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A60369 A preservative against atheism and error wherein some fundamental points in religion ... are by way of question and answer handled, and with much brevity and clearness proved ... : to which is added a brief answer to William Russel in a book of his entituled No seventh-day-Sabbath in Christs New Testament / by W. Saller. Saller, William, d. ca. 1680. 1664 (1664) Wing S399; ESTC R37201 26,787 31

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nessecarily depending one upon another like the parts and members of a natural body most comely and beautiful so that the highest commendations Christ gives his Church in that book of the Canticles doth much more belong to that Body of Divinity held forth in the Scriptures by which she is begotten and conformed to his Image Add to this the consideration of the Pen-men thereof who being the Prophets and Apostles and living in several Ages yet without jarr have brought forth this noble work so that you may plainly see they were all guided by one and the same holy Spirit in the writing of them Fourthly The Effects and lively Power of them in the hearts of men declare from whence they are descended that which is spoken of their soul-searching and powerful piercing nature Heb. 4.12 every soul that seriously converseth with them findeth true He that in his old blind estate took his heart to be good when he comes to try it by the Scriptures finds it so notoriously filthy that he abhors himself and as it discovereth sin so it purgeth it out and makes the carnal heart spiritual and brings it unto the Love of God and Holiness which before he hated and works it up to the hatred of sin which before he loved so that its transforming nature plainly sheweth it to be the Words of God Quest But may not other Books perswade men as well as that how many are led by other books into error Answ Yea other books may over-come mens judgements but not transform their natures from carnal to be spiritual from earthlymindedness to be heavenly minded and to bring from the love of sin to the love of holiness as this blessed Book of the holy Scriptures doth Fifthly The constant fulfilling of the Prophecies of them preach to all men their ●nfallibility God made good his Promise to Abraham Gen. 15. as also that to David 2 Sam. 7.12 to the 17. Also his Threatnings to Jeroboam 1 Kings 13.2 As also the Promises made in the 2d of Haggai and 3d of Malachi concerning Christ's coming to the second Temple which is now fallen Also Christ's Prophecy of the fall of this Temple and of Jerusalem Mat. 23.37 38. 24.2 19 20 21 22. Luke 21.20 21 22 23 24. is also come to pass As also the Prophecy of Paul 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. is you see fulfilled to a tittle with many more instances if need were all proving their heavenly birth Sixthly The unsupportable burthen of a Conscience which God woundeth for sin The sealing Testimony of his Love by the Spirit to the soul of the true believer The gracious Answers to prayers made to God in the name of Christ with other like experiences give to all gracious hearts most full assurance that the Scriptures were endited by the Spirit of God Seventhly Jehovah himself hath born witness of them that they are his words beyond all contradiction 1. By declaring the ten Commandments with his own Voice with that terrour as is exprest Exod. 19. and writing them twice with his own hand these being the grand Law on which the whole Scriptures depend and being the foundation of all Religion as by and by will appear 2. The wonderful Signs and Miracles wrought to confirm them as the bringing Israel out of Egypt through the Red-Sea and the Wilderness and Jordan by a piller of a Cloud by day and a piller of Fire by night into Canaan to the terrour of all the Nations round about Also the Sun standing still and coming back The Resurrection of Christ which will be proved anon and the Resurrection of others by Christ with other numberless Miracles all preaching to the world that the Scriptures are the Counsel and Will of God Quest But how shall we know that these wonders have been wrought but by the Scriptures own Testimony or by the Church Answ It may be known if this be considered that the Scriptures have alwayes had and to this day have so many feigned friends open enemies either flatly opposing them or to their uttermost secretly undermining and disgracing them or exalting humane inventions above them in so much that no sober Christian can doubt but that if there had beene possibility to have denied the report of those Miracles in that day in which they are said to be done the World could not have wanted Volumes enough to have shaken the Faith of the Christian World so called long before this day but although they be carpt at and undermined yet may all that love them challenge all their enemies to produce one known and approved Author that hath undertaken to reprove the report of those glorious Miracles and if none can be found then have we the greatest assurance that can be desired that they are certainly true Eightly And lastly They have a Testimony in the consciences and mouths of those that like not to be ruled by them and therefore make as little use of them as possible they can in setting up Religion You have a clear instance of the Papists to go no further Evident it is that as many Decrees Canons Articles Traditions and Ceremonies as the Church of Rome hath yet with all these and her Mass-book Pope and Councils to boot with all their pretended infalliability yet they cannot have a Religion without the holy Scriptures although it be a well-known truth that they love them not For all those that honour and obey them and dare not transgress those blessed Precepts are the only grand Hereticks with them And as for such as conform to their abominable Idolatries and superstitious Inventions pass for Catholick people with them although they be notorious transgressors of the Law of God and yet if these men did wholly cast off the Scriptures as ill as they love them their Religion could not have a Being I am neither insensible nor forgetful that there are both foolish subtile indeavours by several sorts of men besides these some of them I may meet with at another turn others a reasonable understanding will answer and therefore I will go no further in this Quest Have you not some other consideration about the Scriptures meet to be opened you spake a little before of the Dignity of the ten Commandments will you prove those sayings Answ I did so and before I go further I think it meet to do that work for now having proved the Scriptures to be of divine Authority we may with all boldness apply our selves unto them as a safe guide in Religion And first for the Dignity of the ten Commandments it is most evident that they are a superior Law on which all other Laws in the Scriptures depend For this see Christ's own Testimony Mat. 22.35 where giving us the sum of that divine Law consisting in Love to God and to our Neighbour he tells us in express words that the whole Law and the Prophets hang upon it and that this is not my own exposition of the Text but the Apostle Pauls see
Rom. 13.8 9 10. as also Jam. 2.8 9 10 11. how plainly doth he there call this Law the Royal Law and that this is the Law there intended plainly appears by his naming some of the Precepts of it expresly Quest But these two Texts Romans and James seem to look to the second Table more than the first must we understand the whole ten is there intended although not exprest Answ The whole Law is exprest truly in those Texts although not so largely handled the Apostles business being to apply the second Table to those present cases but Love belongs to God as wel as to our Neighbour and the second Table without the first cannot be every tittle of the Royal Law which yet appeareth more clearly if you consider that the way to prove our Love to men to be sincere is by our Love to God and keeping of his Commandments 1 John 5.2 3. And the Commands without limitation are said to be the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And David found the keeping of them all the only safe way of escaping shame Psal 119.6 And in Psal 111. how vehemently he presses the keeping of those Commands that are the work of God's hands which none were but only the ten Commandments Exod. 20. these he wrote twice himself Exod. 32.15 16. and Deut. 10.1 2 3 4 5. And how Moses exalted them above all other Laws of God see Deut. 4.10 11 12. Quest But can you by some further opening the point help our understandings that we may discern that the whole Scriptures do depend upon them Answ Very evident it is in Reason that this Law is of a Supream Authority for observe the judicial Law clearly dependeth upon it for it is a Law ordaining punishments for the transgressions of that higher Law And as for the Ceremonial Law it dependeth upon it plainly for it consisteth of shadows of Christ and the Grace that comes to the world by him who came to redeem us from the curse of that Law Gal. 3.13 Heb. 9.15 And from these and other-like Texts we may clearly see that the whole Gospel dependeth upon that Law also for it being transgressed by all mankind and no possibility therefore for any man to have life by the Law because it cursed every transgressor without Mercy and seeing all are gone out of the way and are altogether become abominable Psal 14. 53. and therefore no justification by the Law And therefore if God would be so gracious as to save man there lay this necessity upon him to give his Son to die and through his Blood to vouchsafe his Word Spirit and Ordinances and whatsoever tendeth to justifie or to sanctifie man and so to fit him for Eternal Life Likewise the whole Scriptures consisting of threatenings for sin committed against that Law or declarations of the judgements that have fallen upon the transgressors of that Law or promises of mercy to those that obey it or repent for breaking it or declarations of the blessings which they have had or shall have that love or observe it or some or other such head of Doctrine is held forth in the whole Scriptures fome way relating to that Law that what Doctrine soever we hear at any time that beareth not a good accord with that Law of the ten Commandments we are taught by the Prophet Isaiah to believe that that Teacher hath no light in him Isa 8.20 So that whosoever will but mind the Scriptures and exercise his reason may very well discern they all depend upon that Law Quest Will you shew us how they be the foundation of all Religion Answ First That which hath been said is a full proof that they be the foundation of all Religion for if they be the ground of all Reproof Exhortation Promises and whatsoever else is contained in the Scriptures then must they needs be the foundation of all Religion if Religion be to be learned from the Scriptures as sure it is and they be the Counsels and Words of God as they have been proved to be Quest But what if the Scriptures be the Words of God may nothing be learned from the Church is there nothing in her power to order in manner of God's Worship or the time of it is there no ceremony or custome lawful but what the Scriptures warrant Answ No nothing is lawful in God's Worship but his own certain Appointments He hath by an express Law bound us to hearken to his Word and neither add nor diminish Deut. 4.2 with many other-like Texts Object But are we not as well commanded not to forsake the Law of our Mother as to obey the Commands of our Father Prov. 1.8 6.20 and is not the Church our Mother Answ That Popish interpretation of those Texts appears to be Idolatrous and blasphemous the admitting the Church to be a law-making Mother if you compare it with the words of Christ Mat. 15.9 where the commandments of men although they were the Church are condemned for vain worship Also Paul tells us Christ is in all things head to the Church Ephes 1.22 and if that Apostle understood himself there can be nothing left for the Church to order or appoint in one kind or other about God's Worship but her work lies meerly in searching out what her Head by himself or by his Ministry hath appointed Quest Who account you Christ's Ministry Answ All the Pen-men of the holy Scriptures as well those that wrote the Old Testament as those that wrote the New as appears 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. Quest Can you make it a little more plain to our understandings that the ten Commandments are the ground and foundation of all Religion Answ That I shall indeavour and for that end consider there must be a Law binding all men to the observance of God's Will before any sin can be committed and it must be a Law of such a nature as renders the whole world guilty before God according to Rom. 3.19 and no such Law can be found but the ten Commandments Quest Is it not more likely to be that Law written in the hearts of all men spoken of Rom. 2. that brings the whole world under guilt Answ True it is but that Law written in the heart is the very same Law as is plainly to be seen in that 2d to the Rom. 14 15. and so to the end of the Chapter The very same Law that the Jews boasted of and preached and shall be judged by it is that that is writ in the heart and may be discerned by the Light aforded to natural men And the Gentiles come up to a more close obedience of than the Jews and so have more praise of God and be in his account the better Jews the only difference is the one hath it written in letters easie to read the other only as it is written in the heart but the Law is the very same that is given both to the one and to the other Quest Was there no Religion in