Truth speaking in any but by the Word of God so the Bereans tried the Doctrine of Saint Paul Act. 17. and the Apostles professed to preach nothing but what they confirmed by the Word of God And our Saviour referred the Jewes hereunto for the triall of himself Search the Scriptures for in them you think to have eternall life they are they that tâ—stifie of me Now we have a more compleat rule of triall the Books both of the Old Testament and of the New Saint Paul delivered the whole counsell of God to the Ephesians Act. 20. and doe we think that the whole Scripture doth fail in some necessary part thereof But I would Popery did not plainly contradict that Scripture which is generally received by us both if so I would bear with them for the rest though in two things we cannot indure that ought should be imposed upon us besides the written Word namely Articles of Faith and parts of Gods Worship Now by this course of triall wee finde that not the spirit of Truth but the spirit of Error hath possessed them in all points of difference between us Prayers I grant are the ordinary means to obtain any grace at the hands of God save one and that is the Spirit of Prayer and that is the Spirit of Faith of all the rest it is true fides impetrat lex imperat but with a limitation or two 1. All knowledge necessary to salvation according to that 1 Joh. 2.27 and Nider though a Papist his interpretation thereof in his Consolatory of an affrighted Conscience 2. Other graces also and that in such a measure also as shall be found fit for each mans calling And I think every Christian should rest contented with such an Indulgence If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling But now hath God disposed the members every one of them in the body at his own pleasure For if they were all one member where were the body but now are there many members yet but one body 1 Cor. 12.17 18 19. But men may draw neer to God with their lips when their hearts are estranged far from him and how their hearts stand affected we know not God alone beholdeth their heart nay we are not so much as privy to their prayers but we examine their Doctrines by Gods Word according to that Sunt certi libri dominici and it was a worthy saying of Martin Luther mentioned by Scultetus in his Story of the first ten years of Reformation Solis Canonicis debemus fidem caeteris omnibus judicium I do not deny but all the Regenerate who have the Spirit of God according to that Because ye are sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 do seek unto God to inlighten their mindes and God hears them and grants their requests in his good time according to the limitations formerly mentioned but who they are we know not and we are bid to try the spirits nor what their fervency and zeal is are we acquainted with yet surely it is not for their fervency sake that God hears them but for Christs sake And are not they as far bound in charity to think of us as this Author would shape us to be obliged to think of them we acknowledge no Spirit of Faith but that which is the Spirit of Truth at least in all fundamentalls necessarily required unto salvation and to Gods holy Worship without Idolatry As for the Prayers of Papists they are well known to be shamefully foul they were wont more frequently to run to Saints than to God and the Bishop of Boss was to seek whether he should run to God in the name of Christs blood or in the name of the Virgins Milk for he was made to profess in the wall in certain verses that he knew not well which of the two he should prefer nay if of any prayers God saith though he make many prayers I will not hear Esa 1. surely he should say as much of these in my judgement Have not Turks their prayers as well as Papists and may they not be performed with great fervency and zeal and may they not be as expert in tricks of gesture as the Papists as I have heard once of a child trained up to it by her mother even unto admiration the countenance composed unto a sad and solemn disposition and the hands lift up first to an equall height with the breasts after a while to an equall height with the head and lastly above the head and all this in dumb shewes without one word of ejaculation As for hypocrisie here mentioned I doubt it is delivered hand over head For first Hypocrisie is most considerable in a right way and not in a wrong way the reason whereof is because naturall men are naturally apt to imbrace false wayes and lewd wayes too too truly and as apt they may be to imbrace the way of truth hypocritically and not only to profess Christ but to preach him in pretence that is not chastly even to add afflictions to the bonds of so holy an Apostle even as Paul was so we nothing doubt but Papists are true Papists without hypocrisie but I much doubt that the greatest part of them by far are too far off from being true Christians and this I willingly confess they pretend but very hypocritically this runs with them in a blood they have it from their Mother even the Mother of Whoredomes and her Arms are Babylon in a mystery And the second beast though he had two horns like the Lamb yet he spake like the Dragon we know all their proceedings in pretence are In Nomine Domini incipit omne malum neither is it necessary that by hypocrisie a man should think to mock God if God could be mocked for there is a secret hypocrisie which a mans own heart is not conscious of untill God be pleased in mercy to discover it and as for gross hypocrisie it makes a man a plain Atheist This Author seems to be taken with the beauty of the Whore of Babylon he is so much in love with Papists as to obtrude upon us an acknowledgement that they have the fruits of the Spirit and consequently without any deniall that they have the Spirit To proceed one degree further were to profess Antichrist to be Christ and Christ Antichrist To understand the Scriptures is but to acknowledge the true meaning of them and this we deny that Papists have as touching all the points of difference between us which they pretend to ground upon Scripture yea and in many other particulars they are wide of the right understanding of them so may our Divines be also and like enough that as M. Hooker saith there are some depths of Scripture the searching out whereof will hold us as long as the world lasts Yet I deny not but a Reprobate may have the knowledge of the
Scriptures as well as an Elect this being no grace of Sanctification but of Edification but to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God the Wisdom of God and the Power of God that I take to bee peculiar to a regenerate spirit in whom the Spirit of God dwells as the fountain of the life of grace of which in-dwelling of the Spirit a child of God may be conscious in a comfortable manner without boasting I count it an absurd course for any to justisie his interpretation of Scripture to be sound because he hath the Spirit we are ready to dispute the meaning we give of Scripture and to prove it against all opposites made against it and we look not that any interpretation of Scripture we give should be received any further than we make it appear to be the truth of God to the consciences of them we deal with Obj. If any should here object that the Scriptures themselves bear witness of their own cleerness according to that Thy Word is a Lanthorn to my feet and a light unto my paths I answer All the Commands of God are his Word and so are all his Works which are through his Word for it is confessed by all that God sets forth his Word by Nature the Creature Signs Wonders beneath above and by infinite wayes also the Scriptures witness that many things neither are nor can be written Therefore the VVord of his Voice is taken diversly in the Scriptures and so by consequence all that is called Gods Word is not necessarily to be understood of the Scriptures Hereunto add that at that time many parts of Scripture were not yet written wherefore the evidence of the thing manifestly proveth that this is not spoken of the whole Argument and Letter of the Scripture for as much as the Figures of the Prophecy of the Apocalyps and infinite other things belonging to the fulfilling of those Prophecies were hidden from the Prophets themselves and the Fathers much more then from others and are yet hidden Christ himself speaks in parables to the end that men may hear with their ears and not understand The Scripture it self in very many places witnesseth that the Word of God is secret obscure hidden and discovered onely to the Spirit or to the Godly onely to whom God reveals it so that in the Scriptures there are more testimonies of their obscuritie than of their clearness yet is not the Scripture hereby either rejected or slighted For even before the Law was given and written men had a certain light by the help whereof they might if they would have found out the truth more clearly than we and although in the New Testament a great light be risen yet must we not think that in the Old Testament there was a meer blindness whence we may reason that God thought it not usefull for us to reveal all things to us but though all things perhaps be not necessary to be known yet nevertheless there may be had a certain and infallible way of interpreting by the help whereof the most and most necessary Controversies may be decided of which if triall be made a cleer light and meer harmony may be shewn in such Scriptures as according to the opinion of many are obscure it is possible also that there should be not a few other wayes of illustrating that which is obscure although this ill-tried way be not used alone for they may bee both admitted and used agreements comming from the same spirit and word where there is no demonsiration Consid The further I wade in this business the worse I like my imployment and hereupon I resolve I will no more be imployed in any such business unless I am fairly dealt withall that I may know who is the Author I am to deal with at least of what profession he is in Religion for upon the perusing of this Section some doubts arise within me concerning the intention of the Author carrying himself in a covert manner that he may be unknown which doth much move me Henry the seventh of England was wont to say hee desired nothing more than that he might know his Adversary that encountred him we do not use to buy a pig in a poke nor will I hereafter encounter with I know not whom nor of what profession he is Here the Author returns to oppose the cleerness of Scripture considering it hand over head and so opposing it whereas our Saviour requires that we should search the Scriptures that is study them wel and inquire after the true meaning of them No man searcheth after that which is before his eyes yea we are commanded to search for wisdom as we search after gold and silver and a man will be content to search deep for treasure It was wont to be said that in profundo latet veritas Truth lies deep how much more should we be content to search diligently and dig deep for the treasures of that truth which is according unto godliness after the treasures of that wisdom which makes us wise unto salvation Then again we distinguish between things necessary to salvation and other things Things necessary to salvation we say are plainly contained in Scripture many other things are not so Here we have a wilde answer at the first All the Commandments of God are his Word and so are all his Works which are through his Word 1. To say so are all his Works is to say all his Works are his Word which yet forthwith is corrected by saying they are through his Word Yet of old I have read in Chrysostome of a double Book of God the Book of his Word and the Book of his Creatures and that God at the first did teach his Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Works afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his written VVord It is most true The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy works Psal 19. And the invisible things of God even his eternall Power and Godhead are seen from the Creation being considered in his works Rom. 1.20 So by the administration of his providence in governing the world He leaves not himself without witness giving us rain and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Act. 14.17 Yet the knowledge of God hereby being gathered onely by discourse of naturall reason men may fail of finding God though they grope after him Act. 17.27 and the wisest of Philosophers hath denied the Creation and maintained God to be a necessary Agent And they who granted and acknowledged the beginning of the world as all they who were before yet utterly denied that the world was made originally out of nothing and therefore the Apostle tells us that by faith we believe the world was made Not only Gods Commands are his VVord but the revelations of the mystery of Godliness and these are the things most remote from our capacities As for the Law as a rule of life that is more or less written in
the hearts of all men It is true the Author of the Book De Vocatione Gentium talks of such a manner of instruction by Gods VVorks but I pray do not compare that in clearness to the Word of God what ground have we for the right interpretation of signs and wonders beneath above Astrologers would make us believe they read strange things in the Constellations referred to mens Nativities but what ground have we for this Calculation what Abraham the father of the faithfull discoursed thereof in his Astronomicall Lectures read by him in the plain of Mamre we have received no tydings hereof from the hill Amarath in Aethiopia I know that in holy Scripture Thunder is called the voice of God I know also that the Lord-spake unto the Patriarks but that word is not written winds and storms also are said to fulfill his VVord by a Metaphor because what he will have done by them is done by them as if they were most obedient and faithfull servants unto their Master whom yet they know not any more than Ravens doe though in Scripture-phrase and by a figure of speech they are said to call upon him Now we are upon another point namely as touching the Scriptures the written Word of the Prophets and Apostles and the question is about the clearness of them or the intelligible nature of them to all such as will understand And to such faith Solomon knowledge is easie which I take to be spoken of the knowledge of God by the Scriptures whereunto I am sure our Saviour refers the Jewes and the Apostle would not have us affect to bee wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above that which is written It is true when that was delivered thy Law is a Lanthorn unto my feet none of the later Prophets had committed their Prophecies unto writing much less were the Books of the New Testament written then But in reference to all the Books of the Old Testament our Saviour spake when he said Search the Scriptures for in them you think to have eternall life and they are they that testifie of me Joh. 5. And as for the Books of the New Testament the Gospels were written that men might acknowledge the certainty of those things whereof they had been instructed by word of mouth Luk. 1.4 which could not be were they not intelligible by a studious Reader and Paul was in bonds when he wrote of the whole Scripture that it was profitable to teach to convince to correct to instruct in righteousness that the man of God might be made absolute being made perfect to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 17. Now if we deny the intelligible condition of Scripture the profitable nature of it therewithall must utterly be removed The Apostles we know by preaching converted many surely the Word preached was understood by the hearers otherwise it had wrought but a wilde conversion Now look what they preached that is committed to writing in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Epistles written unto severall Churches The knowledge of the figures of the Prophecies of the Revelation and the like is not necessary to salvation and great reason they should be carried in a mysterious way like as the mysteries of Christs Person and of his Office in breaking the Serpents head were carried a long time in the clouds of types and figures had it been known that the Messiah must be crucified before he reigned the Devill would not have been so forward to possess the heart of Judas with a project of betraying him into the hands of his enemies to procure his death So the Revelation in the New Testament and many of the like nature in the Old concerning the Devills and Antichrists practice no marvell if they be mysteriously carried that neither the Devill nor Antichrist should understand them untill they were accomplished Nevertheless the Lord by his Spirit which dictated them can inspire his servants with an understanding heart to know the meaning of them when the time comes appointed for the communication of this knowledge many shall pass to and fro and knowledge shall be increased as if the opening of the world by Navigation and Commerce and the increase of knowledge should meet together in one time and age as one wittily observeth we have seen of late yeers a strange progress made in opening the mysteries of the Revelation and other mysterious Prophecies of the Old Testament even to admiration The time when first Antichrist should be discovered and protested against is found out in Daniels Numbers lest we should wonder at the Fathers ignorance hereof For as Christians at their first conversion from Idolls to serve the living God did forthwith look for the Son of God his comming from heaven to deliver us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1. last Yea and some were of opinion in the Apostles dayes that it should be within the age of a man whereupon Paul wrote his second Epistle to the Thessalonians wherein he gives to understand that an Apostacy must come first and the man of sin must be revealed and before that the Roman Empire must be broken 2 Thes 2. compared with 1 Thes 4.15 So in Austins dayes that good Father projects that the comming of Christ might be 400. years off nay suppose 500. he would not go further presuming that the Beast which slaughtered the Lords witnesses should not continue above three years and an half Now we have no cause to wonder at this when we consider what Daniel hath written concerning this and how blessed a thing it should be to live at that time when Antichrist should be proclamed to the world and revealed Dan. 11. For then nothing remained to be looked for but the blasting of him with the breath of the Lords mouth and the utter abolishing of him by the brightness of his comming The reconciling of Ezekiels measures of new Jerusalem with Johns measures in the Revelations is a great mystery and held to be desperate yet now it is made feisible nor so onely but cleared throughout So the number of the Beast 666. how long hath the Christian world groped after the meaning of it as a blind man after his way What various notions hath the investigation hereof produced in mens brains after that of Ireneus accommodated to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and at length for want of a better the best Stndents in these mysteries driven to come back thither again But now the vanity thereof nevvly discovered and that at full even by every Text calling us expresly to calculate this vvhich is not to rest in this number but by Calculation of this to finde out another number which will notably decipher unto us that Beast And indeed the number of the Beast 666. is opposed to the number of Christs Church 144. and the number most momentous arising by the Calculation thereof is the number 12. the root thereof and no other calculation belongs to a single number than that which is called
the cause of this mans perplexity was it not his own extreme superstition most abominable If the Author of this Discourse had proposed any thing on the other side to the Scripture and pretended ambiguity and perplexity which of them he preferred according whereunto to order his faith that Martialists resolution of the doubt might have been congruous enough But onely concerning the Scripture-doubts are here proposed how a man should ground his faith thereupon what he is I know not and whether this be res gesta or ficta I am to seek for the present world is full of jugling But when wee make such doubts unto our selves do we well consider the goodness and wisdom of God in giving us his holy Word to direct us in the wayes of everlasting life if still there were just cause to complain of a perplexed condition whereinto we were cast not knowing whether we shall take hold of it or run away from it as Moses did from his rod when it was turned into a Serpent But do we finde any the like Metamorphosis here yet when the Lord bid Moses take the Serpent by the tail he was bold to do it surely Gods Word is no Serpent but we rather and his Word alone hath power to charm us and make us vomit all our poyson of erroneous and unholy ways and the Lord Christ hath bid us to take hold of them saying Search the Scriptures yet if any thing in this my Answer seem amiss and not answerable to the Authors expectation but savouring as hee thinks of partiality prejudice or passion I confess prejudice against such discourses as these accompting them most vile and nothing becomming an understanding and godly Christian but as for the rest let him impute it to my ignorance that know not so much as what is the way of his passion for he seems to me to be neither Lutheran nor Calvinist and would not seem to bee a Papist though I am most prone to conceive it to be the trick of some Papist least of all doe I know his person or Countrey But let every sober Christian consider well and inquire whether that since the beginning that Gods Word was committed to writing there were at any time any such questions moved untill this last and worst Age of the world when Cajetan the Cardinall a great School-Divine first encountred with Martin Luther and found that no Authority prevailed with him but Scripturall hereupon hee was moved to study Scripture and wrote Commentaries upon it in his old age But Silvester Prierius of Rome he thought that way too far about and therefore took a shorter course and maintained that the Scriptures contained not all things necessary to salvation and therefore the rule of faith to be made compleat must be pieced up with the unwritten Word added to the written Word which unwritten Word they called Traditions Since that the Papists have strengthned themselves with the Authority of the Church yet confess the true Church cannot bee known to be a true Church nor the Authority thereof known but by the Scriptures and the issue of the resolution of the Church must bee the resolution of the Pope concerning the true interpretation of Scripture shamefully obtruding upon us that we make the resolution of our faith into our own private spirit whereas we to the contrary extend the testimony of the spirit onely to each private mans best satisfaction and teach no other herein than the Papists themselves acknowledge to be most true as touching the resolution physicall of our faith as I am able to prove by variety of pregnant evidences ready at hand without any more adoe than the bare transcribing of them Now this light being not of a nature communicable unto others we meddle not with it in disputing upon any other point of Divinity with Papists or any other But therein walk in all our disputations by way of Resolution Logicall either into some confessed principles as concerning the Attributes Divine or into express passages of holy Scripture the meaning whereof if it be excepted against we are ready to justify it by rationall discourse against any adversary nothing doubting but we shall either convict him of obstinacy in shutting his eyes against the clear evidence of truth and make him condemned in his own conscience or at least in the conscience of all sober Christians being well assured that whosoever resisteth the evidence of Gods Word upon pretence of inevidence that Word shall be found of evidence enough to judge him at the last day ¶ This Jesuiticall Question was sent out of Germany when the Assembly of Divines were sitting at Westminster and was translated out of High-Dutch FINIS
Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 but this wisdom of God in a mystery was hid from them 1 Cor. 2.7 and because they knew him not nor the words of the Prophets which were read every Sabbath day they fulfilled them in condemning him Acts 13.27 But if all things necessary to salvation are plainly set down in holy Scripture as both Chrysostom a Greek Father and Austin a Latine Father have concurrently delivered what are we the worse for the obscurity of the same 2. But suppose all were obscure yet are there not degrees of obscurity Amongst Writers in all Languages there is this difference some write more obscurely some more clearly as amongst the Greeks what difference between Chrysostome and Epiphanius this way among the Latines between Tertullian and Cyprian yet who doubts but even Tertullian may be understood and that by Cyprian who was wont to call for him in these terms Da mihi Magistrum so amongst School-Divines Aquinas and Durand are perspicuous and clear not so with Scot or Cajetan so Alvares fair and clear Navarrettus à Dominicanto but all along labours of obscurity as a man doth of the Gout whether he understood himself or no I know not sure I am he torments his Reader yet by pains and intention of study the difficulty may be overcome as I have found in part but I do not think any knowledge in him worthy to be redeemed with the like labour never any thing tormented me more unless it were the construing of Dr. Jacksons English yet no where els that I know save in treating of the Divine Essence Prov. 14.16 Now the Word of God hath taught us that knowledge is easie to him that will understand If thou callest after knowledge and criest for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledge of God Prov. 2.3 4 5. especially as touching all things necessary unto salvation 2. But suppose it were very obscure throughout is not God the Author able to instruct us in his own meaning and make us assured of it And hath not our Saviour assured us that if earthly Fathers know how to give good things to their children much more shall the heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him The holy Apostle teacheth us this saying 1 Joh. 2.27 That annoynting which ye received of him dwelleth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same annoynting teacheth you all things Hereupon Nider a Papist in his Consolatorium timoratae Conscientiae acknowledgeth that every childe of God hath the direction of the Spirit to lead him into all truth necessary to salvation And certainly the truth of Gods Word is infallible Cui non potest subesse falsum As for the certainty ex parte Scientis 1. That God can work in such a measure as he pleaseth 2. Yet we know in the best there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit and that swayes to infidelity but the better part masters it 3. And as for doubting that is rather on the part of fiducia than of fides and those doubts are mastered and that is the best faith that masters doubts and overcometh tentations Thus I presume the sober Reader may observe the rotten condition of this Discourse throughout yet we have spoken nothing of the Scripture in comparison to other means of assurance which this Author subdolously or simply conceals because to leave Scripture and to seek forth for assurance elswhere he perceives that this would manifestly appear in the end to be no better than to leave the fountain of living water and to dig unto our selves pits even broken pits that can hold no water Jer. 2. For consider shall we fly to the voyce of the Church consider the voyce of God it is the voyce of the Church and more 1. It is the voyce of the Church yea of the best Church and purest Church namely the voyce of the Propheticall and Apostolicall Church For Deus loquitur per Prophetas Apostolos And this is that Church into whose voyce the last resolution of our Faith ought to be made in the opinion of Durand then it is more than the voyce of the Church for holy men speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. ult You will say but all the question is about the meaning of it I answer 1. May there not be as much question about the meaning of the voyce of the Church as about the meaning of Gods Word Where doth the Church speak more authentically than in generall Councills See the Councill of Trent the Pope was unwilling to confirm it Hist of the Councill of Trent till Cardinall Bon Compagio Bishop of Befirice urged him thereunto upon this ground That withall he should publish an EDICT forbidding all men to take upon them the interpretation thereof and commanding them to seek that from him and then saith he let us alone to devise a convenient interpretation of it without prejudices to the advantages of the Court of Rome 2. Again Generall Councills may erre as Austin observes the former have been corrected by the later in some things 3. Such Councills never went about to write Commentaries upon the Scripture if they should Cajetan confesseth an interpretation may be given congruous to the Text yet different from the Torrent of Doctors notwithstanding which we ought to receive it 4. Lastly after what sense soever I interpret Scripture in any Argument if I am not able to make it good by convincing arguments to every sober conscience let my proofs be rejected but withall let him look to it after what manner he resists the evidence brought as he will answer for it at the day of Judgement according to that of our Saviour Joh. 12.48 He that refuseth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken it shall judge him at the last day 5. It were easiy to produce variety of testimonies even of Papists acknowledging the last resolution of our faith ought to be made into the VVord of God and that the true Church and the power which it hath is not known but by the Word of God 2. Or will they say the Pope is to resolve us as touching the meaning of Scripture To this I answer 1. That I care not who interprets Scripture to me so he performs the part of an Interpreter indeed and make it appear to be the meaning of it 2. And if I doe not so I am content to suffer the loss of that Argument whatever it be 3. Then it hath been a very rare thing for Popes to set themselves to interpret Scripture 4. It is well known that Liberius Pope of Rome subscribed to Arianism Honorius was a Monotholite Pope John the 22. denied that the souls of men lived after separation from the body like to
the Socinians of these dayes whose opinion was cried down at Paris and openly proclamed hereticall by the sound of a Trumpet 3. Or shall the Rule of interpretation of Scripture be the congruity of it to naturall reason as the Socinians make it This is most shamefull and unreasonable considering 1. That our naturall reason is much corrupt by the sin of Adam The things of God seem foolishness to the naturall man 1 Cor. 2.14 naturally we are all darkness 2. In the state of innocency do we think that Adam by naturall reason was able to find out or justifie the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Deitie We say God may be known by light of Nature Quod attinet ad Vnitatem naturae but not known quod attinet at Trinitatem Personarum God hath set the world in mans heart saith Solomon yet can he not finde out the works that he hath wrought from the beginning to the end Eccl. 3. and if he cannot finde out the works of God is he able to find out the nature of God himself we know he is said to dwell in a dark cloud Disc Obj. Some may object The Sects do not follow the Scriptures onely but they add the Papists their Traditions the Calvinists their Reasons the Anabaptists their Dreams I answer They do so in those things which are not cleerly taught in the holy Scriptures but in the controversies between them and Lutherans they proceed not so but by Scriptures they fight against Lutheran Tenents which are confirmed by the Scriptures and indeavour by the help of the Scriptures to sight for and defend their own which the Lutherans by Scriptures doe condemn Nay more there are some viz. the Anabaptists that urge the Scriptures in the very Letter more than the rest The Calvinists use their reason and out of the Scriptures draw Arguments which thing the Lutherans also doe never suffering any of theirs to reason against the Scriptures Consid This Author will have the making of his own bed and shapes his Reader at the first encounter to yeeld acknowledging the uncontradictable nature of his former one onely Argument which yet I have shewed to be both very weak very ridiculous and very untrue But we keep our ground professing to the world that the Scriptures alone being the Word of God are the rule of our faith and no word of man Papists add Traditions which yet they account the Word of God unwritten we abhor to make any thing the rule of our faith but the written Word of God It is falsly said that Calvinists add their Reason they rather suppose Reason than add it the Word of God being given to none but reasonable creatures Neither doe we make this Reason of ours a rule of faith added to Gods Word but it is that light which God hath given us wherewith to search into the meaning of his Word and by studious inquisition and observation to discover it and make it known to others and by good reason out of the Text to convict others of the truth And doth this Authors reason go to bed and sleep when he comes to read and studiously to consider the Word of God If it doth he will prove no better than a drowsie Student and I know no reason but such a one may be in love with dreams as well as Anabaptists 1. In his Answer he carrieth himself most absurdly and ridiculously For 1. Most insipidly he supposeth that the Controversies amongst Protestant Divines are about such things as are clearly taught in Scripture as if they agreed in those things which are not clearly set down in Scripture and differ onely about things which are clearly delivered there 2. He supposeth that Calvinists do not use reason in the controversies between them and the Lutherans but onely in other things which is most untrue and absurd withall for controversies cannot possibly be mannaged without reason both as touching the proof of their own Tenet and touching the disproof of the Tenet oposite And this must needs be the guise of the Lutherans also It is false which he saith of Anabaptists that they urge the very letter of Scriptures more than the rest For both Calvinists and Lutherans insist wholly upon the literall sense of Scripture and more than the Anabaptist in case they as formerly by this Author said did depend in dreams for so doe not Protestants but on Scripture only and that according unto sense literall not at all according to sense mysticall save onely in case the sense mysticall be expounded by some Apostle and thereby made literall 2. But herein this Authors ignorance discovers its self that hee confounds sense literall with the proper sense of the words We acknowledge sense literall to comprehend sense Metaphoricall as well as proper and to stand in contradiction onely to sense mysticall But in case we take that in a metaphoricall sense which our adversaries in any point take in a sense proper if we doe not prove the sense wherein we take it and disprove theirs by convincing Arguments we will allow the liberty to reject our Tenet and follow their own for we desire to make our faith evident to the consciences of all opposites and if they can make their Tenets in like manner evident to us we will renounce our own and imbrace theirs 3. And this Author speaks at random and he knows not what when he would have his Reader believe the Calvinists permit any to reason against the Scriptures for by reason to clear the meaning of Scripture is not I trust to reason against it but for it rather especially considering that by reason of Scripture onely we dispute the meaning of any place Disc Object 2. If it be objected unto them that they wilfully and against their consciences do condemn the Lutheran Tenets and confirm their own they will answer Ans This were a very grievous sin and that men ought not to presume that they would falsifie and corrupt the Letters and Commands of their Lord to his sons and subjects much less that they do maliciously erre and lead themselves and others into the dauger of their salvation and to say the truth it is not likely that so many hundred thousands of men would come to that pitch of malice though one should especially seeing they dare confirm their honest meaning with an Oath wherefore unless they be convicted of maliciously wilfull error we shall seem injuriously to slander them Consid I see no reason why such a censure should be passed upon the Calvinians more than upon the Lutherans more speciously it should be passed by them that are Orthodox upon them that are not though I justifie not this censure whosoever makes it and certainly there is no just cause to pass it upon them who are in the right and charity will forbid us rashly to pass this censure upon them who are in the wrong And as I finde defect of love in them who pass such censures hand over head upon