eternity So then whatsoever befals us here we shall conclude it requisite to provide that we be not miserable hereafter and consequently that we make our selves a friend of him that hath the issues of death in his power and moderates and dispenses the rewards of Eternity but there is no way to have him propitious to us but by obedience no reason to expect that he should satisfie our longing or fulfill our will to all Eternity unlesse we fulfill his will for our time of triall in this life and that is by the exercise of Religion only attainable So that the consideration of the Souls Immortality will likewise enforce us to a necessity of Religion Thus farre the common principles of naturall reason will force us even the first and most common principles of intelligence such as are grounds of clear evident and perfect demonstration so that it must be the Fool alone as the Psalmist speaks which can be an Atheist so that they are without excuse whoever glorifie him not as God thus farre those poor remains of sight which yet is left to the corrupted off-spring of our degenerate Parent will serve to leade us to the generall necessity of Religion but here indeed it Jeaves us destitute of the certain waies of pleasing God and consequently destitute of clear and solid grounds of hope of attaining to eternall happinesse And here it is that the Scoffers and irreligious men take occasion to reason themselves and others to destruction seeing that nature hath here deserted us and left us no infallible Rules of particular waies of devotion they contend that ther are none such and consequently that our Religion is vain and uncertain uncertain in the issue because uncertain in the grounds and principles And here now against them we pretend that wherein our naturall light hath failed us the mercy of God hath been pleased to supply us that God hath not left us without a certain rule and Canon of Religion not without a light shining to us in this dark place particularly that he hath given to us his holy Word to be a Light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our paths and that the books of the holy Scriptures are that Word of God PART III. Concerning the truth and Authority of our Scripture SECT. I. Petitions and Cautions premised to the question YOu will doe me the favour to consider that our present controversie is against those that deny the Authority of the holy Scriptures so that we cannot have the advantage of those Arguments which in every other controversie of Religion are the most valid I mean Arguments drawn from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves which is the best if not the only authentike rule of decision of such differences as doe arise such as doe indeed arise in the Church of God who all doe agree in a profession of that faith which is delivered in these holy Books this I say they agree upon in these generall tearms however with wonderfull heat and distance they vary in their judgements whether or no some particulars be of the recommendation of the Scripture It is then the common principle of Christians and the ultimate rule for the judgement of those that are within but as for them that are without the Church they ae likewise out of the jurisdiction of this Canon or Judge and to give over their incredulity or rather infidelity as some of our Divines have done with this ill-interpreted axiome for rejection that they deny our principles and so are not worthy to be disputed with or to referre them only to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Scriptures and to the spirit working with the reading and hearing of them it might be to prove a scandall to them without and to such as are weak and wavering within it were tacitely to imply that we have no way to gain the question unlesse our of courtesie the adversary be pleased to yeild it to us to resolve the motives of our Catholique Faith into private impulses and particular dictates of the Spirit arguments of very great credit and reputation due to our selves as particular favorites of the holy Spirit but such as being deserted by the tenor and regiment of our lives render us dishonourable to that holy Spirit whereto we pretend whilest in the apprehension of men we doe at least obliquely entitle it to such actions as are inconsistent with it professing we hold our faith by private revelation and consequently have our understandings taken up by the holy Ghost at such time as our wils are guilty of enormous sinnes A fancy that is the mother of diverse prodigies lately broken into the Church as that either God sees no sinne in beleevers that Murther Adultery Incest Sacrilege any thing may be committed and that these are no sinnes in beleevers arguing thus that they which have the holy Spirit are free from sinne such as do beleeve the Gospel they have the holy Spirit because there is no other motive sufficient besides a private illumination so then they cannot be guilty of sinne but yet they may and doe commit such things as those we mentioned wherefore those are no sinnes Thus doth Satan transform himself into an Angel of light and act his Tragedies in the likenesse of the holy Spirit Nay we say and doe beleeve that the Devils also beleeve and tremble that the Kingdome of Heaven is like a Net which drew to shore fishes of all sorts some to be put into vessels and others to be thrown away We say and doe acknowledge to the glory of God that the internall light of the holy Scriptures is sufficient to make the man of God perfect to salvation and that in some it is the means of generating faith in men but that the most of those beleevers who have the happinesse to be trained up from their infancy in any part of the Christian Church by observing the esteem which in their Church is had of those holy Bookes they doe betimes upon the reputation of their Church receive them with a kinde of veneration that upon this motive they receive the faith and that others doe upon other inducements entertain it and once for all we say that besides the secret and free illuminations of the holy Spirit these want not Arguments to enforce the reason of unbvassed men to entertain the Scripture as the Word of God and that all such as without the engagement of perverse affections shall admit those Arguments in their apprehensions must necessarily be of that belief Before I betake my self to the proof of this assertion I must premise that by the books of the holy Scripture I mean such books of the old and new Testament as in the Church of England have been accounted Canonicall and that I intend not here to take up the controversie which is betwixt the Church of Rome and us concerning the books which are Apocryphall the drift of my discourse being against those who beleeve
alike to all there is but one issue to the just and to the unjust nay they think they see that the successe of things it is not equall to the religious and irreligious but that besides the pleasures and enjoyments which religious men doe fondly deny themselves besides that melancholy life which they by their strictnesse and precisenesse bring upon themselves they often anticipate and hinder the thriving and successe of their own designes by a dangerous and prejudiciall scrupulosity whereas the other party besides the pleasure of their lives in private they carry matters of state and either by force or fraud they circumvent and overcome the narrow and feeble spirits of the others and the successe of things they oft observe to be answerable to this Hypothesis ready they are to say with those in Mal. 3. 14. Surely it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it to keep his Ordinances to walke mournfully before the Lord of Hosts whereas we see the proud happy and they that work wickednesse are set up and they that tempt God are even delivered Upon such observations upon the reward they conclude clean contrary to the suppositions of Religion God is no rewarder of those that seek him such as deny themselves the most for him they have no other reward but sadnesse of soul and debility of body and exility of fortune surely if he were a God he would not thus desert his party and give them over to the scorn and derision and miseries of the world surely therefore there is no God or surely he sees it not or tush God cares not for it and so these mens Religion is vain or else these men they have not hit upon the true way of worship the rules they go by they are uncertain that which they pretend to be the word of God it is not so but some bundle of Impostures devised by some body and put upon these simple people to delude them they indeed flatter themselves with expectations when they are dead but those are but vain for who knows that the spirit of a man goes upward and that the spirit of a beast goes downward as a man dies so dies a beast wherefore let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die These are the substance of those allegations which by Atheists Epicures and Machivillians are set in competition with Religion these are those Engines by which the devill hath prevailed to the seduction of many and to the entertainment of a suspicion by men otherwise prudent and sober-minded the main foundations upon which we differ they are these 1. The Being and providence of God 2. The Immortality of the soul 3. The Authority of the holy Scripture Before we come therefore to the particular mysteries of faith it is necessary that these be cleared before we come to settle in particular differences of Religion that we justifie our selves against the petulances of those men that would laugh and scoff us out of all Religion crying to every party as they see the variable chances of the world to give occasion where is now their God Indeed if there were not a God to worship or if God did not see and regard and reward our worship or had we no rule to work by we should have none encouragement to Religion Nay upon all that happens to men in this life we cannot but allow that upon their supposition they conclude not irrationally Concurre we must with our Apostle that If in this life only we had hope we were of all men most miserable But we know assuredly that thou God seest and that thou hast given us thy holy Word to be a light to our feet and a lanthorn to our paths and that though now we see but through a glasse darkly yet the time is coming when we shall see thee face to face The state of the controversie then is this which of the parties is in the wisest way The Atheist thinks that the Religious is a fool the Religious that he is a fool that saith in his heart there is no God The Athiest that the souls of men are mortall as the souls of beasts the Religious that the Atheist is a beast to say so c. But such kindes of contests are vain wherefore let 's see where the truth lies SECT. III. Of the Being of God evicted by way of demonstration from the Creatures THe Question is Whether or no there be a God And here first I must entreat that it may be remembred what that party is which defends the negative and what is the designe that we are upon that so the following discourse be not thought uselesse or industriously set out of our ordinary road Our enemies are Atheists and that which is to be convinced is the Atheisticall pronenesse of men so that in the controverted questions it will not be a sufficient way of answering to say that the Scriptures and the Spirit of God make it evident that there is a God and again that the Scriptures are evinced to be the Word of God by the Spirit of God bearing witnesse with the heart of man It is true that the Scriptures clearly deliver that there is a God and as true it is that God by his grace doth work the heart of man to a beleeving of the Scriptures these things they are really true to those who already are beleevers and each of them conduceth to a confirmation of each other but to a man that doubts of the Godhead and denies the Scriptures to use those arguments for satisfaction were to minister a scandall to him and by circular way of reasoning and assuming gratis the matter of the question for they doe no otherwise who only say We must beleeve the Scriptures to be the Word of God because God saies so and a God we must beleeve because the Scriptures say so to make them think we have no more to say but this it is so because it is so and so confirm them in their Atheism and irreligion It was a certain observation of Aristotle that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in every acquisition of knowledge the understanding doth proceed from premises which were known to the inference of a new conclusion which was before unknown and so was that other Aphorism of his that there is no disputation unlesse upon principles which are confessed on both sides and such only are the common principles of intelligence and the plain discoveries of the senses there where the mysteries of faith are questioned it will not be sufficient therefore in the present case to alledge that saying of the Apostle Rom. 1. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse but we must clear and demonstrate the truth of that allegation by reasons taken from things visible however it may be lawfull for us to
which they could not have done if any and not all of them should have been corrupted and that all of them should either casually or by design be corrupted besides that no end can appear to encourage such a designe the thing it self makes it impossible Besides had any such thing been they must to make a correspondence have corrupted likewise the Septuagint translation which for almost three hundred years before our Saviour was extant in Egipt that I speak nothing of the Chaldee Paraphrase extant before the time of our blessed Saviour so then as far as the nature of a morall subject will admit we have shewed as from the causes that the Scriptures of the Old Testament could not be corrupted Now as from the signes we have likewise powerfull arguments that to our Saviours time they were uncorrupted because our Saviour never discovers any corruption of the Text which certainly he would not have spared at such times as he taxes the Scribes and Pharisees of making the Law of God of none effect by their traditions Now that the Hebrew Canon hath not been corrupted since our Saviours time we have this sign likewise that never any of the ancient Fathers have in their greatest heat of zeal against the Jews accused them of such corruption though Justin Martyr complain of wronging the Septuagints Translation and certainly if they should have corrupted them upon design either before or since it would have been in all those places which conclude against them for Christ the true Messiah that stumbling stone upon which they stumbled and fell but those do remain unaltered The truth is to them were committed the Oracles of God and they have by the visible ordination of the providence of God discovered so much care and diligence that way as is not to be found to have been bestowed upon any other writings under heaven witnesse the Criticall notes of their Massoreth which gives an account of the numbers of of letters in every Book almost and almost if not altogether of every various lection I conclude then that they have never been corrupted SECT. IX That in our Saviours time these bookes were true and consequently were the Word of God BUt we in our Saviours time they were true and the Word of God as appears by our Saviours testimony and the testimony of the Apostles who still referre to them as being of divine inspiration as being the truth and Word of God their using the testimony almost of every particular Book as anthenticall their disputations founded upon their Authority Particulars in this kinde are so many and so plain that without any more speaking I will conclude that we are to receive the Old Testament upon the credit of the New and the New Testament as I have formerly demonstrated upon greater reason far then any other writings in the world and consequently that we must receive the Books of the Old Testament upon the same Authority We have already discovered some of those many reasons whereupon we are to receive the Books of the Old Testament and the New under the credit and authority of the Word of God Besides those whereupon I have insisted there are many more some of them taken from the quality of the writers some from the manner of the writings the former shewing that those men from whom they proceeded were not fit persons to devise such things they being many if not most of them simple and unlearned men the latter manifesting that such things are not of their nature obvious to be devised because they transcend the wit and invention of man the Majesty and simplicity of the stile the concord and harmony the end and scope the power and efficacy the antiquity besides the Testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of men But the evidence of truth no way depending upon the multitude of arguments or reasons and all of these being insisted on in some or other of those Authours which are obvious I shall at this time finish what remains of that which at the first I propounded which was to shew That as there are many and important reasons moving wise men to receive them so there neither are nor can be any sufficient arguments on the contrary to make men to refuse them SECT. X. That there is no reason to disbeleeve the Scriptures Objections briefly proposed and answered first generall Objections against the whole 'T is true indeed that many both of old and later times have refused either all or severall parts of the holy Canon and it is not to be hoped or expected that they should ever be generally received by all the world there must be heresies and amongst the rest there alwaies have been and sure there ever will be Antiscripturians the greatest part of the world have ever lived according to sence and appetite and to prove that de facto it is denyed is not to manifest that there is reason why it is so yet seeing there are of those disputing and theoreticall hereticks as well as practicall to conceal or dissemble the arguments which are alleadged against the truth it would be to betray the cause that we have undertaken and give occasion for some Jealousie that their Objections are unanswerable To come then to an issue some have rejected All by reason of  Impossibilities    Repugnances    Mutations  Parts accusing them as Sine nomine Authoris    Dubitati    Ab intrinseco matter Those who refuse the whole Scriptures they are some of them Atheists others professe themselves Christians and yet doe deny the authority of the written word pretending to private and secret illuminations as the last rule of their actions the design of my discourse being against the former I shall only intimate the frenzy of the later They pretend that that which we call the written word is not the Word of God because 1. The Word of God is God himselfe 2. Christ is the Word of God 3. The Letter kils 4. The Word of God is spirit and life These are the arguments which by some Enthusiasts are used against the written Letter And for answer to them we may only observe how by arguing against the authority of the Scriptures these men do tacitely assert it for taking their arguments out of it and proceeding no further either by reason or revelation to the discovery of their antecedents but barely resting in the recitall of those words which are there written they do resolve all the power and force of their argument into the authority of those very writings which they would impugne and consequently they do at once deny and grant the authority of the Scripture which is to deserue the Epithete which is given them of fanaticall Enthusiasts That the Word of God is God himself taking the Word of God for the immanent act of the diuine understanding is indeed a truth attainable by other principles by those I mean from whence the absolute simplicity