not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that Preacht the Gospell unto you 1 Pet. 1.12 Therefore Moses their Prophet was vayled to them But we with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3.13 18. Nor will it be to any purpose to object here that which is affirmed by Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 That some things in Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood For even those things be made easie by diligence prayer to God communication and conference with others God hath made in all things indigency the bond of Society without we need one another we should not value and esteeme one another we should not have love nor converse one with another But who doth this difficulty or hardnesse here spoken of hurt Men unlearned and unstable whose sluggishnesse makes unlearned and whose corruption and depravement makes unstable men that are double in their ends and therefore unstable in their wayes as appeares by their wresting and destroying of the Scriptures which is there spoken of and not only those hard places but other Scriptures also to their owne destruction But if there be any difficulty in Scripture-expressions which God sometimes permits for holy ends as I have said will the way to helpe our selves be to fall a Figurizing and Allegorizing making the Word of God saplesse and fruitlesse by the vanity of our Traditions Or because as the men I complaine against use to doe there are some figurative and allegoricall expressions in the New Testament as when our Saviour calls himselfe a Vine or a Doore which figurative speeches are to ordinary eares as easie to be understood as the most literall shall we take liberty from hence to confound Heaven and Earth And upon every itching of our owne fancy to dissolve the whole Scripture and Word of God into Figures and Allegories Which in stead of inlightning brings us into clouds and darknesse that in that mist the Devill may use as he will I will not deny but some things are to be expounded allegorically The legall Ceremonies may be handled allegorically because they were shadows and types of good things to come as the Paschall Lambe of Christ Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ was the scope and Butt of the Old Testament and therefore the Paschall Lambe the brazen Serpent and a hundred other things are accommodated justly to him also severall Histories upon this account have their allegoricall use so there be a care had to preserve the Historicall truth stable and unshaken So our Saviour accommodates the History of Solomon and Jonas to himselfe as having besides the Historicall truth an use of typifying out him in his office and sufferings and if a man by way of allusion or similitude will allegorize a History as to say that as David overcame Goliah so Christ doth the Devill so the spirit doth the flesh if it be done pertinently may have its use But without all question the literall sense of Scripture especially of the New Testament is principally to be sought after as that you may safely build upon for Doctrines Exhortations and Conclusions Symbolica Theologia non est argumentativa except such as the holy Ghost propounds and interprets in which case wee may safely follow and conclude from Allegories I would not therefore expound any Scriptures allegorically except as before but such as could not be expounded literally as for instance When without the supposition of a type or figure the Scriptures would imply a falshood or when in a Gramaticall sense the words of the Scripture would imply an absurdity as that Christ is a Doore or a Vine or when the literall sense is contradictory to a rule of Faith as when we are commanded to pull out an eye or to cut off a hand or foot but to depart needlesly from the Gramatical and literall sense of Scripture to subtelize it with Figures and Allegories is that which destroyes the majesty and integrity of the Word of God makes it a Nose of Wax and subjects it to the fancies of every crasie and unsound braine so that as in another case one complaines they doe Verborum minutiis rerum frangere pondera And if it be objected as it is by some that if the literall and Gramaticall sense be the Scripture sense the naturall man may be very able in understanding Scripture I Answer that no question they may and to their greater condemnation but yet they want the glory and life of this understanding which is the spirituall impression affecting their hearts and making them God like Those things which are words of life and peace to one are but a dead letter to them there wants that infusion into the words which makes them mighty and converting Changing them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God to one it is the word of Men to others it is the word of God the power of God to salvation effectually working in them that beleeve Whereas those absurd Allegorizers we complaine of boast of the spirit and revelations and thinke they have got all when they have mudded and defiled and nonsensifyed a Scripture with their Figures and Allegories though they feele nothing of the spirit and life which should change and convert them into the forme of Doctrine delivered to them And according to this sense must severall Scriptures be accommodated particularly that 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned That which we translate the naturall man is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab anima the soule so as he is a naturall or an animall man which walkes according to sense or to the flesh that judges of things after a carnall and humane reasoning other things are foolishnesse to him so you have it in the 23. of the former Chapter We Preach Christ crucified to the Greeks foolishnesse And in the words of the Text The things of the spirit of God are foolishnesse unto him Yet the notion of Christ Crucified as it is layd downe in Scripture in plaine and significant words is certainely intelligible to an animall man but the spirituall reason of it which is the beauty and glory of it which should alter and convert and transforme by beholding that he sees not and therefore though custome and commonnesse have taken away the seeming absurdity of such a notion so as men can beare it and take it up and professe it with others yet the spirituall beauty of it which is the taking and converting thing they see not As the eye of sense sees the figure and superficies of a thing but cannot tell the reason of it for want of a principle to judge by so a naturall man that hath no other
Christ would convince the Sadduces of the Resurrection he told them They erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Matth. 22.29 and then makes out his assertion by Scripture authority Have yee not read that which was spoken by God unto you And then brings them the very Scripture words I am the God of Abraham c. vers 32. So when Christ would prove himself to be the Messiah he bids them Search the Scriptures John 5.39 You see therefore it is no disparagement to the spirit of God that there is a visible Standard and Rule manifest to all men to which we may have a constant and easie recourse in any doubt or controversie of faith or worship Obj. If any shal object further that though this be not a disparagement or a lessening to the spirit of GOD since the authority of God it selfe and the reason of the thing seems to vindicate it from this Yet the Scriptures are capable of senses and interpretations so various as we see in all experience as it will be difficult to make it a Sandard and Rule of Faith and Worship or a Medium to try the spirits by since it needs the assistance of the spirit to the right interpretation of it selfe Ans I answer that the ignorance or perversnesse of Interpreters can by no meanes take away that Honour from the Scriptures that it should not be the Standard and Rule in things spirituall no more then in civill things the ignorance or peruersenesse of a man in giving the interpretations of the Law should detract from the honour of its being the rule and standard of judging in things civill It is certaine that in respect of the things spoken or in respect of the Speaker the Scripture hath not various and uncertaine senses but it seemes to have so oftentimes in respect of our vanity or ignorance Which leads me into consideration of the second charge I lay to some perverse spirits of these times which by obscure and mysterious Allegories draw a vaile and cast thick Clouds betweene us and the Scriptures and then cry out that they are mysterious obscure darke and hidden but If our Gospel bee hid as the Apostle saith it is hid to them that perish in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes Pride or some evill lusting hath blinded their eyes and then they cry out that there is a defect on the part of the object that that is not visible and the way by which they would spiritualize and inlighten it renders it a thousand times darker whilst under a pretence of running far enough from the Letter which they judge carnall and killing they subject it to the vanities and dreamings of every addle head and make the holy Scripture Eccho to the sound that is already in their eares according to that English Proverbe As the foole thinketh so the Bell tincketh But first here they greatly mistake who in alluding to that place of 1 Cor. 3.6 Not of the letter but of the spirit thinke there is an opposition put betwixt the letter of the Gospel and New Testament and the spirituall sense of it for here plainely by Letter is meant the Law and by spirit is meant the Gospel or New Testament in the very letter of it as you have John 1. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Not as if the Jewes were onely under a literall externall administration which did not affect their spirits God knew how to speake to his in those times but that was not the office of Moses or of the Law which propounded rules of living with promises and threatnings therefore When the Law came sin revived and I dyed saith Paul But the Ministry of the Gospel he cals spirit because the things it declares are quickning enlivening and restoring and such as speaking comparatively also the spirit accompanies much more then it did the Law as being the instrument of the grace of Christ in his Ministry The mistake of this place made Origen first and since very many loose themselves and their auditors in senslesse and idle Allegories supposing that the allegoricall sense was spirituall and the literall killing whereas the literall sense in most scriptures is not onely a spirituall sense but the onely spirituall sense of it and if besides what sense I have given of this place of the Law and the Gospel it reaches further the letter and the spirit is not to be understood of the Exposition of the words but of the fruit and effect of it it then being onely received in the Letter when it affects not the heart nor workes saving changes upon us and then in the spirit when it indeed converts and turnes us and moulds us into that holy frame and forme to which God ordaines his people Now that these expressions of the Spirit and the Letter are meant particularly of the Law and the Gospel appeares evidently in the following verses 7 8 9. For verse 7. speaking of the Letter he calls it The administration of death written and engraven in stones which we know was the Law this hee proves glorious from the glory and shining of Moses countenance In opposition to this he cals the Gospel The ministry of the spirit verse 8. and shews in one point more the excelling glory of this Gospell beyond the Law that it is to abide and remain evermore whereas the other is done away and past verse 10 11. It is true that what the Law is of it self that the Gospel is by accident killing and destructive 2 Corinth 2 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death c. But though the Gospel be the occasion of damnation to very many notwithstanding it may be called the Spirit or Doctrine of life for as much as God uses it as the instrument or vehiculum of our conversion or new life and that it holds out and offers free reconciliation to us with God whereas the Law taking it simply and alone as it is here taken is the Letter that killeth and the ministry of death prescribing onely an exact rule of life by which comes the knowledge and reviving of sinne which kills without shewing any releife or way to escape And thus have I briefly opened this place which hath been the cause to many of such grosse errings and mistakes But to proceed It is certaine the Scriptures have a plainnesse and easinesse in them to be understood and therefore are said to be A light to our feet and a Lanthorne to our paths and a light shining in a darke place Thy words they give light they give understanding to the simple And if this may be affirmed of the Writings of the Old Testament with much more reason may it be affirmed of those of the New For Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ They had many things formerly in Types and Allegories as things that concerned others more then themselves For it was revealed to them that
A PLEA for the Vse of Gospell Ordinances Against the Practice And Opinions of certain men of these times Unto which is added By way of an illustrious Instance A Vindication of the Ordinance of BAPTISME AGAINST Mr. Dels Booke ENTITULED The Doctrine of Baptismes Wherein it 's proved That the Ordinance of Baptism is of Gospel Institution and by Divine appointment to continue of use in the Church to the end of the World By HEN LAURENCE Esq Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ Col. 2.8 London printed by M. S. for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head Alley 1652. TO My most Deare and most Honoured Mother the LADY LAWRENCE Most Honoured Mother WEE heare much of late of certain civil Hereticks they call the LEVELLERS Men who by pretending Salus Populi and the common good would render their owne share in the World better then it is And finding as their Lots are cast community more advantageous to them then propriety would take away all those troublesome bounds and metes which Laws or Customes have established upon particular rights that all things might be reduced to their Primitive as they pretend and Originall Community I designe not the processe of these Men at this time how great soever their crime may be and great enough certainly it will be judged if this Charge be true But the Charge that this Discourse intends is against another and more audacious kind of Levellers spirituall Levellers men that would levell God and as it was the vanity and ambition of Adam to make himselfe like God so it is the presumption and pride of these men to make God like them We have formerly had to doe with some who would bring the Justice of God to the modell and scantling of their justice which hath been the occasion of that great controversie with the Pelagians and their followers the Arminians And now we are importun'd by a Generation of men who would subject the wisedome of God to the modell and scantling of their wisedome would give lawes to God for the government and Oeconomy of his owne house and judge all at an undue and under rate that lye not levell with their either reason or fancy And because selfe-love making up in us all defects men are usually reasonably well satisfied with their own wisdomes howsoever others are and that as the Scripture sayes Vaine Man would be wise though Man bee as a wild Asses Colt Hence it is that men who have not learned sufficiently that the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and therfore if any man would be wise he must become a foole that he may be wise men that have not been taught this of God are vying stil with God for wisedome and are extreamely scandalized at his method of saving men by the foolish and base and weake and despised meanes of Preaching with all other Ordinances and Institutions Our Saviour and Master taught us better by his owne example when considering of the reason why God had hid the great things of the Gospell from the wise and learned men of the World and revealed them to Babes He resolved it easily into the good pleasure of God Even so Father for so it pleased thee But these will rather dispute it out with God and Men then they will suffer such a blemish to their wisedome as the ayde and assistance that these foolish and weake and base despised things as the Scripture cals them brings with them And yet because it is hard to make an open Warre against God and apparent and evident truths held forth in his Word they imploy all the pittance of wisedome they have to this great worke of Levelling either in wholly taking away the use of the Scriptures to themselves and others of their elevation or by so mincing and altering them by their liberty of allegorizing Which you must beleeve although it be nonsence to be the Mystery of the History as they call it as they make them speake what they judge in wisedome they should since of themselves and naturally they are farre from speaking what they would But I shall trouble you no farther most Honoured Mother with prefacing having given you a short account who they are and what it is that this discourse pretends against as the title tels you what it pretends to I am not I thanke God so vaine as to imagine that this Essay should convert this kind of men especially such as are highest flowne and who having beene accustomed to defie reason and Scripture doe not use to bee satisfied when they are answered But I am not without hopes through the grace of God but that it may be of use to some truly godly for these temptations are fitted to persons and places of light who have not known the depths of Sathan nor are yet effectually insnared by these stratagems and wiles of the Devill And I am assured it will be accepted by you my Deare Mother to whom I present it not only upon that just account that you commanded it and the commands of Parents to their Children are of the highest Prerogative But because it will be satisfaction to you to see the Asserting and Vindicating of those things indeavored which have so much of truth and God in them and in a time when the profession and practice of them is expos'd not onely to the insultings of men openly and professedly prophane but which is lesse sufferable and more abominable to the scorne and contempt of such as would be esteemed Saints of the highest elevation But Wisedome is justified of her Children whose condition is very easily supportable with this assurance That as Christ was in the World so are they in the World and if Their life be hid with Christ in God when Christ who is their life shall appeare they shall appeare with him in glory I am Most Honoured Mother Your most obedient Sonne and Most Humble Servant Henry Lawrence A VINDICATION OF THE SCRIPTURES And Christian Ordinances NOTHING seems more to speak the misery of these evil and calamitous times in which we live then the extreame debordment of extravagant Opinions in matters of Religion diverse of which tend not onely directly to the undermining of Holinesse and Christian Religion which by the grace of God hath been long acknowledged and professed in this Kingdome but to the subversion also and destruction of civill society and communion with men as men The rise of which exorbitancy so far as my observation leads me is laid First in a slighting of the Ordinances of worship as things lesse profitable and usefull and more befitting Children then grown men and then according to the nature of errour which is easily multiplying and increasing for one absurdity granted a hundred will follow and grow out of it in a reprobating and utter casting of those Ordinances as things hurtfull and destructive to the nature of
of Saintship and altogether unproper and unmeet for that state of growth and perfection which they pretend to have attained unto This wile of the Devill is not by all good men easily and at the first observed not doe they consider that by a shew of rationall and spirituall pretences he deprives them at last of all the Ordinances and Institutions of God that his inspirations and revelations may be in stead of them and he at last may be all in all unto them For I beseech you what else is the effect of those methods in these men in whom he hath gained most upon this way but a forme of unsound words by which evill communication they corrups good manners stuffing their Preachings and Writings with an uncouth and most unsavory gibberish or jergon language which the Scriptures owne not which rationall and truely spirituall men understand not till at last growing bolder in the vanities of their minds and expressions they come to this to which some of them are come to make themselves Christ and God and to stile themselves the Lord of Hosts Blasphemies unheard of in other ages and such as are capable of astonishing the most debauch't and prophane spirits and such as tend not onely to the utter subversion of all Religion but as a necessary consequence of that to the destruction and dissolution of all bands of civill government Notwithstanding the horrour of these things yet I must professe when I thinke seriously of them I cannot but rest satisfied in the wisedome and goodnesse of God to his who by letting them see the miserable consequences and effects of opinions so depraved as the casting aside of all Ordinances of worship and yet of that seeming holinesse and spiritualnesse as the pretence of a more immediate and spirituall converse with God is are bounded and kept in order by these exorbitancies and taught that which the Scripture teacheth frequently that The weaknesse of God is stronger then men and the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and therefore if any will be wise for all these vanities arise from nothing but from a carnall and vaine Philosophating about spirituall things he must become a foole that hee may be wise Now as to be instrumentall to turne sinners and such as erre from the truth from the errour of their ways is a thing of the greatest concernment and highly acceptable to God so is it no way of more consideration then in such errings and mistakings as are about the fundamentals of Religion and Worship and which are so fertile of ill as having gained once a prevalency and authority there is no stoppe or bounds to any thing which a vaine and carnall heart deluded and imboldened by the Devill shall broach to the World for good Doctrine That which immediately debauches the spirit of men this way is as I said a slighting and undervaluing of the Ordinances of worship and holy Institutions and after that a despising and abhorring of them as things carnall and unbecomming a spirituall and raised state But that which is yet a deeper and more bottome root of this untoward production is Secondly Low and meane thoughts of the holy Scriptures the Word of God or which is as bad and arises from the same root of pride and vanity such a bold and ridiculous allegorizing of them under a colour of going farre enough from the Letter and understanding the mystery of them as they obtrude upon you all the vaine reasonings of a carnall heart and that as the Preachings and Writings of these times will abundantly witnesse with such folly and madnesse as that after that rate a man may not despaire to see the Turkish Alcoran brought out of the New Testament or if there be any greater the greatest absurdities and follies that ever entered into the heart of any ignorant or carnall man since the World stood He therefore that would indeavour the recovery of these men or prevent the fallings and disorders of others in these matters of greatest concernment had need speake something to such errings as are about the Scriptures And First Not to speake if there bee any such of those that question the Divine Authority of Scripture as if it had not God for its Author and Originall that which I shall speake something to is that Opinion which seemes to be received amongst some as if it were a straitning to the spirit of God and indignity offered to it to bring spirituall revelations to the touch-stone and Examen of the Scriptures On the other side to me the Scripture seems amongst others to have tâ—o excellent ends for our advantage the one as other Ordinances of God to be a Medium of his owne setting up and which he delights to use for the conveying of himselfe to our spirits in inlightening and sanctifying us and making us partakers of the Divine nature The other to be a certaine and fixt Standard to which we may bring any thing that is broacht under the name of spirituall truth and may thereby as the Scripture sayes Try the spirits whether they be of God may know the voyce of God from the voyce of the Devill and the voyce of the holy spirit and good Angels from that of Satan even when he transformes himselfe into an Angel of light Nor is this any indignity offered to the spirit of God as is before pretended since he is confined to no Rule but what is of his owne forming If the Scriptures were a rule formed by man or by Angels it were unsufferable to subject the spirit of God to any rule so infinitely below it selfe but All Scripture being of Divine inspiration holy men of God speaking as they were moved by the holy Ghost as it is of great use to us against the wiles of the Devill so it is a particular honour to the spirit of God which by the meanes of such a Standard and rule appeares ever like it selfe that is uniforme and constant and which is a high attribute of God without variablenesse and shadow of changing From this good understanding betweene the spirit of God and the word of God the Scriptures dictated by the same spirit it is that in all matter of faith and worship and all things spirituall the appeale is still to the Scriptures as to the visible and lawfull Judge So Christ convincing the Jewes of their sin of unbeliefe tels them There is one that accuseth them even Moses for he wrote of him John 5.45 And as for the Jewes so for all others our Lord saith That he that rejecteth him and receiveth not his word hath one that judgeth him the Word saith hee that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day So Paul gloryes in this that the Thessalonians received the word spoken by them not as the word of man a thing subject to exceptions and limitations but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh in them that beleeve 1 Thes 2.13 Hence when
principles but sense and reason sees the truth aright and as it is but it is a foolish and weak thing to him in order to the end for which it is appointed because there is a spirituall beauty which he hath no eye to see nor sense to taste I deny not besides this but that when there are diversities of interpretations and allegoricall senses of which I spake before the spirituall man hath advantage of all the World besides and that not onely in the sense of which I have already spoken but in opposition to one more raysed and more spirituall a man may be called a naturall or carnall man so you have it in the beginning of the next Chapter And I brethren could not speake unto you as unto spirituall but as unto carnall even as unto babes in Christ verse 3. For yee are yet carnall for whereas there is among you envyings and divisions and strife are yee not carnall and walke as men Which as it shewes that the opposition of spirituall to carnall may be made in respect of more or lesse spiritualnesse in the same party so it leads us backe to that sense I gave before That he is to be judged the spirituall man and to comprehend best the mysterie of Divine things and of the holy Scriptures not who can most misteriously that is as these men use it obscurely and aenigmatically and if you will irrationally and absurdly discourse of Divine things and of interpretation of Scripture but he Who laying aside all malice and superfluity of naughtinesse receives the word and he who by seeing and beholding it is transformed into that which is most opposite to envying strife and divisions The Apostle Jude after he hath made a list of the worst and vilest of men Uncleane persons that despise Dominion and speake evill of Dignities he tels you verse 10. That these are sensuall or animall or naturall for it is the same word that is used here having not the spirit These were all Christians and Professors and perhaps could Philosophate as mysteriously as their neighbours for they were such as separated themselves verse 10. and it is like were well opinionated of their abilities but because the beauty of the Word gained them not to the love of God what ever light they had besides could not defend them from the denomination of sensuall or animall which is the word here opposed to spirituall And thus have I done with what I intend to say in answer to the objection above made To conclude with what I first mentioned in this point of the Scriptures The spirit of God and the Word of God the holy Scriptures hold so good an intelligence as we try the spirits by the Scriptures and the holy spirit enlightens us to understand the Scriptures so Christ by his spirit inlightened the Disciples going to Emaus to understand the Scriptures hee did not make them wise without them which he could have done but he chose that medium as a vehiculum of his spirit sutable and proportionable to them and to his wayes and dispensations towards his people In like manner when Paul had exhorted the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit he doth not lead them from the Word of God to vaine speculations but immediatly subjoynes a command Not to despise Prophecy intimating an aptnesse in men under the notion of magnifying and advancing of the spirit to despise Prophecy and shewing also that the meanes to quench and extinguish the illuminations of the spirit is to have low and unworthy thoughts of the Word of God and of Prophecying according to the Analogy and Proportion of that Word Now as some think it an indignity to try the spirit by the Scripture and others with vaine allegorizing make the Word of God of none effect to both which I have spoken already so there doth not want of them which thinke the use of the Scripture hath its period and time with men beyond which it is uselesse and improper to attend to it though before that time it be a duty and of use to us According to this sense they interpret that place of Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 Where the Apostle speaking of the Scripture of the Prophets tels them to whom he writes That they doe well to take heed to them as to a light shining in a darke place till the day dawne and the day starre arise in their hearts That is till God have set up such a light in them as they need no more helpe of Prophesie according to which interpretation they adapt also other Scriptures as that of John 6. quoted out of Isaiah 54.13 They shall all be taught of God that of Jeremiah 31.34 They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them and particularly also that place of John 1 John 2.20 21 27. But yee have an unction from the holy one and yee shall know all things Verse 27. But the anoynting which yee have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anoynting teacheth you all things To speak a little to these places and first to speak something to this last of John The Apostle seemes to doe two things one is to bring what he sayes to the examen of the spirit who onely is the full and sufficient judge who seales to our spirits to the end that wee may be certaine that God speakes it Secondly he would the better authorize his doctrine by referring them to the judgement of the spirit within them which teaches them that finding something that beares witnesse within to the word without it might have a full effect upon their spirits and worke in them a strong perswasion But then particularly and perhaps especially in this place the Apostle seems modestly to excuse himself for seeming to deale with them as with learners and beginners when as he tells them they have the unction of the spirit and know all things In like manner is that which Paul sayes Rom. 15.14 and to the same purpose when he tels them that they were full of goodnesse and filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another and yet he tels them he thought it his duty to admonish them to put them in minde as he sayes so here Verse 21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it For if they had beene altogether unlearned and unbottom'd and had not knowne something if they had not had foundations layd and been principled they had not beene fit for the Doctrine hee delivered Whereas he sayes Verse 21. They knew all things that cannot bee taken in the full extent that the words seeme to beare for we know but in part 1 Cor. 13. but either with restriction to the subject in hand or else to shew as before that he doth rather remember
1. For the Gentiles were not strangers in those Countreys which Peter mentions but the Jews which dwelt in them So as by the dispersed strangers or the strangers of the dispersion were meant the Jews Peter therefore writing to the Jewes his Countreymen and of whom he was the Apostle exhorts them to constancy in the Faith and profession of the Doctrine delivered to them by the Apostles This hee inforces from an argument of the excellency of that Doctrine the subject of which he calls the power and comming of our Lord Jesus Christ Verse 16. by which he understands his comming in the flesh and putting forth his power for the salvation of his people He further inforces this exhortation from an argument fetcht from the certainety of this Doctrine which had for his author Christ and God and was not cunningly advanced by devised Fables and sophisticall reasons but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty sayes hee Verse 16. and heard also the voyce that came from the excellent glory saying this is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased So that as John sayes what wee have heard and seene that declare wee unto you Another argument which he uses to confirme them in this excellent doctrine is the consent of ancient prophesies to the Jews well knowne vers 19. We have also a more sure word of Prophesie Beza translates it Non firmiorem sed firmissimum sermonem propheticum and shewes the parallell of other Scriptures where the Comparative is used for the Superlative But if you read it not most sure but more sure it is in respect of those to whom he writes the Jewes amongst whom the Writings of the Prophets were of the greatest and highest authority Whereunto you doe well that you take heed as to a light shining in a darke place till the day dawne and the day starre arise in your hearts This Doctrine of the Prophets which in Verse 20. he commends from the infallibility of it as having the spirit for its authour is another argument for the asserting and proving of that great truth which he mentions Verse 16. Viz. The comming of our Lord Jesus Christ with power c. For both arguments confirme the same thing this from Prophesie and that from the voice of God to wit That Jesus Christ was the Sonne of God come in the flesh for the saving of the World He tells them therefore they doe well to make use of this head of argument and to attend to it for it is like a light shining in a darke place the propheticall Scripture like a Lanthorne as the word is had a narrow and restrained light and the times before the comming of Christ were times of darknesse whereas the light of the Gospell is more day light like the morning starre that chaseth away darknesse and this was true in the very beginning of the Gospell to those who had received it in the power of it and so yee have it 1 John 2.8 The darknesse is past and the true light now shineth If therefore you attend to the Scripture of the Prophets which had for author not any private or particular spirit but the spirit of God you will have a light to guide you in your darknesse till the day at last appeare and the morning Starre the signe thereof scatter altogether your darknesse that is till the light of the Gospell which hee compares with that of former Prophesies bring a clearnesse and a brightnesse like to day light in stead of the Candle or Torch-light yee enjoyed before so as there shall be no doubt or scruple in you concerning this great mystery of godlinesse asserted by the voice of Heaven and confirmed by propheticall predictions scilicet Christ manifested in the flesh And if you say here that the Jewes to whom hee writ being beleevers were cleare in this point already I answer that it is more then appeares That there was a day light clearnesse yee have it in the 17 Acts 10. That those that received the Word with all readinesse of minde searcht the Scriptures dayly to see whether those things were so And yet as yee may see in a parallell place to this Acts 2.41 They who readily or as it is there gladly received the Word were Baptized which implyed them Beleevers that being the condition of Baptisme So although these Jewes were already Beleevers in Christ as having readily and gladly received the Word yet it would be mightily to their advantage and establishment that they should search the Scriptures and attend to the Writings of the Prophets that so there might a day light clearnesse and assurance concerning matters of this great moment arise in their hearts So as many of the Jews that beleeved amongst which number some of these might be were not come to that clearnesse in beleeving to which the preaching of the Gospell joyned to the search of Scriptures would bring them Nor here doth the Apostle at all give a tearme or period to the searching or attending to the Scripture or written prophesies but shewes the great use of them for the attaining the ends above mentioned Wee know things are preserved by the same way by which they are form'd or procur'd No man will deny me that Timothy had attained a great degree in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ Paul had no man like minded to him who naturally cared for the things of the Lord. A man he was destin'd to great workes by prophesie 1 Tim. 1.18 Gifted also and inabled for his Ministry by prophesie and laying on of hands and instructed in the holy Scriptures from a Child And yet this Timothy forearmed already by Prophesie and gifts and study in the Scriptures is commanded 1 Tim. 4.13 to give attendance to reading and in the 15 Verse he is commanded to meditate upon those things and to be in them and give himselfe wholly to them that his profiting might be evident and appeare to all Nay Paul himselfe who gave the rule of not knowing Christ after the flesh and understood surely the mystery of godlinesse as well as these men in that very place where hee sayes that he is ready to be offered up and that the time of his departure is at hand 2 Tim. 4.6 When having fought a good fight his thoughts runne of Crownes and glory Verse 7 8. commanded Timothy expresly to bring with him when he came the Books which he left at Troas and the parchments That great Apostle was not of these mens minds that it was a carnall and unspirituall thing to read and meditate and use such helps as God who knowes us better then wee doe our selves judges meet for us but is forward and ready himselfe to doe what he exhorts Timothy to to give himselfe to reading and meditation and thinke it no dishonour to use that meanes as well as others And thus have I done with that which I propounded to my selfe to say concerning the Scriptures in order to the discourse I have in hand