by Certainty to overcome it 11. When a man hath attained a satisfying degree of perception he is capable still of clearer perception Even as when in the heating of water after all the sensible cold is gone the water may grow hotter and hotter still So after all sensible doubting is gone the perception may go clearer still 12. But still the Objective Certainty is the same that is There is that Evidence in the object which is in suo genere sufficient to notifie the thing to a prepared mind 13. But this sufficiency is a respective proportion and therefore as it respecteth mans mind in common it supposeth that by due means and helps and industry the mind may be brought certainly to discern this Evidence But if you denominate the sufficiency of the Evidence from its respect to the present disposition of mens minds so it is almost as various as mens minds are For recipitur ad modum recipientis and that is a certifying sufficient Evidence of truth to one man which to a thousand others is not so much as an Evidence of probability Therefore mediate and immediate sufficiency and certainty of Evidence must be distinguished From all this I may infer 1. That though God be the Original and End of all Verities and is ever the First in ordine essendi efficiendi and so à Jove principium in methodo syntheticâ yet he is not the primum notum the first known in ordine cognoscendi nor the beginning in methodo inquisitivâ though in such Analytical methods as begin at the ultimate end he is also the first Though all truth and evidence be from God yet two things are more evident to man than God is and but two viz. 1. The present evident objects of sense 2. Our own internal Acts of Intellective Cogitation and Volition And these being supposed the Being of God is the third evident Certainty in the World. 2. If it be no disparagement to God himself that he is less certainly known of us than sensibles and our Internal acts de esse it is then no disparagement to the Scripture and supernatural Truths that they are less certainly known Seeing they have not so clear evidence as the Being of God hath 3. The certainty of Scripture Truths is mixt of almost all other kinds of certainty conjunct 1. By sense and Intellective perception of things sensed the Hearers and See-ers of Christ and his Apostles knew the words and Miracles 2. By the same sense we know what is written in the Bible and in Church History concerning it and the attesting matters of Fact And also what our Teachers say of it 3. By certain Intellectual inference I know that this History of the words and fact is true 4. By Intellection of a natural principle I know that God is true 5. By inference I know that all his Word is true 6. By sense I know Intellectually receiving it by sense that this or that is written in the Bible and part of that word 7. By further inference therefore I know that it is true 8. By Intuitive knowledge I am certain that I have the Love of God and Heavenly desires and a Love of holiness and hatred of sin c. 9. By certain inference I know that this is the special work of the Spirit of Christ by his Gospel Doctrine 10. By experience I find the predictions of this Word fulfilled 11. Lastly By Inspiration the Prophets and Apostles knew it to be of God. And our certain Belief ariseth from divers of these and not from any one alone 5. There are two extreams here to be avoided and both held by some not seeing how they contradict themselves I. Of them that say that Faith hath no Evidence but the merit of it lyeth in that we believe without Evidence Those that understand what they say when they use these words mean that Things evident to sense as such that is Incomplex sensible objects are not the objects of Faith. We live by Faith and not by sight God is not visible Heaven and its Glory Angels and perfected Spirits are not visible Future Events Christs coming the Resurrection Judgment are not yet visible It doth not yet appear that is to sense what we shall be Our Life is hid from our own and others senses with Christ in God. We see not Christ when we rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus Faith is the evidence of things not seen or evident to sight But ignorant Persons have turned all to another sense as if the objects of Faith had no ascertaining Intellectual Evidence When as it is impossible for mans mind to understand and believe any thing to be true without perceiving evidence of its truth as it is for the Eye to see without Light. As Rich. Hooker saith in his Eccl. Pol. Let men say what they will men can truly believe no further than they perceive Evidence It is a natural Impossibility For Evidence is nothing but the perceptibility of the Truth And can we perceive that which is not perceptible It 's true that evidence from Divine Revelation is oft without any Evidence ex natura rei But it may be nevertheless a fuller and more satisfying evidence Some say there is Evidence of Credibility but not of Certainty Not of natural Certainty indeed But in Divine Revelations though not in humane evidence of Credibility is Evidence of Certainty because we are certain that God cannot lie And to say I will believe though without Evidence of Truth is a contradiction or hypocritical self-deceit For your will believeth not And your understanding receiveth no Truth but upon evidence that it is Truth It acteth of itself per modum naturae necessarily further than it is sub imperio Voluntatis And the will ruleth it not despotically Nor at all quoad Specificationem but only quoad exercitium All therefore that your will can do which maketh Faith a moral Virtue is to be free from those vicious habits and acts in itself which may hinder faith and to have those holy dispositions and acts in itself which may help the understanding to do its proper Office which is to believe evident truth on the testimony of the revealer because his Testimony is sufficient Evidence The true meaning of a good Christian when he saith I will believe is I am truly willing to believe and a perverse will shall not hinder me and I will not think of suggestions to the contrary But the meaning of the formal hypocrite when he saith I will believe is I will cast away all doubtful thoughts out of my mind and I will be as careless as if I did believe or I will believe the Priest or my Party and call it a believing God. Evidence is an essentiating part of the Intellects act As there is no Act without an Object so there is no object sub formali ratione objecti without evidence Even as there is no sight but of an Illustrated
By doing thus the Church notoriously declared that they took not all the Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood but that the Govenant of Grace and the Catechism explaining it is the Gospel it self that is the Essence of it and of the Christian Religion and that all the rest of the Scriptures contain but partly the Integrals and partly the Accidents of that Religion He is the wisest man that knoweth Most and Best and every man should know as much of the Scriptures as he can But if you knew all the rest without this the Covenant of Grace and its explication it would not make you Christians or save you But if you know this truly without all the rest it will. The whole Scripture is of great use and benefit to the Church It is like the body of a man which hath its Head and Heart and Stomach c. And hath also Fingers and Toes and flesh yea Nails and Hair. And yet the Brain and Heart it self fare the better for the rest and would not be so well Seated separate from them Though a man may be a man that loseth even a Leg or Arm. So is it here But it is the Covenant that is our Christianity and the duly Baptized are Christians whatever else they do not understand These are the things that all must know and daily live upon The Creed is but the Exposition of the three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Though the Jews that had been bred up to a preparing knowledge were quickly baptized by the Apostles upon their Conversion Acts 2. Yet no man can imagine that either the Apostles or other Ministers did use to admit the Ignorant Gentiles into the Covenant of God without opening the meaning of it to them or Baptize them as Christians without teaching them what Christianity is Therefore Reason and the whole Churches subsequent Custom assure us that the Apostles used to expound the three great Articles to their Catechumens And thence it is called The Apostles Creed Marcus Bishop of Ephesus told them in the Florentine Council as you may see Sgyropilus that we have none of the Apostles Creed And Vossius de Symbolis besides many others hath many Arguments to prove that this so called was not formally made by the Apostles Bishop Usher hath opened the changes that have been in it Sandford and Parker have largely de Descensu shewed how it came in as an Exposition of the Baptismal Articles Others stifly maintain that the Apostles made it But the case seemeth plain The Apostles used to call the Baptized to the profession of the same Articles which Paul hath in 1. Cor. 15.1 2 3 c. and varied not the matter All this was but more particularly to profess Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Two or three further Expository Articles are put into the Creed since Otherwise it is the same which the Apostles used not in the very syllables or forms of words but in the same sense and the words indeed being left free but seldom much altered because of the danger of altering the matter Of all the Antientest Writers not one repeateth the Creed in the same words that we have it nor any two of them in the same with one another Irenaeus once Tertullian twice hath it all in various words but the same sense That of Marcellus in Epiphanius cometh nearest ours called the Apostles and is almost it Afterward in Ruffinus and others we have more of it Yet no doubt but the Western Churches at least used it with little variation still The Nicene Creed is called by some Antients the Apostles Creed too And both were so for both are the same in sense and substance For it is not the very words that are truly fathered on the Apostles About 30â— years a go Mr. Ashwel having published a Book for the Necessity and Honour of the Creed I wrote in the Postscript to my Reformed Pastor Ed. 2. a Corrective of some passages in which he seemeth to say too much for it or at least to depress the Scripture too much in comparison of it But long experience now telleth me that I have more need to acquaint men with the Reasons and Necessity of the Creed Seeing I find a great part of ignorant Religious people much to slight the use of it and say It is not Scripture but the work of man Especially taking offence at the harsh translatiâ—n of that Article He descended into Hell. which from the beginning it 's like was not in It is the Kernel of the Scripture and it is that for which the rest of the Scripture is given us even to afford us sufficient help to understand and consent to the Covenant of Grace that our Belief our Desires and our Practice may be conformed principally to these Summaries It is not every Child or Woman that could have gathered the Essential Articles by themselves out of the whole Scripture if it had not been done to their hands Nor that could have rightly methodized the Rule of our desires or gathered the just heads of natural duty if Christ had not done the first in the Lords Prayer and God the second in the Decalogue Obj. But I believe these only because the Matter of the Creed and the words also of the other two are in the Scripture and not on any other Authority Ans If you speak of the Authority of the Author which giveth them their truth it is neither Scripture nor Tradition but God for whose Authority we must believe both Scripture and them But if you speak of the Authority of the Deliverers and the Evidence of the Delivery be it known to you 1. That the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and the Baptismal Covenant have been delivered down to the Church from the Apostles by a distinct Tradition besides the Scripture Tradition Even to all the Christians one by one that were Baptized and admitted to the Lords Table and to every particular Church So that there was not a Christian or Church that was not even Constituted by them 2. Be it known to you that the Church was long in possession of them before it had the Scriptures of the New Testament It 's supposed to be about eight years after Christ's Ascension before Matthew wrote the first Book of the New Testament and near the year of our Lord one hundred before the Revelation was written And do you think that there were no Christians or Churches all that while Or that there was no Baptism Or no Profession of the Christian Faith in distinct Articles No Knowledge of the Lords Prayer and Commandements No Gospel daily preached and practised What did the Church-assemblies think you do all those years No doubt those that had Inspiration used it by extraordinary gifts But that was not all Those that had not did preach the Substance of the Christian Religion contained in these forms and did Pray and Praise God
A man of credit or an impudent Liar Both may be equal in confident asserting and in the plausibility of the narrative Meer humane belief therefore must be uncertain From whence we see the pitiful case of the subjects of the King of Rome for so I must rather call him than a Bishop Why doth a Lay-man believe Transubstantiation or any other Article of their Faith Because the Church faith it is Gods Word What is the Church that saith so It is a faction of the Popes perhaps at Laterane or forty of his Prelates at the Conventicle of Trent How doth he know that these men do not lie Because God promised that Peters Faith should not fail and the Gates of Hell should not prevail against the Church and the Spirit should lead the Apostles into all truth But how shall he know that this Scripture is Gods Word And also that it was not a total failing rather than a failing in some degree that Peter was by that promise freed from Or that the Spirit was promised to these Prelates which was promised to the Apostles Why because these Prelates say so And how know they that they say true Why from Scripture as before But let all the rest go How knoweth the Lay-man that ever the Church made such a decree That ever the Bishops of that Council were lawfully called That they truely represented all Christs Church on Earth That this or that Doctrine is the decree of a Council or the sence of the Church indeed Why because the Priest tells him so But how knoweth he that this Priest saith true or a few more that the man speaketh with there I leave you I can answer no further but must leave the credit of Scripture Council and each particular Doctrine on the credit of that poor single Priest or the few that are his companions The Lay-man knoweth it no otherwise Q. But is not the Scripture it self then shaken by this seeing the History of the Canon and incorruption of the Books c. dependeth on the word of Man Ans No. 1. I have elsewhere fully shewed how the Spirit hath sealed the substance of the Gospel 2. And even the matters of fact are not of meer humane Faith. For meer humane Faith depends on the meer honesty of the reporter but this Historical Faith dependeth partly on Gods attestation and partly on Natural proofs 1. God did by Miracles attest the reports of the Apostles and first Churches 2. The consent of all History since that these are the same writings which the Apostles wrote hath a Natural Evidence above bare humane Faith. For I have elsewhere shewed that there is a concurrence of humane report or a consent of history which amounteth to a true Natural Evidence the Will having its Nature and some necessary acts and nothing but necessary ascertaining causes could cause such concurrence Such Evidence we have that K. James Q. Elizabeth Q. Mary lived in England that our Statute books contain the true Laws which those Kings and Parliaments made whom they are ascribed to For they could not possibly rule the Land and over-rule all mens interests and be pleaded at the Bar c. without contradiction and detection of the fraud if they were forgeries though it 's possible that some words in a Statute Book may be misprinted There is in this a Physical Certainty in the consent of men and it depends not as humane Faith upon the honesty of the reporter but Knaves and Liars have so consented whose interests and occasions are cross and so is it in the case of the history of the Scripture Books which were read in all the Churches through the World every Lords day and contenders of various opinions took their Salvation to be concerned in them VIII Those things must needs be uncertain to any man as to a particular Faith or Knowledge which are more in number than he may possibly have a distinct understanding of or can examine their Evidence whether they be certain or not For instance the Roman Faith containeth all the Doctrinal decrees and their Religion also all the Practical decrees of all the approved General Councils that is of so much as pleased the Pope such power hath he to make his own Religion But these General Councils added to all the Bible with all the Apocrypha are so large that it is not possible for most men to know what is in them So that if the question be whether this or that Doctrine be the Word of God and the proof of the affirmative is because it is decreed by a General Council this must be uncertain to almost all men who cannot tell whether it be so decreed or no Few Priests themselves knowing all that is in all those Councils So that if they knew that all that is in the Councils is Gods Word they know never the more whether this or that Doctrine e. g. the immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary c. be the Word of God. And if a Heathen knew that all that is in the Bible is the Word of God and knew not a word what is in it would this make him a Christian or Saint him You may object that most Protestants also know not all that is in the Scripture Ans True nor any one And therefore Protestants say not that all that is in the Scripture is necessary to be known to Salvation but they take their Religion to have essential parts and integral parts and accidents And so they know how far each is necessary But the Papists deride this distinction and because all truths are equally true they would make men believe that all are equally Fundamental or Essential to Christianity But this is only when they dispute against us at other times they say otherwise themselves when some other interest leads to it and so cureth this impudency It were worthy the enquiry whether a Papist take all the Bible to be Gods Word and de fide or only so much of it as is contained particularly in the decrees of Councils If the latter then none of the Scripture was de fide or to be particularly believed for above 300 years before the Council of Nice If the former then is it as necessary to Salvation to know how old Henoch was as to know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour IX Those things must needs be uncertain which depend upon such a number of various circumstances as cannot be certainly known themselves For instance the common rule by which the Papist Doctors do determine what particular Knowledge and Faith are necessary to Salvation is that so many truths are necessary as are sufficiently propounded to that person to be known and believed But no man living learned nor unlearned can tell what is necessary to the sufficiency of this proposal Whether it be sufficient if he be told it in his Childhood only and at what Age Or if he be told it but once or twice or thrice or how oft whether by a Parent or
it thus with extraordinary diligence but with different successes And Lyra with other old ones turn all quite another way And then come Grotius and Dr. Hammond and contradict both sides and make it all saving a few Verses to have been fulfilled many Ages since And can the unlearned or the unstudied part of Ministers then with any modesty pretend a certainty where so many and such men differ I know it is said Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things which are written therein But that proveth no more than 1. That some of it as ch 1 2 3. is plain and commonly intelligible 2. That it is a desirable thing to understand the rest and worthy mens endeavour in due time and rank and he that can attain to certainty may be glad of it I pass by the darkness of many Types and Prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament and how little the Jews or the Apostles themselves till after Christs Resurrection understood them With very many other obscurities which yet are not written in vain nay which make up the true perfection of the whole IX There are very many proverbial Speeches in the Scripture which are not to be understood as the words properly signifie but as the sense of those Proverbs then was among the Jews But disuse hath so totally obliterated the knowledge of the sense of many of them that no man living can certainly understand them X. There are many Texts which have words adapted to the Places the Animals the Utensils the Customs the Coins the Measures the Vegetables c. of that place and time which are some hard and some impossible now to be certainly understood And therefore such as Bochart Salmasius Casaubone Scaliger c. have done well to add new Light to our conjectures but leaving great uncertainty still XI Because the Jewish Law is by Paul plainly said to be ceased or done away it remaineth very difficult to be certain of abundance of passages in the Old Testament how far they are obligatory to us For when they now bind no otherwise than as the continued Law of nature or as reassumed by Christ into his special Law where the latter is not found in the former there is often insuperable difficulty For most lyeth upon the proof of a parity of Reason which puts us upon trying cases hardly tryed unless we knew more of the reason of all those Laws As about Vows and Dispensations Num. 30. about prohibited degrees of Marriage and such like which makes Divines so much differ about the obligation of the Judicials of which see Junius vol. 1. p. 1861 c. de Polit. Mos observ and about Usury Priesthood Magistrates power in Religion and many such XII There are abundance of Texts which only open the substance of the matter in hand to us and say nothing about abundance of difficulties of the manner and many circumstances as the manner of the Divine influx and the Spirits operation on the Soul c. And here all that which is unrevealed must needs be unknown XIII There are many Precepts which were local personal particular and so temporary and bind not universally all Persons at all times afterwards Such as the Rechabites Precepts from their Father and such as the Love Feasts the Kiss of Love Womens Veil and long Hair Mens being uncovered c. Now it is very hard to know in all instances whether the Precepts were thus temporary or universal and durable which makes Divines differ about the Anointing of the Sick the Office of Deacons and Deaconesses the Power of Bishops and Extent of their Diocesses the Eating things strangled and Blood against which Chr. Beckman in his Exercit. hath abundance of shrewd Arguments though few are of his mind In these cases few reach a Certainty and none so full a Certainty as in plainer things XIV It is very hard to be Certain when and how far Examples of holy men in Scripture bind us Though I have elsewhere proved that wherever the Apostles practice was the Execution of their Commission for setling Church Orders in which Christ promised them the help of his Spirit their Practice was obligatory Yet in many instances the obligation of Examples is very doubtful Which occasioneth the Controversies about imitating John Baptist's Life in the Wilderness and Anna and about Lent and about Baptizing by dipping over Head and about the Lords Supper whether it should be Administred to a Family or at Evening only or after Supper or Sitting or in a private House c. And about washing Feet and many Church Orders and Affairs XV. There are many things in Scripture that are spoken but once or twice and that but as on the by and not very plainly And we cannot be so Certain of any Doctrine founded on these as on passages frequently and plainly written XVI There are so many seeming differences in Scripture especially about Numbers as that if they be reconcileable few or none in the World have yet found out the way If we mention them not our selves such paultry Fellows will do it as Bened. Spinosa in his Tractatus Theolog. Polit. I will not cite any but desire the Learned Reader to consider well of what that Learned and Godly man Ludov. Capellus saith in his Critic Sacr. l. c. 10. and l. 6. c. 7 8. I own not his supposition of a better Hebrew Copy used by the Sept. I think an impartial considerer of his instances will confess that as God never promised all or any of the Scribes or Printers of the Bible any infallible Spirit that they should never write or print a word falsly and as it is certain by the various Lections that many such there have been in many and most Books so there is no one Scribe that had a promise above the rest nor any one Hebrew or Greek Copy which any man is sure is absolutely free from such miswritings For how should we be sure of that one above all the rest And I wish the Learned Reader to consider Bibliander's Preface to his Hebr. Grammar and Casaubone's Exercit. 1. § 28. and Pellicanus his Preface to his Coment on the Bible Hierom on Mic. 5.2 is too gross de Matth. 2. Quod Testimonium nec Haebraico nec 70 Interpretibus convenire c. Let him read the rest that will which is harsher he that will not confess miswritings of numbers and some names and words heretofore as well as some misprintings now doth but by his pretended Certainty tempt men to question the rest for the sake of that and injureth the Sacred Word XVII We have not the same degree of Certainty of the Canonicalness or Divineness of every Book of Scripture Though they are all Gods Word they have not all the same Evidence that they are so The New Testament had a fuller Attestation from Heaven for its Evidence to man than most of the Old had And of the
and celebrate the Lords Supper provoking one another to Love and to good works 3. Be it known to you that these three Summaries come to us with fuller Evidence of Certain Tradition from God than the rest of the Holy Scriptures Though they are equally true they are not equally Evident to us And this I thus prove 1. The Body of the Scriptures were delivered but one way but the Covenant Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue are delivered two ways They are in the Scripture and so have all the Evidence of Tradition which the Scriptures have And they were besides that delivered to the memories of all Christians If you say that the Creed is not in the Scripture or that the Scripture is not altered as it is I answer 1. That it is in the Scripture as to the matter signified in as plain words even of the same signification 2. There is no alteration made but a small addition which is no disparagement to it because the ancient substance of it is still known and the additions are not new made things but taken out of Scripture And if yet any Heretick should deny that God is Wise and Good and Just and Merciful it were no dishonour to the Creed nor weakening of its certainty to have these attributes yet added to it 2. These Summaries as is said were far ancienter than the rest of the New Testament as written and known and used long before them 3. These Summaries being in every Christians mind and memory were faster held than the rest of the Scriptures Therefore Parents could and did teach them more to their Children You never read that the Catechizers of the people did teach them all the Bible nor equally ask them who Jared or Mehaleel or Lamech was as they did who Christ was Nor put every History into the Catechism but only the Historical Articles of the Creed 4. Therefore it was far easier to preserve the purity of these Summaries than of the whole Body of the Scriptures For that which is in every mans memory cannot be altered without a multitude of reprovers Which makes the Greeks since Photius keep such a stir about Filioque as to think that the Latines have changed Religion and deserved to be separated from for changing that word But no wonder that many hundred various Readings are crept into the Bible and whole Verses and Histories as that of the Adulterous Woman are out in some that are in others For it is harder to keep such a Volume uncorrupt than a few words Though writing as such is a surer way than memory and the whole Bible could never have been preserved by memory Yet a few words might especially when they had those words in writings also 5. Add to this that the Catechistical Summaries aforesaid were more frequently repeated to the people at least every Lords day Whereas in the reading of the Scriptures one passage will be read but seldom perhaps once or twice in a year And so a corruption not so easily observed 6. And if among an hundred Copies of the Scripture ten or twenty only should by the Carelesness of the Scribes be corrupted all the rest who saw not these Copies would not know it and so they might fall into the hands of Posterity when many of the sounder might be lost 7. And Lastly The danger of depravation had no end For in every age the Scripture must be written over anew for every Church and person that would use it And who that knoweth what writing is could expect that one Copy could be written without errors and that the second should not add to the errors of the 1st as Printers now do who print by faulty Copies And though this danger is much less since Printing came up that is but lately And the mischiefs of Wars and Heretical Tyrants burning the truest Copies hath been some disadvantage to us Obj. Thus you seem to weaken the Certain incorruption of the Scriptures Ans No such thing I do but tell you the case truly as it is The wonderful Providence of God and care of Christians hath so preserved them that there is nothing corrupted which should make one Article of faith the more doubtful I assert no more depravation in them than all confess but only tell you how it came to pass and tell you the greater certainty that we have of the Essentials of Religion than of the rest And whereas every man of brains confesseth that many hundred words in Scripture by Variety of Copies are uncertain I only say that it is not so in the Essentials And I do not wonder that Virgil Ovid Horace Cicero c. Have not suffered such depravations For 1. It is not so easy for a Scribes error to pass unseen in oratione ligata as in oratione soluta in verse as in prose 2. And Cicero with the rest was almost only in the hands of Learned men whereas the Scriptures were in the hands of all the Vulgar Women and Children 3. And the Copies of these Authors were comparatively but few Whereas every one almost got Copies of the Scripture that was able And it 's liker that some depravation should be found among ten thousand Copies than among a hundred So that I have proved to you that the Creed Lords Prayer Commandments and Covenant of Baptism are not to be believed only because they are in the Scripture but also because they have been delivered to us by Tradition and so we have them from two hands as it were or ways of Conveyance and the rest of the Scriptures but by one for the most part I will say yet more because it is true and needful If any live among Papists that keep the Scripture from the people or among the poor Greeks Armenians or Abassines where the people neither have Bibles commonly nor can read or if any among us that cannot read know not what is in the Bible yea if through the fault of the Priest any should be kept from knowing that ever there was a Bible in the world Yet if those persons by Tradition receive the baptismal Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Commandments as Gods Word and truly believe and Love and Practice them those persons shall be saved For they have Christs promise for it And the very Covenant itself is the Gift of Christ and Life to consenters Whereas he that knoweth all the Scripture can be saved only by consenting to and performing this same Covenant But having greater helps to understand it and so to Believe it and Consent he hath a great advantage of them that have not the Scripture And so the Scripture is an unspeakable mercy to the Church And it is so far from being too little without the supplement of the Papists Traditions and Councils as that the hundredth part of it as to the bulk of words is not absolutely it self of necessity to Salvation Yet I say more If a man that hath the Scripture should doubt of some Books of it whether
ultimate end and perfection of man and all knowledge is to be estimated but as it tendeth to this This being the plain Paraphrase of the Text I shall stay no longer on it but thence deduce and handle these two Observations Doct. I. Falsly pretended knowledge is oft pernicious to the Possessor and injurious to the Church And over-valuing ones own Opinions and Notions is a certain mark of dangerous Ignorance II. A Man is so far truly wise as he loveth God and consequently is approved or loved by him and as he loveth others to their Edification I. The first is but the same that Solomon thus expresseth Prov. 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him And Paul elsewhere Rom. 12.16 Be not wise in your own conceits And Rom. 11.25 and Prov. 26.5 16. For it is certain that we are all here in great darkness and it 's but little that the wisest know And therefore he that thinks he knoweth much is ignorant both of the things which he thinks he knoweth and ignorant of his ignorance Therefore 1 Cor. 3.18 Let no man deceive himself If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this World let him become a Fool that he may be wise To be wise in this World is the same with that in the words following The wisdom of this World is foolishness with God And 1 Cor. 1.19 20 21 22. It is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise c. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this World Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World For after that in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom c. So Chap. 2.4 5 6 7 8. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words or probable discourses of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this World nor of the Princes of this World that come to nought But we speak that wisdom of God in a Mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our glory even Christ the wisdom of God chap. 1.24 which none of the Princes of this World knew In all this note 1. That there is a wisdom which Paul placeth Christianity it self in 2. That this is to know God in Christ objectively and to be taught of God by Christ and his Spirit efficiently 3. That there is a Wisdom which Paul comparatively vilifieth 4. This is called the Wisdom of this world or age 5. That most plainly he meaneth by it that which then was called Learning and Philosophy which the Greeks did value and by which they judged of the Gospel which comprehended the methods of all the Sects Epicureans Academicks Peripateticks and Stoicks but not their true Morals but their Physicks and Logick and Metaphysicks which Laertius and others tell us how variously they held 6. That Paul doth not absolutely prohibit such studies nor yet despise any true knowledge 7. But he vilifieth this Philosophy on these accounts 1. Because it was the exercise of a poor low insufficient Light They did but Grope after God in the dark as Acts 17.27 2. Because it was mostly taken up with inferiour things of small concernment comparatively As things corporeal are good in themselves and when sanctified and made subservient to things spiritual so the knowledge of Physicks is to be esteemed But as things corporeal yet are objectively the snare and ruine of those that perish and therefore the world to be renounced and crucified as it is our temptation an Enemy or Competitor with Christ just so it must be with Natural Philosophy 3. Because it was greatly overvalued by the World as if it had been the only Wisdom when indeed it is of it self but an indifferent thing or fit but to make a by-recreation of till it be made to serve to higher ends even as Riches Honour and Pleasure are overvalued by worldlings as if they were the only felicity when in themselves they are but more indifferent things and prove beneficial or hurtful as they are used Therefore Paul was to take down the pernicious esteem of this kind of Philosophy as Preachers now must take down mens esteem of worldly things however they are the works and gifts of God. And as Christ would by his actual poverty and sufferings and not by words only take down the esteem of worldly wealth and pride so Paul by neglecting and forbearing the use of Artificial Logick Physicks and Metaphysicks would depress their rate 4. Because that there was abundance of falshood mixt with the truth which the Philosophers held as their multitude of different Sects fully proves 5. Because the Artificial Organical part was made so operous as that it drowned Real Learning instead of promoting it and became but like a game at Chess a devise rather to exercise vain proud wits by than to find out useful truth As to this day when Logick and Metaphysicks seem much cultivated and reformed yet the variety of methods the number of notions the precariousness of much the uncertainty of some things the falshood of many maketh them as fit for Boys to play with in the Schools and to be a Wood into which a Sophister may run to hide his Errours as to be a means of detecting them And therefore a knavish Cheater will oft bind you strictest to the pedantick part of the Rules of Disputation that when he cannot defend his Matter he may quarrel with your Form and Artifice and lose time by questioning you about Mood and Figure 6. Because by these operous diversions the minds of men were so forestalled or taken up as that they had not leisure to study great and necessary saving truth And if men must be untaught in the Doctrines of Life till they had first Learnt their Logick Physicks and Metaphysicks how few would have been saved when at this day so many come from our Universities after several years study raw smatterers in these and half-witted Scholars whose Learning is fitter to trouble than to edifie And if Scripture had been written in the terms and method of Aristotle how few would have been the better for them But great Good must be common And as Paul on all these accounts sets light by this Philosophy so he calls it the wisdom of this world 1. Because this world was its chief object 2. And the creatures were its only Light. 3. And it led but few to any higher than worldly ends 4. And it was that which worldly men that were strangers to heavenly Light and Holiness did then most magnify and use Yet as Christ when
he said how hard it was for a rich man to be saved did not make Riches absolutely unlawful nor to have no goodness nor usefulness at all but teacheth men if they are wise not to overvalue them and to be too eager for them so is Paul to be interpreted about Philosophy or the wisdom of this world For it is not only craftiness for worldly ends that he so calls And as God when he denyeth his Servants Riches and worldly fulness doth it not because he taketh it to be too good for them but because it is not good enough and therefore he will give them better even the Heavenly Riches and Honour and Delights Even so when Paul comparatively vilifieth Philosophy it is not as being really a wisdom too high for Christians but too low Nor doth he depress Reason or extol Ignorance but would lead men to the truest Learning the highest Knowledge and Improvement of Reason the only Wisdom from trifling Pedantick unprofitable Notions and Ludicrous loss of Time and Studies It is not therefore for want of wisdom that the Scripture is not written according to the Philosophers art Though Erasmus overvalued his Grammaticisms it was not for want of Learning in Philosophy that he so much despised the Philosophical Schoolmen so that Speaking of the Bishop of London who maligned Dr. Colet and was a subtile Scotist he saith of such That he had known some of them whom he would not call Knaves but he never knew one of them whom he could call a Christian Vid. Mr Smiths Life of Dr. Colet By Erasmus A smart charge I suppose he meant it of them rather as Scotists than as Bishops And therefore the Apostle aptly joyneth both together 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called Seeming to equal worldly Wealth and Greatness with worldly wisdom or Philosophy as to the interest of Religion and Salvation And the foolish wits that think he spake against Learning because he had it not may as truly say that he spake against worldly wealth and greatness because he had it not For the Possession Use and Knowledge of worldly things are near of Kin. But they knew not Paul so well as Festus who thought him not unlearned though he thought him mad Nor was it the way of worldly wealth and greatness which he chose Doubtless neither Christ nor Paul did speak against any Real Knowledge but 1. Against nominal pretended Knowledge which was set up to divert men from Real Knowledge and was full of Vanities and Falshoods 2. And against the overvaluing of that Learning which is of little use in comparison of the Knowledge of Great and Excellent and Necessary things For knowledge is valuable according to its Object and its use The Knowledge of trifles for trivial ends is it self a trifle The Knowledge of things great and necessary for great and necessary ends is the great and necessary Knowledge And therefore how unmeasureably must the knowledge of God and our eternal happiness excel the Pedantick Philosophy of the Gentiles However Christians may Sanctify and Ennoble this by making it a help to higher knowledge And therefore the Platonists and the Stoicks were the noblest Philosophers because the former studied the highest things and the other the necessary means of felicity amending of mens hearts and lives But in the present Text the thing which the Apostle reprehendeth is the esteeming of a mans self to be wiser than he is and taking himself to be a wise man because of his trifling Philosophical knowledge And he would have them know that till they knew nobler things than those were guided by a nobler light they were very fools I have lookt over Hutten Vives Erasmus Scaliger Salmasius Casaubone and many other Critical Grammarians and all Gruterus his Critical Volumes I have read almost all the Physicks and Metaphysicks I could hear of I have wasted much of my time among whole loads of Historians Chronologers and Antiquaries I despise none of their learning All truth is useful Mathematicks which I have least of I find a pretty manlike sport But if I had no other kind of knowledge than these what were my understanding worth what a dreaming dotard should I be Yea had I also all the Codes and Pandects all Cujacius Wesenbechius and their tribe at my fingers ends and all other Volumes of Civil National and Canon Laws with the rest in the Encyclopaedia what a poppet play would my life be if I had no more I have higher thoughts of the School-men than Erasmus and our other Grammarians had I much value the method and sobriety of Aquinas the subtility of Scotus and Ockam the plainness of Durandus the solidity of Ariminensis the profundity of Bradwardine the excellent acuteness of many of their followers of Aureolus Capreolus Bannes Alvarez Zumel c. Of Mayro Lychetus Trombeta Faber Meurisse Rada c. Of Ruiz Pennattus Suarez Vasquez c. Of Hurtado of Albertinus of Lud. Ã Dola and many others But how loth should I be to take such sawce for my food and such recreations for my business The jingling of too much and too false Philosophy among them oft drowns the noise of Aarons Bells I feel my self much better in Herberts Temple Or in a heavenly Treatise of faith and Love. And though I do not with Dr. Colet distast Augustine above the plainer Fathers yet I am more taken with his Confessions than with his Grammatical and Scholastick treatises And tho' I know no man whose genius more abhorreth Confusion instead of necessary distinction and method yet I loath impertinent useless art and pretended precepts and distinctions which have not a foundation in the matter In a word There is a Divine knowledge which is part of mans felicity as it promoteth Love and Union and there is a solid Knowledge of Gods Word and Works a valuable Grammatical knowledge and a true Philosophy which none but ignorant persons will despise But the vain Philosophy and pretended Wisdom or Learning of the World hath been and is the cheat of Souls and the hinderer of wisdom and a troubler of the Church and World. Chap. 2. What wisdom and esteem of it are not here condemned THE order which I shall observe in handling the first Doctrine shall be this I. I will tell you Negatively what wisdom and esteem of our own wisdom is not here condemned II. What it is that is here condemned III. What are the certainties which we must hold fast and make our Religion of IV. What degrees of these certainties there are V. What are the uncertainties which we must not pretend to be certain of and the unknown things which we must not pretend to know VI. What are the mischiefs of falsly pretended knowledg VII What are the degrees or aggravations of this sin VIII What are the causes of it IX What are the remedies X. What are the uses which we should make of
prevailed with him without that false belief of a deceiver When it is once become a Sanctifying Belief then there is no doubt but the Man hath better Evidence than the uncertain word of man He hath the witness in himself And it is not a Glorifying Faith till it be a Sanctifying Faith. But the Question is What soundness of Reason or proof that this is God's Word is necessary to make it a Sanctifying Faith at least as most prevalent and trusted in By this you may know what I judge of the Faith of honest illiterate Papists and of illiterate Protestants for a great number of them who live in Love and Obedience to God. And yet to speak both more concisely and distinctly I. I may believe by Historical Tradition all that matter of Fact which those that saw Christ's and the Apostles Miracles and heard their words did know by sense and those that saw not believed on the credit of the reporters II. And yet I may know by reason through God's help that these Miracles and this Scripture Impress and Efficacy are God's attestation and none but God could do it And of this all Believers have some perception in various degrees III. And then we know it to be true because it is sealed by those attestations and is the Word of God. Obj. VII But would you have men take the matters of Fact for uncertain that this is a true Bible and Copy and was given the Church by the Apostles c. and so not pretend to be certain of them Ans I have oft said and elsewhere largely proved that as 1. A Humane Faith of highest probability prepareth the way so 2. These things are known by an Historical Evidence which hath a proper certainty above meer Humane Faith For Humane Faith resteth on mens Veracity or Fidelity which is uncertain But there is a History such as that there is such a City as Rome Venice c. which is evident by a surer ground than mens fidelity even from such a concurrence of consenters and circumstances as will prove a forgery impossible Obj. VIII You seem to favour the Popish Doctrine of Ignorance while you would have all our Knowledge confined to a few plain and easie things and perswade men to doubt of all the rest Ans 1. I perswade no man to doubt of that which he is certain of but not to lie and say he is certain when he is not 2. I am so far from encouraging Ignorance that it is Ignorance of your Ignorance which I reprove I would have all men know as much as possibly they can of all that God hath revealed And if the self-conceited knew more they would doubt more and as they grow wiser will grow less confident in uncertainties It is not knowing but false pretending to know that I am against Do you think that a thousand self-conceited men and women do really know ever the more for saying they know or crying down that Ignorance Doubting and Uncertainty which they have themselves How many a one yea Preachers have cryed down the Popish Doctrine of Uncertainty of Salvation who had no Certainty of their own but their neighbours thought by their lives were certainly in the way to Hell. Obj. IX But you would have men resist the Spirit that convinceth them and make so long a work in doubting and questioning and proving every thing as that Christians will come but to little knowledge in your way Ans They will have the more knowledge and not the less for trying Peremptory confidence is not knowledge The next way here is farthest about Receive all Evidence from God and Man from the Word and Spirit with all the desire and all the delight and all the speed that possibly you can Study earnestly Learn willingly Resist no Light neglect no Truth But what 's all this to foolish conceit that you know what you do not What 's this to the hasty believing of falshoods or uncertainties and troubling the Church and World with self-conceit and dreams I remember two or three of my old acquaintance who suddenly received from a Seducer the Opinion of Perfection that we might be perfectly sinless in this life And because I denied it they carryed it as if I had pleaded for sin against perfection and they presently took themselves to be perfect and sinless because they had got the Opinion that some are such I told them that I desired Perfection as well as they and that I was far from hindering or disswading any from Perfection but wisht them to let us see that they are so indeed and never to sin more in thought word or deed And ere long they forsook all Religion and by Drunkenness Fornication and Licentiousness shewed us their Perfection So here it is not a conceit that men have Faith and Knowledge and quickly saying I believe or turning to the Priest or Party that perswadeth them which maketh them ever the wiser men or true Believers Obj. X. But that may seem certain to another which seemeth uncertain or false to you Therefore every man must go according to his own Light. Ans 1. Nothing is Certain which is not true If that seem True to you which is False this is your Errour And is every man or any man bound to err and believe a falsehood Being is before Knowing If it Be not true you may Think it to be so which is that which I would cure but you cannot Know it to be so much less be Certain of it 2. If it be Certain to you it is Evidently True And if so hold it fast and spare not It is not any mans Certainty but Errour which I oppose Obj. XI But if we must write or utter nothing but Certainties you would have but a small Library Ans 1. The World might well spare a great many uncertain Writings 2. But I say not that you must think say or write nothing but Certainties There is a lawful and in some cases necessary exercise of our understandings about Probabilities and Possibilities The Husbandman when he ploweth and soweth is not certain of an increase 1. But call not that certain which is not 2. And be not as vehement and peremptory in it as if it were a Certainty 3. And separate your Certainties and Probabilities asunder that confusion fill not your minds with Errour Obj. XII While you perswade us to be so diffident of mens reports and to suspend our belief of what men say you speak against the Laws of Converse Ans I perswade you not to deny any man such a Belief as is his due But give him no more If a man profess himself a Christian and say that he sincerely believeth in Christ and consenteth to his Covenant though you may perceive no ascertaining Evidence that he saith true yet you must believe him because he is the only opener of his own mind and the Laws of God and Human Converse require it But what is this believing him Not taking it for a
Communion to them if they are already in the Covenant And all this is because that the Will is the Man and if any Man truely love Jesus Christ he is a true Believer in Christ and if any Man love God the same Man is known and loved of him and hath so much knowledge as will save his Soul. I confess in private Catechizing and Conference I have met with some ancient Women that have long lived as godly Persons in constant affectionate use of means and an honest godly Life and been of good repute in the Church where they lived who yet have spoken downright Heresie to me through ignorance in answering some questions about Jesus Christ But I durst not therefore suspend their Communion nor condemn their former Communion For as soon as I told them better they have yielded and I could not perceive whether it was from gross ignorance or from unreadiness of notions or from the want of memory or what that they spake amiss before So that I shall be very loth to reject one from Communion that sheweth a love of God and Jesus Christ and Holiness by diligent use of means and an upright Life 7. And he that will impartially be ruled by the Holy Scriptures will be of the same mind For no one was ever taken to be a Church Member at Age without so full a consent as was willingly exprest by devotedness to God in the Solemn Covenant The Jews by the Sign of Circumcision and the Christians by Baptism and both by Covenanting with God were initiated And consent is love But the Articles and objective Degrees of Knowledge and Belief have greatly varied The Jews were to know and profess more than the Gentiles and the Jews since the Egyptian Deliverance more than before And John Baptized upon a shorter Profession than the Apostles did And the Apostles till Christs Resurrection believed not many great Articles of our Faith not knowing that Christ must die and be an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin and Sin to be pardoned by his Blood nor that he was to rise again and send the Holy Ghost for the work which he was sent for c. And Acts 19. there were Disciples that had not heard that there was a Holy Ghost I confidently think twice Baptized And if we mark how the Apostles Baptized with what Orders for it they received from Christ it will confirm my conclusion For Christ could have given a particular Creed and Profession of Faith if he had pleased but he taketh up with the General three Articles of Believing in the Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 20. lest any should cast out his weak ones for want of distinctness of Knowledge and Belief And he maketh the Covenant-consent in Baptism the necessary Thing as the End and Measure of their Knowledge He that hath Knowledge enough to cause him to thirst may come and drink of the waters of Life Rev. 22.17 And he that hungreth and thirsteth after righteousness shall be satisfied and he that cometh to Christ he will in no wise cast out And the Apostles Baptized so many thousands in a short time that they could not examine each Person about a more particular Knowledge and Belief Acts 2. c. Nor do we read in Scripture of such particular large Professions as go much beyond the words of Baptism And though no doubt they did endeavour to make the ignorant understand what they profest and did and so had some larger Creed yet was it not all so large as the short Creed called the Apostles now is several of its Articles having been long since added I have spoken all this not only to Ministers who have the Keys of Admission but especially for the Religious Persons sakes who are too much enclined to place godliness in words and ability to speak well in Prayer or Conference or answering Questions and that make a more distinct Knowledge and Profession necessary than God hath made Yea if all the Articles of the Creed are professed when the understanding of them is not clear and distinct they deride it and say A Parrot may be taught as much and they separate from those Pastors and Churches that receive such to their Communion Many do this of a godly Zeal lest ignorance and formality be encouraged and the godly and ungodly not sufficiently distinguished But their Zeal is not according to Knowledge nor to the holy Rule and they little know how much Pride oft lurketh unobserved in such desires to be publickly differenced from others as below us and unmeet for our Communion And less know they how much they injure and displease our gracious Lord who took little Children in his Arms and despiseth not the weak and carrieth the Lambs and refuseth no one any further than they refuse him I tell you if you see but true love and willingness in a diligent reformed pious and righteous Life there is certainly there is saving Knowledge and Faith within and if words do not satisfactorily express it you are to think that it is not for want of the thing it self but for want of use and exercise and for want of well studied Notions or for want of natural Parts Education or Art to enable them to act that part aright But if God know the meaning of Abba Father and of the groans of the Spirit in his Beloved Infants I will not be one that shall condemn and reject a lover of God and Christ and Holiness for want of distinct particular Knowledge or of words to utter it aright Chap. VIII The fourth Inference The aptness of the Teaching of Christ to ingenerate the Love of God and Holiness IF Love be the End and Perfection of our Knowledge then hence we may perceive that no Teacher that ever appeared in the World was so fit for the ingenerating of true saving knowledge as Jesus Christ For none ever so promoted the love of God. 1. It was he only that rendered God apparently lovely to sinful man by reconciling us to God and rendering him apparently propitious to his Enemies pardoning sin and tendering Salvation freely to them that were the Sons of Death Self-love will not give men leave to love aright a God that will damn them though deservedly for sin But it is Christ that hath made Atonement and is the Propitiation for our sins and proclaimeth Gods love even to the Rebellious Which is more effectually to kindle holy love in us than all the Precepts of Naturalists without this could ever have been His Cross and his Wounds and Blood were the powerful Sermons to Preach Gods winning love to sinners 2. And the benefits are so many and so great which he hath purchased and revealed to man that they are abundant fewel for the Flames of Love. We are set by Christ in the way of Mercy in the Houshold of God under the Eye and special Influence of his love all our sins pardoned our Everlasting punishment remitted our Souls renewed our wounded Consciences healed