imposing as little on them as on my self who am not willing to be deceived And I am confident that he who is attentive and willing to be informed shall receive plain and full Conviction To try this Matter I do not find it proper to appeal to the Universal Doctrin either of the Present or Primitive Church The Fathers may be thought as partial and incompetent Judges as the Modern Divines Authorities have no weight with the Patrons of Incredulity they laugh at this Method and judge it as unreasonable as if one would consult old Bigotted Aristotelians about the New Philosophy I know their regard to the Scriptures is much the same as what they have to other Books They read and examine it with the same boldness and freedom and very often with less Modesty than human Writings because its Assertions are plain and otherwise unanswerable therefore to shelter themselves and to defend their Opinions they disown its Authority and cry it down as a Book which is not implicitly to be believed more than others Hence it is that some attack the Authentickness and Purity of the Text others the Integrity and Inspiration of the Pen-men and all of them endeavour one way or other to remove the only sure Light we have to direct our Course So they would reason us into a fearful and troublesom uncertainty and they make our condition as deplorable as Persons at Sea in a dark tempestuous Night without Waggoner Compass or Pilot. I intend not to prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture which hath been admirably well done by several both in this and former Ages I take this for granted But if this be too great a Postulatum it will be sufficient for my business to suppose it in the first rank of Books which it may claim both by reason of its Antiquity and the things contained in it The Authors of this Holy Book merit Reverence and Esteem at least as much as Plato Aristotle Seneca Epictetus Confutius of China and other Ancients whose Sentiments the World is curious to know and which Learned Men have been employed to Collect as useful to Mankind Nay I am willing at present even to pass this too I ask only which cannot be Justly denied a due Attention to what is said in Scripture and an impartial and unbyass'd consideration of the excellency and reasonableness of what it proposes for then I am sure that the Doctrine of Christianity will appear divine and true and worthy of all acceptation for it shines with Evidence as the Light which proves and manifests it self to every one that is not blind If our Gospel saith St. Paul be hid it is hid to them that are lost c. The finest Picture doth not look well if it be not set in a proper Light Nor doth the Gospel appear reasonable when it is not duly represented All the Cavils and Objections that are made against it proceed from a wrong view of it represent it fairly and there is nothing more agreeable Its Imperfections are Beauties and admirable Contrivances its Foolishness is the highest Wisdom its seeming Absurdities and Contradictions upon Examination are most rational and perfectly consistent its Faith is Conviction and Demonstration In a word it is every way faithful and true and worthy to be received by the wisest and most perfect Men as I hope to make appear by these Essays and what are to follow hereafter which I desire may be read with Attention and Candour and according to the Method in which it is written for Divine Truths are in this like the Propositions of Euclid There is a dependency amongst them the first must be received before the rest can be admitted but tho' what is Prior in order of Nature ought to be first considered yet it is certain that the same is not so fully comprehended as when what follows is known and understood Thus the Existence of a Deity is to be proved before a Providence and yet the Proofs of a Providence and such a view of it as we may have by Reason and Revelation doth not only mightily confirm us in the Belief of a God but also very much enlarge our Idea of him What may be known by Nature and Reason should be proposed before the Discoveries of Revelation and yet the Light of Revelation doth give clearer Convictions of the former and doth render intelligible what before could not indeed be denied but yet was not well understood Nature and Reason may be compared to the dawnings of the Morning which is not to be despised but the Discoveries of the Scripture resemble the Light of the Sun when it is mounted the Horizon which is full and sufficient for all that is necessary to our present State We should have begun at that Faith which is peculiar to the Gospel and so spared our labour in proving a Deity and Providence if the present growth of Atheism had not made it necessary to establish these first It is true these Subjects have of late been excellently well-handled to which we might have referred but that would have been to build upon another Man's foundation All must acknowledge that these Subjects are of great importance and therefore what we offer about them ought to be kindly received both by those who doubt and those who believe that the one may be confirmed and the other satisfied in Matters that so nearly concern them I would not be thought to despise some Proofs and Arguments which I have not used Our Essays would have run out into vast Volumes if we had amassed all that might have been said and therefore we have only made choice of such things as either have been least considered by others or which may be of most common use We do not write for the Instruction of those who have been bred in Universities and therefore have purposely waved what could not be understood without Metaphysical Notions and the abstruse part of Learning We have digested our Enquiries about Faith into three Parts of which the present Essays make the First And we have been advised to Publish them separately to encourage the Reading of them For tho' those who have most need of Information have also generally most leisure to Read yet it is well known that they are also least willing to undertake the Reading of what requires many Hours and much Attention Bulky Books fright them and they throw them by as too great Interruptions to their Diversions for the most of their Occupations are nothing else But if such will not be at the pains to read a few Sheets they betray their Aversion to these Truths and do in vain pretend to excuse their Infidelity by want of true Conviction The Second Part is wholly taken up about Providence which is too copious a Subject to be exhausted by any but without the hazard of being vain or immodest I may say that there is at least some things suggested which may both perswade the belief of a Providence and
also satisfie mens Minds in some measure about the Strange and Wonderful Dispensations of it which not being commonly handled we have the more largely insisted on In the Third and last Part shall be considered that Faith which is founded upon Revelation which also we shall indeavour to set in its true Light Both these Parts shall follow very soon if it please God to assist us and I heartily wish that all of them may prove Useful to the design proposed by helping to clear those Truths which are of the greatest Importance ESSAY I. Faith is and hath been the Perpetual Standard of Righteousness from the beginning of the World 1. AS all Authors whether Historians or Philosophers have their peculiar Phrases and way of Speaking so Faith is a word and term proper to Sacred Scripture It never occurs to us in the reading of any of the Heathen Moralists in that sense in which we meet with it almost in every leaf of the Holy Bible St. Paul as agreeable to the other Apostles he discourses often and very much of Faith so in three several Epistles he asserts that the Iust shall live by Faith and in one of them he Prefaces it with an as it is written testifying by this that it was no New Doctrine of the Gospel but what was taught by the Law and the Prophets And accordingly we find the same very words in the Prophet Habakkuk Chap. 2. 4. whence we may conclude that this is a Scripture Maxim of certain and perpetual Verity under every Dispensation as well the former as the present 2. By the Iust is to be understood the Good Holy and Righteous in opposition to the Wicked and Ungodly And to live comprehends and must be extended to the whole tract and course of their Life and Conversation for to restrain it to any single or individual act which hath not an Universal Influence upon the whole Man and all its Motions is to make the Scripture and Inspirer of it speak very improperly He is not said to Live in a place who Lodgeth there a Night or two but who has his constant Residence and Abode in it Nor can he be said properly to live by any Art or Science who now and then perhaps diverteth himself with it but only he who makes it his profession aim and study who constantly exerciseth it and subsisteth by it So when it is said that the Iust live by Faith the meaning is and must be that they always walk by Faith they order and frame their whole Life and Conversation according to it It is the Principle by which they are actuated and which produceth all that they do As the Soul and Spirit give Life to the Body excite direct and determine the Actions of the whole Man so Faith is the Soul Life and Spirit of a Just or Righteous Man the first and great Principles of his Motions the chief Rule and Director of his Actions that which quickens his Hopes awakens his Fears excites and curbs his Passion and which pusheth him forward to all that is suitable to his Rank Quality and other Circumstances in which he stands In a word to live by Faith must be to think speak and act by it for Life comprehends all this And he who doth thus live by Faith is truly Just Good Holy and Righteous For if it be true that the Iust do live by Faith it is also true that they who live by Faith are Iust. As Knowledge and Wisdom render a Man learned and wise so Faith makes one Iust and Righteous and this Righteousness encreaseth according to the proportion of our Faith for there are degrees of Faith as of Life there are weaker and stronger imperfect and perfect in both 3. Now that it is not peculiar to the state of the Gospel for the Iust to live by Faith but that they did so under the Law and before it doth further appear from what the Apostle writes in the Eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews where by a long enumeration of particular instances he proves that all the Righteous even up to Abel that is ever since the Fall did walk by Faith and that Faith was the source and spring of both their Common and Extraordinary Actions And he might have ascended higher and shewed that even in the state of Innocence Faith was appointed the Life and Soul of Righteousness for that Command which was given to our first Parents about the Tree of Knowledge in the midst of the Garden was to exercise their Faith as their Transgression was a failure of Faith as well as of Obedience St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians and in the first Part of that to the Romans pursues the same Truth against the Bigotted Jews and Judaizing Christians For to convince them of their Error in expecting to be Iustified by the Law of Moses He shews clearly that before the Law was in being Men were accounted Iust and Righteous before God by reason of their Faith and therefore that Faith was the permanent and perpetual Standard or Rule both for measuring Mens Righteousness and for obtaining their Iustification Because Abraham was an eminent Example of Faith therefore he was not only reputed Righteous but had the peculiar honour to be called the Friend of God and the Father of the Faithful in all succeeding Generations And all who believe and live by Faith are stiled the Children of Abraham and Heirs of his Honour and Privileges Upon which account they are also named the Children of God the holy Seed the righteous Generation in opposition to the Sons of Belial the Wicked and Reprobate who are branded with the Character of Vnbelievers Children of Vnbelief Persons without Faith as the Original bears which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much more might be said on this Head but it sufficiently appears from what hath been said that according to the peculiar Dialect both of the Old and New Testament Faith and Holiness Believing and to be Iust or to live righteously are used indifferently as reciprocal Phrases which import or inferr one another And the reason of this Dialect is because according to the Philosophy of the Scripture that which goes under the Name of Faith is the first Principle which actuates a a good or just Man and that the Goodness or Righteousness which is acceptable to God is only the Effects or Expressions of that Faith which naturally and inseparably follow it as the Light doth the Sun Now before I proceed further it is fit to make a little Pause and it may be convenient to represent here the Obligation which lieth upon all who own the Authority of Scripture to entertain those Phrases and Expressions with respect and reverence 4. They ought to esteem them not only Sacred but Exact and Just and the fittest to convey true Notions into our Minds A Wise Man can express his own Thoughts best And sure none can be supposed more qualified to know the most apposite words
for expressing Truth than the Spirit of Truth or they who are inspired by it They who recede from the Phrases of any Author do also generally differ from his Sentiments and give others occasion to mistake them For the peculiar and repeated Phrases which one has used constantly do give the greatest Light to the Discovery of his Thoughts For if he had not perceived or fansied some Propriety in those Phrases for representing what he would be at he would not have been so fond of them nor would he so constantly have used them even as an exact and skilful Painter observeth carefully both the Strokes and Mixtures which are fittest to shadow out the Colours and Figures he would represent But even abstracting from the Divine Authority of Scripture and the peculiar Inspiration of the Pen-men it is very great Immodesty to offer to correct and amend their Expressions as if any now a-days could express their Thoughts Notions and Sentiments better than they themselves were capable to do especially on Subjects with which they were well acquainted and which they knew better than other Men by reason of their Profound Meditation the Purity of their Minds and the Integrity of their Lives These very things if divine and immediate Inspiration will not be allowed them could qualifie them to teach the Nature and Acts of a Holy Life or true Righteousness far better than others All the Heathen Philosophers came short of their Perfection and therefore are not so good Masters of Morality for Moral Truths are not like Mathematical ones to be learned by Reading and Study The Knowledge of those comes best nay can only be had by serious and continued Practice A good Man Unlearned has a deeper sense of Christian Morality and can discourse more lively and reasonably of it than the greatest Scholar who has only the Theory And there be some Expressions which seem mean and silly to the last which the other feels to be just and Emphatick as what that Man esteems lofty and Sublime this Man Undervalues for the one knows and thoroughly understands the Subject he speaks of which the other does not To return all the Disciples of any Sect reverence the Authors and Founders of them and love to speak in their Language and according to their Dialect An Aristotelian will huff and grow very angry if the Cant of his Schools be mocked and the well-bred Cartesian will not be much more calm and easie when the Terms and Principles of his Philosophy are played upon Now ought not Christians to be much more tender of the Divine Phrases which the Prophets and Apostles have used to set forth the Secret and Sublime Principles of that Life which renders us acceptable to God and makes us to be reputed Righteous in his sight Which Phrases were neither blindly hit upon nor affected to amuse but wisely chosen as most proper because both clear and comprehensive Therefore to mock Faith and to turn Believing into Ridicule to explode the Phrase and pretend to give better is insufferable Insolence and a high Affront to the Apostles and Prophets and that Spirit which did inspire them Christians ought to resent this to bear with it is not Meekness but want of Zeal and Courage it is a lazy treachery as when one beholds the Rights of his Country or Society invaded and betrayed and yet holds his Peace It does not become the Children of the Family to assume the Liberty or rather licentiousness of Enemies and Aliens and if the Wantonness of their Humour prompt them to it it is their Duty who have the Charge of the Family to Chastise them into better Manners ESSAY II. Of Faith as Opposed to Doubting 1. WHatever regard be due to Words and Phrases there is a greater due to the sense and meaning of them Men are no better than Parrots if they utter words and do not understand them The next thing therefore to be considered is what is this Faith which the Just should live by which is so much magnified and spoken of in Scripture which is now and which is said always to have been the Principle of a holy and spiritual Life 2. In order to this I resolve not either to consider the Definitions of others or to give a New one of my own the common Definitions of Faith would hamper me too much If I were tied to them I could not have the freedom of my design which is to make a clear full and ample Description of Faith This is not to cast a slight upon any of the received Definitions which as they are placed in the common Catechisms do serve well enough to point out some of the special and chief Acts of Faith but which yet are not sufficient to give a full or clear Idea of it Nor will I attempt to amend them or to establish a better one for it is not easie to make a good Definition of such a very comprehensive thing as Faith is nor is such a thing well understood by any Definition as by taking a particular and separate view of those things which it comprehends It is but a very confused Notion of Grammer Logick or any other Science which Youth have by the Definitions which are first taught them they then only rightly understand the Nature and Use of these Sciences when they have gone through them And as I am not to trouble my self with the common Definitions so neither will I intangle my self or the Reader with the ordinary Distinctions of Faith such as Temporary Faith an Historical Faith a Faith of Miracles c. For tho' there be something in Scripture which gives occasion to these Names and Distinctions yet the consideration of them would give little light to our Enquiry for they suppose the Knowledge of Faith which we enquire after and are designed to mark out some certain degrees of Faith rather than to instruct the Nature of it which we mainly aim at For my purpose is by the light and guidance of Scripture alone to search out this Faith which is necessary to entitle one to be Just and Righteous before God and upon which account it must be that St. Paul saith without Faith it is impossible to please him Heb. ii 6. And to prevent all dangerous Errour that we may not mistake one sort of Faith for another a Faith which cannot or doth not render Just for one that doth we shall have still in our Eye this necessary Relation betwixt Faith and Righteousness 3. To proceed then In the first place I find Faith taken in opposition to Doubting So it is taken Rom. 14. and in several other places And in this sense Faith is much the same with Conscience and is an inward Conviction or Perswasion of Mind concerning what is true or false good and evil lawful and unlawful Which Perswasion or inward Conviction is the first Rule or Standard by which one 's Integrity and Uprightness is to be measured and therefore it is as necessary for
the Just to live by this Faith as for a Square to have four equal sides both Texts of Scripture and the Nature of the thing require it The true and primitive Character of a Just Man is to be Conscientious to follow the Dictates of his Mind and to order his Life and Actions according to what he knows and believes to be right A Just Man must be Upright and there is no Uprightness if the outward and inward-man do not keep touches if there be no Correspondence betwixt them if the Mouth contradict the Heart and the Life and Actions be disagreeable to the inward Light and Sentiments This Faith is as the Eye by which we see and know how to order our Steps it is as the Light to shew the Way in which we should walk and not to follow it or to go contrary to it is great Perverseness and the Character of a Wicked Man As the Spirit is the Principle of Life and Life of Motion so this Faith is the first Principle of a good Life and Men are to be reckoned good or bad as they walk according to it He is a bad Man who contradicts it and he is no good Man whose Actions do not flow from it The Motions of a Puppet or Engine may be both Regular and Useful but they cannot be reckoned Natural because they proceed not from a Principle of Life but from Artificial Springs So tho' one's Actions be never so plausible fair or useful to others yet they are not good nor is he who doth them Just if they proceed from any other principle than this Faith that is an inward Perswasion of their being just and good lawful and reasonable for whatsoever is not of Faith saith the Apostle is sin Rom. 14. 23. Hence it is that we see some in Scripture branded with the Character of ill Men and others denied the Approbation of being good whose Actions were outwardly good and commendable because they did what they did for other Reasons and upon another account than the intrinsick goodness of those things or their own Perswasion of it 4. All the Actions of every one are to be Approved or Condemned with a regard to this Faith and by vertue of it things in themselves good and lawful become evil and what is evil loseth a part of its malignity Thus the Eating of Flesh which in it self is a lawful and innocent Action is a damnable Sin to him who has the least doubt whether it be lawful and what is clean turns unclean to him who thinks it so as is excellently discoursed in that fore-cited Chapter So on the other hand we find God himself excusing Abimelech for taking Sarah into his House because he did it in the integrity of his heart that is he was ignorant of her being another Man's Wife And St. Paul's Perfection of the Saints was the more pardonable because he verily thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus I was before saith he a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief that is without Faith or the perswasion of the evil of it 1 Tim. 1. 13. But then it is to be remembred That this Faith which hath such Influence upon our Actions and which is so Essential to a Just Man is not Fancy or Imagination nor a light or hasty Perswasion Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind saith the Apostle ver 5. and therefore our Faith and Perswasion ought to be well-grounded the effect of serious Enquiry and Deliberation that it may give true and certain Direction otherwise it may be still said that we are regardless of Right and Wrong Truth or Falshood Good and Evil which is inconsistent with the Character of a perfectly Just Man A wise Architect doth not work at random but by Plumb and Rule but then he is first careful that his Plumb and Rule be right and exact for without this he cannot sincerely intend to have his work perfect So a Just man carefully studieth both a Conformity betwixt his Actions and his inward Sentiments and betwixt these and truth and the stable Rule of Right and wrong Good and Evil. To act contrary to inward Conviction is to offend wilfully and the height of Wickedness but it is the next degree to it to be careless whether we offend or not whether we do Good or Evil which we are guilty of when we are not at any pains to adjust our Perswasion to Truth to know the right or to inform our selves of what is good lawful and fit to be done The same reason which makes it Just and our Duty to act according to our Knowledge and inward Perswasion or to do the Good we know obligeth us to search out the real Good that is that there may be no Errour in our Perswasion nor Crookedness in our Practice and then only our Thoughts can justifie our Actions when by Diligence and due Care we have endeavoured to make our Thoughts just and true conform to the Nature of things for without this we cannot be fully perswaded in our Minds as the Apostle enjoineth the assurance of Faith is wanting which is necessary to dispel all doubts and to establish our goings Happy is he saith St. Paul that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth Rom. 14. 22. by which he gives us to understand that our Heart must approve our Actions our Minds must Judge that the ways we take are right otherwise we stand Self-condemned Now the Judgment is not Just which is not certain which is rashly or hastily pronounced before a strict Examination or a due Attention to all the Proofs and Evidences which can be brought for clearing the Cause There is still place for Doubting when necessary Caution and the proper Means have not been used for right and sufficient Information And as Doubting defileth the Man and polluteth all his Actions so it is uneasie to the Mind As Darkness in which when one walketh it maketh him Apprehensive full of Fears and Jealousies going forwards and backwards to the right and left without any steady course because he has no certainty of his way What is translated a Double-minded Man ought to be a Doubtful Man one that has not the assurance of Faith and such an one saith St. Iames is unstable in all his ways he wavereth like a wave of the Sea which is driven with the wind and tossed Jam. 1. 6 8. Fleeting and Inconstancy change of Opinions and Practices regarding Events and outward Advantages is at least a sure sign and evidence that the Person has not attained to a true Faith or full Perswasion of his Duty of what is good lawful or necessary for Faith gives a chearful confidence it makes one constant and to be always the same because Truth and the Nature of things change not To conclude this Matter By Faith here we are to understand a true Knowledge of the Nature of
things a clear Conviction of Truth and a hearty full Perswasion of Good and Evil Lawful and Unlawful which every one should endeavour after as much as possible And also every one ought to live answerably to the measure which he hath attained of it Who doth thus so far he is to be reckoned Good and Just for he hath no Perverseness in his temper no crooked Byass in his Constitution but sheweth an Integrity of Mind without guile or hypocrisie and a regular Will which offers no Prejudice but which renders to every person and thing what is due 6. Righteousness begins here A tendency towards this Faith is the first Symptom and Appearance as well as Motion of a Just and Good Life which like the Natural upon its first Production may be weak and languid but which like it too groweth if it be not stifled and as it groweth so it acquireth strength and vigour until it arrive at Perfection The first moments of the Morning are hardly distinguished from black Night but it creepeth on insensibly until the whole Hemisphere be enlightened So the Paths of the just saith Solomon are as the shining light which shineth more and more until the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. ESSAY III. Of Faith as opposed to Atheism and how a belief of the Existence of God is necessary to Determine the certain Rule of Moral Actions 1. TO go on with Faith which in the Second place is opposed to Atheism and so it is a firm Belief of the existence of a Deity a certain full and clear Perswasion that God is and a sense of those Attributes which are necessarily included in the true Idea of God He saith the Apostle who cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Heb. 4. 6. 2. The Faith spoken of in the former Essay obligeth to enquire after this and this we are now upon enforceth the reasonableness and necessity of that such is the relation betwixt them and so mutually do they support one another Not to Criticize Grammatically upon the words Lawful and Vnlawful which suppose a Superiour even Good and Evil depend much if not altogether upon the Knowledge of God and are to be measured by a Relation to him the Nature of these will be found to vary very much according as the Existence or Non-existence of a Deity is established If Man have no Superiour none to reward or punish his Actions then I suppose the Government of himself is Arbitrary as the chusing Employments is now thought to be his chief business is to please himself and consequently Good and Evil are only to be considered with relation to one's self and his present Interest which shall make as many different notions of Good and Evil as there are different Humours Inclinations and Interests among Men. Good and Evil shall in that case have no certain Standard by which to be measured but shall be of as mutable a Nature as Honesty and Dishonesty in a divided Common-wealth where the same thing is both Honesty and Knavery in the Judgment of the different Parties and where the same Person shall be both reputed a Hero and a Villain Then no act can leave a guilt and better or worse well or ill done is to be measured by the Event and Success And tho' Moral Laws can be shewed to have a Foundation in Nature yet the transgression of them for a particular Pleasure or Conveniency will be thought no more culpable than to level a Mountain to cut the course of a River to force Water to ascend and such like which seem to be equal Violences to Nature so that he who has a Liberty to do the one may also do the other But the case is quite altered if there be a God for then we are no more at our own disposal than Servants He who made us has an absolute dominion over us and all our care ought to be to please him His Will is a Law and the perpetual Standard of Good and Evil. 3. However it is certain that according to Scripture none are reckoned Just or Righteous but such as act with a continued regard to God which sometimes is expressed by the fear of God sometimes by walking with him or before him and having the heart perfect or upright with God When Hezekiah pleaded his Integrity it was in these words Remember Lord how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Upon this account Enoch Noah Abraham Lot Ioseph Ioshua Iob and all the other Worthies in Scripture are put into the Catalogue of the Just. And granting that there is a God it will necessarily follow that he only is a Just Man who sets God before him who makes him the end and measure of his Actions and the very design of whose Life is to please God Nor can there be a more proper Character of an Unjust Man than that by which the Wicked and Ungodly are described in Scripture Viz. They have not the fear of God before their Eyes God is not in all their thoughts they are without God that is they have no consideration of him nor regard unto him He is not Just who doth not render to every Man what is due If one keep squares with others never so well if he deal never so fairly with them yet if he at the same time be untowardly or undutiful to his Parents he cannot properly be called Just. So let one possess all that is called Vertue towards Men yet if God have not due Acknowledgment from him that Man is neither Just nor Righteous Nay as he is not a good and faithful Servant who does not sincerely intend his Master's Honour and Interest in all he doth so according to the Scripture none can claim the titles of Just or Righteous or have them bestowed upon them who do not all for God's sake whose chief Motive to do Good and forbear Evil is because the one is acceptable to God and the other offensive to him 4. Wherefore those Divines are much to be censured who recommend Morality and a good Life chiefly by other Topicks than these for they are either ignorant of the Principles and Philosophy of the Scripture or they discard the same to establish a better and more plausible Scheme of things They who profess to believe the Divine Authority of the Scripture ought also to think that they are incapable to correct its Principles or to establish what is more Just or Wise and that they cannot better shew their Learning and Judgment than by making it appear that they fully understand the Scope and Doctrine of the Scripture But whatever Opinion they have of the Scripture seeing their Profession obligeth them to teach it they ought to do it candidly that is without mixing their own Fansies and Opinions If one was appointed to read a Lecture of either Aristotelian or Cartesian Philosophy he could not be