Eighthly And we do confess our selves that the Apostles had not the infallible Spirit given them for every use or thing that they had to do but for those matters about which they had special need of it and use for it to fulfill their office The Spirit was not so necessary for them to discern those things by which the common sense and understanding of a man was sufficient to discern They could tast sweet from bitter feel heat from cold discern light from darkness without an Infallible extraordinary Spirit And so being eye and ear witnesses of what Christ did and said of his words his miracles his resurrection his ascension they might infallibly know them by ordinary means And so a good Christian may doubt whether they had the Spirit infallibly to transcribe and cite every passage in the old Testament visible to all or to relate the things which they saw done with their eyes or to report the history of several actions which were then done as what was the place and power of Herod Archelaus Pilate Falix Festut c. and such other parts of common History Ninethly And we all confess that the words are but as the Body of the Scripture and the sense as the Soul And that the words are for the sense And there is more of the Spirits assistance in the sense and soul of the Scripture than in the words and body And that there is in the phrase and method somewhat of blameless humane imperfection And that as David was not stronger then Goliah nor his weapons more excellent in themselves but God would overcome strength by the means of the more weak so an Aristotle may be more accurate in method and a Demosthenes Varro or Ciâ—cro in words and phrase than an Apostle And they may be left to the imperfections of their several gifts diversified by nature or education in their stile And God may hide that from the wise and prudent which he revealeth to babes And by the foollishness of Preaching may save believers and confound the wisdom of the world and by things that are not bring to nought things that are that no flesh may glory in his sight Nor do we say that no man may seek or attain more Logick Philosophy or Grammar than he findeth in the Scriptures Tenthly As Protestants receive not so many Books as Canonical as the Papists do so some Protestants have not received so many as the rest And so many possibly erre in thinking that some part of the Scripture is not the word of God and consequently may think it of more uncertain credit Eleventhly Some have thought that Matthew being at first written in Hebrew or Syriack and after translated into Greek that the Translator being unknown the credit of the Translation must be the less certain because they know not whether the translator was one that had a promise of Infallibility though doubtless they erre who so conclude Twelfthly Some think that as certainly there are a great number of various Readings which all prove that some of the Copies erre so it is uncertain to us whether all those which we have may not in some words or particles differ from others which we have not and from the autographs seeing each scribe had not a promise of Infallibility Thirteenthly If some particular Books of Scripture were not extant or never known to some men yet the rest may teach those same men all the Christian Religion to their Salvation Therefore if they may be Christians and saved without knowing of that particular Book they may possibly be so without knowing that it is Canonical or of Divine and certain truth Fourteenthly Yea more no doubt but it is possible to be saved and to be good Christians without being certain what is contained in any one Book of the Bible totally for he that cannot Read may possibly not hear the whole Book from another at least so as to understand and remember it And yet he may hear the same Doctrines out of another Book Yea more it is past doubt that a man may in some cases or circumstances be a true Christian who knoweth not that there is any Scripture which is Gods Infallible word For first so all the believers of the old world were saved before Moses wrote the Law And the Christian Churches were gathered and thousands converted to Christ many years before a word of the New Testament was written Secondly And all the thousands and millions of Christians who cannot read do know that there is such a Book which hath such words in it but on the credit of other men Thirdly And we know not but the Papists who are too great undervaluers of the Scriptures and lock it up from the Laity and over magnifie Tradition may keep thousands among them without the knowledge that there is a Book which is Gods word And yet may teach them the Christian Religion by other means after to be mentioned And it seemeth by the Epist. Jesuit Masaeus Histor Judic and other writings that in Japan Congo China and other Countries of the East they did teach them onely by Creeds Catechismes and preachings And I remember no knowledge that they gave to most of them of the Scriptures And yet the most cruel torments and martyrdoms never before heard of which the Christians in Japan endured of which see Varentus history doth put all sober readers past doubt that there were many excellent Christians And if other means may make men Christians who are never told of the holy Scriptures than those same means with the Scriptures may make them Christians who are made believe that all Scripture passages are not the infallible dictates of Gods Spirit I have given you instances enough to prove that many may be Christians and have a certain faith who are not certain of all things in the Scriptures And therefore though all these persons are herein defective or erroneous yet that Christianity may be otherwise known and proved Yea though the case of the Scriptures were as these mistaking persons think And I told you how many waies besides Scripture the summe and necessary substance of the Christianity is delivered down from the Apostles to the world Reas of Christ Rel. pag. 336 337. First in the very successive Being of Christians and Churches who are the Professors of this Doctrine Secondly In a succession of Pastors whose office was to preach it Thirdly In a succession of Baptism which is that solemnizing the Christian Covenant in which the sum of the Gospel is contained Fourthly In the three breviates or symboles of the Christian Religion the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue which all the Christian Churches still used Yea every one that was baptized at age and the Parent for the Infant did openly make profession of the Christian faith and of Religion in all the essential particulars Fifthly In the Churches use of Catechising those who were to be baptized that they might first know that Religion which they were to
Gentleness in the Answer I shall grant you the first as far as in such hast and brevity I am able And the second as far as the nature of the cause will bear But if you account all Christians deceived fools you must not expect to be called wise nor that I should flatter you and tell you that Apostasie is a state of safety For I that believe Heb. 6. and 10. must think that this were not Gentleness but Cruelty and worse than to kill you for fear of displeasing you Prop. 1. If it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scriptures is true nor the Pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion The reason is Because every particle in the Scripture is not an essential part of the Christian Religion no nor any Integral part if you take the Christian Religion strictly for the Doctrine of necessary Belief Desire and Practice And that part which is indeed the essence yea or Integrity of Christianity may be certainly proved and believed without our being able to prove the certainty or truth of all the rest which is in the Scriptures The Holy Scriptures contain all our Religion and somewhat more that is the Accidents and appurtenances of it As the body of a man besides the parts Essential and Integral hath its Accidents such as are the Hair and the Colour and some Humours which are for Beauty and other uses though not Parts So far are the Papists from being in the right who think that the Christian Religion is not all but part contained in the Scriptures that there is more than all that is necessary to salvation even the appurtenances which have an aptitude to the adorning and promoting of the rest To know who was the Father of every person mentioned in the Bibles Genealogies to know what age each person was of whose age is there mentioned to know the name of every person and every Town to know how far each City was from another whose distances are there expressed with a multitude of such like Historical Genealogical Chronological Topographical Physical incidental passages is but an appurtenance and not strictly a part Essential or Integral of the Christian Faith of Holiness or Religion Yet remember that we maintain as certain that they are all Lyars who accuse God of Lying And that whatever some ignorantly talk to the contrary God cannot lie See the excellent Amesius his Disputation of this Question An falsum subesse potest fidei divinae after his Medulla Theologiae which book with his Cases of Conscience and Alstedius his Encyclopaediae may after the Scriptures and Concordance make a good Divine and be a better Library than the Fathers of the fourth Council Carth. were acquainted with He that thinketh God can lie destroyeth the Objectum Formale fidei divinae and therefore can have no Faith If God could lie in one thing we should never be sure that he revealeth the truth unless by sense it self and after-experience All Faith goeth upon such a Syllogism as this Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Ergo it is true So that whosoever believeth every word in the Scripture to be Gods word must believe it all to be true or he can believe none of it at all But yet it is possible for a man to believe one part of the Bible to be Gods Word and not another part which needeth no proof Because that many of the ancient Churches for a certain time doubted of yea received not the Epistle of James Peter 2d the Heb. Apocal. c. and yet were truly of the Christian Religion First We deny not but that there are many false and wicked sayings historically recited in the Scripture as the saying of Cain Pharaoh Gehezi the false Prophets the Devil of Job to Christ c. but the Scripture is nevertheless true For it is true that all these untruths were spoken Secondly The Disciples of Christ were not absolutely and in all things infallible as all Christians do Confess They were not as perfect in Knowledge as now they are in Heaven Either Paul or Barnab as was mistaken about the fitness of Mark to go with them Thirdly There was a greater assistance of the Spirit promised them when two or three of them were assembled in Christs name than when they proceeded singly Mat. 18. 18. But there can be nothing above perfect infallibiâ—ity and impeccability to them all Fourthly We confess that Christs Disciples were not indefectible or sinless As their understandings so their wills and lives had still some imperfections Marke Paul and Silas did not all perfectly do their duties in the case they differed about Peter did amiss in avoiding the Gentile Christians when Paul blamed him openly Gal. 2. And Barnabas and others did not do well in being drawn away to the same â—issâ—â—â—lation When Paul saith of Timothy I have no man like minded â—nd of others They all seek their own He took not all Christians that had the Spirit to be perfect If any man had not the Spirit of Christ he was none of his Rom. 8. 9. And the very wrangling deâ—â—â—â—â—ng Galathians had received the spirit Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And so had the wrangling Corinthians Christ in them 2 Cor 8. 5. Fifthly We confess that he who is either infallible or defectible lyable to error or sia is of himself capable of being deceived and of deceiving others If he were Infallible in respect of the Knowledg of all the Truth yet while he can sin of himself considered he can be heedless careless rash partial and for by respects speak too little or too much It is the Devils last method to undo by overdoing and so to destroy the authority of the Apostles by over magnifying them therefore we will not use his methods nor deny any of this Sixthly Moreover we confess that it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether those that were but Evangelists as Marke and Luke had the same promise of the Spirits infallible assistance with the Apostles seeing we find not that promise so expresly any where made to them And thereupon he may possibly think that some errors may consist with their measure of the Spirit as it did with many Christians who had the same Spirit Seventhly And we do not believe that the extraordinary operations of the Spirit were alwaies equally in the Apostles themselves we suppose the Prophets could not alwaies Prophesie nor those that spake with tongues use that gift at their own pleasure nor yet those that did miracles healed the sick or raised the dead But that the Spirit wrought as in various sorts and measures in several persons 1 Cor. 12. so also at various times and in various measures in the same person Whereupon it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether every word in Scripture was written then when the writer had the gift of infallibility and indefectibility
ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall you see him so I have told you And they departed quickly from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his Disciples word and as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them see Mat. 28. 1 5 6 7 8 9. v. Whether I say was this which is written in St. Matthews Gospel that I have here Transcribed said to the Women and that the Women returned from the Sepulcher to tell the Disciples before that Mary Mâ—gdalen said to him that she supposed to be the Gardiner If thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away John 20. 15. or whether there be any error of Transcribers Translators or Printers in those Texts if not how may I understand them to be true reports Sir I shall trouble you with no more but these few places which I have proposed in three Questions or Particulars although there are several other Texts that I do not understand how they may be reconciled but if you shall by strength of Argument Grounded upon sound Reason make appear that it was nothing but Ignorance hath made me to think that those Testimonies agree not but are contrary one to the other and that they may be so understood as that no such thing will appear in them then I shall be ready and will with you conclude and say so too and for the future suppose that other places of those books which are received for Scripture as seem to be contrary to one another may be Reconciled though I do not understand how But on the contrary if you do not endeavour by such sound and plain Arguments to make it appear that these Texts here Transcribed by me may be understood so as that no contradiction is in them I must think that it was nothing but Ignorance that made you say that which you have said in answer to that and some other objections Therefore I humbly and earnestly pray and beseech you both in defence of your own writings as also in defence of those Books in which you say you think that no one error or contradiction in any matter can be proved to make it appear in truth and plainness If you judge I have erred from the truth I hope you will endeavour to to convert me from the error of my way if any such be which if you shall do no doubt but it will be a good work see James 5. ult Sir It is your advice that in such kind of Scruples the doubtful should apply himself for satisfaction to some Minister therefore do I write to you and if you shall not give me a gentle and plain Answer I shall be discouraged to make my Scruples known to any other therefore in expectation of your plain Answer I Remain Your Loving Friend in the Bond of Peace SIR TWo sorts of persons use to trouble me and others with their Objections against the Christian Religion First Some Papists who profess to believe it but in designe do act the part of Infidels that they may loose men from all Religion in hope to bring them over to theirs when they have taken them off all other For he that can make another man believe that he was hitherto totally misled is likest to become the Master of his Faith For men are apt to think that none can so easily and certainly shew them the truth as he that hath shewed them their error And when men once think that according to the Grounds of the Reformed Churches they can have no certainty of Faith they will the easilier be brought to the way of those men who promise them that certainty which they make them believe that others want Secondly The other sort are Infidels who of late are grown numerous and audacious and look so big and speak so lowd as to acquaint us that it is not they that are silenced in their speaking place nor driven five miles from every City and Corporation Which sort you are of I know not I read your name and that you are a Sojourner but finding that you write not as a tender Doubter who desireth to be concealed but as a Confident gain-sayer of the Christian Verity and not knowing how safely to send a Letter to the place where you say you sojourn I have thought that it will be most pleasing to you to come to you by the same way as the book did which you except against which was written upon the provocation of a paper Scattered among the Schollars of Oxford when the Oxford Oath and Act were made in the time of the great Plague as by one that was unsatisfied in the Grounds of Christianity but I strongly suspected was written by a Papist it was made so suitable to their designs In two things you have not dealt righteously and ingeniously with me 1. In that you have not answered the Grounded Proofs of the Christian Verity which I have laid down but nibble at the Answer to some Objections which is not the way of a Lover of the truth 2. In that you take no notice of or make no answer to the second part of my answer to that same objection about supposed Contradictions in the Scriptures where I shewed you at large that if that which you object were granted it would not overthrow the certainty of the Christian Faith Both those should have been done by an impartial man The method which the nature of the Cause requireth me now to use in my answer to you shall be in the manifesting these following Propositions Prop. 1. That if it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scripture is true nor the pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion Prop. 2. That yet all that is in the Scriptures as the word of God is certainly true and no error or contradiction can be proved in it but what is in some Copies by the fault of Printers Transcribers or Translators Prop. 3. That he that first proveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that truth though he be not able to solve all soeming contradictions in the Scripture or answer all objections which occurre Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to lay first the fundamental proofs and examine them till he is thereby confirmed and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to begin first at the answering of such by-objected difficulties and judging of all the cause thereby Of these I shall now speak in order And whereas you bespeak Plainess and
enter Sixthly In that constant Communion of all the Churches in their solemn Assemblies and setting apart the Lords day to that use where in their worshiping of God they expressed and excercised their Religion Seventhly In the constant preaching of the Gospel by the Pastors Eightly In the constant Celebration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood wherein the summe of the Gospel was recited and expressed And the custome was also to repeat the profession of their Belief Ninethly The frequent disputations of the Christian Pastors for their Religion against all Heathens Infidels and Heroticks Tenthly The writings of the said Pastors Apologies Doctrinal Historical Commentaries Devotional Eleventhly The Confession and Sufferings of the Martyrs Twelfthly The Decrees Canons and Epistles of Councils or Assemblies of the Christian Pastors Thirteenthly And after these the Decrees and Laws of Christian Princes in all which we have no need of any peculiar Tradition of the Church of Rome Fourteenthly Yea we may adde the Confessions of Adversaries who tell us part of the Christians Religion as Pliny Celsus Julian c. All these waies set together told men what Christianity was Fifteenthly But the fullest and surest discovery of it was by the holy Scripture of it self which was constantly read in the Assemblies of the Christians In all this I have but told you by how many waies and means materially the Gospel Doctrine was made known Now the great Question is Whether by all these means we might come to a certainty of the truth of the Christian Faith in case we could not prove every word or particle of Scripture to be Gods word and so to be true They that deny it say That he that can mistake or be deceived in one thing may be so in another and we cannot take his word as certain who sometimes speaketh falsly for we can never be sure that he speaketh the truth But I affirm the thing questioned and shall shew the mistake of this reason of the Adversaries First It must be remembred that we ascribe Infallibility Primitive and Absolute to God and no other Therefore we are certain that so much is true as is Gods word Secondly We are Certain that all that is the word of God which he hath set his seal or attestation to which I have largely opened in the Book which you oppose All that which hath the Antecedent and Constitutive and Concomitant and subsequent Attestation of God there opened we are certain is of God Thirdly We are Certain that the Person of Christ and his own Doctrine had all this fourfold Divine Testimony And therefore that Christ and his Doctrine are of God and true And consequently that Christ was the Son of God the Redeemer of the world the Head of the Church and whatever he affirmeth himself to be Fourthly We are certain that the Apostles as Preachers of this Gospel and performers of the Commission Delivered them by Christ had the same attestation in kind as Christ himself had They had the same SPIRIT Though the antecedent testimony by Prophesie was not so full of them as it was of Christ yet the Gospel which they preached and left in writing First Hath in it still visibly to the eye of every truly discerning person the Image of Gods Power Wisdome and Goodness Secondly The same Gospel as preached and delivered by them had the Concomitant Testimony of abundant certain Miracles Prophesies and holy works Thirdly The same Gospel maketh that impression on the souls of true receivers which is the Image of Gods power wisdome and goodness and so proveth it to be of God The concurrence of these three is a full and certain proof Now if there be any doubtfulness in any of this it must be First Either what it is that these Attestations prove Secondly Or whether they are really Divine Attestations Thirdly Or whether Divine Attestations are a certain proof of Truth To begin at the last First If Divine Testimony be not a certain proof of Truth then there is no possible proof in the world For there is no Veracity in any Creature but derivative from God And then it must be either because a Lie is as perfect and Good as Truth which humanity reason and all the world contradicteth and humane society abhorreth there being no savages so barbarous as to think so or because God is imperfect either in wisdome to know what is True and sit or in Goodness to choose it or in Power to use it That is that God is not God or that there is no God and consequently no Being for an Imperfect God an unwise an ill an impotent Being is no God And verily all our Controversies with the Infidel and the Impious and the Persecuter must finally come to this Whethen there be a God II. And that these were really Divine Attestations I have fully proved in the Treatise First They are Divine Effects and the Divine Vestigia or Image Secondly And such as none can do but God None else can give that full Antecedent Testimony of Prophesie None else could have done what Christ did in his Life Death Resurrection and Ascension None could heal all Diseases work all Miracles raise the Dead with a word None else could do what the Apostles did in Tongues and Miracles and wonderous gifts and these wrought by so many before so many for so long a time No other Doctrine could it self bear Gods Image of Power Wisdome and Goodness so exactly nor make such an Impresse of the same Image on the souls of men Nay though this same Doctrine by the Spirit of God be adopted to such an effect yet would it not do it for want of Powerfull application if God by the same Spirit did not set it home so that the sanctification and renovation of souls is a Divine Attestation of this sacred Gospel And besides all the past Testimonies of Christs and his Apostles Miracles here is a double Testimony from God still vouchsafed to all true Believers to the end of the world The one is Gods Image on the holy Scriptures The other is The same Image by this Scripture and the Spirit that indited it printed on all true Christians souls Divine Power Wisdome and Goodness hath imprinted it self first upon the sacred word or doctrine and by that produceth unimitably holy Life Light and Love in holy souls True Christians know this They feel it They profess it They have this Spirit in them illuminating their minds sanctifying their wills and quickening them to vital operation and execution And this is Christs Advocate and Witness still dwelling in all his members I speak not of an immediate verbal or impulsive revelation in us but of a Holy indwelling nature principle operation conforming the soul to God and proving us to bear his Image This is Christs Witness in us that He is Christ indeed and True And this is Our Witness that we are the Children of God And it is our Inherent earnest and pledge first fruits
such conclusions That all Systems Physical and Moral have their great Essential or principal parts and their smaller Integrals and their Accidents which are no proper parts And the Great and Principal parts are few plain discernable and necessary to the being or the greatest Ends The Integrals are numerous small hardly discernable and necessary only to Perfection The Accidents are some of them yet of a lower nature lesse necessary nnd less discernable At the master trunks its easie to know which is a vein and which an Artery and which a Nerve and what is their number But when you go to their extremities they will appear innumerable small and scarce discernable I can know many grand trunks or boughs a tree hath when I cannot know the number of the thousands of sprigs at the extreamities nor just where the woody nature ceaseth and the leaves or frutex doth begin So I can easily know in the frame of Grace that Faith Hâ—â—â— and Love are the fruits of the Spirit and so is every true part of Holiness But to know of every particular thought whether it be the fruit of the Spirit and a real part of holiness or not is not so easie Even so in our present case we can easily prove that all that is Gods word and uttered and sealed by his Spirit is true But to come to a full certainty of every book whether it be truly Canonical and every Copy that varieth in some readings from others or of every Genealogical Chronological Topographical or Historical word every phrase location order of sentences citation of the Prophets whether it were certainly all done by the Infallible inspiration of the Holy Ghost is a thing that requireth more knowledg than every true Christian hath as not having the same clearness and notoriety of Evidence as the Gospel or substance of Christianity hath No 〈◊〉 that all Gods word is True Truth is equally Truth it having not a magis minus but all Truth is not equally notorious or evident â—â—â—â— 2. Yet all that is in the Scriptures expressed as Gods word is certainly true And no error or contradiction is in it but what is in some Copies by the failing of Preservers Transcribers Printer or Translators The Reasons why I have premised the former Propositions is First For your own sake Secondly For the sake of many Infidels that now have the same mis-apprehensions Thirdly And for the sake of many thousand weak dark and tempted Christians That you may not think that you may renounce Christianity if you could prove a Contradiction or mistake in the Scriptures there being greater certainty of our Religion than of every single word in the Bible And that every Christian may not think that he must needs doubt as much of Christianity it self and of all the Gosâ—â—â—â— as he doth whether such a Text 〈…〉 word or have any contradiction to another And that he can have no more certainty of the Gospel than he hath of Jorams son or whether Matthew did rightly apply the Prophesie that Christ should be called a Nazarene Mat. 2. 23. or the name of Jeremy Mat. 27. 9. or whether Jude be Canonical and the Epistle to Laodicea and Clemens Rom. ad Cor. not Canonical or whether Henochs prophesie cited by Jude be Divine with many such like We need not spread the sails so wide to the temptations of Satan as if we must let go all if we doubt of the divine authority of any one word But yet that indeed every word is Divine and sure which is delivered as Gods word I now assert My meaning in that limitation is this There are some passages as I said spoken only historically and contain the Narration of some words of the Devil as to Job Christ and as most think to Saul at Endor c. and some words of wicked men and some words of weak and common persons And all these are not mentioned as the words of God As the words of Job's Friends which God reproved The words of the old Prophet that lyed in the name of the Lord to the young Prophet to his destruction The words of Jonas I do well to be angry and the words of Christs Enemies Perfecutors c. Yea the mention of the Old Prophet remembreth me that all words spoken as in Gods name and that by a pretended yea by a real Prophet are not therefore the words of God Micheah onely may say true while Zidkiah and all the rest of Ahabs Prophets may lie as in the name of the Lord. Balaam and the aforesaid old Prophet and many such may say true when Gods Spirit doth inspire them and yet lie at another time in Gods name And what Paul meaneth by his not the Lord but I I leave to consideration Whether in 1 Cor. 14. all those that he correcteth for a disorderly using even the Miraculous gifts of tongues and prophesying c. had their Timeing and ordering of their gifts from the same Spirit that gave them the gifts you may judge And some Protestant expositors have doubted whether James and the rest were guided by the Spirit when they perswaded Paul to go into the Temple to shew the Jews that he observed their Law Though I think that Counsel was of the Spirit because Paul concurred in obeying it But one instance I more doubt of my self which is when Christ and his Apostles do oft use the Septuagint in their Citations out of the old Testament whether it be alwaies their meaning to justific each translation and particle of sense as the word of God and rightly done or onely to use that as tolerable and containing the main truth intended which was then in use among the Jews and therefore understood by them and so best as suited to the auditors And so whether every citation of numbers or Genealogies from the Septuagint intended an approbation of it in the very points in which it differeth from the Hebrew Copies such plain exceptions being promised I assert that All that is said in the Bible as by the spirit of God by men that had the promise of his Spirit and especially by the Apostles is certain Truth and hath no Contradiction in its parts Before I give you my Reasons I think it meet to remove all ambiguity of the words Infallible or Certain that I may be rightly understood First The consent of all sober Divines and Philosophers teacheth us to diftinguith between objective and subjective certainty that is The certain Truth of the Thing and the Certainty of our own apprehension of it Secondly The word certain when applyed to the Apprehension sometime signifieth an infallible apprehension and sometime a clear and strong apprehension excluding both deceit and doubts and by some abusively to a strong Apprehension which excludeth Doubts but not Deceits Thirdly In the object Infallibility sometime signifieth nothing but Verity which whoever believeth is not deceived And sometimes it signifieth also such clear evidence as is in its kind sufficient
to banish all considerable doubting And now I conclude First Whatever is True is objectively certain and Infallibly true so far as that no man in Believing it true is therein deceived or mistaken All Truth is Certain Infallible Truth in it self Secondly Few Truths in the world are so Evident as that a blinded prejudiced indisposed person may not be ignorant of them or erre about them Thirdly All Truths in the Scripture have not equal evidence that they are the word of God though all that is known to be the word of God if equally so known have equal evidence in the formal reason of saith that they are true Fourthly All known Truth is infallibly known that is He that knoweth it is not deceived nor can possibly be deceived by taking it to be true so that as Infallibility signifieth not being deceived all true knowledge is subjectively infallible and certain that is its true Fifthly No man can know that Infallibly which is not objectively certain that which is not True cannot be known to be true The strongest and most confident belief of a falshood is a false belief and more than fallible or uncertain Sixthly All Gods word being equally true and infallible the belief of it is also equally true and infallible But being not All equally intelligible evident to be his word and necessary the understanding and belief of every part is not equally easie strong past doubting or necessary Seventhly There is a superficial belief of Divine Revelations even the Gospel which a natural man may have by extrinsick means And there is a more clear apprehension which a Commoner sort of Grace may produce But that Belief which is so clear and powerful as truly to sanctifie and save the soul must be the effect of the special operation of the Holy Ghost who yet hath a course of appointed means in which we must receive it Eighthly The reason of this necessity of the Spirits operation of faith and then by saith is not because the Gospel wanteth due Ascertaining Evidence or an aptitude to convince and sanctifie a soul For it s highly Rational though mysterious and Good But because by corruption and pravity the mind of man is so undisposed to know believe and love truths of such a nature as that there is need of a special Internal higher Operator to set home the work as the hand of a man setteth the seal upon the wax and to do that by it which the bare word alone with the excellentest preacher cannot do Ninethly Yet is no wicked Infidel excuseable that saith If I cannot believe it I will not believe it Because First It is his pravity which is his disability Secondly He is more able for a common superficial belief than for a special effectual belief Thirdly And if he did by the help of that common belief do what he might and God appointeth him in the use of means to obtain a special Faith through grace he should find that God hath commanded no man to labour and seek after grace in vain and if any man have not that grace and power which is of necessity to his faith and salvation it is long of himself who useth not his commoner power and grace as he might use them And so much to prevent misunderstanding Now my Reasons why I take every History Chronology Genealogy in Scripture as certainly true and every other word which is spoken by a true Prophet and Apostle as by the Spirit and not disowned by the Scripture it self but especially such as you accuse in the Gospel are these First A Priore Because it seemeth to me that the writing of the whole Books of the New Testament by them was done in the discharge of the Commission given them by Christ And he promised his Apostles his Spirit for the performance of all their Commissioned office work This writing is part of the preaching which Christ sent them for And no doubt but the Spirit did cause them to write all the substantial part And therefore we have reason to think that the smallest parts are from the same Author and that he assisted them in the least as well as in the greatest Yea the very accidents may have a perfection in their place though less perfect in themselves Though all the Evangelists use not the same Method or Order nor repeat Christs sayings in the same terms yet in respect to the whole frame it may be best that there should be that diversity of words and order to preserve and declare the same sense and things And even their plain and less accurate stile and method may be best as fittest to its use and end Secondly A Posteriore There is no Caviller that yet hath proved any falshood or contradiction in any passages of the Scripture Though the clearing of some of them require more than vulgar knowledge Thirdly Saving the controversies about the few questioned Books and some few sentences and words the Church which received the Scriptures as Gods word did receive the whole as his word and as certainly true in every part Fourthly Because that Spirit of Miracles in the Apostles and that Spirit of Holiness in us which attesteth the Christian Religion doth receive it and attest it as found in the sacred Scripture though not as there alone And it putteth no exception against any part of the sacred record Therefore while it particularly attesteth the chief parts it inferreth an attestation to the smallest for that word or line which is not strictly a part but an accident of the Christian Religion is yet a part of the Bible which containeth it Fifthly And though all the reasons which I have given prove that the Truth of the Christian Religion may be certainly proved though we could not prove every by expression in the Scripture to be true and though we deny not but the Pen-men manifested their humane imperfections in stile and method yet if each passage were not True it would be so great a temptation to the weak and make it so difficult to know in some points what is true in comparison of what it would be if all be true that we have no reason to imagine this difficulty to our selves while its unproved And having said this I am here in order to answer your objections which yet you should not have expected from me whilst so great a number of books are already written which have done it And why should you bid me write that again which is written already unless you had confuted what is written If you understand Latine you may find a multitude of such seeming contradictions reconciled in Sharpius Magrius Althamer Cumeranus but most fully in abundance of Commentators If you understood not Latine you may read enough in Dr. Hammond and many other Annotaters and Commentaries Mr. Cradock's Harmony c. And you may have enough that understand Latine to translate you the solutions as out of Spanhemii Dub Evangel Grotius Jansenius Chemnitius and such others And
I answer First whether we suppose that they first told them of the words of the Angels that were without the Sepulchre before Peter went and after of the Angels within the Sepulchre which might be the same Angels but not the same apparition or whether you only suppose Luke as in Christs Doctrine so in these by-matters of fact to intend only to deliver the matter and not to tell just the time and order There is no untruth nor contradiction in either supposition III. Your third question is fully answered in the answer of the Former According to the first Harmony or supposition Matthew onely mentioneth one of the Apparitions of the Angels and one of Maries goings to the Disciples And so this written in Matthew was partly before Maries seeing Christ viz. The Angels first appearance and partly after viz. her going the second time upon the second appearance of the Angels to tell them According to the second Harmony Maries speech to Christ was after the Angels 〈…〉 And now consider 〈◊〉 you deal reasonably with Christ and with your own soul upon such poor cavils as these to argue against the Christian Faith and plead for Apostasie when the Gospel hath all the Divine attestations and evidences which I have opened in my Treatise and you are not able to confute them which leadeth me to my Third Proposition Prop. 3. He that first preveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that Truth though he be not able to salve all seeming contradictions in the Scriptures or answer all objections which occur Yea certain of EVERY PARTICLE thereof This I prove by these following Arguments Arg. 1. From the consent of all mankind who are forced thus to conclude in all arts and sciences There being none of them so plain and sure but somewhat may be said against them which few if any man can answer And incommodum non solvit argumentum must be their reply Arg. 2. From the nature of objects and the imperfection of mans knowledg If we could be sure of nothing till we can answer all objections against it we must come to Zanchez his Nihil Scitur Nothing in all the world can be sure Can no man be sure that there is any such thing as Motion till he can answer the Objections that would first prove no Vacuity and then no Penetrability and then an impossibility till a Cession begin at the extremity of natural beings and continue unto the supposed mobile Shall we say that a wheel cannot possibly turn round because no one part first giveth place to the other to succeed it Will you be able to answer all the difficulties tossed in the Schools or but those mentioned in Mr. Glanvils Scepsis Scientifica before you will be sure of any thing of those matters where these difficulties are found He that can answer all objections First Is supposed not onely to know but to know the matter in some perfection And can none know certainly but those who be they that know in such perfection 2dly Yea they are supposed to know all other matters which may any way relate to the matter in hand And shall no man know any thing certainly till he knoweth all things For instance First What if the Question be whether there be a God the Creator of all Cannot I be sure of this till I can answer Aristotles Objections of the worlds Eternity and all the rest which every Atheist will alleadge 2dly What if the Question be whether God be most wise Cannot I be sure of it by the notorious effects of his wisdome till I can answer him that saith He that maketh fools and permitteth so much madness and confusion in the world leaveth mankind in so great ignorance is not perfectly wise Thirdly What if the Question be Whether God be perfectly good Cannot I be sure of it till I can answer all their Objections who say perfect goodness would make all things perfectly good and would not let the world he in so much wickedness nor so many tormenting Diseases to afflict us nor the innocent Horse and Oxe to be laboured tired tormented and killed by us at our pleasure c. Fourthly What if the Question were Whether God be Almighty Cannot I know it till I can answer them who say that He that cannot make an infinite world is not infinite in power He that hath a will which men can violate he that indureth all the sin in the world which he hateth and the ruine and misery of so many millions whom he loveth is not Almighty Fifthly What if the Questions Whether man be a rational Creature whether he have any free will whether bruits have reason whether plants and stones have sense Can I know none of these till I can answer all the Objections of the Somatists against the Soul and all the Objections of Hobs against free will and all the Objections of Chambre for the reason of beasts and all that Campanella hath said de sensu rerum In a Word What shall we know in the world if we can know nothing till we can solve all difficulties and Objections Therefore I adde Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to begin at the bottom and discern things in their neerest intrinsecal and most certain evidences and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to pore first upon the objected difficulties and judge of all the cause by those The plain truth and case of Christians is that if God had not done more for them by giving them his Spirit by the Gospel and experience of its truth in the effects than their Teachers have done by a right instructing them in the evidences of Faith or than the Reason of the most doth in a clear discerning of those evidences in the thing or word it self it were no wonder if Apostates were more numerous than they are when so many build on the sand and are strangers to the true foundation and will never see the evidences of the Christian Verity in it self no wonder if poor Objejections shake them that never understood the nature and Reasons of their own Religion If the Tree grow all in top which exposeth it to the winds and little in the roots which must hold it fast no wonder if it be overthrown When men never knew the great clear evidences of the Christian Religion but take it up by Custome Education and on the Credit only of the time and place in which they live no wonder if every seeming weakness error or contradiction in Scripture make them doubt First Look to all Learning Arts and Sciences Do not learners that would know begin at the Elements and Foundation Do we not begin in Grammar with our Letters Syllables Words and chief rules And in all Arts and Sciences with the Elements and Principles Secondly And Reason telleth us that the points that are