9. 2 Cor. 4.11 who in his first homily on Saint Mat. farther declares that the Scriptures are easy to be understood and expos'd to vulgar capacities 13. He saies again Hom upon Esay that th Scriptures are not mettals that require the help of Miners but afford a tresure easily to be bad to them that seek the riches contain'd in them It is enough only to stoop down and look upon them and depart replenish'd with wealth it is enough only to open them and behold the splendor of those Gems Again Hom. 3. on the second Ep. to the Thess 2. All things are evident and strait which are in the holy Scripture whatever is necessary is manifest So also Hom. 3. on Gen. 14. It cannot be that he who is studious in the holy Scripture should be rejected for tho the instruction of men be wanting the Lord from above will inlighten our minds shine in upon our reason revele what is secret and teach what we do not know So Hom. 1. on Jo. 11. Almighty God involves his doctrin with no mists and darkness as did the Philosophers his doctrin is brighter then the Sun-beams and more illustrious and therefore every where diffus'd and Hom. 6. on Jo. 11. His doctrin is so facile that not only the wise but even women and youths must comprehend it Hom. 13. on Gen. 2. Let us go to the Scripture as our Mark which is its own interpreter And soon after saies that the Scripture interprets it self and suffers not its Auditor to err To the same purpose saies Cyril in his third Book against Julian In the Scripture nothing is difficult to them who are conversant in them as they ought to be 14. It is therefore a groundless cavil which men make at the obscurity of the Scripture since it is not obscure in those things wherein 't is our common interest it should be plain which sufficiently justifies its propriety to that great end of making us wise unto salvation And for those things which seem less intelligible to us many of them become so not by the innate obscurity of the Text but by extrinsic circumstances of which perhaps the over-busy tampering of Paraphrasts pleased with new notions of their own may be reckon'd for one But this subject the Reader may find so well pursued in Mr. Boyls Tract concerning the stile of Scripture that I shall be kindest both to him and it to refer him thither as also for answer to those other querulous objections which men galled with the sense of the Scripture have made to its stile 15. A third circumstance in which the Scripture is fitted to attain its end is its being committed to writing as that is distinguish'd from oral delivery It is most true the word of God is of equal autority and efficacy which way soever it be deliver'd The Sermons of the Apostles were every jot as divine and powerful out of their mouths as they are now in their story All the advantage therefore that the written Word can pretend to is in order to its perpetuity as it is a securer way of derivation to posterity then that of oral Tradition To evince that it is so I shall first weigh the rational probabilities on either side Secondly I shall consider to which God himself appears in Scripture to give the deference 16. FOR the first of these I shall propose this consideration which I had occasion to intimate before that the Bible being writ for the universal use of the faithful 't was as universally disperst amongst them The Jews had the Law not only in their Synagogues but in their privat houses and as soon as the Evangelical Books were writ they were scatter'd into all places where the Christian Faith had obtain'd Now when there was such a vast multitude of copies and those so revered by the possessors that they thought it the highest pitch of sacrilege to expose them it must surely be next to impossible entirely to suppress that Book Besides it could never be attemted but by som eminent violence as it was by the heathen Persecutors which according to the common effect of opposition serv'd to enhance the Christians value of the Bible and consequently when the storm was past to excite their diligence for recruiting the number So that unless in after Ages all the Christians in the world should at once make a voluntary defection and conspire to eradicate their Religion the Scriptures could not be utterly extinguish'd 17. AND that which secures it from total suppression do's in a great degree do so from corruption and falsification For whilest so many genuine copies are extant in all parts of the world to be appeal'd to it would be a very difficult matter to impose a spurious one especially if the change were so material as to awaken mens jealousies And it must be only in a place and age of gross ignorance that any can be daring enough to attemt it And if it should happen to succeed in such a particular Church yet what is that to the universal And to think to have the forgery admitted there is as a learned man saies like attemting to poison the sea 18. ON the other side oral Tradition seems much more liable to hazards error may there insinuate it self much more insensibly And tho there be no universal conspiracy to admit it at first yet like a small eruption of waters it widens its own passage till it cause an inundation There is no impression so deep but time and intervening accidents may wear out of mens minds especially where the notions are many and are founded not in nature but positive institution as a great part of Christian Religion is And when we consider the various tempers of men 't will not be strange that succeeding Ages will not alwaies be determin'd by the Traditions of the former Som are pragmatic and think themselves fitter to prescribe to the belief of their posterity then to follow that of their Ancestors som have interests and designs which will be better serv'd by new Tenets and som are ignorant and mistaking and may unawares corrupt the doctrin they should barely deliver and of this last sort we may guess there may be many since it falls commonly to the mothers lot to imbue children with the first rudiments 19. NOW in all these cases how possible is it that primitive Tradition may be either lost or adulterated and consequently and in proportion to that possibility our confidence of it must be stagger'd I am sure according to the common estimate in seculars it must be so For I appeal to any man whether he be not apter to credit a relation which comes from an eie-witness then at the third or fourth much more at the hundredth rebound as in this case And daily experience tells us that a true and probable story by passing thro many hands often grows to an improbable lie This man thinks he could add one becoming circumstance that man another and whilst most
second Book 47. c. tells us that the Scriptures are perfect as dictated by the word of God and his spirit And the same Father begins his third Book in this manner The disposition of our salvation is no otherwise known by us then by those by whom the Gospel was brought to us which indeed they first preach'd but afterward deliver'd it to us in the Scripture to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith Nor may we imagin that they began to preach to others before they themselves had perfect knowledg as som are bold to say boasting themselves to be emendators of the Apostles For after our Lords Resurrection they were indued with the power of the holy Spirit from on high and having perfect knowledg went forth to the ends of the earth preaching the glad tidings of salvation and celestial praise unto men Each and all of whom had the Gospel of God So Saint Matthew wrote the Gospel to the Hebrews in their tongue Saint Peter and Saint Paul preach'd at Rome and there founded a Church Mark the Disciple and interpreter of Peter deliver'd in writing what he had preach'd and Luke the follower of Paul set down in his Book the Gospel he had deliver'd Afterward Saint John at Ephesus in Asia publish'd his Gospel c. In his fourth Book c. 66. he directs all the Heretics with whom he deals to read diligently the Gospel deliver'd by the Apostles and also read diligently the Prophets assuring they shall there find every action every doctrin and every suffering of our Lord declared by them 5. THUS Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions c. 6. It is not lawful for us to introduce any thing of our own will nor make any choice upon our arbitrement We have the Apostles of our Lord for our Authors who themselves took up nothing on their own will or choice but faithfully imparted to the Nations the discipline which they had receiv'd from Christ So that if an Angel from heaven should teach another doctrin he were to be accurst And c. 25. 'T is madness saies he of the Heretics when they confess that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing nor taught things different to think that they did not revele all things to all which he enforces in the following chapter In his Book against Hermogenes c. 23. he discourses thus I adore the plenitude of the Scripture which discovers to me the Creator and what was created Also in the Gospel I find the Word was the Arbiter and Agent in the Creation That all things were made of preexistent matter I never read Let Hermogenes and his journy-men shew that it is written If it be not written let him fear the woe which belongs to them that add or detract And in the 39. ch of his Prescript We feed our faith raise our hope and establish our reliance with the sacred Words 6. IN like manner Hippolytus in the Homily against Noetus declares that we acknowledg only from Scripture that there is one God And whereas secular Philosophy is not to be had but from the reading of the doctrin of the Philosophers so whosoever of us will preserve piety towards God he cannot otherwise learn it then from the holy Scripture Accordingly Origen in the fifth Homily on Leviticus saies that in the Scripture every word appertaining to God is to be sought and discust and the knowledg of all things is to be receiv'd 7. WHAT Saint Cyprians opinion was in this point we learn at large from his Epistle to Pompey For when Tradition was objected to him he answers Whence is this Tradition is it from the autority of our Lord and his Gospel or comes it from the commands of the Apostles in their Epistles Almighty God declares that what is written should be obei'd and practic'd The Book of the Law saies he in Joshua shall not depart from thy mouth but thou shalt meditate in it day and night that you may observe and keep all that is written therein So our Lord sending his Apostles commands them to baptize all Nations and teach them to observe all things that he had commanded Again what obstinacy and presumtion is it to prefer human Tradition to divine Command not considering that Gods wrath is kindled as often as his Precepts are dissolv'd and neglected by reason of human Traditions Thus God warns and speaks by Isaiah This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrins the commandments of men Also the Lord in the Gospel checks and reproves saying you reject the Law of God that you may establish your Tradition Of which Precept the Apostle Saint Paul being mindful admonishes and instructs saying If any man teaches otherwise and hearkens not to sound doctrin and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ he is proud knowing nothing From such we must depart And again he adds There is a compendious way for religious and sincere minds both to deposit their errors and find out the truth For if we return to the source and original of divine Tradition human error will cease and the ground of heavenly Mysteries being seen whatsoever was hid with clouds and darkness will be manifest by the light of truth If a pipe that brought plentiful supplies of water fail on the suddain do not men look to the fountain and thence learn the cause of the defect whether the spring it self be dry or if running freely the water is stopt in its passage that if by interrupted or broken conveiances it was hindred to pass they being repair'd it may again be brought to the City with the same plenty as it flows from the spring And this Gods Priests ought to do at this time obeying the commands of God that if truth have swerv'd or fail'd in any particular we go backward to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition and there found our actings from whence their order and origination began 8. IT is true Bellarmine reproches this discourse as erroneous but whatever it might be in the inference which Saint Cyprian drew from it in it self it was not so For Saint Austin tho sufficiently engag'd against Saint Cyprians conclusion allows the position as most Orthodox saying in the fourth Book of Baptism c. 35. Whereas he admonishes to go back to the fountain that is the Tradition of the Apostles and thence bring the stream down to our times 't is most excellent and without doubt to be don 9. THUS Eusebius expresses himself in his second Book against Sabellius As it is a point of sloth not to seek into those things whereof one may enquire so 't is insolence to be inquisitive in others But what are those things which we ought to enquire into Even those which are to be found in the Scriptures those things which are not there to be found let us not seek after For if they ought to be known the holy Ghost had not omitted them in the Scripture
not according to it there is no light in them Esay 8.20 So that the veneration which they had before acquir'd was still anew excited by fresh inspirations which both attested the old and became new parts of their Canon 27. NOR could it be esteem'd a small confirmation to the Scriptures to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books for nothing less then divine power and wisdom could foretell and also verify them Upon these grounds the Jews universally through all successions receiv'd the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles and lookt upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them that their Masorits numbred not only the sections but the very words nay letters that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem'd so sacred A farther testimony and sepiment to which were the Samaritan Chaldee and Greek versions which being made use of in the Synagogs of Jews in their dispersions and the Samaritans at Sichem could not at those distances receive a uniform alteration and any other would be of no effect Add to this that the Original exemplar of the Law was laid up in the Sanctuary that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him and transcribe it with his own hand that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation teach it his children and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead And now sure 't is impossible to imagin any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced or irrefragably testified nor any thing believ'd upon stronger evidence 28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews that they did thus own these Writings as divine appears not only by the Records of past Ages but by the Jews of the present who still own them and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews as he must be most absurdly sceptical that shall deny they must be so to us Christians also who derive them from them and that with this farther advantage to our Faith that we see the clear completion of those Evangelical prophecies which remain'd dark to them and consequently have a farther Argument to confirm us that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are certainly divine 29. THE New has also the like means of probation which as it is a collection of the doctrin taught by Christ and his Apostles must if truly related be acknowleged no less divine then what they orally deliver'd So that they who doubt its being divine must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preacht to be so or else distrust the fidelity of the relation The former strikes at the whole Christian Faith which if only of men must not only be fallible but is actually a deceit whilst it pretends to be of God and is not To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendous miracles with which the Gospel was attested such as demonstrated a more then human efficacy And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain 30. 'T IS true there have bin by God permitted lying miracles as well as true ones have bin don by him Such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt in opposition to the other of Moses but then the difference between both was so conspicuous that he must be more partial and disingenuous then even those Magicians were who would not acknowledg the disparity and confess in those which were truly supernatural the finger of God Exod. 8.19 Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted that false Prophets should arise and do signs and wonders Deut. 13.1 Mat. 24.11.24 as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommended a deceiver before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver'd to the sons of men by the God of truth Whether the trick of a Barchochebas to hold fire in his mouth that of Marcus the heretic to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear bloud or that of Mahomet to bring a Pidgeon to his ear ought to be put in balance against all the miracles wrought by Moses our Savior or his Apostles And in a word whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus deserve to rival those of the Evangelists It is a most just judgment and accordingly threatned by Almighty God that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie 2 Thes 2.11 But still the Almighty where any man or devil do's proudly is evidently above him Exod. 18.11 will be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged Rom. 3.4 31. BUT if men will be Sceptics and doubt every thing they are to know that the matter call'd into question is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution probability and testimony First for probability let it be consider'd who were the first promulgers of Christs miracles In his life time they were either the patients on whom his miracles were wrought or the common people that were spectators the former as they could not be deceiv'd themselves but must needs know whether they were cur'd or no so what imaginable design could they have to deceive others Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not As for the Spectators as their multitude adds to their credibility it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter obvious to their senses so do's it also acquit them from fraud and combination Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatcht in the dark in close Cabals and privat Juncto's That five thousand men at one time and four thousand at another should conspire to say that they were miraculously fed when they were not and all prove true to the fiction and not betray it is a thing as irrational to be suppos'd as impossible to be parallel'd 32. BESIDES admit it possible that so many could have join'd in the deceit yet what imaginable end could they have in it Had their lie bin subservient to the designs of som potent Prince that might have rewarded it there had bin som temtation but what could they expect from the reputed son of a Carpenter who had not himself where to lay his head Nay who disclaim'd all secular power convei'd himself away from their importunities when they would have forc'd him to be a King And consequently could not be lookt on as one that would head a Sedition or attemt to raise himself to a capacity of rewarding his Abettors Upon all these considerations there appears not the
Nations so to private persons none of the prophetic threatnings ever return'd emty The sentence pronounc'd against Ahab Jezabel and their posterity was fulfill'd even to the most minute circumstances of place and manner as is evident by comparing the denunciation of Elijah 1 Kings 21.19.23 with their tragical ends recorded in the following chapters And as for Jehu whose service God was pleased to use in that execution tho he rewarded it with entailing the crown of Israel on him for four descents yet he foretold those should be the limits and accordingly we find Zachariah the fourth descendent of his line was the last of it that sate on that throne 2 Kings 15.10 So also the destruction of Achitophel and Judas the one immediat the other many hundred years remote are fore-told by David Psal 109. and we find exactly answer'd in the event 9. NOR was this exactness confin'd only to the severe predictions but as eminent in the more gracious All the blessings which God by himself or the Ministry of his Prophets promis'd were still infallibly made good At the time of life God return'd and visited Sarah with conception notwithstanding those natural improbabilities which made her not only distrust but even deride and laugh at the promise Gen. 18. The posterity of that Son of Promise the whole race of Abraham was deliverd from the Egyptian bondage and possest of Canaan at the precise time which God had long before signified to Abraham Gen. 15. So likewise the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity was fore-told many years before their deportation and Cyrus named for their restorer before he had either name or being save only in Gods prescience Is 44.28 But I need not multiply instances of national or personal promises The earliest and most comprehensive promise of all was that of the Messiah in whom all persons and Nations of the world were to be blest Gen. 22.11 that seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 To him give all the Prophets witness as Saint Peter observes Acts 10. And he who was the subject made himself also the expounder of those prophecies in his walk to Emmaus with the two Disciples Lu. 24.13 beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself 10. THIS as it was infinitly the greatest blessing afforded mankind so was it the most frequently and eminently predicted and that with the most exact particularity as to all the circumstances His immaculate conception the union of his two natures implied in his name Immanuel Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel is most plainly foretold by Is Chap. 7.14 Nay the very place of his birth so punctually fore-told that the Priests and Scribes could readily resolve Herods question upon the strength of the prophecy and assure him Christ must be born in Bethlehem Mat. 2.5 As for the whole business and design of his life we find it so describ'd by Isaiah chap. 61. as Christ himself owns it Luk. 4.18 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 11. IF we look farther to his death the greatest part of the Old Testament has a direct aspect on it All the Levitical oeconomy of Sacrifices and Ablutions were but prophetic Rites and ocular Predictions of that one expiatory Oblation Nay most of Gods providential dispensations to the Jews carried in them types and prefigurations of this Their rescue from Egypt the sprinkling of blood to secure from the destroying Angel the Manna with which they were fed the Rock which supplied them water these and many more referr'd to Christ as their final and highest signification 12. BUT besides these darker adumbrations we have as the Apostle speaks a more sure word of prophecy Saint Peter in his calculation begins with Moses takes in Samuel and the whole succession of Prophets after him as bearing witness to this great event of Christs passion Acts 4.22.24 And indeed he that reads the Prophets consideringly shall find it so punctually describ'd that the Evangelists do not much more fully instruct him in the circumstances of it Daniel tells us his death as to the kind of it was to be violent The Messiah shall be cut off and as to the design of it 't was not for himself Dan. 9.26 But the Prophet Isaiah gives us more then a bare negative account of it and expresly saies he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and by his stripes we were healed chap. 53.5 And again ver 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin and ver 11. my righteous Servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities Nor is Job an Idumean much short of even this Evangelical Prophet in that short Creed of his wherein he owns him as his Redeemer I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Job 19.25 13. AND as the end so the circumstances of his sufferings are most of them under prediction His extension upon the Cross is mention'd by the Psalmist They pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones Psal 22.16.17 As for his inward dolors they are in that Psalm so pathetically described that Christ chose that very form to breath them out in My God my God why hast thou forsaken me ver 1. So his revilers did also transcribe part of their reproches from ver 8. He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him Mat. 27.43 That vinegar which was offer'd him on the cross was a completion of a prophecy In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Ps 69.21 the piercing of his side was expresly fore-told by Zachary they shall look on him whom they have pierced Zach. 10.12 The company in which he suffer'd and the interment he had are also intimated by Isaiah he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death Isai 53.9 Nay even the disposal of his garments was not without a prophecy they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots Ps 22.18 Here are a cloud of witnesses which as they serve eminently to attest the truth of Christian Religion so do they to evince the excellency of sacred Scripture as to the verity of the prophetic part 14. AS to the admonitory part of the prophetic Writings they are in their kind no way inferior to the other The reproofs are autoritative and convincing What piercing exprobrations do we find of Israels ingratitude How often are they upbraided with the better examples of the bruit creatures with the Ox and the Ass by Isaiah chap.
men take the liberty to do so the relation grows as monstrous as such a heap of incoherent phancies can make it 20. IF to this it be said that this happens only in trivial secular matters but that in the weighty concern of Religion mankind is certainly more serious and sincere I answer that 't is very improbable that they are since 't is obvious in the common practice of the world that the interests of Religion are postpon'd to every little worldly concern And therefore when a temporal advantage requires the bending and warping of Religion there will never be wanting som that will attemt it 21. BESIDES there is still left in human nature so much of the venom of the Serpents first temtation that tho men cannot be as God yet they love to be prescribing to him and to be their own Assessors as to that worship and homage they are to pay him 22. BUT above all 't is considerable that in this case Sathan has a more peculiar concern and can serve himself more by a falsification here then in temporal affairs For if he can but corrupt Religion it ceases to be his enemy and becomes one of his most useful engins as sufficiently appear'd in the rites of the heathen worship We have therefore no cause to think this an exemt case but to presume it may be influenc'd by the same pravity of human nature which prevailes in others and consequently are oblig'd to bless God that he has not left our spiritual concerns to such hazards but has lodg'd them in a more secure repository the written Word 23. BUT I fore-see 't will be objected that whilst I thus disparage Tradition I do vertually invalidate the Scripture it self which comes to us upon its credit To this I answer first that since God has with-drawn immediate revelation from the world Tradition is the only means to convey to us the first notice that this Book is the word of God and it being the only means he affords we have all reason to depend on his goodness that he will not suffer that to be evacuated to us and that how liable soever Tradition may be to err yet that it shall not actually err in this particular 24. BUT in the second place This Tradition seems not so liable to falsification as others It is so very short and simple a proposition such and such writings are the word of God that there is no great room for Sophistry or mistake to pervert the sense the only possible deception must be to change the subject and obtrude supposititious writings in room of the true under the title of the word of God But this has already appear'd to be unpracticable because of the multitude of copies which were disperst in the world by which such an attemt would soon have bin detected There appears more reason as well as more necessity to rely upon Tradition in this then in most other particulars 25. NEITHER yet do I so farr decry oral Tradition in any as to conclude it impossible it should derive any truth to posterity I only look on it as more casual and consequently a less fit conveiance of the most important and necessary verities then the writen Word In which I conceive my self justifi'd by the common sense of mankind who use to commit those things to writing which they are most solicitous to derive to posterity Do's any Nation trust their fundamental Laws only to the memory of the present Age and take no other course to transmit them to the future do's any man purchase an estate and leave no way for his children to lay claim to it but the Tradition the present witnesses shall leave of it Nay do's any considering man ordinarily make any important pact or bargain tho without relation to posterity without putting the Articles in writing And whence is all this caution but from a universal consent that writing is the surest way of transmitting 26. BUT we have yet a higher appeal in this matter then to the suffrage of men God himself seems to have determin'd it And what his decision is 't is our next business to inquire 27. AND first he has given the most real and comprehensive attestation to this way of writing by having himself chose it For he is too wise to be mistaken in his estimate of better and worse and too kind to chuse the worst for us and yet he has chosen to communicate himself to the latter Ages of the world by writing and has summ'd up all the Eternal concerns of mankind in the sacred Scriptures and left those sacred Records by which we are to be both inform'd and govern'd which if oral Tradition would infallibly have don had bin utterly needless and God sure is not so prodigal of his spirit as to inspire the Autors of Scripture to write that whose use was superseded by a former more certain expedient 28. NAY under the Mosaic oeconomy when he made use of other waies of reveling himself yet to perpetuate the memory even of those Revelations he chose to have them written At the delivery of the Law God spake then viva voce and with that pomp of dreadful solemnity as certainly was apt to make the deepest impressions yet God fore-saw that thro every succeeding Age that stamp would grow more dim and in a long revolution might at last be extinct And therefore how warm soever the Israelites apprehensions then were he would not trust to them for the perpetuating his Law but committed it to writing Ex. 31.18 nay wrote it twice himself 29. YET farther even the ceremonial Law tho not intended to be of perpetual obligation was not yet referr'd to the traditionary way but was wrote by Moses and deposited with the Priests Deut. 31.9 And after-event shew'd this was no needless caution For when under Manasses Idolatry had prevail'd in Jerusalem it was not by any dormant Tradition but by the Book of the Law found in the Temple that Josiah was both excited to reform Religion and instructed how to do it 2. Kings 22.10 And had not that or som other copy bin produc'd they had bin much in the dark as to the particulars of their reformation which that they had not bin convei'd by Tradition appears by the sudden startling of the King upon the reading of the Law which could not have bin had he bin before possest with the contents of it In like manner we find in Nehemiah that the observation of the Feast of Tabernacles was recover'd by consulting the Law the Tradition whereof was wholly worn out or else it had sure bin impossible that it could for so long a time have bin intermitted Neh. 8.18 And yet mens memories are commonly more retentive of an external visible rite then they are of speculative Propositions or moral Precepts 30. THESE instances shew how fallible an expedient mere oral Tradition is for transmission to posterity But admit no such instance could be given 't is argument enough that
God has by his own choice of writing given the preference to it Nor has he barely chosen it but has made it the standard by which to mesure all succeeding pretences 'T is the means he prescribes for distinguishing divine from diabolical Inspirations To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word there is no light in them Isai 8.20 And when the Lawier interrogated our Savior what he should do to inherit eternal life he sends him not to ransac Tradition or the cabalistical divinity of the Rabbins but refers him to the Law What is written in the Law how readest thou Luk. 10.26 And indeed throout the Gospel we still find him in his discourse appealing to Scripture and asserting its autority as on the other side inveighing against those Traditions of the Elders which had evacuated the written Word Ye make the Word of God of none effect by your Tradition Mat. 15.6 Which as it abundantly shews Christs adherence to the written Word so 't is a pregnant instance how possible it is for Tradition to be corrupted and made the instrument of imposing mens phancies even in contradiction to Gods commands 31. AND since our blessed Lord has made Scripture the test whereby to try Traditions we may surely acquiesce in his decision and either Embrace or reject Traditions according as they correspond to the supreme rule the written Word It must therefore be a very unwarrantable attemt to set up Tradition in competition with much more in contradiction to that to which Christ himself hath subjected it 32. Saint Paul reckons it as the principal privilege of the Jewish Church that it had the Oracles of God committed to it i.e. that the holy Scriptures were deposited and put in its custody and in this the Christian Church succeeds it and is the guardian and conservator of holy Writ I ask then had the Jewish Church by vertue of its being keeper a power to supersede any part of those Oracles intrusted to them if so Saint Paul was much out in his estimate and ought to have reckon'd that as their highest privilege But indeed the very nature of the trust implies the contrary and besides 't is evident that is the very crime Christ charges upon the Jews in the place above cited And if the Jewish Church had no such right upon what account can the Christian claim any Has Christ enlarg'd its Charter has he left the sacred Scriptures with her not to preserve and practice but to regulate and reform to fill up its vacancies and supply its defects by her own Traditions if so let the commission be produc'd but if her office be only that of guardianship and trust she must neither substract from nor by any superadditions of her own evacuate its meaning and efficacy and to do so would be the same guilt that it would be in a person intrusted with the fundamental Records of a Nation to foist in such clauses as himself pleases 33. IN short God has in the Scriptures laid down exact rules for our belief and practice and has entrusted the Church to convey them to us if she vary or any way enervate them she is false to that trust but cannot by it oblige us to recede from that rule she should deliver to comply with that she obtrudes upon us The case may be illustrated by an easy resemblance Suppose a King have a forreign principality for which he composes a body of Laws annexes to them rewards and penalties and requires an exact and indispensable conformity to them These being put in writing he sends by a select messenger now suppose this messenger deliver them yet saies withall that himself has autority from the King to supersede these Laws at his plesure so that their last resort must be to his dictats yet produces no other testimony but his own bare affirmation Is it possible that any men in their wits should be so stupidly credulous as to incur the penalty of those Laws upon so improbable an indemnity And sure it would be no whit less madness in Christians to violate any precept of God on an ungrounded supposal of the Churches power to dispense with them 34. AND if the Church universal have not this power nor indeed ever claim'd it it must be a strange insolence for any particular Church to pretend to it as the Church of Rome do's as if we should owe to her Tradition all our Scripture and all our Faith insomuch that without the supplies which she affords from the Oracle of her Chair our Religion were imperfect and our salvation insecure Upon which wild dictates I shall take liberty in a distinct Section farther to animadvert SECT VI. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture hat towards the attainment of its excellent end AGAINST what has bin hitherto said to the advantage of the holy Scripture there opposes it self as we have already intimated the autority of the Church of Rome which allows it to be only an imperfect rule of Faith saying in the fourth Session of the Council of Trent that Christian faith and discipline are contain'd in the Books written and unwritten Tradition And in the fourth rule of the Index put forth by command of the said Council the Scripture is declar'd to be so far from useful that its reading is pernicious if permitted promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue and therefore to be withheld insomuch that the study of the holy Bible is commonly by persons of the Roman Communion imputed to Protestants as part of their heresy they being call'd by them in contemt the Evangelical men and Scripturarians And the Bible in the vulgar Tongue of any Nation is commonly reckon'd among prohibited Books and as such publicly burnt when met with by the Inquisitors and the person who is found with it or to read therein is subjected to severe penalties 2. FOR the vindication of the truth of God and to put to shame those unhappy Innovators who amidst great pretences to antiquity and veneration to the Scriptures prevaricat from both I think it may not be amiss to shew plainly the mind of the primitive Church herein and that in as few words as the matter will admit 3. FIRST I premise that Ireneus and Tertullian having to do with Heretics who boasted themselves to be emendators of the Apostles and wiser then they despising their autority rejecting several parts of the Scripture and obtruding other writings in their steed have had recourse unto Tradition with a seeming preference of it unto Scripture Their adversaries having no common principle besides the owning the name of Christians it was impossible to convince them but by a recourse to such a medium which they would allow But these Fathers being to set down and establish their Faith are most express in resolving it into Scripture and when they recommend Tradition ever mean such as is also Apostolical 4. IRENEUS in the
10. ATHANASIUS in his Tract of the Incarnation saies It is fit for us to adhere to the word of God and not relinquish it thinking by syllogisms to evade what is there clearly deliver'd Again in his Tract to Serap of the holy Ghost Ask not saies he concerning the Trinity but learn only from the Scriptures For the instructions which you will find there are sufficient And in his Oration against the Gentiles declares That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the truth 11. AGREEABLE to these is Optatus in his 5. Book against Parmen who reasons thus You say 't is lawful to rebaptize we say 't is not lawful betwixt your saying and our gain-saying the peoples minds are amus'd Let no man believe either you or us All men are apt to be contentious Therefore Judges are to be call'd in Christians they cannot be for they will be parties and thereby partial Therefore a Judg is to be lookt out from abroad If a Pagan he knows not the mysteries of our Religion If a Jew he is an enemy to our baptism There is therefore no earthly Judg but one is to be sought from heaven Yet there is no need of a resort to heaven when we have in the Gospel a Testament and in this case celestial things may be compar'd to earthly So it is as with a Father who has many children while he is present he orders them all and there is no need of a written Will Accordingly Christ when he was present upon earth from time to time commanded the Apostles whatsoever was necessary But as the earthly father finding himself to be at the point of death and fearing that after his departure his children should quarrel among themselves he calls witnesses and puts his mind in writing and if any difference arise among the brethren they go not to their Fathers Sepulcher but repair to his Will and Testament and he who rests in his grave speaks still in his writing as if he were alive Our Lord who left his Will among us is now in heaven therefore let us seek his commands in the Gospel as in his Will 12. THUS Cyril of Ierus Cat. 4. Nothing no not the least concernment of the divine and holy Sacraments of our Faith is to be deliver'd without the holy Scripture believe not me unless I give you a demonstration of what I say from the Scripture 13. SAINT Basil in his Book of the true Faith saies If God be faithful in all his sayings his words and works they remaining for ever and being don in truth and equity it must be an evident sign of infidelity and pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written In which Books he generally declares that he will write nothing but what he receives from the holy Scripture and that he abhors from taking it elsewhere In his 29. Homily against the Antitrinit Believe saies he those which are written seek not those which are not written And in his Eth. reg 26. Every word and action ought to be confirm'd by the testimony of the divinely inspir'd Scriptures to the establishment of the Faith of the good and reproof of the wicked 14. SAINT Ambrose in the first Book of his Offic. saies How can we make use of any thing which is not to be found in Scripture And in his Instit of Virgins I read he is the first but read not he is the second let them who say he is second shew it from the reading 15. GREG. Nyssen in his Dial. of the soul and resurrect saies 'T is undeniable that truth is there only to be plac'd where there is the seal of Scripture Testimony 16. SAINT Jerom against Helvidius declares As we deny not that which is written so we refuse those which are not written And in his Comment on the 98. Ps Every thing that we assert we must shew from the holy Scripture The word of him that speaks has not that autority as Gods precept And on the 87. Ps Whatever is said after the Apostles let it be cut off nor have afterwards autority Tho one be holy after the Apostles tho one be eloquent yet has he not autority 17. SAINT Austin in his Tract of the unity of the Church c. 12. acknowledges that he could not be convinc'd but by the Scriptures of what he was to believe and adds they are read with such manifestation that he who believes them must confess the doctrin to be most true In the second Book of Christian doctrin c. 9. he saies that in the plain places of Scripture are found all those things that concern Faith and Manners And in Epist 42. All things which have bin exhibited heretofore as don to mankind and what we now see and deliver to our posterity the Scripture has not past them in silence so far forth as they concern the search or defence of our Religion In his Tract of the good of Widowhood he saies to Julian the person to whom he addresses What shall I teach you more then that we read in the Apostle for the holy Scripture settles the rule of our doctrin that we think not any thing more then we ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt to every man the mesure of Faith Therefore my teaching is only to expound the words of this Doctor Ep. 157. Where any subject is obscure and passes our comprehension and the Scripture do's not plainly afford its help there human conjecture is presumtuous in defining 18. THEOPHILUS of Alex. in his second Paschal homily tells us that 't is the suggestion of a diabolical spirit to think that any thing besides the Scripture has divine autority And in his third he adds that the Doctors of the Church having the Testimony of the Scripture lay firm foundation of their doctrin 19. CHRYSOSTOM in his third Homily on the first of the Thessal asserts that from the alone reading or hearing of the Scripture one may learn all things necessary So Hom. 34. on Act. 15. he declares A heathen comes and saies I would willingly be a Christian but I know not who to join my self to for there are many contentions among you many seditions and tumults so that I am in doubt what opinion I should abuse Each man saies what I say is true and I know not whom to believe each pretends to Scripture which I am ignorant of 'T is very well the issue is put here for if the appeal were to reason in this case there would be just occasion of being troubled but when we appeal to Scripture and they are simple and certain you may easily your self judg He that agrees with the Scripture is a Christian he that resists them is far out of the way And on Ps 95. If any thing be said without the Scripture the mind halts between different opinions somtimes inclining as to what is probable anon rejecting as what is frivolous but when the testimony of holy Scripture
is produc'd the mind both of speaker and hearer is confirm'd And Hom. 4. on Lazar Tho one should rise from the dead or an Angel come down from heaven we must believe the Scripture they being fram'd by the Lord of Angels and the quick and dead And Hom. 13. 2 Cor. 7. Is it not an absurd thing that when we deal with men about mony we will trust no body but cast up the sum and make use of our counters but in religious affairs suffer our selves to be led aside by other mens opinions even then when we have by an exact scale and touchstone the dictat of the divine Law Therefore I pray and exhort you that giving no heed to what this or that man saies you would consult the holy Scripture and thence learn the divine riches and pursue what you have learnt And Hom. 58. on Jo. 10.1 'T is the mark of a thief that he comes not in by the dore but another way now by the dore the testimony of the Scripture is signified And Hom. on Gal. 1.8 The Apostle saies not if any man teach a contrary doctrin let him be accurs'd or if he subvert the whole Gospel but if he teach any thing beside the Gospel which you have receiv'd or vary any little thing let him be accurs'd 20. CYRIL of Alex. against Jul. l. 7. saies The holy Scripture is sufficient to make them who are instructed in it wise unto salvation and endued with most ample knowledg 21. THEODORET Dial. 1. I am perswaded only by the holy Scripture And Dial. 2. I am not so bold to affirm any thing not spoken of in the Scripture And again qu. 45. upon Genes We ought not to enquire after what is past over in silence but acquiesce in what is written 22. IT were easy to enlarge this discourse into a Volume but having taken as they offer'd themselves the suffrages of the writers of the four first Centuries I shall not proceed to those that follow If the holy Scripture were a perfect rule of Faith and Manners to all Christians heretofore we may reasonably assure our selves it is so still and will now guide us into all necessary truth and consequently make us wise unto salvation without the aid of oral Tradition or the new mintage of a living infallible Judg of controversy And the impartial Reader will be enabled to judg whether our appeal to the holy Scripture in all occasions of controversy and recommendation of it to the study of every Christian be that heresy and innovation which it is said to be 23. IT is we know severely imputed to the Scribes and Pharisees by our Savior that they took from the people the key of knowledg Luk. 11.52 and had made the word of God of none effect by their Traditions Mat. 15.6 but they never attemted what has bin since practiced by their Successors in the Western Church to take away the Ark of the Testament it self and cut off not only the efficacy but very possession of the word of God by their Traditions Surely this had bin exceeding criminal from any hand but that the Bishops and Governors of the Church and the universal and infallible Pastor of it who claim the office to interpret the Scriptures exhort unto and assist in the knowledg of them should be the men who thus rob the people of them carries with it the highest aggravations both of cruelty and breach of trust If any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy saies Saint John Revel 22.19 God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this Book What vengeance therefore awaits those who have taken away not only from one Book but at once the Books themselves even all the Scriptures the whole word of God SECT VII Historical reflexions upon the events which have happen'd in the Church since the with-drawing of the holy Scripture T WILL in this place be no useless contemplation to observe after the Scriptures had bin ravisht from the people in the Church of Rome what pitiful pretenders were admitted to succeed And first because Lay-men were presum'd to be illiterate and easily seducible by those writings which were in themselves difficult and would be wrested by the unlearned to their own destruction pictures were recommended in their steed and complemented as the Books of the Laity which soon emprov'd into a necessity of their worship and that gross superstition which renders Christianity abominated by Turks and Jews and Heathens unto this day 2. I would not be hasty in charging Idolatry upon the Church of Rome or all in her communion but that their Image-worship is a most fatal snare in which vast numbers of unhappy souls are taken no man can doubt who hath with any regard travail'd in Popish Countries I my self and thousands of others whom the late troubles or other occasions sent abroad are and have bin witnesses thereof Charity 't is true believes all things but it do's not oblige men to disbelieve their eies 'T was the out-cry of Micah against the Danites Jud. 18.24 ye have taken away my Gods which I have made and the Priest and are gon away and what have I more but the Laity of the Roman communion may enlarge the complaint and say you have taken away the oracles of our God and set up every where among us graven and molten Images and Teraphims and what have we more and 't was lately the loud and I doubt me is still the unanswerable complaint of the poor Americans that they were deni'd to worship their Pagod once in the year when they who forbad them worship'd theirs every day 3. THE Jews before the captivity notwithstanding the recent memory of the Miracles in Egypt and the Wilderness and the first conquest of the Land of Canaan with those that succeeded under the Judges and kings of Israel and Iuda as also the express command of God and the menaces of Prophets ever and anon fell to downright Idolatry but after their return unto this day have kept themselves from falling into that sin tho they had no Prophets to instruct them no miracles or government to encourage or constrain them The reason of which a very learned man in his discourse of religious Assemblies takes to be the reading and teaching of the Law in their Synagogues which was perform'd with great exactness after the return from the captivity but was not so perform'd before And may we not invert the observation and impute the Image-worship now set up in the Christian Church to the forbidding the reading of the Scriptures in the Churches and interdicting the privat use and institution in them 4. FOR a farther supplement in place of the Scriptures whose History was thought not edifying enough the Legends of the Saints were introduc'd stories so stupid that one would imagin them design'd as an experiment how far credulity could be impos'd
practice and contemt of the divine Law they have deserted their profession and made themselves utterly unworthy of the blessings they enjoy and the light of that Gospel which with noon-day brightness has shin'd among them Upon which account I suppose it may not be impertinent in the next place to subjoin som plain directions and cautionary advices concerning the use of these sacred Books SECT VIII Necessary cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scriptures IT is a common observation that the most generous and sprightly Medicins are the most unsafe if not appli'd with due care and regimen And the remark holds as well in spiritual as corporal remedies The Apostle asserts it upon his own experience that the doctrin of the Gospel which was to som the savor of life unto life was to others the savor of death 2 Cor. 2.15 And the same effect that the oral Word had then the written Word may have now not that either the one or the other have any thing in them that is of it self mortiferous but becomes so by the ill disposition of the persons who so pervert it It is therefore well worth our inquiry what qualifications on our part are necessary to make the Word be to us what it is in it self the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 Of these som are previous before our reading som are concomitant with it and som are subsequent and follow after it 2. OF those that go before sincerity is a most essential requisit by sincerity I mean an upright intention by which we direct our reading to that proper end for which the holy Scriptures were design'd viz. the knowing Gods will in order to the practicing it This honest simplicity of heart is that which Christ represents by the good ground where alone it was that the seed could fructify Mat. 13.8 And he that brings not this with him brings only the shadow of a Disciple The word of God is indeed sharper then a two-edged sword Heb. 4.12 but what impression can a sword make on a body of air which still slips from and eludes its thrusts And as little can all the practical discourses of holy Writ make on him who brings only his speculative faculties with him and leaves his will and affections behind him which are the only proper subjects for it to work on 3. TO this we may probably impute that strange inefficaciousness we see of the Word Alas men rarely apply it to the right place our most inveterat diseases lie in our morals and we suffer the Medicin to reach no farther then our intellects As if he that had an ulcer in his bowels should apply all his balsoms and sanatives only to his head 'T is true the holy Scriptures are the tresuries of divine Wisdom the Oracles to which we should resort for saving knowledg but they are also the rule and guide of holy Life and he that covets to know Gods will for any purpose but to practice it is only studious to entitle himself to the greater number of stripes Luk. 12.47 4. NAY farther he that affects only the bare knowledg is oft disappointed even of that The Scripture like the Pillar of fire and cloud enlightens the Israelites those who sincerely resign themselves to its guidance but it darkens and confounds the Egyptians Ex. 14.20 And 't is frequently seen that those who read only to become knowing are toll'd on by their curiosity into the more abstruse and mysterious parts of Scripture where they entangle themselves in inextricable mazes and confusions and instead of acquiring a more superlative knowledg loose those easy and common notions which lie obvious to every plain well meaning Reader I fear this Age affords too many and too frequent instances of this in men who have lost God in the midst of his Word and studied Scripture till they have renounc'd its Author 5. AND sure this infatuation is very just and no more then God himself has warn'd us of who takes the wise in their own craftiness Job 5.12 but appropriates his secrets only to them that fear him and has promis'd to teach the meek his way Psal 25.9.14 And this was the method Christ observ'd in his preaching unveiling those truths to his Disciples which to the Scribes and Pharisees his inquisitive yet refractory hearers he wrapt up in parables not that he dislik'd their desire of knowledg but their want of sincerity which is so fatal a defect as blasts our pursuits tho of things in themselves never so excellent This we find exemplifi'd in Simon Magus Acts 8. who tho he coveted a thing in it self very desirable the power of conferring the holy Ghost yet desiring it not only upon undue conditions but for sinister ends he not only mist of that but was after all his convincement by the Apostles miracles and the engagement of his Baptism immerst in the gall of bitterness and at last advanc'd to that height of blasphemy as to set up himself for a God so becoming a lasting memento how unsafe it is to prevaricate in holy things 6. BUT as there is a sincerity of the Will in order to practice so there is also a sincerity of the understanding in order to belief and this is also no less requisit to the profitable reading of Scripture I mean by this that we come with a preparation of mind to embrace indifferently whatever God there reveles as the object of our Faith that we bring our own opinions not as the clue by which to unfold Scripture but to be tried and regulated by it The want of this has bin of very pernicious consequence in matters both of Faith and speculation Men are commonly prepossest strongly with their own notions and their errand to Scripture is not to lend them light to judg of them but aids to back and defend them 7. OF this there is no Book of controversy that do's not give notorious proof The Socinian can easily over-look the beginning of Saint John that saies The Word was God Jo. 1.1 and all those other places which plainly assert the Deity of our Savior if he can but divert to that other more agreeable Text that the Father is greater then I. Among the Romanists Peters being said to be first among the Apostles Mat. 10.2 and that on that Rock Christ would build his Church Mat. 16.18 carries away all attention from those other places where Saint Paul saies he was not behind the very chiefest of the Apostles 2 Cor. 11.5 that upon him lay the care of all the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 and that the Church was not built upon the foundation of som one but all the twelve Apostles Revel 21.14 So it fares in the business of the Eucharist This is my body Mat. 26.26 carries it away clear for Transubstantiation when our Saviors calling that which he drunk the fruit of the vine Mat. 26.29 and then Saint Pauls naming the Elements in the Lords Supper several times over Bread and
those solemn and holy intentions which become the dignity of its Author Accordingly we find holy men have in all Ages bin affected with it and som to the inward reverence of the mind have join'd the outward of the body also and never read it but upon their knees an example that may both instruct and reproach our profaness who commonly read by chance and at a venture If a Bible happen in our way we take it up as we would do a Romance or Play-book only herein we differ that we dismiss it much sooner and retain less of its impressions 18. IT was a Law of Numa that no man should meddle with divine things or worship the Gods in passing or by accident but make it a set and solemn business And every one knows with how great ceremony and solemnity the heathen Oracles were consulted How great a shame is it then for Christians to defalk that reverence from the true God which heathens allow'd their false ones 19. NOW this proceeds somtimes from the want of that habitual reverence we should alwaies have to it as Gods word and somtimes from want of actual exciting it when we go to read for if the habit lie only dormant in us and be not awak'd by actual consideration it avails us as little in our reading as the habitual strength of a man do's towards labor when he will not exert it for that end 20. WE ought therefore as to make it our deliberat choice to read Gods word so when we do it to stir up our selves to those solemn apprehensions of its dignity and autority as may render us malleable and apt to receive its impressions for where there is no reverence 't is not to be expected there should be any genuine or lasting obedience 21. SAINT Austin in his Tract to Honoratus of the advantage of believing makes the first requisit to the knowledg of the Scriptures to be the love of them Believe me saies he every thing in the Scripture is sublime and divine its truth and doctrin are most accommodate to the refreshment and building up of our minds and in all respects so order'd that every one may draw thence what is sufficient for him provided he approach it with devotion piety and religion The proof of this may require much reasoning and discourse But this I am first to perswade that you do not hate the Authors and then that you love them Had we an ill opinion of Virgil nay if upon the account of the reputation he has gain'd with our Predecessors we did not greatly love before we understood him we should never patiently go thro all the difficult questions Grammarians raise about him Many employ themselves in commenting upon him we esteem him most whose exposition most commends the Book and shews that the Author not only was free from error but did excellently well where he is not understood And if such an account happen not to be given we impute it rather to the Interpreter then the Poet. 22. THUS the good Father whose words I have transcrib'd at large as being remarkable to the present purpose he also shews that the mind of no Author is to be learnt from one averse to his doctrin as that 't is vain to enquire of Aristotles Books from one of a different Sect Or of Archimedes from Epicurus the discourse will be as displeasing as the speaker and that shall be esteem'd absurd which comes from one that is envi'd or despis'd 23. A third preparative to our reading should be praier The Scripture as it was dictated at first by the holy Spirit so must still owe its effects and influence to its cooperation The things of God the Apostle tells us are spiritually discern'd 1 Cor. 2.14 And tho the natural man may well enough apprehend the letter and grammatical sense of the Word yet its power and energy that insinuative perswasive force whereby it works on hearts is peculiar to the spirit and therefore without his aids the Scripture whilst it lies open before our eies may still be as a Book that is seal'd Esai 29.11 be as ineffective as if the characters were illegible 24. BESIDES our Savior tells us the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown Mat. 13.17 And unless we have som better guard then our own vigilance he is sure enough to prosper in his attemt Let it therefore be our care to invoke the divine Aid and when ever we take the Bible into our hands to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation that we may find its effects in our hearts Let us say with holy David open thou mine eies O Lord that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Blessed art thou O Lord O teach me thy statutes Ps 119. Nay indeed 't wil be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent a praier so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular that if we transcribe not only the example but the very words I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously 25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir'd of us at the time of reading the Scripture which consists principally in two things The first of these is attention which is so indispensably requisit that without it all Books are alike and all equally insignificant for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads the wisest discourses signify no more to him then the most exquisit music do's to a man perfectly deaf The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred then those of another Book 't is the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir'd and he that considers only the former may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book 26. WE must therefore keep our minds fixt and attent to what we read 't is a folly and lightness not to do so in human Authors but 't is a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contemt and disvalue then to hear a man speak and not at all mind what he saies yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God who hear or read his Word and give it no attention Yet I fear the practice is not more impious then it is frequent for there are many that read the Bible who if at the end of each Chapter they should be call'd to account I doubt they could produce very slender collections and truly 't is a sad consideration that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those who read it as som preach the Gospel Phil. 1.15 out of envy and strife How curiously do men inspect nay ransac and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation read with such a retchless
the seed and parent of the greatest It is so in all sins the kingdom of Satan like that of God may be compar'd to a grain of mustard seed Mat. 13.31 which tho little in it self is mighty in its increase 54. NO man ever yet began at the top of villany but the advance is still gradual from one degree to another each commission smoothing and glibbing the way to the next He that accustoms in his ordinary discourse to use the sacred Name of God with as little sentiment and reverence as he do's that of his neighbor or servant that makes it his common by-word and cries Lord and God upon every the lightest occasion of exclamation or wonder this man has a very short step to the using it in oaths and upon all frivolous occasions and he that swears vainly is at no great distance from swearing falsely It is the same in this instance of the Scriptures He that indulges his wit to rally with them will soon come to think them such tame things that he may down-right scorn them And when he is arriv'd to that then he must pick quarrels to justify it till at last he arrive even to the height of enmity 55. LET every man therefore take heed of setting so much as one step in this fatal circle guard himself against the first insinuation of this guilt and when a jest offers it self as a temtation let him balance that with a sober thought and consider whether the jest can quit the cost of the profanation Let him possess his mind with an habitual awe take up the Bible with solemner thoughts and other kind of apprehensions then any human Author and if he habituate himself to this reverence every clause and phrase of it that occurs to his mind will be apter to excite him to devout ejaculations then vain laughter 56. IT is reported of our excellent Prince King Edward the sixth that when in his Council Chamber a Paper that was call'd for happen'd to lie out of reach and the Person concern'd to produce it took a Bible that lay by and standing upon it reacht down the Paper the King observing what was don ran himself to the place and taking the Bible in his hands kissed it and laid it up again Of this it were a very desirable moral that Princes and all persons in autority would take care not to permit any to raise themselves by either a hypocritical or profane trampling upon holy things But besides that a more general application offers its self that all men of what condition soever should both themselves abstain from every action that has the appearance of a contemt of the holy Scripture and also when they observe it in others discountenance the insolence and by their words and actions give Testimony of the veneration which they have for that holy Book they see others so wretchedly despise 57. BUT above all let him who reads the Scripture seriously set himself to the practice of it and daily examin how he proceds in it he that diligently do's this will not be much at leisure to sport with it he will scarce meet with a Text which will not give him cause of reflection and provide him work within his own brest every duty injoin'd will promt him to examin how he has perform'd every sin forbid will call him to recollect how guilty he has bin every pathetic strain of devotion will kindle his zeal or at least upbraid his coldness every heroic example will excite his emulation In a word every part of Scripture will if duly appli'd contribute to som good and excellent end And when a thing is proper for such noble purposes can it be the part of a wise man to apply it only to mean and trivial Would any but an Idiot wast that Soveraign Liquor in the washing of his feet which was given him to expel poison from his heart And are not we guilty of the like folly when we apply Gods word to serve only a ludicrous humor and make our selves merry with that which was design'd for the most serious and most important purpose the salvation of our souls And indeed who ever takes any lower aim then that and the vertues preparatory to it in his study of Scripture extremely debases it 58. LET us therefore keep a steady eie upon that mark and press towards it as the Apostle did Phil. 3.14 walk by that rule the holy Scripture proposes faithfully and diligently observe its precepts that we may finally partake its promises To this end continually pray we in the words of our holy mother the Church unto Almighty God who has caus'd all holy Scripture to be written for our learning that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of his holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting Life which he has given in our Savior Jesus Christ THE CONTENTS SECTION Sect. 1. The several methods of Gods communicating the knowledg of himself Pag. 1. Sect. 2. The divine Original Endearments and Autority of the Holy Scripture p. 9. Sect. 3. The Subject Matter treated of in the holy Scripture is excellent as is also its end and design p. 63. Sect. 4. The Custody of the holy Scripture is a privilege and right of the Christian Church and every member of it which cannot without impiety to God and injustice unto it and them be taken away or empeacht p. 123. Sect. 5. The Scripture has great propriety and fitness toward the attainment of its excellent end p. 145. Sect. 6. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture has toward the attainment of its excellent end p. 165. Sect. 7. Historical reflexions upon the events which have happen'd in the Church since the with-drawing of the holy Scripture p. 180. Sect. 8. Necessary Cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scripture p. 193. FINIS
knows it but also by its prescribing those things which are in themselves best and which a sober Heathen would adjudg fittest to be rewarded And as to our temporal happiness I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd man whether any thing can contribute more to the peace and real happiness of mankind then the universal practice of the Scripture rules would do Would God we would all conspire to make the experiment and then doubtless not only our reason but our sense too would be convinc'd of it 93. AND as the design is thus beneficial so in the second place is it as extensive also Time was when the Jews had the inclosure of divine Revelation when the Oracles of God were their peculiar depositum and the Heathen had not the knowledg of his Laws Ps 147. ult but since that by the goodness of God the Gentiles are become fellow-heirs Eph. 3.6 he hath also deliver'd into their hands the deeds and evidences of their future state given them the holy Scriptures as the exact and authentic registers of the covenant between God and man and these not to be like the heathen Oracles appropriated to som one or two particular places so that they cannot be consulted but at the expence of a pilgrimage but laid open to the view of all that will believe themselves concern'd 94. IT was a large commission our Savior gave his Disciples go preach the Gospel to every creature Mar. 16.15 which in the narrowest acception must be the Gentile world and yet their oral Gospel did not reach farther then the written for wherever the Christian Faith was planted the holy Scriptures were left as the records of it nay as the conservers of it too the standing rule by which all corruptions were to be detected 'T is true the entire Canon of the New Testament as we now have it was not all at once deliver'd to the Church the Gospels and Epistles being successively writ as the needs of Christians and the encroachments of Heretics gave occasion but at last they became all together the common magazine of the Church to furnish arms both defensive and offensive For as the Gospel puts in our hands the shield of Faith so the Epistles help us to hold it that it may not be wrested out of our hands again either by the force of persecution or the sly insinuations of vice or heresy 95. THUS the Apostles like prudent leaders have beat up the Ambushes discover'd the snares that were laid for us and by discomfiting Satans forlorn hope that earliest Set of false teachers and corrupt practices which then invaded the Church have laid a foundation of victory to the succeeding Ages if they will but keep close to their conduct adhere to those sacred Writings they have left behind them in every Church for that purpose 96. NOW what was there deposited was design'd for the benefit of every particular member of that Church The Bible was not committed like the Regalia or rarities of a Nation to be kept under lock and key and consequently to constitute a profitable office for the keepers but expos'd like the Brazen Serpent for universal view and benefit that sacred Book like the common air being every mans propriety yet no mans inclosure yet there are a generation of men whose eies have bin evil because Gods have bin good who have seal'd up this spring monopoliz'd the word of Life and will allow none to partake of it but such persons and in such proportions as they please to retail it an attemt very insolent in respect of God whose purpose they contradict and very injurious in respect of man whose advantage they obstruct The iniquity of it will be very apparant if we consider what is offer'd in the following Section SECT IV. The Custody of the holy Scripture is a privilege and right of the Christian Church and every member of it which cannot without impiety to God and injustice unto it and them be taken away or empeacht BESIDES the keeping of the divine Law which is obsequious and imports a due regard to all its Precepts commonly exprest in Scripture by keeping the commandments hearkning to and obeying the voice of the Lord walking in his waies and observing and doing his statutes and his judgments there is a possessory keeping it in reference to our selves and others in respect whereof Almighty God Deut. 6. and elsewhere frequently having enjoin'd the people of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might and that the words which he commanded them should be in their heart he adds that they shall teach them diligently to their children and shall talk of them when they sit down in their houses and when they walk by the way and when they lie down and when they rise up and that they bind them for a sign upon their hand and that they shall be as frontlets between their eies and that they shall write them upon the posts of their house and on their gates So justly was the Law call'd the Scripture being written by them and worn upon the several parts of the body inscrib'd upon the walls of their houses the entrance of their dores and gates of their Cities and in a word placed before their eies wherever they convers'd 2. AND this was granted to the Jews as matter of privilege and favor To them saies Saint Paul Rom. 9.4 pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law And the same Saint Paul at the 3. chap. 2. v. of that Epistle unto the question what advantage hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision answers that it is much every way chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God This depositum or trust was granted to the Fathers that it should be continued down unto their children He made a covenant saies David Ps 78. v. 5. with Jacob and gave Israel a Law which he commanded our Fore-fathers to teach their children that their posterity might know it and the children which were yet unborn to the intent that when they came up they might shew their children the same Which Scripture by a perpetual succession was to be handed down unto the Christian Church the Apostles on all occasions appealing unto them as being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Act. 13.27 and also privatly in their hands so that they might at plesure search into them Jo. 5.39 Act. 17.11 Hereupon the Jews are by Saint Austin call'd the Capsarii or servants that carried the Christians books And Athanasius in his Tract of the Incarnation saies The Law was not for the Jews only nor were the Prophets sent for them alone but that Nation was the Divinity-Schole of the whole world from whence they were to fetch the knowledg of God and the way of spiritual living which amounts to what the Apostle saies Galat. 3.24 That the Law was a Schole-master to bring us unto
Christ 3. AND 't is observable that the very same word Rom. 3.2 in the Text even now recited which expresses the committing of the Oracles of God to the Jews is made use of constantly by Saint Paul when he declares the trust and duty encumbent on him in the preaching of the Gospel of which see 1 Cor. 9.17 Gal. 2.7 1 Thes 2.4 1 Tim. 1.11 Tit. 1.3 And therefore as he saies 1 Cor. 9. Tho I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon me yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel for if I do this thing willingly I have a reward but if against my will a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me So may all Christians say if we our selves keep and transmit to our posterities the holy Scriptures we have nothing to glory of for a necessity is laid upon us and wo be unto us if we do not our selves keep and transmit to our posterity the holy Scriptures If we do this thing willingly we have a reward but if against our will the custody of the Gospel and at least that dispensation of it is committed to us But if we are Traditors and give up our Bibles or take them away from others let us consider how black an apostacy and sacrilege we shall incur 4. THE Mosaic Law was a temporary constitution and only a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 but the Gospel being in its duration as well as its intendment everlasting Rev. 14.6 and to remain when time shall be no more Rev. 10.6 it is an infinitly more precious depositum and so with greater care and solemner attestation to be preserv'd Not only the Clergy or the people of one particular Church nor the Clergy of the universal are entrusted with this care but 't is the charge the privilege and duty of every Christian man that either is or was or shall be in the world even that collective Church which above all competition is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 against which the assaults of men and devils and even the gates of hell shall not prevail Mat. 16.18 5. THE Gospels were not written by their holy Pen-men to instruct the Apostles but to the Christian Church that they might believe Jesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing they might have life thro his name Jo. 20.31 The Epistles were not addrest peculiarly to the Bishops and Deacons but all the holy brethren to the Churches of God that are sanctified in Jesus Christ and to all those that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.1 Galat. 1.2 Eph. 1.1 Col. 4.16 1 Thes 5.27 Phil. 1.1 Jam. 1.1 1 Pet. 1.1 2 Pet. 1.1 Revel 1.4 Or if by chance som one or two of the Epistles were addrest to an Ecclesiastic person as those to Timothy and Titus their purport plainly refers to the community of Christians and the depositum committed to their trust Tim. 6.20 And Saint John on the other side directs his Epistles to those who were plainly secular to fathers young men and little children and a Lady and her children Epist 1. chap. 2.12 13 14. and Epist 2.1.1 6. BUT besides the interest which every Christian has in the custody of the Scripture upon the account of its being a depositum entrusted to him he has also another no less forcible that t is the Testament of his Savior by which he becomes a Son of God no more a Servant but a Son and if he be a Son it is the Apostles inference that he is then an heir an heir of God thro Christ Gal. 4.7 Now as he who is heir to an estate is also to the deeds and conveiances thereof which without injury cannot be detain'd or if they be there is a remedy at Law for the recovery of them So it fares in our Christian inheritance every believer by the privilege of faith is made a son of Abraham and an heir of the promises made unto the fathers whereby he has an hereditary interest in the Old Testament and also by the privilege of the same Faith he has a firm right to the purchast possession Eph. 1.14 and the charter thereof the New Therfore the detention of the Scriptures which are made up of these two parts is a manifest injustice and sacrilegious invasion of right which the person wrong'd is empower'd nay is strictly oblig'd by all lawful means to vindicate 7. WHICH invasion of right will appear more flagrant when the nature and importance of it is consider'd which relating to mens spiritual interest renders the violation infinitly more injurious then it could be in any secular I might mention several detriments consequent to this detention of Scripture even as many as there are benefits appendant to the free use of it but there is one of so fundamental and comprehensive a nature that I need name no more and that is that it delivers men up to any delusion their teachers shall impose upon them by depriving them of means of detecting them Where there is no standard or mesures 't is easy for men to falsify both and no less easy is it to adulterate doctrins where no recourse can be had to the primary rule Now that there is a possibility that false teachers may arise we have all assurance nay we have the word of Christ and his Apostles that it should be so and all Ecclesiastic story to attest it has bin so And if in the first and purest times those Ages of more immediat illumination the God of this world found instruments whereby to blind mens minds 2 Cor. 4.4 it cannot be suppos'd impossible or improbable he should do so now 8. BUT to leave generals and to speak to the case of that Church which magisterially prohibits Scripture to the vulgar she manifestly stands liable to that charge of our Savior Luk. 11 52. Ye have taken away the key of knowledg and by allowing the common people no more Scripture then what she affords them in their Sermons and privat Manuals keeps it in her power to impose on them what she pleases For 't is sure those portions she selects for them shall be none of those which clash with the doctrins she recommends and when ever she will use this power to the corrupting their faith or worship yea or their manners either they must brutishly submit to it because they cannot bring her dictats to the test 9. BUT 't will be said this danger she wards by her doctrin of infallibility that is she enervates a probable supposition attested by event by an impossible one confuted by event For 't is certain that all particular Churches may err and tho the consciousness of that forces the Roman Church upon the absurd pretence of universality to assert her infallibility yet alas Tyber may as well call it self the Ocean or Italy the world as the Roman Church may name it self the
universal whilest 't is so apparent that far the the less part of Christians are under her communion And if she be but a particular Church she has no immunity from errors nor those under her from having those errors how pernicious soever impos'd upon them As to her having actually err'd and in diverse particulars the proof of that has bin the work of so many Volumes that 't would be impertinent here to undertake it I shall only instance in that of Image-worship a practice perfectly irreconcileable with the second Commandment and doubtless clearly discern'd by her to be so upon which account it is that tho by Translations and Paraphrases she wrests and moulds other Texts to comply with her doctrins yet she dares not trust to those arts for this but takes a more compendious course and expunges the Commandment as is evident in her Catechisms and other Manuals Now a Church that can thus sacrilegiously purloin one Commandment and such a one as God has own'd himself the most jealously concern'd in and to delude her children split another to make up the number may as her needs require substract and divide what others she please and then whilst all resort to Scripture is obstructed how fatal a hazard must those poor souls run who are oblig'd to follow these blind or rather these winking guides into the ditch 10. BUT all these criminations she retorts by objecting the dangers of allowing the Scriptures to the vulgar which she accuses as the spring of all Sects Schisms and Heresies To which I answer first that supposing this were true 't was certainly fore-seen by God who notwithstanding laid no restraint probably as fore-seeing that the dangers of implicit faith to which such a restraint must subject men would be far greater and if God saw fit to indulge the liberty those that shall oppose it must certainly think they do not only partake but have transplanted infallibility from God to themselves 11. BUT secondly 't is not generally true that Sects Schisms and Heresies are owing to this liberty All Ecclesiastical Story shews us that they were not the illiterat Lay-men but the learned Clerks who were usually the broachers of Heresies And indeed many of them were so subtil and aerial as could never have bin forg'd in grosser brains but were founded not on Scripture merely mistaken but rackt and distorted with nice criticisms and quirks of Logic as several of the Ancients complain som again sprang from that ambition of attaining or impatience of missing Ecclesiastical dignities which appropriates them to the Clergy So that if the abuse infer a forfeiture of the use the Learned have of all others the least title to the Scriptures and perhaps those who now ingross them the least title of all the Learned 12. ON the other side Church-story indeed mentions som lay-propugners of Heresies but those for the most part were either so gross and bestial as disparag'd and confuted themselves and Authors and rose rather from the brutish inclination of the men then from their mistakes of Scripture or else they were by the immediat infusion of the devil who backt his heretical suggestions with sorceries and lying wonders as in Simon Magus Menander c. And for later times tho somtimes there happens among the vulgar a few pragmatic spirits that love to tamper with the obscurests Texts and will undertake to expound before they understand yet that is not their common temper the generality are rather in the other extreme stupid and unobservant even of the plainest doctrins And if to this be objected the multitude of Quakers and Fanatics who generally are of the ignorant sort I answer that 't is manifest the first propugners of those tenets in Germany were not seduc'd into them by mistakes of Scripture but industriously form'd them at once to disguise and promote their villainous designs of sedition and rapine and as for those amongst us it is not at all certain that their first errors were their own productions there are vehement presumtions that the seeds were sown by greater Artificers whose first business was to unhinge them from the Church and then to fill their heads with strange Chimera's of their privileges and perfections and by that intoxication of spiritual pride dispose them for all delusions and thereby render them like Samsons Foxes fit instruments to set all in combustion 13. BUT admit this were but a conjecture and that they were the sole Authors of their own frenzy how appears it that the liberty of reading the Scripture was the cause of it Had these men bin of the Romish communion and so bin interdicted privat reading yet som broken parts of Scripture would have bin in Sermons and Books of devotion communicated to them had it not bin as possible for them to have wrested what they heard as what they read In one respect it seems rather more likely for in those loose and incidental quotations the connexion is somtimes not so discernable and many Texts there are whose sense is so interwoven with the context that without consulting that there may be very pernicious mistakes on which account it is probably more safe that the Auditors should have Bibles to consult So that this restraint of Scripture is a very fallible expedient of the infallible Church And indeed themselves have in event found it so for if it were so soveraign a prophylactic against error how comes it to pass that so many of their members who were under that discipline have revolted from them into that which they call heresy If they say the defection was made by som of the Learned to whom the Scripture was allow'd why do they not according to their way of arguing take it from them also upon that experiment of its mischief and confine it only to the infallible chair but if they own them to have bin unlearn'd as probably the Albigenses and Waldenses c. were they may see how insignificant a guard this restraint is against error and learn how little is got by that policy which controles the divine Wisdom 14. NOR can they take shelter in the example of the primitive Christians for they in the constant use of the holy Scriptures yielded not unto the Jews Whereas the Jews had the Scriptures read publicly to them every Sabbath day which Josephus against Appion thus expresses Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it Parallel to this was the practice of the primitive Church perform'd by the Lector or Reader of which Justin Martyr in his 2. Apol. gives this account On the day call'd Sunday all that abide in towns or the countries about meet in one place and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read so far as there is place So Tertullian in his Apol
describing the offices in the public Assemblies We feed our faith with the sacred Words we raise our hopes and establish our reliance 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week and there perform'd the duties of fasting praier and hearing the holy Scriptures concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee Luk. 18.12 in conformity hereto the Christians also their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies which were the daies of Station so frequently mention'd in Tertullian and others the first writers of the Church Tertullian expresly saies that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety the fourth and sixth day of the week and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts to wit those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday Where by the way we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church and the Litanies then appointed so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3.15 whereof Josephus against Appion saies That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws he will tell every thing readier then his name for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing they retain them imprinted in their minds So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth The whole life of a Christian saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity there his sacrifices are praiers and praises before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures and Psalms and Hymns at the time of his meals Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist to Donatus 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks Serm. 5. We Christians saies he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which have fill'd all Countries under Heaven For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians but also the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Samaritans and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein such as Origen who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla Saint Chrysostom who translated the New Testament Psalms and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify Saint Jerom who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution and when diverse did faint in that trial and basely surrender'd them we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons did not according to the Romish equity punish the innocent by depriving them of that sacred Book because the others had so unworthily prostituted it tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks Ages and Sexes 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort The Word saies he is not hid from any it is a common light that shineth to all men there is no obscurity in it hear it you that be far off and hear it you that are nigh 21. TO this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta whom he directs in the education of her young daughter and advises that instead of gems and silk she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture wherein not gold or skins or Babylonian embroideries but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith will recommend its self Let her first learn the Psalter and be entertain'd with those songs then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue let her pass then to the Gospels and never let them be out of her hands and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures let her learn the Prophets the Heptateuch or books of Moses Joshua and Judges the books of Kings and Chronicles the volumes of Ezra and Esther and lastly the Canticles And indeed this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd female sex skilful in the Scriptures that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned as a familiar friend in the mysterious mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind as the poor are in their addresses to the rich but invites all with lowly speech feeding with manifest truth and exercising with secret And Ep. 1.21 tells the devout Proba that in this world where we are absent from the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight the soul is to think it self desolate and never cease from praier and the words of divine and holy Scripture c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons house-holders and people engag'd in trades and secular professions telling them that the reading of the Scripture is a