more plainly than to be humble and modest and that as we ought to fear God so likewise to honour the King and his Ministers and to obey those that watch over our Souls nay to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake Which will dispose us most certainly if we be not carried away with pride or any other vicious affection to be ruled by them in dubious things and as it there follows in the Apostle 1 Thess V. 13. to be at peace among our selves I must beseech therefore every Member of this Church both for the honour of our Religion and for the safety of their own Souls to be as careful in this matter as I would have them to be in reading the Holy Scriptures Take your Guides along with you do not think your selves safe without their conduct be not only willing but desirous to learn of them reverence their Instructions do not easily dissent from them be afraid to oppose them especially when you have reason to think them to be serious studious knowing and conscientious men who take care to inform themselves aright that they may not misinform you For such men look upon themselves to be bound as hath been shown in the Treatise of Tradition pag. 24. to guide themselves in their Direction of others by what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have taught out of the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and thereby preserve their Flocks in the Truth of God's holy Word And having a great regard also to the sense of that Church wherein they live which by their Subscriptions they owne to have Authority in Controversies of Faith they will no less preserve them in Unity and in Peace To conclude it is impossible but every body must reap great fruit by the reading of the Scriptures if they read them for no other end but that they may go away better from the reading of them than they came to it and that they may not accommodate them to their own affections but correct all their affections and desires and the whole course of their life by this exact Rule of Righteousness According to which if we square our selves we shall presently learn in difficult things to be wise unto sobriety and in plain things to be wise unto Salvation that is so wise as to do what we certainly know to be our Duty which is the only Wisdom that the Scriptures magnifie Which will be the surest way both to know more and to know it better that is to feel the comfort of what we know in a blessed and assured hope of everlasting life which God who cannot lye hath promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The End of the First Part. PART II. HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourse that those words of St Peter 2. III. 16. which are wont to be alledged against the reading of Holy Scriptures do plainly suppose that the people did then read them I proceed now in the next place to shew that the Apostle doth not deter men from reading them by representing the difficulties that are in them and the danger of wresting them For he doth not affirm that all things are hard to be understood and consequently liable to be wrested but only that some things are of that nature In treating of which three things offer themselves to be considered I. First that most things in the Holy Scriptures are so far from being hard to be understood that they are easy Nay all things absolutely necessary for us are very easy II. Secondly That those things which are not so easy may be understood though there be some difficulty in it That is they will require some pains to understand them which should not deter us from reading but only make us laborious to find out the sense of what we read III. Thirdly When we do thoroughly understand and heartily believe the things that are easie it will abate much of that difficulty and make other things more easie I. I begin with the first of these the Apostle only saith some things are hard to be understood which supposes that most are not but rather easie as all those things especially are which are absolutely necessary to be known and believed and done for the obtaining Salvation That which makes things easie to be understood is the plain and perspicuous delivery of them in the words wherein they are written or spoken Now nothing an be plainer or clearer than the words wherein all the great Christian Truths are revealed and delivered to us which are so far from being obscure that it is not easier to see the light than it is to apprehend and understand the true meaning of them I will instance in some particulars and have an Eye all the way upon St. Paul's Epistles to which S. Peter is commonly thought to have respect wherein though some things be difficult yet these are most clearly discovered First That there is but one God the Father of whom are all things as he expresly writes 1 Cor. VIII 6. Secondly That He alone is to be worshipped as our Blessed Saviour remembers us out of Moses IV. Matt. 10. was the great thing pressed in his very entrance into any place where he preach'd 1 Thess l. 9 10. XVII Acts 23 24. Thirdly As our Lord teaches us that we are ingaged by our Baptism to worship one God in three Persons XXVIII Matth. 19. So S. Paul affirms the same plainly enough in that Solemn Prayer for the Corinthians 2. XIII ult The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Especially if it be compared with those places wherein he affirms our Saviour to be over all God blessed for ever IX Rom. 5. and the Spirit to search even the deep things of God that is to know his Mind exactly for so it follows 1 Cor. II. 10 11. that as none can know the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Which plainly tells us if we mind it that the Spirit of God is in God as the spirit of man is in man that is the Spirit is God himself and therefore fully acquainted with him in all things There is some little labour indeed in making this deduction but it is very easie if we consider all these places together Fourthly And the Nature of God none can possibly be ignorant of who doth but look into the Holy Books Where he will immediately see Him represented to be Almighty most Wise most Gracious Faithful to his Word and the living God who endures for ever Which are Truths written there in such great Letters that every one who runs as the Prophet speaks and doth but cast a transient eye upon them may easily read them Fifthly Particularly his infinite love and kindness towards us the children of men lies before us so fairly and shines so brightly in our
Search the Scriptures A TREATISE Shewing that all CHRISTIANS Ought to READ the HOLY BOOKS WITH DIRECTIONS To them therein In Three PARTS LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1685. Introduction THE Holy Scriptures as the first Homily of our Church teaches all its Children in the very beginning of it are such a Fountain and Well of Truth that as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God must apply their minds to be acquainted with them without which they can neither sufficiently know God and his Will nor their own Office and Duty For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to love and what to look for at God's hands at length And therefore these Books ought to be much in our hands in our eyes in our ears in our mouths but most of all in our hearts Vnto which sort of Discourse which is grounded upon the VI. Article of our Religion they of the Church of Rome are wont to make a double Exception One is That there are some things necessary to be believed and practised which are not to be found there but must be received from ancient Traditions The other is That those Truths which are delivered in the Holy Scriptures are not so clear and perspicuous that common people should be intrusted with the reading of them Now to the First of these there hath been some time ago a plain Answer made in a Discourse about Traditions Therefore this Treatise is intended only as an Answer to the Second Exception For the maintaining of which they are wont to alledge among other places those remarkable words of St. Peter in his Second Epistle the Third Chapter and Sixteenth Verse Where having made mention of St. Paul's Epistles which treated of the same matter that he had just before explained he says In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Behold say they how dangerous it is for common people to meddle with the Holy Scriptures which being compared by St. Paul himself to a two edged Sword ought not to be put into their hands for fear they destroy themselves therewith It is true indeed the same St. Paul teaches us Rom. XV. 4. that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning and are profitable as he writes elsewhere 2 Tim. III. 16. for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness But this notwithstanding there are say they such difficulties and obscurities in the Holy Scriptures as we learn from this great Apostle St. Peter that they ought not to be thought profitable for all people but rather hurtful to them that are ignorant who therefore ought not to read them By which single Instance the Reader may learn if he mark it well what sort of Interpretations of Scripture we are like to have if we trust to them alone and do not see with our own eyes when these very words of St. Peter do plainly teach us the quite contrary Doctrine to that which they would establish by them I. For they are so far from containing a Reason why the people should not read them that First they evidently suppose the common people even the unlearned among them did in those days read the Scriptures Else they could not have wrested them as the Apostle says they did and complains of that but not of their reading them And II. Secondly These words do not affirm the whole Scripture to be hard to be understood but only some part of it St. Paul's Epistles at the most or rather the things of which St. Peter had been treating And not all of them neither but only some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some few things which would require pains and diligent attention of mind to comprehend the meaning of them And III. Thirdly The Apostle doth not say that all who read those difficult passages are in danger to wrest them but only the unlearned and unstable who abuse the plainest Truths to their own ruine As for others they may read even the hardest places in St. Paul's Epistles safely enough nay receive great profit from thence as well as from other Scriptures and they who wrest them are not to leave reading them but to grow in true Christian knowledge and in Stability of mind These are the three Parts of the insuing Discourse In treating and reading of which Let us pray to God as the second Homily concludes that we may speak think believe live and depart hence according to the wholsom Doctrine and Verities of these holy Books And by that means in this World have God's defence favour and grace with the unspeakable solace of peace and quietness of Conscience and after this miserable life enjoy the endless Bliss and Glory of Heaven PART I. THat the Right of God's People to read the Holy Scriptures is not at all prejudiced by these words of St. Peter appears from hence That the Wresting of the Scriptures by the unlearned and unstable doth suppose that even such persons did then read them Which overthrows the Conclusion which they of the Roman Church endeavour to draw from this place For there had been no possibility of perverting their sense if they had not been in their hands at that time as they are in ours now And yet the Apostle doth not reprehend their medling with them but their Ignorance and their heedlesnes which was the cause they misunderstood them and might have been prevented by a little diligence and care without throwing them quite away For the fault was not there but in themselves who came to the perusal of holy things with unprepared minds Now for the establishing of this Truth that the people were not then and therefore ought not now to be debarred the liberty of reading the holy Books which God our Saviour hath left unto his Church as a common Inheritance you may be pleased to weigh these things following which will fully settle your minds in this perswasion I. First That the ancient People of God the Jews were not only permitted but required by God himself to be so conversant in the Law of Moses and so well acquainted with it as to be able to teach their Children God's Commandments and for that end to talk of them when they sate in their houses or walkt by the way when they lay down and when they rose up nay to write them upon the doors of their houses and on their gates that whensoever they went out or came in they might have them before their eyes and be put in mind of them Deut. VI. 6 7 8. This the Lawgiver thought a matter of so great importance that a little after in the very same Book he enjoyns it over again for fear they should neglect it Chap. XI 18 19 20. For the very Root and
with there unto this end and not think we know it well till we see how we may be made better thereby I cannot express this in fewer or more proper words than Erasmus hath done long ago in more places of his Works than one particularly in his Dedication of his Paraphrase on St. Matthew to the Emperour Charles the V. Since the Evangelists wrote the Gospel to every body I do not see why every body should not read it And I have so handled it that the most illiterate may understand it Now it will be read with the greatest profit if when any man takes it in his hand it be with this mind ut seipso reddatur melior c. that he may be rendred better than himself and do not accommodate the Gospel to his own affections but correct his own life and all his desires by the Rule of the Gospel I conclude this with that Saying of Seneca In the same plat of ground the Ox seeks for grass the Hound seeks for a Hare and the Stork for a Snake and just so it is with those that read the same Scripture wherein one seeks himself and another seeks the World one studies that is to please himself with the History of ancient Times another to furnish himself with the knowledge that belongs to his Profession but he alone reads it as he ought who therein seeks for God and desires to be filled with the knowledge of his Will that he may walk before him in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work I. Coloss 9 10. IV. And whosoever he is that designs this great End and comes to learn to be good with an honest mind and heart let him be careful to observe one Rule more which is To study and well digest the first Elements of Christ's Religion For as he will never read nor write exactly that doth not learn to spell truly and he must understand syllables before he understands words and sentences so he will never find the saving Power of the Gospel thoroughly working on his Spirit that keeps not the first Truths always in his mind and deeply rooted in his Heart The prime Principle of our Faith is That Jesus is the Son of God that He speaks from Heaven to us the unerring Will of our Creator The Gospel will not have any efficacy upon us unless we carry this along in our thoughts when we apply our selves to study it that this is the Voice of God this is the Mind and Will of Him that made us how shall we escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven to us This if we carry in mind while we read the Scriptures they will over-awe us and make us have Grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear We shall not dare to read them as we do some humane History wherein we are not all concerned but with attention with seriousness and with diligence tracing the Lord Jesus as pious Disciples of his in every step observing what he said and what he did And thus seeking and searching and hunting after Him every where as Erasmus his words are in his Preface to his Annotations on the N. T. we shall find in that most simple and rude Scripture the ineffable Counsel of celestial Wisdom we shall see in that foolishness of God if we may so speak which at first sight appears mean and contemptible that which far excels all humane prudence though never so sublime and admirable And the next Principle is like to it viz. That the Lord Jesus will come to judge the World in righteousness according to his Gospel This if we thought of that we shall be judged and have Sentence passed upon us by this Rule we could not but lay it to heart and square our life by it Therefore let these first Principles of Faith be strongly sixed in our mind and always be in our thoughts and let us think we have as much use of them as he that reads hath of his Letters which are the first Elements of Learning Then for the Principles of Practice this is the prime the chief the most fundamental in the whole Gospel He that will be my Disciple must deny himself forsake all and take up his Cross and follow me This our Saviour tells his Disciples again and again upon several occasions X. Matth. 38. XVI 24. IX Luke 23. XIV 27 33. In the last of which places he lets them know that it is as foolish to think of being a Christian without learning this Lesson as it is for a man to begin the building of a Tower before he hath computed the Charge or for a Prince to undertake a War without considering both his own force and the strength of his Opposer The sense of which two Parables our Lord summs up in these words So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple In which few words we have this account made to our hands as a great Doctor of ours speaks that e're we can hope to be built up in the Faith of Christ or safely ingage in the War against the Devil the World and the Flesh we must make over our interest in all that is dear unto us here and resign it up to our Lord Christ holding nothing so precious as his Love and his Salvation That is the meaning of this Lesson We must not prize any thing so much as the Mercy Grace and Favour of God in Christ Jesus All the contentments of this life and life it self must not weigh so much with us as God's good esteem of us his affection to us the Honour Glory and Immortality that Christ hath promised us When we have once learnt this and have it by heart there will be no difficulty in learning all the rest The immediate result of it will be an unfeigned feigned assent to the truth and goodness of all that Christ the Prince of Life hath revealed unto us and an uniform obedience to his Holy Will in all things For then there will be Nothing left to oppose him Nothing to gainsay him no interest no head-strong affection and desire to resist the impulsions of Divine Truth whose natural property is to incline and sway the Soul to all kinds and to every part of true goodness It is our duty then to ruminate upon these things over and over again to repeat these Lessons continually to our selves till they become familiar to us and have seated themselves in our hearts not thinking we know them till we feel them nor imagining we feel them to purpose till we be transformed into them That is an excellent Saying of the Hebrews He that learns the Law and doth not repeat it is like to him that sows his seed and never reaps nor binds it into sheaves that he may carry it home into his Barn And this He that repeats his Lesson an hundred times is not so wise as he that repeats it an hundred
alledge them to prove that a General Council cannot err These words cannot alike serve all these purposes as our Divines rightly have observed for a Pope may err where a Council doth not and a General Council may err where the truly Catholick Church cannot And therefore it is not the evidence of things which leads men thus to expound the Holy Scriptures but their own private affections and their several interests and designs to the advancement of which they easily consent to apply them Not attending to the clear scope of them or rather shutting their eyes not only to that but to the main scope of the whole Book of God and to all other Notices which would give them better direction And solve also even many seeming difficulties which are in the Scripture or at least guide us so evenly that we shall pass safely by them Which is the third General Truth I propounded in the beginning of this Part of my Discourse III. AMONG all those things which we are concerned to learn there are none thought more difficult than several passages in St. Paul's Epistles some part of which St. Peter had in his eye when he concluded his Second Epistle But I may be confident that if we will admit or take up no sense of them that is contrary to such known and confessed Truths as are on all sides embraced we may give a fair account of them at least preserve our selves from making any dangerous construction of them That which above all the rest is thought to be of greatest difficulty is his Doctrine of Election and Reprobation which some take to be the things hard to be understood in St. Paul's Epistles But if we stick close to the known fixed Principles of Reason and Religion which are naturally written on our Hearts or revealed by our Saviour we shall be led thereby unto a fair and easie interpretation of his meaning in these matters For there is an Election of whole Nations and there is an Election of particular Persons and they are elected either to enjoy the means of Grace or to partake of Eternal Salvation The first of these it is evident are absolute and have no dependence upon any thing we do but the latter are not as St. Paul expresly teaches us 2 Thess II. 13. where he saith God had chosen them to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth Faith was supposed to this and the fruits of Faith in Sanctity and Holiness They were not chosen to Salvation but through these though they were chosen to be made partakers of the Grace of the Gospel before these The like may be said concerning Reprobating or rejecting men Which sometimes plainly concerns whole Nations and sometimes particular Persons and sometimes is only from the Priviledges they formerly enjoyed sometimes from Eternal Life both of them for their sins and the former the National rejection from their former Priviledges is designed by God to prevent the latter viz. the final destruction of every one of them which he doth not desire Thus God reprobated or rejected and cast away Israel as St. Paul teaches in the Epistle to the Romans But it was not with an intention that they should utterly perish No he saith more than once God forbid i. e. he abhorred such a thought he disclaimed any such meaning For quite contrary by their being rejected from enjoying the Priviledges they formerly had the Gentiles were brought to Christianity and the end of that was to provoke the Jews also to jealousie and move them at last to bethink themselves better and to repent of their sin and be saved Let any man read seriously the Tenth and Eleventh Chapters of that Epistle and he will be satisfied that the Reprobation spoken of in the Ninth Chapter was such that they might notwithstanding be restored into the favour of God and be finally saved That is they were rejected from being his peculiar people as they had been but not from all hope of his Mercy if they did not continue a disobedient and gainsaying people For the Apostle still prays for them in the entrance of the Tenth Chapter and begins the Eleventh in this manner I say then Hath God cast away his people God forbid That is will any man infer then from what I have said that God hath utterly reprobated them never to receive them more No such matter none ought to interpret my words to such a sense which I disown nor did it ever come into my mind For I my self am an instance of the contrary being an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin c. And yet he saith afterward that God had blinded their eyes and given them a spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear according to that of David Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling-block c. v. 8 9 10. But what then Have they stumbled that they should fall and be utterly ruined God forbid but rather through their fall Salvation is come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousie v. 11. For if they did not abide still in Unbelief he shows they might be grafted into the Church again v. 23. And explains his mind still more fully in this matter v. 25. that blindness was hapned only in part to Israel till the fulness of the Gentiles was come in and so all Israel shall be saved For though they were as concerning the Gospel Enemies for our sake yet as touching the Election they were beloved for the Fathers sake They were not absolutely and finally reprobated but for the present did not believe that through the Mercy showed to us Gentiles they might also obtain Mercy For God concluded them all in Unbelief that he might have mercy upon all v. 28 31 32. All these expressions and a number more in that Chapter evidently demonstrate it was not an irrecoverable Rejection which the Apostle speaks of much less a Rejection without any respect to their sins but such a Rejection for their rejecting Christ as in the design of God was to bring them to Repentance and to Faith in Christ when they saw what they had lost and others had gained by their Infidelity He now that will interpret the Ninth Chapter according to the plain declared sense of the Apostle in this will have no hard work to undertake but easily see that as he speaks of the whole body of the Jewish Nation so he did not think them to be utterly lost but designed even their Reprobation for their recovery And now I might proceed to show if it would not inlarge this Treatise too much how the difficulties which are raised about Faith and Works are not so great neither as they seem if we firmly adhere to common Truths Which lead every man to conclude that the Faith which enters us into a state of Justification doth include in it an hearty purpose of well-doing and
according unto Godliness Unto which if men will not attend there is no remedy they will fall into Heresies or worse whether they read the Scriptures or read them not The Scripture it self tells us as much that there must be Heresies 1 Cor. XI 19. that is God will not hinder it unless men will be guided by him and be truly good But he hath a very good end as it there follows in permitting it which is that it may be manifest who are honest-hearted Christians sincerely in love with Truth and Goodness and who are not And that must be the care of every good man not to take or throw away the Scriptures to prevent Heresies but if Heresies do arise to endeavour according to the direction of the Scriptures to approve his integrity unto God by stedfast continuance in Faith and Holiness And after the same manner must he govern himself if the Guides of his Soul do not perform their Duty Which I shall represent in the words of Erasmus out of his Preface to the Reader before his Annotations on the New Testament It is the Pastors Office to distribute the Bread of Life to the people But what if they do not their Duty What must the people do They must implore the help of the Supreme Pastor Christ Jesus who still lives and hath not forsaken the care of his Flock But being solicited by the publick Prayers of his People will do what is promised in Ezekiel Behold I will both search my sheep and seek them out As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that they are scattered so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day with all the rest that there follows XXX Ezek. 12 13 c. The vulgar people are Sheep but endued with reason and out of those Sheep are Pastors made And sometimes it falls out that a Sheep may know more than his Pastor As a Lay-man therefore ought not seditiously to rebel against the Priests lest that order be confounded which St. Paul would have in the Body of Christ so the Priests ought not to exercise Tyranny over the Flock of Christ for if they do the Sedition will lye at their door When the Pastors do their duty they are to be reverently heard as Angels of God by whom Christ speaks to us And when they teach unsincerely the people must pick out all that 's good if there be any mixed with it But if they teach not at all or teach those things that are plainly repugnant to the Gospel let every man refresh his Soul with private reading And Christ who promises to be present when two or three are gathered together in his Name will not be wanting by his Spirit to one Soul that meditates piously in his Holy Word In vain are six thousand gathered together if it be not in his Name Now they are gathered together in Christ's Name who have respect to Nothing but his Glory and the eternal Salvation of their Souls CONCLVSION I shall conclude all with the sense of that great Man St. Athanasius who wrote a little Treatise on purpose to reprove the audaciousness as he calls it of those who said that it was needless to look into the Scriptures and bad men not to search into them nor to speak out of them but to content themselves with the Faith they had received For searching into the Scriptures said they doth but make things more obscure To which he replies many things which I might digest into Heads but I shall present them to the Reader just as they lie in the Second Tome of his Works pag. 295. of the Paris Edition MDCXXVII This very Assertion saith he shows the inconsistency of their Doctrine and that it hath Nothing to support it He means they would not be afraid men should search into the Scriptures if they thought what was taught by them would be there justified But we trust to the truth of the Mystery i. e. the Scripture and to the help of him who cannot lye who saith Every one that seeks shall find Therefore we seek as we ought and we find what we ought and we speak with demonstration and we hear with a genuine intention that we may perswade our domesticks and that we may confute our Adversaries and that we may by our search be gainers our selves and not propound any thing that is inconsistent unto others Would you have me neglect the Scriptures Whence then should I have knowledge Would you not have me to mind knowledge But whence then should I have Faith Paul cries How should they believe unless they hear And again Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God He then who forbids the Word obstructs hearing and throws out Faith No man can be ignorant of the Roman Laws being a Member of the Empire without danger They then who forbid us to study and learn the great Oracles of the King of Heaven what kind of mischief do they not craftily contrive against us The Scripture is the food of the Soul Cease then O man to starve the inward man and to kill it with hunger introducing a famine not of bread nor of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. There is one that inflicts wounds and dost thou forbid the application of medicines For shame do not talk as if the various wisdom in the Books of Physicians were vain and to no purpose One may as well he means bid people not mind their Prescriptions though there be many Diseases in the World as not read the Scriptures when their Souls are in danger Reverence that Lover of God's Word the Eunuch who did not neglect reading upon the road Whose good intentions our Lord accepting sent him straightway an Instructer who made him understand what he read and by the Scriptures brought him to his Saviour Hence it is that our Saviour commands Search the Scriptures by searching meaning careful and sober inquiry into hidden things Out of the Scriptures is the manifestation of things obscure the confirmation of hope the event of promises the finding of our Saviour according to that We have found Him of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote Paul himself uses Scriptures for the establishment of the Truth And if he that heard ineffable things he that was thoroughly instructed in secrets he that had Christ speaking in him doth not simply use his own private Authority without the testimony of the Scriptures how can we with safety now neglect the Divine Legislation and speak what we think good out of our own hearts But there are some things transcending our Conceptions I say so too and this we learn out of the Scriptures that we may understand what things are fit for us to seek after as being attainable For it is neither pious to venture upon all things nor is it consistent with Holiness to neglect all things What we worship we ought all to be acquainted withal according to that which is written We know what we worship But how great or what kind or after what manner or where it is the part of mad-men to inquire They that would have none to judge of their Doctrines but themselves deter men from reading the Scriptures pretending it is immodest to pry into such inaccessible things but in truth fearing to be convinced out of them of holding bad Opinions I omit the rest which is but little more than I have represented and shall end all with his words to Macarius in the very beginning of his Works against the Gentiles The holy and divinely inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the declaration of the Truth and there are many Books composed about the same things by our Teachers of blessed Memory Which if any man peruse he will know in some measure the meaning of the Scriptures and be able to attain the knowledge he desires The End of the Third Part. THE END A Catalogue of some Books Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner Books written by the Reverend Doctor Patrick THE Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion Together with sutable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and for the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Eighth Edition corrected in Octavo The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God Or A Book of Devotion for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane Life The Fifth Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Fourth Edition in Twelves Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth In Two Parts in Octavo The Book of Job Paraphras'd in Octavo The Book of Psalms Paraphras'd in Octavo The Truth of Christian Religion in Octavo The Glorious Epiphany with the Devout Christians Love to it in Octavo The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased with the Arguments of each Chapter which supply the place of Commenting in Octavo A Paraphrase upon the Books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon With Arguments to each Chapter and Annotations thereupon In Octavo New A Book for Beginners Or A Help to Young Communicants that they may be sitted for the Holy Communion and receive it with profit A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-Conformist In Two Parts The Sixth Edition Corrected and Englarged A Treatise of the Necessity and Frequency of rece ving the Holy Communion With a Resolution of Doubts about it In three Discourses begun upon Whitsunday in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh New Winter-Evening Conference between Neighbours In Two Parts The Second Edition Corrected in Octavo The Old Religion demonstrated in its Principles and described in the Life and Practice thereof In Twelves New 22 Sermons preach'd partly before His Majesty at Whitehall and partly before Anne Dutchess of York at the Chappel at St James's By Henry Killigrew D. D. Master of the Savoy and Almoner to his Royal Highness New in Quarto Animadversions upon a Book Intituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. By a Person of Honour The Third Edition in Octavo The End of the Catalogue