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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	church_n	scripture_n	unwritten_a	2,749	5	12.4307	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96858	Gnōston tou Theou, k[a]i gnōston tou Christou, or, That which may be knovvn of God by the book of nature; and the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ by the Book of Scripture. Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford, by Edward Wood M.A. late proctor of the University and fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon. Published since his death by his brother A.W. M.A.	Wood, Edward, 1626 or 7-1655.; Wood, Anthony à, 1632-1695.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3387; Thomason E1648_1; ESTC R204118	76,854	234

price or value then really it is in it selfe and this is all the true power that the Church can challenge in relation unto the holy Scriptures wherefore the true Church we honour in respect of these things but we doe not adore it and make it of greater Authority then the Scriptures themselves Wherefore 3. We say that the Authority of them doth not so much depend on the Church as on their own innate light and testimony of the Holy Spirit within us their own innate light I say for saith Chamier there is in the Scriptures a peculiaris genius and strein whereby they may upon examination be easily discovered to be the Word of God as a Critick will know by the phrase and stile and the like that such a book is Lyvies such an one Juvenalls so also will a Christian upon the due search triall of the holy Scriptures by their matter Heavenly by their stile deep and by their divine phrase mysticall presently conclude that they are the Word of God and that they can have no other Author then the King of Heaven and then farther I say there is required a Testimony of the holy Spirit within us which Spirit is as I may so speake the seale unto all the rest and peculiar only to Gods Children a man may by the hearsay of the Church historically know the Scriptures but this will no more comfort his heart then the discourses concerning honey and sweet-meates will the stomacke a man may also be convicted of the truth of the Word from those arguments I pressed even now and yet he may be no more converted by them then the Jewes were at the Miracles of Christ which they knew were wrought by a divine power well then what is it that must ultimately perswade us and assure a child of God certitudine fidei with an assurance of faith that the Scriptures are the Word of God the Church that cannot for how can that infuse faith which the Scriptures every where set forth to be the Gift of God what then is it that assures us doubtlesse the Spirit of God co-working with us and upon our prayers and diligent reading and examining of the Word assuring us that this Word which was thus confirmed by miracles thus verifyed by the truth of the Prophesyes contained in it this Word that hath so perfect a consent within its self that hath so admirable efficacy upon the hearers and readers thereof that hath been so wonderfully preserved in all ages that this Word and this Word only is the Word of God and of divine authority so then the Church that can only report unto us the Spirit that doth firmely perswade us the Church that can ministerially only ingenerate an opinion in us the Spirit a Faith and certainty of the Scriptures as then men may heare a very great report of anothers worth learning and counsell and yet be never fully satisfied concerning it till they find it so to be by their own experience or as those Samaritans who did believe in part on Christ for the saying of the woman were yet notwithstanding further confirmed established in the faith of him when they heard his own words John 4. 24. in like manner though we may historically believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God because the Church saith so yet this testimony of the Church doth minister little assurance or satisfaction unto a child of God untill it be farther back't on and established by a farther testimony of the Spirit which undoubtedly must be the firmest assurance a man can have because it is that alone which doth open the eyes to behold the wondrous things of the Law Psal 119. 18. 't is that alone which leadeth into all truth Joh. 16. 13. 't is that alone which inseparably accompanys the faithfull in the Scriptures My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth Isa 59. 21. and therefore 't is that alone which gives strongest evidence unto its selfe speaking in the Scriptures if yee receive the witnesse of men the witnesse of God is greater saith S. Paul the witnesse of the Church is but the witnesse of men therefore the witnesse of the Spirit is greater but say they the Spirit speaketh by the Church and therefore we must believe the Church only when it testifyes of the Scriptures Whitaker answers for me that if so be the Spirit doth thus speak by the Church from whence then hath the Church this assurance but from the Spirit and so our beliefe of the Scriptures must ultimately resolve of necessity into the Testimony of the Spirit againe they say that the Church was before the Scriptures we answer no by no meanes for then how can the Word be called the everlasting wisedome of God and the immortall seed of which the Church is borne the Church was before the written Word but not before the unwritten Aske a Papist how they know that the Church is of such authority and they will prove it by the Scriptures and therefore the authority proving must needs be of greater esteem and before the authority proved but is not the Church called the pillar and ground of truth yes but what doth a candle receive any light from the candlesticke because it stickes in it what though the Church is the seat and mansion place of the Scriptures yet were it possible that there were no Church in the World yet is not the Scripture of lesse authority then now it is the Church then is only a ministeriall pillar to preserve keep and set forth the word not a fundamentall one to uphold and give being unto it and here I might wade farther into a Discourse concerning the authority of the Church and the Scriptures but it having been so fully handled already and answered by multitudes of eminent men I shall goe no farther it remaines that I should practically apply what hath been already spoken but this together with the other propertyes of Scriptures their perspicuity and perfection I shall leave to the next part This is the AVTHOVRS last Sermon that ever He preacht which was at S. Maries in Oxon. March 20. 1655. Phil. c. 3. v. 8. first part Yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. IN this Chapter the Apostle armes his Philippians against their false teachers by opposing his own judgement and example to their erroneous and lying suggestions There were a company of prophane persons started up in the Church of Philippi whom Paul counts no better then doggs evill workers and of the concision verse 2. who instead of circumcising their hearts went about rather to cut and rend asunder the Church these men now being left to be brought from their old fleshly confidences the workes of the Law did vaunt much of their outward priviledges and would fain slink into circumcision and other ceremoniall performances and joyne

the Gentiles but we must not here stand too long upon these things it remaines that since the Scripture is profitable for instruction in Righteousnesse good reason therefore it is that all people being thus to be instructed should read the holy Scriptures whose end it is as the Apostle goes on that the man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by comparing the 1 Tim. 6. 11. with this the Minister or interpreter of God such as Timothy was himselfe that he might be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes that he namely who is of greatest concernement and knowledge in the Church may out of the Scriptures furnish himselfe with the knowledge of such dutyes which belong unto God and his neighbour there is no kind of good worke or duty which can be thought upon but the Scripture doth prescribe and prepare us unto and this is the meaning of the words on which I have been the longer because by them I have taken occasion to resolve you of such doubts which for brevity sake I cannot at large and distinctly handle from the words themselves you may note these three common observations 1. That the Scriptures are of divine authority for they are inspired of God 2. That they are most perspicuous and in the main most easily to be understood for otherwise how could they be profitable for our instruction in righteousnesse 3. That they are most perfect for if the Minister himselfe can draw out of them all things necessary unto his duty it will follow doubtlesse that they containe all things necessary for our Salvation and that they are most perfect 1. Then we shall shew that the Scriptures are of Divine authority what these Scriptures are none here I suppose can be ignorant of for you must needs conclude from what hath been spoken that they are the Word of God or holy bookes written by the inspiration of God to make us wise unto Salvation so that in the very frontispeice as 't were of the definition you may discover from whence they proceed God is the Authour of them that is certaine and 't were as absurd for a Christian to deny this as for any man to deny that beames and rayes proceed from the Sonne and therefore he that calls into question or denys that the Scriptures are the Word of God is as unworthy the name of a Christian as he is of a Phylosopher or a Metaphysitian that disallowes of a naturall body or entity because these are things which are necessary to be presupposed of him should all the men of the world unanimously conspire to deny that the Scriptures are the Word of God yet are they no lesse divine and authenticall then the Sunne would be light if all men otherwise were blinded let Turkes and Pagans say what they will yet the Scriptures will be still Gods word and there are such sufficient reasons for to prove it that he that is not either wilfully blinded or maliciously bent must needs confesse the same for that they are from God and so in themselves of divine Authority sundry reasons may be given we shall only for brevity sakename three or foure For besides that they doe most cleerly reveale unto us the nature and workes of God as the three Persons in the Trinity the mystery of the regeneration and the like things altogether above the reach and contrivance of man besides the impartialnesse and candour of the Pen-men of them for so Moses setteth down the incest of his Parents of whom he was begotten Ex. 6. 2. and his own disobedience Numb 11. 11. Jonah his murmering and Jeremiah his fretting which undoubtedly shews that they were not biassed with any carnall respects but altogether overruled and inspired by an higher Spirit besides also the quality condition of the Pen-men Amos an heardsman Mathew a publican the Apostles many of them fishermen which evidently shew that there was some higher power which did instill into them that profoundnesse of wisedome which all the art and Phylosophy in the world can never reach unto Adde to these the consent and holy conspiracy as 't were between all their writings notwithstanding the great difference of times they wrote in the remotenesse of places and the diversity of matters whereof they have written so incredible and divine is their mutuall harmony that you would rather think one man writ them with divers penns then that divers men writ them by one Spirit besides these and sundry other reasons I say which may sufficiently declare who is the principall Authour of this holy writ another great argument testimony of their originall is first the truth and events of Scripture Prophesyes Can any man Angel or created being foretell future contingent events can they tell the very name of a man and the time of his birth a hundred yeares before hand as the Spirit by Esay did concerning Cyrus and in the 1 of the Kings 13. concerning a Josias by name above 300 yeares say Annalist's before he was borne could ever any of the cheating Oracles of the Heathens or any counterfeited Sybill tell of a Messias to be borne 4000 years after then to come to passe just as 't was foretold as it did according to the promise made to Adam Gen. 3. 15. we our selves of this Nation are living examples of the truth of holy predictions succeeding events the Scriptures many thousand yeares ago did foretell the calling of the Gentiles for in him say they shall the Gentiles trust and all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of God and behold the Prophesy accomplished in our selves we who heretofore sate in darknesse and the shaddow of death doe now lye under glorious light who before were not a people but are now a people 't were endlesse to relate unto you all the Prophesyes which were exactly accomplish't according to the times places and circumstances foretold 2. But secondly the miracles that were wrought by and did accompany the teachers and writers of the Word may sufficiently confirme our faith in the authority of the Scriptures themselves unlesse we are worse then the Magitians who upon the Miracle of lice could cry out this is the finger of God Exod. 8. 19. but how may we know that the Miracles we read in the Gospells are true since by some the Gospell it selfe is doubted of Answer that were they not true they would have either been refuted or rejected by the men of those dayes but so farre were they then from that as a learned man notes that Josephus a Jew an enemy to the Christian truth did acknowledge Christ to be the worker of many miracles A 3d main argument of the Divinity of the Scriptures may be that admirable force and power which they have upon the minds and hearts of men which believe in them sometimes to humble and cast down sometimes to comfort and raise up the Spirits what vigour doth it

put into a man enabling him to resist even his own desires to fight against his own flesh and blood to suffer and beare all afflictions and tribulations for Christ his sake shew me any humane eloquence that can alter and change the very natures of men that can over-awe keep under hatches the rebellions mutinies and motions of the flesh that can put a Felix into a trembling a stubborne Pharaoh into a relenting that can give light unto the simple stop the mouth of gainsayers that can divide between the heart and the world between a mans selfe and his selfe humane eloquence that can only move and perswade this force and command it comes with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus saith the Lord and therefore exacts obedience Adde to all these the testimonies of all times concerning the Scriptures their Antiquity Moses being borne before the very Gods of the Heathens the latest of the Prophets matching the antientest of the Phylosophers adde also their constant preservation and continuance even till now maugre all the fury and rage of Tyrants the malice of Divells and divelish men who have done and doe still oppose these holy writings adde finally unto all these the testimonies of an army of Martyrs maintaining even to death the truth of the Scriptures men of all sorts ignorant who though they could not dispute could yet dye for the truth wise rich poore of all ages and sexes women children aged folkes enduring all manner of torments with all manner of torments with all patience and constancy for the maintenance of Gods Word and the truthes therein contained these with many other reasons may sufficiently demonstrate that God alone is the Author of the Scriptures but now as there may be many witnesses unto a bond and yet still all be of little moment unlesse the seale be put on too in like manner all these witnesses and arguments here produced will be of little concernement unto our Salvation unlesse they be sealed with the Spirit of promise as the Apostle speakes Ephes 1. 13. we may be convicted by the foregoing arguments that God is the Authour of the Holy Scriptures but yet they can never per se worke faith nor a full assurance of them unlesse the Spirit which beareth witnesse unto our Spirits jointly cooperates and opens our eyes more fully to see this light for as Hagar Gen. 21. 19. could not see the fountain that was neer her untill God had opened her eyes so neither can we perfectly discerne or savingly know the holy Scriptures untill the Holy Ghost doth open our eyes as David speakes to behold the marvellous things of the Law we have therefore occasion here to enquire how it may appeare unto us that the Scriptures are the Word of God or how a man may savingly and truely know that the Scriptures are the Word of God and of divine authority the Papists they say that the reason why they believe the Scriptures are the Word of God is because the Church saith so we say that the reason why we believe them so to be is because they are in themselves worthy of all beliefe and because the Spirit of God witnesseth and sealeth unto our Spirits that they are the Word of God now whether the witnesse of men or the witnesse of God be greater judge ye however it hath been a point very much controverted and canvassed on both sides therefore I shall endeavour briefly and cleerly to state it and to make you understand the absurdity and vanity of their position Our thesis on which I shall ground my Discourse shall be this namely that the Authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito and quoad nos doth not so depend on the Church as on their own innate light and testimony of the Spirit within us the termes of this Thesis being explained you will easily understand the whole matter I say then that the Authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito and quoad nos for though some of the Papists have been so impudent as to affirme that the Scriptures have no more divine authority in them without the Testimony of the Church then Aesops Fables or Ovid's Metamorphosis hath yet some of the moderne and ingenuous of them doe acknowledge that in themselves indeed they are of divine authority yet this cannot say they otherwise appeare unto us then by the testimony of the Church we say then that they may otherwise appeare unto us to be Gods Word then by the church as we may know that light is light and gold is gold by their owne qualities and lustre without any mans telling of us that they are so besides if they are as they confesse of divine authority in themselves by what Law then can their Church usurpe authority over them unlesse as needs it must come to passe they account the authority of their Church above that of God and so become no lesse blasphemers then absurd 2. I say that the authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito and quoad nos doth not so much depend upon the Church as on their own innate light and testimony of the Spirit within us doth not so much I say for I doe not deny but that the Church is a great confirmer of the truth and divinity of the Scriptures and that it doth execute many good offices toward them As First it is a witnesse unto them and a keeper and preserver of them but now will any one be so absurd to say that the records or writings of a King doe receive authority from their Notary or Register because he keeps them Secondly the Church may discerne and judge between true and false supposititions Scriptures and that by examining them according to the originall Canon and platforme of Moses his Law for my sheep saith our Saviour John 10. heare my voyce and so can distinguish it from another but now as a Goldsmith may by his weights and touchstone distinguish Gold from Copper yet not be said to make the Gold yea or to make it so unto us but only to make us the more easily believe that Gold it is in like manner the Church in its examining distinguishing of Scriptures can be only said to confirm unto us the divinity of them not in any wise either in themselves or unto us to make them divine The third thing that the Church doth is to preach and divulge the Scriptures but now as we believe and obey the Proclamation of a King not because such an one proclaimeth it but for it selfe so likewise we obey and believe the Scriptures not for the Church but it s own sake Fourthly the Church doth expound and interpret Scriptures but now as a faithfull Interpreter of an Embassadour doth not either adde or take from the true sence and meaning of him so likewise neither doth or ought the true Church to adde or diminish any thing of Holy Writ and therefore much lesse hath it power to make it in any wise of any greater

to some particular customes of the Jew or Gentile or unto the proper times wherein the Scriptures were severally writ may be accounted hard and not so plaine as that we may primâ fronte and without much learning and study understand them however a Christian may be saved without any knowledge of these though not so without the other A man may go to Heaven without knowing whether the Temple were built in such or such a yeare or whether Job lived before Moses or after him yet he cannot without understanding that he must believe in Christ that he is a sinner and the like thus in other sciences there are some indemonstrable principles so plainely set downe that no man can question them and other things againe not altogether so essentiall somewhat doubtfull and darkly proposed but what may some one say the Mystery of the Trinity and the distinction of the persons in the Godhead are fundamentall doctrines yet they are above the reach of reason and therefore obscure well 't is true these and the like Doctrines are obscure but then as in Geometry the same thing may be darke in its selfe and yet by a demonstration plainely set down unto us in holy writ and we ought to be contented with what that teacheth us concerning them and however the very fundamentalls of our Religion are by some disputed of and called into question yet this proceedeth rather from the perversenesse and crookednesse of mens minds then that they are obscure and doubtfully set down in Scripture neither are they lesse to be received of us because they question them then the doctrine of motion is in Phylosophy though a certaine foolish Phylosopher did once deny it So the Apostle saith 2 Pet. 3. 16. that there are somethings in Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstastable wrest as they doe also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction marke here there are somethings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not all things but some things only namely such as he speakes of here in this Chapter the last judgement and destruction of the world the time and manner of which things are not essentiall unto our salvation these things so hard are wrested by unlearned unstable men that is men ignorant of the Scriptures and not ballanced with the Spirit unholy ungodly men and therefore as the same sunne may be light and yet not appeare so to be unto a blind man the same booke plaine and legible and yet unto dull and dimme eyes darke and obscure in like manner the same things which are plaine and perspicuous unto the Godly Regenerate men whose eyes God openeth are for the most riddles and strange things unto the wicked whom the God of this world hath blinded we shall therefore in the Second place shew you that they are more or lesse perspicuous according to the diversity of the subjects entertaining them objective and in themselves they are perspicuous but subjective in respect of men they are more or lesse plaine according as men are Regenerated or Unregenerated the whole world you know is divided into the Regenerate and Unregenerate this is an adequate division of all men and therefore we shall 1. Enquire concerning the the plainnesse and obscurity of the Scriptures in relation unto irregenerate men and we shall lay downe this position that noe wicked irregenerate man can savingly know the Scriptures or thus that the Scriptures though plaine in their natures are yet darke and obscure unto irregenerate men If our Gospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4. 3. our Gospel saith the Apostle is as cleare as the light but who can finde fault with the Sun if it gives not light to a blinde man it is hid indeed but then it is to those that are lost to ungodly men for the carnall man preceiveth not the things of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. the Scriptures all throughout contain in them Spirituall things and therefore as a meer sensible Creature cannot judge of the discourses and reasonings of men so neither can a meer rationall man perceive or disscover the Mysteries of the Spirit which is only proper to him unto whom the Spirit revealeth them as the Apostle elsewhere speakes you know the Scripture is devided into the Law and the Gospell and unregenerate men are said to be either within or without the Church now an unregenerate man a Gentile without the Church may have an historicall knowledge of the Law for saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 14. they doe by nature the things contained in the Law but as from an old eaten manuscript a man may gather a word or sentence or two when yet notwithstanding he is not able to find out the drift scope and end of it because through its ancientnesse it is much worne and perished in like manner from those old reliques and vestigies of that Law written in the hearts of the Gentiles they might discover some things which pertained unto their dutyes towards God and their Neighbour but then they could not know therefrom the intent of the Law which was to drive them to a Christ they could not know that by it they could not be justifyed they understood not the end and drift for which God wrote this Law in their hearts therefore though they might have an Historicall yet they could not have a Saving knowledg thereof But Secondly as for the Gospell a Gentile cannot have either an Historicall or saving knowledge of it without it be preached unto them or by some extraordinary way unknown unto us infused into them for Faith ordinarily that is commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God therefore the opinion of those who think that by the light of nature a man may come to the knowledge of Christ and the Gospell is to be rejected 2. Secondly a Christian unregenerate man within the Church may have an Historicall contemplative knowledge of the Law and Gospell but no saving particular knowledge of either for it is to them foolishnesse 1 Cor. 2. 14. and therefore it is rather a scandall and stumbling block unto them then a light and saving rule it cannot be expected therefore that the Scriptures should seem plain unto them whose noysome lusts doe cast a mist and a cloud before their understandings and whose interests and prejudices against the Doctrine of them suffereth them not to behold their purity and cleernesse Secondly as ungodly irregenerate men cannot have any saving cleer knowledge of the Scriptures so on the contrary Godly regenerate Christians may have it for unto them alone it is given to know the secrets of the Kingdome of God but to others in parables that when they see they should not see and when they heare they should not understand and so 2 Cor. 3 15 16. t is said untill this day when Moses is read the vaile is laid over their hearts neverthelesse when they shall turne unto the Lord the Vaile shall be

us or entertained by us And thus much briefely for the Authority Perspicuity and Perfection of the Scriptures concerning which I might have spoken far more largely out of the Fathers Common-places Catechists and Polemicall Divines but intending brevity upon this point I thought it more usefull for you and my selfe wholy to examine the aforesaid points by Scripture yet so that I have given you a short glance and view of what they have said too I shall only now shut up all with a use or two of what hath been now and heretofore spoken Hence then 1. We may learne the excellency Vse 1 of holy Scriptures above all other bookes and writings whatsover we usually esteem of writings according to the eminency and worth of their Authors why now all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and therefore we should have them in so much account by how much the nobler the contriver of them is for as David said of Goliah his sword there is none to that 1 Sam. 21. 9. So may we say of the Scriptures there is none to them the word of God is as a two edged sword dividing between the Joynts and the Marrow so that what Aristotle said of the knowledge of the soul that a little of it was better then a great deal of another science We may also say of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures a little knowledge of them will stand us in more steed then all the vaine and perishing knowledge of prophane Writers Could the time and shortnesse of our lives suffer us to swallow up and devoure whole Libraries as bigge as that of Alexandria or this of our own were it possible for us critically to go over and examine all those elaborated pieces of humane invention could we perfectly Anatomize and trace nature in all her secret windings and operations yet all this knowledge in it selfe however it may place us above the clouds in mens opinions may for all that be an occasion for God to hurle us deeper into Hell But behold here a Book that is able to make us wise unto Salvation that directs and points us out a way unto eternall Life yea which raiseth our minds up unto the contemplation of those mysteries which the Angels themselves did desire to peep into a Book that unlocks unto us the very Cabinetand secret Counsells of God himselfe that revealeth and layeth open those mysteries of Godlinesse those hidden things of God which were before from all eternity clasped up in the hosome of the Almighty that gives a landskip as 't were and map of Heavenly Joy that out of darkenesse brings us into marvellous light that maketh us from Children of wrath to become heires of Heaven from slaves freeborne from Divells to become Saints All other bookes either by the teeth of time are worne out of memory or in the ruines of Kingdomes receive their graves but not one jot or tittle of this shall passe away 'till all things be fulfilled It hath been hitherto for some thousand yeares preserved amid'st the hatred of all the world against it the persecutions of Tyrants the malice and fury of Divells and shall so unto the end of the world continue though wicked men Tyrants and Divels should all combine their joynt forces to extinguish it they may with more successe and easinesse goe about to blot the Sunne out of the Firmament then to take this glorious Light from the Church people of God so that it was not without much reason that a holy Man once said That he had rather all the books beside in the world should be burnt than that one leafe of Gods Word should be destroyed for doubtlesse the least sentence therein comprised is more worth then all the voluminous Ofsprings and workes of mans braine Wherefore 2. This should exhort every one Vse 2 of us to a diligent reading and studying these holy Scriptures search the Scriptures saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word implyes a kind of a ●●nting after them or a narrow and painfull seeking into them as men doe for Gold and Silver and let the word of God dwell in you that is let it be as familiar unto you as he that dwells under the same roofe with you and not only so but dwell in you richly let your minds be as throughly adorned with them as a great mans house is with rich utensills hangings and now let us examine our selves whether we do thus earnestly search after them whether our hearts be thus furnished with them are we not rather like those Canonists of the Church of Rome who some say will confirm their Law text this too taken upon trust from others or like that Bishop mentioned in the booke of Martyrs who thanked God he never knew what was meant by the Old or New Testament doubtlesse there is no greater folly or madnesse in the world if we rightly consider it then to hanker after humane knowledge and to be carelesse of divine understanding greedily to devoure huskes and yet to loath Manna and like those Indians to preferre toyes and baubles before Gold pretious treasure But I need not I hope accuse any here of any such ignorance or neglect all that I desire is a more diligent studying of the word and more conscionable practice of it for reading knowing without practice will but aggravate our damnation however we ought to be stirred up to so necessary a duty as this is especially in such times wherein the meanest sort of people will upbraide our neglect of it amongst many of whom to our shame be it spoken the Bible according to the letter is better known then ever Aristotle was amongst us and will it not then much redound unto our disgrace if the Apron shoud pose the Gown in those things which most concerne them if poore illiterate Mechanicks should in the Doctrine of the Scripture confound a Learned Rabbi My Brethren you cannot be ignorant what prejudices some of the meaner sort of people have against us in this respect and therefore besides the Salvation of our soules which should be the main end of all even politick respects should engage us to double our diligence in studying of the Holy Scriptures for believe me however easy they may seem to some yet the full and clear understanding of them may very well take up our whole care and studyes there are Originalls to be known consulted withall antiquity to be searcht into and discussed severall places to be reconciled various acceptations of words and phrases to be weighed and compared together there are besides these many things without the Scriptures very needfull Grammer to know the propriety of words Rhetorick to understand the severall Tropes and figures contained therein Logick to deduce consequences and artificially to open places of Scripture and all three together properly and distinctly to analyse resolve and open the particular chapters and Bookes thereof which I conceive to be the nearest and most