such that it was meer Barbarism to them 1 Cor. 14.11 And if any urge That it was afterward made of Divine Authority and the Word of God to all by its being translated into all Languages here I demand What humane Power could confer upon Translations that Prerogative which the Authograph never had especially since all Translations have many such Errors Mistakes and Contradictions in them as the Authographs had not and as the Word of God cannot have for to affirm any thing not perfectly true and infallible to be the Word of God implyes a flat contradiction Besides herein also is a great failer namely in that the most learned are at great variance not certainly knowing but much disagreeing about the right sense and meaning of words in Scripture this is evident by their often changing altering amending and new making of the Bible and by the palpable material differences and contradictions which still remain among Traaslations when all is done and the many exceptions taken by some or other of the learned against every Translation Nay if the original Language were the Mother-Tongue of some amongst us yet the Scripture would not be much the easier to them and a natural Greek or Jew can with no more reason or authority obtrude any Translation upon other mens consciences then any other man of any other Nation can do Consider further the infinite variety of Translations of the Bible that were in the primitive Ages of the Church as St. Hierome observes and never a one like another And can any man think but that the most learned of these later ages have differed erred and be mistaken as much in Translations as the other were ☞ and that the medium is as uncertain to these as it was to them which is evidently seen by the great variety of late Translations Commentaries which are too pregnant an Argument that the most learned neither agree in the understanding of the words nor of the sense and therefore Translations can bind no man to believe them to be of Divine Authority or the Word of God for an unknown or uncertain sense binds men as little to the belief thereof as an unknown tongue doth this also St. Paul plainly sets forth 1 Cor. 14.7 8. in these words Even things saith he without life giving sound whether Pipe or Harp except it give a certain distinction in the sound how shall it be known what is piped or harped for if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to Battaile Secondly Because the Word of God or Gospel of Christ which was of Divine Authority and which universally concern'd and bound all men to believe it so to be came not in any unknown Tongue nor upon any such uncertainties to any nor only in plainness of speech to be rightly understood of the meanest vulgar rational capacity but with divine and evident demonstration to attest the certain truth thereof as may be seen in St. Pauls expression to the Corinths besides many other places of like import 1 Cor. 2.4.5 where he tells them That his speech and his preaching came not to them with perswasible words of mans wisdom only intelligible to them all but with evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God that there faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the Power of God evidently implying That if it had come to them only in never so great plainness and wisdom of speech and they had thereupon believed it that then their Faith had stood meerly in the wisdom of men and not in the Word and Power of God Now let it be considered whether St. Pauls meer preaching so as aforesaid be not of as much Divine Authority and the Word of God as any of his own or other mens writings in Scripture are or ever were Thirdly Because the Word of God is powerful Heb. 4.12 Jer. 23.29 for God did but say Let there be light and there was light Gen 1.3 Christ did say Lazarus come forth and the dead came forth bound hand and foot Joh. 11.44 These words actions were afterwards recorded and so became Scripture The words and acts of the Kings of Israel were afterwards recorded so became Scripture The words and acts of the Devil in his tempting of Christ in the Wilderness were afterwards recorded and so became Scripture But as the record of the words and acts of the Devil are not the words and acts of the Devil and as the record of the words and acts of the Kings of Israel are not the words and acts of the Kings of Israel so the writing or recording of Gods Words is not Gods Word but only a Declaration what was Gods Word whereby he created the Light not that it is Gods VVord so written or so read or so spoken by us for if it continue truly and indeed Gods VVord in our mouths it must then still powerfully produce Light when spoken by us as then it did when it was spoken by God himself And the like evident difference was in the Power that followed the Faith that was built upon the very VVord of God above any faith that is built upon the Scripture in any sense These signs followed the first namely The stopping the mouths of Lyons quenching the violence of fire casting out of Devils speaking with new Tongues healing of the sick by meer laying on of hands c. Heb. 11.33 34. Mark 16.17 18. But no such signs follow the Faith built upon the Scripture or on the matter and substance contained therein nor on the Doctrines drawn from them by any men who usually borrow or steal the words of God of Christ of the Prophets of the Apostles or any other which they there find recorded and then by the help of some Commentor whereof there are divers and many devise some Doctrines c. which they afterwards deliver as from God to the people But such would appear to deal more ingenuously if they did follow the Prophets advice He that had onely a dream should tell it but as a dream and not as the Word of God for what is the chaff to the wheat Jer. 23.28 29 30 31 32. And especially I conceive it would be much more pleasing to God beneficial to men comfortable to themselves not to trouble the world with any sublime and mysterious Doctrine as that of Trinity Election Predestination Reprobation the Nature or Essence of God the order or number of his Decrees the nature or extent of Christ his death Justification or any other matters in Divinity so much controverted among School-men and other of the learned and are but doubtfully and uncertainly known to the wisest of them all as is evident in that each opposite among them with great confidence maintains the verity of their several contradictory Propositions in these Points which is no marvel since we see them likewise at no small variance even about the very Principles of the Doctrine of Christ which
from doing this that each various and contrary Faith and Doctrine is stifly upheld and maintained from the various Copies and Translations thereof and from the various and contrary readings and meanings which each Opinionist respectively may and doth put upon the Scripture it self insomuch that indeed it is now made capable of any impression which every learned and witty man can invent and pleaseth to put upon it to serve his own turn and occasion though he face about and change never so much never so often And thus each man still makes the Scriptures to be like to Pictures wherein every man in the Room believes they look on him only and that wheresoever he standeth or how often soever he changeth his station Now whether all this doth arise from a natural hidden sense of the Scripture or from the brevity of them or for want of many Books mentioned in Scripture whereof we never had either Original or Copy or from mistakes made by Transcribers Printers or Translators or from the varions acceptation of words and phrases contained in them and in probability understandable only by such persons to whom they were first written who being before-hand grounded in the Faith and Principles of Christianity and instrueted in the things treated upon were thereby enabled aright to understand the mind of the Pen-men in what they did but briefly touch upon in their Writings to them Or whether from all of these or from any other cause or causes I leave to the wise and considerate to determine but certainly were they perspicuous in their sense so many learned studious good men could not possible so much have erred and been divided in their understanding of them And if such as these notwithstanding all their advantages of learning have not been able to resolve the truth of these Doctrines so familiarly mentioned in the Scripture and so necessarily required to true Christianity who shall conceive that they were intended by God for the ground of Faith and Worship for all or any sort of men whatsoever except we shall conceive that the unlearned sort of men are in a better capacity perfectly to resolve the sense of Scripture then the learned which is too gross to imagine or else that all men are bound to know and conform their Faith and Worship to a Doctrine that none of them certainly understand which none will affirm it being inconsistent with that Justice and Goodness which all confesse to be in Almighty God Let us see what to this point is said by learned Dr. Taylor in his forecited Book pag. 13. his words are these viz. It is a demonstration that nothing can be necessary to be believed upon pain of damnation but such propositions of which it is certain that God hath spoken and taught them to us and of which it is certaine that this is their sense and purpose for if the sense be uncertaine we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certaine sense then we are to believe it at all if it were not certaine that God delivered it but if it be only certaine that God spake it and not certaine to what sense our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its sense nor is it consonant to Gods justice to believe of him that he can or will require more But to go on and bring this neater It is manifest even in those Scriptures we have that Jesus Christ requires no credit to be given to his Doctrine either upon his own bare word or the bare word of any persons whatsoever as before is set forth If I bear witness of my self saith he my witness is not true neither receive I testimony of men the works that I do in my Fathers Name they bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me And when he is blaming the Scribes and Pharisees for their unbelief in him he thus far excuseth them in it That if he had not done among them the Works that none other man did they had not had sin Now who can conceive that Christ should pronounce men guiltless for not believing him upon his own bare testimony and yet not hold men much more guiltless for not believing the Scripture upon its bare testimony Christ though he bare witness of himself his witness was certain and true whereas Copies and Translations as before we have seen are uncertain and erroneous Christ disclaims the Testimony of men yea of John the Baptist as a ground insufficient to engage men to believe in his Doctrine though all that John said of him was true and what he had heard and seen that he testified And shall we imagine that he will binde all the succeeding generations of men to believe the truth of Christ and the Gospel upon any such inferior testimony as the testimony only of such as disclaim infallibility and have neither heard nor seen as John did Shall God and Christ be true and all men lyars and yet shall fallible men be preferred before them in being believed upon lower easier terms then either they or their most infallible servants Or shal God be conceived to require contraries of men as not to believe super-natural truths such the Gospel is judged to be without a sutable evidence and on the other side require men to believe it without any such evidence Shall men be blameless and blamed by him upon one and the same account If this cannot be as surely it cannot then it must necessarily follow That the Scripture was never instituted or intended by Almighty God to be the ground of Christian Faith and Religion or to be believed in and obeyed by mankind to salvation Moreover it is evident if we may take the meaning according to the sense of the words as they are delivered to us in Translations That the Epistles and St. Johns Revelation in the New Testament were all written unto Believers and that both the Acts and Lukes Gospel were written to Theophilus an instructed Disciple Luke 14. And it is most probable that the other three Gospels were written to believers also at least for their sakes especially for such of them as did not see Christ themselves after his resurrection whereby he mightily declared himself to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 whereof the rest of the Apostles as well as Thomas much doubted whilest he lay dead as may appear by 1 Pet. 1.3 where St. Peter speaking of himself and of the rest saith That God of his abundant mercy had begotten them again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and what may be understood by this but that all their hope was extinct or languished by his death and revived again by his resurrection And that his being risen from death was very hardly believed by any of them may appear from Mark 16.10 11. when Mary Magdalen told the Disciples as they were mourning and weeping that Christ was alive and that she had seen him they believed it not and
Officium Gregorianum gets by this means to be in credit but doth it continue without change or altering No the very Romen Service was of two Fashions the new Fashion and the old the one used in one Church the other in another as is to be seen in Pamilius a Romanist his preface before Micrologus The same Pamilius reporteth out of Radalphus de Rive That about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope Nicholas the third removed out of the Churches of Rome the more ancient Books of Service and brought into use the Missals of the Fryars Minorites and commanded them to be observed there insomuch that about an hundred yeers after when the above named Radulphus happened to be at Rome he found all the Books to be new after the new stamp Neither was this chopping changing in the ancient times only but also of late Pius Quintus himself confesseth That every Bishopprick almost had a peculiar kind of Service most unlike to that which others had which moved him to abolish all other Breviaries though never so ancient and priviledged and published by Bishops in their Diocesses and to establish and ratifie that only which was of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their Church who gladly would heal the sore of the Daughter of his people softly and slightly and make the best of it finding so great fault with them for their odds and jarring we hope the children have no great cause to vaunt of their uniformity But the difference that appeareth in our Translation and our often correcting of them is the thing that we are specially charged with Let us see therefore whether they themselves be without fault this way if it be to be counted a fault to correct or whether they be fit men to throw stones at us o tandem major pareas minori they that are less sound themselves ought not to object infirmities to others If we should tell them that Valla Stapulensis Erusinus and Vives found fault with their vulgar Translation and consequently wished the same to be mended or a new one to be made they would answer peradventure That we produced their Enemies for Witnesses against them albeit they were in no other sort Enemies then St. Paul to the Galatians for telling them the truth and it were to be wished that they had dared to tell it them plainer oftner But what will they say to this That Pope Leo the tenth allowed Erasmus Translation of the New Testament so much different from the vulgar by his Apostolick Letter and Bull That the same Leo exhorted Pagnine to translate the whole Bible and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for the Work surely as the Apostle reasoneth to the Hebrews that if the former Law and Testament had been sufficient there had been no need of the later So we may say That if the old Vulgar had been at all points ollowable to small purpose had labour and charges been undergone about framing a new If they say it was one Popes private Opinion and that he consulted onely himself then we are able to go further with them and to aver That more of their chief men of all sorts even their own Trent-Champions Paiva Vega and their own Inquisitors Hierominus ab Oleastro and their own Bishop Isadorus Clarius and their own Cardinal Thomas a vio Caietan do either make new Translations themselves or follow new ones of other mens making or note the Vulgar Interpreter for halting none of them fear to dissent from him nor yet to except against him And call they this an uniform Tenor of Text judgement about the Text so many of their Worthies disclaiming the now received conceit Nay we will yet come a little nearer the quick doth not their Paris Edition differ from the Lovaine and Hentenius his from them both and yet all of them allowed by authority Nay doth not Sextus Quintus confess That certain Catholicks he meaneth certain of his own side were in such a humour of translating the Scriptures into Latine that Satan taking occasion by them though they thought of no such matter did strive what he could out of such uncertain and manifold a variety of Translations so to mingle all things that nothing might seem to be left certain and firm in them c. Nay further did not the same Sextus ordain by an inviolable Decree and that with the counsel and consent of the Cardinals That the Latine Edition of the Old and New Testament which the Councel of Trent would have to be authentick is the same without controversie which he then set forth being diligently Corrected and Printed in the Printing House of the Vatican thus Sextus in his Preface before his Bible And yet Clement the eight his immediate Successor to account of publisheth another Edition of the Bible containing in it infinite differences from that of Sextus and many of them weighty and material and yet this must be authentick by all means What is it to have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with yea and nay if this be not Again what is sweet harmony and consent if this be Therefore as Dimaratus of Corinth advised a great King before he talked of the dissentions among the Grecians to compose his own domestick broils so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and so various Editions themselves and do jarre so much about the worth and authority of them they can with no shew of Equity challenge us for changing and correcting Thus far the said Translators From which may be observed At what great uncertainty the most wise and learned on both sides have been and are about the Scripture contesting which side hath the true not knowing that either side hath it 2. At what great uncertainty they likewise are in respect of those Scriptures which they have not certainly knowing the undoubted true sense and meaning thereof this plainly appears in that they do on each side so often alter change amend and new translate their respective Bibles wherein will be found many variations if not contradictions to the former and when they have done all they can it will be far from satisfying all the learned of the same party who having opportunity will alter and new translate it to their own minds which will as much displease others who will take their turn again to alter it and in this manner may it run ad infinitum from time to time and still upon like uncertainties and that the case is no better with us our next Author more fully sets forth 3. Jer. Taylor Dr. in Divinity and a great Schollar he in his Discourse of Liberty of prophesying pag. 61 62 63. shews and by many Reasons proves that which in effect amounts to an impossibility for any man to find out a true Copy or Translation or right sense of Scripture his words are these Viz. There are so many thousand of Copies that are writ by persons of
and by many pregnant instances and reasons proves the results of Councels Fathers Traditions yea of Churches Popes and pretenders to have the Spirit to be all dubious very fallible and uncertain yea often contradictory to themselves and to one another and therefore from all or any of these satisfaction in respect of the former uncertainties cannot be expected 3. Mr. Joh. Goodwin a man both of great learning and deep judgement who though he hath already discovered much more herein then any of our dissenting Brethren would hitherto ever acquaint us with yet it is supposed to be much lesse then he knows which for his own accommodation and security its thought by some he conceals not so much from the Spanish Inquisition as from the Scottish and English of the same spirit though under several more specious forms of godliness but are much worse and more to be abhorred then the other by how much we appear more like Angels of Light yet act from the very same Principle of self-interest upon pretence of Divine Right and Authority as unjustly challenged and usurped by any of these as by the other or by any formerly condemned and removed for the like usurpation and practise whereby they would subject other mens judgements and consciences to their Dictates even as the other do and bow them as it were to dead Images set up only in some finer shapes and dresses meerly of their own divisings and upon refusal to judge them Schismaticks and Hereticks exposing them thereby to the hatred rage and contempt of the people who being generally led by stupid ignorance superstitious zeal and blind devotion are in all such cases outragious like the waves of the sea hurried to and again even as the wind and the tide of Authority and Doctrine drives them and not ceasing here they will dispose them to utter destruction at least to the uttermost whereto they can get the Civil Powers concurrence or as in more plain English it s said Rev. 17. As the Kings of the earth shall give their power and strength unto the Beast wherein they deal most injuriously and inhumanely in depriving men of that natural native Right which God hath given to every man being born a rational creature to be saved by his own Faith and therefore must have that liberty in matters of Religion and Worship as to be led by the result of his own understanding and not of any other mans Yet all this brutish wickedness among the sons of men is no more then what St. John long since foresaw would come to pass namely That the Kings of the earth should not only give their power and strength to the Beast and commit fornication with the Whore but also that the Inhabitants of the Earth should be made drunk with the Wine of her Fornication even with the blood of the Saints and that power should be given to the Beast not only to cause it self to be worshipped but to make war with the Saints and to overcome them All which being thus foretold what marvel then is it to see the generality of men so drunk therewith as to thirst for the destruction of their harmless Neighbors and friends more then to see a common Drunkard in his drunken frenzie to stob or kill his own Brother or Friend whom he ought and out of that drunken fit would most dearly love and respect but it is a great rarity and wonder almost like the sight of a black Swan to see any in a high place and power so far recovered out of this zealous spiritual drunkenness as to know and openly acknowledge the aforesaid natural Right to be a fundamental and every mans due and that he that would have it ought to give it constituting a Law for every mans enjoying it accordingly c. But it is no such wonder to see such so far to relapse again into that Epedemical distemper as by some forraign sense put upon that Law or by some hidden reserved intention of the Law-makers unintelligable by any words therein in effect quite to uull and make void the same making it a meer empty shell without the Kernal a meer Character without any certain sense or meaning or a meer snare to men for their destruction rather then any security for their preservation for if there had been no such Law and instead thereof some positive Law made to the contrary might not they then as well by such a reserved sense and intention have preserved whom they had pleased and is it any otherwise by having a Law for security when by such a reserved sense or intention they may suffer whom they please to be destroyed Where 's then the difference My dulness is such I must confess that I can see little or none at all And if it be no better from the best of men what can be expected from the worst whereof the generality consists who with open mouth cry for fire from heaven when otherwise they cannot procure it to devour all men of contrary Judgements to their own quite forgetting of what spirit they are and not at all considering from whence that inhumane and unnatural heat proceeds but the unreasonablenesse of these is well set forth by a learned and ingenuous Author in these words following viz. It is unnatural and unreasonable to persecute disagreeing Opinions unnatural for understanding being a thing wholly spiritual cannot be restrained and therefore neither punished by corporal afflictions It is alienà republica a matter of another world you may as well cure the Collick by brushing a mans clothes or fill a mans belly with a syllogism these things do not communicate in matter and therefore neither in action nor passion and since all punishments in a prudent Government punish the offendor to prevent a future crime and so it proves more medicinal then vindiclive the punitive act being in order to the cure and prevention and since no punishment of the body can cure a disease in the soul it is disproportionable in nature and in all civil Government to punish where the punishment can do no good it may be an act of Tyranny but never of Justice for is an Opinion ever the more true or false for being persecuted some men have believed it the more as being provoked into a confidence and vexed into a resolution but the thing it self is not the truer and though the Hang-man may confute a man with an inexplicable delemma yet not convince his understanding for such premises can infer no conclusion but that of a mans life and a wolfe way as well give Laws to the understanding as he whose distates are only propounded in violence and writ in blood and a dog is as capable of Law as a man if there be no choice in his obedience nor discourse in his choice nor reason to satisfie his discourse And as it is unnatural so it is unreasonable that Sempronius should force Caius to be of his Opinion because Sempronius is Consul this
year and commands the Lictors as if he that can kill a man cannot but be infallible and if he be not why should I do violence to my conscience because he can do violence to my person Force in matters of Opinion can do no good but is very apt to do hurt for no man can change his Opinion when he will or be satisfied in his reason that his Opinion is false because discountenanced if a man could change his opinion when he lists he might cure many inconveniences of his life all his fears and his sorrows would soon disband if he would but alter his Opinion whereby he is perswaded that such an accident that afflicts him is an evil and such an object formidable let him but believe himself impregnable or that he receives a benefit when he is plundered disgraced imprisoned condemned and afflicted neither his sleeps need to be disturbed nor his quietness discomposed but if a man cannot change his Opinion when he list nor ever doth heartily or resolutely but when he cannot do otherwise then to use force may make him an hypocrite but never to be a right believer and so instead of erecting a Trophee for God and true Religion to build a monument for the Devil Infinite examples are recorded in Church story to this very purpose but Socrates instances in one for all for when Elucius Bishop of Cyzicum was threatned by the Emperor Valence with banishment and confiscation if he did not subscribe to the Decree of Ariminum at last he yeelded to the Arian Opinion and prosently fell into great torment of conscience openly at Cyzicum recanted the Error asked God and the Church forgiveness and complained of the Emperors injustice and that was all the good the Arian party got by offering violence to his conscience and so many families in Spain which are as they call them new Christians and of a suspected Faith into which they were forced by the Tyranny of the Inquisition and yet are secret Moors is evidence enough of the inconvenience of preaching a Doctrine more gladly Ceventandi for it either punishes a man for keeping a good conscience or forces him into a bad it either punishes sincerity or perswades hypocrisie it persecutes a truth or drives into an error and it teaches a man to dissemble and to be safe but never to be honest Thus far he Notwithstanding all which where can we see it otherwise with any Nation or people in any form of religious Worship but that they have drank so deep of that Whores cup as to thirst for the blood of their opposites especially if they shall but in the least discover to the world the unsoundness of the foundation on which their Babel is built All which the aforesaid Mr. G. well knowing and by experience finding that a little Light will much offend the tender sights of many who therefore like Owls in the dark will both skreech and strick at the meer shine of a Candle yet nevertheless in this Divine Authority of Scripture pag 10. he tells us If no Translation whatsoever nor any any either written or printed Copy whatsoever be the Word of God or foundation of Religion certainly our English Translations cannot challenge this honor And in pag. 18. of the same he saith Questionless no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originals are the foundation of Christian Religion And in his Youngling Elder pag. 35. he saith It is very possible that either through negligence ignorance want of memory or the like in Scribes and Correctors of the Press some such Error may be found in every Copy of the Scriptures now extant in the world which will render this Copy contradictious to it self yea it is possible that many such errors as this may be found in the best and truest Copies that are And in the 36. page of the same Book he saith The true and proper foundation of Religion is intrinsecally essentially and in the nature of it unchangeable unalterable in the least by the wills pleasures or attempts of men But there is no Book or Books whatsoever Bible or other but in the contents of them may be altered or changed by men Ergo The major he proveth thus If the proper Foundation of Religion were intrinsecally and in the nature of it changeable and alterable by men then can it not be any matter of truth because the nature of truth is like the nature of God himself unchangeable unalterable by men Angels Devils or any creature whatsoever yea God himself cannot alter it any whit more then deny himself or change his own nature or being And for the minor saith he That also is no less evident experience teacheth us that Books or Bibles themselves are de facto changed and altered by men from time to time every new Edition or Impression almost commending it self for somewhat corrected or amended in it which was delinquent or defective in the former Yet this learned Author notwithstanding all the aforesaid passages of his in his Divine Authority of Scripture pag. 13. doth affirm If by Scripture be meant the matter and substance of things contained and held forth in the Books of the Old and New Testament commonly known amongst Protestants by the Name of Canonical he fully with all his heart and all his soul believes them to be of Divine Authority and none other then the Word of God And in the 26. page of his Youngling Elder he doth distinguish and lay down a double sense and acceptation of the word Scripture and in the one sense clearly acknowledgeth them to be of Divine Authority and so the foundation of Christian Religion onely denying them to be such in the other sense And in that sense here denyed by this Author his learned Oponent Mr. William jenkin doth affirm them to be both of Divine Authority and the Word of God disallowing that distinction made by our Author demanding How any can believe the matter and substance of the Scripture to be the Word of God when he must be uncertain whether the written Word or Scriptures wherein the matter is contained are the Word of God or no. Now although both these learned men do affirm the Scripture to be of Divine Authority the Word of God yet it is so that the one affirms it to be such in one sense and the other in another sense neither of them allowing it to be such in the others sense nor yet producing any competent proof to evidence it to be such in his own sense The truth of it in either sense must still therefore remain much the more to be doubted and that from these grounds and reasons following First Because the Scripture as it came from the Original Pen-men was then if at all of Divine authority the word of God to the world but it was not so then being in an unknown Tongue to the generality of man-kind and therefore according to St. Pauls Doctrine was both in form matter and substance so far from being
best then is the best still had almost made me think that he intended a perfect agreement with the truth which all along he had opposed but that I found him presently to falsifie that Text in Joh. 15 24. in like manner as he had done the same Text in many other places viz. In leaving out the Emphasis thereof even that which chiefly corroborated and upheld that truth which in his precedent assertion he seemingly maintained namely in omitting these words viz. Among them and that they did both see and hateâ— for the Text is If I had done among them c. that is in their presence that they might both see and hear the Miracles done by Christ as the Samaritans did those that were done by Philip Acts 8.6 they had not had sin but now have they beth seen and hated both me and my Father And with the like unfaithfulness doth he bring up the Rear in the words following by omitting to add to him by which it is made neither current nor found for if St. Paul were now living and had convincingly revealed the Gospel to many thousand men and not to me this though it bound them to believe yet it binds not me to whom it was never convincingly revealed but when ever it is convincingly revealed to me as well as to them then it binds me as well as them but not else These bawks are not comely in any man especially if in the least he pretends sincerity for as the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees there was much aggravated by their seeing and hating so is every mans else though not in the same degree that shall see this or any other Text flatly against his purpose and then to cite it so maimedly as to make it speak against the intention or genuine sense thereof as by this Author this is often cited whereby to make Christ whose words they were to bear false witness so much against himself and his truth this I conceive is no small offence nor is this any other then a friendly caution that when ever this Argument is again handled both Christ his truth and this Text may be better dealt with R. B. And whereas this Author here tells us from current Testimony That the gift of casting out Devils and making them confess themselves mastered by Christ did remain in the Church for three or four hundred yeers at least after the Apostles and that Satan could no where â—eep his possession where this power of Christ did assault him Now then let it be considered Quest. 1. Whether there be not many Pagan Nations whereof Satan hath full possession and wherein he is worshipped by the Inhabitants as God 2. Whether he hath not in all Nations places and persons some large possession at least in their hearts by envy pride covetousness or some other base affection and lust And shall any such man yet think that there is not now need or use of these powerful gifts of the Spirit to dispossess this powerful Prince that yet so ruleth in the world and hearts of men Or can he or any man else be so simple as to think that Satan ever was or yet is so weak or foolish as to be scared and cast out of any of all these his strong holds meerly by the various uncertain and contrary holy winds blown from Pulpits by artificial Divines any more then he ever was or will be cast out of any place or person by vertue of holy Water sprinkled by Fryars or Monks Wherefore for these and many other good causes it may be well deem'd That there was since the said four hundred yeers and is yet the same need of the said powerful gifts of the spirit as were formerly given by Christ to his Church notwithstanding all or any thing said by this learned Author to the contrary 5. Dan. Featly another Doctor in Divinity and famed for a great Schollar in his Dippers Dipt pag. 1. likewise plainly tells us That No Translation is simply authentical or the undoubted Word of God in the undoubted Word of God there can be no error but in Translations there may be and are errors The Bible translated therefore is not the undoubted Word of God but so far onely as it agreeth with the Original Now these passages coming forth by Authority as licenced Vertues if the learned Licencer know any and this Argument being approved as sound and good by other of the learned in my hearing I cannot chuse but query thus of my own understanding or of any mans else that hath charity and ability to inform me better Whether the very same Argument upon the very same grounds and reasons may not in like manner be enforc't against all Copies whatsoever in any Language whatsoever as well and as truly as against Translations thus viz. No Copy is simply authentical or the undoubted Word of God in the undoubted Word of God there can be no Error but in Copies there may be and are Errors The Bible copyed therefore is not the undoubted Word of God but so far onely as it agreeâ—h with the Original For although it be admitted by many that the original Pen-men of the Scripture were all inspired by God yet it may be and is by all denyed that the Copyers thereof were any more inspired then the Translators but that they might erre and have erred as well as Translators as before is manifest how else came there such diversities of Copies into the world as well as of Translations And whereas in the conclusion of the Argument is implyed That so far as either Translation or Copy can be proved to agree with the Original so far only it is to be accounted the Word of God Whence I query Whether it be possible for any to produce the undoubted several Originals of the several Books of the Bible or undoubtedly to know them if it were possible to produce them they being written by divers persons in divers places in diver ages in divâ—rs Languages and upon divers occasions And if none be able to do this I then query How it can be possible for any undoubtedly to prove any Book Chapter or Verse either of Translation or Copy to agree with the Original Besides seeing reason experience teach That time produceth such variations and changes in languages as that a word signifying one thing in one age may often hath another signisication put upon it by use and custom in another age whence else is it that some Hebrew and Greek words bears divers some six some seven and some contrary significations as one word to signifie both to bless and to curse in Job 2.9 And it cannot in reason be imagined but that some words may have quite lost their Original signification since the first writing of the Bible wherefore it would prove a very difficult work if not impossible for any to give to each passage and word its genuine sense and undoubted signification if it were possible as it is not
from Luke 24.21 22. where two of the Disciples after they had with much sadness declared how the chief Priests and Rulers had delivered Christ to be condemned to death and had crucified him said we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel intimating thereby that he being then dead and gone they were quite hopeless expecting nothing less then his rising again for after when they heard by the women that he was alive they were astonished at it in Mark 16.13 when upon his appearing unto two of them these went and told it to the rest of the Apostles yet they believed it not and hence it was that he appeared and shewed himself to his Disciples 500 at once and familiarly and often to such of them as he intended to make his Apostles and chief witnesses to the world to confirm this their belief in his resurrection insomuch that when he first appeared to them he shewed them his hands and his feet and bad them handle and see Luke 24.39 Jeh 20.20 c. where it is very observable that Thomas not being then present would not believe the report of all the rest of the Apostles that he was risen unless he might see and handle his wounds also as they had done wherein also afterward Christ gave him satisfaction by permitting him to do so likewise and then withal left a blessing in the hands of the Apostles for all such other of his Disciples who had not seen him as they had done yet did believe his resurrection Wherefore most requisite it was That as well for the communicating of this blessing as for the confirmation of the Disciples believers in the belief of Christs resurrection they should write the Narratives of all these things and most probable it is the Apostles did therefore write the three other Gospels for these ends and purposes as may be gathered by comparing John the Apostle with the Apostle John that is Joh. 20.31 with 1 Joh. 5.13 I have been the larger upon this because I finde not only ordinary men but most learned profound Teachers do pervert this place of Scripture to the mis-leading of many whether ignorantly or purposely I will not determine 1 In making the sence of the words as if Christ thereby did intend a blessing on all such as in the future should believe the teachings of men without seeing any divine evidence to attest the truth of their Doctrine whereas Christs words had respect onely to such other of his Disciples or believers who had not seen Christ as Thomas did yet did believe his being risen again which Thomas by no means would do until he had both seen and felt him 2 In making the Apostles words in vers 31. to be intended to all the world as a ground sufficient for true and saving faith whereas if it were so it might serve instead of a true Ministry in all nations when as to the generality of mankinde it was meer barbarism coming from the Apostle but in one language onely which would have been a failer not imaginable in the Apostle having the guift of tongues enabling him purposely to teach all nations people in their respective languages and accordingly no doubt he would have written if he had intended it for any such great and general use but it is most plain that his intention therein was onely to confirm believers of that one language in their belief of that one great article of Christs being the Son of God whereof they could not doubt if they firmly believed his resurrection And if we may have leave to give a like credit to the Scripture in this matter and to make conclusions from plain premisses such as many would have us give and make from none at all or at best from such as are far more dark We may both see and conclude that the Scripture is so far from testifying it self to be any sufficient ground for faith and conviction to the unbelieving world that it testifies the quite contrary 1 In that it testifies that the power of God by signes and miracles accompanying the Ministry and attesting the truth and divine authority of their doctrine was the onely true ground of faith and conviction unto unbelievers as before is set forth and is evident by these texts Ioh. 16.7 8 9. Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 Act. 1.1 2 3. Mark 16.20 1 Cor. 2.4 5. compared with Rom. 15.18 19 20. Act. 8.6 And that thus and upon this foundation of the Apostles and Prophets the true Ministry of the Gospel fitted by gifts Ephesians 4.8 11 12 13. Christ Jesus himself being the chief Corner-stone was Christian belief and Churches founded Ephes 2.20 And that no foundation other then such can any man warrantably lay or plead for 1 Cor. 3.11 2 In that it testifies That whatsoever is delivered in any unknown tongue or but in a doubtful and uncertain sence is as barbarism not obliging any to believe it 1 Cor. 14.7 8 9 10. for no man is bound or can infallibly and convincingly believe any thing which is not infallibly and convincingly revealed to him Notwithstanding all the uncertainties afore specified yet how doth each Sect of Christians assert that they are of the true belief and many therefore challenge the highest priviledges of true believers mentioned in Scripture to belong unto them yea and some such do they assume to have as no true believer ever had in this life I shall give instances They assume to be true believers and to have the Spirit of God yea the same as true believers formerly had and by which the Scripture was given forth To be actually justified to have eternal life and to be already passed from death to life To have Christ and his divine nature within them and that white stone wherein a new is written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it c. Wherein if I am not exceedingly mistaken they are first in their conceiving themselves to be true believers yet ground it upon various yea on contrary doctrines and want both the true ground upon which true believers built their faith and the same power whereby true believers were to be known Mark 16.17 18. or that they have the same spirit by which the Scripture was given forth and yet make use of and cite texts amiss rendered in translations even as others do who pretend not to have the Spiâ—it Secondly what can reasonably be imagined or understood by believers being justified by faith I am inclined to think it is no more then their being saved by hope and what is or can be meant by this more then now in this life to hope to be saved hereafter in the life to come as the Apostle reasoneth Rom 8.24 25. where speaking of himself and other believers saith we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for for if we hope for that we see not then do we
with patience wait for it and why may not the same be said of being justified by faith iâ— being likewise the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 which when they once come to be seen or actually to be injoyed then faith as well as hope in respect of those things believed and hoped for shall cease for what need a man either to hope or trust any longer for that of which he hath already the sight or actual possession 1 Peter 1.19 The like may be understood at least as I conceive of these and the like texts He that hath everlasting life is already passed from death to life must not the meaning be That he believes in this that he shall actually enjoy everlasting life in the world to come and at the resurrection even that everlasting life which he hath here onely by faith unless it can reasonably be imagined that every believer must have actually two everlasting lives one here in this world and the other in the world to come to commence not until the resurrection Luke 20.35 36. And whereas it was said of believers That Christ was in them this was by faith likewise and where it was told them that they were partakers of the divine nature it was there also told them that it was by having promises 2 Pet. 1.4 which they laid hold on by faith and to be actual partakers of the divine nature at the resurrection 1 Cor. 15.47.48 And for the white stone that is likewise to be received in the life to come actually even at the same time when believers shall receive power over Nations c. which will not be until the resurrection Revel 2.17 26 27. Revel 20.4 How sottish therefore is the practice of all such as attribute any divine esteem honour or worship to any man conceiving him from these and the like texts to have Christ or the divine nature in him or to be sent of God to have the Spirit of God or to have divine authority not bringing with him divine power evidently to attest the same And since there are such various and contradictory opinions even among men of eminent learning parts and integrity as before is seen about justification wherein it s more probable that all have erred then possible all to be in the truth I have also proposed my opinion though different from all theirs declaring what I conceive may be meant by believers being justified by faith comparing it to and expounding it by the phrase of the Apostle we are saved by hope and by some other texts of like import as He that believeth hath everlasting life and is already passed from death to life and I think that no text can be found more positive for present and actual justification of a believer in this life then these and some other texts are for his everlasting salvation and glorification here also as namely He hath translated us into the Kingdome of his dear son Col. 1.13 hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly place in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 but ye are come to Mount Sion c. Heb. 12.22 whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 And now without offence to any let me here propose in this point my thoughts alittle further not imposing any thing upon any man but leaving all men to that freedome from which no man can justly take them Thus whether that actual justification and salvation of men come not both together and neither to be untill the day of judgement and that faith or believing simply considered will not then save any man How then can it now justifie or make any man at any time the more acceptable in the sight of God To make that which is here intended plain to be understood we need distinguish of believing 1. There is a believing a thing to be true which is the proper act of the understanding this I call a believing simply considered Thus to believe not being in a mans choice but imposed upon him by force of the evidence that is brought to evince it procures no reward or acceptance with God and the not believing in the same sence procures no punishment 2 There is obeying or disobeying of that truth so believed which being an act of the will and in a mans choice procures reward or punishment This also is called a believing or a not believing and in some places a hearing or a not hearing in Joh. 16.8 9. it 's called a not-believing and in Act 3.22 23. it 's called a hearing and a not hearing and when or wheresoever eternal life or salvation was promised upon believing or hearing or punishment threatened upon not believing or not hearing there alwayes obeying or disobeying is implied though not exprest And herein let appeal be made to any rational and impartial man if any of the Jews who onely believed Christ to be the true Messiah or the Gospel to be truth without obeying him or it should have been saved thereby when as we find that salvation and damnation at the last day to be disposed onely according to obedience and disobedience Matth. 16.27 Matth. 25.27 c. Rom. 2.6 to the end Herewith judicious Dr. Taylor concurs speaking the very same in sence though different in expression In his fore-cited Book pag 24 25. his words being as followeth Faith saith he if it be taken for an act of the understanding meerly it is so far from being that excellent grace that justifies us that it is not good at all but in genere naturae and makes the understanding better in it self or pleasing to God just as strength doth the arm or beauty the face or health the body these are natural perfections indeed and so knowledge or true belief is to the understanding but this makes us not at all more acceptable to God for then the unlearned were certainly in a damnable condition and all good Scholars should be saved whereas I am afraid too much of the contrary is true but unless faith be made moral by mixture of choice and charity it is nothing but a natural perfection not a grace or a vertue and this is demonstrably proved in this that by the confession of all men of all interests and perswasions in matters of meer belief invincible ignorance is our excuse if we be deceived which could not be but that neither to believe aright is commendable nor to believe amiss is reprovable but where both one and the other is voluntary and chosen antecedently or consequently by prime election or ex post facto and so comes to be considered in morality and it is part of a good life or a bad life respectively And if any shall say otherwise it is to say that some men shall be damned when they cannot help it perish without their own fault and be miserable for ever because of their unhappinesse to be deceived thorow their own simplicity and natural or accidental but inculpable infirmity for it is inconsistant