and sufficient for Salvation This may quiet all Ob. Of what use then are other Scriptures Sol. From a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.15.16.17 which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and as profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works All Scriptures are equally true but not equally important nor necessary in terminis The Death and Resurrection of Christ are of greater value then the Circumstances of them The Text is of more worth then the Comments Paraphrases and Glosses upon them As long as we believe the main we are safe for other things Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Aug. Repentance and Faith are the whole Duties of man Every one that doth evil hateth the light Joh. 3.20.21 neither cometh to the light lest his Deeds should be reproved but he that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds might be made manifest that they are wrought in God The Kingdom of God consisteth in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost The Kingdom of Christ is within us Joh. 1.12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his name Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of man but of God Of him ye are in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1.30 who is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption See the Sermon on the Mount per totum Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37.38 This is the First and great Commandment And the Second is like unto it Thou shall love thy Neighbour as thy self On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Joh. 13.34 35 A New Covenant I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another This is my Commandment Joh. 15.12 That ye love one another as I have loved you The hour cometh Joh. 4 21. when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to Worship him God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth We have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and he in him 1 Joh. 4.16 Heb. 10.19 c Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath Consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh And having a High Priest over the House of God let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Ro 3.25 c. to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God c. One Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all to be testified in due time If any man sin Tim. 2.5 6. we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous Joh. 2.1 2. and he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me c. He that believeth on him is not condemned Joh. 3.18 but he that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 8.12 I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not work in darkness but shall have the Light of Life Tit. 2.11 The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men c. SECT XV. 2. Morality despised is Christianity Morality Heb. 11.6 They that fear God and work Righteousness are accepted of him They that believe God believe Christ Without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Ob. Moral Men have no Grace they are many of them in Hell Sol. This is the Language Ro. 2.26 c. of those that pretend to speak the Language of Canan Let us hearken to sound words If the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision And shall not Uncircumcision which is by Nature if it fulfil the Law Judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision doth transgress the Law For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outwardly in the Flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God A Moral Man is a Christian by the surer side Speculations Mr. Hobs. Notions Forms are mistaken A good life saved Heathens The Light of Nature is God's Will though it be more highly revealed I must confess I have not yet made the proficiency in the Schools of our Ages as to see why the second Table and the Acts of it are not as properly the part of Religion and Christianity as the Acts and Observations of the First Table If I mistake in this 't is St. James that hath abused me Jam. 1.17 who saith Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World So the thing which in the new Dialect signifies nothing but Morality and Civility the same in the Language of the Holy Ghost imports true Religion and undefiled Such as we Sow such shall we Reap God will require no more than what he hath given We talk of Special Graces but Sanctification makes the Saints and Self-denial the Christians and he that doth Righteousness is Righteous and he shall live and not die Follow Peace with all men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. â—eb 12.14 Lord I have hoped for thy Salvation and done thy Commandments Christ said â—s 119.164 I must preach the Kingdom of God to other Cities also â—uke 4.43 for therefore am I sent The Kingdom of God is within you â—uke 17.20 The Grace of God
Gospels and Acts and Epistles are when they give not their own Judgement without Gods whose Inspirations were proved by Miracles-working Faith Ancient Fathers Venerable Modern Writers more learned Ancient Writers next to them were not Inspired and did no Miracles yet are Venerable but Modern Writers long after them are more knowing but all subject to failings They came from the Jews and from the Gentiles and did not a little partake of the Jewish and Gentile Religion Consider those Proselytes as men long accustomed to both Doctrines and Rites and it is no wonder if they were loth to part with them Since that by degrees if the Wits of men are more refined in the Gospel purity of Doctrine and Worship wonder not at the matter for they have had more time and more means a great deal to consider things better Fathers Witnesses Errors in Fathers The nearest Fathers were the best Witnesses but the farthest Doctors are the best Judges The Millenaries Opinion was very old The Communion of Infants Their Damnation without Baptism The Corporeity of Angels and of God himself The Re-baptizing of such as were Baptized by Hereticks The long deferring of Baptism The Baptism for the Dead Reliques The Non-Restoring of the Lapsed The Denyal of Repentance Marriage to Priests Adoring Crosses The Limbi Patrum Infantum False Miracles Purgatory The Invocation of Saints and Angels Image Worship and many more Opinions have too much Antiquity and too little Truth They held the Fundamental Truths in great Righteousness we hold the same and many more in too much Unrighteousness Modern Writers The Modern Writers have considered all the Reasons of the Ancients and have added to that which their Fathers invented The Fathers have opened the Door and their Children have entred into the more Secret Recesses of Divine Truths They had not time nor so much skill as their Successors had They did well in their Generations but they could not do all He that lives a thousand Ages hence shall have no cause to be idle he shall find work enough to find out what Truths have not been yet discovered and so to the Worlds end there are more Worlds to discover Multa dies variusque labor mutabilis aevi Retulit in melius Every day brings new light Truth is the Daughter of time What the Fathers saw darkly and afar off peeping through the Lattices the Children see distinctly the Objects coming to a nearer distance by open Windows Judaism and Gentilism came too hot upon them in the First Ages and they did not could not put them by so strongly as we have done since Education Their Education among Jews and Gentiles was a great hindrance of that work Our Education among Christians altogether is a great help to the same work Judaism and Gentilism were but newly renounced they came reeking from them to contrary Principles The Doctrines and Rites of Judaism and Gentilism are stale now and obsolete long since though some would be nibling at them still Other Errors have crept in but of a more remote nature and less contrariant than the former were The Fountains came pure from the Apostles but the Streams of Judaism and Gentilism ran quickly into them and pudled those Waters which since have settled and grown pure in a good measure after the Rabbinical and Philosophical Pollutions especially at the time of the Reformation which daily advanceth it self more and more with the Improvement also of all Arts and Sciences in a high and glorious Success Improvements Venimus ad summum Fortunae pingimus atque Psallimus meliùs luctamur Achivis Virg. The Greeks outdid the Egyptians the Romans out-did the Greeks even in those things which they were taught at Memphis and Athens We want nothing to excell our Forefathers in but Piety and Honesty We are sagaciores in dogmate nequiores in fide There are better Expositions of Scriptures than ever were but worser Manners Richer Veins of Gold but more alloied with baser Mettals Fathers plain and honest Children gay and crafty Novelty no real prejudice to the Authority of Ancient Truth If our Fathers in Religion had refused every Exposition of Scripture that was true because it was new to them we should by this time have had nothing old nor true If any thing be true entertain it though it be found out but yesterday with Men it was from the beginning with God Call nothing New if it be True The World hath been too long deceived by the Antiquity of Errors Wise men look beyond them for there are Ancienter and Wiser than they SECT II. Suppositious Writings Very few of the Writings in the first three Centuries are come to our hands Many Books obtruded under the Names of the Apostles Peter Barnabas Thomas Paul to the Laodiceans Paul and Teâ—la Euseb l. 1. c. This made Eusebius complain that he had little or no light to guid him â—n his History of those Primitive Times because those Christians did not write much or if they did their Books were lost As the Five Books of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis the Apology of Quadratus Atheniensis of Aristides Basilides c. mentioned by Eusebius St. Jerom and others Clemens Ignatius Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius have pretty well escaped though time hath set her Fangs upon them The Writings of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries have exceeded the former for number and good fortune of more safe conveyance but not for worth and authority Many of the oldest are Supposititious and those that are legitimate corrupted Legitimate Writings corrupted and obscure and all hard to be understood by reason of the Languages and Idioms and Schemes of Oratory and Logical Subtilties with which they abound as also the Terms used in a far different Sence then and safer than now they are As Pope Patriarch Mass Oblation Sacrifice Mysteries Mortal Sins Penance Confession Satisfaction Merit Indulgence Altar c. Since that we may complain as Gregory Nasianzen that good man did There was an honest plain and solid way of Preaching Greg. Naz. brief and profitable Late Innovations but afterwards a wanton kind of Divinity embroydered with artifices and delicacies came to be the mode then came in Curiosities Juglings and Tricks of Legerdemain But had he seen the Wagon Loads of Summists Casuists Mysticks Postilers Criticks Canonists Ritualists Cabbalists which these latter Ages have produced He and other Cassandrists that have bore witness in all Ages to the Truth would have been tired with garbling the Errors and Vices of every Sect and choaked with the swarms of Locusts that rush out of the Bottomless Pit Ancient mistakes of Christian Anabaptists about the Antipodes The Souls Propagation and Purgation Corporeity of Angels and Souls of Men Praying for the Dead c. are nothing in comparison to the swinsing Dogma's of Infallibility Supremacy Transubstantiation Consubstantiation worship of Images Angels and Saints
enought Why then should we not believe those that did work Miracles and were honest too Christ worked Miracles and so did his Apostles and therefore Christ and his Apostles were Teachers that came from God for no man could ever work such Miracles as they did unless they were sent of God Doctrine or matter of Law Beside their Teaching and Doctrine we believe to be true because we find it to be true by natural Reason in matter of Law Why should we not believe their Relations to be true also for matter of Fact For such men as preached such Doctrines and did such Miracles must needs make as true Relations of what they had taught and done for matter of Fact Why should this be the chief Scruple Miracles or matter of Fact Was it impossible for God to work Miracles We cannot say it And did he not work Miracles How can we but say it What did he not therefore work them because we saw them not Others did and they tell us of them and they that did them tell us what they did and others that saw them tell us what they did Shall we believe no Body nor Thing unless we see them How do we believe God whom we never saw 'T is by the Relation of his works they tell us of him Monstrat Quaelibet herba Deum The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Would not we that are honest be believed that have seen and heard and tell it to others Conveyance Why should not Christ's Witnesses be believed when they tell the World what they have seen and heard Even the wonderfull works of God The Apostle could not but speak presently after Christ's Resurrection with great boldness what they had both seen and heard And though it be now long since to us that are now alive yet they told it to them that were hard by them and they told it to them that were next and so one Generation continued telling it one to another and so down to our time and we shall tell it to them that come after us to the Worlds end there will never be an end of telling it As the Jews did to their Childrens Children c. Is not this a possible and fair Conveyance What can be desired more Vbique Semper ab Omnibus Ob. Some make false Reports Sol. Therefore true Reports are the more Believeable Some speak as true as others speak false or else none speaks true which no Body can say Ob. How shall I be sure who speaks true or false Sol. By the Credit of the Witnesses We that are honest know that we speak true and they that are honest do speak true and therefore all men are not false but some are true And by their works you shall know them whether their words be true Now Christ and his Disciples went about doing all the good they could Preaching Repentance to all and healing every one that was diseased of all manner of Infirmities therefore they were true And besides God was in them and with them to enable them to preach and do Miracles For never men spake as they spake or did as they did therefore both their words and works were all true and therefore worthy of all acceptation and belief Quod erat Demonstrandum We should take it very ill of others if we knowing the Truth to be in our hearts the World should abuse us for Lyars and Dissemblers and that we speak not a word of Truth when God knows and our own hearts do know that we speak the Truth and nothing but the Truth and that we do call God to witness for what we say or do to deal with us no otherwise than as we mean honestly and justly in all that we say or do We believe our selves when we speak truth Why should we not believe others that are as true men as our selves But especially such as had power from God the God of Truth to confirm all their Doctrines and Miracles which power we have not and yet are true men But they had therefore these extraordinary gifts confirmed upon them not for their own sakes but for the sakes of others that they might believe by their Words and Deeds to the Glory of God and to the Comfort and Salvation of their own Souls in the day of the Lord Jesus when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed and we shall understand all truths without all Scruples and when Faith and Hope shall cease because we enjoy the things which we believed and hoped for We cannot therefore say that nothing is true for God is true and God's People are true and therefore something must be true and this which is the word of God if any thing must be true But put the Case that men should be so unreasonable as not to believe as some are for all men have not Faith because they will not have it though they might have it and especially to believe that which is most reasonably and worthy and necessary and most profitable to believe That Jesus Christ came in the Flesh to save Sinners I say suppose men should be thus far unbelieving as to matter of Fact concerning Christ's coming in the Flesh to dy and rise again to save Sinners Doctrine Yet why will they not believe this plain Doctrine of so great a truth as is acknowledged by all that God is to be worshipped that they should work Righteousnes and do to all men as they would be done by which is matter of Right in all and to all Whether Christ came in the Flesh or no to save Sinners yet to be sure all men ought to be honest why then are so many quite contrary in their practice though in their mind they do agree as to common Honesty Though all men are so stubborn that they have not Faith why should they be so perverse as to have no honesty Now what they can say to this or the other I know not except they shall say as they may truly it is their own fault if they do not believe nor live honestly Why Because they will be high they will be rich because they know there is no God or wish so at least They will venture it Certainly every man as he would willingly be believed when he says truth so he would as willing be loved when he does truth that is he would be honestly dealt withal every way by every man with all his heart as he is willing to deal honestly every way to every man with all his heart And withall if there be Salvation they would be glad to be saved Who would not wish to dy the Death of the Righteous and that his last end may be like unto his The most wicked men after all would be glad to be happy The wise tells them they must use the right way that leads to happiness and that calls no other than Holiness Well they that do live honestly are approved tho