to work by bodily Instruments and to make Use of Brains and Blood and Spirits in all its Operations and according as their Temper is good or bad its Operations will be more or less perfect But while a Man indulges himself in any impure Affection that will naturally distemper these Organs of his Mind and indispose them for the Use of his Reason For so Madness which is such a Distemperature of the Brain and Blood and Spirits as doth wholly alienate them from the Use of Reason and Discourse is usually found to be the Effect of some wild and extravagant Affection such as Pride or Covetousness Anger or Fearfulness Iealousie or Lust and if these Passions being once arrived to their utmost Rage and Excess do so often run into down-right Madness and Distraction to be sure every inordinate Degree of them must be a Tendency towards it a great Disturbance of Mind though not a total Distraction and by how much they exceed their due Bounds and Measures by so much they must taint and vitiate these necessary Instruments of our Mind and Reason Thus every inordinate Lust doth by a natural Influence disturb Mens Reason and fully the clearness of their discerning Faculties So that what Clearness is to the Eye of the Body that Purity from vicious Affection is to the Eye of the Mind it brightens its Apprehensions and renders its Conceptions of Things more quick distinct and vigorous Whereas on the contrary all disorderly Affection doth more or less cloud and disturb the Brain chill or inflame the Spirits hurry them into tumultuous Motions or render them listless and unactive by which continual Disorders our discerning Faculties must by Degrees be extreamly weakened and confounded And whilst the Mind is thus lost in the Fogs of inordinate Affection it is an easie Matter to seduce and mislead it it being through the Dimness of its sight apt to be imposed upon by false Colours and tinctured with Prejudice and undue Apprehensions of Things Weak Minds are easily abused especially in Matters of Religion which being placed beyond the Prospect of Sense require a sevorer Attention in order to the forming of right Apprehensions concerning them and therefore the more Men weaken their Understandings by their Lusts the more they must be exposed to Errors and Delusions But then 2. Living in any known Course of Sin renders the Principles of true Religion uneasie to Mens Minds Whilst a Man leads a wicked Life his Religious Principles if they are pure and true will perpetually reproach and upbraid him For there are no Contraries in Nature more irreconcilable to one another than true Faith and bad Manners the great Design of all true Faith being to move and persuade Men to abstain from all Ungodliness and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World If therefore a Man's Faith be true and genuine he cannot live wickedly without acting against the full Persuasion of his own Mind which must necessarily render him very uneasie for in this State of Things he acts with a self-condemning Judgment and every Compliance with his Inclination sets him at odds with his Reason all the while he is meditating any wicked Design he struggles with his Conscience and confronts and outrages his own Convictions and when he hath acted it every Reflection he makes on it is a bitter Invective against himself Thus so long as the Principles of true Religion possess his Mind he finds himself continually hagg'd and oppressed by them they sit as an uneasie Load upon his Soul and will not suffer him to Sin in quiet but perpetually cause his sinful Delights to go off with an ungrateful Farewel and recoil upon him in many a sickly Qualm and Convulsion In which State of Things he hath no other Remedy but either to forsake his Principles or his Lusts or to live in perpetual Variance with himself and therefore if he still resolve to Sin on in all probability he will soon grow quite weary of true Religion and quit his Mind as soon as possibly he can of those stern and inflexible Principles which create these Discords in his Breast And whilst he is in this Temper it will be an easie matter to pervert him to any Religion that will give Ease to his straitlaced Conscience and cast a more favourable Aspect on his Lust For being resolved to follow his vicious Inclinations he now sees through them and understands by them and whilst his Mind runs upon the false Biass of his Lusts that Religion which is most grateful to them will seem most reasonable to him Shew him a way how he may worship God acceptably without the Expence of a strict Attention and the inward Devotion of a pure Heart and heavenly Affections meerly by numbering so many Prayers on a String of Beads by seeing a Priest act over such a Set of Ceremonies and hearing him in varied Tones sometimes pronounce and sometimes murmur a Form of Words in an Vnknown Language and though at first view it may seem very absurd to him yet the very Loosness and Carnality will be apt to engage his Affections to it and then they by Degrees will go near to wheedle his Understanding into a more favourable Opinion of it Propose to him an Expedient how he may go to Heaven at last without undergoing the Sâ—verities of a sincere Repentance and Amendment tell him that there is a certain Church in the World whose Priests if he confess his Sins to them with any Degree of Sorrow and Remorse have full Power to pardon and absolve him so that if he do but take Care not to die without Confession however he lives he cannot miscary for ever He may indeed go into a very hot Place called Purgatory and there suffer a while very grievous Things before he get to Heaven but if instead of parting with his Lusts while he lives he will part with his Mony when he dies he may at easy Rates purchase of that Church such a Number of Masses Requiems and Indulgencies as will in all Probability soon procure his Dismission from those temporary Sufferings into eternal Happiness How odly soever this Doctrine may appear to his Reason to be sure it will be charming enough to his Lusts and when once a Mans Lusts are retained the Cause is half carried at the Bar of his Judgment And so in all other Instances it is a great Disadvantage to true Religion and as great an Advantage to false that Mens Faith and Reason are so much swayed and byass'd by their Lusts. For though there is no Religion can be true but what is pure and holy yet it is the Holiness of true Religion that doth provoke their Lusts against it and 't is their Lusts that do provoke their Reason and when all is done there is nothing doth more strongly incline or frequently pervert depraved and wicked Minds to false Religion than its Complyance with their vicious Affections though this very Thing is one of the most
the Use of our Reason for in our tender years these are the only Goods that we can relish they are these that do feed clothe and furnish us in hand with whatsoever our natural Appetites do gape for that are the sole Entertainment of our childish Fancies and the only Objects our yet unfledg'd Thoughts and Desires can reach at and our Youth being thus intirely inured to them by that time we are grown up to the Age of Reason and the Capacities of Virtue and Religion we have generally contracted such an excessive Inclination towards them and are so strongly biass'd with the Love of them that whensoever they beckon to us we are ready to follow them through all the forbidden Tracts that lead to everlasting Ruin For our Natures being thus vitiated the Temptations without us have a strong Party within us a Party of traytorous Inclinations which upon every Summons sollicites us to yield and surrender up our Vertue and Innocence and no sooner can any Temptation from without give the Alarm but presently our own Lusts are up raising a Mutiny within us and with the Heats of our corrupted Fancy do many times so disorder our Understanding that it cannot rally up its Considerations against them For before ever our Understanding could be Furnished with Considerations our Hearts were prepossessed with such an excessive degree of ambitious covetous and luxurious Inclinations that when afterwards the Pleasures Profits and Honours without begin to hold forth their grateful Lures to us and to tempt us away to Fraud or Treachery to Vanity or Licentiousness those depraved Inclinations have gotten such Head within us that they prove most commonly too strong for all our Consideration and with their impetuous Current carry us away and drive us headlong down towards eternal Ruin and unless we put forth all the strength of our Reason and Resolution and the Grace of God also come in to our Aid it will be impossible for us to stem such a furious Tide when it is driven by the Wind of an outward Temptation When therefore our own Inclinations do so vigorously conspire with the Temptations without to thrust us on into Sin and Perdition how can we be insensible of the eminent danger we are in of Miscarrying forever But 5ly We are liable also to fall into a sinful State and from thence into Eternal Misery from the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of and apply these Temptations to us For that the Devil doth commonly as an assistant Genius to the Corruption of our Natures excite and provoke Men to Wickedness is very evident from Scripture where he is said to work in the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2. 2. To fill the Heart of Ananias to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts. 5. 3. And to take away the Word out of Mens hearts lest they should believe and be saved Luke 8. 12. All which Expressions do plainly imply that the Devil is a constant Agent in the Sins of Men. And being a Spiritual Agent he must needs be supposed to have a nearer Access to the Soul than any material Cause whatsoever For tho he be totally debarr'd from all kind of Intercourse with the immediate Operations of the reasonable Soul and can no more look into the Thoughts than we can into the Bowels of the Earth yet he can easily get into the Fancy which stands next to that mysterious Chamber that is open to no Eye but Gods and make what use he pleases of the infinite Images and Phantasms that are in it and dispose and order and distinguish them into the Pictures of what Objects he pleases just as the Painter doth his numerous Colours that lie confusedly before him in their several Shells and continue and repeat those Pictures and Representations as long and as oft as he pleases And then considering what the natural Use of the Fancy is both to the Vnderstanding and Will how it prompts the one with matter of Invention and supplies it with Variety of Objects to work on and draws forth and excites the other to chuse or reject those Objects it presents according as they are pleasing or displeasing we must needs suppose that the Devil hath a vast Advantage of insinuating his black Suggestions into the Soul by having such free Access into the Fancy And accordingly he is said to put it into the heart of Iudas to betray Christ John 13. 2. But then he being not only a spiritual but also an intellectual Agent of a vast and capacious Understanding by Nature and particularly improved in the black Art of tempting by a long Experience of its Wiles and Stratagems having been a Tempter almost ever since he hath been an Angel he must needs be supposed to be wonderfully expert and sagasious in it that after having had five Thousand years experience of the Methods of seducing Souls to increase and perfect his natural Subtilty he must by this be fully instructed when and how to apply himself to every Age and Constitution For this hath been his sole Business wherein he hath been infinitely intent and active ever since he became a Devil and if from a Man then much more from a Devil of one Busines Good Lord deliver me from a Devil that for five thousand Years hath been continually making Experiments of Temptation and drawing them into Rules to direct and order his mischievous Practice on the Souls of Men. But besides as the Devil is of a spiritual and intelligent Nature so he hath a vast Number of his black Angels continually roving about the World to seduce and captivate us into Sin and Ruin And tho these malignant Spirits have no ligament of natural Love between them to tie and oblige them to one another yet by that perfect Hatred which they all bear to God and Men they are united together in an inviolable League and go hand in hand with one another in pursuance of their desperate Design to involve our wretched Souls in the same eternal Ruin with themselves which renders their Force so much the more formidable And when we have so many spiritual subtil and Powerful Adversaries combining against and continually wandring to and fro like roaring Lyons to devour us we cannot but apprehend our Danger exceeding great especially considering the infinite Temptations from without that this World fords the great Variety of sensual Goods and Evils which they have to object to our carnalized Minds For these mischievous Spirits having so great Insight into our Tempers and so great a Choice of Objects to suggest to our Fancies can never be at a Loss how they may nick us vvith a convenient Temptation and that which gives their Temptations a vast Advantage over us is that vve knovv not hovv to distinguish them from the Motions of our own Hearts For could vve see the Devil at our Elbovvs or hear him vvhispering at our Ears every time he insinuates his wicked suggestions into our Minds vve should doubtless
even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Iews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of anothâ—r Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons dâ—â—h frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humilty and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Iews and Gentiles by which they signify such and such particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he means the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ever described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of this Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Iews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blessed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but stript himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height â—ills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what mighty Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy than we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that he might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Iesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous Kindness When we see a Child slight his careful and indulgent Parents we are ready to account him an unnatural Monster when we see a Man neglect his Friend or disregard his Benefactor we presently call him base and ungrateful nay when we see one abuse a poor brute Creature that fawns upon him and expresses its Kindness to him we look upon it as an undoubted Sign of a very hard Heart and an ill Nature What Term then can we find in all the World of Words that is odious enough to express our Disaffection to our Blessed Redeemer to whom we are so infinitely obliged Base Disingenuous Ill-natured and Vngrateful are all too soft 't is something beyond Barbarous and Devilish For one would think that neither the most inhumane Canibal on Earth nor the blackest Devil in Hell could ever be guilty of so foul a Crime which hath something in it too monstrous for any Words to express Well therefore may the Heavens be astonished and the Earth tremble and all the Creation of God stand amazed at us to see how insensible we are of this most ravishing and endearing Love Well may we be amazed at our selves and wonder at our own Stupidity to think that the Son of God should be so kind as to come down from Heaven to visit us to leave the Habitation of his Glory and shâ—oud his Divinity in mortal Flesh and make himself a miserable Wight
briefly as I can argue the Point from these following Topicks 1. From the Obligations which the Iews were under to Read and Search the Scriptures of the Old Testament 2. From our Saviour's and his Apostles Approbation of their Practice in pursuance of this their Obligation 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures 4. From the Direction of these Holy Writings to the People 5. From the great Concernment of the People in the Matters contained in them 6. From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter 1. From the general Obligation which the Iews were under to Read and Search their Scriptures For so God requires them to keep the words which he commanded them in their Hearts and to teach them diligently to their Children and to talk of them as they sat in their Houses and as they walked in the way and when they lay down and when they rose up and to bind them as a sign upon their hands Deut. 6. 6 7 8. And elsewhere This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night speaking to the Children of Israel in general Ios. 1. 8. And again Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul that your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your Fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth Deut. 11. 18 21. And to meditate on God's Law day and night David makes a Part of the Character of the Blessed Man Psal. 1. 3. Now if they could not keep God's Laws in their Hearts as most certainly they could not if they could not teach them to their Children if they could not talk of them upon all just and proper Occasions and in a word if they could not meditate on them day and night without being very well acquainted with them by diligent Search and Reading them it is most certain that to Read and Search into them was their indispensable Duty Now if there be the same Reason why we should Read the Scriptures as there was why the Iews should then the Obligation of these Commands must extend to us as well as to them because the Reason of the Law is the Law but 't is evident even beyond Contradiction that there is no good Reason assignable for the one which is not of equal force for the other and whatsoever is objected by our Adversaries in this Point against our Reading the Scriptures is of equal validity against the Iews Reading them It is Objected That our Reading them through our Incapacity to understand them must occasion a great many Errors and Heresies in the Church And why should not their Reading them occasion the same since neither their Understandings were larger than ours nor their Scriptures clearer and more intelligible than ours It is farther objected that because of the many ill Examples recorded in Scripture it is dangerous for the People to read it because of their Aptness to be misled and corrupted by Example But I beseech you are there not more bad Examples in the Old Testament than in the New And were not the Iews as apt to be corrupted by them as we Christians And therefore since these Objections do press as much against their reading the Scriptures as ours it is certain they ought to keep both from it or neither Seeing therefore notwithstanding these Objections God obliged the Iews to read them it 's plain they are not of Force enough to disoblige us from doing the same 2. From our Saviour and his Apostles Approbation of this Practice of the Iews in Pursuance of their Obligation to it it is also evident that we are obliged to the same That the Common People of the Iews did ordinarily read the Scriptures in our Saviour's Time is evident not only from the Text Search the Scriptures which if you take them Indicatively are an express Declaration that they did read them and if you take them Imperatively necessarily imply that they themselves owned that they ought to read them but also from those Questions which our Saviour frequently ask'd them in his Conferences with them such as Have ye not read Have ye never read in the Scripture And hath not the Scripture said so and so Which Question would be very impertinent if reading the Scripture were not then ordinarily practised by that People And that even their holy Women were then so well instructed in the Scriptures as to be able to instruct their Children Timothy is a signal Instance who though his Father were an Heathen had known the holy Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 10. which Knowledge he must necessarily have derived from his Grand-Mother Lois and his Mother Eunice whose Faith St. Paul celebrates 2 Tim. 1. 10. And this Practice of reading the Scriptures which was so common among that People in our Saviour's time is so far from being discontinued either by himself or his Apostles that it is always mentioned by them with Applause and Approbation Thus the Bâ—reans are commended as a People of a nobler Strain than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those Things which St. Paul had preached to them were so or no. And St. Paul is so far from reprehending Timothy for medling with the Scriptures whilst he was a Lay-man that he mentions it to his Honour that he had known the Scriptures from a Child And in all those Passages wherein our Saviour takes it for granted that the Common People of the Iews did read the Scripture we have not the least Intimation of his dislike of their Practice which we should certainly have had had he apprehended it to be either dangerous or unwarrantable Seeing therefore neither our Saviour nor his Apostles do in the least disallow of the Scriptures being read by the Common People but on the contrary do expresly commend it this is a plain Argument that it was their Intention to perpetuate the Practice of it to future Ages For seeing the Iews read the Scriptures in Obedience to an express Command of God as was shewn before had our Saviour intended that they should not continue it he would doubtless have repealed that Command by some Countermand which he was so far from doing that he not only every where allows of their reading the Scriptures but also expresly approves and commends it whereby he plainly establishes the Obligation of that ancient Command in Obedience to which they did read them 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures it is also evident that the People are still obliged to Read them It is plain that the great Design of Writing the Scripture was to instruct Men in the Knowledge and persuade them to the Practice of True Religion For thus of the Scriptures of the Old Testament St. Paul tells us That whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning
be so accidentally I would fain know what Means of Instruction is there which may not accidentally become an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy and therefore if this be a sufficient Reason to deprive Men of Scripture it is sufficient to deprive them of all other Means of Instruction And seeing the Knowledge of Religion is the Food of Mens Souls to keep them in Ignorance for fear they should err is to deny them Food for fear they should surfeit There is no doubt but Men whose Minds are tinctured with Heretical Pravity will be apt enough to extract the Poison of Error out of the clearest Conveyances and Discoveries of Truth but what then Do not bad Men ordinarily apply the best Things to the worst Purposes If Men fall into Heresy by reading the Scripture where lies the Fault not in the Scripture sure no Christian will pretend that and if it be in themselves in their Pride or Vain-glory or Covetousness or Sensuality as it is demonstrable it is is it just that All should be deprived of it because some ill Men have made an ill Use of it Some Men have surfeited by Eating and Drinking is it just that all Mankind therefore should be deprived of Meat and Drink Suppose a Prince pretending to be an infallible Geographer should issue out a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to travel at Mid-night and should assign this as the Reason of it that he had been certainly informed that several of them had lost their Way at Noon and wandred into Bogs and Precipices by the Light of the Sun would any one imagin this to be the true Reason or rather would not every one believe that his true Design was to keep his People in Ignorance of the Roads and Situation of his Country that so they might never be able to discover the Errors of his Maps which would perhaps discover him to be not only a fallible Geographer but also a very erroneous one And where the People are forbid travelling in the Light of the Scripture whatever may be pretended wise Men will believe that the true Reason is not to prevent the Peoples falling into Errors but to prevent the discovering the Errors of those to whose Guidance and Direction they are wholly and solely subjected And this I conceive is a sufficient Answer to the first Objection viz. That the Allowance of the Scripture to the People is a dangerous Inlet of Error and Heresy I proceed therefore to the Second which is this Object 2. That there are many Things recorded in Scripture which are very apt to suggest leud Thoughts to the People and thereby to corrupt their Manners as particularly the many bad Examples therein related which are of a very contagious Nature and consequently dangerous for the People to converse with In Answer to which I desire these four Things may be seriously considered 1. That this Objection strikes as much against the Scripture it self as against the People's reading it For what worse Thing can be said of the Scripture than this that it is such an infectious Book so apt to excite impure Thoughts in Mens Minds and to Kindle leud Affections in their Hearts that it is by no Means fit the People should read it Should this be said to a Turk or a Heathen who had never read one Word in the Bible he would certainly conclude it to be nothing but a Canto of Ribbaldries written for no other End but to provoke and entertain the lascivious Inclinations of Mankind And certainly had our Objectors but as much Reverence for this Holy Book as they pretend they would rather oblige their People to read it than withhold it from them upon a Pretence that doth so scandalously reflect upon its Reputation If there be any such Passages in Scripture as are apt to start leud Thoughts in Mens Minds the utmost that can be fairly pretended is That those Passages ought to have been left out of the Peoples Bibles or at least to have been left untranslated But to urge this as a Reason why all the rest of the Scripture should be denied to the People insinuates as if the whole were nothing else but a meer Kennel of contagious Obscenities For to urge that for a Reason why the Scripture in general should not be read by or to the People which at most is only a Reason why some few Passages of it should not be read by them is to suppose the whole Scripture to be made up of such Passages as are apt to infuse vicious Thoughts into the People than which what can there be supposed more false in it self or more derogatory to the Scripture 2. This Objection if it proves any Thing doth as well prove that it was unfit for God to publish the Scripture to the People as it is for the People to read it For is it fit that He who is a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity should publish such Things to the World as are apt to engender impure Thoughts in Mens Minds And yet though Mens Minds were as apt to imbibe impure Thoughts when these Things were first published as they are now this hindred not God from publishing them to the World in such Languages as are best known and understood by the People Either therefore God did not so well know what is apt to corrupt Mens Minds as our wise Objectors or He was less concerned than they to preserve them from being corrupted or what they object is both false and scandalous For to say That the wise and holy God hath published such Things to the World as his Ministers find necessary to conceal from the World lest its Thoughts should be corrupted by them is in effect to say that his Ministers are grown wiser than he or are more concerned for the Interest of Holiness than he If the Vicious Examples for instance that are recorded in Scripture are more apt to deprave Men than to instruct them what need they have been recorded What is there in the meer Story of Noah's Drunkenness and Incest and David's Adultery considered abstractly from the good Instructions it gives that should move God to deliver it down to all future Posterity If it serve no good Ends it is recorded to a bad purpose and therefore if for this Reason because it is apt to corrupt Mens Minds the Church be obliged to conceal it now for the very same Reason God was obliged to have concealed it for ever Either therefore we must say that God did very ill in publishing it or that the Church doth very ill in suppressing it for God could have no other End in publishing it to the World but only to instruct the World by it If therefore it be not instructive God was mistaken but if it be it is fit the World should be acquainted with it 3. That this Objection doth expresly contradict the Scripture it self For whereas it tells us that the bad Examples recorded in Scripture would be apt to deprave