A PLAIN DISCOURSE Proving the DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scriptures WHEREIN The late Bold Attempts and Aspersions of Jesuits and other Missionaries of the Church of Rome are Confuted And all their OBJECTIONS Against our English Bible Are fully and clearly Answered By a Reverend Prelate of the Church of England LONDON Printed and Sold by Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1688. To His GRACE The DUKE of ORMOND May it please Your GRACE I Have presumed to Intitle Your Grace to this small Piece not out of conceit of its Merits but sense of mine own Obligations People use to pay their debts as they are able and when All they can do is in effect Nothing to have publickly acknowledged themselves Insolvent is to have aimed at being Just May then Your GRACE please to Accept of my having intended well both in the Book and Dedication And to believe amongst the Numerous Votaries to Your Illustrious Self and Family he who brings only this mite of Gratitude has as much Zeal to approve his full Duty and as industriously watches opportunity to do so as any man living MY LORD I shall never fail daily till Your GRACE shall be above such Services to offer up to that God whom You have imitated in humbling Your self to raise the poor out of the dust my most cordial Supplications for the encrease of Your Glories and Felicities The Supreme Lord the Master of the whole Family in Heaven and in Earth will repay what his poor Menials cannot all the Good Your GRACE has done to his House and therein to the unworthiest of his Vassals YOUR GRACES Ever Bounden Orator and Servant E. Cork and Rosse THE PREFACE WHILE the late Attempts made on Scripture by two or three Persons of some Learning but too much Leisure remained in the Language wherein they were written I hoped that for the main they would only be read by men of Judgment past the danger of a shock or at worst by some young Students in the Vniversities where the Profound Judgment and Vigilance of those who preside would soon stifle any mischief that could proceed from them But when they began to fly about in English and that even in these remoter parts into the hands of all sorts considering how greedily most Men catch at Novelties what Patience the most curious and delicate Tempers have for Discourses which pretend to Relax the Obligations that some Priests say lye on Mankind and withal how great the Number of those who are or are ready to be Tainted every where is I could no longer totally temperate either Tongue or Pen. I thought no Wounds to Religion more dangerous than those which fall on Scripture for that these affect the very Vital Fountains of the common Christianity Hence still my concernment grew on me which I desire may be admitted in excuse for Exposing this Remedy how weak soever It is what for the present I had I ought not to be wanting to my Duty and if what I thus have done should prove effectual to the staying up but one Tottering Person I am assured the Righteous Judge of all will one day acquit me from the Imputation of having been Impertinent or over-busie My extreme Brevity is from Design not Sloth I look upon the Cause I defend as such which Pleads its self when once heard nor needs more words than just suffice to Open it And besides I had a mind to Gratifie those who cannot obtain from themselves Leisure or Patience for perusing Books on this Subject were they of length proportionable to those they answer The Time the Reader adventures on this Discourse is very little the Argument and Concern very great and he may without Imposition on himself conclude such Person must write very ill indeed who pretending to entertain men for an hour on this Theme should therein give them occasion to repent of loss of time Be pleased therefore to resolve to go through the whole with a placid free and unbyast Mind and then judge as you list God guide us all above Error and our present Crepuscular Knowledge into Light and Glories Eternal ERRATA PAge 42. line 18. read false In Pag. 52. lin 21. blot out so absolutely pag. 79. lin 15. and 21. for xxxviii read xlviii pag. 105. l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 121. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 122. l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. ibid. l. 7. for Hezekias r. Hesychius p. 129. l. 10. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SCRIPTURE AUTHENTICK AND FAITH CERTAIN THE most Sacred sort of §. I. Oracle among the Jews was reputed a voice immediately from Heaven and therewith was our Saviour own'd several times and particularly at his Transfiguration on the Mount Matt. xvii 5. 2 Pet. i. 17. Then and there he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased With which miraculous attestation the Apostle S. Peter there comparing the proofs that the Scriptures of the Old Testament and especially the Prophetical ones gave of his being the Son of God the Messias or Saviour of the World affirms in the 19th verse those Scriptures to be the surer and stronger evidence of the two and commends the believing Jews for attending to them and admitting them as such And yet so bold a vein of Scepticism shall I say or Atheism has possest some who would appear to be of the most knowing if not infallible part of the Christian world as that it has been publickly contended and now of late with fresh earnestness and new-started Pleas some endeavour to justifie that there is no certainty at all in Scripture especially in that of the Old Testament and all persons are reproached as fools illiterate and of short judgment who pin their Faith on Holy Writ For neither Original say some nor any Version whether old or new cry others are to be depended upon The Language in which the Scriptures were written is lost the Copies corrupt the Versions imperfect and the newest which some believe to be the exactest are really say they the worst so that nothing of them must be relied upon but Tradition that is what a Party of cunning men have agreed to tell us is the only sure foundation of Faith. On occasion of these importunate instances I crave leave to say after the Apostle and speak a few words for the Old sure word of Prophecy and I hope I shall make it out that they do well who take heed thereto To which purpose I shall endeavour §. II. 1. Positively to establish the certainty of the Scripture and chiefly of the Old Testament or the demonstrative Evidence it bears 2. To answer the new-devised or fresh-started Objections against its certainty 3. To lay down such Rules by which we may from Scripture be certain of our Faith. And if the conclusion be by urging or advising such
they were then They then consisted of the Law Prophets and Psalms or Poetical books at least the third part was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or HAGIOGRAPHA wherein the Psalms are Luke xxiv 44. They consist of the same still and as far as can appear in the self-same order Act. xiii 33. It is written in the second Psalm Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee These words are in our second Psalm to this day And again he saith in another Psalm thou shalt not suffer thine Holy one to see corruption v. 35. these words are in that other Psalm viz. Psal xvi 10. And again David himself saith in the book of Psalms The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool Luk. xx 42. That passage is also in our Psalms and in a Psalm inscribed to David as the Author viz. in Psal cx Not to instance in more passages as might be done abundantly Besides it is not credible as §. VIII S. Hierom in his time out of Origen answered those who objected the falsification of the Old Testament it is not credible I say that our Lord and his Apostles who so sharply reproved the other crimes and vices of the Scribes and the several Sects of the Jews should have been silent of this which was the greatest of all being false in the greatest DEPOSITUM taking from or corrupting the Divine Oracles committed to their charge And this Argument though from Negative Authority is the more considerable upon the score of S. Austin's Doctrine who gives it as a general Rule that where there is a fit place in Scripture to say a thing if it were so and it is not said the argument is good though from Negative Authority that it is not so Now what more fit places can be imagined than where our Lord appeals to the Scriptures touching his Mission and Doctrine when he commands his hearers to search the Scriptures when he tells his Disciples and the multitude The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat and requires them to observe and do what they bid them but not to do after their works for they say and do not In all appearance what they said as from Moses or sitting in his seat the Scripture as reported or delivered by them was genuin and sincere enough however vitious their practices were Who here can imagin that had the Scribes then and Scribes must do it or none could had they I say then falsified corrupted or curtail'd the Scriptures we should not in some of these and like places have heard of it Would not some Caution or other have been annext to this purpose Search but take heed of corruptions in such a place Know there are defalcations in such In a word and to speak out Our Lord had not been faithful in the house of God had he not warned the family of such an evil I know a certain Person has pretended to reply to this answer but his reply is empty and frivolous Lastly as to this Objection I §. IX say 't is morally impossible since our Saviours time and indeed for many hundred years before that that the Scriptures should have been corrupted for the multitude of Copies was then such has been since much more such and so far dispersed that neither one man nor one body of men could ever get them into their hands to corrupt them and if some few or many Copies had been corrupted but not all the sincere number would have detected the corrupt To give a parallel instance which will easily be understood by all who can read English Our English Bibles in sundry impressions of this age are corrupted in Act. vi 3. Chuse seven men whom ye may appoint YE falsly for WE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The corruption may be found in the later Edinburgh Cambridge and since very ordinarily in divers indeed most London Editions Now this being done not till the Faction had crumbled it self into several minute parties all pretending Scripture for their several distinctive little opinions 't is not improbable it might be done at first with design and particularly of those who would establish the peoples power not only in Electing but even in Ordaining their own Ministers Mean while let it be done by whom it might Take an Edinburgh Edition of 1636. a Cambridge one of 16. a London one of 1642. being it was not possible for the Faction to get all these Copies and a multitude more in as being so vastly numerous the true old Copies examined and compared discover the Variation from them that is the Corruption and a more Authentick one than any of them that is the Original Greek if any doubt remain decides the whole Controversie In like manner there were amongst the Jews even in our Saviour's days and much more since a vast number of Copies of the Old Testament for they read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day both Law and Prophets Act. xiii 27 xv 21. wherefore besides what they had for private use they must at least have as many publick Books as Synagogues and Synagogues they had divers in every City 'T is incredible almost what their Authors report of the number of Synagogues in Jerusalem it self And there were amongst them several Sects too and Scribes of every Sect all sufficiently watching over one another had there been any false dealing of this kind Nay the very Ten Tribes upon their Secession and in probability much more after their dispersion had Copies of the Law to which we owe the present Samaritan Hebrew Text. But it is certain the Jews and Samaritans were mortal enemies would not eat converse discourse together Now that all their several Sects and Synagogues that these two last named adverse and mutually incensed Nations should conspire to bring all their Copies together to vary or corrupt them all alike and the world never hear of this combination and the reconcilement of the Parties in order thereunto is not morally possible But if all were not brought together and altered alike as before said one must convince another of falshood And there being as shall be presently made out no Variations of any considerable moment betwixt the Copies of the Old Testament which we now have in common use and the most antient or sincere ones that can be produced at least none having made it appear there is any such Variation but in the stead thereof a marvelous agreement there can be no such corruption as the Objection pretends And this brings us to the Second Objection There are in §. X. the Hebrew Originals actually produced say some different Readings and both cannot be true for truth is but one therefore the one of them must be corrupt Answ There are indeed different Readings and some too as pretended from famed different Traditions Rabbi Ascher setting up one way and R. Naphthali another and from them the Oriental Jews observing one Lection the Occidental
Paraphrases others have made larger we see the discrepancy is naturally removed either phrase being the same in effect and both pertinent to the scope or design of the whole Paragraph And the like accommodation might be made of other seemingly discordant passages would the bounds of this discourse permit To put into one all which has §. XVI been said to this last Objection The summ of our Answer is Our Saviour and his Apostles in their ordinary preaching to the Jews used not the Septuagint part therefore of what our Adversaries object is false in the Penning of the Gospel or New Testament because a then received though not exact Version was Argumentum ad Homines a fit proof to many of that age and people and would besides serve well enough for all in general the Version of the Septuagint was used ordinarily and yet very * See herein the Appendix A. frequently deserted There is therefore still more falsity in our Adversaries clamours But it were Non-sense to infer hence as some do that therefore the Septuagint is more Authentick than the Hebrew that is a Translation than its Original Besides after all this coil the authority both of Old Testament and New stands firm above the attempts of its enemies Wit Learning or Malice For generally in both the Sense is the same the way of expressing only different The Old Testament as extant in our English Bibles is translated Grammatically or in a manner word for word What is produced out of the Old in the New Testament is often a Paraphrase of the Original text as being translated from a kind of Greek Paraphrase rather than a simple Version commonly called the Septuagint and thence arises that seeming discrepancy I conclude therefore upon the whole the Scriptures of the Old Testament to be a sure word of Prophecy notwithstanding those loud imputations of Corruptions of various Readings of None or Indeterminate sense All which imputations for the main are false and where they are not affect not any considerable substantial part of Scripture that is of DIVINE VERITY or point of Christian Faith and Practice And the same by the premises is conclusible also of the New Testament Therefore Scripture is Authentick It remains now in the next §. XVII place to propound terms on which we may be ascertained of our Faith from the Scriptures which have been thus proved to be sure And they shall be very brief few and reasonable terms which I will propound The first Article shall be That in all controverted points of Faith for there are points of Faith at least points which some men obtrude on our Faith that are controverted and rejected too very commonly and justly I say that in such controverted points of Faith That doctrine wherein both Originals and Translations generally agree whether in a deep silence or a contradiction thereof be adjudged either spurious or no point of Faith. This will at once strike off all the new Articles of the Tridentine Creed I mean the Creed framed from the Decrees of the Council of Trent together with all Doctrines favoured there though not expresly decreed for Faith but since improved and received as Faith by the Romanists And particularly the Popes Infallibility will be gone for if Scripture had asserted Infallibility to any Vicegerents of God on earth it would be to Kings not to Popes Prov. xvi 10. A Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King his mouth transgresseth not in judgment Which text though it manifestly restrain it self to the Administration of Civil justice wherein none of our Church ever thought of any Appeal from a Royal Decree or in any other case of resistance to the Royal Authority yet doth it suppose a more generally infallible conduct and superintendency of God's Providence over the Decrees of Kings than is any where in Holy Scripture asserted over the Sentences or Determinations of any other Judges on Earth in any cause whatsoever And I would fain see produced from any part of Holy yea even of Apocryphal Writ so fair and express a Text for an Infallibility of Popes or any other on Earth But this by the bye Secondly I propound only further That whatsoever Originals and Translations generally agree in asserting as necessary to be believed or done in order to Salvation be admitted as such And I am sure then the whole Doctrine both of Faith and Practice of the Protestants stands establisht For our Foundation is Scripture and that interpreted by the Vniversal Tradition of the Church in its first and purest ages even when the boldest Adversaries we have dare not say those corruptions of Scripture of which now they make so clamorous pretences were in being and in Scripture our Foundation is not dubious Texts perplext with Criticisms uncertain by various Readings suspected for Corruptions Interpolations c. but plain express undoubted and repeated ones And as long as our Foundation thus is Scripture if that be a sure Word our Faith is sure Whether then some men dispute against Scripture meerly §. XVIII out of wantonness and to shew their Learning or for other ends it concerns not us to enquire But both they and all our Enemies must know 't is past time of day to put us out of conceit with our Bibles or to perswade them out of our Hands or Hearts Graecum est non potest legi might down in Monkish ages it will not now no not even with those whom some disdainfully and with a greater pride than is due to the Merits of their own Learning call Laicks And God be blessed for this glorious Light. Upon the whole therefore We remain sure both of our Scriptures and of our Faith. And here by the way I must §. XIX take the liberty to say All other imaginable ways of making us sure of our Faith without Scripture in the present state of things are idle and vain And whatever carries any plausible pretence of certainty will at length resolve it self into this of Scripture There has been a long time and still is a great cry in the world about Tradition But if we look into the case it is not Tradition that is the Constant consent of the Antient and Catholick Church which the Romanists have to vouch for their present Traditions or peculiar Doctrines but the late corrupt use and bold say-so of their Church Thus in the Council of Trent when the Evidence of any of these their new at least comparatively new Doctrines had been sifted and could be found neither in Scripture nor Fathers or any antient Councils it was but saying the point was so held or practised by the Church and the Church was Infallible therefore being the Church taught it it must be an Apostolick Tradition though not extant in Scripture and so whatever they pleased to give this venerable name to was thereby presently dub'd an Article of Faith. And particularly thus was the matter carried in the question of the Sacrifice of the