Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	word_n	14,132	5	4.8692	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75017	The lively oracles given to us. Or the Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture. By the author of the Whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679, attributed name.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683, attributed name.; Fell, John, 1625-1686, attributed name.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675, attributed name.; Burghers, M., engraver.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1151B; ESTC R3556	108,574	250

10. ATHANASIUS in his Tract of the Incarnation saies It is fit for us to adhere to the word of God and not relinquish it thinking by syllogisms to evade what is there clearly deliver'd Again in his Tract to Serap of the holy Ghost Ask not saies he concerning the Trinity but learn only from the Scriptures For the instructions which you will find there are sufficient And in his Oration against the Gentiles declares That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the truth 11. AGREEABLE to these is Optatus in his 5. Book against Parmen who reasons thus You say 't is lawful to rebaptize we say 't is not lawful betwixt your saying and our gain-saying the peoples minds are amus'd Let no man believe either you or us All men are apt to be contentious Therefore Judges are to be call'd in Christians they cannot be for they will be parties and thereby partial Therefore a Judg is to be lookt out from abroad If a Pagan he knows not the mysteries of our Religion If a Jew he is an enemy to our baptism There is therefore no earthly Judg but one is to be sought from heaven Yet there is no need of a resort to heaven when we have in the Gospel a Testament and in this case celestial things may be compar'd to earthly So it is as with a Father who has many children while he is present he orders them all and there is no need of a written Will Accordingly Christ when he was present upon earth from time to time commanded the Apostles whatsoever was necessary But as the earthly father finding himself to be at the point of death and fearing that after his departure his children should quarrel among themselves he calls witnesses and puts his mind in writing and if any difference arise among the brethren they go not to their Fathers Sepulcher but repair to his Will and Testament and he who rests in his grave speaks still in his writing as if he were alive Our Lord who left his Will among us is now in heaven therefore let us seek his commands in the Gospel as in his Will 12. THUS Cyril of Ierus Cat. 4. Nothing no not the least concernment of the divine and holy Sacraments of our Faith is to be deliver'd without the holy Scripture believe not me unless I give you a demonstration of what I say from the Scripture 13. SAINT Basil in his Book of the true Faith saies If God be faithful in all his sayings his words and works they remaining for ever and being don in truth and equity it must be an evident sign of infidelity and pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written In which Books he generally declares that he will write nothing but what he receives from the holy Scripture and that he abhors from taking it elsewhere In his 29. Homily against the Antitrinit Believe saies he those which are written seek not those which are not written And in his Eth. reg 26. Every word and action ought to be confirm'd by the testimony of the divinely inspir'd Scriptures to the establishment of the Faith of the good and reproof of the wicked 14. SAINT Ambrose in the first Book of his Offic. saies How can we make use of any thing which is not to be found in Scripture And in his Instit of Virgins I read he is the first but read not he is the second let them who say he is second shew it from the reading 15. GREG. Nyssen in his Dial. of the soul and resurrect saies 'T is undeniable that truth is there only to be plac'd where there is the seal of Scripture Testimony 16. SAINT Jerom against Helvidius declares As we deny not that which is written so we refuse those which are not written And in his Comment on the 98. Ps Every thing that we assert we must shew from the holy Scripture The word of him that speaks has not that autority as Gods precept And on the 87. Ps Whatever is said after the Apostles let it be cut off nor have afterwards autority Tho one be holy after the Apostles tho one be eloquent yet has he not autority 17. SAINT Austin in his Tract of the unity of the Church c. 12. acknowledges that he could not be convinc'd but by the Scriptures of what he was to believe and adds they are read with such manifestation that he who believes them must confess the doctrin to be most true In the second Book of Christian doctrin c. 9. he saies that in the plain places of Scripture are found all those things that concern Faith and Manners And in Epist 42. All things which have bin exhibited heretofore as don to mankind and what we now see and deliver to our posterity the Scripture has not past them in silence so far forth as they concern the search or defence of our Religion In his Tract of the good of Widowhood he saies to Julian the person to whom he addresses What shall I teach you more then that we read in the Apostle for the holy Scripture settles the rule of our doctrin that we think not any thing more then we ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt to every man the mesure of Faith Therefore my teaching is only to expound the words of this Doctor Ep. 157. Where any subject is obscure and passes our comprehension and the Scripture do's not plainly afford its help there human conjecture is presumtuous in defining 18. THEOPHILUS of Alex. in his second Paschal homily tells us that 't is the suggestion of a diabolical spirit to think that any thing besides the Scripture has divine autority And in his third he adds that the Doctors of the Church having the Testimony of the Scripture lay firm foundation of their doctrin 19. CHRYSOSTOM in his third Homily on the first of the Thessal asserts that from the alone reading or hearing of the Scripture one may learn all things necessary So Hom. 34. on Act. 15. he declares A heathen comes and saies I would willingly be a Christian but I know not who to join my self to for there are many contentions among you many seditions and tumults so that I am in doubt what opinion I should abuse Each man saies what I say is true and I know not whom to believe each pretends to Scripture which I am ignorant of 'T is very well the issue is put here for if the appeal were to reason in this case there would be just occasion of being troubled but when we appeal to Scripture and they are simple and certain you may easily your self judg He that agrees with the Scripture is a Christian he that resists them is far out of the way And on Ps 95. If any thing be said without the Scripture the mind halts between different opinions somtimes inclining as to what is probable anon rejecting as what is frivolous but when the testimony of holy Scripture

describing the offices in the public Assemblies We feed our faith with the sacred Words we raise our hopes and establish our reliance 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week and there perform'd the duties of fasting praier and hearing the holy Scriptures concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee Luk. 18.12 in conformity hereto the Christians also their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies which were the daies of Station so frequently mention'd in Tertullian and others the first writers of the Church Tertullian expresly saies that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety the fourth and sixth day of the week and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts to wit those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday Where by the way we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church and the Litanies then appointed so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3.15 whereof Josephus against Appion saies That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws he will tell every thing readier then his name for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing they retain them imprinted in their minds So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth The whole life of a Christian saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity there his sacrifices are praiers and praises before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures and Psalms and Hymns at the time of his meals Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist to Donatus 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks Serm. 5. We Christians saies he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which have fill'd all Countries under Heaven For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians but also the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Samaritans and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein such as Origen who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla Saint Chrysostom who translated the New Testament Psalms and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify Saint Jerom who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution and when diverse did faint in that trial and basely surrender'd them we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons did not according to the Romish equity punish the innocent by depriving them of that sacred Book because the others had so unworthily prostituted it tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks Ages and Sexes 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort The Word saies he is not hid from any it is a common light that shineth to all men there is no obscurity in it hear it you that be far off and hear it you that are nigh 21. TO this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta whom he directs in the education of her young daughter and advises that instead of gems and silk she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture wherein not gold or skins or Babylonian embroideries but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith will recommend its self Let her first learn the Psalter and be entertain'd with those songs then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue let her pass then to the Gospels and never let them be out of her hands and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures let her learn the Prophets the Heptateuch or books of Moses Joshua and Judges the books of Kings and Chronicles the volumes of Ezra and Esther and lastly the Canticles And indeed this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd female sex skilful in the Scriptures that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned as a familiar friend in the mysterious mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind as the poor are in their addresses to the rich but invites all with lowly speech feeding with manifest truth and exercising with secret And Ep. 1.21 tells the devout Proba that in this world where we are absent from the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight the soul is to think it self desolate and never cease from praier and the words of divine and holy Scripture c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons house-holders and people engag'd in trades and secular professions telling them that the reading of the Scripture is a

Wine The Bread that we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ the Cup that we bless is it not the Communion c. 1 Cor. 10.16 And again He that eats this Bread and drinks this Cup unworthily c. 1 Cor. 11.29 can make no appearance of an Argument 8. THUS men once engag'd ransac for Texts that carry som correspondency to the opinions they have imbibed and those how do they rack and scrue to bring to a perfect conformity and improve every little probability into a demonstration On the other side the contrary Texts they look on as enemies and consider them no farther then to provide fences and guards against them So they bring Texts not into the scales to weigh but into the field to skirmish as Partizans and Auxiliaries of such or such opinions 9. BY this force of prepossession it is that that sacred Rule which is the mesure and standard of all rectitude is it self bow'd and distorted to countenance and abet the most contrary tenets and like a variable picture represents differing shapes according to the light in which you view it And sure we cannot do it a worse office then to represent it thus dissonant to it self Yet thus it must still be till men come unbiast to the reading of it And certainly there is all the reason in the world they should do so the ultimate end of our faith is but the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 and we may be sure the Scripture can best direct us what Faith it is which will lead us to that end 10. WHY should we not then have the same indifference which a traveller hath whether his way lie on this hand or that so as it be the direct road to his journies end For altho it be infinitly material that I embrace right principles yet 't is not so that this should be right rather then the other and our wishes that it should be so proceed only from our prepossessions and fondness of our own conceptions then which nothing is more apt to intercept the clear view of truth It therefore nearly concerns us to deposit them and to give up our selves without reserve to the guidance of Gods Word and give it equal credit when it thwarts as when it complies with our own notions 11. WITHOUT this tho we may call Scripture the rule of Faith and judg of controversies yet 't is manifest we make it not so but reserve still the last appeal to our own prejudicat phancies and then no wonder tho we fall under the same occoecation which our Savior upbraids to the Jews that seeing we see not neither do we understand Mat. 13.14 For he that will not be sav'd Gods way will hardly be so by his own He that resolves not impartially to embrace all the Scriptures dictats comes to them as unsincerely as the remnant of the Jews did to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them which he no sooner had don but they protest against his message Jer. 42.20 and may expect as fatal an event 12. BUT there are a set of men who deal yet more insincerely with the Word that read it insiduously on purpose to collect matter of objection and cavil that with a malicious diligence compare Texts in hope to find contradictions and read attentively but to no other end then to remark incoherences and defects in the stile which when they think they have started they have their design and never will use a quarter of the same diligence in considering how they may be solv'd or consulting with those who may assist them in it For I think I may appeal to the generality of those who have rais'd the loudest clamors against the Scripture whether they have endeavor'd to render themselves competent judges of it by inquiring into the Originals or informing themselves of those local Customs peculiar Idioms and many other circumstances by which obscure Texts are to be clear'd And tho I do not affirm it necessary to salvation that every man should do this yet I may affirm it necessary to him that will pretend to judg of the Bible and he that without this condems it do's it as manifest injury as a Judg that should pass sentence only upon the Indictment without hearing the defence 13. AND certainly there cannot be any thing more unmanly and disingenouos then for men to inveigh and condemn before they inquire and examin Yet this is the thing upon which so many value themselves assuming to be men of reason for that for which the Scripture pronounces them brute beasts viz. the speaking evil of those things they understand not 2 Pet. 2.12 Would men use due diligence no doubt many of those seeming contradictions would be reconcil'd and the obscurities clear'd and if any should after all remain he might find twenty things fitter to charge it on then want of verity or discourse in the inspir'd writers 14. ALAS what human writing is there of near that Antiquity wherein there are not many passages unintelligible And indeed unless modern times knew all those national customs obsolete Laws particular Rites and Ceremonies Phrases and proverbial Sayings to which such ancient Books refer 't is impossible but som passages must still remain obscure Yet in these we ordinarily have so much candor as to impute their unintelligibleness to our own ignorance of those things which should clear them the improprieties of stile to the variation that times make in dialects or to the errors of Scribes and do not presently exclame against the Authors as false or impertinent or discard the whole Book for som such passages 15. AND sure what allowances we make to other Books may with more reason be made to the Bible which having bin writ so many Ages since past thro infinit variety of hands and which is above all having bin the object of the Devils and wicked mens malice lies under greater disadvantages then any human composure And doubtless men would be as equitable to that as they are to others were it not that they more wish to have that false or irrational then any other Book The plain parts of it the precepts and threatnings speak clearer then they desire gall and fret them and therefore they will revenge themselves upon the obscurer and seem angry that there are som things they understand not when indeed their real displesure is at those they do 16. A second qualification preparatory to reading the Scripture is reverence When we take the Bible in our hands we should do it with other sentiments and apprehensions then when we take a common Book considering that it is the word of God the instrument of our salvation or upon our abuse of it a promoter of our ruin 17. AND sure this if duly apprehended cannot but strike us with a reverential awe make us to say with Jacob Gen. 28.17 surely God is in this place controle all trifling phancies and make us read not for custom or divertisement but with

estimate when he pronounces them more to be desir'd then gold yea then much fine gold Psal 19.10 2. TO speak first of the Historical part the things which chieflly recommend a History are the dignity of the subject the truth of the relation and those plesant or profitable observations which are interwoven with it And first for the dignity of the subject the History of the Bible must be acknowledged to excel all others those shew the rise and progress of som one people or Empire this shews us the original of the whole Universe and particularly of man for whose use and benefit the whole Creation was design'd By this mankind is brought into acquaintance with it self made to know the elements of its constitution and taught to put a differing value upon that Spirit which was breath'd into it by God Gen. 2.7 and the flesh whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.19 And when this Historical part of Scripture contracts and draws into a narrow channel when it records the concerns but of one Nation yet it was that which God had dignified above all the rest of the world markt it out for his own peculiar made it the repository of his truth and the visible stock from whence the Messias should come in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 18.18 so that in this one people of the Jews was virtually infolded the highest and most important interests of the whole world and it must be acknowledg'd no Story could have a nobler subject to treat of 3. SECONDLY as to the truth of the relation tho to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it The most undoubted symtome of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality Now this is very eminent in Scripture writers they do not record others faults and baulk their own but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message Ex. 4.13 his provocation of God at the waters of Meribah Num. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behavior towards God with as great aggravations as any of his enemies could have don Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel neither omits nor extenuates his sin all he seems to speak short in is his repentance Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners 4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults so neither did any nearness of relation any respect of quality bribe them to a concelement Moses relates the offence of his sister Miriam in mutining Num. 12.1 of his brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf Ex. 32.4 with as little disguise as that of Korah and his company David tho a King hath his adultery and murder displaied in the blackest characters and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his tresures do's not escape a remark Nay even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the sacred Writers but they freely tax their crimes the Israelites murmurings in the wilderness their Idolatries in Canaan are set down without any palliation or excuse And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude as the Canaanites are for their abominations So that certainly no History in the world do's better attest its truth by this evidence of impartiality 5. IN the last place it commends it self both by the plesure and profit it yields The rarity of those events it records surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration and that mixture of sage Discourses and well-coucht Parables wherewith it abounds do's at once please and instruct How ingenuously apt was Nathans Apologue to David whereby with holy artifice he ensnar'd him into repentance And it remains still matter of instruction to us to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin is set out with such particularity that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst His own lust with Bathsheba was answerd with Amnons towards Thamar his murder of Vriah with that of Amnon his trecherous contrivance of that murder with Absoloms traiterous conspiracy against him So that every circumstance of his punishment was the very echo and reverberation of his guilt A multitude of the like instances might be produc'd out of holy Writ all concurring to admonish us that God exactly marks and will repay our crimes and that commonly with such propriety that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings then the very sufferings themselves Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the historical part of Scripture that flow so easily and unconstrein'd that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them therefore 't would be impertinent here to multiply instances 6. LET us next consider the prophetic part of Scripture and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind The prophetic Books are for the most part made up as the prophetic Office was of two parts prediction and instruction When God rais'd up Prophets 't was not only to acquaint men with future events but to reform their present manners and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect so they are Watch-men and Shepherds in another Nay indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end their gift of foretelling was to gain them autority to be as it were the seal of their commission to convince men that they were sent from God and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end the denouncing of judgments being the most frequent theme and that design'd to bring men to repentances as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh And in this latter part of their office the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence 7. WITH what liberty and zeal do's Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboths murder and foretel the fatal event of it without any fear of his power or reverence of his greatness And Samuel when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection do's passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin 1 Sam. 15.17 Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the prophetic Writings the same truth of prediction and the same zeal against vice 8. FIRST for the predictions what signal completions do we find How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfil'd where repentance has not interven'd He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities both under the Assyrians and Babylonians and especially under the Romans would think their oppressors had consulted it and transcrib'd their severities thence And even these Nations who were the instruments of accomplishing those dismal presages had their own ruins foretold and as punctually executed And as in Kingdoms and

men take the liberty to do so the relation grows as monstrous as such a heap of incoherent phancies can make it 20. IF to this it be said that this happens only in trivial secular matters but that in the weighty concern of Religion mankind is certainly more serious and sincere I answer that 't is very improbable that they are since 't is obvious in the common practice of the world that the interests of Religion are postpon'd to every little worldly concern And therefore when a temporal advantage requires the bending and warping of Religion there will never be wanting som that will attemt it 21. BESIDES there is still left in human nature so much of the venom of the Serpents first temtation that tho men cannot be as God yet they love to be prescribing to him and to be their own Assessors as to that worship and homage they are to pay him 22. BUT above all 't is considerable that in this case Sathan has a more peculiar concern and can serve himself more by a falsification here then in temporal affairs For if he can but corrupt Religion it ceases to be his enemy and becomes one of his most useful engins as sufficiently appear'd in the rites of the heathen worship We have therefore no cause to think this an exemt case but to presume it may be influenc'd by the same pravity of human nature which prevailes in others and consequently are oblig'd to bless God that he has not left our spiritual concerns to such hazards but has lodg'd them in a more secure repository the written Word 23. BUT I fore-see 't will be objected that whilst I thus disparage Tradition I do vertually invalidate the Scripture it self which comes to us upon its credit To this I answer first that since God has with-drawn immediate revelation from the world Tradition is the only means to convey to us the first notice that this Book is the word of God and it being the only means he affords we have all reason to depend on his goodness that he will not suffer that to be evacuated to us and that how liable soever Tradition may be to err yet that it shall not actually err in this particular 24. BUT in the second place This Tradition seems not so liable to falsification as others It is so very short and simple a proposition such and such writings are the word of God that there is no great room for Sophistry or mistake to pervert the sense the only possible deception must be to change the subject and obtrude supposititious writings in room of the true under the title of the word of God But this has already appear'd to be unpracticable because of the multitude of copies which were disperst in the world by which such an attemt would soon have bin detected There appears more reason as well as more necessity to rely upon Tradition in this then in most other particulars 25. NEITHER yet do I so farr decry oral Tradition in any as to conclude it impossible it should derive any truth to posterity I only look on it as more casual and consequently a less fit conveiance of the most important and necessary verities then the writen Word In which I conceive my self justifi'd by the common sense of mankind who use to commit those things to writing which they are most solicitous to derive to posterity Do's any Nation trust their fundamental Laws only to the memory of the present Age and take no other course to transmit them to the future do's any man purchase an estate and leave no way for his children to lay claim to it but the Tradition the present witnesses shall leave of it Nay do's any considering man ordinarily make any important pact or bargain tho without relation to posterity without putting the Articles in writing And whence is all this caution but from a universal consent that writing is the surest way of transmitting 26. BUT we have yet a higher appeal in this matter then to the suffrage of men God himself seems to have determin'd it And what his decision is 't is our next business to inquire 27. AND first he has given the most real and comprehensive attestation to this way of writing by having himself chose it For he is too wise to be mistaken in his estimate of better and worse and too kind to chuse the worst for us and yet he has chosen to communicate himself to the latter Ages of the world by writing and has summ'd up all the Eternal concerns of mankind in the sacred Scriptures and left those sacred Records by which we are to be both inform'd and govern'd which if oral Tradition would infallibly have don had bin utterly needless and God sure is not so prodigal of his spirit as to inspire the Autors of Scripture to write that whose use was superseded by a former more certain expedient 28. NAY under the Mosaic oeconomy when he made use of other waies of reveling himself yet to perpetuate the memory even of those Revelations he chose to have them written At the delivery of the Law God spake then viva voce and with that pomp of dreadful solemnity as certainly was apt to make the deepest impressions yet God fore-saw that thro every succeeding Age that stamp would grow more dim and in a long revolution might at last be extinct And therefore how warm soever the Israelites apprehensions then were he would not trust to them for the perpetuating his Law but committed it to writing Ex. 31.18 nay wrote it twice himself 29. YET farther even the ceremonial Law tho not intended to be of perpetual obligation was not yet referr'd to the traditionary way but was wrote by Moses and deposited with the Priests Deut. 31.9 And after-event shew'd this was no needless caution For when under Manasses Idolatry had prevail'd in Jerusalem it was not by any dormant Tradition but by the Book of the Law found in the Temple that Josiah was both excited to reform Religion and instructed how to do it 2. Kings 22.10 And had not that or som other copy bin produc'd they had bin much in the dark as to the particulars of their reformation which that they had not bin convei'd by Tradition appears by the sudden startling of the King upon the reading of the Law which could not have bin had he bin before possest with the contents of it In like manner we find in Nehemiah that the observation of the Feast of Tabernacles was recover'd by consulting the Law the Tradition whereof was wholly worn out or else it had sure bin impossible that it could for so long a time have bin intermitted Neh. 8.18 And yet mens memories are commonly more retentive of an external visible rite then they are of speculative Propositions or moral Precepts 30. THESE instances shew how fallible an expedient mere oral Tradition is for transmission to posterity But admit no such instance could be given 't is argument enough that

God has by his own choice of writing given the preference to it Nor has he barely chosen it but has made it the standard by which to mesure all succeeding pretences 'T is the means he prescribes for distinguishing divine from diabolical Inspirations To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word there is no light in them Isai 8.20 And when the Lawier interrogated our Savior what he should do to inherit eternal life he sends him not to ransac Tradition or the cabalistical divinity of the Rabbins but refers him to the Law What is written in the Law how readest thou Luk. 10.26 And indeed throout the Gospel we still find him in his discourse appealing to Scripture and asserting its autority as on the other side inveighing against those Traditions of the Elders which had evacuated the written Word Ye make the Word of God of none effect by your Tradition Mat. 15.6 Which as it abundantly shews Christs adherence to the written Word so 't is a pregnant instance how possible it is for Tradition to be corrupted and made the instrument of imposing mens phancies even in contradiction to Gods commands 31. AND since our blessed Lord has made Scripture the test whereby to try Traditions we may surely acquiesce in his decision and either Embrace or reject Traditions according as they correspond to the supreme rule the written Word It must therefore be a very unwarrantable attemt to set up Tradition in competition with much more in contradiction to that to which Christ himself hath subjected it 32. Saint Paul reckons it as the principal privilege of the Jewish Church that it had the Oracles of God committed to it i.e. that the holy Scriptures were deposited and put in its custody and in this the Christian Church succeeds it and is the guardian and conservator of holy Writ I ask then had the Jewish Church by vertue of its being keeper a power to supersede any part of those Oracles intrusted to them if so Saint Paul was much out in his estimate and ought to have reckon'd that as their highest privilege But indeed the very nature of the trust implies the contrary and besides 't is evident that is the very crime Christ charges upon the Jews in the place above cited And if the Jewish Church had no such right upon what account can the Christian claim any Has Christ enlarg'd its Charter has he left the sacred Scriptures with her not to preserve and practice but to regulate and reform to fill up its vacancies and supply its defects by her own Traditions if so let the commission be produc'd but if her office be only that of guardianship and trust she must neither substract from nor by any superadditions of her own evacuate its meaning and efficacy and to do so would be the same guilt that it would be in a person intrusted with the fundamental Records of a Nation to foist in such clauses as himself pleases 33. IN short God has in the Scriptures laid down exact rules for our belief and practice and has entrusted the Church to convey them to us if she vary or any way enervate them she is false to that trust but cannot by it oblige us to recede from that rule she should deliver to comply with that she obtrudes upon us The case may be illustrated by an easy resemblance Suppose a King have a forreign principality for which he composes a body of Laws annexes to them rewards and penalties and requires an exact and indispensable conformity to them These being put in writing he sends by a select messenger now suppose this messenger deliver them yet saies withall that himself has autority from the King to supersede these Laws at his plesure so that their last resort must be to his dictats yet produces no other testimony but his own bare affirmation Is it possible that any men in their wits should be so stupidly credulous as to incur the penalty of those Laws upon so improbable an indemnity And sure it would be no whit less madness in Christians to violate any precept of God on an ungrounded supposal of the Churches power to dispense with them 34. AND if the Church universal have not this power nor indeed ever claim'd it it must be a strange insolence for any particular Church to pretend to it as the Church of Rome do's as if we should owe to her Tradition all our Scripture and all our Faith insomuch that without the supplies which she affords from the Oracle of her Chair our Religion were imperfect and our salvation insecure Upon which wild dictates I shall take liberty in a distinct Section farther to animadvert SECT VI. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture hat towards the attainment of its excellent end AGAINST what has bin hitherto said to the advantage of the holy Scripture there opposes it self as we have already intimated the autority of the Church of Rome which allows it to be only an imperfect rule of Faith saying in the fourth Session of the Council of Trent that Christian faith and discipline are contain'd in the Books written and unwritten Tradition And in the fourth rule of the Index put forth by command of the said Council the Scripture is declar'd to be so far from useful that its reading is pernicious if permitted promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue and therefore to be withheld insomuch that the study of the holy Bible is commonly by persons of the Roman Communion imputed to Protestants as part of their heresy they being call'd by them in contemt the Evangelical men and Scripturarians And the Bible in the vulgar Tongue of any Nation is commonly reckon'd among prohibited Books and as such publicly burnt when met with by the Inquisitors and the person who is found with it or to read therein is subjected to severe penalties 2. FOR the vindication of the truth of God and to put to shame those unhappy Innovators who amidst great pretences to antiquity and veneration to the Scriptures prevaricat from both I think it may not be amiss to shew plainly the mind of the primitive Church herein and that in as few words as the matter will admit 3. FIRST I premise that Ireneus and Tertullian having to do with Heretics who boasted themselves to be emendators of the Apostles and wiser then they despising their autority rejecting several parts of the Scripture and obtruding other writings in their steed have had recourse unto Tradition with a seeming preference of it unto Scripture Their adversaries having no common principle besides the owning the name of Christians it was impossible to convince them but by a recourse to such a medium which they would allow But these Fathers being to set down and establish their Faith are most express in resolving it into Scripture and when they recommend Tradition ever mean such as is also Apostolical 4. IRENEUS in the

those solemn and holy intentions which become the dignity of its Author Accordingly we find holy men have in all Ages bin affected with it and som to the inward reverence of the mind have join'd the outward of the body also and never read it but upon their knees an example that may both instruct and reproach our profaness who commonly read by chance and at a venture If a Bible happen in our way we take it up as we would do a Romance or Play-book only herein we differ that we dismiss it much sooner and retain less of its impressions 18. IT was a Law of Numa that no man should meddle with divine things or worship the Gods in passing or by accident but make it a set and solemn business And every one knows with how great ceremony and solemnity the heathen Oracles were consulted How great a shame is it then for Christians to defalk that reverence from the true God which heathens allow'd their false ones 19. NOW this proceeds somtimes from the want of that habitual reverence we should alwaies have to it as Gods word and somtimes from want of actual exciting it when we go to read for if the habit lie only dormant in us and be not awak'd by actual consideration it avails us as little in our reading as the habitual strength of a man do's towards labor when he will not exert it for that end 20. WE ought therefore as to make it our deliberat choice to read Gods word so when we do it to stir up our selves to those solemn apprehensions of its dignity and autority as may render us malleable and apt to receive its impressions for where there is no reverence 't is not to be expected there should be any genuine or lasting obedience 21. SAINT Austin in his Tract to Honoratus of the advantage of believing makes the first requisit to the knowledg of the Scriptures to be the love of them Believe me saies he every thing in the Scripture is sublime and divine its truth and doctrin are most accommodate to the refreshment and building up of our minds and in all respects so order'd that every one may draw thence what is sufficient for him provided he approach it with devotion piety and religion The proof of this may require much reasoning and discourse But this I am first to perswade that you do not hate the Authors and then that you love them Had we an ill opinion of Virgil nay if upon the account of the reputation he has gain'd with our Predecessors we did not greatly love before we understood him we should never patiently go thro all the difficult questions Grammarians raise about him Many employ themselves in commenting upon him we esteem him most whose exposition most commends the Book and shews that the Author not only was free from error but did excellently well where he is not understood And if such an account happen not to be given we impute it rather to the Interpreter then the Poet. 22. THUS the good Father whose words I have transcrib'd at large as being remarkable to the present purpose he also shews that the mind of no Author is to be learnt from one averse to his doctrin as that 't is vain to enquire of Aristotles Books from one of a different Sect Or of Archimedes from Epicurus the discourse will be as displeasing as the speaker and that shall be esteem'd absurd which comes from one that is envi'd or despis'd 23. A third preparative to our reading should be praier The Scripture as it was dictated at first by the holy Spirit so must still owe its effects and influence to its cooperation The things of God the Apostle tells us are spiritually discern'd 1 Cor. 2.14 And tho the natural man may well enough apprehend the letter and grammatical sense of the Word yet its power and energy that insinuative perswasive force whereby it works on hearts is peculiar to the spirit and therefore without his aids the Scripture whilst it lies open before our eies may still be as a Book that is seal'd Esai 29.11 be as ineffective as if the characters were illegible 24. BESIDES our Savior tells us the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown Mat. 13.17 And unless we have som better guard then our own vigilance he is sure enough to prosper in his attemt Let it therefore be our care to invoke the divine Aid and when ever we take the Bible into our hands to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation that we may find its effects in our hearts Let us say with holy David open thou mine eies O Lord that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Blessed art thou O Lord O teach me thy statutes Ps 119. Nay indeed 't wil be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent a praier so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular that if we transcribe not only the example but the very words I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously 25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir'd of us at the time of reading the Scripture which consists principally in two things The first of these is attention which is so indispensably requisit that without it all Books are alike and all equally insignificant for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads the wisest discourses signify no more to him then the most exquisit music do's to a man perfectly deaf The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred then those of another Book 't is the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir'd and he that considers only the former may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book 26. WE must therefore keep our minds fixt and attent to what we read 't is a folly and lightness not to do so in human Authors but 't is a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contemt and disvalue then to hear a man speak and not at all mind what he saies yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God who hear or read his Word and give it no attention Yet I fear the practice is not more impious then it is frequent for there are many that read the Bible who if at the end of each Chapter they should be call'd to account I doubt they could produce very slender collections and truly 't is a sad consideration that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those who read it as som preach the Gospel Phil. 1.15 out of envy and strife How curiously do men inspect nay ransac and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation read with such a retchless

the highest degrees of perfection but to reprove that preposterous course many take who lay the greatest weight upon those things on which God laies the least and have more zeal for oblique intimations then for express downright commands nay think by the one to commute for the contemt of the other For example fasting is recommended to us in Scripture but in a far lower key then moral duties rather as an expedient and help to vertue then as properly a vertue it self And yet we may see men scrupulous in that who startle not at injustice and oppression that clamorous sin that cries to heaven who pretend to mortify their appetites by denying it its proper food or being luxurious in one sort of it and yet glut their avarice eat up the poor and devour widows houses Mat. 23. 37. TO such as these 't would be good advice to fix their attention on the absolute commands to study moral honesty and the essentials of Christianity to make a good progress there and do what God indispensably requires and then it may be seasonable to think of voluntary oblations but till then they are so far from homage that they are the most reprochful flattery an attemt to bribe God against himself and a sacrilege like that of Dionysius who took away Apollo's golden robe and gave him a stuff one 38. THE second thing requisit in our reading is application this is the proper end of our attention and without this we may be very busy to very little purpose The most laborious attention without it puts us but in the condition of those poor slaves that labor in the mines who with infinit toil dig that ore of which they shall never partake If therefore we will appropriate that rich tresure we must apply and so make it our own 39. LET us then at every period of holy Writ reflect and look on our selves as the persons spoke to When we find Philip giving baptism to the Eunuch upon this condition that he believe with all his heart Act. 8. let us consider that unless we do so our baptism like a thing surreptitiously obtain'd conveis no title to us will avail us nothing 40. WHEN we read our Saviours denunciation to the Jews except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Lu. 13.5 we are to look on it as if addrest immediatly to our selves and conclude as great a necessity of our repentance In those black catalogues of crimes which the Apostle mentions 1 Cor. 6.10 and Gal. 5.19 20 21. as excluding from the Kingdom of heaven we are to behold our own guilts arraign'd and to resolve that the same crimes will as certainly shut heaven gates against us as those to whom those Epistles were immediatly directed In all the precepts of good life and Christian vertue we are to think our selves as nearly and particularly concern'd as if we had bin Christs Auditors on the Mount So proportionably in all the threats and promises we are either to tremble or hope according as we find our selves adhere to those sins or vertues to which they are affixt 41. THIS close application would render what we read operative and effective which without it will be useless and insignificant We may see an instance of it in David who was not at all convinc'd of his own guilt by Nathans parable tho the most apposite that was imaginable till he roundly appli'd it saying thou art the man 2 Sam. 12. And unless we treat our selves at the same rate the Scripture may fill our heads with high notions nay with many speculative truths which yet amounts to no more then the Devils theology Ja. 2.19 and will as litte advantage us 42. IT now remains that we speak of what we are to do after our reading which may be summ'd up in two words Recollect and practice Our memories are very frail as to things of this nature And therefore we ought to impress them as deep as we can by reflecting on what we have read It is an observation out of the Levitical Law that those beasts only were clean and fit for sacrifice that chew'd the cud Lev. 11.4 And tho the ceremony were Jewish the moral is Christian and admonishes us how we should revolve and ruminate on spiritual instructions Without this what we hear or read slips insensibly from us and like letters writ in chalk is wip't out by the next succeeding thought but recollection engraves and indents the characters in the mind And he that would duly use it would find other manner of impressions more affective and more lasting then bare reading will leave 43. WE find it thus in all Sciences he that only reads over the rules and laies aside the thoughts of them together with his Book will make but a slow advance whilest he that plods and studies upon them repetes and reinforces them upon his mind soon arrives to an eminency By this it was that David attaind to that perfection in Gods Law as to out-strip his teachers and understand more then the Ancients Psal 119.99 100. because it was his meditation as himself tell us ver 97.99 44. LET us therefore pursue the same method and when we have read a portion of Scripture let us recollect what observable things we have there met with what exhortations to vertue or determents from vice what promises to obedience or menaces for the contrary what examples of Gods vengeance against such or such sins or what instances of his blessing upon duties If we do this daily we cannot but amass together a great stock of Scripture documents which will be ready for us to produce upon every occasion Satan can assault us no where but we shall be provided of a guard a Scriptum est which we see was the sole armor the captain of our salvation us'd in his encounter with him Mat. 4. ver 4.7 and 10. and will be as successful to us if we will duly manage it 45. THE last thing requir'd as consequent to our reading is practice This is the ultimate end to which all the fore-going qualifications are directed And if we fail here the most assiduous diligence in all the former will be but lost labor Let us mean never so well attend never so close recollect never so exactly if after all we do not practice all the rest will serve but to enhance our guilt Christianity is an active Science and the Bible was given us not merely for a theme of speculation but for a rule of life 46. And alas what will it avail us that our opinions are right if our manners be crooked When the Scripture has shew'd us what God requires of us nay has evinc'd to us the reasonableness of the injunctions the great agreeableness which they have to the excellency of our nature and has backt this with the assurance that in keeping of them there shall be a great reward Ps 19.11 if in the midst of such importunate invitations to life we will chuse death we are