perverting his sense say we have Paul on our side who says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us sin the more abundantly that we may be the more abundantly pardoned Which they do to their own destruction saith St. Peter for they that killed the Prophets and the Apostles and they that destrey and takeaway their words by a perverse interpretation are obnoxious to one and the same Condemnation because they slew them that the World might be no longer taught by them the saving Truths of the Gospel and these in the like manner wrest or put upon the rack their words that none by them may work out their Salvation Again what is there clearer in the Apostolical Writings than that they every where taught God will raise the dead at the last day in which He will judge the World in righteousness And yet there were those who wrested these words so foully that some said the Resurrection was past already of whom were Hymenaeus and Philetas 2 Tim. II. 17 18. and others said there was no Resurrection 1 Cor. XV. 12. and others said Christ would never come again but laught at his promises of coming to reward the good and at his threatnings of coming to punish the wicked as St. Peter tells us in this very Chapter v. 3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts there was the reason of their scoffing saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the first men fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world Which they would not have had the impudence to affirm it being so easie to disprove them had they not affected as he shows v. 5. to be ignorant of what was as plainly recorded in the Holy Books as any thing whatsoever that there had already been long ago a great change made by the Flood which swept away the World of the Ungodly Which if they had been serious would have kept them from mocking at another destruction threatned to the Wicked with a promise of Salvation to the Godly at our Saviour's second Coming and made them look upon what was past as an Example of the like future Judgment I might give more numerous instances which would prove something beyond this that unpurged minds or which is all one unlearned and unstable Souls will not only wrest plain Truths to serve their Lusts and Humours but thereby be apt to grow more wicked and more prejudiced against God and Goodness For the opinion or presumption as is excellently observed by a great Man that any of our evil actions or dispositions are countenanced from God's Word doth mightily heighten them in a degree of evil more than usual The covetous niggardly and unmerciful for instance if they please themselves in the precepts of frugality and diligence are exceedingly stifned and rooted in those sins with the pleasure they take in their conceited conformity with the rule of Gods Word which teacheth us to avoid Riot and Luxury Sloth and Negligence And thus the stubborn and self-willed are encouraged in their obstinacy by the commendations which are given to the constant and the well-resolved And the malicious turbulent and seditious Spirits justifie their bitterness fury and contempt of Authority from the examples of excessive zeal or indignation swelling in Holy men upon just occasions and that perhaps by a special Divine incitation which is not by any man to be now imitated But it is time to leave this and to give a short account of the other II. It is no less usual for want of observing this plain Rule to press one and the self same Scripture to serve for different purposes unto the great dishonour of God and of his Holy Oracles which men from hence imagine have an uncertain found I might instance in some very ancient abuses of this nature As that of our Saviour's X. Matth. 25. It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master may be strained to prove no body knows how many absurdities You may guess at the rest by this one that it was alledged by the Ebionites to prove that Christians ought to be circumcised because Christ their Master was as Epiphanius expresly remembers and by the same reason may be urged to prove that no Christian ought to marry because Christ their Master never married But there are modern instances more than enough of this such as show that not only ignorant people but the most instructed in humane Learning wrest the Scriptures notoriously if they keep not close to Principles of known Morality and Piety From those two words Pasce oves Feed my sheep I know not how many things are endeavoured to be established by the Doctors of the Roman Church If you ask how they prove the Popes Monarchy and Supreme Dominion in the Church the Answer is Christ said to Peter Simon bar-Jona Feed my sheep i. e. saith Bellarmine regio more impera command after a Regal manner If you ask again by what Right he challenges to be the Supreme Judge in Controversies of Faith which anciently was thought to belong to General Councils out of the Word of God the same Doctor tells you it is evident from the same words Feed my sheep Hence he proves also his Infallibility or that he cannot err in matters of Faith because Christ said Feed my sheep Nay by the same words a fourth Prerogative is established which is a power to make new Articles of Faith if he think good They are alledged also for a fifth purpose to prove that he hath a Treasure made up of the Merits of Christ and of the Saints which he dispenses as he pleases to the Faithful for so the same Doctor teaches in his Book of Indulgences because Christ said to Peter Feed my sheep By which wonderful words also he and others labour to prove that the Pope can transfer Kingdoms absolve Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance and depose them from their Thrones And Becanus from the same words still gathers that he may inflict temporal Punishments as they call them not excepting death upon those Princes that are disobedient to him So strangely are men bent to force the meaning of Holy Writ though they have never so good Parts and great Learning when they have once forsaken the guidance of Common Sense and the obvious Notions of Christianity Nay the more witty they are the worse they are if they have lost their Conscience and keep not strictly to the first Principles of all Religion There is another Example to be given of this of the same Nature From those words Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church c. one is content to prove no more but this that the Vniversal Church cannot err but another from hence affirms that the Tradition of the present Church cannot err which will not satisfie others who conclude from the same words that the Pope cannot err and there are those who
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
more plainly than to be humble and modest and that as we ought to fear God so likewise to honour the King and his Ministers and to obey those that watch over our Souls nay to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake Which will dispose us most certainly if we be not carried away with pride or any other vicious affection to be ruled by them in dubious things and as it there follows in the Apostle 1 Thess V. 13. to be at peace among our selves I must beseech therefore every Member of this Church both for the honour of our Religion and for the safety of their own Souls to be as careful in this matter as I would have them to be in reading the Holy Scriptures Take your Guides along with you do not think your selves safe without their conduct be not only willing but desirous to learn of them reverence their Instructions do not easily dissent from them be afraid to oppose them especially when you have reason to think them to be serious studious knowing and conscientious men who take care to inform themselves aright that they may not misinform you For such men look upon themselves to be bound as hath been shown in the Treatise of Tradition pag. 24. to guide themselves in their Direction of others by what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have taught out of the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and thereby preserve their Flocks in the Truth of God's holy Word And having a great regard also to the sense of that Church wherein they live which by their Subscriptions they owne to have Authority in Controversies of Faith they will no less preserve them in Unity and in Peace To conclude it is impossible but every body must reap great fruit by the reading of the Scriptures if they read them for no other end but that they may go away better from the reading of them than they came to it and that they may not accommodate them to their own affections but correct all their affections and desires and the whole course of their life by this exact Rule of Righteousness According to which if we square our selves we shall presently learn in difficult things to be wise unto sobriety and in plain things to be wise unto Salvation that is so wise as to do what we certainly know to be our Duty which is the only Wisdom that the Scriptures magnifie Which will be the surest way both to know more and to know it better that is to feel the comfort of what we know in a blessed and assured hope of everlasting life which God who cannot lye hath promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The End of the First Part. PART II. HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourse that those words of St Peter 2. III. 16. which are wont to be alledged against the reading of Holy Scriptures do plainly suppose that the people did then read them I proceed now in the next place to shew that the Apostle doth not deter men from reading them by representing the difficulties that are in them and the danger of wresting them For he doth not affirm that all things are hard to be understood and consequently liable to be wrested but only that some things are of that nature In treating of which three things offer themselves to be considered I. First that most things in the Holy Scriptures are so far from being hard to be understood that they are easy Nay all things absolutely necessary for us are very easy II. Secondly That those things which are not so easy may be understood though there be some difficulty in it That is they will require some pains to understand them which should not deter us from reading but only make us laborious to find out the sense of what we read III. Thirdly When we do thoroughly understand and heartily believe the things that are easie it will abate much of that difficulty and make other things more easie I. I begin with the first of these the Apostle only saith some things are hard to be understood which supposes that most are not but rather easie as all those things especially are which are absolutely necessary to be known and believed and done for the obtaining Salvation That which makes things easie to be understood is the plain and perspicuous delivery of them in the words wherein they are written or spoken Now nothing an be plainer or clearer than the words wherein all the great Christian Truths are revealed and delivered to us which are so far from being obscure that it is not easier to see the light than it is to apprehend and understand the true meaning of them I will instance in some particulars and have an Eye all the way upon St. Paul's Epistles to which S. Peter is commonly thought to have respect wherein though some things be difficult yet these are most clearly discovered First That there is but one God the Father of whom are all things as he expresly writes 1 Cor. VIII 6. Secondly That He alone is to be worshipped as our Blessed Saviour remembers us out of Moses IV. Matt. 10. was the great thing pressed in his very entrance into any place where he preach'd 1 Thess l. 9 10. XVII Acts 23 24. Thirdly As our Lord teaches us that we are ingaged by our Baptism to worship one God in three Persons XXVIII Matth. 19. So S. Paul affirms the same plainly enough in that Solemn Prayer for the Corinthians 2. XIII ult The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Especially if it be compared with those places wherein he affirms our Saviour to be over all God blessed for ever IX Rom. 5. and the Spirit to search even the deep things of God that is to know his Mind exactly for so it follows 1 Cor. II. 10 11. that as none can know the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Which plainly tells us if we mind it that the Spirit of God is in God as the spirit of man is in man that is the Spirit is God himself and therefore fully acquainted with him in all things There is some little labour indeed in making this deduction but it is very easie if we consider all these places together Fourthly And the Nature of God none can possibly be ignorant of who doth but look into the Holy Books Where he will immediately see Him represented to be Almighty most Wise most Gracious Faithful to his Word and the living God who endures for ever Which are Truths written there in such great Letters that every one who runs as the Prophet speaks and doth but cast a transient eye upon them may easily read them Fifthly Particularly his infinite love and kindness towards us the children of men lies before us so fairly and shines so brightly in our
eyes that if we do not wilfully shut them we cannot but read it to our infinite satisfaction For so God loved the world saith our Lord Himself that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved III. John 16 17. And so St. Paul writes But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ Jesus by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus II. Ephes 4 5 6 7. Who can doubt at all of the favour of God his exceeding great and rich favour towards us who doth but cast his eyes on such words as these and believes the Truth of the Gospel of Christ Which were written for this very end that in all future Ages of the World after the Apostles were gone men might discern how abundant the Grace of God is in his kindness manifested towards us in our Blessed Lord. And therefore we in this Age of the World as well as all that were before us may conclude without any scruple that God is Love as St. John speaks and that he will be good to us for Christ's sake though we have greatly offended his Majesty Sixthly For that is the next thing the kindness of God towards sinful men and his readiness to pardon them and receive them into his favour and love again is here also so perspicuously revealed that there need be no question made of it In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John IV. 9 10. And in the same manner writes St. Paul After the kindness and love or pity of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of Eternal life III. Tit. 4 5. Nay for this very end he saith God shewed mercy to him though a very great Sinner a Blasphemer of Christ a Persecutor of his Disciples that men might be incouraged to hope in God if they would repent and turn to Him as he did 1 Tim. I. 14 15 16 c. Read the place and you will see that all the wit of man cannot devise plainer and clearer words to express the exceeding Grace of God towards all men which is declared so fully as well as familiarly that his words need no Commentary to explain them and make them more easie to be understood Seventhly With the same Evidence the Gospel speaks of the way and means whereby this Forgiveness was procured for us and that is by the Death and by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Who was delivered saith the Apostle for our offences and rose again for our justification IV. Rom. ult In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace I. Ephes 7. It is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. VIII Rom. 34 35 c. It would be endless to recite all that the Scriptures speak on this subject in terms as plain and clear as these So that we cannot reasonably doubt if we believe these Books that by one offering of Himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified as the Author to the Hebrews speaks X. 12 13 14. This man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool For by one offering he hath perfected for ever c. They that would make any other Satisfaction necessary by the Merits of Saints or any other Oblation of Christ necessary but that one which he Himself offered directly contradict the express words of this Book which are as easie to be understood as any that the most studied invention of men can indite Eighthly And so is the way and means whereby these Blessings thus purchased are communicated to us viz. the Mediation and Intercession of Christ Jesus on our behalf whereby he can save us to the utmost seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us VII Heb. 25. Nor is there any other that can perform this Office for us but he for as there is one God so one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus as St. Paul teaches in so many words 1 Tim. II. 4. Whereby we cannot but in reason think he means there is no more than One Mediator as it is certain there is no more than one God who communicates his Mind to us by this alone Mediator as we must address our selves to Him by no other Which St. Paul declares more fully in 1 Cor. VIII 5 6. Where he saith though there be many that are called Gods as there are gods many and lords many yet to us Christians there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in or for or to him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him That is As there is but one sole Fountain of all good unto whom we are to direct our Prayers and all we do for the first Cause must be our last End so He derives all unto us by his Son Jesus Christ alone by whom therefore and by Him alone we are to go to God the Father for what we are desirous to receive from Him None else in Heaven or Earth is capable of this Honour but this great Lord alone whom the Father loveth and hath given all things into his hands III. John 35. as any one that reads this place seriously may easily discern And therefore they who betake themselves unto any other Patron to recommend them to the Heavenly Grace are concerned to hide this Book from the Peoples Eyes and to discourage them from reading it by telling them it is obscure and hard to be understood For they who do read it see this truth so fully and expresly asserted there that if their minds be not prejudiced they cannot think it safe to implore the assistance of any other in the Heavenly Court which apparently derogates from the Honour of our
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
them for else we shall not use due care not to cross them in our Doctrine if we cross them in our Deeds but rather be content that by false glosses upon other places where the fraud will be less discernable the Light of those glorious Truths should be obscured and the power and force of them enervated and broken For what will not men say and do to defend themselves in their sins even against the clearest Convictions of Gods Holy Word which their bad assections teach them to oppose nay make it their interest to resist And here it may be fit to take this occasion to give a few directions for the right understanding of the Holy Scriptures which if we observe in our reading them we shall not only be preserved from dangerous mistakes but reap great benefit by them And I shall the rather do it because it will be a good introduction to the Third Part of this Discourse I. The first of them is a Rule which is necessary in all Sciences or parts of Knowledge viz to learn easie things first We can have no sound Understanding in the Scriptures unless we will follow their own Method which is to learn first to fear God and keep his Commandments for therein lies the beginning of Wisdom as he often tells us It is against the very direction which the Scripture gives us to be so confident as to venture presently into all the depths that are in it and to lose our time in puzzling our minds to unty the knots of difficult places For they are not to be salved but by those who are well acquainted with what the Scripture principally aims at which it teaches us in plain and easie words and therefore they must be first learnt as our Guides to those things which are of higher contemplation And he who is resolved upon this Method will find plain Truths enow to busie and imploy an honest and pious mind a long time by which he is to prepare and sit himself for more difficult inquiries if it be needful for him to make them Though the truth is ordinary Capacities may safely pass by those things that are hard and obscure and content themselves with the knowledge of easie and perspicuous Doctrines without any further search consulting thereby best for their own ease and quiet and for the Peace of the Church of God And as for those whose profession it is to devote themselves to the study of all Holy Writ even they must be sure for their own safety and others to lay the Foundation well here by thoroughly digesting the Doctrines which are after Godliness and deeply tincturing as I may say their minds therewith before they meddle with other matters For a sense of true Goodness will be as a Light to guide us in the interpreting those things which seem dark and need something to illustrate them And what can we imagine that should be but something contained in the same Book even the true Light of Life the Light which chases away all mens evil desires and the deeds of darkness which makes the Soul pure and without prejudice which disposes it to know God and to love him and to love all men for his sake This will instruct us how to interpret all the rest and not suffer us to entertain any sense of them in our minds which is repugnant to the Nature of God and hinders the practice and increase of true Godliness or prejudices Charity and disturbs Christian Society but conform all our thoughts unto a happy agreement with those great and obvious Truths Which therefore let us observe and mark as the very Life and Soul of Religion nay let us imprint them on our minds as the most necessary to be known and remembred and carried constantly in mind that we may never admit any thing to their prejudice For unless we be thus disposed we shall not only trouble our selves to no purpose but confound all things and overturn the whole Frame of Religion We shall be just like that Fool whom Melancthon speaks of whose work it was to carry fuel daily to the Kitchin and coming to a great Pile of Wood where little pieces lay uppermost and the greatest below he would needs begin at the bottom for which he gave this wise reason That it was good to do the hardest work first and then he should be better able to deal with that which was easie I need not make the application to those who love to perplex themselves with some deep and I may say dangerous Points if not well understood before they are well studied in the common Doctrines of Godliness and have learnt what it is to be a Christian This is a preposterous course contrary to the clear light and guidance of the Holy Books which teach us in the first place to make this inquiry What shall we do to be saved And we are sure none can be saved but they who are obedient to the Lord Jesus whose Faith therefore teaches us to study his Precepts before we meddle with other matters And these Precepts as they are not grievous to those that obey them so they are not hard to be learnt in order to that obedience But whatsoever concerns our Duty to God and Man and the Duty of every particular person in the relation wherein they stand of Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants Princes and People Teachers and Learners are all I have shown delivered here with such plainness and simplicity that no Book in the World ever taught them in this manner About these therefore in all reason together with the common Principles of Christian Faith we must imploy our most earnest care to settle them in our minds and make them the Rule of all the rest But it is not enough to bring these things into our minds I must add another Rule no less necessary than this which is II. That to do what we know is the way to know more what we have to do This I have suggested already in the body of the foregoing Discourse and therefore shall only commend the serious practice of one particular Duty which is so frequently mentioned in the Holy Scriptures that from thence we ought to conclude it is of exceeding great moment It is Humility not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think nor to be wise in our own conceits but to think soberly and to be lowly in our own eyes There is a number of Precepts of the same import with these the meaning of which he ought to study diligently and then heartily obey who would advance to a higher degree of knowledge for the meek i. e. the humble will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way If a man begin at first to think wrong of himself he is not like to hit right in other things but the easier mistake in them when he hath suffered such a cheat to be put upon him as to have a
with there unto this end and not think we know it well till we see how we may be made better thereby I cannot express this in fewer or more proper words than Erasmus hath done long ago in more places of his Works than one particularly in his Dedication of his Paraphrase on St. Matthew to the Emperour Charles the V. Since the Evangelists wrote the Gospel to every body I do not see why every body should not read it And I have so handled it that the most illiterate may understand it Now it will be read with the greatest profit if when any man takes it in his hand it be with this mind ut seipso reddatur melior c. that he may be rendred better than himself and do not accommodate the Gospel to his own affections but correct his own life and all his desires by the Rule of the Gospel I conclude this with that Saying of Seneca In the same plat of ground the Ox seeks for grass the Hound seeks for a Hare and the Stork for a Snake and just so it is with those that read the same Scripture wherein one seeks himself and another seeks the World one studies that is to please himself with the History of ancient Times another to furnish himself with the knowledge that belongs to his Profession but he alone reads it as he ought who therein seeks for God and desires to be filled with the knowledge of his Will that he may walk before him in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work I. Coloss 9 10. IV. And whosoever he is that designs this great End and comes to learn to be good with an honest mind and heart let him be careful to observe one Rule more which is To study and well digest the first Elements of Christ's Religion For as he will never read nor write exactly that doth not learn to spell truly and he must understand syllables before he understands words and sentences so he will never find the saving Power of the Gospel thoroughly working on his Spirit that keeps not the first Truths always in his mind and deeply rooted in his Heart The prime Principle of our Faith is That Jesus is the Son of God that He speaks from Heaven to us the unerring Will of our Creator The Gospel will not have any efficacy upon us unless we carry this along in our thoughts when we apply our selves to study it that this is the Voice of God this is the Mind and Will of Him that made us how shall we escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven to us This if we carry in mind while we read the Scriptures they will over-awe us and make us have Grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear We shall not dare to read them as we do some humane History wherein we are not all concerned but with attention with seriousness and with diligence tracing the Lord Jesus as pious Disciples of his in every step observing what he said and what he did And thus seeking and searching and hunting after Him every where as Erasmus his words are in his Preface to his Annotations on the N. T. we shall find in that most simple and rude Scripture the ineffable Counsel of celestial Wisdom we shall see in that foolishness of God if we may so speak which at first sight appears mean and contemptible that which far excels all humane prudence though never so sublime and admirable And the next Principle is like to it viz. That the Lord Jesus will come to judge the World in righteousness according to his Gospel This if we thought of that we shall be judged and have Sentence passed upon us by this Rule we could not but lay it to heart and square our life by it Therefore let these first Principles of Faith be strongly sixed in our mind and always be in our thoughts and let us think we have as much use of them as he that reads hath of his Letters which are the first Elements of Learning Then for the Principles of Practice this is the prime the chief the most fundamental in the whole Gospel He that will be my Disciple must deny himself forsake all and take up his Cross and follow me This our Saviour tells his Disciples again and again upon several occasions X. Matth. 38. XVI 24. IX Luke 23. XIV 27 33. In the last of which places he lets them know that it is as foolish to think of being a Christian without learning this Lesson as it is for a man to begin the building of a Tower before he hath computed the Charge or for a Prince to undertake a War without considering both his own force and the strength of his Opposer The sense of which two Parables our Lord summs up in these words So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple In which few words we have this account made to our hands as a great Doctor of ours speaks that e're we can hope to be built up in the Faith of Christ or safely ingage in the War against the Devil the World and the Flesh we must make over our interest in all that is dear unto us here and resign it up to our Lord Christ holding nothing so precious as his Love and his Salvation That is the meaning of this Lesson We must not prize any thing so much as the Mercy Grace and Favour of God in Christ Jesus All the contentments of this life and life it self must not weigh so much with us as God's good esteem of us his affection to us the Honour Glory and Immortality that Christ hath promised us When we have once learnt this and have it by heart there will be no difficulty in learning all the rest The immediate result of it will be an unfeigned feigned assent to the truth and goodness of all that Christ the Prince of Life hath revealed unto us and an uniform obedience to his Holy Will in all things For then there will be Nothing left to oppose him Nothing to gainsay him no interest no head-strong affection and desire to resist the impulsions of Divine Truth whose natural property is to incline and sway the Soul to all kinds and to every part of true goodness It is our duty then to ruminate upon these things over and over again to repeat these Lessons continually to our selves till they become familiar to us and have seated themselves in our hearts not thinking we know them till we feel them nor imagining we feel them to purpose till we be transformed into them That is an excellent Saying of the Hebrews He that learns the Law and doth not repeat it is like to him that sows his seed and never reaps nor binds it into sheaves that he may carry it home into his Barn And this He that repeats his Lesson an hundred times is not so wise as he that repeats it an hundred
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
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