not perfectly understand and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed Thus also St. Iohn testifies of his Gospel Chap. 20. 31. These things are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name And if it be objected that by these Things the Apostle only means the Miracles of Christ which are the Motives of our Belief and not his Doctrines which are to be believed by us this is notoriously false since by these Things St. Iohn means his Gospel in which not only the Miracles but the Doctrines of Christ are contained and therefore in his first Epistle chap. 5. 13. he saith These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe or continue to believe on the name of the Son of God Where by These Things it 's plain he means only that Christian Doctrine which he had been teaching throughout the whole Epistle From which two Places I argue that all Things necessary to eternal Life are written because he expresly tells us that These Things were written to this end that they might beget and nourish in us that Faith by which we may obtain eternal Life but if that Faith which these written Things was designed to beget in us be not sufficient to eternal Life then were these Things written in vain and the End of writing them which was that we might obtain eternal Life by believing them was wholly frustrated but if that Faith were sufficient to eternal Life then these written Things which begot that Faith and were the Object of it must contain in them all Things necessary to eternal Life for how can they beget in us a Faith that is sufficient to eternal Life unless they propose to our Faith all Things that are necessary thereunto And thus I have endeavoured to demonstrate from Scripture it self which all agree is the Word of God and consequently the most concluding Authority in the World that the Holy Scripture is in it self a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners to direct Men to eternal Life And if this be so I would fain know by what Warrant or Authority any Man or Church can pretend to obtrude upon the Faith of Christians any unwritten Traditions or Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Worship not recorded in Scripture as of equal Authority with those recorded in Scripture and equally necessary to the eternal Happiness of Men. For that there have been such bold Imposers in the Christian World Irenaeus assures us in the 2d Chapter of his 2d Book against Heresies where he tells us of a sort of Hereticks who taught that the Truth could not be found in the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknown for as much as it was not delivered by Writing but by Word of Mouth And these Hereticks as Tertullian observes confessed indeed that the Apostles were ignorant and that they did not at all differ among themselves in their Preaching but said they revealed not all Things unto all Men some Things they taught openly and to all some Things secretly and to a few which secret Things were the unwritten Traditions which they sought to impose upon the Faith of Christians And how far the Church of Rome it self doth in this matter tread in the Footsteps of these ancient Hereticks is but too notorious For thus in the Preface of their Catechism it is expresly affirmed by the Council of Trent that the whole Doctrine to be delivered to the Faithful is contained in the Word of God which Word of God is distributed into Scripture and Tradition And in the Council it self they declare and define that the Books of Scripture and unwritten Traditions are to be received and honoured with equal pious Affection and Reverence In which Words they expresly own another Word of God besides the Scripture viz. Tradition which they equalize with the Scripture it self And this is almost verbatim the very Assertion which both Irenaeus and Terullian condemn for Heresy and as they are the same so we find they are grounded on the same Authority For those very Texts of Scripture which those ancient Hereticks urged for their Tradition are urged by Bellarmin for the Tradition of his Church Thus for their Tradition as Irenaeus and Tertullian acquaints us they urged that of St. Paul We speak Wisdom among them that are perfect and also O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust and again That good Thing which is committed to thee keep All which Texts are urged by Bellarmin in his 4th and 5th Books de Verbo Dei in behalf of that Tradition which the Church of Rome contends for And 't is something hard that that which was damned for Heresy in the Primitive Church should be made an Article of Faith in the present Roman Not that we do disallow of Traditions universally received in all Churches and Ages for we frankly acknowledge that what is now contained in Scripture was Tradition before it was Scripture as being first delivered by Word of Mouth before it was collected into Writing and therefore whensoever it can be made evident to us that there are any unwritten Doctrines bearing the same Stamp of Divine Authority with those that are written we are ready to receive them with the same Veneration as we do the Scriptures themselves For it is not their being written that doth authorize them but their being from God and our Saviour and his Apostles and therefore when once it 's made appear to us that Christ or his Apostles taught so and so that is sufficient to command our Assent and Submission whether it be made appear from Scripture or Tradition So that the Reason why we embrace some Doctrines and reject others is not merely because the one are written and the other not but because to us who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles it can never be made so evident that what is not written was taught by them as what is What is written hath been delivered down to us by the unanimous Tradition and Testimony of the Church of Christ in all Ages which I am sure can never be justly pretended of any one of those unwritten Traditions which the Church of Rome now imposes upon the Faith of Christians Let them but produce the same unanimous Testimony that any one of those Twelve Articles which they have thought meet to superadd to the ancient Creeds was taught by Christ or his Apostles as we do that what is contained in Scripture was so and we will as readily embrace it as any Proposition in Scripture but if this Article be neither to be found in Scripture nor delivered down to us as taught by Christ or his Apostles by the unanimous Testimony of the Church of Christ through all Ages we must crave their pardon if we cannot receive it as Part
of the Word of God But how impossible it is to prove by the unanimous Testimony of the Church that any unwritten Doctrine is Part of the Word of God necessary to be believed by all Christians is evident from hence because for several Ages after our Saviour the Church unanimously taught that whatsoever was necessary to be believed was contained in Scripture and for the same Church at the same time to testify that this or that unwritten Doctrine is a Part of God's Word necessary to be believed and yet that all Doctrines necessary to be believed are written is plainly to contradict it self And yet we find the Primitive Fathers unanimously attesting that the Scripture is the Rule from whence we draw all the Assertions of our Faith the last Will and Testimony of our Saviour by which all Controversies are to be decided the Boundaries of the Church out of which it is not to depart the Touchstone of Truth the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith for the Time to come and the only certain Principle of Christian Doctrine and Demonstration in Matters of Faith These are their own Expressions and abundance more than these we meet with to the same purpose and which is very observable they not only assert the Scripture to be a full and adequate Rule of Faith but severely declaim against all Additions to it Thus Eusebius Pamphilus in the Name of the Fathers of the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. those Things which are written believe those Things which are not written neither think upon nor enquire after Thus also St. Austin Quicquid inde audieritis è Scripturâ sacrâ hoc vobis bene sapiat quicquid extra est respuite ne erretis in nebula Whatsoever ye hear from the Holy Scriptures let it savour well with you whatsoever is without them refuse lest ye wander in a Cloud St. Bazil declares that it is a manifest falling from the Faith and an Argument of Arrogancy either to reject any point of those Things that are written or to bring in any of those which are not written and that it is the Property of a faithful Man to be fully perswaded of the Truth of those Things that are delivered in the Holy Scripture and not to dare either to reject or to add any thing thereunto Thus Tertullian advers Hermog Si enim non est scriptum timeat Vae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum If what he pretends be not written let him fear that Woe that is denounced against such as add or take away What Likelihood therefore is there that they who thus severely forbid adding any thing to the written Word of God did ever so much as dream of another Word of God consisting of unwritten Traditions And indeed methinks it is very strange if there had been any other Word of God besides what is written there should no notice be taken of it in that which is written especially considering that if it be as necessary to be believed as the Roman Church defines it it is as necessary that we should have Direction where to find it and how to know it when we have it but of this we have not the least Intimation in Scripture For as for those Words of St. Paul 2 Thess. 2. 15. Hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle all that can be justly inferred from them is only this that the Thessalonians at the Writing of this Epistle had only an Oral Tradition of a great Part of that Gospel which St. Paul had preached to them the Gospels being as yet either not collected into Writing or not dispersed abroad into the Churches so that then this and his former Epistle to them were perhaps the only written Part of the New Testament that was yet arrived to their hands and if so then this Command of holding the Traditions by word did oblige no longer than till they had received the written Gospel because then those Traditions by Word were all recorded in Scripture and being there recorded they were thenceforth obliged to hold them as Scripture and no longer as Traditions by Word But supposing there are still unwritten Traditions in the Church that are not in Scripture but yet were delivered by Christ or his Apostles and so are equally the Word of God with the Scripture I would fain know how we who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles should either know where to find or be assured that they are such when we have them We know very well that even in the Primitive Ages there were sundry counterfeit Traditions which Hereticks pretended to derive from Christ and his Apostles and if it were so easy a matter to counterfeit Traditions then how much more easy is it now I confess Vincentius Lirinensis gives us a very good Rule how to distinguish counterfeit from true Traditions Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est hoc est vere proprieque Catholicum That which was every where and always and by all Christians believed that is truly and properly Catholick And by this Rule we are willing to abide if they can shew us any Article of Christianity not recorded in Scripture which hath been every where and always believed by all Christians we will readily admit it as an unwritten Word of God and with the same Respect and Reverence as we do that which is written But this we are fully assured they will never be able to perform seeing as was shewn before the Primitive Church doth with one Consent attest the Scripture to be an entire Rule of Faith in which all the Articles of Christianity are contained But we are told that for these unwritten Traditions we must rely upon the present Church of every Age and receive as a divine Tradition whatsoever she defines to be so where by the present Church is meant the present Roman Church that is to say whatsoever this Church defines we must believe it because she defines it which we cannot but think is a hard Case First Because we know very well that the Roman Church is at best but a Part of the Church universal and we know no Right that any Part hath to impose upon the Whole and to oblige it to believe whatsoever she proposes meerly because she proposes it Secondly Because in Fact we are very well assured that the Roman Church is so far from being a sincere Preserver of Tradition that there is no Church in the World hath more studiously attempted to counterfeit and deprave it of which innumerable Instances are given by our Authors many of which are now acknowledged even by their Authors to be true For even their Vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible it self which they prefer before the Originals is confessed by themselves to abound with manifest Errors and Corruptions and even to the very Canon of the Bible they have added sundry Apocryphal Books which we certainly
know the Primitive Tradition never admitted as Parts of the sacred Scripture and it is notorious to all the World how many Books and Writings they have forged and how many of the Writings of the Ancients they have gelded and interpolated to defend and support those pretended Traditions which they have imposed upon the World as Articles of Faith And after she hath been guilty of so many apparent Falsifications we cannot but think it a very hard Case that we should still be obliged to believe her upon her own bare Word For in the third Place at this rate of Proceeding we must in many Instances condemn the Traditions of the Primitive Church in Complement to those of the present Roman which if we believe our own Eyes and the most authentick Histories and Records of those Times do expresly thwart and contradict one another and since if we would never so fain we can never believe both Parts of a Contradiction we must in believing the one give the Lye to the other Nay Fourthly and lastly though we should be perswaded as we think we have Reason to be that many of the Traditions of the present Church of Rome are not only not mentioned in Scripture but directly contrary to it as for Instance their performing Divine Service in an unknown Tongue which we think is as contrary to 1 Cor. 14. as one Proposition can be to another yet if that Churches Definitions do by their own Authority oblige our Faith we must believe her against Scripture it self And this we think intollerable that any Church of Christian should be obliged to believe the unwritten Word of the Church of Rome in a Matter wherein upon the most diligent and impartial Search they are verily perswaded it contradicts the written Word of God and if the Sentence of the one or t'other must be made void we think it is very reasonable that the Voice of her pretended unwritten Word should be silenced by that more certain one of the lively Oracles of God But after all if what I have endeavoured to prove be proved viz. that the Holy Scriptures are a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners to conduct us to eternal Life this will be enough to evacuate all that is pretended for this unwritten Word of God For God and Nature we know do nothing in vain and therefore if one Word of God be sufficient viz. that which is written what need have we of this other which is unwritten And so I have done with the first necessary Property of a Rule of Faith viz. that it be full and shewn at large that the Holy Scripture is so as to all Things necessary to Salvation and therefore shall now proceed to II. The Second viz. That it be clear and intelligible to those whose Faith and Manners are to be regulated by it I do not mean when I say that the Scripture is clear and plain and intelligible to all those to whom it is a Rule of Faith and Manners that it is throughout so in all its Proposals For it cannot be denied but there are many Things not only in St. Paul's Epistles but also in other Parts of Scripture hard to be understood and such as do not only exceed the Apprehension of common Capacities but also puzzle the Understandings of the most acute and profound Enquirers But that which I assert is this That all those Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Manners which are necessary for Men to believe and practise in order to their Attainment of eternal Life are so plainly and clearly revealed in Scripture that there is no honest teachable Mind that is capable of understanding common Sense but may from thence receive full Information of them upon faithful and diligent Enquiry And though in some Texts these Necessaries are not so plainly proposed as in others yet in some Text or other they are all of them so plainly proposed that no Man can read the Scripture and still be ignorant of them without being wilfully blind for which there is no Remedy either in the Scripture or out of it And this I shall endeavour to prove 1. From the express Testimony of Scripture 2. From the avowed Design of writing the Scripture 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture 4. From the Obligation that lies upon us under Pain of Damnation to believe and receive all those Necessaries to Salvation contained in it 1. From the express Testimony of Scripture it is evident that in all Things necessary to Salvation at least the Scripture is clear and plaâ—n For to be sure if in any thing the Scripture be plain it is in those Things that are most necessary to be believed and known and therefore if it be obscure in these Things we may reasonably presume it is plain in nothing But that it is in many Things plain and easy to be understood is evident from its own Testimony For thus of the Mosaick Law it is expresly affirmed by Moses This Commandment which I command thee this day it is not hidden from thee neither is it far off Deut. 30. 11. Where Moses speaks not only of the Ten Commandments which consisting for the most part of Laws of Nature are upon that Account more easy to be understood but of all the Commandments of Moses in general whether Ceremonial Iudicial or Natural For so v. 16. This Commandment we find contains as well the Statutes and Judgments as the Commandments of the Law all which must take in the whole Mosaick Institution And accordingly Ps. 119. 105. David calls this Word of God a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path which how could it be if it did not burn clear enough to guide and direct him and if it did then to be sure it burnt clear enough to direct him in those Things wherein it was most necessary for him to be directed Again in the 19th Ps. 7 8. we are told that the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple and that the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes But how can any Law make the simple wise or enlighten the Eyes of Men unless it be so plainly and clearly delivered as that the simple may be capable of apprehending and the Eyes of Men of discerning the Sense of it I know it is objected by Bellarmin that these Words do only imply that this Law indeed being understood doth enlighten Mens Eyes and direct their Practice but by no means that it is plain and easy to be understood But this is a meer Cavil for it 's plain that it is by understanding the Law that the simple are made wise and the Eyes of Men enlightned If therefore this Law be so obscure in its self as that it cannot make it self understood by all that sincerely enquire into it how is it possible that it should make them wise or enlighten the Eyes of their Minds But it 's plain that the Intent of those Passages
to what they have done in the Flesh And even the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is the profoundest Mystery of all our Religion hath been owned and professed by the greatest and most famous Philosophers that ever were And as for those Doctrines that are purely Christian such as the Birth and Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour together with his Sitting at the Right-hand of God and coming at the last Day to judge the World they are all of them so excellently contrived to serve the great Ends of Religion so wonderfully pregnant with Motives and Arguments to engage Men to the greatest Purity and Goodness that by their own native Beauty and excellent Contrivance they manifest themselves to be the Products of a divine Wisdom So that there can be no reasonable Pretence to contemn Christianity either because it is a Revealed Religion or because it contains any thing in it that is any ways unworthy of the Revealer And that there wants not sufficient Evidence to demonstrate it to be the Revelation of God I have already proved in the former Inference So that after all the lewd Talk of these confident Men it 's apparent there is not the least Colour of Reason for their impious Censures of Christianity But alas it's evident that the Foundation of their Quarrel against it lies not so much in their Reason as their Lusts. Christianity lays them under severe Restraints and will not permit them to be wicked in quiet which provokes them to arm their Wit and the little Reason that they have against it that so having baffled or rather laughed themselves out of their Religion they may be left at liberty to play the Fools and Mad-men without Controul or Disturbance And I make no doubt but if instead of that strict Piety and Virtue which Christianity enjoins it had but indulged to them the Liberties of the Heathen Religion so that they could have but acted all their Wickedness with Devotion sacrificed to the Gods in drunken Bowls and worshipped in the Arms of a Strumpet there are no Men in the World would have been more zealous Christians than they But let no Man be so foolish as to imagine that he can alter the Nature of Things by laughing at them or that Christianity will cease to be true in Compliance with our wicked Interest and Desires no no Things will be as they are in despite of us and howsoever we will please to fancy them And if after all our rude Contempts of Religion it be found to be true as I doubt not but it will we shall be sensible when it is too late that it had been more for our Safety to have play'd before the Mouth of a Cannon while it is spitting Fire or to have catch'd hold of a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds than to have plaid with Religion and made it the Subject of our impious Scorns and Buffooneries 4. And lastly They saw the Glory of his immaculate Holiness and Purity From whence I infer that Holiness and true Goodness is the greatest Glory and Honour to humane Nature For this was the Glory of the Son of God himself when he assumed our Nature and dwelt among us and there is nothing more glorious in Christ than his Goodness and notwithstanding those excellent Doctrines that he preached those stupendous Miracles that he wrought and that visible Splendor in which he was inrobed he had not deserved the Name of a great and glorious Man if he had not been just and charitable temperate and humble and Heavenly-minded and eminent in all those divine and humane Virtues which are the proper Glory and Ornament of humane Nature For that which makes a Man more honourable than a meer Animal and advances us into the next Degree of Beings to Angels is our Reason by which alone we border upon the Divinity and do claim Kindred with the Angelical Natures That therefore which is truly our Honour and Glory consists in living according to that Reason by which we are advanced above all sublunary Natures that is in governing our Passions and Appetites Words and Actions according to those Eternal Rules of Righteousness which Right Reason dictates to us and if instead of doing thus we wholly resign up our selves to the Dominion of our brutish and unreasonable Inclinations we thereby render our selves more despicable and infamous than the most beastly Brutes in all the Creation and even those Goats and Wolves and Swine and Tygers whom we resemble in our beastly Manners could they see our Shame would doubtlesly hiss at us and reproach us for greater Beasts than themselves for they all live up to the best of their Natures and regularly pursue the highest End for which they were created whereas we who are Allyed to the noblest of Beings and are created and designed for the most glorious Ends do by our base and unreasonable Condescentions shamefully under-value our selves in pursuing no Ends but what are extremely unworthy of us So that it had been much more for our Honour and Reputation to have assumed the Shape and Nature of Brutes when we assumed their Manners and Customs for then our Actions would have very well become us and neither God nor Men could have justly upbraided us for them But to lead the Lives of Brutes in the Shape and Nature of Men is monstrous 't is to advance the Beast above the Man to place our Heels where Nature hath placed our Head and become our own Reverse and Antipodes OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scripture JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life BY the Scriptures here must be meant the Old Testament for as yet the greatest Part of the New was unrevealed and the whole of it unwritten They were those very Scriptures which the unbelieving Iews to whom our Saviour was now preaching owned and acknowledged to be the Word of God for in them says our Saviour ye think ye have eternal life which it's certain they did not think of any other Scriptures but only those of the Old Testament and they are they says he which testify of me And to be sure there were no other Scriptures which could testify of Christ to the unbelieving Iews but only those of Moses and the Prophets these being the only Scriptures whose Testimony they credited But yet the Reason which our Saviour urges to move them to read the Old Testament doth as much oblige us to read the New as well as the Old as it did them to read the Old for in them ye think to have eternal life that is in them ye think ye have eternal Life promised and all the Necessaries to be believed and done by you in order to your obtaining it proposed to you And indeed as they thought so it was they had eternal Life proposed to them in Hieroglyphicks for that was the Mystery of their Holy of Holies that was the Interpretation of
their Land of Canaan and the spiritual Sense of all their general Promises of good Things to come They had all the Articles of Faith and all the Instances of Duty that were necessary to their Attainment of eternal Life exhibited to them in the Writings of their Prophets and the Types and Figures of their Law For it was by this Rule alone that all the holy Men of the Iewish Nation did live and believe and either this was sufficient to guide and direct them to eternal Life or they were left under a fatal Necessity of falling short of it It was the Law of the Lord that did enlighten their Eyes and rejoyce their Hearts and convert their Souls and it was in keeping it that they found great Reward Ps. 19. 7 8 11. And therefore either they fell short of the Reward of eternal Life notwithstanding this their Illumination and Conversion or they found it in keeping that Law by which they were illuminated and converted and if in keeping their Law they found eternal Life then it 's certain that in their Law they had it So that these Words of our Saviour for in them ye think ye have eternal life do not imply that they were mistaken in thinking so or at least they only imply that they were mistaken in thinking to obtain eternal Life by adhering to the prime and literal Sense of their Law without pursuing the Mystery and Spiritual Meaning of it which was indeed the Error of the Pharisees with whom our Saviour is here discoursing For the internal Sense and Mystery of their Law was the Gospel all whose Articles of Faith and Precepts of Duty were though darkly and obscurely expressed and represented in the Types and Figures of the Mosaick Institution And hence the Apostle tells us that both the Priests and their Oblations did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 5. So that the heavenly Things contained in the Gospel were the substantial Idea's which those Legal Types and Patterns contained and represented and the same Author calls that Law a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. that is it was an obscure Scheme or Prefiguration of the Mercies of the Gospel of which eternal Life is a principal Part. Since therefore the Law was nothing else but only the Gospel in dark and obscure Cyphers if in this we Christians have eternal Life in that the Iews had it also And therefore the Reason which our Saviour here urges to oblige the Iews to search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them ye think ye have eternal life doth at least equally oblige us Christians to search the Scriptures both of the Old and New For if they had just Reason to think they had eternal Life in the Old Testament and were thereupon obliged to search into it we have rather more Reason to think that we have eternal Life in the New since the New Testament is nothing else but only the Old decyphered and unriddled and therefore we must not only have eternal Life in this as they had in that but we must also have it far more expresly than they In the Prosecution of this Argument therefore I shall endeavour these Two Things I. To shew you that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life II. That this is a very forcible Reason to oblige us to search them I. First that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life that is that in them we have eternal Life proposed to us together with all that is necessary to be believed and practised by us in order to our obtaining it or in other words that the Holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule both of Faith and Manners to guide and direct 〈◊〉 to eternal Happiness And this is one Article of the Faith of the Church of England which we are required to explain to the People for so in her sixth Article our Church professes that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein or may be proved thence is not required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Now to make the Scripture a sufficient Rule as to all Things necessary to Salvation there are two Things necessary First That it should be full and Secondly That it should be clear both which the Holy Scripture is in an eminent Degree as containing in it all that is necessary to be believed and done in order to eternal Life And this will evidently appear from these three following Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life 2. That they preached to the World all those Necessaries with which the Holy Spirit inspired them 3. That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in those Sacred Writings of theirs of which the Holy Scripture consists 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life For first our Saviour by whom they were originally instructed declares that as the Father loved him and shewed him all things that himself did Ioh. 5. 20. so he had made known to them all things that he had heard of his Father Ioh. 17. 8. And then when he went from them and ceased to instruct them in his own Person he promised that by his Spirit he would teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them Ioh. 14. 26. and that by the same Spirit he would guide them into all Truth Ioh. 16. 13. If therefore the Spirit did perform this Promise to them as there is no doubt but he did then we are sure that he did teach them over again whatsoever Christ had taught them before and if Christ had taught them whatsoever he had heard of his Father as he declares he had then it is certain either that he taught them all Things necessary to eternal Life or that he himself had not heard from his Father all Things that are necessary thereunto 2. That as they were taught by the Spirit all Things necessary to eternal Life so what they were taught they preached and delivered to the World For so our Saviour commanded them to go forth into all the World and teach all Nations to observe all those things which he had commanded them Matth. 28. 19 20. Which Injunction of his they strictly observed for so we are told that in Obedience to it they went forth and preached every where Mark 16. 20. And that their preaching extended to all Things necessary to Salvation is evident from their own Testimony For thus St. Paul tells the Ephesians that he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole Counsel of God Acts 20. 27. And to be sure in the whole Counsel of God all that is necessary to Salvation must be included And concerning that Gospel which he