gestures be essentiall to the Sacrament In the third place Traditions may signifie any rule thrust upon the Church as necessary to be beleeved or obserued quite besides or contrary to the word of God for conscience sake toward God that Priests and Nunnes may not marry which things though they be brought in as Apostolicall or Ecclesiasticall Traditions yet by the rule of Saint Paul 1. Tim. 4.1 2 3. they seeme rather to leane to the doctrines of devills beleeved by such as speake lyes in hypocrisie and have their consciences seared No part of Holy Scripture lost Obiect 3 Object 3. ANd if Traditions might therefore seeme to be necessary because it is yeelded by some of the Fathers that some of the Canonicall Scriptures are lost by whose reasons or authority some of the later writers have strayed after them yet this will nothing at all support those unwritten verities For it is utterly denyed and that according to reason and the word of God that any part of the holy Scripture is perished 1. For can we thinke that it stood with the goodnesse of God to give His Word to His Church for comfort and instruction and stood it not with His providence to preserue that Word that it should not perish but accomplish that thing for which it was sent Esay 55.11 But divers objections are brought hereto as you may see in the author G. Langf forenamed in the 4. § 1. The booke of the warres of IEHOVAH is mentioned Numb 21.14 but not extant Therefore some part of the holy Scripture is perished Answer It ought first to be manifest what this booke was but in briefe the bookes of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah and of the Kings of Israel are often mentioned in the bookes of Kings and Chronicles yet were not those bookes therefore holy Scripture written by the Prophets but rather by the Recorders or Secretaries of state appointed for that purpose as the histories of other kingdomes are or ought to be written and of this ranke may that booke mentioned by Moses seeme to be For it is not necessary that all writings mentioned in the holy Scripture should be holy Scripture For the Poets whose writings Saint Paul mentions were but Heathens and Iannes and Iambres as profane writers call him Mambres are no where mentioned in holy Scripture but onely 2 Tim. 3.8 2. A second doubt is from that which is in Ioshua 10.13 and 2 Sam. 1.18 where mention is made of the booke of Iasher whereto though some according to the interpretation of the word just or upright will have the sence of that text of Ioshua Is it not recorded by him whose writings are upright and true as it is said Iohn 21.24 This is the Disciple that testifieth these things and we know that his testimony is true yet because the booke is mentioned in times above 390. yeeres distant it seemes to me rather to be some Liger or booke of record wherein such memorable things were written by the appointment of their Synedrion as might serue for remembrance to future ages for that Synedrion or great Councill of 70. Elders instituted by God under Moses Numb 11. never failed so long as their state lasted 3. The writings of the Prophets themselues as of Nathan and Gad mentioned in 1 Chron. 29.29 of Ahia and Iddo 2 Chron. 9.29 of Iehu 2 Chron. 20.34 are utterly lost Answer Not so For as it is manifest that all the things written in the 2 of Sam. were done after his death so likewise may we very well thinke that both the bookes of Iudges and Ruth 2 of Samuel and the two bookes of Kings for some give the Chronicles wholly to Ezra were written by divers Prophets whom God raised up in all the ages of that Church to bee inditers of His Word and were as Saint Luke saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-witnesses of the things which they recorded and these Prophets here mentioned with others were the Authors of those bookes 4. But some texts are cited in the new Testament which are 1. not found in the old as that in Matth. 2.23 Hee shall be a Nazarite or else are 2. not found in the Author cited by which we may thinke that some booke of his is lost as that which S. Matthew cites out of Ieremy Chap. 2.17 is not found in all that booke 3. Moreover S. Paul remembers the word of our Lord Actes 20.35 which is no where extant beside 5. And the Epistle to the Laodiceans mentioned Coloss 4.16 is utterly lost For that schedule which is found here and there is rejected by every one as unworthily to be remembred by the Apostle 5. Iude likewise cites the prophecie of Henoch which is not found except in the Talmud Answere 1. Some referre that of Matth. 2.23 to Esay 11.1 The Branch that should grow out of the roote of Iesse But it is more fully verefyed in that which is written Iud. 13.5 Where Sampson the Figure that should begin to save Israel is a Nazarite unto God and Hee much more which is separate from sinners and should perfect the deliverance of all the Israel of God and the text cited by the Evangelist may not onely intend both these but whatsoever else either the Law or the Prophets understand by the figurative snow-white puritie of the Nazarites Lam. 4.7 and is therefore cited in the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the Prophets 2. The other citation in Saint Matthew where one Prophet is named by another doth not prove that any booke of Ieremiah is lost neither was it of any ignorance or forgetfulnesse in the Evangelist or yet mistaking of them that have copied out that booke but because that the seed of the Woman so long expected was now to come into the world it may be that Zachariah by interpretation Remember the Lord is now Ieremiah exalt the Lord who never ought to bee remembred without his praise especially in the performance of that inestimable benefit for man-kind 3. Concerning that which is cited by Saint Paul Actes 2.25 If he had that which he cites by the suggestion of the Holy-Ghost as wee may well thinke or that the saying of Christ was in fresh remembrance with them that heard it it is not therefore to bee concluded that S. Paul cites it out of any booke now lost seeing he might receive it from those Disciples which had heard it 4. And as to that Epistle to the Laodiceans it is but a common errour that S. Paul makes mention of any such but hee perswades the Colossians for the better understanding of some passages in the Epistle written to them to read the Epistle sent from Laodicea to him and that they of Laodicea should read that which he sent to the Colossians as containing doctrine and instruction fit for both the Churches to know and doe 5. And if Saint Iude were taught of God that Henoch had so prophecied though the prophecie were never written or if he cited it from
may speake to God and heare His speech to us in all places at all times either alone or with others the holy Angels joyning in our conversation and our selves never destitute of the fruit thereof And because the holy Scriptures are the foundation of all our faith therefore it must first appeare That these Scriptures are the very Word of God Himselfe § 1. Then how necessary it was and behovefull for the Church that God should vouchsafe thereto the knowledge of His Word § 2. Thirdly to shew what these Scriptures are § 3. Fourthly to justifie their perfection or sufficiencie § 4. Fiftly to shew that they are come unto us in the integrity as they were at first delivered to the Church § 5. Then to speake of their easinesse to be understood § 6. And lastly of their interpretation § 7. Sect. 1 § 1. Concerning the first it is an irrefragable argument that the Scriptures were given of God because the Prophecies in them which were before-hand concerning things to come were such perfect declarations of them as that they may rather seeme to be Histories then Prophecies Take for instance that promise to Abraham that his seed should possesse Canaan after 430. yeeres and accordingly in the selfe same day Exod. 12.40 41. were they brought out of Egypt Or the promise of Iudahs Kingdome foretold by Iacob Gen. 49.8 9 10. Of Iosia and Cyrus prophecied by name the one above 300. yeeres the other above 100. yeeres before he was borne Of the captivity of that nation and destruction of Ierusalem foretold by Daniel For seeing God alone is infinite in His wisedome and that all His workes are foreknowne to Him alone therefore can He alone declare from the beginning what shall come to passe at the last as He saith of Himselfe Isa 42.9 whereas the Angels being finite both in their wisedome and knowledge know nothing of things to come but either by speciall revelation as Gabriel foretold the birth of Iohn Baptist or by the Prophecies of the Scripture or by observation of naturall causes in their long and subtile experiences And therefore it came to passe that all the devils that mocked the heathen by their Oracles were so uncertaine in their answeres except they were informed by some of the meanes spoken of As the devil gave a certaine answere to Alexander concerning his expedition against Darius because he knew what the Decree of God was by the Prophecie of Daniel Chap. 8. 2. Another Argument that the Scriptures were given by the Holy-Ghost is that admirable consent of all the Doctrines contained therein which are delivered with that certaintie of Truth and Knowledge with that authority and power over the soule of the faithfull Reader and that in so simple and plaine a manner of writing as no other whereas in mens writings the unsetlednesse of their judgement their ignorance and doubtfull suppositions especially when they speake of their owne as seldome they doe justifies the holy Text Rom. 1.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professing to teach they shew their folly 3. Moreover the Argument or things contained in the holy Scriptures doth manifest the Author thereof the Writers for the most part shewing their Commission Thus saith the Lord and Paul an Apostle not by man but by Iesus Christ and God the Father Then the purport or intent of the Commission We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God And this under such conditions as none but God alone is able to performe of acceptance eternall life or refusall eternall fire 4. The glorious and mighty workes which Almighty God gave especially to the first Writers of the Law and of the Gospel to doe and those miracles whereby He continually justified the trueth thereof the wonderous preservation and deliverances of the professors as of Daniel c. And the balefull confusion of the adversaries of the Trueth contained in the Scriptures in all ages approve that God alone is the Author thereof 5. The hatred of the devil and his continuall endeavours either utterly to deface the Bookes of the holy Scripture or upon pretext of obscurity and danger of Heresie not to reade them And againe the providence of God in preserving those Bookes and the love and delight which He hath begotten in the hearts of His Saints to reade and understand them are no lesse proofe that these Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and the Testimony of His eternall Truth 6. The extraordinary calling of many of the Pen-men of the holy Bookes and the enabling of them being simple and unlettered men to write and to preach those high Mysteries which none of the Princes of this world did understand as of Amos among the Herdmen of Peter Iames and Iohn and the other of the twelve Apostles shew that the Author of that Truth and their Bookes was God alone 7. The great 1. Antiquity of the Bookes of the Law preserved so long uncorrupted for in comparison of Moses almost all the writings of the heathen all their religions and many of their Gods are but upstarts and things of yesterday 2. The great simplicity and sincerity of the Writers who sought not their own praise nor concealed their owne faults and imperfections 3. The consent of the Church which receiued the Scriptures as the word of God 4. The consent of forraine Histories writing of the same things with such uncertaintie and untruth as time and heare-say use to bring into History as of Berosus Herodotus Strabo Trogus and others are a manifest proofe that the true records of the same things are the writings which God Himselfe did dictate to Moses and the Prophets which followed after him For none but God did truely know the creation of the world and none among men did certainely record the universall flood the Tower of Babel the actes of Abraham Iacob Ioseph Moses Ioshua and others So that if the devill might vaunt as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did indite and Homer did write In the perfection of truth might the Holy Spirit of God say as it is recorded 2. Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God And 1. Pet. 1.21 Prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy-Ghost 6. And if wee beleeve that the writings of Historians and Poets and other profane Authors are indeed theirs under whose names they goe shall wee not much rather beleeve that they are the writings of God Himselfe that goe under His Name especially seeing wee know that Hee is a jealous God and neither would suffer His authority to bee abused to falshood neither would Hee give His Church to bee ever seduced by lyars and false prophets Sect. 2 § 2. And these holy Oracles God of His Goodnesse and Mercy would have to bee written from whence by their excellencie above all other they are called Scriptures
any booke which went under the name of Henoch if nothing in the booke were Henoch's beside this prophecie Saint Iudes citing doth not make the booke Canonicall Scripture no more than S. Pauls citing the heathen Poets or if S. Iude had it onely by tradition that Henoch had so prophecied how doth it make for the question For it is not said that all things are false which are delivered by tradition but that in the matiers of the faith and doctrine of the Church those traditions have no force or credit which are contrary to the truth of God revealed in His Word 5. But it is yeelded that though some part of Scripture be lost yet that which remains is sufficient and containes all things necessary Answere Our Lord saith Luk. 10.42 That one thing is necessary which in Iohn 17.3 he confesseth to bee this To know the Father the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent and according to the necessitie of this one thing the 3. Chapter of Gen. with the 53. of Esay and any one of the Gospels might seeme sufficient And in this sufficiencie onely wee dwell hither-unto But because S. Peter saith 1. Epistle 1.11 that the inquest of the Prophets was not onely concerning the saluation of the soule but likewise what times and what manner of times they should be wherein the sufferings of Christ should bee fulfilled and the glories which should follow thereupon and because both the sufferings of Christ and his glories are to be accomplished not onely in Himselfe but also in His Church as they were prefigured in all the types that were of Him in the Church under the Law and that God the Lord doth nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His seruants the Prophets Amos 3.7 when wee shall grow past milke and be able to digest stronger meat when wee shall understand how the Law and the Prophets are to be fulfilled to every jod and title contained in them Matth. 5.17.18 when wee shall be able to apply every text to the proper time and meaning according to the perfection of the uttermost understanding thereof then shall we see that the Law of the Lord is a perfect Law and His Statutes and judgements are sweeter then honey and the honey combe then shall the Church see and know that nothing in the whole body of the Holy Scripture is either superfluous or that any word letter or prick therein might bee missing Sect. 5 § 5. That the Scriptures are come unto us as they were at first delivered to the Church by the Prophets and Apostles that were the Pen-men thereof it may be manifest by those reasons which are brought for proofe of the former question 1. For if God who is praysed for His trueth in that Hee hath magnified His Word above all His Name Psal 138.2 hath not preserved His Scripture intyer from the corruption of man from the alteration addition or taking away that they might make what comfort or certaine instruction can wee have thereby What assurance of hope by those promises of which wee are not sure whether they be the promises of God or the imaginations of men Thus the end for which God of His goodns gave those Scriptures should be frustrate and man in that incertainty nothing furthered toward eternall life Thus the Church should fayle in the duty and faithfull performance of that trust which she owes unto God in preserving that treasure which was committed to her charge and safe keeping But these things are not to be granted And therefore the Scriptures are come unto us in that integrity or purity in which they were at first delivered to the Church they of the old Testament in the Hebrew tongue they of the new in Greeke 2. The constant consent of all the doctrines and promises contained in the Scriptures the efficacie and power of that Spirit which is manifest in the deliverie thereof are evident proofes that the Scripture is still in that purity in which God gave it unto the Church And although God in those Scriptures have vouchsafed to apply Himselfe to our understanding and as a nurse to lisp with her infant yet so much is the foolishnesse of God wiser than man and the weaknesse of God stronger than men 1. Cor. 1.25 as that it is still manifest in the whole body of the holy writ that nothing of humane drosse is mixt there-with but that His Word is still as before pure as silver that hath beene tryed seven times in the fire 3. This fire is that dampish smother-fire of heresies which the devill did kindle among his brands among whom though some rejected the authority of sundry bookes of Holy Scripture as Marcion and others some corrupted the sence thereof by Allegories and forraine interpretations as the Origenists See Augustin de Gen. ad literam others by wresting it from the native sence to the supportance of their owne heresies yet the Church which continued faithfull in the doctrine of God constantly with-stood all these attempts and ever maintained the sincerity as of the doctrine so of the Holy Scripture on which it was founded And because the Scripture is either of the old or of the new Testament it is fit to speake to each of them in particular 4. And first concerning the old Testament it is manifest that the Church of Israel whose hope was set on that Messiah that was to come had no cause to corrupt the text of the holy writ but according to the promises which they had in the Law and in the Prophets the expositors thereof so to hope that He should be such a deliverer and Saviour as was promised by which hope they were bound to preserue the Scripture in all integrity that they might see the full accomplishment thereof when He was come 5. Beside the Priests whose lips should preserue knowledge and at whose mouth they should seeke the Law Mal. 2.7 there was from Samuel unto the dayes of Ezra a perpetuall succession of Prophets who could not in any wayes have endured so great a corruption uncontrouled as that the Word of the Lord should be changed or depraved And although the Scriptures before the time of Ezra had beene corrupted yet he being a Prophet a Priest and a perfect scribe of the Law of the Lord and of the Statutes of Israel that had prepared his heart to teach the Law of God and His statutes and judgements Ezra 7. who changed the forme of their Chaldean or Samaritane letters for those which are now in use hee I say would have taken away all such corruptions or changes as had come to the Holy Scripture if it might bee imagined that any could come in the time of the Prophets that were before as far as the diversitie of Copies gave them light Of the Israelites care in writing the Scriptures and of the Masôreth 6. MOreover that exceeding care and diligence which the Scribes were to use in writing is sufficient proofe that the bookes of the
acknowledged one God nor beleeved his Scriptures but as another prophane writing so farre as they liked it who worship't the Sunne the Moon and all their Idoles and although they celebrated their assemblies in comming together as the Christians yet can you account those mysteries of Beelzebub to be Christian which were performed with such accursed uncleannesse as I must forbeare to write which I could hardly have beene brought to beleeve if S. Augustine himselfe who had been among them and proves it by witnesses had not recorded it de Haeres Cap. 46. The filthines of the Gnosticks was yet more abhominable if it be possible to be true which they write will you account them Christians The Philosopher Plotinus no Christian Ennead 2. lib 9. intituled against the Gnosticks shewes the falshood of their opinions concerning the creation of the world and proves that in the government thereof their opinion was more wicked than that of Epicurus and though Simon the Sorcerer was baptised Acts. 8. yet when his gall of bitternesse had made him a professed enemie and father of all those heresies that followed will you count him a Christian Therefore you may with the Apostle say of these of Cerinthus of Carpocrates and of many of the rest They went out from us but they were not of us But because I am busied in things of more importance than this and yet the honour of the Christian name is no small matier I will most brieflie recount the contrarie opinions whether they be of the elder Philosophers or the later Hereticks as they have beene gathered by the most ancient among the Fathers Irenaeus Epiphanius S. Augustine and others I say most briefly and onely for a taste that you may love the truth the better and adore that mercy which hath manifested it unto us And therefore I will not tell you of Varros thousands of gods nor trouble you needleslie with remembrance of those gods of the Heathen which you may reade in the holy Scripture and know better by Master Seldens just Commentarie de Djs Syris if you understand Latin § 2. Above fortie disagreeing opinions among the Philosophers concerning the gods are reckoned up by Cic. de natura Deorum lib. 1. of which some directly gainsay this conclusion of the Vnitie of the Godhead for although Antisthenes confessed there was but one God the God of all nature yet he added that there were divers Gods for divers peoples and countries Xenocrates said there were eight gods in the seven planets and one that ruled over all the Starres Anaximander held many gods and so many gods so many worlds but said that these gods were brought forth in time and after many ages dyed againe Alâ—meon seemed to acknowledge three gods inasmuch as he gives divinitie to the Sunne to the Moone and to the soule of man Xenophanes would have all that is infinite to be god whether in being or in working as he held the understanding Democritus would have all the Ideas or representations of things being and that understanding whence they proceed and mans understanding also to be gods The inconstancie of the Philosophers in their owne opinions brought us in yet more gods Cleanthes one while said the world was god sometime the soule whereby it was quickned and governed then againe the pure and uppermost ayre that compasseth the whole Globe of heaven and earth sometime the Starres otherwhile reason as so the rest as you may heare hereafter And if the Philosophers the guides were blind it is no marvell though the blockish rout ran into all Idolatrie as they are described Wisd Chap. 14. But to suppose it reasonable to give honour to the memorie of the dead who where founders of cities or procurers of some great and publike good because they though dead were thought to favour and maintaine their owne endeavours or to be so unreasonable as to thinke with the Aegyptians that there was something divine in all those things by which they received any kinde of good and so to worship men horses birds serpents wolves dogs and cats See Iuvenall Sat. 15. Cic. de natura Deorum lib. 3. yet what could so mad the old Romanes not onely to allow all the hee gods and the shee gods of others but to consecrate imaginations as Victory Concord Pâ—ace yea and among these their owne plagues and punishments as the Ague Mildew and blasting ill fortune c Cic. loc cit § 3. But there was no opinion among all these more foolish than that which went out in the name of the Hereticks Cerdon first of all August cont advers leg Proph. l. 2. c. 12. said there were two gods one good whom they called Oromazes and another stark naught whom they named Areimanius This opinion his scholer Marcion upheld but added * Tertullian who dispu es against him in five books hath it not nor Irenaeus and Augustine brings it doubtfully out of Epiphanius a third whom he called the Iust After that the Gnosticks recal'd the opinion of the two gods with many additions The Manichees also followed this madnesse and added their fiction that the good God set upon the wicked god to have supprest him but in that conflict the powers of darkenesse tooke many parts of the good god prisoners and tyed them unto earthly mâ—tiers for the ransoming of which this good but verie weake god takes great thought but as these parts of his come to be eaten in the matiers wherein they are tyed by their Catharists or Puritanes they are parted from the impure matiers and so restored to the God againe Are these Hereticks are these Christians found you any thing like to this among the pure naturallists of the heathen Phil. Mornay de verit Christ Relig. Cap. 2. drawes this opinion of two gods by the autoritie of Plutarch de Iside Osiride First from Zoroaster and so among the Persians thence to the Manichees It is true that Manes their father was a Persian but it is manifest that Plutarch was most grosly deceived first in the circumstance of the time wherein hee mistakes about some foure thousand two hundred yeeres a great fault in an Historian for if Zoroaster lived in the reigne of Ninus as the best Records doe make him See Fra. Patr. in Zor about three hundred yeeres after the floud it will not be above eight hundred ninetie or nine hundred yeeres before the destruction of Troy which is put about the yeare of the world two thousand eight hundred fortie so that Plutarch who makes him to have lived five thousand yeares before the destruction of Troy makes him above two thousand yeeres elder than Adam Then in the substance of the matier the mistaking is nothing lesse for by the diligence of worthy men divers of those magicall oracles of Zoroaster who was the Sonne of Oâ—omazes Plato Alcib 1. are come to light and printed at Paris in the yeare one thousand sixe hundred and seven and before that many more of
the same theme which might easily be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he created Let the students of the holy mysteries give all diligence to read the holy Scriptures in their proper language For there this treason of Arius and all other hereticks is easily discovered 7. Hee that denyes himselfe to be good cannot be God But Christ saith of himselfe Math. 19.27 why callest thou me good there is none good but one even God Answ Good is either absolute and perfect which is God alone or else imparted the image of that Good and so every thing created was very good Gen. 1. Goodnesse is likewise in the vertue and disposition of the minde as Barnabas was a good man Act. 11.24 or manifest in the workes and thus Dorcas was full of good workes Act. 9.36 and our Lord wrought many good workes among the Iewes Ioh. 10.32 In these three kindes our Lord was good as man supereminently above all the orders of created things In the first kinde he was good as God which absolute goodnesse he denyed not to himselfe no more than Hee denyed himselfe to bee God at that confession of Thomas My Lord and my God but rather taught that young man if he had had wit to follow that perfection which hee prescribed For being by the young mans owne confession good it must follow of necessity by that rule of perfection Follow me that he was God and ought to be followed and obeyed Eph. 5.1.1 Cor. 11.1 8. Like unto this are those other arguments which they bring as where it is said Ioh. 6.57 Like as the living Father sent me and I live by the Father So hee c. If he live not by himselfe he cannot be God I answer that this life which the Sonne receives of the Father is not accidentall not of grace not of foresight or purpose but substantiall and eternall seeing the generation is according to the immutable being and eternall working of the Father and his spirituall perfection onely So they object from Heb. 3.2 That hee was faithfull to him that made him and Ioh. 14.28 My father is greater than I so 1 Cor. 15.28 when all things are subdued unto Him then also shall the Sonne himselfe be subject unto him that did put all things under him and many other which you may finde cited and answered by Athanasius and especially by Epiphanius in the places quoted before Wherein observe diligently the differences betweene those termes which signifie his nature and those which have reference to the office of his Mediatorship as in the first place of Heb. 3. Consider what he was made It is plaine by the verses before hee was made the Apostle and high Priest of our profession in which office he was faithfull to him that made him or appointed him thereunto so in the second place to that The Father is greater than I note the difference betweene the Divine and humane nature for the Sonne is inferiour to the Father by nature as man and so as he is the Mediatour in the dispensation of his offices as with us he makes up the body of his Church nay even in the Divine nature the Father is that eternall fountaine whence the Sonne hath his eternall originall although the honour of sending takes not away the equalitie of power nor the excellencie of nature from him that is sent so the greatnesse there spoken of is with respect of the office of the Sonne sent into the world that the world by him might be saved In the third place of delivering the kingdome to God the Father note the communication of idiomes or proprieties of speech according to the rules of Theodoret. That the words proper to either nature become common and indifferent to the Person as the God of glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 that is that Person which is the God of glorie was crucified concerning his humane nature Secondly that the communitie of names makes no confusion in natures now the word Sonne belongs to Christ indifferently either as he is the Sonne of God and so shall hee raigne with the Father and the holy Ghost eternally and of his kingdome there shall be no end Dan. 6.36 Luk. 1.33 And seeing that he as the Son of man hath received all power Mat. 28.18 John 3.35 and 13 3. as to governe his Church Psal 45. so to raise the dead and to execute judgement Iohn 5.26 27. Acts 17.31 Hee shall raigne till all things bee subdued unto him and that he hath utterlie destroyed all the workes of the devill sinne ignorance and death Iohn 1.3.8 that as God the Father doth now raigne by him so he having performed all things which belong to him as the Mediatour may thereafter as God raigne with the Father eternally our everlasting king of glory when God shall be all in all his children as he is in him I am the more briefe in this argument because their arguments are answered in part before § 4. And because this question is neere to that which followes immediately and againe because it is the principall subject of that treatise by me so often mentioned therefore for conclusion first consider the danger of this venome which at once poysons all our hopes of that full satisfaction which is made unto the justice of God by the death of Christ for if he be a creature only then can he not be infinite and if not infinite then cannot the infinite justice that is offended by our sinnes receive a full and sufficient satisfaction by him as you might see it proved in the 21 Chapter before And beside these reasons you may take with you these remembrances against all Arians Turkes Iewes Socinians and other hereticks whatsoever and give honour and glory unto Iesus our Lord and God Esay 9.6 Vnto us a childe is borne unto us a Sonne is given and his name shall be called The Mightie God the Everlasting Father the prince of peace Ier. 33.15 16. In those dayes the branch of righteousnesse shall grow up unto David and Ierusalem shall dwell safely and he that shall call her See Mat. 11.28 is Iehovah our righteousnesse Micah 5.2 Out of Bethlehem shall hee come forth unto mee that shall be ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from everlasting Rom. 9.5 Christ is over all God blessed for ever and ever Amen and 1 Iohn 5.20 We are in him that is true even in his Sonne Iesus Christ This is the true God and eternall life § 10. Thus then our Lord Iesus being declared mightily to be Sonne of God by the testimony of the Father from heaven by his owne profession of himselfe confirmed by his glorious miracles Iohn 5.36.37 by his resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 by the consent of the Apostles and Prophets and by the testimony of the holy Ghost in the hearts of all his Children and being truly man by the testimony of his very enemies the onely question remaining concerning his beeing is that seeing all fulnesse must dwell in him
spoken of in that text of Iohn 16.14 is not of grace but by nature neither is it any other thing than this That as the Father from all eternity had decreed to reconcile the world unto Himselfe by the death of His Sonne and that the Sonne accordingly performed this in due time by His death upon the Crosse So the Father and the Sonne by that Holy Spirit which proceedeth from them both doth sanctifie the hearts of the elect and assure them that this reconciliation with all the fruits and effects thereof was for their eternall comfort and salvation For that peculiar manner of subsistence in the Divine nature which He taketh from the Father and the Sonne whereby it is most necessarily concluded that He is God is not heere spoken of 4. Objection The Holy-Ghost is no where called God in the Scripture Therefore He is a creature Answere 1. He is no where in the Scripture called a creature or mentioned among the creatures in Psal 148. or else-where Therefore He is God Answer 2. The proposition is false as it appeared by the texts cited out of Actes 5.3 4. and Matth. 28.19 where He is equalled with the Father and the Sonne and 2. Cor. 13.14 And Iohn 5.7 Moreover no sinne doth make a man lyable to an infinite punishment but that which is against an infinite being But the sinne against the Holy-Ghost shall not bee pardoned neither in this world nor yet in that which is to come Matth. 12.32 Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto Actes 28. verse 25. and 27. with Rom. 11.8 and 1. Cor. 3.16 And as these texts of Scripture are sufficient to shew the falshood of this last objection So doe they manifest the vanitie of all the rest and confirme abundantly the trueth of this Article that the Holy-Ghost is God To bring the consent of Fathers and Councells to these Scriptures were as to encrease the light of the Sun by a burning candle yet because it was so plainely declared in the first generall Councell held at Nice by 318. Fathers in the yeere of Christ 325. you may remember it if you will In that Councell this Article was thus declared in that forme of confession which was framed by Hosius Bishop of Corduba As the Father and the Sonne so also the Holy-Ghost subsisteth with them of the same being of the same power of which they are And a little after Wee ought to confesse one God-head one being of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost not teaching any confusion or division of the Persons of the unspeakeable and blessed Trinitie But according to the integritie of that faith and doctrine which was heretofore delivered by the Lord Himselfe to His Apostles and hath beene sincerely taught to us by our holy Fathers who kept it pure and intire as they received it from the Apostles wee beleeve and confesse the undivideable Trinitie which cannot sufficiently either be conceived in the understanding or expressed in wordes that is the Father eternally and truely subsisting a true Father of a true Sonne and the Sonne eternally and truely subsisting a true Sonne of a true Father and the Holy-Ghost verily and eternally subsisting with them And wee are ever ready by the power of the Holy-Ghost to proove that this is the trueth by the manifold testimony of the holy Scripture Histor Gelasij Cyzic Act. Conc. Nic. lib. 2. cap. 12. This faith was approved of all but because the present businesse with Arius was especially about the Sonne For he held that the Son was not of the subsistence of the Father nor yet very God That they might meet fully with that errour they agreed to that forme wherein it is confessed that the Sonne is light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father c. Thus having ended the controversie about the God-head of the Sonne they come to the question of the Holy-Ghost against whom Phaedon a Philosopher and patron of Arius his cause objected thus It is no where written in the Scripture that the Holy-Ghost is a Creator and therefore Hee is not God To which the Councell opposed that which is in Iob 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made mee and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life And that in Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the Spirit of His mouth To which they added that of Saint Paul 1. Cor. 12. verse 4 5 6. where the Holy-Ghost is called both Lord and God And so concluded that all the three Persons that is the Father the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall or of the same substance Lib. Cit. Cap. 25. Likewise when this heresie of Arius concerning the Holy-Ghost was againe revived by Macedonius the second generall Councell held at Constantinople in the yeere 381. condemned the heresies of all Arians Apollinarists and Macedonians confirmed the faith professed in the Nicene Creed and for further explanation of the trueth in this point to that clause Wee believe in the Holy-Ghost they added the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified c. And this is sufficient for the declaration of the trueth in this point by the authority of generall Councells All the orthodox Fathers consent hereunto Among whom if you desire to bee further acquainted with the arguments and objections on both sides you may reade the writings of that most noble Champion of the trueth of the holy Trinitie Athanasius and in speciall that sermon of the humane nature taken by the Word the oration against the ging of Sabellius and the first and second Epistle to Serapion and his first dialogue against Macedonius with him Macedonianus See also Greg. Nyss vol. 2. pag. 439. edit Paris 1615. you may also if you will take these objections and their answeres brought by Epiphanius to this question Haer. 74. and with them those in Thomas Aquinas Contra gentes Liber 4. Cap. 16. and their answeres Cap. 23. Another errour against the being of the Holy-Ghost is that which they call of the later Greekes and yet is not onely of the Grecians themselves but of all those Nations and Peoples that are of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople which if you leave out the Countreys of the poore Painims in the East and West Indies is far greater than the pretended universality of the Bishop of Rome both in Europe and in Asia See Brerew Enq. Chap. 15. and besides them the Melchites or Christians of Syria the Armenians and Maronites hold the same heresie All these though they confesse that the Holy-Ghost is God the third Person in the Trinitie yet they say that He proceedeth onely from the Father not from the Sonne But although they account this but a later errour among the Greekes perhaps because the stirres thereabout after the
24.14 and 26.22 and 28.23 And yet some-what more particularly the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes and this division of the bookes of the Holy Scripture our Lord also allowes Luke 24.44 But in this last division the bookes are numbred 24. first of Moses 2. Foure of the former Prophets as they call them Ioshua Iudges Samuel and Kings 3. Foure also of the later Prophets Esay Ieremie Ezechiel and the Booke of the 12. small Prophets 4. The Kethubim or holy writing contained 11. bookes the 5. Poeticall that is the Psalmes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Iob and the Canticles three which they called Megilloth volumes or rolles Ruth Lamentations and Esther among which the booke of Canticles is sometimes accounted and 2. halfe Chaldee which were last written Daniel Ezra with Nehemiah and the Chronicles And these holy writings they divided from the other prophecies because they were not given either by dreame or by vision or by hearing a voice or in any extasie but were inspired by the Holy-Ghost immediately And according to this order of the bookes of the Holy Scripture divers Hebrew Bibles have bin lately printed as one by Plantin in Oct. another by Hutterus in Folio and others Now concerning the bookes of the New-Testament Saint Ierom ad Paulin. reckons them as wee And are not these Aramites strucke with blindnesse that print the Bible the decree of Trent and those prologues of Ierom before it that it may appeare how they set the Fathers at naught But for the full decision of this question let us looke unto the undoubted truth of the Scripture by the Scripture it selfe let us learne what is Scripture or the word of God 1. Therfore concerning the books of the New-Testament M. Luther accounted the Epistle of S. Iames to bee aridam stramineam dry as a Kix and his followers give their reasons against it 1. the seeming opposition which is betweene him and S. Paul in the question of justification by faith and by works 2. because hee teacheth not but supposeth onely that which is the sum of the Gospel that is the redemption of the world by the death of Christ as some men speake for Athanasius concerning the booke of Esther that none of the names of God are mentioned therein to which others answere that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mimmakom acher in Chap. 4. v. 14. is for sense in that place equivalent to any of the names of God which the prophet did there forbeare to remember because hee would not that any of the names of God should bee prophaned among the heathen with whom he lived So also Luther held the Revelation to be the writing of some well-meaning honest man but not Canonical Wherein I thinke the wonderfull wisdome and mercy of God appeared to hide the meaning of that booke from him lest he should be destroyed with pride when he should see himselfe and his ministery so alluded to therein But let Luther and his followers in this question thinke by themselues betweene us and the Church of Rome there is no difference both parties holding all the bookes of the New-Testament to be canonical The onely doubt is about the books which we call Apocryphal of unknowne and obscure Authors or strange doctrines delivered therein In which question the Canon or rule of the New-Testament is for us For concerning all the books of the Old-Testament the reason stands thus 1. All the oracles of God or Canonicall Scripture was received in the Church of the Iewes But none of the Apocryphall bookes were received in the Church of the Iewes Therefore none of the Apocryphall bookes are the Oracles of God The proposition is Saint Pauls and he accounts it as well hee may the first and chiefe preeminence of the Iew that unto them the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 The assumption is manifest for the Apocryphall bookes were extant onely in Greeke which language the Iewes never used in their holy seruices And although the booke of Ecclesiasticus were begun by the grandfather in Hebrew yet was it augmented and finished in Greeke by the grand-child And although the first booke of the Maccabees were extant in Hebrew yet was it not therefore Canonicall no more than the second that was written in Greeke So the conclusion stands sure And if neither the Church before Christ received those Apocryphall bookes nor the ancient Church since His suffering accounted them Canonicall for the Authour of the Sophisticate Cannons of the Apostles wee receive not upon what ground then should the Fathers of Trent presume to doe that which neither the Primitive Church or Fathers attempted before 2. Such another argument you have from Luke 24.27 where it is said that Christ beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things that were written concerning Himselfe So all the Scriptures are understood by the Law and the Prophets as I shewed before and yet for further explication it is added in verse 44. the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes For of all the Cethubim the booke of Psalmes was first and by a Synecdoche is put for all the rest Now to which of all these will you bring the Apocryphall bookes By the Law you understand the five Bookes of Moses which the Samaritanes and all the sects of the Iewish Religion except the hereticks called Nasacheans â—id receive The sects of the Sadduces and Samaritanes rejected the rest but the Church of the Iewes held all the Prophets both former and later with all the Kebuthim to bee holy Scripture but the Apocrypha are reckoned with none of these 3. A third argument from the holy Scripture against these apocryphals is from Revel 19.10 The testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of prophecie But in these apocryphals which the Iewes received not there is no prophecy no evident testimony of Iesus that was to come Therefore they are no witnesses of Him no word of His. And although in the fourth booke of that supposed Esdras there be mention of Iesus Christ Chap. 7.27 28. yet the false narration of things never done and other fictions See Master Brerew Enq. Chap. 13. have discredited those bookes so farre that the Papists themselves doe not mention them in their new Canon and vouchsafe them a place in the end of their Bibles onely lest they should be lost Object But the Fathers themselves call these bookes Canonicall Answer And our Church yeelds they are so in the meaning of the Fathers that is serving for rules of good life and vertue but not of faith as the holy Scriptures and that is the question betweene us and Trent Sect. 4 § 4. That the holy Scripture is abundantly sufficient to teach all things that belong to faith and godlinesse is manifest by the reasons brought for the proofe of the second question That it was necessary for us that God by His written Word should vouchsafe unto us the knowledge of His will 1. For how could either our hope
and comfort in God be firme and sure if they were not grounded upon His holy promises that never faile 2. And if no man know the things of God but onely the Spirit of God how could we beleeve that which is to be beleeved of Him or hoped for our selues as the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of the Son the resurrection of the body c. but by the instruction of His holy Word 3. How could we have the true knowledge of sinne and the punishment thereof but by His Law whereby He hath taught us what duty we owe to Him to our neighbour and to our selues And if the holy Scripture doth thorowly instruct us in all things that we ought to doe or to beleeve is not the sufficiency and perfection thereof able to teach us how to be perfect in every good worke See 2. Tim. 3.16 17. 2. And if it might with due reverence unto God be supposed that the holy Scriptures have not sufficiently instructed us in every thing Yet who is he or what is that Church that may presume to adde to His word Proverb 30.6 Lest if they teach things that are not to be beleeved or command that which is not to be done our faith be found to be foolishnesse and our obedience become if not sinne yet without reward as the Prophet saith Esay 1.12 Who hath required this at your hand 3. As the man is so is his strength Iud 8.21 as his wisedome is such are his words And seeing it is evident by the Scripture which is given that it was the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to give instructions unto His Church and that it hath already been prooved that the Wisedome Chapter 5. and the Trueth of God as all His other dignities are infinite Chapter 7. if the instructions and directions of the Scriptures were not in every respect perfect and sufficient for the Church to that end for which they were written then the Wisedome or Goodnes of God should be defective in that which was necessary for His Church to know But that is impossible Therefore the Holy Scripture is sufficient 4. If God have not sufficiently and perfectly instructed us by His word what we ought to doe and to beleeve then can He not in Iustice punish those defects which shall be found in our Faith or obedience especially seeing we are not bound by any precept in His revealed will to hearken to any traditions with that reverence as to His word but rather are every where commanded to hearken to His word and that without any adding thereto or taking away therefrom Deut. 4.1 2. and 5.32 Esay 8.20 sends us to the Law and to the Testimony and if any one shall speake not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them So our Lord sends us to the Scriptures Iohn 5.39 Therefore the holy Scriptures are perfect and sufficient to teach all things that belong by way of divine revelation to faith and godlinesse All the Fathers runne this way and the most learned among the Schoolemen and later Papists as you may see them cited by Master G. Langford Enquiry after verity § 2. Of Traditions Obiect 1 Object 1 Against this doctrine of the sufficiency and perfection of the Scriptures doubts are raised two wayes First from the necessity of Traditions Secondly for that it is supposed that some bookes of the holy Writ are lost For the first it is manifest even by the reasons that are brought for the sufficiency of the Scripture For if it were alwayes necessary that the service of God in His Church should be according to His owne commandement and direction it must follow necessarily either that the Scriptures should have beene given even from the beginning of the world for the Church of the redeemed began in Adam or else that the seruice of the Church was onely according to tradition The first is apparently false For Moses was the first inditer of any Scripture and that after the deliverance out of Egypt which was after the Creation of the world 2513 yeeres Therefore the second followes of necessity that Traditions were necessary Answer This is a wilfull mistaking of the question which being about the sufficiency of the Scriptures must needs be limited to the times since the Scripture was given But Moses was not the first inditer of the holy Scripture but God Himselfe who had first written His Law in mans heart did secondly write it in two Tables of stone with His owne hand in mount Sinai And thirdly againe when the Tables of the Covenant were broken this was the first of all that which we call holy Scripture After which time God taught Moses the Originall of the world the sinne and redemption of mankind the order of times and whatsoever was necessary for that people to know and to doe And although it bee most true that the faith and seruices of the Church before the law was onely according to tradition yet because those traditions were not kept as God had taught them God brought upon the world of the ungodly the Flood Yet even within foure hundred yeeres after the Flood by the craft of the devill and his new revelations the best among men became Idolaters as it is manifest in Iosh 24.2 And therefore God gave Ordinances and Lawes by Moses in writing to the obseruation of which the whole Church of Israel was bound without any addition thereto or taking away therefrom Deut. 12.32 Obiect 2 Object 2. But traditions may be necessary for the Church as well since the Scriptures were written as before as Saint Paul 2. Thess 2.15 exhorts them to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or by Epistle So the Councill at Trent Sess 4. Can. 1. commands them to be received as the holy Canonicall Scripture Answer The word Tradition there is doubtfull For either it may signifie at large any thing that is delivered either by word or by writing and that may be any fundamentall trueth according to the holy Scripture as Saint Paul meanes in that place as Saint Athanasius Epist ad Adelphium de Incarn Contr. Samos calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostolicall Tradition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith delivered by tradition that God was manifest in the flesh or else it may signifie any canon or rule for the ordering of things indifferent in Ecclesiasticall policy wherein all things ought to be done in order And in these two sences traditions are to be held the first in obedience to God and His trueth as we receive the Apostles Creed and as you read in the Note on Chap. 33. § 2. N. 4. how Hosius speakes of the coessentiall Persons of the Trinity as a tradition from Christ to His Apostles and from them to us the second for peace and avoiding of divisions in the Church as to kneele at the holy Communion rather then to sit or to stand though none of all these
which many belong onely to the first grammar of that language as if in English you should write When you be come together and in the margent write Yee are 2. Some words are for clearing the sence and are as short commentaries upon the Text. 3. Some for avoiding of words harsh to the eare as when the Prophet in indignation or mockage or tyed to relate anothers speech uses such termes as seeme needfull to be sweetned by other more usuall words You may take an example of both these 2. Kings 18.27 where the Prophet as a faithfull Historian repeating the words of Rabshakeh hath that which hee spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 le ecol eth choraihaÌ„ ulishtoth eth Sheyenayehem immacem which our English translates that they may eate their owne dung and drinke their owne pisse with you the word choraiham their dung hath the derivation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chor that hole from which it comes out and the word Sheyenaiyehem their changes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shanah to change meanes their urine which they should drinke and pisse out and then drinke in againe whereby the railing Rab-scab would be as bitter as he could But for the first of these the margent hath a more mannerly word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dzoatham that which comes from them and for the second by way of exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meimei raghleihem the water at their feete and these are read for the words in the line Translators have little or nothing to doe with the Keries of the first kind in them of the last they usually take the word in the margent In the second kind they take the word in the line or that in the margent indifferently because the Keries or marginall words are both of the ancient Iewes and learned Christians held to be of divine authoritie as they in the text as you may see it made mâ—nifest by Henry Ainsworth's Aduertisement n. 7. where by sundry examples he shewes that the word which in one Prophet is put in the margent is by another put in the text Moreover the most ancient translators even from the 70. which were almost 300. yeeres before Christ if that which is now extant be any remnant of it and that Chaldee of Ionathan who is said to have beene the disciple of Hillel which lived as some write 100. yeeres before Christ and all that have followed after these have translated sometime after the margent somtime after the line often-times have noted both as you may see in many instances in the place cited And that which is above all the Pen-men of the new Testament use in some places the word of the margent for that in the line So that Galatinus with his late Rabbins may still sleepe upon the pillow of their owne dreame For nothing of the Talmud was gathered together till about the yeere of Christ 150. when one Rabbi Iudas compiled into one volume the expositions on the law and the Prophets which other Doctors had written some before some after Christ which Booke hee called Mishna a copie or second reading and divided it into Six Sedarim or orders Some 200. yeeres or more after him Rabbi Iohanan or Iohn gathered the Talmud or Doctrinall of Ierusalem out of the writings of such Rabbins as wrote after the other and this Talmud is but a commentary on the former Mishna After him likewise about the yeere of Christ 500. Rabbi Asse made a further collection of the Babylonian Talmud of speciall use among the Iewes Both these Talmuds are full of fables and idle fictions to the depravation of the trueth of God But about the yeere 1200. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon thence called RaMBaM and Maimoni gathered out that which was good and any way availeable for understanding the rites and ceremonies of the Law and left out those fooleries of which the Talmuds were full and therefore Postellus said rightly of him that hee is Instar omnium For further knowledge of which things you may read Galatinus H. Ainsworth Shickard P. Ricius and others Now if neither the Talmud nor the Mishna were extant of so long time after Christ how could the writings there cited being in private hands bring in any publike corruption into the text of the Scripture which long time before that had beene delivered safe and intire into the hands of the Church of the Gentiles But although it be yeelded unto that either the Masôrites or the Talmudists or the Cabalists by any private notes of theirs or their expositions have corrupted either the text or native meaning thereof yet doth it not therefore follow that the Nation of the Iewes have accepted these corruptions much lesse that they hold them of divine authoritie as they doe the marginall Keries and yet much lesse can it be made to appeare that the Translators of the Christians have at any time accepted of any such notes no more then we heretofore accounted the notes on the Geneva Bibles to bee Canonicall Scripture But you will aske when those Keries or marginall readings for they are alwayes read for the Cethib or word written in the text came to the Holy Scripture Answere The most voyces are for Ezra that he having care of the Ecclesiasticall policie and especially of the integritie of the Holy Scripture in conferring the copies and the differences among them noted such as hee thought fittest and that the Copies might not differ any more began that Masôreth of which I spake But Galatinus Lib. 1. Cap. 8. saith that this is a lewd lie of the later Iewes for then they should not have beene called corrections of the Scribes but of Ezra yet hee confesseth that they were long before the time of Christ seeing Ionathan the Author of the Chaldean translation doth often-times translate according to the margine yet will he not have Ezra the Author of them for then he durst not I thinke so saucily refuse them or for them the Cethib as errours and corruptions of the text as hee doth But Shikkard as he cites the common consent of the ancient Hebrewes puts it constantly upon Ezra That with much care and diligence he got divers copies of the Scripture compared them with those that were authenticall and noted them as you heard 1. But if there were any copies that were authenticall what needed this superfluous diligence 2. Beside what could 70. yeares of the captivitie doe to corrupt so many copies when they had in the captivitie so many Prophets As Daniel Ezechiel Ezra beside so many worthies as you read of in Daniel and Ezra and Ieremiah among them that were left at home Especially seeing a copie may continue many seuenty of yeeres as you read in Rambam of one of 700. yeres in his time and Cunaeus cites the Chronicle called Iuchasin concerning a Bible written by Hillel betweene whose times were 900. yeeres and yet more the learned Patrick Young assures us of a beautifull Copie of the whole Scripture written by Tecla in
the time of the first Councell of Nice at this time extant in his Majesties Library Praef. in epist. Clementis ad Corinthios 3. And that which is most of all to proove that Ezra was no Author of the Keries in the Bookes of the Scripture written before his time is this That as almost none of the Scripture written before him so none of the Bookes after the captivitie except perhaps Malachi are without them Did not Ezra Daniel Zachary Haggai know their owne meaning Were they not able to expresse it Yes You will say then what needed those Keries in their Bookes of the Chronicles and those that beare their owne names written by themselues I speake not this to uphold that fancie of Galatinus that these corruptions of the Scripture as he the admirer of himselfe ignorantly termes them were made by the Iewes after Ezra and before the time of our Lord for could such treason be wrought against God and His trueth as to peruert His straight waies and His words and would not His Sonne who ever honoured the Father and did that which was pleasing in His sight so much as reprove it not once say sinne no more Nor doe I say it to contradict them who could find no Critick of the books of the Bible before Ezra but to justifie the trueth That the Prophets by the revelation of that Spirit by which they wrote were every one of them the authors of those Keries or notes in their owne bookes as the Doctors in Talmud Babeli in Nedarim or treaties of vowes Chap. 4. fol. 37. b. affirme The word read and not written that is the Keries which are read from the margine and not written in the text and written and not read are the tradition of Moses from mount Sinai and they explaine it so Moses received in Sinai and so delivered it to Israel An example or two by the way will guide us well It is said Gal. 3.19 That the Law was ordained by Angels as ministring Spirits by the divine appointment to Moses the Mediator of the old Covenant He received it by voice and although the eare doth judge of words as the mouth doth taste the meate yet where the meaning of the words was doubtfull there it was necessary for him so to write as in Exod. 21.8 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo not and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo to himselfe have no difference at all in sound but onely in sence Our last translation followes the margine If she please not her master who hath betrothed her unto himselfe others thus If shee be ill in the eyes of her master that he doth not betroth her c. The sence is every way excellent and the Law most just and who shall presume to understand the Law better than Gods owne Secretary that writ it or to alter that hee hath written So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieish in Gen. 36.5 and 14. is in the margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieush and is so written in the line verse 18. In verse 40. Duke Aluah is in 1. Chron. 1.51 Duke Aljah and Aluah in the margine I brought before the reasons which are alledged for the marginall readings and now you call for a reason of the difference in the text For if say you the text bee not faulty what needes the wordes in the margine If the margine bee right then mend the text Answere Neither the one nor the other is faulty but both of God and if matier of knowledge or instruction or comfort be in one which is not manifest in the other why should God want of His praise Or the Church be deprived of that benefit which it might receive by both when God shall vouchsafe to make the meaning of both to be fully knowne Moreover the letters of the Hebrew tongue are all numerall letters and He that in His infinite wisedome made all things in number waight and measure doth also governe all things in number waight and measure to bring forth every thing in their appointed times and places And seeing He doth nothing which he doth not reveile to His seruants the Prophets and that it is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled in every perfection as of the things to bee done so of the numbers of times and persons whom they doe concerne Therefore although wee cannot yet see how these things should be yet when the time is come that every secret shall be knowne Matth. 10.26 Then shall the Church glorifie God in this behalfe The number of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 390 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 386. So the words with their consignificant numbers are taken into their places as they fit the prophecies there intended And for this cause as Menahem declares it it is not lawfull to write the bookes of the Law which are for the use of the Synagogue which with so great solemnitie are shewne to all the people on expiation-day with the vowels or pricks because all possibilitie of understanding and interpretation may bee conceived by the substantiall letters of the words which by the vowels might be tyed to one onely meaning If you see this explained by the Scripture it selfe you will both beleeve understand it better Take then that word of Ps 16.10 Thou shalt not give thine Holy one to see corruption which text in Act. 2.27 and else-where is brought to prove the resurrection of Christ before His body should be corrupted in the grave and is applied unto Him peculiarly as to the Prince of our peace and the Author of our full redemption from sinne and death and therefore is the word with the vowels onely of the singular number Yet because therein as Plantin and the best printed copies expresse it is a jod ר which without the vowels may bee read as a plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chasideica thy holy ones for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chasideca thy holy one thereby is secretly a hope given to the faithfull that they shall not for ever dwell under corruption but that by the vertue of His resurrection they shall rise againe as Saint Paul saith Ephes 2.5 6. That God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus And againe 1 Thes 4.14 If we beleeve that Iesus died and rose againe even so them also which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with Him For the dead in Christ shall rise first vers 16. but the rest of the dead in Saint Iohns vision Revel 20.5 lived not till the 1000. yeeres were finished And this I thinke is sufficient to shew that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are come unto us as they were at first delivered to the Church in the Hebrew tongue 8. Concerning the integrity of the New Testament lesse question will be if we shall first put that which must needs be yeelded unto that through the diversity of copies and carelessenesse of the writers divers
Apostles are not corrupted either to forestall his doctrine or to deface his memory 9. And yet more particularly to free the writings of the Apostles from this Mahumetan slaunder take that word of God Himselfe which is in Iohn 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word This word of the Apostles cannot be understood onely of that word which they spake unto the people but much more of all the Scriptures of the New Testament which should be left in writing to the Church by which in all ages of the Church since their time children were to be begotten unto God through a lively faith by which they should apprehend the satisfaction of Christ and so have an entrance unto God by Him And seeing that in all ages since the Apostles we find the effect of our Mediators prayer that their writings have beene that Word by which the faithfull have beleeved on Him and so hath done and still doth that worke for which it was sent thereby are we sure that it is their word their owne word as they delivered it not corrupted or sophisticate by any device of man for any purpose or intent as that false prophet doth pretend And that you may see how great the trueth is and how it prevailes take out of Ficinus in the said 36. cap. what this Mahumed confesseth of himselfe whereby you may see how betweene his arrogance and his ignorance the trueth doth shew it selfe He confesseth that he neither had done any miracle nor none could doe That he was pure man and no more That he could give no pardon for sinne That he would not be call'd upon or worshipped And although in his madnesse he pretended himselfe to be a messenger sent from God and inspir'd by Him and that he was the Holy-Ghost yet when his raving fit was off hee confest that hee was ignorant of many things and that there were somethings in his bookes of the trueth of which there might be doubt and whosoever shall worship one God and live honestly whether he be Iew Christian or Sarazen shall have mercy from God What is then the preferment of his Alchoran before the holy Scriptures or why shall wee forsake our most holy guide whom he confesseth to be the breath and word of God and to have the next place unto God in heaven that we may become circumcised and abstaine from Swines-flesh and wine and enjoy fleshly pleasure with many wives if nothing of all this give us any furtherance to eternall life 10. To end this question I will bring this only argument which for substance is indifferent to both the Testaments the circumstances only differing If the writings of the holy Scriptures be corrupted either those corruptions must come in by little and little into the copies of the Scripture while they were dispersed by writing or else all at once If they came in by little and little then the books that had beene written without those faults might bee patternes to correct the faulty by and so the text might bee still preserved pure as wee find it was done when Printing flourished under the managing of learned men in those copies of the Greeke Testament printed at Compludo and at Paris To suppose they came in all at once is against all reason and possibilitie of experience I have shewed that till the time of Christ and his Apostles the Old-Testament was pure and can it be supposed that all the Churches of the Iewes in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithinia 1. Pet. 1. nay all the twelue tribes in the Cities of the Medes in places so distant should conspire to such an act for which they were perswaded they should goe downe irrecoverably to hell Can the imputation of a base Iewe or two in a thing of so great importance to the disgrace of their owne Nation without any proofe of the thing naming of the place time or Persons against all possibilitie of trueth sticke so fast as that no nitre can be able to wash it off To say that the Christians of the Gentiles ever endeavoured to corrupt the Hebrew text hath yet more impossibilities For during the time of the gift of tongues no such crime might touch them and after that none among them no not the Fathers themselues except perhaps Origen or Hierom had so much skill in Hebrew as to be able to corrupt it Beside the whole nation of the Iewes would have opposed it and as they detest our religion and faith so had they had just cause to brand us with infamy for that endeavour and to proclaime our folly which should corrupt that in the sincerity of which alone is the assurance of our hope So the Hebrew text remaines intier And concerning the New-Testament written in Greeke it was so suddainely dispersed among the converts of the Gentiles and that while some of the Apostles were yet liuing that there could be no possibilitie of any corruption to come unto the text by any common consent And because that our Lord was to be made a light unto the Gentiles and a salvation unto the ends of the earth Actes 13.47 Therefore were the bookes of the New-Testament also Translated into many languages even in the birth and infancie of the Church of the Gentiles as you may read in Aug. de Doctr. Chr. lib. 2. Cap. 5. in Chrys hom 1. in Iohn who also translated the Scriptures for the Armenians as Hierom for the Dalmatians his countrey-men I said many languages because they name the Indian Ethiopian Persian Syrian Egyptian Sarmatian Scythian but Theodoret De Graec. affect cur lib. 5. saith into all languages which were in use And if it might be put that the Greeke copies were corrupted yet these Translations being out of them while they were intire would detect the corruption But all these Translations among the Christians though differing in some points one from another as the Nestorians Euticheans c. doe still agree in the substance of the meaning and shew the purity of that fountaine from whence they flowed And there is none of these translations or Fathers here named but were before Mahumed of a Christian became a renegado at least 200. yeeres All which things being put together it will be manifest that neither the falshood of the Iewes nor the forgery of Mahumed have any shew of trueth but that the Holy Scriptures both of the old and new Testament are still in their purity as the Church received them Of the Scriptures easinesse to bee understood §. 6. THat comparison of the Prophet Psalme 36. that the judgements of God are like a great deepe was by a Father fitly and wittily applyed to the Scripture to bee as a sea in which the Elephant may swim but yet with Shallowes in which the Lambe may wade And although David prayed that God would teach him the wonderfull things of His Law yet hee honours it for this that it is perfect that
it hath power to convert the soule that it is sure that it makes the simple wise Psal 19.7 And therefore are they not the messengers of Christ but rather the ministers of Satan who under any pretext of falling into heresie of hardnesse to be understood or the like with-hold the laytie from the reading of the Scriptures It is not denied but that many things therein are hard to be understood yet that one thing which is needfull Luk. 10.42 That mystery of the knowledge of Christ which was kept secret since the world began is now made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25.26 1. For seeing the instruction of God must be of all such things as are above our knowledge and yet of such things as are most necessary for us to know if nothing be more necessary for us to know than the meanes of our delivery from sinne and death by the merit of Christ it is necessary that one needfull thing be made manifest unto us by the Scriptures of God that every one may know and come freely to the fountaine of living Waters But what helps a fountaine that is sealed up Therfore it is necessary that our redemption by Christ be cleerely plainely and for every mans understanding taught in the holy Scriptures 2. Most of the arguments of § 2. are easily brought to prove that the Scriptures are easie to bee understood 1. For what comfort or hope could wee have by them if wee understood them not 2. How is our memory helpt by that we know not 3. How are wee confirmed in our most holy faith and religion by that wee understand not 4. How should wee understand those high mysteries so farre beyond our apprehension as the Trinitie of Persons in Vnitie of the Deitie c. but that the Holy Scriptures have made them easie unto us 5. How should wee know the danger and punishment of our sinne or the reward of our obedience if the Scripture did not fullie instruct us therein 6. You may also bring hither the reasons in § 4. I need not repeat them nor teach a child how from the sufficiencie of the Scripture he may proove their easinesse to be understood See there Object 1 Object 1. But doth not Saint Peter 2. Epistle 3.16 say that in Saint Pauls Epistles as in the other Scriptures there are some things hard to bee understood Answere Though some things be hard yet the fundamentall points of our Religion as the articles of our faith and the rules of a Christian life are plaine and easie to bee understood therein and these are the things by the knowledge and performance of which wee may hope to have everlasting life Object 2 Object 2. But it is not the word of the Scripture that the unlearned and unstable wrest the things which they understand not to their owne destruction Nay did not the Hereticks though many of them learned peruert the Scripture to the supportance of their damnable Heresies And were it not better that they had never read the Scriptures than that they should read them with so great danger both to themselues and to others as it hath appeared by the heresies that have beene sowne in the Church Answere If I seeme to give you a sullen answere yet reprove it not if it stand with the trueth It is said 1. Pet. 2.9 That Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rocke of offence to the disobedient but to them that obey the trueth elect and precious But should Christ therefore not have come to redeeme His Elect because some shewed themselves unworthy of eternall life Therefore if the Gospel be uneasie or hid it is hid to them that are without whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded that they should not perceive the trueth Therefore as Christ redeemed the elect prayes for the elect not for the world but for them whom God had given him out of the world Iohn 17.9 So the benefits which are peculiar to the Church of which the true understanding of the Scripture is one belongs to them who with an honest and pure heart receive the word and bring forth fruit with patience But it is true that even to those many things are yet unknowne and some things doubtfull and this by the dispe sation of God 1. To avoid wearinesse in the reader 2. To stirre up our diligence and further inquest 3. That wee may aske wisedome of God and not trust to our owne understanding 4. That in the high and gâ—eat mysteries of God wee should hold our selues contented with that knowledge of them which God hath vouchsafed to give us in His word and such conclusions as doe necessarily follow thereupon But if the Scriptures be able indeed to give wisedome to the simple to make Children wise to saluation through faith in Christ if they give instruction in righteousnesse and make the man of God perfect and throughly furnished to every good worke 2. Tim. 3.16.17 then doubtlesse are they for every mans reading for the perfect and him that is throughly furnished for children and for the simple for all ages of men and women Ho every one that thirsteth come to tâ—e waters Come buy Wine and Milke without money or price Es 55. verse 1. Of the Scriptures Jnterpretation § 7. ANd if the Scripture be for every ones reading then certainely for euery ones interpretation privately to his owne understanding according to the measure of his capacity For the interpretation of any word or writing is nothing else but the declaration of the native and true meaning thereof whether it be literall and that either simple or figurative or mysticall and that either allegoricall morall or anagogicall But that ought not to bee taken for the true meaning of the Scripture which every one according to his private fantasie is able to wring out but that onely is the true and lawfull interpretation thereof which doth offer it selfe according to the meaning of the words with due consideration of the argument or purpose of the text which is gathered by that which goes before and that which followes after And this interpretation is especially to be hoped from them who having knowledge of the Hebrew and Greeke wherein the Scriptures were originally written have made it all their studie and delight truely to understand them for their owne soules health and the instruction of others But that wee bee not overswayed by any opinion which wee may have of their learning or mightinesse in the Scriptures let nothing be taken for a true interpretation of the Scripture which is dishonourable to God contrary to any Article of the faith or any of the ten Commandements or the petitions of the Lord prayer or any received doctrine which is plainely taught by other places of Scripture Secondly nothing which is contrary to common reason and understanding or repugnant to civill custome and good manners 3. No man knoweth the things of God but
onely the Spirit of God therefore in the interpretation of doubtfull places of Scripture the Spirit of God whereby it was written must give also the true understanding or interpretation thereof and this Spirit and the meaning thereof is most easily found in the holy Scripture Therefore the surest and best interpretation of Scripture is by Scripture it selfe 4. The Scribes and Pharises were to be heard sitting in the Chaire of Moses that is teaching the Law according to the true meaning of Moses Therefore the interpreters of the New-Testament also are to be heard speaking the voice of Christ. But His sheepe will not heare a stranger for they know not the voice of strangers Iohn 10. Therefore the interpretation of the Scripture is chiefely by the Scriptures And by the Scriptures onely every question of faith and doctrine to bee decided not by the Church or any humane voice except they speake according to the word of the Scripture 1. For seeing the Holy-Ghost is the chiefe judge in all controversies on whose infallible sentence wee may safely relye and that the Scriptures are His immediate word therefore from thence are wee to expect His immediate answere whereas the Church speakes not from God immediately but as a meane conueighs unto us the voice of the Scripture 2. Beside this the Church may erre the Scripture cannot erre 3. The Scriptures shine by their owne light the Church by the light and Doctrine of the Scriptures 4. The Scriptures are alwayes at hand to be resorted unto the Church never all assembled nor a Councill scarce once in an age and they that vaunt most of the name for the most part have least of the true Church And therefore the Prophets send us to the Law and to the Testimonies and our Lord to search the Scriptures See 2. Peter 1.19 Object 2. By this meanes making it lawfull for every one to reade and interpret the Scriptures you set open a doore to all manner of heresies to enter into the Church and make every private spirit a judge and an interpreter of the sence of Scripture Answer Though every one may and ought to read the Scripture for comfort and instruction yet the interpretation of the harder places belongs especially to the Pastours and Doctors appointed by the Church thereto and if any private man doe interpret according to the former rules yet cannot that interpretation be said to proceed from a private spirit although the man be private For the holy Spirit is the common author of all light and understanding And the meanes whereby He useth to teach is the holy Word the common light of all the faithfull And this may seeme sufficient to have spoken of the Author and use of the holy Scriptures and what they are then of their sufficiency purity easinesse and interpretation And blessed is that man that meditates in them day and night that he may finde by them the full assurance of his hopes and live in obedience and thankefullnesse to the Author and finisher of his faith ARTICLE IX ⧠I beleeve in the holy Catholike-Church CHAP. XXXV A Certaine Iew famed for his riches was once asked by a great lord of the Turkes how it came to passe that the Turkes the Christians and the Iewes did so peremptorily hold every one their owne faith that they could not be withdrawne therefrom The Iew suspecting his wealth to be aimed at answered as their manner is by a witty parable A rich man quoth he had three sonnes that obserued him with great respect because of his wealth he to hold them all in their obedience oftentimes profest among them that he should be the heire of all his estate to whom at his death he should bequeath a ring which he used to weare But in secret he caused Mammurius the Goldsmith to make for him two other rings so like it as Numaes ancylia were not one more like another At his death he called each of his sonnes apart and gave to every one of them one of these rings and withall the possession of all his goods so every one holds his claime quoth he and it is not yet knowne how the controversie will be ended This is the present state of the Church not onely among these three sects named but likewise among all the sects of Christianity yea of all religions whatsoever For there is none among the Pagans but he hath this hope that his soule shall be happy if he serue his god as he ought And having determined those questions which concerne God and our Mediator it followes that in this second part of the Creed we consider those benefits and priviledges which belong unto the Church by that which our Saviour hath done and suffered for it But that we mistake not we shall best be guided by the holy Scripture both for the use of the word and for the knowledge of the thing The word Ecclesia as it signifies in the originall the house of religious exercises or a tumultuous assembly as in Act. 19.32 or a combination of wicked men as in Psalm 26.5 hath no use here but more properly it signifieth an assembly or multitude of people professing the true worship of God such as were the Churches of Corinth Ephesus and others planted by the Apostles and Apostolicall men in a City or Kingdome as we thinke that Ioseph of Arimathea planted the faith in this Island and so established a Church here Every faithfull family is likewise a Church Romans 16.5 and the Church representative as the Synedrion among the Iewes is also so stiled in Matth. 18.17 But because among all these Churches there may be hypocrites unholy and carnally minded men which we cannot count within our Creed and beleeve that they are the holy Church therefore the Church may be taken not onely for the visible but also they whose Mediator our Lord Christ is unto eternall life as he saith Iohn 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given mee From whence it will easily appeare what this holy Catholike or universall Church is which here we doe beleeve to wit that number of holy men which God out of all nations of the world hath predestinated unto eternall life If we cleare the sence of the words and answere such doubts as arise thereabout we shall afterward easily approove the Article And first concerning the title of holinesse given to the Church Object 1. It may be objected that seeing it is said Psal 14. that among all the Children of men there is none that doeth good no not one how can any Church among men bee called Holy Answere Not by any inbred holinesse in themselues but because the righteousnesse of Christ their Saviour is imputed unto them for their justification before God as it is said 1. Iohn 1.7 The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth us from all sinne then because the Spirit of sanctification dwells in them and makes them zealous of good workes that they
a Citizen of BRISTOVV WHile I was at Norwich in the yeere 1597 I writ this Treatise vpon such occasion as appeares therein and delivered it unto that Hereticke that by himselfe if God would he might consider and be perswaded Since which time I have kept it by me and though some of my private friends desired copies yet allowing that wisedome of Solon who would make no law against Patricide lest the mention of the fact might give occasion to commit it and withall considering that it is too simple and poore for the publike view I refused to make it common Yet after perceiving a present necessitie because that some began to wander in this labyrinth and withall remembring that if any weakling shall hereafter entertaine this opinion he may before he be wholly possessed therewith find the absurdity of it and be reformed that many a novice in Christianity who therefore doubts of the truenesse of his Religion because he finds no familiar reason to perswade but onely the racke of authorities to constraine him to acknowledge it may perhaps bee hereby satisfied and finde comfort and that they who are already strong may by this overplus triumph in the goodnesse of God who requires them to beleeve no more then they may by that understanding which hee hath given them bee perswaded of I have for their sakes who may reape benefit thereby neglected all froward Censurers not guilty unto my selfe of any offence which I can commit in making it publike Such as it is accept kinde Sir as a parcell of that assertion which may hereafter follow of every Article of our Christian faith if God shall vouchsafe me understanding leisure and maintenance thereto I therefore offer it unto you both because I know you are diligent in reading of bookes of good argument and because I have none other meanes whereby to shew my selfe thankefull for your manifold kindnesses and your love Your loving and assured friend A. G. London this 20. of April 1601. THE TREATISE THough many things discouraged mee to write unto you of this Argument in such sort as I intend considering that neither your daily reading of the Scripture neither the perswasion of learned Divines can moove you to accord unto the truth though by manifest testimony of Scripture they conuince your heresie and most of all that God hath left you to beleeve that lying spirit of Antichrist who denyeth that Iesus is that Christ Yet neverthelesse having some hope that God of His goodnesse will at last pull you as a brand out of the fire and quench you with the dew of His grace that you may grow in the knowledge of His Sonne I will as briefly as I can lay downe some few reasons of that faith which every one that will be saved must hold Whereby if I perswade you nothing yet shall I obtain thus much that you who neither beleeved His word nor yet opened your eyes to see the light of reasonable understanding shall at last confesse that His word and judgments are holy and true But before I come to the point let me first perswade you that although the knowledge of the holy Trinity be one of the most high mysteries which can be knowne or beleeved and that it is the only worke of the Holy-Ghost to worke this faith and knowledge in the heart of man yet neverthelesse God hath not left us destitute of meanes whereby to come to this faith and knowledge but hath also with His word given us a reasonable soule and understanding whereby to grow in the knowledge of Himselfe and His will For when Adam was created he had given unto him all perfect knowledge meete for him Now God who created the world for no other purpose then the manifestation of His owne glory might not leave that creature without understanding of the Godhead who being by nature and creation the most excellent in this visible world was made for that purpose especially above all other to set foorth His praise and to call on Him Now how could he doe this if he knew Him not But I thinke that seeing it is said that man was created in the jmage of God you will not deny that man before his fall had much more perfect understanding of the Godhead then it is possible for him to have till he come to know even as he is known but that by sin you may say this knowledge was lost not lost but corrupted only even as mans will For then it should follow that we were inferior to bruit beasts who have in them a sensible knowledge meete for that end whereto they were created Furthermore it is not possible that mans sinne should frustrate the end which God intended in His creation but it is manifest that man was created to know and honour the Creator Againe seeing in Christ all things consist he being ordained of the Father before all worlds in whom the world should be both created and restored It is plaine that this light of our understanding both proceedeth from Him and is restored in Him as it is said Iohn 1. He is that light that lightneth euery man that cometh into the world not onely His chosen with knowledge of His saving trueth but even generally every man with reasonable understanding whereby we may know whatsoever is to bee knowne of God and how even by the workes of God as it is plainely concluded Rom. 1 19 20. Therefore are they not to bee heard who hold any thing without the compasse of Faith which is without the compasse of Knowledge For Faith ought so to be grounded on Knowledge as Hope is grounded upon Faith So that as Faith Hebr. 11.1 is said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eviction or proofe of things hoped for though they be not seene so may I say that Knowledge is the proofe of things which are beleeved For Faith is nothing else but the Conclusion of a particular Syllogisme drawne from the Conclusion of an universall which the knowledge of God had concluded as it is manifest Iam. 2.19 and Hebr. 11.3 By conference of which two places it appeareth that this knowledge of which I speake this Historicall Faith as to beleeve that there is one God which made all things of nought is onely such a knowledge as the devils and wicked men have but to beleeve and have confidence in this God is that particular conclusion and that faith which causeth us to have hope in His promises Therefore said Christ Have Faith in God that is strive to know God that knowing you may have faith and beleeve in Him And wee see that in these things where a bare faith without knowledge might seeme to be most required because as a man would thinke there were no reason to be given of them namely concerning the maintenance of this life and the resurrection to the life to come both Christ and His Apostles use no other reasons but such as every reasonable man may easily bee perswaded by though
differences are found But although in that booke set out in folio by Robert Stephan 1550. the differences I thinke are not fewer then the divers readings in the Old Testament yet are they not such as make any change of the sence at all except such as all will confesse to be the fault of the writer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.11 and these are very seldome found Then concerning that which some others bring for the vulgar edition of the Latine to be authenticall if upon better view they will be content where it is faulty or doubtfull to examine and correct it by the Greeke copy we shall not need to spend any time about it So the onely opposition is from Mahumed who although he speakes more then can be look't for from an aduersary concerning Christ and commends His disciples and other penne-men of the New Testament as men Holy True and Faithfull followers of their Master yet he saith that the Christians which were after them corrupted their writings And that it may appeare what spirit set this mutinous souldier a worke he denies that which is the ground and foundation of our redemption saying That Christ was neither the Sonne of God nor yet that He was crucified for us See Cusa Cribr Alchoran lib. 1. cap. 3. I have already prooved that our Mediator must be God Chap. 21. And likewise that our Saviour was crucified for us Chap. 27. N. 2. And if the reasons there delivered be of force to proove the conclusions then doe they sufficiently refute this falshood of Mahumed and if this Forger had wit to understand it we say no other thing of Christ when according to the Scriptures we call Him the Sonne of God then Mahumed himselfe saith when according to the selfe same Scriptures he calls Him the Word of God For though Sonne in the Scripture be of large signification As sonnes of the quiver for arrowes Lam. 3.13 Sonnes of Sion that is citizens there Psal 149.2 Sonnes of the wedding 〈…〉 chamber that is the bridegroomes friends Matth. 9.15 and many such like in which the word may seeme to bee vsed metaphorically yet is the word properly and truely spoken of every effect that is homogeneous although there be no generation betweene a male and a female as the branches are the daughters of the Vine Gen. 49.22 and the sparks are truely called the sonnes of the cole Iob 5.7 So in that which the mind or understanding of man doth view the name thereof the word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ratio under which it is conceived and the expression thereof is likewise the Son of the understanding and much more in that eternall and infinite understanding of God in the view of His owne being shall the character or actuall expression of that infinite being be truely called the Word or Sonne of God 1. But it cannot be true which Mahumed saith concerning the writings of the Apostles that they are corrupted For as in all other so in the particulars the Testaments doe both agree and it hath been prooved before that the bookes of the Old Testament doe still remaine in their integrity 2. Neither can the trueth in these two points concerning Christ which had been professed 600 yeeres almost before Mahumed was borne which so many Christians in all their persecutions had so constantly sealed unto with so many thousands of their bloods shed in every corner of the world be defaced by a new devised forgery of Mahumed 3. Moreover what can be more absurd and witlesse then to say or thinke that the Christians would falsify the Scriptures in these two points for which above all other things their Religion was hated by the Infidels and themselues so deadly persecuted because they held Him to be God that had died as a man and affirmed that He had risen againe whom they confessed to have died on the Crosse Neither doth he accuse the Christians in these two things only but also that they had defaced his name and memory out of that promise which our Lord made to His disciples concerning the Holy-Ghost For Mahumed would be he by whom they should be led into all trueth Mars Fic de Christ Rel. cap. 36. and out of him Hugo Grocius de Rel Christ lib. 6. But Mahound you never declared what things should come as the promise of the Holy-Ghost doth stand For as you disclaime miracles so where you speake beside the text of the Scripture you utter onely your owne errours 2. Moreover this promise was made to the Apostles and to bee fulfilled in them especially by whose ministery the word was to proceed from Sion among the Gentiles which was never promised to be preached by Mahumed or his theeues of Arabia 3. Beside that glorious gift of the Holy-Ghost the manifestation whereof by speaking with tongues and working miracles had ceased in the Church long before Mahumed was borne insomuch that Aug. 200 yeeres before him had profest that he that would not then beleeve without a miracle Magnum ipse miraculum est And therefore that tricke of the whispering Dove the lie of the Camel that spake to him in the night and that piece of the Moone that dropt into his sleeve as they came too late as they were to no end and without witnesses so are they against his owne profession that he came not with miracles 4. And againe if our Lord had made any such promise as might concerne him the Christians who ever reverenced His word were bound by that promise to reverence the memorie of Mahumed and to expect what further light or manifestation of the trueth hee would bring to the Church But his doctrine brings in againe those weake and beggerly rudiments of the law circumcision and the difference of meats directly contrary to Christ and the doctrine of His Apostles who teach the fulfilling and utter abrogating of all these ceremonies by Christ And yet in those ceremonies of meats and drinkes there is such a dissension about Wine as that his followers cannot agree unto this day His doctrine of many wives though tollerated for a time by Moses in in that hard-hearted people of the Iewes yet is contrary to the doctrine of the Prophets Mal. 2.14 15. of Christ and His Apostles By all which things it may appeare that Mahumed ran when he was not sent which he himselfe if his sencelesse followers could see it doth confesse in that he doth utterly forbid them to question any thing in his Alchoran or to dispute about his religion but to follow it in blind obedience And whether the wares be counterfeit which you must buy unseene every man may judge And these reasons against Mahumed in particular with the rest that are against Simon Magus and his competitors in the Note on Chap. 23. § 1. are sufficient to proove that our Lord made no such promise of Mahumed to come as he did dreame and therefore that the Scriptures of the