Order and Decency or whatever is of Indisputable Decency according to the Manners and Custom of our Native Country these are the utmost Bounds of Prescription All things else are to be Comprimiz'd by Agreement and Suffrage and even these necessary things are to be Managed by Doctrine Rational Convicton Exhortation Admonition Rebuke and even Charge and Command with all Authority in the Evidences of the Divine Word and Will and no otherwise For this I say again is the more abundant Honour the Rulers or more Honourable Members of the Church are to invest the lowest with to Circulate with them the Life and Spirits of Truth by transfusing the Advantages of all the Light and Knowledge they have that they as Living Wise and Intellectual Members also may judge what is Commanded them by God and not be as Fools or Lifeless Members For what Blood Spirits and Life are in the Body that is Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding in the Will of God in the Church And in all Indifferent things the very same Freedom the Foot hath to represent to the higher Powers of Nature what offends it and is immedately heard the very same Power the lowest Member of the Church hath to remonstrate to the Higher what Scandalizes it in the accepting this or that Indifferent Ceremony and it ought as feelingly as immediately to be heard For as the same Soul is present to all parts of the Natural Body so the same Spirit of the Head of the Church animates his whole Body the Church which is the Fulness or Complement the Receptacle of his Fulness the Fulness in which he will appear Full and Compleat who fills all in all As therefore the Head it self feels by this Spiritual Union so are the Eyes and Ears the Higher Members of this Body to do And if they do not so feel it argues an Interruption between them and the Head it self for that most concernfully reciprocates with the whole Body and the extreamest part of it and so does every part inliven'd by him also if there be no Intercision nor Obstruction betwixt it and the Head Quest Is there yet any further Reason against a Power in the Rulers of the Church for imposing in things of indifferency under the Names of Decency and Order Answ There is the great Reason of the Mischief of Scandal to be added to all that hath been spoken Quest What is to be understood by Scandal Answ Scandal is a Subject of Discourse of too large a Compass for the present purpose but as it is strictly to be adjusted to it it may be thus understood Scandal is that Hurt and Grief a Man receives in Submitting either to Humane Example or Imposition in things of themselves neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God when the Conscience is in doubt whether that which is required to be done be not displeasing to God and forbidden by him or that which is required to be omitted or not done is not pleasing to God and Commanded by him and yet submits it self to be led by that Example or Commanded by such Impositions and so falls into Sin and under a wound of Conscience Quest When the thing is indeed neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God how can it be changed by the Conscience being in Doubt concerning it Answ Because the Conscience is that complex or congregated Power of the Soul wherein are preserved all the Doctrines to be believed and Rules of Action to the end that it may observe and direct how the Soul is to Govern it self and square all its Actions to the Will of God and that it may comfort or check the Soul in doing Well or Ill according to those Doctrines or Rules Wherein then Conscience is mistaken and misjudges either way against that which is Commanded by God or for that which is forbidden by him there is nothing to be done but to reduce Conscience to its Right Rules which is the Will of God in every thing revealed in his Word But in things neither Commanded nor Forbidden if Conscience be apprehensive of danger any way this is the Honour and Dignity that God hath conferred upon Conscience as his immediate Vicegerent in the Soul and carrying his Authority by always presenting it in his Word and Command that a Man should suspend his Action wherein Conscience is not satisfied and at rest concerning the Goodness of the Action and this is the Honour which those that are above either in their Authority in the Church or the strength of their Understanding Gifts or Graces should bestow upon those that are below that they should not either by their Authority Influence or Example Scandalise the little ones or the weak that are so either in regard of their low Station or the weakness of their Gifts and Graces that is draw them into the Sin of doing any thing of which Conscience hath a mistrust of displeasing God in so doing in regard that it both weakens and disables Conscience in the discharge of that Trust reposed in it for the carrying on the Soul in a Christian Course its Authority being violated and prostrated in the reverence due to it and disturbs the Peace and Comfort it ought to Minister to the Soul in that Course For by this sort of Scandal the Apostle Witnesses the Weak Christian falls into Sin his Conscience is defiled is wounded is grieved is made weak All the mischief of which the value of indifferent things is not such as that it can answer and make recompense for and so to sin thus against the weak is to destroy them for whom Christ died and therefore to sin against Christ which is the reason of those weighty Discourses of our Saviour against Scandal Mark 18. and of the Apostle Rom. 4. and 1 Cor. c. 8. and cap. 10. which being compared give great light one to another Quest But it seems that a Conscience only in doubt might be setled by the Advice Example and Authority of those that are the Elders or Eminent Members of the Church for when Doubt supposes the Conscience inclining neither this way nor that way in it self but standing between both or sometimes moving to one side and then to the other the coming in of those Considerations taken from the Example and Authority forenamed should give an over-weight to that side on which they fall Answ Yet on purpose to shew the great Dignity of Conscience and its Government without which approving and directing accordingly even Obedience to the Divine Commands wants the just Complement of a Good Action and also to shew of how little moment in Christianity all things are not under a Divine Sanction the whole weight of the Apostles Discourse is hung upon a doubting Conseience a Conscience in doubt concerning things indifferent when urg'd either way Quest But are not all Sinnews of Government hereby cut and dissolv'd even of Civil Government for Conscience may be in relation to such Commands disatisfied Answ As Scripture every where supposes the whole Government
Sense and that with Clamour and too often with rude Force Quest What are the Instances of the Mischief of making Defection from this Publick Catholik Divine Truth for Private Sense Answ The Angels Fall from Heaven was certainly upon Private Sense and Interest Adam's from Innocency and Paradise upon the same the Jews Fall from being the Church and People of God was upon the Idiotism of having Religion for their own All Idolatry and Superstitions of Heathens have risen from hence All the Heresies in the Church have come from an over love to Private Opinion This is the most damnable Antichristianism of Rome to make its Private Catholick All Persecutions of Heathens Romes Inquisition and Massacres have been inflam'd in this Furnace the love of making Private Publick And in lesser and more unfundamental Points Private Interpretation enforc'd as if it were Publick hath discompos'd the Peace of the Purest and best reformed Churches and not only disturb'd their Peace but stain'd their Purity Quest I seem to my self in all this unhappy Babelism or Confusion of Religion to be very apprehensive for the Glory of God and Religion Answ It is most necessary to be zealous for Divine Glory and for the Honour of Religion that Rivers of Tears should run down our Eyes because of the Injuries done by Men to the Divine Law But yet to be so concern'd as to be scandalised is to forget that God is infinitely more the Publick than we are and therefore to be offended at his Disposes is to make our Private the Publick We must then consider that if God does not miraculously interpose it must needs be so it is no other than the Necessity of the Case Men moving with so great Disadvantages as the Active Soul of Man does in so great a Concern as Religion is in our highest Interest and as thereupon Men will make use of it in the present World it must needs be so There must be Heresies in Religion But that this Mormo or dreadful Apparition may vanish we must remember 1. That to the Soul humble and fearing God all that is of Grand Interest in Faith Worship and Practice is so Publick and evidently Divine that no Man need be ever learning and never come to the Knowledge of the Truth After this God hath given this Employment to those that through Office or Desire set themselves to seek and intermeddle with all Knowledge to travel with advantage to themselves and others in their Inquiries into the whole Compass of Divine Knowledge whatever Difficulty can be supposed to be in things of higher Advance to Salvation is resolv'd to them that do the Will of God as a Reward of their Obedience They shall know the Doctrines that are of God that rise higher towards Heaven than others The due and diligent Search after Wisdom is a Test upon the truly Sincere and well-resolv'd in Religion that have in them another Spirit as Caleb to follow God fully and do not as the Israelites bring up an ill Report on this good Land as if the Difficulties were unconquerable and the Entertainment Hungry and Barren through the many Disputes and Differences in Religion Hereby lastly the Conduct of the Free Spirit is seen leading into all Truth and the Unction of the Holy One by which the True Christian knows all things necessary to him to be known appears most desirable and necessary Thus the Wise and Holy Government of God who brings Light out of these Clouds and Darkness is made manifest and it is to be ascribed to the Infinite Perfection of Light with the Father of Lights who is without any variation or shadow of turning Quest What Rule is then to be observed in the great Diversities of Men in Religion that may most abound to the Honour of Catholick Religion Answ To own and embrace any thing we find in any Man or Society of Men that is truly Catholick if it be but according to the Light of Natural Religion to joyn with them in the Performance of any of such Services so far as they will admit it and keep to the Simplicity and Sincerity of them according to the Instances before-named of Jonah and St. Paul And much more should we do this when True Revealed Religion is joyned with Natural if nothing be requir'd of us that corrupts and defiles it No Man's Errour in which we are not forced to communicate should drive us from Truth or any part of it And upon these Foundations we should endeavour to win further and further upon all to bring them home to God wherein they wander We should make Allowances to every Man differing in smaller things receiving him without conditioning him to subscribe to us in things of Doubtful that is Private Disputation If any one erre from the Truth and one convert him by Evidences of that Truth let him know that he that converts a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a Multitude of Sins But if we cannot be admitted to such Communions with those that are so enslav'd to False or would bring us under the power of Private or will have nothing to do with us nor admit us to them we must not yet desert our Catholick Respect to all that is True and Good among them but acknowledging what is so value and praise it desire the Divine Acceptance for them in any Good thing so as to bring them out of the Errours they have adjoyned to it and as you have opportunity reason them out of the one by the Evidence of the other CAP. V. Of the Publick or Divine Original of Sacred Writing or Scripture Quest SEeing Scripture is the only Publick Record of True Pure Natural Religion and more eminently of Revealed it is most necessary to be fully informed in all Points concerning it And first What Care God hath been pleased to take that his Word and purely that should be committed to Writing Answ God held the Hands and Pens of Holy Men by an efficacious overshadowing their Minds and conducting all their Motions that they could not erre In some things he so fully possessed their Understandings and Affections with a full Knowledge and Sense of what they were to reveal that they could not so much as muse any thing Strange or Diverse from what they were so carried and born by the Divine Spirit in even as Elijah in his Body In other things wherein they could not look round about them nor fully comprehend what the Spirit in them did signifie though they convey'd it to After-times yet they were by Almighty Impressions upon all their Faculties necessary to that Service held in stronger than Adamantine Confinements that they could not extravagate from Divine Truths Even Balaam thus overpower'd against his will could not go beyond the Word of the Lord to speak either Good or Evil upon the greatest Reward much less Holy Men whose Wills were perfectly resigned to the Divine Will Quest But was not there a
Possibility those Holy Men Writers of Scripture might at other times when the Spirit was not so immediately present to them alter or add of another Alloy to what themselves had been the Instruments of conveying from God to the World Or might not Pretenders arise and give out False Scripture to the World that had none of that True Spirit Answ When once any Part of Divine Testimony was committed to Writing it became a Boundary to those very Penmen much more to all others that they were always concluded by it So that besides the Dread and Awe of God and of the great Sin of Falsification of his Truth or Name they could not alter any thing so as to disagree with what they had before spoken by the Divine Spirit whose Righteous Judgments endure for ever nor could they so much as imitate themselves when unassisted by the Holy Spirit When therefore they did not understand by immediaâ—â— Assistance the utmost End and Reach of what themselâ—â—â— were enabled to speak and write they did and they could do no more search and pronounce by all the best ordinary Helps God afforded them but could change nothing could add nothing they searched what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ in them did signifie they could not pronounce of the Time when not revealed to them They knew the dreadful Anathema ready to fall even upon an Angel from Heaven that should preach another Gospel The least Iota once established by Unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness was less movable than Heaven and Earth and would bear no Addition but of the same Authority by which it self was given And even the very Manner Method Words as they meet to carry such a Sense have their Majesty and Divineness so that whatever was by Inspiration from God bridled that which was not and they that were inspir'd knew in what they were inspir'd and what they spoke as so inspired and in what they were not but were as Samson with his Locks cut no more than like other Men and most cautiously distinguish'd betwixt the one and the other Nothing therefore hath assayed to joyn it self to Scripture if any hath dar'd to do it it hath been rejected by it when not of the High and Publick Spirit of it Quest But did not the Writers of the New Testament reverse the Writings and Commands of the Old which thing so scandalised the Jews against our Lord his Disciples and Gospel Answ No otherwise than as the Sun commands the Shadow to fly away and the lesser Lights to retire when it self appears or the things typ'd out being come make useless the Types so that they necessarily give place or as Pictures vail when the Life is present Else there was such a Respect to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those of the New as to avow them of God before them â—nd Elder Scripture than themselves so that they vouch'd them for all they said and taught and staid the time of themselves being tried proved and sufficiently confirmed and Canonized into Scripture by the Scriptures that were undoubtedly so before them and in the very same Methods that they came into the Honour of being Scripture Upon which account the Apostle calls them the more sure Word of Prophesie more sure because of greater Antiquity and Elder Reception into Scripture than that Historical Relation and Doctrine which yet was immediately to pass into Scripture of the same Authority and Value with former Scripture and of greater Evidence and Divine Clearness and recommended by Higher Appearances of Divinity And on this same account the New Testament derives it self from the Old sometimes by Proofs out of it drawn according to the most regular Trains and Consequences sometimes by more immediate and authoritative Interpretation but of the same Publick and Divine Inspiration with the Prophecy of Old Time it self as shall be presently more fully discours'd under the Head of Interpretation Quest How far and to what things does the Rule of the Word of God extend Answ To all things most assuredly that are necessary to Salvation and Eternal Life or to the true perfecting the Conscience in Purity and Peace whether they are things to be believed as the Springs of Heavenly Action or Things to be observed in the Worship of God or to guide the Practice and order the Conversation aright to that Salvation or that are prescribed according to the Will of God for Discipline and Government of the Church All these are plainly written or by just Consequences to be derived from the Word of God so far as they are necessary to shew Men the way to please God or to assure them they do please God that so they may attain the Promise of Eternal Life Quest Is there no other Rule of Religion then but the Scriptures embracing the Law of Nature Answ There can be none except either Religion were not derived wholly from God and therefore not so Catholick as we have asserted it or except any other Record of Religion can shew its Descent as High and Publick as Scripture does Of which Proof which Scripture gives of it self and what it is Inquiry is in the next place to be made CAP. VI. Of the Proof of Scripture That it is of God and that the Proof also is Publick and Divine Quest WHat kind of Proof of so Divine a Record as Scripture is high enough to prove it to be so Divine Answ That which is even as the Original of Scripture Divine also Quest Why must the Proof or Evidence of Scripture be Divine Answ 1. Because it is below the Dignity of Divine to receive its principal Proof from Private or lower than Divine or Publick 2. Because nothing but Divine can so reach the Conscience as to fill and possess it with satisfactory Evidence in so great a Concernment as Religion nor strikes the Heart with those great Effects of Love to Fear of Joy in Scripture and the Word of God so essential to Religion but Divine When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth the Word of God 3. Because it is impossible what is truly Divine should not dart the Rays of Divinity as all other Things of Excellency send out the Beams of that Excellency they have and thereby discover themselves For we know all things especially by themselves The Light remonstrates it self by it self The Genius of every Writer shews it self first by it self We see the Divineness of Creation and Miracles by themselves Best and Greatest is self-evidently Divine and whatever it is written upon is evidently Divine also Quest How does Scripture shew it self thus Divine Answ By a Majestick Assumption to it self to be Divine it speaks so in and of all things it speaks and as it pleases effects as Divine only does and can effect and is the Best and Greatest Record of Truth to all Holy and Wise Minds The only extant inviolate Record of Natural and
Reason No other but Interpretation and that strictly taken will fit the Apostles Purpose Quest What was the Apostles Purpose Answ To assure the Jewish Christians in the Truth of Christianity out of that more sure Word of Prophesie in the Old Testament Quest Was it not then to the purpose to assure the Divine Original of that Word of Prophesie and to assert its immediate Descent from the Publick Holy Spirit Answ That indeed was necessarily suppos'd and included or rather concluded on all hands but not the close Point in discourse For the Sacredness of the Old Testament being agreed both by Jews and Christians the Apostle commends the giving heed to it as to a Light that shone in a dark place a great Lamp shining when all was dark and deep Night about till the Day of the Gospel dawn'd and Christ the Day-star arose in their Hearts by Faith Quest What was the precise Mark the Apostle was to aim at Answ To vindicate the true way of Interpreting this sure Word of Prophesie Quest Why was this so much to his purpose Answ Because the whole Stream of Interpretation of the Old Testament among the Jews run against Christianity Quest Whence came this Current of False Interpretation Answ Even from whence Interpretation might seem least of all to deserve the name of Private from the Scribes and Pharisees Doctors of the Law Elders of the People who vogued themselves the Publick and so Proprietors of the Sense and Interpretation of the Scriptures but as our Saviour says they had indeed taken away this true Key of Knowledge neither entring in themselves nor suffering those that would Quest How does the Apostle vindicate this Point Answ By a vehement Caution on those to whom he vrit to measure from the Publick and Divine Original of Scripture to the Interpretation as necessarily to be Publick and Divine also You do well saith he to take heed to the Word of Prophesie of the Old Testament as yet more sure to you than the New can be if you do but know and well consider this first and lay it in the Foundation That Scripture cannot be subject to a Private Interpretation whose Original you your selves together with us acknowledge as Publick as the Holy Spirit For can that be subject to the Will and Dispose of Man in the Interpretation that came not by the Will of Man but by the Supreme Motion of the Holy Ghost in the Original Quest Wherein lies the Strength of this Argument Answ In this If the Interpretation of Scripture be not as high as the Original so high an Original is to no purpose For Sense being more Scripture than Words and Interpretation assigning the Sense if That be Private All is Private at the Rebound and not Divine else a Divine Original shall be mismatch'd controll'd and even made servile by and to a Private and often a False and Unworthy Interpretation Quest Into what Vse and Effect did this Argument issue Answ To a silent calling them to compare the Manner and Kind of Interpretation used by the Lord and his Apostles and that other of the Jewish Doctors and then to udge which appeared Divine and from God which not and they would easily give the Preference to our Lord and his Ministers as the only Divine Interpreters Quest How then did our Saviour and the Apostles justifie their Interpretation to be Publick and Divine Answ By one of the two fore-named ways either from the evident Importance of some very express Scriptures of the Old Testament applied in the New as David's calling Christ who was his Son Lord which muzled the very Adversaries or by the immediate Presence of the Divine Spirit discovering what it had treasured and sealed up in such Expressions which Eye could not see nor Heart conceive till in due time the Spirit it self revealed them The Spirit that knows its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scripture to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if