may hear it and do it Neither is it beyond the Sea that thou shouldest say who shall go over the Sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it These words Saint Paul applies to the New Testament Rom. 10. 6,7,8 it may well be so applyed in regard of the perspicuity of the Gospell For as he sayes in his Epistle to the Corinthians we all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord i.e. the doctrine of the Gospel and are changed into the same Image c. With open face for the veile that was upon Moses is pulled off The New Testament is a Counterpart of the Old written in fairer letters To this Truth the rest of the Disciples bear witness When our Saviour preached he made such plain revelations of Truth that they saw with their eyes and looked upon the word of life And that which was spoken is as easily understood being written which any body will grant unlesse he be so absurd as to say that we know not what our friend means when he writes to us that which we could have understood if he had delivered it by word of mouth Of those many Arguments to prove this Truth which are necessary consequents from divers places of Scripture I shall content my self with these three The first is taken from the Reality of that love and regard which God professeth to mans happinesse in the bestowing of his Gospel upon the world and that is expressed thus He would have all men to be saved come to the knowledge of the Truth The Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter exhorts to a great Charity which he would have expressed in prayers for the good of all men and sayes this is acceptable to God who himself hath a Love to their salvation and to that end would have them come to the knowledge of the truth so that in these words God gives us to understand that he doth not envie us eternal happinesse but doth extremely desire it and hath appointed means for the attainment of it Therefore left we should accuse the divine Love for want of sincerity we must conclude that these means are revealed understandably Would God have us saved by the knowledg or acknowledgment of his Truth and will he not make the Truth knowable but how shall we know it if it be muffled up in dark expressions The Truth which is here meant is the Gospell and that he hath written in such great Capital Letters that he which runs may read the way to salvation Why should God speak to us in an unknown tongue that which Paul sayes concerning the use of intelligible speech {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in discoursing of heavenly things is very applicable here And even things without life giving sound whether pipe or harp except they give a distinction in the sounds how shall it be known what is piped or harped for if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel so likewise you except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak into the ayre therefore if I know not the meaning of the voyce I shall be unto him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a Barbarian unto me Doth not God know this and doth he not speak accordingly But how shall God please this vain world some are not satisfied because the Scripture is so plain they would have had it composed in more artificiall guise There is not art enough used and is there too much too Lactantius in his sixth book de Vero Cultu whilst he reproves their impertinent folly who are not pleased with the decent plainnesse of the Scripture gives the summe of this argument for a reason of that plainnesse Num igitur Deus mentis vocis linguae artifex disertè loqui non potest imò verò summa providentia carere fuco voluit ea quae divina sunt ut omnes intelligerent quae ipse omnibus loquebatur i.e. What cannot God speak elegantly who made the mind and all instruments of speech Yes but wisdom took care that those divine things which he spake to all should not be covered with such paint and art as might make them lesse understandable to all especially being such things as concerne Eternall Happinesse The second argument is taken from the pocesse of divine Iustice which is expressed after this manner the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ We must take heed how we reason with God about his judgements but he hath given leave long since to one to aske this question Shall not the Iudge of all the earth do right If God set a law by which he will condemn us to unsufferable torments if we be disobedient doth not righteousnesse require that the law should be made known to us or knowable by us How shall a man be condemned for ignorance if wilfulnesse be not added to make it affected will not that ignorance excuse which was invincible without his fault what justice can punish a man for not doing that which he could not know The condemnation must needs be hard when the offendour could not understand that the Law was given or what it meant He which doth not the will of God shall be beaten saith our Saviour The sinner replies I could not know it what saith our Saviour against that Thou child of darknesse thou hatedst the light He which would not obey will not know that truth which God hath graciously revealed he doth detain in an unrighteous will The plain notice of Gods law will cut off all excuses from those which shall be condemned for disobedience Men may dispute but when they are upon their knees to deprecate the punishment of sin dare they object to God that they could not know his will So men sometimes cavill at God for not giving them grace and pretend to leave the matter so but in prayer do they make this plea Forgive me O Lord though I did sin I could not help it It is one thing what people may talk carelesly or upon design it is another what is whisper'd by a still voyce from an awakened conscience Vpon the plainnesse of Gods revelation depends the certainty of Christian Religion This Pillar had need be firm for the best thing in the world rests upon it What is acceptable to Christ and what he will do for us is to be known by the revelation which he hath made of his mind to us but if that revelation conceal his sence it doth not deserve its name nor benefit us For notwithstanding
doctrina testimonium fundamenti vice nobis esset non secus atque ipsius vox doctrina testimonium fundamentum veritatis fuit i.e. That their word doctrine and testimony is no lesse a foundation to us then the Word Doctrine and Testimony of Christ is the foundation of Truth So being well aware that whosoever should lay claim to it either those fifty bold mercenaries at Trent who called themselves an Oecumenical Counsell any other Assembly of Papists the Pope in his chaire or the Romish Church under any capacity if perchance they shall ever agree as they have not yet upon any that they joyntly pronounce Infallible would be questioned concerning the Rightfulnesse of the Title he endeavours therefore to frame them a Commission out of severall Scriptures by which as he doth acknowledge the Soveraign Authority of the Scriptures so with what poor successe he endeavours to get countenance from them for his boldnesse will easily appear if one do but repeat the Scriptures which he alledgeth and joyn with them their true and plain Interpretations which I do more willingly endeavour though I fear to be tedious for two reasons 1. First because they are such considerable quotations in the esteem of his followers that for want of better which they have sought in vain though they be sufficiently impertinent they are fain to make use of them still 2. Secondly because their Interpretations which are our Answers to them may enable some that are weak to defend themselves against disputers who shall endeavour to discompose the quietnesse of their true beliefe from acknowledged grounds of faith misinterpreted His first place is He that heareth you heareth me c. May they therefore say what they will these words were spoken to the Apostles whom Christ commanded to preach and told them what they should say and the Church now speaking as it ought declares nothing but what Christ said before for necessaries and whatsoever it doth according to his sayings is warranted by his authority and so he that heareth them heareth Christ But what proof is here for saying any thing else besides that which is written The second is You are the light of the world c. Yes so they were for Christ shined upon them and they enlightened others but it was by the reflexiou of his beames i. e. the Truths that he taught them and their writings are like Lanthorns of transparent glasse in which that divine light is preserved and through which it shines But those Popish Traditions are like new thick horn through which we cannot discern the old Apostolical Truth only it glimmers through those holes which are necessarily left open because their odde stuffe was irreconcileably unfit to be close and handsomely joyned in one entire body with the verities of the written Word The third is You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem in Judaea in Samaria and to the ends of the earth It 's true the Apostles were Christs witnesses for they testified his Life and Doctrine and wrote them for memorials to succeding ages but they would have been strange witnesses of his doctrine if they should have told other tales of their own invention and ridiculous assertours of his Institutions if they should have changed them at their pleasure as for Example If after he had given the bread and wine to his Disciples in his last Supper they should upon the first repetition of that Sacrament have given only the bread to the Communicants and so have contradicted Christs order with pretence of Tradition To prove that the Rock in the 16 of Matth. is the Pope whom he calls the supreme Vicar of this Ministery he quotes with it a place of Scripture that overthrowes his interpretation Other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Which place as it tells us plainly who was meant by the Rock so it is as strong a witnesse against his assertion as any thing that I have the ability to imagine yet as if it were not full enough he addes confirmation unto it though contrary to his intention by citing with it that famous testimony of Eph. 2. where Christ is called the great corner stone and the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles i.e. the foundation upon which they were built themselves and preached as such to others In the close of that paragraph to prove a little better that the Church hath power to teach that which the Scripture doth not he quotes two places I will send you the Spirit of Truth which shall lead you into all Truth and I am with you unto the end of the world And after this triumphs as if nothing could be desired further But for all that what this should be to his purpose I am not able to ghesse For what can be inferred from these places but to the benefit of our assertion for if Christ promised the spirit to lead them into all Truth did he not teach them it perfectly and if he promised to be with them unto the end did he faile to assist them in their work which was to publish the Truth by writing as well as preaching as we learn from S. John These things are written that ye might believe c. where he addes also that this was done so perfectly that whosoever should read and believe through their writing might have eternal life And as it appears from the 20. ver. of the 28. of Mat. read all together all the assistance that the Church for future times could expect from this promise is only while she does teach others to observe what Christ commanded unlesse we will break that sacred connexion which all true Christians know to be between the precepts and promises of God But to what precepts except those which we find upon divine Record the promises should be annexed we understand not nor why they should not invent new promises as well as pretend to other precepts Neither do we trouble our selves at all with those big words which to amuse ignorant people they speak concerning the imperfection of the Scriptures to be supplyed by the dictates of a pretended infallible Church since we could never yet hear of any one Truth necessary to salvation but we found it in Scripture nor had any certain newes of one Tradition that is universall and of Primitive derivation and so of good use in the Church of God but we receive it willingly I have judged this Discourse the more seasonable because the adversaries of our Church make account that we are in such a strong tendency to the Romish belief which contradicts what is here asserted that one of their late Proselytes with high approbation of his Fellowes doth not fear to publish to the world their swelling hopes That the fields are even white unto the harvest and thereupon with other of his companions doth thrust in his sickle which he sharpens with such assertions as these viz. That the Scriptures contain
he wrote of me What did he write you may read in his book called Deuteronomy these words God will raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me of thy brethren according to thy desire and I will put my words into his mouth and whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him The single-hearted Jews aware of the divine truth of this Prophesy were guided as the Magi by a star to Christ So Philip and Nathanael true Israelites embraced him saying with joy We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law Whom when the degenerate Jewes rejected the wise Apostles reproved them from the same Moses quoting the forecited words as we see Acts 3. 22. therefore well might our Saviour say Had you believed Moses that is Had you been as you pretend true children of Abraham and genuine disciples of Moses you would not have disowned me whom Moses acknowledged for his Master and esteemed so worthy of honour that he counted the sufferings of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt For as Abraham saw my day afar off and rejoyced so Moses knew the liquid Rock which followed them in the Desert was i.e. did signifie Christ The Prophets also told the same tale and Malachi that brought up the rear and claspt the Old Testament bad the Jewes expect the Sunne of Righteousnesse which was to rise and spread his wholesome rayes like wings of salvation over the world This was written in the close of that Oeconomy since therefore Moses and the Prophets told us the desire of all Nations whom they had long waited for was coming and bad the people to prepare his way by fitting their wicked hearts for so great a comfort whofoever doth not receive Christs Gospel doth not hear Moses and the Prophets Neither do they consider the great reasons which they afford to convince us of this matter For they taught that Christ was to be the light of the Gentiles and the Glory of Israel and this in a sence so raised that the former glory stood valuable by it in no degree of comparison He was to fulfill the Prophesies which had been but glorious vanities if he had not made them good He was to chase away shadows and what is the day to night To heighten their motives with better promises and take off the false Comments which had crept upon the Law by the iniquity of the times viz. the carelesnesse of the people and the wickednesse of the Pharisees so that the New Testament must not be left out But then one may say and some have been as foolish as to say it We do not care for Moses and the Prophets we have no need of the Old Testament This is to run upon the other post of the doore He that is no better advised is just like a man who having a great cause depending is resolved let it go right or wrong he will use but one witnesse he can have more but he cares not for them We do not use to burn the Records of our Ancestors nor to cut in pieces the evidences of our lands nor the Counter-parts of deeds He which values the possession of truth will not easily part with one of its best witnesses The Scripture saith as much as one can well desire in this point Moses and Elias appeared in the transfiguration of Christ and were witnesses of his glory The Gospel is his spiritual transfiguration and unto that Glory they bear a full and well agreeing witnesse This spirit might murmur thus Why could not one Cherubin have served to cover the Mercy-seat God put two whose faces were towards each other and their wings did meet So do both the Testaments spread their golden wings over our Throne of Grace Christ Jesus What is thus said of the Old Testament we easily learn of Christ and his Apostles who acknowledged the usefulnesse of its divine Truth whilest they proved their assertions by it nay they declared nothing but what the Prophets foretold and longed to have seen by which it appears that God hath so put them together that it is devillish to attempt a divorce The Apostle Paul did not only advise Timothy to read them but told him that they were able to make him wise to salvation i.e. were full of divine instructions and as fit for the Jews to walk by towards heaven as the morning light is for a traveller to begin his journey and as to himself he professed that he had great consolation and hope through the knowledge of the rare instances of the Old Testament in which he saw his hopes verified Who would destroy such famous memorials of Truth and writing to the Ephesians concerning the Church under the New Testament which is an habitation of God through the spirit he saies it is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ being the great Corner-stone When wise men pull stones out of the foundations of their houses then good Christians may reject the writings of Moses and the Prophets So having reconciled two that were never at oddes only some weak or ill-minded people seek occasion to put difference amongst near friends and having proved that neither are to be refused as superfluous it remains to shew for some doubt it that both are enough and of that we have this fourfold assurance 1. As they are Perfect Counsels of excellent wisdom concerning the way to happinesse 2. As they are strict injunctions of Divine Authority concerning our Duties 3. As they containe the strongest Proofes of our Obligation to these Duties and such as are no where else and so are the best perswasions to our Wills 4. As they are a Proposal of all these Truths to our understandings in a way of most fair and full credibility They are perfect Counsels of excellent wisdome concerning the way to Happinesse They are a full advice and a most exact Method of attaining Blisse prescribed by him who is the Way the Truth and the Life or the true way to Life What lay scatter'd in many places and must have been gathered with much care and many collections difficult to our short apprehensions often tired and so missing it may be what was not much further then we had gone is here comprized to our hands in a perfect summary Truths otherwhere hid under much Rubbish and mixed with many mistakes are here pure and clear in the spring not mudded with carelesse or beastly feet What is obscured in others by naturall weaknesse or affected stile is here plain enough through the superintendency of the Divine spirit So that good men may here expect whatsoever is true wise necessary or usefull There is no plant of Righteousnesse no wholesome herb in the world but it was carried out of Christs garden who planted them in Paradise and therefore he might well put them in his Gospel they were his own and when they were
that divine accomplishment they preacht and Christ whom they preacht was believed on in the world So that it is great reason we should believe their writings for they are the word of God If any ask How does that appear I answer By three divine Seales annexed to them and a peculiar signature or mark of divine authority which I do not find in any other book 1. The spirit of Prophesie which foretold such things as are beyond the skill of nature and art to foresee 2. The power of miracles which performed such things as are above the power of nature and art to doe 3. The resurrection of the great Preacher of the Gospel Christ Iesus after he had been dead aad buried three dayes 1. The spirit of Prophesie which foretold such things as are beyond the skill of nature and art to foresee I call the first Seale All the world hath acknowledged divinity in such praescience The Latines made known their sense of it to be such in the name by which they called it that is Divinatio and they and the Greeks both confirmed this opinion by offering sacrifice when they consulted their Oracles concerning things to come Men can fore-see what is visible in the causes and curious eyes will discern that which is hid from common sight but to foretell future contingents as we call them is a thing not to be done but by extraordinary communion with God Isaiah by this divine prerogative put the heathen Idols to a Non-plus Declare things to come that we may know you are Gods Nebuchadnezzars Magi would have been as much to seek for the true interpretation if he had told them his prophetical dream as they were for the dream it self when he had lost it which a pen-man of the holy Scripture found out and interpreted and they confessed the Truth that it was onely by the power of the immortall God Of this testimony the Scripture hath abundance of instances and though they be not so common in the New Testament there is good reason for that because then was the time of accomplishing predictions and therefore it sayes This is the acceptable time behold the Lamb of God c. To foresee now was to overlook yet this spirit also appears manifestly in the Gospel both in Christ and his Apostles Who hath not read the twenty fourth of Matthew where the whole progress of the Gospel is foretold to wit that it should be preacht to all nations by the Apostles that they should be questioned before Rulers and Judges about it that Jerusalem should be destroyed for disobedience to it and since the prophesies which concerned Christ the Messiah were concredited to the Jewes Christ did let them see the Justice of their destruction because they knew not the day of their visitation though all the marks of prophesie concerning it were visible Christ himself often holding them before their eys A deplorable sign of a ruinous state a fatall blindnesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Miserable wretches how can they escape destruction they neither see what is good for them though it be laid before their eyes nor give heed to those who for a long time warned them of their danger That the Apostles of Christ had this spirit also is manifest by their respective writings 2. The second seale is the power of miracles that is such things as are above the power of nature and art to do Miracles are demonstrations of the divine presence in a way extraordinary Nothing can produce an effect above the power of its causality Those things which Christ performed transcend all ordinary power A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus naturalis But he raised the dead Lazarus also was buried four days As he spake as never man spake so to make his works parallel with his words he did as never man did It was never so seen in Israel Nicodemus inferred right he did such things as no man can do unlesse God be with him meaning above ordinary concourse and therefore added rationally We know thou art a Doctor sent from God It was a double argument of the Messiah which Christ sent to Iohn by his disciples in his Symbolicall answer The blind receive their sight the lame walk the deaf hear c. i. e. such things as were not only forâ—told but miraculous It is true Mountebanks may play tricks and cunning men put cheats upon easie people so the Thessalians knowing the time of Eclipses made their ignorant neighbours believe that they pull'd downe the Moon with their verses but by which of their Devices nay by which of Hippocrates Aphorismes may one learn to cure a lame man with ones shadow or a fever with a handkerchief What is further to be said in confirmation of this proof I shall bring in by and by to discredit the mock-miracles of some heathen pretenders quoted in opposition to Christ only here I may add these two things concerning such Devices 1. That they are not onely a testimony of the worlds opinion concerning the Divinity of miracles but also a tacit confession that Christ did them As counterfeit coin speaks the use of true money If there had not been such a way of proof why did they ape it 2. That they were foretold by Christ and his Apostles and so people were not only forewarned of a danger but confirmed in the beliefe of the Truth when they saw the predictions written concerning Impostors exactly fulfilled For as the predictions and prefigurations of Christ by the Prophets made way for his reception when he came as the true Messia so the predictions and predescriptions of Antichrist written by Christ and his Apostles gave argument against them when they came accordingly to be Impostors 3. The third Seale is the Resurrection of the great Doctor of divine Truths after he had bin dead and buried three dayes And here behold the incomparable wisdome of divine Providence which brings day out of darknesse and turns the shadow of death into the morning the death of Christ a great piece of the mystery of Redemption for his blood was shed for the Remission of our sins put a doubt upon his doctrine and stagger'd his Disciples But this cloud made onely way for a more illustrious appearance of his Truth for the Resurrection took off all doubts arising from his death and his Gospel gained confirmation as a Truth doth from a clear answer to a strong objection Indeed it was to be feared that the doctrines of Christ would have lien in the dust if he had not brought it forth with his own Resurrection and therefore Saint Paul doth well say that he was strongly declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead Indeed his murderers perswaded the souldiers with money to affirm that his Disciples stole him from the grave but how came they to steale his soule into him and to steale a power from