall be so untoward as to deny it and then a great many may be produced like to that of him who because Moses said If a beast touch the mountain let it be stoned concluded that no simple or unlearned man ought to presume to meddle with the sublimity of the Holy Scripture A hard case this that vulgar people should be treated like Beasts but thus Learned men will misinterpret Scripture when they are inclined only to serve their Cause and be as forward if they be not disinteressed to mislead the people as the people are to mislead themselves ANSWER II. TO the other part of the Objection I shall give something fuller satisfaction I. And first of all it is not true that all Heresies have sprung from mens reading the Scriptures or from their misunderstanding them but rather from their not reading them as St. Chrysostom you have heard was of opinion whose words I have quoted more than once in the first Part of this Discourse Which are of the same import with those of our Saviour XXII Matth. 29. Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God That is not being acquainted with what natural Reason taught concerning God's Omnipotency as well as what the Scripture taught about the Resurrection Here it may be fit to observe these four things First That the Fathers observe all the ancient Hereticks did not read the Scripture They are the words of St. Austin Lib. III. Cap. 9. De Genesi ad literam For neither do all Hereticks read the Catholick Scriptures nor are they Hereticks for any other reason but because they not understanding them aright pertinaciously assert their own false Opinions against their Truth And thus St. Hierom in the last words of his Commentary upon the VII of Hosea All the questions of the Hereticks and of the Gentiles are the same because they follow not the Authority of the Scriptures but the sense of humane Reason Secondly They observe that the men who pretended most to this were the Original of Heresies viz. the Philosophers Thus Tertullian in his first Book against Marcion speaking of the Professors of Wisdom saith De quorum ingeniis omnis haeresis animatur From whose Wits all Heresie is begotten and incouraged And more fully in his Book of Prescriptions Cap. 7. Ipsae denique haereses à Philosophia animantur Heresies themselves had life given them from Philosophy For the Aeones came out of the School of Plato Marcion's God came from the Stoicks and the Souls Mortality from the Epicureans and the denial of the Resurrection of the Body was taken from one School of all the Philosophers And so he proceeds showing how the Fables the endless Genealogies the unprofitable questions and Disputings mentioned in the Scriptures came out of the same Forge and that the Apostle takes notice of it when he gives the Colossians a Caveat