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
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
King should be furnished with a Copy of the Law and keep it by him that he might read therein all the days of his life and learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them XVII Deut. 18 19. Nay the more to imprint the words of this Book upon his mind the Law enjoyns this as a duty belonging to the King himself saying He shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites Which though some are pleased to think a Priviledge indulged only to the King the Jews who are willing enough to excuse themselves from such laborious things constantly affirm that every private man was bound to do the same and that though the King had done it before as others were obliged to do yet being exalted to the Throne he was bound to do it over again out of the most authentick Records that it might be the more imprinted on his mind and work in him a greater reverence thereof This Maimonides grounds upon those words XXXI Deut. 19. which concern them all Now therefore write ye this Song for you as if he had said Write the Law for your selves of which this Song is a part for they were not wont to write the Law by parcels Wherein perhaps they go too far but there is little doubt to be made that pious Kings took care the people should be acquainted with the Law as well as themselves imitating that pious Prince Josiah who after a long forgetfulness of the Holy Scriptures having a Copy of the Law brought to him which was found in the Temple not only caused it to be read in the ears of the people but as the Jews with great reason affirm commanded the Priests and Scribes to write Copies of it and deliver them to the people For how should they be able to perform the words of the Covenantwritten in that Book unto which Josiah ingaged them 2 Kings XXIII 2 3. unless they knew them And how should they know them more than they had done formerly if they did only once barely hear them Which might give them some present sense of their duty but could not be remembred unless they had the words they were to perform constantly before their eyes There might much more be added on this subject but this is sufficient to introduce what follows II. THAT what was thus enjoyned by Moses and practised by the people of the Jews our Saviour confirmed by his Command or at least by his approbation saying V. John 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me Some indeed translate the words thus Ye search the Scriptures for in them c. and so they are a plain acknowledgement of what was then in use nay an approbation if not commendation of their diligence in turning over the holy Books wherein they hoped to find so great a Treasure as Eternal life But if they be rendred as we and as many of the Romanists themselves translate them Search the Scriptures then they are a Command wherein our Blessed Saviour requires what Moses had formerly done and charges them not to neglect this duty of making a diligent inquiry into the meaning of the holy Writings for there they would find plain testimonies concerning the Messiah and be satisfied that he was the Christ whom they expected And I cannot see how this Precept may be safely disobeyed But as our Lord in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus XVI Luke 29. brings in Abraham sending the Rich mans Brethren unto Moses and the Prophets i. e. to their Writings for they themselves were dead and gone for their instruction from whom they might learn enough to keep them from coming into that place of Torment So we in like manner ought to tell men if they will know how to be saved they must repair to Christ and his Apostles and out of the Gospel and Apostolical Instructions learn the way to Heaven and how to escape Eternal damnation For there can be no good reason alledged why the Jews should be permitted nay commanded to read Moses and the Prophets and we not be allowed but forbidden to read the words of Christ and his Apostles For we are as much concerned or rather more in these as they were in them and they are not harder to be understood by us than the old Scriptures were by them we have the same means the same helps that they had if not far better to prosit by them and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore it is no fault in our Preachers now but an honest discharge of their duty to say to their people as Origen doth to his in his second Homily upon Isaiah Would to God we did all practise that which is written Search the Scriptures And as St. Basil in his Second Book of Baptism Cap. 4. Let us obey our Lord who saith Search the Scriptures and let us imitate the Apostles who inquired of the Lord himself the interpretation of his own words learning the truth and wholesomness of what He saith in one place by what He speaks in another So far were these great and Holy men from discountenancing the reading of the Holy Scriptures that they most earnestly press every body to it as I shall show more fully before I have done III. LET us now further consider that the Apostles of our Lord were concerned that what they wrote concerning the Christian Doctrine should be read not only by the Elders of the Church to whom their Writings were directed but be communicated to all the Members thereof who were under their Instruction This appears from St. Paul's most solemn Charge in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians that it should be read to all the holy Brethren 1. v. 27. Who should read it to them but the Bishops and Pastors of the Church Who no doubt first received it but were not to keep it to themselves but impart it to the whole Community And if they read it to the whole Society we cannot think they refused to give Copies of it to them if any desired it that they might read it themselves Or rather they took care to disperse this Letter of their own accord among their Flock as they did also send it to other Churches whereby by it became common to the whole Christian World And it was a matter of such great importance that all the people should be acquainted with his sense that his Charge is in the form of an Adjuration That if they neglected him the Command should be obeyed for the Adjuration sake For Adjurations were dreadful to the ancient Christians though now alas wo be to us they are little regarded They are words of Theophylact. And to the same effect Theodoret glosses He adds an Adjuration contriving that all might have the
presumption that God blessed these pious endeavours and gave them a right understanding as a reward of their search into the Scriptures according as it there follows therefore many of them believed And thus St. Peter also in this very Epistle Chap. I. 19. commends his Country-men who attentively read and considered the Prophetical Writings We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts The plainest meaning of which words to me seems to be this That it was a laudable and praise-worthy thing in those Jewish Converts to whom he writes who as yet were but weak in the Faith that they did give heed to the Writings of the ancient Prophets which they took to be the surest ground of their Faith for in them they would sind the Lord Jesus plainly descrihed if they compared what the Apostles preached with that which they foretold as the Beraeans did Those Writings indeed of the Prophets did but obscurely treat of Christ in comparison with the discoveries of him in the Gospel and the Apostolical Writings which he compares to the Day-star and the old Prophets but to a Candle shining in a dark place yet the one would lead them to the other and by taking attentive heed to the Prophetical Writings they would in time find the day dawn and the Day-star arise in their hearts that is arrive by degrees at clearer demonstrations and a fuller and brighter knowledge of Christian Truths delivered by our Saviour and his Apostles who being the Light of the World gave light even to the ancient Prophecies To conclude this particular they were so far from discouraging any Christians in their reading the Holy Scriptures that they commend those who read even the hardest Books among them Those words are very remarkable I. Revel 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein Which comfortable incouragement I do not see why we may not with the greatest satisfaction apply to our selves now as they did then to quicken us to read and hear the things contained therein For though we do not certainly understand every one of those Prophecies yet there are abundance of most excellent instructions and admonitions incouragements and consolations interspersed throughout that Book which make it sit to be read by Christian people for their direction and support And we may likewise from hence take the confidence to argue in this manner If a Blessedness be pronounced to those that read or hear that Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein then they cannot be accursed who for the same end read other holy Books where such instructions and comforts are more plentifully and plainly and on purpose delivered nor can they expect God's blessing who prohibit the reading even of those easie and more familiar Scriptures which are accommodated by the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to the most vulgar capacity Every one ought to drink of these Fountains nor would I forbid saith Erasmus very piously those that thirst after Christian knowledge to read even those Books which are not so open but like a Fountain sealed up Because they will reap this fruit at least that they will come more sit to the hearing of Sermons which touch upon or allude to those more obscure passages They will hear also those things more willingly of which they have already some knowledge and understand those things more easily of which they have a small taste VI. AND there is the greater reason for it because the Holy Scriptures are a considerable part of our compleat Spiritual Armour without which we shall lie so open to the assaults of our Enemies that it will very much hazzard our Salvation And why should we be exposed to any danger when we may defend our selves by the use of those weapons which God himself hath provided for us Or how can they be Friends to our Souls who would expose us by taking those weapons out of our hands Read the VI. Ephes 11. c. Where the Apostle exhorting them to put on the whole Armour or compleat Armour of God that they might be able to stand against all the wiles of the Devil in the following Verses enumerates the several parts of this Armour and the last piece of it but one is v. 17 the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God This shews that as while we have Enemies to fight withal and very powerful subtil Enemies we have need of all sorts of Weapons that God hath furnished us withal for our defence so we are not completely appointed for our defence without this weapon the Word of God no more than a Souldier is without his Sword And therefore they who go about to deprive us of this leave us in great part naked to our Spiritual Enemies By wresting that weapon out of our hands whereby we should beat them off There is not one of the Devils temptations ye may observe IV. St. Matth. but our Saviour vanquished it by this weapon telling him it is so and so written and the Tempter had no more to say nor knew what to oppose thereunto And therefore our safety lies in the same Divine Armory of the Holy Scriptures unto which we ought to have resort upon all occasions and there furnish our selves with such holy Precepts Examples Promises and Threatnings as we may have ready at hand to oppose to every temptation It is usually said as I noted in the beginning that men may wound themselves with a Sword as soon as their Enemies and therefore it is not safe to let every body take this weapon into his hand But was not the Apostle as much aware of this as we Were not the Holy Scriptures as liable to be perverted then as now And we by this reason shall leave neither Sun in Heaven nor any good Creature here upon Earth as a great Man of our own somewhere speaks for they have been all wretchedly abused to very ill purposes by evil men And besides this it is not true that men may as soon hurt themselves as their Enemies with this Sword For who but mad men or desperate persons run that weapon into their own bodies wherewith they should defend their lives And who but they that are distracted themselves will suppose the generality of Christians to be such a frantick fort of people that they are not to be trusted with the means of their preservation but must have even the bread of life taken from them for fear they surfeit of it But this will be more fully answered hereafter and that which I have next to represent to your consideration will give great satisfaction to it which is this VII THAT the greatest Doctors in the Church have most earnestly exhorted the people with all the Rhetorick they could invent to give themselves leisure
in all things to please God who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth Let us not deceive our selves but the more we are intangled in such kind of cares let us so much the more carefully search for a remedy in the reading of the Holy Scriptures Was not Noah and such like good men of the same Nature of which we are and yet had not the benefit of those helps and assistances that we enjoy How can we then be excused who enjoy such a Doctrine who have obtained such Grace who have helps from above and have received the promises of ineffable good things if we do not come to the measure of that Vertue at which those Patriarchs arrived I beseech you therefore again that you would not only simply look into those things which are contained in the Holy Scriptures but that you would read them with attention that by the profit we receive from them we may at last though we have been a long time about it come to that degree of Vertue which God will approve The same he urges again in the XXXV Homily upon the same Book from the Example of the Eunuch reading the Scriptures in his Chariot which he thus concludes I have laid this History before you that we may not be ashamed to imitate this Eunuch nor neglect reading no not in a journey For this Barbarian alone may suffice for a Master to us all both to those that lead a private Country-life and to those who are listed to serve in the Army and to those that live in the Court and in general to all men and to women too and to those that live in Monasteries also that no time should be thought unfit to the reading of the Holy Oracles For it is possible not only within doors but to those who go to Market that are in Journies that fall into a great deal of Company that are intangled in business to be conversant in them that doing what we can we may meet with one to guide us And what if we do not understand what we read let us go it over again For frequent meditation imprints things on the memory and oft-times what we could not understand to day we may find out presently when we read it again to morrow the most gracious God invisibly illuminating our understanding Which leads me to the last Proposition which he maintains in Answer to all Objections that can be made a-against this Doctrine III. That as none ought to neglect reading because they are men of business so they ought not to excuse themselves because they want Bibles or because the Scriptures are so obscure that they do not understand them Concerning business you have heard already what he was wont to say And concerning want of Bibles he tells them the rich cannot pretend this And as for the poor I would ask them saith he this Question Whether they have not all the tools belonging to their Trade And since they can furnish themselves with such necessary implements why they should not judge it most absurd to be wholly unprovided of the Holy Scriptures which are as necessary for their spiritual as the other for their bodily subsistence But to the greatest Objection of all the obscurity of the Holy Scriptures and that it is impossible to understand them he answers very largely in several places of his Works particularly in that Homily forenamed upon Genesis XXXV speaking of the Eunuch of the Queen of Ethiopia Who did not say as many do now I understand nothing of what I read I cannot dive into the depth of these Scriptures to what purpose should I take all this pains and tire my self in vain by reading when I have none to lead me into the meaning No such thought was entertained by him who was a Barbarian in his language but a Philosopher in his mind and rather concluded he should not be despised but receive help from above if doing all that lay in his power he continued reading the Holy Scriptures And therefore the most Gracious Lord of all seeing his ardent desire did not overlook him nor left him unprovided but straightway sent him a Master to inform him See here the Wisdom of God how He expected till he first did what he could and then He manifested his own powerful aid Because he prepared himself the best he was able an Angel of the Lord was sent to Philip that he might do the rest c. But this Argument he prosecutes most largely in his Third Sermon upon Lazarus Where first of all he says a man cannot look into the Holy Scriptures but he must be made better God conversing with him there in those Writings so that though he do not understand what he reads yet his mind will be much purified by reading by a holy sense of God he means upon whom his mind is fixed as speaking to him But immediately he further adds that what is objected is not true of all Scriptures some being so plain that it is impossible to be without understanding of all things whatsoever that we read there For the Grace of the Holy Spirit on purpose ordered these Books to be composed by Publicans by Fishermen by Tent-makers by Shepherds and such like mean and unlearned men that none of the common people might flee to this Pretence but the things that are there written might be intelligible to all That the Handicrafts-men and the Servants and the poor old Women and the most illiterate of all mankind might be gainers and profit by the hearing of them And what they designed they effected For to whom are not all things in the Gospel manifest and clear Who is there that reads these words Blessed are the meek blessed are the merciful blessed are the pure in heart and the like that needs any other Teacher to instruct him what it is that is said And are not all things that relate to signs and wonders and the History of Christ clear and easie to be understood of all These objections are but a cover and pretext under which men hide their sloth and idleness Which further appears from the temper of those men that from the beginning were counted worthy of the Grace of the Spirit who composed all things not as they without the Pale of the Church for Ostentation and their own Vain-glories sake but for the Salvation of those that heard them The Heathen Philosophers indeed and Orators and other Writers not seeking the common good of all but aiming at the making themselves admired when they said any profitable thing made it difficult to be understood and wrapt it up in some obscurity But the Apostles and Prophets did all quite contrary making all plain and clear as the common Teachers of the whole World that every one might be able of himself to learn by the bare reading only such necessary things as those now mentioned Which the Prophet foreshewed when he said they shall all be taught
and easie to such as faithfully practise their most plain and easie Precepts but hard and difficult to be understood aright of such as wilfully transgress them There is nothing more perspicuously set down in Holy Scripture than this as would be easie to show if it would not inlarge this Book too much from such words as those of St. Peter God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore should we admit of any Authority equivalent to the Holy Scriptures the question would still remain Whether the Insallibility of that Authority could take away that blindness of heart which by God's just Judgment falls upon all those who detain the Truth of God in Vnrighteousness If for their disobedience to evident and plain Truths God punish them with such spiritual darkness that they discern not his Will revealed in his written Word no other infallible Authority can inlighten them and make those scales fall from their eyes which hinder their sight in the means of their Salvation They will everlastingly go on in darkness because having Light presented to them they preferred darkness before it Those naughty affections which have kept the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ from shining into them will close their eyes so fast that no other Light will open them But they must either receive and follow the plain directions of Holy Scripture and recover their sight by a sincere practice of known Duties or walk on still in darkness and remain in the shadow of death to the end of their days Unto which plain direction if men would unfeignedly submit if thereby they were not led to the understanding of harder Scriptures they would however have this benefit that they would be secured from misunderstanding them My meaning is that by understanding believing and keeping close to the practice as well as knowledge of the easie and evident Truths of the Gospel we should be preserved from putting any dangerous interpretation upon those places which are hard and difficult Ignorant of them we might continue or perhaps mistake their meaning but still innocently so as not to do hurt to our selves or others by them An illustrious Example of which we have in St. Austin's Book De Fide Operibus Where discoursing Chap. XV. upon that place of St. Paul 1 Cor. III. 12 13. which he takes to be one of those which St. Peter saith are hard to be understood in his Epistles he tells us that some understood the building gold silver precious stones upon this foundation to be meant of adding good works to Faith in Christ and building Wood hay stubble upon it to be meant of those that held the same Faith but did evil From whence they fansied that by certain pains of Fire such evil men might be purged to obtain Salvation by virtue of the Foundation that is by a right Faith only because the Apostle saith v. 15. they should be saved yet so as by fire But if this be a true interpretation of this place saith that Excellent Father then all those places of Scripture which have no obscurity no ambiguity in them must be taken to be false As for Example that of St. Paul in the same Epistle Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no Charity I am Nothing and that of St. James What doth it profit brethren if a man say he hath faith but hath no works Can faith save him And that place also will be salse Be not deceived neither fornicators nor they that serve Idols nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God And that also The Works of the slesh are manifest which are adultery fornication uncleanness c. of which I tell you again as I have done formerly that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God These are all false if that interpretation be true St. Paul contradicts himself and in this obscure place clashes with his plain words for according to this Exposition if men only believe and be baptized they shall be saved by fire though they persevere in such wicked courses as those now mentioned And then I do not see to what purpose our Lord said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments telling him what belongs unto good manners And how will that be true which he tells us he will say to them on his left hand Go ye cursed c. whom He sends to Hell-fire not because they did not believe on him but because they did not do good works Thus that Father goes on heaping up a great many other places which evidently speak to the same purpose and then concludes If therefore these things and innumerable others which may be found in the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity be false then that sense may be true concerning the wood hay and stubble viz. that they shall be saved by sire who only holding Faith in Christ have neglected good Works Si autem vera clara sunt c. but if these things be both true and also clear then without doubt another sense of the Apostle's words is to be sought for And they are to be put into the number of those which S. Peter saith are hard to be understood which men ought not to pervert to their own destruction by endeavouring from them against the most evident Testimonies of the Scripture to make the most lewd people secure of obtaining Salvation though they pertinaciously continue in their wickedness not at all changed by amendment or repentance As for the true sense of that Scripture though he ventures at it yet he saith in the next Chapter he had rather be informed by those who are more learned and more understanding who can so expound it as to let all those things above mentioned remain true and unshaken in which the Scripture most openly avows that Faith profits Nothing unless it be that which the Apostle defines that is Faith which worketh by love but without Works cannot save men neither without fire nor by fire Still he sticks to this Rule as most certain and unmoveable that whatsoever sense be given of an obscure Scripture it contradicts not those Scriptures which are more plain especially those which teach us to live well and show the necessity of it which none that love the Truth as it is in Christ will ever prejudice by any interpertation of Scripture whatsoever It is out of my way to attempt the true meaning of the place now mentioned having no other business in hand at present but to show that by adhering as this Holy man did to the evident Truths in the Scripture they will never permit us to put any bad and pernicious sense upon those that are less evident Let us stick as he did to this Rule and we shall either put an harmless sense upon them or none at all But then we must as I said be heartily in love with these plain Truths and frame our lives according to
not only the Vnlearned but the Vnstable also wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction II. VNSTABLE WHO those are is now easier to determine if what hath been said of the other be admitted They are such as do not stedfastly believe what they have learnt who having entertained the Truth do not stick to those Principles of Natural Light and plain Revelation nor are setled in them but sometimes believe them and sometimes question or disbelieve them Such persons the same St. Paul also describes in the Christian Church who were tossed up and down with every wind of Doctrine and could six no where but rolled in uncertainty from one Opinion to another till they lost themselves in Infidelity IV. Eph. 14. The Principles they had received were floating in their mind and never came to any certain constant resolution which made them apt on all occasions to pervert the Scriptures according as their own Fancy or the confident suggestion of some bold Seducer inclined them For some men deliver the vainest Conceit with such an assurance and earnest Zeal that they may be well compared to a violent blast which carries those along with it who are not setled and confirmed in their Belief I may make many more words about this but I shall scarce make it plainer and therefore I will not endeavour it But now desire you to mind what course these words thus explained direct us to take that we may be preserved from abusing the liberty we have of consulting on all occasions with the Oracles of God There is some Learning you see required to the understanding of the Holy Scriptures But you need not go far to seek it for it consists only in the knowledge of such Natural Truths as are ingraven upon our own minds and of those plain Doctrines of Christianity which are revealed in God's Word so clearly that there is no Controversie about them especially of the great Design of Christianity which St. John expresses in this short Sentence These things write I unto you that ye sin not This is very solid and deep Learning to know that the first and chief End of Divine Writings is to teach us to live well and the next follows in the next words of St. John 1. II. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous c Be not discouraged if contrary to the grent Design of Christianity you fall into sin but hope for Mercy through the Propitiation made by Christ Jesus who will intercede for the sius of those who heartily make this their main design and business not to sin Which Truths of both sorts we must take some pains to six in our rainds and root in our hearts that our belief of them may not be shaken by any other perswasion whatsoever much less by any sudden conceit which starts up in our minds or is suggested to us by others And the way to do that is to live by them for nothing settles knowledge so much as saithful practice according to it especially when we are setled in this practice For those St. Peter calls unstable Souls in the Chapter before this v. 14. apt to be beguiled and insnared who had not arrived at a setled resolution and an habitual course of well-doing Now when this is done which must be our first Work there is but one Rule which I shall propose because if well followed it comprehends all in it to make our reading the Holy Scriptures safe and secure Which is this Never to admit any Interpretation of Scripture from others or fasten any sense upon them our selves which contradicts those known Truths which we have learned and in which we are fixed as the undoubted Mind and Will of God They must be the measure of all the rest by them we must judge of all things whether they be true or false Whatsoever overthrows them and will not consist with them must be rejected It must not make us doubt of them but they must make us conclude it is a safe Interpretation And on the other side whatsoever agrees with them though it should happen not to be the proper meaning of a place of Scripture into which we inquire it can do no harm if it be entertained And here now I shall do these three things First Show how we are to use this Rule Secondly How necessary it is to keep to it Thirdly How readily thereby we may salve many seeming difficulties in the Holy Scripture at least pass by them safely if we observe it I. Concerning the first I shall only say these two things I. First That we must never admit any Interpretation on a sudden till we have examined how it agrees with the Principles of known and undoubted Truth Fancy will be suggesting things to us and if we be not attentive will sometimes insinuate very absurd Notions into our Belief Here therefore our care and labour is required to bring along with us to the reading of Holy Scripture such a sense of God and of our known Duty to him and of the end and intention of Religion that it may be ready at hand to correct our extempore conceits and apprehensions which will be forward to mislead us And if they represent any thing to us which makes Him unjust or unmerciful if they plainly lead us to negligence and carelesness in our Duty if they strike at the end of the Commandment which is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned we must as suddenly lay them aside as they obtrude themselves upon us For that cannot be the Mind of God which crosses the Natural Notions we all have of Him or thwarts the plain Revelations He hath made of his blessed Nature and Will or tends to make us less diligent in his service less zealous of good works unto which we are created and formed in Christ Jesus that we should walk in them II. Ephes 10. And we are all concerned to watch carefully lest any thing of this kind insinuate it self to the high dishonour of Almighty God and the infinite hazard of our immortal Souls And to watch not only when we are reading the Holy Scriptures but II. Secondly At all other times we must use due care lest our thoughts lead us to form any Opinions which are contrary to the known Principles of Humanity and Christianity The thoughts of men are restless and are apt to cast themselves into a thousand shapes and frame innumerable conceits Now if we let any settle in our minds which agree not with the Truths I have often named they will not fail to be intermedling when we read the Scriptures and draw it to speak in their favour contrary to its meaning There is no private Opinion which we have received but we are naturally desirous to have it justified and confirmed and therefore we had need take care to entertain none that are inconsistent with Piety for they will be sure to catch at every
word of Holy Scripture to give them countenance by its great Authority and press it against its will to come to their service At every turn they will be interposing their inclinations and prove a biass upon our minds to carry them aside from the mark And the fuller we are of these and the more desirous to have them confirmed the more hastily shall we perswade our selves that the Holy Scripture speaks in their favour and proffers it self as a Witness to give Testimony to the truth of our Conceits Let us provide therefore by a due vigilance and attentive consideration that they be not formed by our own private imaginations but by the common standing Rule of natural Honesty Justice and Goodness and by all other certain Principles ingrafted in us or revealed to us Which serve as an Index to point us which way our thoughts should run and where they should six themselves II. THE necessity of which Care is the second thing I propounded to be briefly considered And here two things more may be sufficient to be duly weighed First That without this Care the plainest Scriptures will be in danger to be perverted as soon as the most difficult Secondly The very same places of Scripture will be liable to be shamefully wrested to serve different purposes I. First I say the plainest Scriptures will be in danger to be perverted and very dangerously too as well as the most difficult For it is not their difficulty that makes them be perverted but mens own easiness to believe any thing which their private desires would have to be true though never so contrary to sound Reason and Religion which if they had regarded would have directed them to make another construction of Holy Writings All the Metaphors for instance and resemblances borrowed from things visible to represent the Glory of Christ's heavenly Kingdom make the miserable Jews as their Forefathers did before them still entertain themselves with pleasant Dreams of a glorious pompous Monarchy here on Earth though the Prophets in as plain words as can be devised represent Christ their King as a man of sufferings who should endure greater indignities than any man ever did and at last dye and so rise again to sit at the right hand of God and give his Holy Spirit from thence to fill all the Earth with the knowledge of the Lord and thereby make them pious Subjects of a Divine Kingdom This drowsiness is so hereditary to their Nation that they will not be awakened out of their slumber by considering how much more the Soul is God's care than the Body and what the Prophets speak concerning Christ's Government over mens minds and Consciences and the reformation He should come to make in their life and manners Some Christians have been deluded with the same Fancy as if they had dreamt upon their Pillow But there are more palpable instances of the abuses committed among them not by reading the Scripture for that they were not forbidden but by not observing the Rule I am now establishing It was usual for people even in the ancient Times of Christianity to interpret the Scripture according to their fancy merely to serve a present turn just as many make it do now For Tertullian tells us that they who after their Conversion to Christianity still followed the trade of making Idols and Images for the Heathen to Worship defended themselves when they were reprehended for it by a Saying in St. Paul 1 Cor. VII 20. which they thus contracted Vt quisque fuerit inventus ita perseveret As every man is found when he is called to Christianity so let him continue There is no man that reads what follows but plainly sees if he be not resolved to shut his eyes against all that contradicts his desires the Apostle designs Nothing but that all men should remain so well satisfied with the condition in which they were when converted to Christ that if they were mere Slaves they should be content to continue so and not depart from their Lords and Masters unless they would give them their Liberty which he grants was much to be desired But if the following words had not told us this is his meaning yet the Rule before mentioned would have sufficiently secured them from the ill use they made of his words For as Tertullian well observes in his Book of Idolatry Cap. V. where he treats of this matter it is an Interpretation that directly leads to all wickedness Possumus igitur omnes in peccatis perseverare ex ista interpretatione c. as his words are We may all then continue in our sins according to this Interpretation for there is not one of us who was not found a Sinner when he was called into Christ's Service who came down for no other reason but to deliver us from our sins But in the same manner they also abused he observes there some other Texts of St. Paul wherein he required that after his Example every man should work and get his living with his own hands 1 Cor. IV. 10. 2 Thess III. 9 10. By which Precepts if all that men wrought with their hands might be defended then Thieves and High-way men and Coiners of false Money and all other wicked persons would be justified by them as well as these Image-makers who alledged them In a word let the Gate of the Church be set wide open saith he for all Comers who live by their labour if there be no exception of such Arts and Trades as the Discipline of God doth not receive And indeed the Scripture it self teaches us this Truth That it is not the difficult places only which men wrest to their destruction but the plainest also when thereby they can have some colour for their evil practices As for Example what can be more certain than this that the Apostle never gave any incouragement by his Doctrine for men to say much less said thus himself Let us do evil that good may come That is a good End will warrant evil Actions And yet there were some who were so audacious as to affirm he taught this Doctrine whom he contents himself to confute with these few words and vouchsafes them no other answer Whose damnation is just III. rom 8. There was no ground that is for such an interpretation of his words but only their own evil Principles and Affections which led them to make this Conclusion against the dictates of natural Reason and Christianity and therefore nothing could be said for such men but they would perish and Nothing was more just than that God should leave them under Condemnation who perverted holy Words to a meaning so cross to all the known Principles of natural and revealed Truth that Nothing could be more Occumenius upon this very Text of St. Peter gives another such like instance of wresting St. Paul's words which he saith may serve instead of all He having said V. Rom. 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound ungodly men
that being thus entred we cannot continue in that state unless according to our holy purpose we bring forth the fruit of good Works And in like manner what he saith of God's hardening mens hearts is not difficult to be understood by those who are not unlearned and unstable but are skilful in the Principles of natural Knowledge and of true Christianity and who are rooted in them so that they hold them fast whatscever expressions there may be that seem to contradict them But it is time to draw towards a Conclusion of this Treatise which shall end as it began The Doctrine of this Church it appears is most pure and sincere in this Point and most conformable to what we find delivered by the holy Doctors of Christianity in the best Ages And therefore no Member of it ought to be perswaded for any reason to lay aside the reading of the Holy Scriptures when there is a more pious course to which they themselves direct us Which is to learn those things well which we cannot misapprehend if we mind them and which will keep us from misapprehending all other things if we stick to them and will not desert them Let that be your first business to learn all General Truths which comprehend the Particular in them And when you have learnt them receive no particular Opinion which crosses those general Truths for you may be sure it is false because one Truth cannot cross another and all Conclusions must be judged by the prime Truths which ought to stand unmoveable But above all let us establish those Truths in our minds and hearts which teach us to be good For there is no Dispute about this that we ought to be devoutly Religious and sober and just and temperate in all things meek also humble patient ready to do good and to forgive And if we exercise our selves continually in the practice of these and such like Vertues which are evidently taught us in the Holy Books they will preserve us from making any ill use of any thing we read there and teach us to turn all we read into our nourishment and increase in true Godliness Hear the First Homily of our Church in the conclusion of it In reading God's Word he most profiteth not always that is most ready in turning of the Book or in saying of it without Book but he that is most turned into it that is most inspired with the Holy Ghost most in his heart and life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth he that is daily less and less proud less wrathful less covetous and less desirous of worldly and vain pleasures he that daily for saking his old vicious life increaseth in Vertue more and more And to be short there is nothing that more maintaineth Godliness of mind and driveth away Vngodliness than doth the continual reading or hearing of God's Word if it be joyned with a godly mind and a good affection to know and follow God's Will For without a single eye pure intent and good mind nothing is allowed for good before God OBJECTION THE great Objection against all that hath been said is That notwithstanding these Directions Lay-men we see do abuse the Holy Scriptures and which is more the reading of them hath bred infinite Heresies and therefore the safest course is to forbid them to be read by the common people ANSWER I. TO the first part of which an Answer hath been returned already That there is nothing in the World so useful and necessary but it is liable to be abused and yet it must not therefore be kept out of the hands of vulgar people for their common benefit What more useful nay necessary than fire and yet malicious or negligent people may burn the best house that is with it which they should only warm But besides this I have one short Reply more to make That none have been more guilty of abusing the Holy Scripture than they who ought to have been Guides to the Church and People of God by a sound interpretation thereof Examples of which I am not disposed to name unless any shall be so untoward as to deny it and then a great many may be produced like to that of him who because Moses said If a beast touch the mountain let it be stoned concluded that no simple or unlearned man ought to presume to meddle with the sublimity of the Holy Scripture A hard case this that vulgar people should be treated like Beasts but thus Learned men will misinterpret Scripture when they are inclined only to serve their Cause and be as forward if they be not disinteressed to mislead the people as the people are to mislead themselves ANSWER II. TO the other part of the Objection I shall give something fuller satisfaction I. And first of all it is not true that all Heresies have sprung from mens reading the Scriptures or from their misunderstanding them but rather from their not reading them as St. Chrysostom you have heard was of opinion whose words I have quoted more than once in the first Part of this Discourse Which are of the same import with those of our Saviour XXII Matth. 29. Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God That is not being acquainted with what natural Reason taught concerning God's Omnipotency as well as what the Scripture taught about the Resurrection Here it may be fit to observe these four things First That the Fathers observe all the ancient Hereticks did not read the Scripture They are the words of St. Austin Lib. III. Cap. 9. De Genesi ad literam For neither do all Hereticks read the Catholick Scriptures nor are they Hereticks for any other reason but because they not understanding them aright pertinaciously assert their own false Opinions against their Truth And thus St. Hierom in the last words of his Commentary upon the VII of Hosea All the questions of the Hereticks and of the Gentiles are the same because they follow not the Authority of the Scriptures but the sense of humane Reason Secondly They observe that the men who pretended most to this were the Original of Heresies viz. the Philosophers Thus Tertullian in his first Book against Marcion speaking of the Professors of Wisdom saith De quorum ingeniis omnis haeresis animatur From whose Wits all Heresie is begotten and incouraged And more fully in his Book of Prescriptions Cap. 7. Ipsae denique haereses à Philosophia animantur Heresies themselves had life given them from Philosophy For the Aeones came out of the School of Plato Marcion's God came from the Stoicks and the Souls Mortality from the Epicureans and the denial of the Resurrection of the Body was taken from one School of all the Philosophers And so he proceeds showing how the Fables the endless Genealogies the unprofitable questions and Disputings mentioned in the Scriptures came out of the same Forge and that the Apostle takes notice of it when he gives the Colossians a Caveat