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

ΓΝΩΣΤΌΝ ΤΟ ΘΕΟ ΚΑΊ ΓΝΩΣΤΌΝ ΤΟ ΞΡΙΣΤΟ OR THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD BY THE BOOK OF NATURE And the excellent Knowledge of JESUS CHRIST by the BOOK OF SCRIPTURE Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford By EDWARD WOOD M. A. late Proctor of the University and Fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon. Published since his death by his brother A. W. M. A. 1 Cor. 2. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OXFORD Printed by H. H. Printer to the University for Jos. GODWIN EDW. FORREST 1656. ORNATISSIMO NOBILI NECNON CLARISSIMO VIRO D. IONATHANI GODDARD MEDICINAE DOCTORI ET INCLYTI COLLEGII MERTONENSIS CUSTODI IN ANTIQUISSIMA UNIVERSITATE OXONIENSI ANTONIUS WOOD COLLEGII PER PRUDENTIAM SUAM OPTIME GUBERNATI ALVMNVS HAS PRIMITIAS MODO FRATRIS DEFUNCTI SUO PATROCINIO HUMILITER Dat Dicat Dedicat. THE PUBLISHER to the Courteous Reader THe Authour of these Sermons being lately falne asleep and having had no Admission while he was Living to be recommended to Publike View the Perswasion and Importunity since his death of some of my Friends and such as may challenge no small Interest in mee hath though unwilling induced me to Adventure to Exhibite this Little Volume to look out and do Service in the World He himselfe whilst he lived Wrote it and doubtlesse he had finished it if God had lent him longer Life but it fared so with him as once with Hezekiah Esay 37. 3. The children were come to the birth and there was not strength to bring forth I have as a Brother though not as a skilfull Midwife done what I could to bring it forth by collecting it out of his Paper-books and some other loose Writings from his private Study which was the onely Remora to it's more Suddaine and much desired Birth Some Errata's since have passed the Presse which perhaps will not so well relish with thy Palate but I wholly rely upon thy Courteous Ingenuity to passe them over with Silence Thou mayest here expect that I should speake something in Commendation of this Worke which is not happily so fitting it being both hard for one Brother to praise another without Boasting moreover for me to seeke thy Approbation of it by any Faire and Plausible Inductions were altogether to Distrust if not Impare the worth of it I know the worke it selfe will sufficiently Praise him especially if thou wilt vouchsafe to peruse it Charitably I meane without any Detracting Calumnies or Cynicall Censures which if thou dost thou shalt find his Spirit in them and in a manner heare him although Dead yet Speaking unto thee and shalt hereby much perswade the Publisher to leave off at least in some measure grieving for and lamenting over his once Living and alway Loving Brother and shalt rather divert the stream of his Affections into a strong current of Haleluiah's for the Hopes that he hath especially from those that willingly entertaine a Dead mans works and retaine his words in their Living Hearts of doing good by this his Publication which is the desire of Thy Servant A. W. ROM 1. 19 20. Because that which may be knowne of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearely seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse THere are three bookes wherein the Deity may be plainly read and discovered the booke of nature the book of the creatures and the book of the Scriptures this latter was peculiar to the Jewes the two former common both to Jew and Gentile for unto the Jewes were committed the oracles of God because they were his peculiar people unto the Jew and Gentile the light of nature and use of the Scriptures because they both were men and inhabitants of the world Now out of these three bookes our Apostle laboureth to convince of unrighteousnesse the two great enemies of our justification by faith in Christ the self-conceited Jew and the Idolatrous Gentile for however the one might pretend unto salvation by vertue of their inherent righteousnesse and the other hope to escape damnation by their ignorance of the Law which threatneth death to the breakers thereof yet our Apostle in this his Epistle doth plainly demonstrate that neither the righteousnesse of the one was so commensurate and answerable to the law of God as to attaine heaven and avoid the curse and that the ignorance of the other was not so great as that thereby they might become inexcusable and without offence towards God both Jew and Gentile are sinfull for there is none that doth good no not one and therefore both Jew and Gentile are lyable unto damnation the Jewes because it is impossible for them to keepe the Law from the observance of which they expected life the Gentile because they were not obedient unto those common notions and implanted truths they had of God and morall honesty For however they pretended not to know God and therefore not to hold the truth in unrighteousnesse as 't is evidently shewne they doe in the fore-going verse yet our Apostle doth by force of Argument take away their false pretences and plainly convinceth them of both in the words of my Text which as I suppose are brought in to prevent a secret objectiō that the Gentile might frame against the doctrine of the precedent verse for the Apostle being about to prove our justification onely by faith doth in the 18. verse dispute negatively shew that workes in which both Jew and Gentile trusted could never justifie they being so farre from making us appeare righteous before God that the wrath of God is revealed against them for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men The best workes of naturall men cannot free them from being guilty of ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse from the breach of the first and second Tables and therefore is the wrath of God revealed from heaven even against the best workes of men But what kind of men are these that stand thus charged with ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse Why Such saith Saint Paul who hold the truth in unrighteousnesse but you Gentiles doe thus hold the truth in unrighteousnesse 't is you that suppresse smother and imprison those truthes that are in you concerning God and your neighbour and therefore 't is you primarily who stand guilty of unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse and here you may suppose the froward Gentile muttering within himselfe and thus cavilling at the Apostles minor what Saint Paul will you say we hold the truth in unrighteousnesse whereas we are altogether ignorant of God the Jewes indeed are without excuse because in the Scriptures God is plainly revealed unto them but as for us we sit in darknesse and the shadow of death without the least glimmering or knowledge of God and therefore pray forbeare so hard a censure no saith the Apostle say what you will

Antients have gone about to prove him a Christian though Bernard truly and wittily saith whilst many would faine make Plato a Christian they prove themselves heathens It would be as endlesse as it is needlesse to produce here the severall testimonies which Heathen Authors do every where give to this truth some amongst them sealing it with their blood others every where professing it in their writings and however there have been some few amongst them who have denyed this truth yet I am perswaded their tongues went not along with their hearts T was more their desire that there should be no God then their opinion that there was none As guilty prisoners wish the death of their Judge onely because they conceive him to be the instrument of their condemnation in like manner these and such like men being conscious to themselves of their owne desperate wickednesse desire the not being of him whose Justice they well know must needes take notice of and severely punish their offences For secondly the Testimonies of their Consciences will easily declare that they have such a light and knowledge of God within them There is no man so great so absolute and independent from the command and beck of others but is sometimes awed and controled by a Power within his owne brest and those secret checks and lashes of Conscience upon the commission of some notorious offence must needes make the stoutest sinner confesse a power above him which he feares and a God unto whom he is accountable for all his Offences Hence the Apostle shewing the workes of the Law to be written in the Hearts of the Gentiles amplifies it further and addes this as a kind of a reason their consciences also bearing them witnesse and their thoughts in the meane while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. vers 15. Thirdly the very multiplicity of the Heathenish Gods may as I suppose plainly shew that they had this indelible principle written in their hearts for though some of them had as many Gods as they had Onyons and Leekes in their gardens and though the Worship they ascribed unto these their Deities was as various as the severall nations and opinions of men were yet these their various Worships and Opinions of a God did plainely denote that a God it was whom they sought and hunted after for though they erred in particulars yet they all agreed in this Generall that a God there was As the water of the same fountaine may bee diversely spread into severall streames and eddyes yet all these severall streames eddyes fall into one sea so likewise though this principle of nature may flow and be divided into various opinions concerning God yet these various opinions doe all meete and concenter in this Generall notion and conceite of a God And therefore the Apostle saith that the Athenians did generally worship the true God under the false maske and Inscription they gave unto him of the Vnknowne God as you may see Acts 17. vers 23. But secondly this Light of Nature as it relates unto Naturall goodnesse is in all men Naturall goodnesse I say for as for that legall goodnesse which supposeth the righteousnesse of worke t is impossible for any sonne of Adam to have for by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight Rom. 3. 20. And as for that Evangelicall goodnesse which supposeth the righteousnesse of faith no unbeliever can pertake of it for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 17. It remaines then that the Gentiles onely had and still have the remainders of Naturall goodnesse alone left in them now that they had this will better appeare by distinguishing of Naturall goodnesse which is either civill or morrall civill goodnesse I shall define to be that inbred propension in all men to maintaine societies and naturall life This certainly was and at this day is in the Heathens themselves from whence else have proceeded those excellent positive Lawes and Constitutions of Solon Draco and others by which as by so many sinewes and ligaments Common-wealths hath bin joyned and compacted together From whence those noble inventions and sciences of Physick Mathematick Astronomy and the like without which mans life would be neither comfortable not delightfull From whence those inferiour Mechanicall arts by which rude and undigested things are curiously modified and prepared for the use of man From whence are these I say and many of the like nature but from that inbred Naturall Life of Goodnesse in man guiding and directing him unto the common Publique good of humane society Hence we read of Jaball and Juball and Tuball-Cain Gen. 4. cunning artificers and curious inventors which yet notwithstanding were all meer naturall men of the cursed race and without the Covenant Church of God The second sort of naturall goodnesse may be called morall it consists as I conceive in a mans obedience unto the dictates of reason in embracing vertue voiding vice That the Gentiles were thus morally good those admirable examples of their Justice Fortitude Temperance and other the like vertues do sufficiently declare Some of them being so exactly rigorous in administring of Justice that they have not spared their owne sons offending some againe devoting themselves and exposing their owne throats to the sword for the good of their country Others so Abstemious and Temperate that in the greatest feasts of their Princes they have not so much as touched any wine Others so Chast that they have not admitted into their sight any object that might provoke them unto lust It were easie here to make a particular induction through all the Commandements of the second Table and prove unto you as aswell by instances of Scripture as from prophane authors how that the Gentiles by their exact outward conformity unto reason evidently shewed the worke of the Law to be written in their hearts But examples of this kind are infinite and not onely examples but precepts also for what excellent rules do they every where prescribe for the steering and directing a man in the paths of Vertue What grave and sage precepts eschewing of evill embracing of good We must indeed confesse that these grave precepts these excellent rules however in generall knowne and prescribed were yet notwithstanding when they came particularly to be applyed oftentimes little used or made good by the practise of their owne Authors such was that over-ruling power of Passion in the strictest Professors that some of them have lived in the common practice of those vices which their judgements otherwise have disallowed as we may read concerning Aristotle then whom no one hath more commended chastity and yet so little did he observe his own rules that he would faine make a Goddesse of his impure strumpet and so Canonize his owne lusts Who writ more divinely concerning the contempt of the world then Seneca and yet who a greater worldling who more covetous then himselfe as both

Tacitus and Suetonius note of him Who seemed better furnished with Morall principles then Zeno and Socrates and yet even they so little obeyed them that they relapsed into unnaturall lusts as Plutarch and Laërtius observe of them and as Saint Paul of other Gentiles in the latter end of this Chapter Wherefore it will not be amisse now in the third place to enquire whether or no this Light of Nature be sufficient unto salvation or whether one may be saved by this light of nature without saith in Christ This saith our Mountacute in the first of his Ecclesiasticall Apparatus is the opinion of many of the Fathers Clemens Alexandrinus Justin Martyr Cyril of Alexandria and others whom he there reckoneth up how ever this same Author showes the contrary opinion of most of the rest and sure I am that Austin in many of his bookes de Civitate Dei is against them and so are most of the Schoolmen the Modern especially together with most of the Popish Doctors and Protestant reformers But to omit the citation of their words which you may elswhere find that I may according to the judgment and sense of the best divines briefly and clearly state the point I shall premise these foure things 1. That the ignorance of Christ cannot in it selfe excuse a man and free him from damnation There is a twofold ignorance you know either juris when a man is ignorant of what he is bound to know or facti when he is onely ignorant of some particular circumstance of what is done this latter may excuse as appeares in the case of Abimelech Gen. 20. 6. the former doth not and therefore God having revealed his will in the Scriptures concerning himselfe and Christ every man upon forfeiture of his salvation was and is bound to know it As if a Prince should publish a Proclamation out of a man's hearing and in his absence 't is not his absence or the not hearing thereof that can exempt him from punishment if he disobeyes it 2. Secondly that there are ever have beene most of the Gentiles utterly destitute of any knowledge of Christ and that whether it be an explicit distinct particular knowledge of him and his offices or an implicit onely and generall concerning the truth and subsistence of such a Saviour and therefore the incarnation of Christ is called an hidden mystery to former ages Col. 1. vers 26. and Saint Paul calls those times before Christ the times of ignorance Act. 17. 30. 3. Thirdly that the knowledge of Christ and faith in him is every way necessary unto salvation necessary as the onely meanes for the obtaining of it for there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved Act 4. 2. and necessary by vertue of the injunction and positive command of God for this is his Commandement that we should believe on the name of his Sonne Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 23. 4. Fourthly that God may instill oftentimes this faith into the hearts of many by meanes altogether unknowne unto us and therefore that we ought not altogether to despaire of the salvation of such Gentiles who have endeavoured in their life time to follow the lights and dictates of right reason I speake not this as if God were bound to bestow faith or salvation upon such men but onely to magnifie the unsearchable riches of his Mercy And to gaine a more charitable construction upon our following conclusion these things then being premised we assert the negative part of the question and ground this conclusion namely that no Gentile living and dying without faith in Christ can be saved by walking according to the light of nature The truth of this may first appeare by considering the imperfection and worthlesnesse of their best naturall workes and vertues We do not deny all manner of reward or profit unto such Gentiles who lived more vertuously then others for besides the present tranquility of Conscience they enjoyed in this world like enough their torments may be more tolerable in the next but this wee may safely say that the strictest of them either in life or profession could never fulfill the law and so consequently never attaine unto salvation For there never hath been any more then two wayes unto heaven either by the Law or by the Gospell but as for the Law it was impossible for them to fulfill it and as for the Gospell t' is supposed in the question that they never believed it I know very well that there have been many who have gon about to Canonize the Gentiles for their excellent vertues amongst whom is Zuinglius of latter dayes and some of the Fathers of old but certainly had they weighed even their best Actions in the balance of the Sanctuary they had found them lighter then vanity it selfe There are two things as I conceive mainly considerable in every action the principle from whence it proceedes and the end unto which it is directed now both these in the Gentiles were carnall and not the least way acceptable to God for as for the Principle and fountaine of their actions t' was flesh but flesh and bloud can never inherit the Kingdome of heaven 1 Cor 15. 50. And that which is borne of the flesh is flesh John 3. 6. And as for the end of their Actions t' was usually ambition and hope of praise or covetousnesse and hope of reward And this was the righteousnesse of the Pharisees and yet our Saviour saith except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Mat 5. 20. T is the end that makes the Action Good or Bad. Almesgiving Materially and in it selfe considered is a good act but then being performed by a Pharisee for a bad end it became evill and so likewise the Vertuous Actions of the Gentiles may according to their outward matter be Morally good when as if we consider either the Principle from whence they proceeded or the End unto which they were directed they were but at the best Splendida peccata handsome and well drest sinnes and therefore neither ex congruo as some of the Arminians and Papists hold leading unto further Grace nor at all Acceptable in the eyes of God Secondly this may further appeare by considering the necessity of Faith unto salvation For if it be true that without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. and if it be true also that this onely is life eternall to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. Then doubtlesse are those in a very sad condition who never so much as heard of this Author of Salvation this Christ in whom only God is well pleased And however some men urge that there is no such necessity for the Gentiles believing because it was impossible for them thus to believe having had heretofore no incomes or way to come to the knowledge of him we answere First that absolutely

to bestow any further light upon any it comes to passe that the Gentiles being not able to walke according to the knowledge they primitively had are left without excuse So then the Essentiall Primary end of the Light of Nature and the Creatures was to instruct man in the knowledge and true worship of God the consequentiall if I may so terme it and accidentary end is to the intent that they may be without excuse This shall suffice concerning the words themselves on which I have been the larger because the Exposition of them may give much light to my ensuing discourse which shall be grounded upon this proposition viz. That God though in his owne Nature invisible may yet by a Gentile a meere Naturall man be reacht unto and discovered in his Workes For the better clearing of this Point it will be convenient to distinguish concerning the Workes of God which are either ad intra or ad extra those ad intra are such which have no other object then God himselfe and are eternally bounded within his owne nature such as are the Eternall generation of his Sonne and Proceeding of the Holy Ghost now as no one knoweth the inward workings and contrivances of the mind save the spirit of a man or he to whom he revealeth them in like manner there is no one that can fath om or dive into these inward essentiall Workes of God save God himselfe or those to whom his Word hath communicated them nay indeed the best Saints of God in this their Earthly Tabernacle though never so much enlightened by his Word and Spirit cannot perfectly know or conceive these his ineffable Workes and Mysteries True they may substantially and in generall know that such Workes there be for they are revealed in his Word but then the strange manner of the Generation of the one and Proceeding of the other that admirable Energy and divine Reflexion by which he understands himselfe from all Eternity they cannot but by Analogy faint resemblances and conjectures apprehend much lesse then can a meere Naturall man a Gentile discover and trace either God in these Workes or these Workes in God The second sort of Gods Workes are those ad extra viz. such whose effect is in something without himselfe or whose proper subject is the Creature and these again are either such which do chiefly concerne us in another case as the Election of some unto salvation and reprobation of other unto damnation or else such which immediately concerne either the Being or Preservation of the Creature in this world and these properly are the Workes of Creation and Providence from these chiefly I say it is that a Naturall man knowes God This we shall prove First in the Works of Creation Secondly in the Workes of Providence And first we shall shew in generall that the Creatures in themselves doe every where set forth and proclaime a God Secondly we shall shew by what wayes and meanes the Creatures doe thus bring us unto the knowledge of God 1. First then that the creatures doe every where proclaime a God is manifest from Psal 19. 1 2 3 4. the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke c. That glorious canopy which we behold above us however in it selfe mute and dumbe doth yet notwithstanding set forth as it were unto us a declaration of it's Creatour's Power Goodnesse and Wisdome of his power in the framing and contriving so excellent a piece of his Goodnesse in ordering all it's Motions and Revolutions unto the benefit of his Creatures and of his Wisdome in allotting it so commodious a position and structure unto the performance of those offices to which he hath ordained it and so vers 2. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge that is doth sufficiently Discipline and Instruct men in the knowledge of God so that the most sottish and rude Gentile cannot plead ignorance For what though their Philosophers alone could tell the severall vertues and influences of the Starres the periodicall motion of the Sun Moon their just Horizontall elevation and depression and the like yet day unto day and night unto night doth sufficiently shew forth even to the most ignorant who is the Authour of this their Succession and Revolution for so the Psalmist goes on vers 3 4. there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard their line Scriptura ipsorum their writing is gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world Marke here how the Creatures are made the praecones as it were of God the Cryers and Heraulds of his glory Doubtlesse there is a certaine kind of dumbe eloquence even in Inanimate Creatures to perswade men to subscribe unto the mighty Creatour of all things Wherefore it was not without some cause that Hermes an Auncient Philosopher among the Heathens called the world the Image of God for as the coine of a King doth represent the King whose coine it is or as in the beholding of a curious Edifice we cannot choose but in it admire the Art and Dexterity of the Artificer in like manner the admirable structure of this neat Vniverse the curious and subordinated disposition which one creature hath to another the exact Symmetry and proportion of each part unto the whole must needs lead us unto the Creatour of them and cause us to admire the infinite Power and Perfection of him who out of nothing could raise so glorious a fabrick As then Protogenes at the very sight of a curious picture did presently guesse it to be the workmanship of Apelles because he knew that none could doe the like so likewise in the contemplation of these glorious Creatures of God we may straightway conclude him to be the Authour of them because they are beyond the contrivance and art of any other For there is no finite being that can make or adde one haire unto our heads much lesse can contribute any sense life or vitall motion unto any thing Many men indeed as Zeuxis Albertus Magnus and others have endeavoured to imitate the God of nature in his workes but never could any one by all his Apish art frame a naturall and reall creature for besides the limitednesse of his Nature the narrownesse of his Vnderstanding the inabilities of him to find out the true forme and peculiar operations of all things there is a certaine stubbornesse and disobedience if I may so speake in the matter it selfe whereby it scornes as it were to be wrackt and tortured into another forme then what the Soveraigne of all things is pleased to impresse upon it God can out of dust build a man but t' is impossible for any man be he of the most exquisite wit invention and judgment as he will ever to raise the least contemptible Creature out of the most refined Matter It remaineth therefore that the most minute inconsiderable least thing in the world doth

other mysteries they were darkely and emblematically as I may so speake hinted only in the Old Testament God thus ordering it that his people might more eagerly desire and pray for their fuller revelation But now to us under the New Testament these things are more cleerly layd open unto us so that we ought not to exspect farther revelation of them then what we have in the Word already for saith the Apostle All the Promises of God in him are yea and Amen that is they are throughly accomplish't and perfected in him and therefore they must needs be more plain and evident unto us now then they were unto the Fathers of old time the Old Testament then and the matter therein contained was not altogether so perspicuous unto the faithfull before Christ as now it is unto us after him and this shall suffice for the second point and so much also shall suffice briefely for the perspicuity of the Scriptures We shall now speake something concerning the perfection of them as the Scriptures are perspicuous so also they are most perfect that is necessary to be known of us in relation both to our faith manners this is plain from the end of them here set down Namely that the man of God may be made perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes from whence we may conclude that if the Minister of the Gospell for he is the man of God may out of the Scriptures furnish himselfe with all things necessary both for his Salvation his office it will follow that they are fully perfect for instruction of all men both in Doctrine and manners this will farther appeare from Ps 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule and Ps 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandement is exceeding large and so Luk. 16. 29. Abraham there sheweth in the Parable that Moses and the Prophets were sufficient to keepe men from damnation even the doctrine of the Old Testament contains in it al things necessary for mans Salvation whoever denyeth the truth of this point must of necessity say that either first God did not perfectly and fully reveale his will to the Prophets and Apostles which how absurd it is the Scriptures teach for Joh. 14. 26. 't is said there that the spirit should teach them all things and Joh. 16. 13. the Spirit will guid you into all truth or else they must say that the Prophets and Apostles did not set down the full and perfect substance of what was revealed unto them which Saint Paul doth plainely seeem to contradict for Act. 20. 27. I have not shunned saith he to declare unto you all the counsell of God Or else thirdlly he must be forced to say that it seemed not good to the Spirit fully and perfectly to reveale the will of God and so in writing to transmit it unto posterity for thus the Papists say in defence of their traditions that God indeed did reveale to the Prophets and Apostles his whole will concerning our Salvation but yet all was not written but some things were communicated say they viva voce unto the rest of the Church which never were written but still were derived unto posterity but doth not this opinion plainely accuse the Scriptures of falsehood when it is said Deut. 12. 32. Whatsoever things I command you observe to do it thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it Gal. 1. 9. If any man Preach any other Gospell unto you then that ye have received let him be accursed which two texts being compared with that of Exod. 24. 4. Where 't is said that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and with that forementioned place of the Acts where Paul saith that he did not shun to declare unto them all the Counsell of God these places I say compared with one another do evidently shew that all things necessary for Salvation were written that this written word alone ought to be the rule canon of our faith for since by them we attaine unto Eternall Life we are made wise unto Salvation since by them also the man of God is made perfect and throughly furnished Without controversy they containe in them all things necessary to be knowne of us either in regard of our faith or manners all things necessary I say for otherwise many other things there might be traditionally conveyed unto the Church such as are the perpetuall virginity of Mary the names of Jannes and Jambres mentioned by Paul only the Prophesy of Enoch Jude 14. part of the Gencology of Christ Luk. 3 Sathan striving for Moses body Jude 9. and other the like which things they may be known or not known without any prejudice to our Salvation and being not doctrinall may very well be received from hand to hand and not mentioned in Scriptures but how say the Papists can ye know Canonicall bookes from Apocriphall but by the tradition of the Church We answer that these may be distinguish't from the other by that innate light majesty and truth that is in them besides though a new convert and beginner may first learne it from the Church yet afterwards they know it upon grounds of Scripture thus an ignorant man may be told of the Kings coine but it is not that telling but the Kings stampe that maketh it currant good coyn Again for the maintenance of their unwritten traditions they urge that of the 2 Thes 2. 15. Therefore brethren stand fast hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle then which saith Whitaker Nullum probabiliorem Papistae locum inveniunt but unto this we answer that they were the same things which Paul spoke and writ so that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signify a diverse doctrine from that which afterwards was written and so also the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not alwayes a note of disjunction but sometimes also of conjunction as may appeare by comparing the Originall of the 1 Cor. 13. 8. Besides this it appeares that the Canon of the new Testament was not yet established Yea saith the same Whitaker I affirme that there was no book unlesse it were the Gospell of Mathew before the Epistles to the Thessalonians wherefore though the Apostle did bid the Thessalonians hold fast that Doctrine or those Traditions which he delivered unto them yet they might very well be indeed according to substance were set down in writing afterwards by the same Apostle wherefore briefely to conclude this point since these Scriptures are purposely written for our learning and to be are witnesse of Christ and to teach the way unto everlasting life doubtlesse God will have no Doctrine received of us but what is in them or consonant unto them Traditions then however in point of ceremony discipline or other lesse substantiall matters may be received yet in points of faith and Doctrine they are in no wise to be obtruded upon