sense and the Mystical that they do both together make up one entire compleat sense of the place Yea it may be said that in all propositions which admit a Literal and a Mystical sense though there be but one Explicite Enunciation yet there are two implicitely And if any have a mind upon this account to distinguish betwixt the Literal sense and the Mystical they may for me nor will I quarrel with them But to assign a plurality of coordinate or Ambiguous senses to one and the same text is the height of Madness invented only to reproach the Scripture and to make way for the Authority of the Church in the expounding of it and is indeed repugnant not only to the perspicuity of the Scripture but to the unity of Truth and the end of Gods revealing the Word which is to instruct us in Faith and Obedience for wheresoever there is a Multiplicity of Disparate Senses we can never be sure that we have attained to the true meaning of any one proposition Now when we enquire into the Sense of Scripture and asseâ—t its being Intelligible we always distinguish betwixt the perspicuity of the Object and the capacity of the Subject actually to understand it The easiness of the Scripture to be understood in respect of it self and our disposedness to understand it right are things vastly distant The Sense of the Word may be in it self facile and plain though in the mean time it remain dark and obscure to those who have shut their eyes or that have their understanding defiled tinctur'd and darkned by fuliginous vapours The Bible is only plain to such who apply themselves to the study of it without prepossessions prejudice and forestalled judgments are withall humble and diligent in the use of means to find out the meaning of it Though the Ethereal Regions be replenished with rayes of light emitted from the great Luminary yet it is both necessary that men have eyes and that they open them in order to their discovering and receiving the benefit of it If our understandings either from that darkness and ignorance which they are enveloped and muffled with through the Fall or from malignant Habits occasioned either by unhappy education or sensual lusts do not discern the sense and meaning of Scripture it is no impeachment of its perspicuity but a manifestation of our weakness corruption and folly Besides when we speak of the plainness of the Scripture its easiness to be understood we always put a difference betwixt Scripture Texts relating to Doctrines of Faith manners which are absolutely necessary to be known and such of whose Sense we may be safely ignorant the Doctrines they refer to having no indispensable connexion with Salvation The whole Will and Mind of God as to all that is needfull to be known in order to our duty and Happiness is revealed in the Scripture without any such ambiguity or obscurity as should hinder it from being understood though God in his Soveraign Wisdome hath in many things whose simple Ignorance doth not interpose with Salvation left many hard and difficult Texts partly to make us sensible of the weakness of our Understandings partly to imploy our minds unto diligence partly to induce us to implore Divine instruction and to make us depend upon God for illumination and partly to exercise our Souls unto reverence But in Fundamental Truths the Case is otherwise for the end giving measure and fixing bounds unto means it is not consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness yea nor Justice of God to leave that hard to be understood which upon no less peril than the hazard of Salvation he hath required the indispensable knowledg of As first principles of Reason need no proof of their Truth being self-evident to every one that understands the Import of Terms So Fundamental Doctrines of Religion carry an Evidence in the plainness and perspicuity of their Revelation that every one who reads the Bible without prejudice and a perverse mind may be satisfied that such Doctrines are there proposed Nor is it any Argument that those Texts of Scripture where such Articles are revealed are not easy to be understood because some out of prejudice or perversness have wrested them to a Corrupt sence seeing God did not endite the Bible for the froward and Captious but for such who will read it with a free and unprejudiced mind and are willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth For as Aristotle says in the Case of the first principles of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A self Evident Principle is not Evident to all men but only to such who have found and undepraved Understandings Topic. 6. Cap. 4. So it is no impeachment of the perspicuity of the Revelation of Fundamental Truths of Religion that men who have their minds defiled and darkned by Lusts infected with evil Opinions and filled with prejudices do not believe and acknowledg them And by the way while all Truths absolutely necessary to be known are easy and plain and while we are indispensably obliged to believe and receive whatsoever is so an Enumeration of Fundamental Truths is neither necessary nor useful and possibly not safe Now as all Doctrines necessary to be Understood are so revealed in the scripture that they are easy enough to be so so being understood they are as well the Standard and Measure by which dark and obscure Texts are to be interpreted as the Key to the opening of them As Curve lines are best discerned when applied to straight so are Heterodox senses imposed on Obscure Texts of Scripture best perceived when examined by their Habitudes to necessary and plain Truths Whatsoever bears not a Symmetry with the Foundation can be no Superstruction of God And whatsoever Notion either Formally or Virtually directly or consequentially interfere's with a fundamental Truth though never so many Texts be pressed in the proof of it we maybe sure both of its falsity and that they are all wrested and mistaken But though the Scripture be most plain in points necessary to Salvation yet no one Text of the Bible is in it self unintelligible for as Dr. More say's to affirm that the Holy Writ is in it elf unintelligible is aequivalent to the pronouncing it nonsense or to averr that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not only play with the Children of men but even fool with them Mons. Wolzogen therefore in his late Book de Interprete Scripturarum hath not only in this matter shamefully betrayed the Protestant cause but reflected reproach upon the Spirit of God There are somthings says he in the Scripture which we cannot understand not through any defect or fault of our Minds or through the Sublimity Majesty of the Doctrines themselves but through the Frame of the Scripture it self and the manner in which they are revealed If there be but one
in the Bible Nor can we Impeach the Genuine Issues of Reason without Reflection upon God who hath Endowed us with a Faculty necessarily swaying us to those Determinations The Connexion of one thing with another together with their mutual Dependencies ariseth not from the Arbitrarious Appointment and Designation of Men but is involved in the Essences of Beings and Results from the Habitudes which the Soveraign Author hath link't them in one to another Ipsa veritas Connexionum non instituta sed animadversa est ab hominibus notata ut eam possint vel discere vel docere Nam est in rerum ratione perpetua divinitus instituta August lib. 2. De Doctr. Christ. cap. 31. Might we not upon Proleptical Principles which are assented to as soon as the Terms are understood superstruct innumerable others There were no Room left for Meditation Study Ratiocination and Disputes All our Knowledge would be either Intelligence instead of Science or else we must in all things save a few Self-Evidents introduce and Establish Scepticism Were there no secondary Principles which when once deduced from self-evident Maxims we may with safety rely on we must either deny that there are any Habitudes Relations Dependencies or Oppositions betwixt one thing and an other or we must affirm the rational Faculty to be in it 's Natural Exercises universally Fallacious The indissoluble Connexion that is betwixt one thing and another transferrs the Denomination of Truth to the Acts of our Mind stiled Judgments and the Declarations of these Acts to others called Enunciations whensoever we Judge and Pronounce of things as they really are For as the Philosopher sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I readily grant that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings partly through the Nature Quality Extent and Arduousness of Objects and our Inadequate Conceptions of them partly through Prepossessions Prejudices and the Bâ—as of Lusts and Passions that we are subject to partly through Supineness Sloth and Inadvertency we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from self-evident and universal Maxims and thereupon establish Mistaken and Erroneous Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason But then this is the Fault of Philosophers not of Philosophy or of Philosophy in the Concrete as Existing in this or that Person not in the Abstract as involving such a Mischief in it's Nature and Idea Our intellectual Faculties being vitiated tinctur'd with Lust enthralled by Predices darkned by Passions engaged by vain and corrupt Interests distorted by Pride and Self-Love and fastned to Earthly Images do often impose upon us and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axoms for Undoubted and Incontestable Principles of Reason It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adulterate Reason which we charge for being Unfriendly to Religion And that it is not without Grounds shall be afterwards evinced For I doubt not but that I shall make it appear that the most malignant Heresies which have Infected the Church had their Foundation in Vulgar and received Axioms of Philosophy Whoever will trace the Errors which have Invaded Divinity to their Source must resolve them into absurd Maxims of Philosophy as their Chief Seminary Herein we intend not to offer any Disparagement to Reason but rather to pay it our Utmost respect by rescuing it from being accountable for every vain Imagination and false Consequence which are super-scribed with the Venerable Name of Principles of Reason § 4. Having setled the Notion of Reason we are next to fix the meaning of Religion And this is the more needfull in that men have always had the art of Baptizing their weaknesses fooleries yea blasphemies with the sacred name of Mysteries of Faith and afterwards defending them from the assaults of Reason by saying They are Mysteries against which Reason is not to be hearkned to By matters of Religion then we mean in general as well the Agenda as the Credenda of it What we are to perform as well as what we are to believe what relates to Obedience as well as what relates to Faith Now the rule measure and standard of both is the Revelation of God in the Scripture The Bible is now the only perfect Code and Register of natural Religion as well as the only Systeme of supernatural Those very Articles of Belief and Duties of obedience which were formerly Natural with respect to their manner of promulgation are now in the Declaration of them also Supernatural The Scripture is the only Canon of Faith and Rule of Practice So the Apostle stile 's it in more than one place Phil. 3.16 Nevertheless whereto we have already attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us walk by the same Rule As if he had said what ever dissensions there be amongst us in lesser things let us orderly regulate our life and course for that is the import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Canon of the Gospel And in the same sense Gal. 6.16 as many as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk according to this Rule peace be on them c. The Apostle having to do with such as introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an other Gospel Gal. 1.6 7. for their conviction and plainer refutation he gives us a brief epitomy and summary both of the Law and Gospel and at last shuts up the whole debate with this that whoever walks according to this Canon or Rule peace shall be on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies originally either a Reed made into an instrument wherewith they measured buildings or the limits and bounds of land or a small Line which Architects square out their work by that all the parts of it may bear a just symmetry proportion one to another and from this proper use of it it is Metaphorically transferred to signifie any kind of Rule Thus Aristotle useth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By that which is right we know both its self and that which is crooked for the Canon is the judg of both And thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canon is a law that cannot err and an infallible measure Phavorin Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that which is over Scales commonly called the Tongue of the Balance which is the director whereby whatsoever is put into the Scales is tryed and hath its just weight adjudged So the Scholiast upon Aristophanes tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Scales which brings them to equality This Original signification of the word also hath given rise to its Metaphorical use of denoting any rule or measure by which either Doctrines or Practices are tried and adjusted And thus the Scripture is the true and only perfect rule of all matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the exact balance and Rule or Canon of all Truths The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rule of immutable and unshaken Truth Austin improveth this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to believe what God hath said The first Argument levied from Scripture for this Warfare is drawn from what the Magicians did in their Contest with Moses in Egypt whereof we have an Account in the 7 th and 8 th Chapters of Exodus To which I reply 1. That most yea all saving one or two Interpreters deny any thing done by them to have been truly Miracles 2. The Way Manner and Rites they used in effecting what they attempted do plainly acquit God from any Agency about their Works further than the permitting them For they are said to have done so by their Inchantments Exod. 7.11 and 8.7 I dare not think that God was at the Magicians Beck or that he would conciliate Credit to their Hellish Arts by subserving them or that he would exert his Sacred and Almighty power in Honour of Satans Institutions and Ceremonies 3. The Magicians finding themselves out-done by Moses in the matter of turning Dust into Lice cry out that the Finger of God was there Exod. 8.19 which I take to be no less than an Acknowledgment that whatsoever they had done before they had done it by Magick And that it was through the influence and Agency of the Devil that their Rods had been turned into Serpents and that Frogs had been brought upon the Land 4 ly Though what they did in the two first Instances wherein they confronted Moses seems to bear such a Resemblance to true Miracles that it was not at first easie to distinguish the one from the other yet it were easie to demonstrate that the things which they effected were not without the compass of the Power of Daemons And that it might appear that the Power by which Moses acted was different from that by which they acted God therefore wisely ordered it that his Rod should devour theirs thereby leaving an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 singular Peculiarity in the Miracles of Moses to witness their Divine Original The second Argument mustred from Scripture to fight in this cause is brought from Mat. 24.24 2 Thes. 2.9 Apoc. 13.13 To all which I answer 1. By granting that the Expressions are lofty wherein the Holy Ghost predicts the Signs and wonders which false Christs and false Prophets were to work yet I think we are not to conclude from the Majesty of the Terms in which they are foretold that the Works themselves were real Miracles But that God would intimate to us either that they should be such as would so hugely resemble true Miracles that it would not be easie to detect them or that he would thereby awaken us to examine the Doctrines of Men by their Consonancy to the Scripture which was then given out and established rather than Implicitely to resigne our selves to the Conduct of every Wonder-monger 2. The best Key to judge of the quality of the Signs and Wonders there foretold whether they be true Miracles or not is to take a View of the extraordinary Works Recorded to have been done by the pretended Jewish Messiahs and the Apostatical Roman Church one or both of whom are referred to in the objected places And if we will apply our selves to this Method of Tryal I dare undertake that there is not so much as one Sign or Wonder truly Recorded concerning them which may not be solved either by a Co-incidence of Natural Causes or by the hidden Power of Daemons 3. They are expresly stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lying Wonders and that not so much Respectu finis because they were wrought in Confirmation of a Falsity as Respectu Materiae because they only Ap'd true Miracles but in truth were not such Yea as if that were not enough to acquit God from being the Author of them they are expresly ascribed to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agency of the Devil The third and last Argument brought in Relief of their Opinion who think that God may exert a Miracle-Working Power in the Confirmation of a Falsity is taken from Deut. 13.1 2 3. To which I answer 1. That the place doth more especially relate to the fore-telling of Events than to the working of Wonders And therefore if God never lent his Omniscience to the Service of an Impostor we have no reason to think that he should lend his Omnipotency to the Service of one And if all the Predictions of false Prophets may be salved without Recourse to Divine Inspiration as indeed they may I suppose their Wonders may be also salved without Recourse to God's Infinite Power 2. They are the Prophets after the Promulgation and Establishment of the Law of Moses that are there spoken of and therefore the Law being given out as the Test of after-Revelation at least during that Oeconomy God tells his People that they are not to try the Mission of Prophets only by Miracles but especially by the Agreeableness of their Doctrine to that of Moses And this may be a reason why we do not find that other Pen-men of Old-Testament Scripture were honoured with the working of Miracles I know indeed that some Prophets were intrusted with Miraculous Power but so far as I remember there was not one besides Moses who was made use of in giving forth the Revelation of God to the Old-Testament-Church that had this Priviledg conferred on him Having thus made appear that all Miracles are Effects of a Divine Power and that wheresoever God exerts his Miracle-Working Power in Confirmation of any Doctrine he declares it to be of and from himself and to be Unquestionably True I shall not now insist on the proving that the Bible is justified by Innumerable Great and Undeniable Miracles that being largely and beyond all possibility of Reply done by other Hands I shall only say that even those who suppose that God may sometimes put forth his Wonder-working Power in Attestation of an Error do not hereby design to Rob us of the Evidence of Miracles for the Divinity of the Script For as none have gone beyond them in the proof of the Divine Authority of the Bible in general so no one hath improved the Medium of Miracles to better purpose As they have shewed that the Scripture is attested by a greater Number of Miracles and those both more eminent more conspicuous longer continued and oftner repeated than ever any Errour either was or ever could be So they not only prove that God never wrought a Miracle in confirmation of a Falsity for Tryal till he had first incontestably established his own Truth but they also declare that he could not It is not then upon an apprehension of their having disserved the Authority of the Bible in this particular that I have assumed the freedom of discoursing these things but that an opportunity of more light in this matter may be afforded The Cause of the Scripture will suffer nothing in the main on what side soever this Controversy issues And as I know my self in more need of being instructed than of capacity to offer information to any So it
is the same pleasure to me to have my Notions confuted when unsound as it is to be restored to health when I have been sick § 8. Having briefly viewed the serviceableness of Reason as to the demonstrating the Divinity of the Scripture we may ere we make any further proceed infer and conclude from hence its Authority For upon its Divine Original doth its Authority bear The formal reason of our submitting our Hearts and Consciences to the Bible is Gods speaking in it The Authority of God is his right to command and require Obedience and it is founded not only in the supereminence of his Nature but his Relation to us as our maker Having made us Rational Creatures capable of moral Government he may accordingly Rule us by Laws backt with promises and threatnings I acknowledg that de facto men may withdraw themselves from under the Authority of God and may deny him Obedience but that militates nothing against the Right that is vested in Him of ruling them nor the obligation that they are under of obeying him Now the Authority of the Scripture ariseth from its being Gods Word and his speaking in it Nor are the most momentous Reasons of that significancy to determine our Assent as the Testimony of a person of infinite Power Wisdom Goodness and Truth What greater Assurance can we have to ascertain our belief than that the affirmer is infinitely Wise and cannot be deceived himself and infinitely Good and cannot deceive others To say as the Papists do that the Scripture hath its Authority in se in its self from its self but that it hath its Authority quoad nos with respect to us from the Testimony of the Church is to talk without either Reason or sense For 1 Authority being a Relative Term nothing can have Authority in it self which hath it not in respect of others Nothing is a Law properly but what is a Law to some It is impossible to suppose an actual Right in any to Command without supposing an obligation in some to obey If the Scripture therefore have no Authority from it self in respect of us it neither hath nor can have any Authority in its self at all 2 If the Scripture have no Authority with respect to us but what it hath from the Church how comes the Church it self to be under an Obligation to receive and obey it There can be no obligation but in Relation to some Antecedent Authority and if there be no such Authority obliging the Church to receive the Scripture there should be no Sin in her rejecting it 3 If the Scripture have no Authority from its self and Gods speaking in it with respect to us then the Church should be the first Credible which is altogether false it being by the Scripture that we both know that there is a Church and how far her Testimony is to be trusted to 4. every Testimony is posterior to the thing testified and is accordingly true or false as it is agreeable or disagreeable to the nature of the Thing it beareth witness to If therefore the Scripture have any Authority with respect to us upon the Testimonial of the Church it behoved to have it antecedently In a word if God have not a Right of commanding us independently on the Testimonials of the Church then no private Revelation that ever God made or could make of himself to any is of the least force or significancy Nor could they to whom God by Visions Dreams Inspirations or otherwise made himself his Mind and Will known take upon them to give forth and publish to others what was thus revealed to them till they had the Testimony of the Church that it was Authentick Having established the Authority of the Scripture upon its true basis namely on its being Gods Word and speaking in it Now forasmuch as no man either is or can be obliged to believe a lie We may hence learn what to judg of that Notion of Des-Cartes and some others viz. Deum posse fallere si velit that God can deceive if he please No one denies but there both may be and are those things in the Word of God which men may turn into occasions of being Deceived all that is contended for is this that there can be nothing in a Revelation from God which may be a proper Cause of Error To say that God may Deceive if he would is no less than to affirm that he may cease to be God if he would God can do nothing but what in sensu diviso abstracting from his Decree to the contrary he may Will to do If we prove therefore that it is repugnant to the Nature of God to be Willing to deceive his Creatures we at the same time demonstrate that it is contradictory to his Power to do so First then If God may Deceive if He please what assurance have we but that he hath and may chuse to do it Nor is it enough to say that he hath told us that he will not for if he may deceive at all I know nothing hinders but that he may even then deceive us when he informs us he will not Secondly no one can deceive an other but it must proceed either from Ignorance Errour or Malice but all these interfere with the Nature of God and by consequence this posse fallere lyes cross to his Nature also To deceive argues either want of Wisdom Goodness or Veracity and therefore in no sense can God Deceive seeing he can neither cease to be Wise nor give over to be Good nor fail to be True Thirdly though a finite ignorant and mistaken Creature may impose upon us without saying one thing when he thinks another Yet it is impossible that an Infinite Wise and Omniscient Being should deceive any but that at the same time he must lie But that God cannot lie we have both the Testimony of Scrpture Tit. 1.2 and the highest assurance that Reason can give us Hence no one ever acknowledged a Deity but he withall included in his Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak nothing but truth § 9. Having unfolded the Nature and Quality of the Motives that our assent to the Divinity of Scripture is raised on we may hence infer that our Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God is Divine and Infallible For as Doctor Hammond sayes in another case if the Person affirming be Infallible then is the Belief of such a Person Infallible also So if the Grounds of our Assent to the Scriptures being a Revelation from God be Infallible our Assent which is built upon these Grounds is Infallible likewise Assents are not specificated and Denominated from their Objects nor yet from the Faculties that elicite them but from the Foundations and Grounds on which they are raised Whilst then the Motives upon which we believe the Scripture are more than Moral our assurance of it's Divinity is more than Moral also For as we distinguish between the Consequent and the
Consequence the thing inferred and the manner of Inferring it and as we reckon every Consequent rightly deduced from an Infallible Antecedent to be Infallible also though the Faculty by which it is deduced be in it's Nature Fallible and in it's Operation lyable to prevaricate and mistake So every Assent built upon infallible Inducements is an Infallible Assent though the Instruments by which the Assurance of the Existence of such Inducements arriveth with us may in their Nature be lyable to Errour Besides the Incertitude of the Subject or Mind doth not at all weaken the Certainty of the Object or the Certainty of it's Motives That God is is in it self certain and there are Indubitable Arguments by which his Being may be demonstrated though all the World should Hesitate either about his Existence or suspect a Fallacy in the Media of it's Probation The Incertitude of the Mind doth not arise from any Fallacy of the Media but from want of Evidence into and Cognition of them The principal Grounds of our Receiving the Bible for the Word of God are it 's Internal Motives or Arguments impressed upon it nor is the manner of it's Conveyance from Age to Age of so great Import in this Matter as some do imagine For should we have Light on it by chance or had it dropt out of the Clouds yet while it carries these Signatures upon it which it doth we might by the meer Exercise of our Rational Faculties without the Testimonials of any Man or Church have concluded that it could have proceeded from none but from God And should it be granted that the conveying down the Miracles and other External Evidences that are brought in Confirmation of the Divine Inspiration of the Bible is done by Humane and Fallible means yet it no ways follows that our Assent to the Scriptures being the Word of God though built upon those motives is Fallible For Tradition is not the Formal Ground of our belief in this case but only a means and Instrument of handing the Grounds of it to us Nor do I think but that it may be defended that as the External Motives upon which we receive the Scripture for the Word of God are in themselues Infallible that they are also infallible in their manner of conveyance to us For as it may be demonstrated that the first Reporters of these Evidences were infallibly inspired in the Reports they make and in the writing of the Records which they left behind them so it may be likewise demonstrated that the Providence of God hath watched over the preserving them down to us The exception made by a very learned Person that there are degrees of Certainty as to the Divinity of the Scripture whereas there cannot be degrees of infallibility May I think easily be taken off For if by Degrees of Infallibility he mean no more but that there are some who have their Faith established upon more Media than others have theirs There are thus degrees of Infallibility as well as there are degrees of Certainty And though Faith superstructed upon any infallible Medium be Essentially an an Infallible Faith yet that which is built upon a plurality of such Media may be stiled a faith intensively gradually more Infallible But if by Infallibility he mean the infallibility of the Mind then I must crave leave to say that it is not to the purpose For as in an Apodictical Syllogism there may be a certainty both in the Consequent and Consequence and yet our mind through either not discerning the necessary connexion between the Terms of the Antecedent or not seeing into the regular and orderly deduction of the Consequent from the Antecedent may remain uncertain So our Assent built upon unerrable Motives is an infallible Assent though the mind in the mean time through not discovering the Infallibility of those Motives may remain subject to doubts and fears And indeed the Schoolmen call the Certitude of the Act only by the Name of a Certainty of Infallibility whereas they stile the Certitude of the Mind by the name of a Certainty of Adhesion The Infallibility of the Act of Assent results from the Infallible Certainty of the motives which ground such assent but the firm Adhesion of the mind or that which we have called the Infallibility of the mind though it radically arise from the Nature and quality of the motives yet it doth withal that immediately connotate a perception of the motives themselves that they are Infallible and such as we may venture our Faith upon without either fear doubts or Jealousies And herein lies our first Duty about the Scriptures that our Faith answer their Credibility and that the Adhesion of our Minds to them be as firm as the Objects themselves are Immutable or the motives afforded us in their Confirmation are Infallible and sure § 10. Having declared the great serviceableness of Reason in demonstrating the Divinity of the Scripture we are next enquire into the use of it in our attainment to the sense and meaning of the Word God in vouchsafeing the World a supernatural Revelation supposeth us not only furnished with the sensitive Faculties of Seeing and Hearing but endowed with intellectual principles by which we may understand it judge of and assent to it Were we destitute of the latter Scripture were of no more significancy to us than to Brutes and were the former denyed us we were no more capable of being transacted with in this way than Stocks and Stones are Now the letter of the Bible without the genuine sense of it is not properly the Scripture nor will it availe us to any end or purpose more than the having a shell without a kernel Words are of no further use than as they are representations of conceptions Images of things Could we communicate our Conceptions to one another immediately or by any other signs and that with the same facility and certainty as we do by Words there would be no Occasion for Words nor any need of them As conceptions are the representation of things in the mind so words are the representation of these conceptions to others But forasmuch as we can have no perception of the thoughts of another though he should express them in Speech or writing unless we first know that such and such words are in the use of mankind appli'd to denote such and such things therefore all words as they are Manifestative signs of Conceptions so they are Suppositive signs of things And though they be first Indicative of Conceptions in the intention of the Speaker yet as to execution with respect to the hearer they are first Manifestative of things for unless we know what things such and such words are ordained to signifie they can be no interpreters of the thoughts of him that Speaks I know no greater disparagement that can be put upon the Bible nor affront that can be offered to the Author of it than to stile it a little Ink variously figured
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the equivalent or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Consequence it may be truly said to be there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in effect And though some Conclusions lye more connected with the principles from which they are deduced than others yet they are both equally true providing the principles be so whence they are inferred Let the trains of Ratiocination be shorter or longer nothing can flow from Truth but Truth only there is more difficulty in the deduction and more liableness to mistake in the illation of the latter than the former And accordingly we desire no man to assent to the thing concluded till he have examined or at lest may and be satisfied that there is nothing false and sophistical in the Way and Manner of its deducement Though our understandings be in some cases subject to mistake yet there is no ground to suppose that they universally do so Though our Faculties be fallible in their Ratiocinations yet there are Connate Notions and Congenite Criteria by which we may discern when they deceive us and when not There are certain Rules which the universal Reason of mankind hath agree'd on as the Test and Standard to judge of legitimate deductions by and of those we have as infallible certainty as that it is day when the Sun is in the Meridian As we discern pure Mettal from embased by bringing it to the touchstone so we discern regular Consequences from Sophistical by incontested Maximes To argue agagainst the use of Reason in drawing Conclusions from undoubted Principles precludes the whole service of the Rational Faculty and lead's to the worst of Scepticism Whosoever impeacheth the fitness of our understandings to draw conclusions from evident Articles of Revelation doth equally endite them of ineptitude to deduce Inferences from first Maximes of Natural Light Scripture principles are as certain as any in Philosophy and they lye in the same Habitudes of congruity and incongruity to other things that first Principles of Science do therefore if we may not argue from those I see no reason why it should be thought lawful to argue from these Nor are we otherwise secure in any Ratiocinations of Philosophy no more than Theologie unless God had given us a Logick to instruct us in the Rules of Argumentation as he hath given us the Scripture to inform us in matters of Faith and Obedience In a word we must either implicitely resign our selves to the dictates of every one that accosteth us or we must as brutishly reject them unless there be both a Rule to which we may apply and by which we may try them some Certain Measures by which we may discern whether we have rightly commensurated and examined them in Order to discerning what of them is false and what is true Now though Reason be the instrument of deducing Conclusions from Principles of Faith yet it is not the foundation and ground on which we believe and assent to the Truths so deduced Nor doth Reason judg of the Verity of the Conclusion but only of the regularity of the deduction of it When an Architect applieth his line or square to a Building they only are the Rule by which he judgeth of the Symmetry of his Work but it is his eye that serveth him to discern how the Work agrees to the Rule 'T is one thing as Austin saith to know the truth of propositions and another to understand the rules of Connexion and Laws of Argumentation And as Camero says to determine of the goodness of a Conclusion or its regular illation from its premisses is the Work of Reason and that according to the Rules of Logick which is the same in Theologie as in Natural Phylosophy or in Mathematicks but to determine of the Truth of the Conclusion is the Work of Faith through the Testimony of the Word As a Demonstration in Geometrie doth not constitute that a Truth which was not one before but only evidenceth it to the Mind So we do not believe a Conclusion to be an Article of Faith upon the formal Reason of its deduction but upon the Authority of God in the Bible Argumentation serves only to show that God hath said it As Computation in Arithmetick doth not constitute the Total of the lesser Numbers but only collects and adjusts it so Ratiocination from Principles of Revelation doth not make a Conclusion to be the Word of God but only sheweth that it is so Nor is there any weight in that exception that in all Conclusions of this Nature one of the Premisses only is of Revelation the other being fetcht either from Reason Sence or Experience For as that act which we could not have exerted without the assistance and influence of a supernatural subjective Principle is rightly stiled a Supernatural act though it be Elicited by our Nutural Faculties So every Conclusion which we arrive at the knowledg of through the assistance and conduct of Revelation is rightly stiled a Conclusion of Faith and esteemed a part of Revelation though a proposition of another kind be assumed to help us in the deduction of it As a Child is Federally holy wheresoever one of the Parents is a Believer though the other remain in the mean time an Infidel so from the Conjunction of two Propositions whereof the one is of Faith there results a Conclusion of Faith though the other proposition be drawn only from principles of Reason or Evidence of Sense All men acknowledg that particulars are included in Universals and if the Universal be of Revelation the several particulars involved in it are Revealed also For as much then as there is not one Conclusion which we deduce from Principles of Faith that may not be inferred by some Syllogisme or other in the first Figure where the major Proposition is always Universal and the Conclusion is either contained in it as a Species or as a particular it naturally follows that the Major being of Divine Revelation and an Object of Faith the Conclusion must be esteemed revealed and admitted for an Object of Faith also While the subject of the Conclusion is included in the Middle Term which is the subject of the Major proposition and the Predicate of both is the same there is nothing more plain and evident than that if the Major proposition be of Revelation and to be believed with a Divine Faith the Conclusion is so likewise Yea were it so that the Minor proposition were only revealed in the Scripture yet while the Major which is fetcht from some incontested Maxime of Reason contains either the whole or a part of the Definition or the Correlate or the Essential property or the Contradictory or the Contrary of the Predicate of the Assumption which is from Scripture one of which it always doth the Conclusion must needs be reck'ned as a part of Scripture and submitted to in the same manner as we do to that which carries the
3.6 and the rationalness of his deduction from thence though made by the joyning of a proposition of another Nature to it which they paid a respect to The Multitude were swayed in this case by the meer strength and weight of his argument and are therefore said to have been astonished at his Doctrine Mat. 22.33 They admired his Wonderful Wisdom and profound Sagacity nor were they influenced by any Authority they held him vested with Nor indeed is it any great evidence of a profound Wisedom or of his insight into the Scripture to argue from Media which have no further convincing efficacy or force but what they borrow from his authority that useth them In brief either the Text quoted by our Saviour was sufficient antecedently to Christs using of it and abstracting from his Authority to demonstrate the Resurrection or it was not If it was then it was not meerly from his Authority that they came under an Obligation to a belief of that conclusion If it was not than how comes Christ to lodg their unbelief in reference to the ResurrectioÌ„ upon their ignorance of the Scriptures Marc. 12.24 Mat. 22.31 For if they stood not under the obligation of that consequence but meerly because of his Authority then the best acquaintance imaginable with the sense and meaning of that place could have ministred them no relief in that point yea it had been utterly unlawful to have drawn any such inference from it 5. Exclude Scripture-Consequences and the Papists are not able to impugn one Tenet of the Protestants nor are they in Capacity to prove the first Article of the Roman Faith namely the pretended Infallibility of their Church While they wrest such Weapons out of our hands they at the same time disarm themselves And by endeavouring to disserve the Cause of the Reformed Churches they utterly undo their own For if our Reasonings of this kind be insignificant against them theirs are also insignificant against us and by the same art that they endeavour to blunt the edge of our Swords they are bound to throw away their own I shall discourse this no farther only shut it up with a saying of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Philosophy and right Reason there can be no knowledge nor science in the World § 12. The next thing that belongs to Reason in matters of Religion regards those Doctrines which besides the Foundation that they have in Revelation have also Evidence in the light of Nature And as I intimated before § 5. more is allowable to Reason in and about these than about those we are indebted only to the Scripture for the discovery of 'T is not enough that we enquire into the declaration of them as it lyes in the Bible and how they are there expressed c. but we are further to see what Media there are in the light of Nature by which they may be both discerned and confirmed Yet I shall here crave liberty to premise That where the Authority of the Scripture is owned our chief Topicks in all Theological debates ought to be fetcht from the sacred Records Thence we should both frame our Idea's of them and borrow as well the Arguments as the Colours and Ornaments by which we would commend them to the Minds and Consciences of Believers Especially a regard ought to be had to this in popular Discourses and Sermons As humane Authority ought to have very little place if any at all in the Pulpit so we ought not there to serve our selves too much from Maxims of Philosophie and principles of Reason As God hath impressed more of his Authority upon the Scriptures than upon any thing else that he hath made Himself and his Will known by so there is an Efficacy of the Spirit promised to attend the naked Preaching of the Word beyond what we can expect to accompany our Ratiocinations from principles of Reason As Faith prepares the spirits of men to a submission to what they hear immediately out of the Bible so there is something great and elevated which I know not how to express in Truths as nakedly delivered by the Holy Ghost which Argumentations from Natural Maximes doth for the most part obnubilate and darken The Majesty of God whose commands we deliver doth above all things most attract the respect of our Auditors nor do we at any time so effectually persuade as by the meer authority of him in whose Name we speak Yet I do not deny but that Rational proofs are of great use not only to such with whom Scripture-Testimonies signifie nothing but even to those who own and adore its Authority by shewing that as it is highly reasonable to believe whatsoever God hath said so the things themselves are agreeable to and have foundation in Reason and the two lights of Revelation and Nature do excellently harmonise This being premised among other Truths which besides their being plainly revealed in the Scripture have also evidence given to them in the Light of Nature the Immortality of the Soul and the certainty of Providence are especially remarkable 'T is True there are many other Doctrines of this quality viz. the Attributes of God the Creation of the World Moral Good and Evil c. All which as they are revealed in the sacred Scripture so they are demonstrable from undoubted principles of Reason But wavâ—ng these at present I shall only by way of essay and with all imaginable brevity consider what media there are in Nature by which the two former may be evinced and the serviceableness of Reason in the doing of it I shall begin with the Immortality of the Soul and the Unhappiness of the Age wherein we live doth render the inculcation of this Truth not only seasonable but necessary Men having degraded themselves into Beasts by practice they thence take the Measures of their Opinions and allow no difference betwixt themselves and the pâ—ttifullest Brute but that Matter in them is fallen into a more lucky texture and modification To justifie their sensualities they contend that they have nothing but their Animal inclinations to gratifie and indeed the soul of a Brute will very well serve all the Ends that some men propound to themselves Next the Belief of the Beeing of God the persuasion of the souls being Immortal is the hinge upon which all Religion turns 'T is this that leads us both to contemn the gratifications of the Flesh and to be solicitous about a happiness hereafter though it be with the undergoing of present inconveniences rather than here There is no one Truth hath a more powerful influence upon the whole course of our present life than a steddy and vigorous belief that the soul is immortal Now when we assert the Immortality of the Soul we do nâ—t intend that it is Immortal in such a sense as that by no cause it can be annihilated God alone is thus Immortal for as there are no principles of Corruption in his Nature so there is no forraign
rationally in surrendring themselves to the guidance of it The Article it self may be plainly revealed and yet not only the reason and mode of it lye altogether hid but the thing it self may over-power our Faculties and dazle them with its Majesty and Splendour 1. Reason is often non-plust and puzled about its own proper Objects and the phaenomena of Nature and shall we think it a competent judge of Objects it was never adapted for It is below many of the Works of God and therefore much more below Mysteries of Revelation See this Argument elegantly and strenuously handled by Bradwardine de causa Dei lib. 1. c. 1. Here are many things which we ought to admire but must never hope fully to understand Our work here is to believe not to enquire 2. If our minds will not submit to a Revelation until they see a reason of the proposition they do not believe or obey at all because they do not submit till they cannot chuse Faith bears not upon demonstration but upon the Authority and Veracity of the speaker and therefore to believe nothing but what we do comprehend is not to believe but to argue and is Science not Faith Ye that will believe in the Gospel what you please and what ye think fit ye will not believe you renounce the Gospel saith Austin to the Manichees for you believe your selves not it 3. To believe nothing but what we can fully comprehend is to remonstrate to the Wisdom and Power of God at least to challenge to our selves an Omniscience proportionable to the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence 4. The Rule and Measure of Faith must be certain but no mans Reason universally is so because one Mans Reason rejects what anothers assents to Every man pretends to right Reason but who hath it is hard to tell If it be lawful for one man to reject a plain Revelation in one particular because he cannot comprehend it why may not a second do the same with reference to Revelation in another particular As the Socinians by making their Reason judge of what they are to believe will not admit many of the prime Articles of the Gospel so the Philosophers would make their Reason judge of what they should receive their Reason would not admit the Gospel at all 5. The certainty of Revelation is preferred to all other Evidence and we are commanded to subject our Reason to the Authority of God in the Scripture and by consequence Reason cannot be the positive Measure of Religion The Sacred Writers do every where remit us to the Scripture it self as the Rule of Faith and not at all to the Tribunal of Reason Herein are the Socinians justly impeachable for though sometimes they acknowledge Religion to be above Reason as we lately heard yet at other times they speak in a very indifferent Manner By Reason alone saith Smalcius can we define what is possible and what is impossible in matters of Faith See to the same purpose Ostorod Instit. cap. 6. Schlicting de Trinit advers Meisner p. 67. c. Hence that of Socinus that he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our sins though he should read it not only once but often in the Scripture and that the Infallibility of the Revealer had not been enough to establish it supposing Christ to have said it and to have risen from the Dead to declare his own Veracity unless he had declared it by its Causes and effects and so shewn the possibility of it To which agrees a passage of Smalcius in reference to the Incarnation of the Son of God that he would not submit to it though he should meet with it not only often but in express Terms in the Bible I wish others did not say the same in effect But while they renounce Doctrines upon no other account but their incomprehensibleness or because we cannot fully fathom them they must give us leave to think whose principles they have drunk in and whose cause they plead Thus have I discoursed the whole Interest of Reason in Religion and as I know not that I have said any more in this Matter than what is generally maintained by all the sober Nonconformists so I hope I may say that the charge which some men have fastned upon us as if we wholly renounced Reason in all Concernments of Religion and that no Contradiction can astonish or stagger us and that this is the foundation and support of the Credit of the party especially amongst Vulgar Hearers is a false aspersion groundless calumny and an impudent Crimination And though I do not think that it savour's of over-much Modesty that a few young Theologues of the Church of England if indeed they be so should monopolize to themselves the name of Rational Divines yet for my own part I neither envy them the Title nor have any quarrel with them upon that account it being indeed their want of Reason that I find fault with And as it hath generally been the unhappiness of others who have too much boasted of and relyed upon Reason to fall into the most irrational sentiments so I do not see but that it is in a very great measure the misfortune of our New Rationalists As the Philosophers of old made Reason their only Rule and yet most of their Religious opinions whether in reference to Faith Worship or Moral Obedience were perfectly Irrational And as the Socinians pretend to pay more than an ordinary veneration to Reason and yet there are none in the world whose Tenets lye more cross to the Fundamental Maxims of it than some of theirs do For to give Religious Adoration to a meer Creature for such they allow Christ only to be to deny God the fore knowledge of future contingents to ascribe passions and affections to God in the manner they are incident to us are such Repugnancies to Reason that a man had need renounce that as well as Revelation ere he can admit them So I account it of easie proof that many of the Darling Notions about Original Sin Converting Grace the Nature of Regeneration and Justification it self c. of our pretended late Rational Divines are as well repugnant to Reason as they are to Scripture CHAP. II. Of the Import and Vse of Scripture-Metaphors SECT I. SOme men having espoused corrupt designs in reference to the Truths of the Gospel are in pursuance thereof led to Methods which may subserve and countenance their Undertakings For the End being fixed Means must be found out and adapted for the compassing of it Now among other little arts and contrivances supposed conducible to their Undertaking I find some late Writers improving their skill and industry especially in these two things First under pretence of banishing all wrangling brawling and vain talking they study to cashier and discharge all Disputes in and about Religion and 't is become their Interests upon two accounts so to do 1. That they may have the liberty to vent
of Discretion in an ordinary Authour to accommodate himself to the Capacities of all to whom he speaks or writes and not to oblige himself meerly to suit and please the Sons of Art how much more doth it become the Wisdom of God that seeing he designed the Scripture for the Universal Instruction of Mankind so to adapt and dispose the phraseology of it as that all might be edifyed by it Now in reference to the Vulgus who scarce understand any thing but in proportion to their senses and in dependence on Material Phantasms what Method can be more likely to affect their Minds with and raise them unto Spiritual things than to have them proposed under the Names and illustrated by the properties and operations of those things with whose Natures and Affections they are so well acquainted Much of every mans Knowledg begins at his Senses and Reason inoculates and superstructs upon them especially they of weaker Intellects need the relief of sensible Adumbrations in the conduct of their Minds to Spiritual and Heavenly things Accordingly therefore hath God disposed the Revelation of the Counsels of his Will in the Scripture yet with that provision and caution that by a very ordinary attendance and care we may see Spiritual things to be intended and designed and that our are not to be arrested by those sensible representations Hence we have not only a wonderful Variation gâ—ven to one and the same proposition and the same thing manifested and inculcated under different Forms of speech but besides in those very places where the Deep Things of God are most brought down to our senses there is enough either in the Nature of the Thing spoken of or in the scope of the Speaker or in the Context to assure us that there is only a Metaphor Similitude or Allegory in the expression For indeed there can be no Corporeal Images of Spiritual Things only by considering the properties and affections c. of things Material to which they are compared we are guided the better to understand and know their Spiritual Nature § 5. Having unfolded the Nature of Metaphors and enquired into the Reasons of the frequent usage of Metaphorical Terms in the Scripture we are next to state when an expression is to be accounted Metaphorical that so we may neither mistake proper expressions for Figurative nor substitute a Figure where there is none We have already intimated § 2. that 't is the humour of some in order to serving a design and ministring to an Hypothesis to transform the plainest Truths into Metaphors and thereby to pervert the Scripture from its true sense to a befriending their prepossessions prejudices Allow but men the liberty of supposing Metaphors where their lusts and forestallments influence them to such Imaginations there is not that Gospel-Truth whâ—ch may not be supplanted notwithstanding the plainest testimony given to it in the Bible If men may be permitted to forsake the Natural and Genuine sense of words where the Matter is capable of it they may notwithstanding their declaring themselves to believe the Gospel yet believe nothing at all of the Christian Faith Two things therefore are carefully to be attended to in the Interpretation of Scripture 1. That we impose not a proper sense where the words ought to be taken in a Tropical Figurative Metaphorick or Allegorick one Numerous Instances may be assigned how the Scripture hath been perverted from its true Intendment by the usurping words in a proper sense where a Metaphorical or Allegorick ought only to be allowed Thus the Anthropomorphites of old and some Socinians of late for all of them have not thought so contemptibly of the Deity by taking those texts which attribute Humane Members to God in a proper sense have fancied him to be Corporeal have ascribed a Material Humane shape to Him whereas the meaning of such places is only to affirm those perfections of God which such Members in us are the Instruments of Corporeity is repugnant to the Divine Nature inconsistent with the Common Notions of mankind concerning Him and contradictious to what the Scripture in other places reveales of his Essence and perfections so that the Attributing Bodily Members to him must be construed as so many Metaphors declaring only such Attributes and Operations to belong to Him as those Organs and Members in us denote and are the apparatus and instruments of Thus also the Jews writing the precepts of the Law on their Frontlets and Phylacteries took its rise from affixing a proper meaning to Exodus 13.16 Deut 6.8 whereas indeed the words are Metaphorical do only intimate that they were to have the Law in Continual remembrance Not but that I acknowledg locks or fringes fastned to the skirts of their Garments as a badg of that Subjection and Reverence they were to abide in towards God and his Law and that they were not to wander after false worship to have been enjoyned them but that the Ten Commandments or any thing else were to be written upon them I read not and do Apprehend that Custom to have derived its Original from the mistake already suggested In like manner their Imagining Isa 19.18 19 20. to be intended in a proper sense gave occasion to Onias's building a Temple resembling that of Hierusalem in Egypt at least was pleaded in justification of it Whereas the import of the place is only to declare the Gentiles admission into the Church and that they were to have a share in the Spiritual Blessings of the Gospel which the Prophet predicts and describes in Terms and Phrases adapted to the O. T. Oeconomy and dispensation I may here add that all the Jewish mistakes in reference to the Messiah as if he to be a Triumphant King subduing the Earth by the terrour of his Legions and to conferâ— on them all Terrene Pomp Magnificence c. did arise principally from obtruding a proper sense upon some of those Prophesies which relate to the Kingdom of the Messiah whereas in Truth their Phraseology is wholly Metaphorick God chusing by words which properly denote and import Things Terrene and Temporal to instruct us concerning the Spiritual Benefits that we should be made partakers of by and through the Messiah The imposing a proper sense upon words which Christ intended only in a Metaphorical gave rise to one of the Articles of Indictment which the Scribes and Pharisees preferred against him see Joh. 2.19 compared with Mark 14.58 T is true they withall altered his words for whereas Christ had only said Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up The false witnesses deposed that they heard him say I will destroy this Temple c. but yet their main prevarication and that without which the other alteration could have no wayes served their design was their construing his words in a proper sense as referring to the Temple at Jerusalem whereas he designed them only in a Metaphorical to denote his Body
and Continuation thought he had sufficiently acquitted himself by replying That may be the Sky will fall to morrow and it may be S. Pauls Steeple as soon as it is rebuilt will remove it self to the East-Indies Though he should withal have remembred that the foresaid Learned person had also told him that these things would be made evident when particulars should be instanced in viz. that the Metaphors the Non-conformists are charged with are no other but expressions of Gospel Mysteries not in the Words which mans Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual But the Author of the Defence judg'd it meet there to bear back reckoning that he came off with Triumph enough and sufficiently loaded with the spoyls of his Enemy by raillying upon a may be I shall therefore not account it enough barely to assert that some of the Expressions reflected on in the Writings of the Non-conformists are such as the Holy Ghost himself hath preceded them in the use of and that to the very same Ends and Purposes for which they produce them but seeing nothing less will serve the turn either for the vindicating Them from the imputation of canting or to beget more modesty in their Adversaries I shall present the Reader with some instances where it is so And that I may not be thought to design the disparagement of any Party of men by quoting testimonies from divers of their Authors who rather than not strain up the dreggs of their Choler against the Phanaticks for their phraseologies have even written in derogation of Scripture-phrases and made the Spirit of God the Subject of their derision as well as the Non-conformists I say to avoid this I shall confine my self to Mr. Sherlock alone Faith say's he is very luckily called coming to Christ whence it is very evident that to believe in Christ is to go to him for Salvation which Metaphors of Coming and Going are a very intelligible explication of believing Now what is this but to be guilty as well of prophaning the Scripture as of incivility to the Non-conformists for this very Metaphor is made use of by the Holy Ghost Joh. 5.40 and. 6.35 37 44. to signify believing of which as prophanely as sarcastically our Author stiles it a very intelligible explication But Mr. Sherlock seems to be one of those who never think any thing intelligible when declared in Scripture-Terms I will crave of the Reader to peruse the 104 105 and 106 pages of his Book for I do not love to foul these leaves more than I needs must with passages opprobrious against God as well as men though it be only to expose and confute them and then to tell me whether the very Scripture-expressions in their proper sense be not made to bear a Share in his Contempt and Scorn Though the Receiving of Christ be a phrase which the Holy Ghost expresseth Faith in him and the belief of his Word and Doctrine by Joh. 1.11 12. and 3.32 33. and 17.8 Act. 1.41 and 8.14 and 17.11 Col. 2.6 1 Thes. 2.13 yet that doth not secure it from the lash of our Authors pen. It may seem strange that they will not allow men to speak the things of God in the Terms Phrases which the Holy Ghost teacheth But where the things of the Spirit of God are first disliked 't is no marvail that his expressions come to be dislik'd also But surely the exposing them to make their Readers sport what ever of wit it argues it declares a prophane sawciness One would think that the Scripture expressing Faith in Christ by Trust Eph. 1.12 13. Men without obloquy might do the like but that phrase also is made the pleasure of Mr. Sherlocks scorn and the use of it turned into open ridicule Now we have Christ sayes he in mockage and derision we must Trust and lean upon him Distrust of our selves dependence on Christ for continual supplies against entanglements from sin and the World are not only made our Duty though not so as to supersede our own watchfulness and best endeavours but the latter is certainly the great priviledg of Believers Nor doth the New Covenant excell the Old in any thing more than in this that God hath herein undertaken to watch over us by his Spirit and to continue those soveraign supplies of Grace to us whereby we shall be kept unto salvation And besides what may be tendred in Justification of this from the Wisedome of God with whose Sapience it seems not consistent finally to leave us after he hath engraven his Image upon us considering that he prevented us with his Grace and Mercy when we were in our Pollutions The Faithfulness of Christ to whose care Believers are in a special manner committed Joh. 17.12 and 18.9 pleads also for it Yea The Scripture likewise gives in its express Testimony to this purpose 2 Tim 1.12 assuring us that on our being found in an attendance upon Instituted means and in the exercise of those Duties and endeavours which are required of us God will work in us both to will and Do Philip. 2.13 and keep us by his own power through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.15 Yet this Mr. Sherlock hath some venemous spawn to bestow upon and the Phanaticks must upon this account be made the the Subjects of his sly but petulant mockage And now sayes he we have thus brought our souls to Christ we must commit them to his trust to take Charge of them and save them and if they perish it will be his fault and he must give account of it And as if there were not prophaness Satyr enough in this the Words of the Holy Ghost must be brought in to bear a Share in his scorn and contempt Thus St. Paul did says he 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day Could he not be content to expose the Non-conformists without involving the Scripture in the same Condemnation Or was St. Pauls case and theirs so much the same that he knew not how to wreak himself upon them without making Him suffer under the same imputation I confess Mr. Sherlock is not the onely man who seems displeased with St. Paul for besides that one tells us his Style is often the most obscure he ever read another makes it a part of a Guild-Hall declamation that the 9 th Chapter to the Romans is studied more than our Saviours Sermon on the Mount and that the firebrands of the Church have used to fetch all their heat from St. Pauls writings and have thought themselves tolerated if not encouraged by his Example to dispute every thing ibid. p. 10. In which words there is not onely a false and invidious supposition that there are some of the Phanaticks who prefer St. Pauls writings to the neglect of the Gospels and other Sacred Books but there is withall a
affirm withal that till the sanctifying Spirit effectually infallibly and by an unresisted Operation transform us into the Divine Nature and communicate to us a vital seed we remain polluted unholy and uncapable of doing any thing with all that dueness of circumstances as may commend us or our performances to Gods acceptance Not but that antecedently to the Holy Ghosts renewing us by a communication of Grace to us we may both Dogmatically believe the Doctrines of the Scripture and be found in a discharge of the material parts not only of natural Duties but of the Acts of Instituted Religion But to say that we ought thereupon to be denominated Holy is to remonstrate to the Scripture in a thousand places and to overthrow the very Tenour and design of the Gospel Now while we remain thus Un-holy we are so far from being actually united to Christ or capable Subjects of Justification and Forgiveness that till we be actually made partakers of the washing of Regeneration and the renuing of the Holy Ghost we cannot possibly have any Union with Him or have a right to Pardon of Sin or any thing that ensues or depends thereupon by Him I know not one amongst the Non-conformists who Affirmeth that wicked Men while They continue such are actually united to Christ and thereby have an actual Right to Pardon and Righteousness and Eternal Life yea that they must be united to Christ if ever they be United while they continue in sin as Mr. Sherlock is pleased without respect either to Modesty or Truth to brand them Nor do I know any Opinion maintained by them that draws such a pernicious Consequence after it But 't is no matter with some if the Deduction be odious and reproachful whether it be Rational and Coherent or not All that we plead for is this that as previously to our Union with Christ we are polluted and Un-holy so by that very Act whereby he Unites us to Himself He infuseth those Principles into us by which our Natures are cleansed and we come to be denominated Holy and Pure The Foundation of our Union and that by w ch we become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.17 ligu'd and cemented to the Lord is the matter of our inward Purity and the vital Seed and living principle of our following Obedience By the same Act that he assumes us into Union with Himself He transforms our Natures and by having made a Change in the Heart there infallibly follows a Change in the conversation Those very Principles by which we are regenerated are both the Ligaments which Knit and Unite us to him and the springs sources of all our Gospel Obedience 'T is a needless enquiry whether our renovation in order of Nature precede our Union with Christ or whether our Union go before our Renovation seeing in order of Time they are not only inseparable but that which is the New Creature the Seed of God and Divine Nature in us is the very Bond of our Cohesion And as none continuing Un-holy are united to Christ so neither doth our being united to Him Destroy our Obligation to Holiness and Obedience for the future of which Mr. Sherlock foolishly as well invidiously impeacheth it For besides that both the Consideration of Gods distinguishing mercy in the renewing our Natures will be a forcible Motive and Argument to Holiness and the principles already inlaid into our Hearts like a vital Form in the Soul turning it into an universal consent with Gods own Will adapt connaturalise and incline us to it The same Spirit which was the Author of our Regeneration continues both to watch over cherish foster excite and draw forth those principles and habits which he hath already infused into our souls and to communicate such farther supplies as upon our serving his promises God in his Soveraign infinite wisdom in order to his own glory thinks meet These we have described are the persons whose being united to Christ we plead for which I hope neither derives a dishonour upon the person of our Saviour nor offers any contradiction to his Gospel We disclaim being the Patrons and advocates of the Union of any Unholy person while he continues such to Christ Nor is our adversary able by any Rule of Argumentation to infer it from any of our Opinions How far he may be able to prejudice those against us who are led by Noise Clamour and Confidence instead of calm and sedate Reason I know not but amongst persons of a better figure who will not meerly be talkt into a contempt of us who hate us not out of Interest and so regulate their Faith concerning us by their Indignation I defie him a Proselyte I wish Mr. Sherlock were not in this very particular lyable to have that retorted upon himself which he hath as unjustly as invidiously fastened upon us For as I should be sorry that any thing in our own opinion should lye in such an inconsistency to the frame of the Gospel as to entitle Unholy persons to an actual Union with Christ so 't is no pleasure at all to me to find the Doctrine of an Adversary pregnant with consequences subversive of true Holiness But we must take things here as they are and he ought not to be offended to have his own Notions in this Matter modestly exposed having with so much Satyr and Contempt injuriously represented the Opinions of others And first he grants in so many words that in one sense we must be united to Christ before we can be Holy and he gives this reason for it Because the first lowest degree of our Union with Christ is a Belief of his Gospel and the belief of the Gospel being the great principle of Obedience it must needs go before it While Mr. Sherlock impeacheth us as disserving Holiness and Religion by our Notion of Union who yet allow no man to be in Christ who is not a new Creature and that Christ only dwells in us and we in him by the Spirit which he hath given us He is at the same time so unhappy and so little mindful of what he says as not only Consequentially but in Terminis to plead that men must be United to Christ before they can be Holy I know he adds That our Union is not perfected without actual obedience but if to be in Christ signify no more than being members of his visible Church which is made up of Hypocrites as well as sincere Christians as our Author tells us elsewhere I see not but that Union is compleated as well as begun without a Mans being Holy seeing to be united to Christ is no more in its full import than to be in Him Yea as if it had not been enough barely to assert that men whilest they continue in sin may be United to Christ the Scripture must be suborned to countenance it Christ sayes he speaks of such branches in him as bear no fruit and therefore