sense of Scripture tho' never so contrary to the intention of God's Spirit therein and as said before never so Erroneous and Heretical only because it is according to a man 's own private Opinion and deluded Imagination which is to take away the Obligation whereby Conscience and the whole Soul are bound to believe the Truth of Scripture only and not false Interpretations Besides there is in Scripture some matters of Faith which are not so obvious to the Soul and to Reason as matters of Fact are to the Eye and Ear as also there are others not to be Interpreted according to the plain and literal sense as they seem to be Out of the number and variety of such afforded in the Word I shall bring only two Instances Can they think that this Consequence by our Saviour God is the God of the living and not of the dead therefore there shall be a resurrection of the dead is plain and obvious to any man or that this is true Paul is a robber of Churches because he said I robbed other Churches Hence appeareth the danger and inconvenience of allowing of such a particular free liberty of Interpreting Scripture seeing it can be and is so much abused We are taught in the word that we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God and which the Holy Ghost teacheth if human Reason were a sufficient Light for a Man to enable him to interpret Scriptures then Paul's Prayer that God would give the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. The like for the Colossians were in vain for 't is frivolous to ask what one hath already and wants not at all this Liberty which they allow themselves every day to search and find out new Interpretations whereby the Minds of Men are tossed and never to be setled cannot consist with the true Faith revealed in the Word of God which we are commanded to be stedfast in and to be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the Faith and not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Certainly that freedom of interpreting is herein forbidden and so are we forbidden to believe those false Glosses and Interpretations for saith the Apostle Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God the reason is this Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world who allow themselves a freedom of interpreting Scrpiture according to their own humour and fancy no ways allowed by the Laws of God and should not be by the Laws of Men a Curb ought to be put upon such wandering profane Thoughts at least upon the publishing of them The Adversaries who are so fond and conceited of their human Reason Learning and Wisdom might take notice how the Apostle hits them when he calls those who give false interpretations of and wrest Scriptures both unstable and unlearned certainly those Men are unstable who make use of a pretended Liberty ever to give Scripture new interpretations as suggested by their Reason so to day they may give one and the next another different from and contrary to it and is not this Change a Fickleness and Unstableness These unstable Men would make those different interpretations to be a part and proof of their Learning but far from that for Peter calls them unlearned whereby he gives a great blow to that Diana-Idol of theirs But as I hope hereafter by the Grace of God to have an occasion of enlarging upon this I shall for the present forbear saying any more to it What he brings in of Bonner and Latimer about the Interpretation of the Words This is my Body cannot answer his purpose that Instance indeed can shew how a Text may differently be interpreted and that one may happen wrongfully to suffer for a good Cause and how the strongest side and most supported is not always the best But this cannot prove that because one has unjustly suffered the other may not justly suffer that sort of Men who are always wholly bent to provide for their safety would infinuate how no Man should be called to account for any wresting of or putting false interpretations upon Scripture tho never so false blasphemous impious and heretical because he who doth so believeth them not to be such which is their own case it doth not follow that a Truth tho made doubtful because to day 't is supported and to morrow shall be oppressed must not be owned and a Restraint put upon those who oppose it The Merit of the Cause is impartially to be enquired into and when Truth is found out not only it must be exalted but also its contrary is to be kept under Tho Queen Mary supported a bad Cause and suppressed a good one it doth not follow but that Queen Elizabeth did well to suppress a bad Cause and support a good one Tho an innocent be brought to suffer yet the guilty must not go free for all that Because formerly innocent Blood was shed must not Justice now be executed upon Criminals 'T is not the Opinion of Men but the Truth of the Thing which makes any one guilty or innocent the Law is judge of it So in Matters of Religion 't is not the Interpretation of the Text nor the Opinion which the Interpreter hath of the Soundness of his Interpretation that makes it Orthodox and sound but the Word which explains it self for what in one place is dark is plain in some other and when some Men contrary to those Lights will set up heretical and blasphemous Opinions and therein grow obstinate only because they think to be in the right upon such account the Word of God authoriseth Men to enact such penal Laws as they shall think most conducing for the glory of God and to have them put in execution chiefly when the Parties against the known Laws of the Land do publish and in defiance of all at the Parliament Doors offer their heretical Books with words to this purpose I put a most excellent Book into your hand pray read it with attention and when you are Converted strengthen your Brethren thus profanely abusing God's most holy Word They are by no means pleased with my way of Writing but I like it the better for their disliking it They find fault first with the Matter Order and Expression secondly with my often using Scripture thirdly with my Sallying as they call it into sundry Metaphors The first of the two ironically talks of depth of Learning height of Fancy c. which is proper to Fantastical Men who would transform Fancy yea all Religion into Reason The other calls it A World of School Cant which now adays goes for deep Learning So both tho' in a different way talk of depth of Learning that People would have others like themselves to build upon
Guide it must be first subordinate to Revelation which is the prescribed Rule and from which it ought not to recede no more than a Judge from the Law as Paul told Ananias or else he is in danger of falling into Precipices that 's the Light it must follow and as the Soul is guided by Reason so must Reason be by Revelation neither can Reason and outward Revelation do the Work without inward Revelation whereby Reason is supernaturally endowed and this is Faith a Gift of God this is the ground of our Blessed Saviour's giving his Father thanks for revealing the Mysteries of Faith and Salvation unto Babes that is those who as yet in his Sense were not capable of Reason and plainly tells Peter that if he knew and confessed him to be the Son of the living God Flesh and Blood or his natural Reason had not revealed it unto him but his Father which is in Heaven When the Lord Jesus was upon leaving this World he promised his Disciples a Guide what their own Reason no such thing but the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth who should teach them all things and bring to remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them and he was to abide with them for ever this Spirit of God is the right Guide whom true Protestants own to lead and guide us in the way of Salvation and this he doth not according to human Fancies or private Inspirations but according to the Rule of the Word for saith our Saviour he shall receive of mine that is my Word and shall shew it unto you for he shall not speak of himself he teaches and applies the Word and his working is by the Apostle called the Spirit of a sound Mind which God hath given us so that a sound Mind an Orthodoxy in the Faith is an Effect of God's Gift not of our Reason or of any thing else in us wherefore David saith give me Vnderstanding according to thy Word But these things Socinians have been told over and over and in the Preface and latter end of my Book I think I said enough to satisfie unbyassed Persons so have others too this is the sure and infallible Guide which God hath given us and not any human Authority different from or contrary to it the Pope we cannot own for he is a Party and sets up for himself nor the antient Writers if they deviate from the Rule but 't is a good Argument for the things wherein they follow it Men must not be so selfish and wilful as to despise others who may have the Spirit of God as well as themselves and being Witnesses of those Times are able to inform us how things stood in their time and cannot be partial for this wherein we live The Author of the first Letter hath a touch upon the matter and that 's all 't is about the interpretation of what S. John saith the Word was made Flesh I confess there is a great difference in the interpretation we say according to the natural Signification the Word or Son of God took upon him our human Nature they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate the Word signifies Reason rather than Word and they infer that the Reason or Wisdom of God was communicated unto Jesus Christ this is a very much forced Interpretation and fetch'd afar off for all along the Word is spoken of as a Subject and they would make a shift to turn it into the Predicate Now what shall we do of these two Opinions to find out the true one for if every Person or Party be allowed such a Latitude as to interpret things after their own Fancy there will be no end of false Glosses and wrong Interpretations how doth the Goldsmith do to know true Gold or Silver from that which is false he brings it to the Touch-stone so must we in this case between them and us is a Difference the Party must not be the Judge 't is not just they should be Judges in their own cause nor we in ours then we must agree about a Judge such as is impartial and infallible and none but God is such now God doth not immediatly speak from Heaven for he doth it in his Word that is his Will and ought to be our Law and Rule in matters of Faith I will believe no Man's Assertion except out of Scripture he proves it to me the like he may justly expect from me but in case of that Text of Scripture he and I give different Interpretations what 's to be done we ought still to keep in the same Court and wait for a Decision from the same Judge then I must prove my Interpretation by some other place of Scripture or else he must not believe me nor I him except he doth the like and if Men will but lay aside Prejudices and be acted by a real and sincere desire to find out the Truth God will not leave them but therein afford such Helps as shall answer their Good for all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect Now let us come to our Point and reduce the Rule to a Practice the Question is Whether by the Word is meant a Person as we say or a Quality as they would have it there is a great Difference between Persons and Things now to find out the Truth this Text must be compared with others we need not to go far for in the first Verse of the Chapter we read thrice the same Name in the beginning was the Word was signifieth existed had a Being which relateth to a Person and not to a Thing the same Word was with God and was God what a Quality with God and a Thing God doth the Evangelist begin his Gospel in so high a strain only to tell us how Reason was in the beginning how Reason was with God and Reason was God or in plain Words that God was Reasonable which is a Truth known to every one so no need to tell it but he would acquaint the Readers with things before unknown to them besides doth this hold any proportion with the Nature and Excellency of the Gospel and great Tidings of Salvation this indeed is to exalt Reason and because they make a God of their Reason therefore for Name 's sake Reason must be deified then according to their Principle this Reason must be an efficient Cause of all for all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made to create and make things is the Property and Act of a Person and not of a Thing in him as in a Person and not as in a Thing was Life and the same Apostle calls him the Word of Life that Life which was manifested and that Eternal Life which was with the Father first and then was manifested unto us as if
they are the Metaphorical Doctors of the World who make bold to turn almost the whole Scripture into Metaphors even to set up a Metaphorical God O Sirs first pull out the Beam out of your own eye and then ye shall see clearly to cast out the Mote out of your Brother's Anon we shall meet with some more Cavils of theirs They appear at the Bar whereto indeed they deserve to be called and Plead for themselves thus The first of the 39 Articles saith There is but One living and true God and in Vnity of this Godhead there be Three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost As to the latter part which is the main Question they pretend to come off with mincing the matter and say by some of their late Prints meaning Socinians I perceive that they for Peace-sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and expresly own Three Persons tho' they think the word Person not so proper as another word might be The weight of the words of the Article lieth so heavy upon them that under it they must either break or bend this last they chuse to do and would seem to yield not because they believe it but only for Peace-sake Peace to themselves to avoid the Penalty They think the word Person not so proper as another might be still they reserve a Back-door why do they not name the word which is in their opinion more proper than that of Person that word remains in petto in their Breast till there be a fair occasion to declare it Their speaking of Peace is well if with it they join Truth for they ought not to be asunder no Christian is to betray Truth for Peace-sake Now if a Person of the Godhead be described as it is by an incommunicable Subsistence of the Divine Essence the Socinian shall not be acquitted as he pretends It is not my work neither is this a place to shew how frivolous that Plea would prove at the Bar of the Law but I am sure in my Book I sufficiently demonstrated it to be a vain Subterfuge and against the Gospel That trimming Spirit in them which because they have not the upper hand one may easily perceive to Rule throughout in both Letters puts me in mind of the Popish Methods in such Cases as among other Instances it appears by what passed in 1561 in that great Assembly at Poissy in France which the then French King Charles IX appointed to meet and in his Presence therein to have free Conference about Religion between some of the Popish Clergy and some of the Protestant Ministers Because as yet things were not ripe for their Designs they by means of those Conferences would try whether some way might be found out to plaister things over and for the present to compose Differences in order thereunto after some discourses about the Sacraments which between the Cardinal of Lorrain and Theodorus Beza had happened in the K. of Navarr's Chamber where they met accidentally the Popish Party being not willing to venture their Cause upon Disputes first by the Doctors of Sorbon and lastly by the Cardinal of Tournon in the name of the whole Clergy desired the King and Queen-Mother to give the Protestants no Hearing who by the Mouth of Beza had already made a Speech in the Assembly and given an account of their Confession of Faith So then these Publick Conferences not doing the work they did set up Private ones first between Two and Two then between Five and Five of both Religions and among these for the Protestants Peter Martyr was one the Point was about the Lord's Supper On the Popish side the design was not to find out the Truth but only such words as each side might Interpret on his behalf To that purpose several Formules which here I need not to insert were by the Papists offered the Protestants but being ambiguous captious and such as might be understood in a double sense Beza for Conclusion said We must say all or nothing because indeed the Mystery of that Holy Sacrament must be explained The like was practised in their Council of Trent where happened great Heats between the Dominicans and Franciscans about several Points wherein they differ but to displease neither side their Canons about those Matters before they were passed they shewed to both Parties and penn'd them in such Words and Expressions as each side might favourably Interpret for his own Opinion Thus Socinians would follow the same way and admit of such words as may be taken in their Sense and ours too yet tho' we should agree about the Terms they know we do not in the Signification they for Peace sake submit to the Phrase of the Church and own Three Persons yet Interpret it not as the Church doth Again They seem desirous to wash their hands of Socinianism yet defend it as much as they are able Vpon the prudent Explication which hath been given of some obnoxious Terms they weave the Dispute and come in as Brethren yet still believe not as the Church doth nay if we will believe them we are all of a perfect Agreement but if we examine it will be found if by these pretended last Concessions of theirs we agree 't is about some Words when the difference about Things still remains And as then Papists were only to have things quiet for the present so I perceive Socinians are now content it should be so between us to see whether Times may happen to turn for them then indeed they would declare by the word Person they mean not an Incommunicable Subsistence of the Godhead but only an Attribute as Wisdom Love that Christ is God and Son of God by Favour not by Nature and by eternal Generation But all such Trimmers to speak in Job's Words are Physicians of no value and such Remedies cannot cure the Wound but it will break out again and this I call daubing with untempered Mortar 't is not enough to ease of the Pain but the cause must be removed which is the only way to cure for certain and to prevent Relapses this I bring in to shew how Socinians are not so averse from such Popish Practices as they pretend to be and if we narrowly inquire into it we shall find they are willing to join with them in the Practice of the following Maxim where they are the weakest they first pretend for Moderation and Toleration then for an Equality afterwards struggle for Superiority and at last destroy any one that to a hairs Breadth would not come up to what they would have for as Papists brag of a Spirit of Infallibility intailed upon their Church so Socinians are of opinion that the Spirit of God if they own any such thing is departed from other Christian Societies only to be among them who look upon themselves as the only true Interpreters of God's Word as Socinus doth applaud himself in his new fangled Expositions