Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	argument_n	prove_v	zion_n	20	3	9.7459	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23752	The lively oracles given to us, or, The Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture by the author of The whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1149; ESTC R170102	108,974	240

dreams yet did not believe Josephs any man that should now pretend i● that kind would be sure to fall under the same irony that he did to be entertain'd with a behold this dreamer cometh Genes 37. 19. 58. THE second way of revelation by vision was where the man was wrapt into an extasy his spirit for a while suspended from all sensible communication with the body and entertain'd with supernatural light In these the Prophets saw emblematical representation of future events receiv'd knowledg of divine Mysteries and commission and ability to discharge the whole prophetic office Now suppose God should now raise us Prophets and inspire them after this manner what would the merry men of this time say to it Can we think that they who rally upon all that the former Prophets have writ would look with much reverence on what the new ones should say Som perhaps would construe their raptures to be but like Mahomets Epilepsy others a fit of frenzy others perhaps a being drunk with new wine Act. 2. 13. but those that did the most soberly consider it would still need a new revelation to attest the truth of this there being far more convincing arguments to prove the Scriptures divine then any man can allege to prove his inspiration to be so And 't is sure a very irrational method to attemt the clearing of a doubt by somwhat which is it self more doubtful 59. A third way was by Vrim and Thummim which Writers tell us was an Oracle resulting from the Letters which were graven in the High Priests Pectoral to which in all important doubts the Jews of those Ages resorted and receiv'd responses but whether it were by the suddain prominency or resplendency of the letters or by any other way is not material in this place to enquire one thing is certain that the Ephod and consequently the Pectoral was in the Priests custody and that he had the administration of the whole affair Now I refer it to consideration whether this one circumstance would not to those prejudic'd men I speak of utterly evacuate the credit of the Oracle They have taught themselves to look on Priest-hood whether Legal or Evangelical only as a better name for imposture and cosenage and they that can accuse the Priests for having kept up a cheat for so many Ages must needs think them such omnipotent Juglers that nothing can be fence against their Legerdemain and by consequence this way of revelation would rather foment their displesure at the Ecclesiastics then satisfy their doubts of the Scripture 69. LASTLY for the fourth way that of thunder and voice from Heaven tho that would be a signal way of conviction to unprejudiced men yet it would probably have as little effect as the rest upon the others men that pretend to such deep reasoning would think it childish to be frighted out of their opinion by a clap of Thunder som philosophical reason shall be found out to satisfy them that 't is the effect only of som natural cause and any the most improbable shall serve turn to supplant the fear of its being a divine testimony to that which they are so unwilling should be true As for the voice from Heaven it must either be heard by others and related to them or else immediatly by themselves if the former 't will lie under the same prejudice which the Bible already do's that they have it but by hear-say and reporters would fall under the reproach either of design or frenzy that they meant to deceive or were themselves deceiv'd by their own distemper'd phancy But if themselves should be Auditors of it 't is odds but their bottomless jealousies in divine Matters would suggest a possibility of fraud tho they knew not how to trace it nay 't is more then possible that they will rather disbelieve their own senses then in this instance take their testimony with all its consequences 61. NOR is this a wild supposition for we see it possible not only for single men but multitudes to disbelieve their senses thro an excess of credulity witness the doctrin of Transubstantiation Why may it not then be as possible for others to do the like thro a greater excess of incredulity Besides mens prepossessions and affections have a strange influence on their Faith men many times will not suffer themselves to believe the most credible things if they cross their inclination How often do we see irregular patients that will not believe any thing that their appetite craves will do them hurt tho their Physicians nay their own even sensitive experience attest it to them And can we think that a diseas'd mind gasping with an Hydropic thirst after the plesures of sin will ever assent to those premises whose conclusion will engage to the renouncing them Will not a luxurious voluptuous person be willing rather to give his cars the lie to disbelieve what he hears then permit them more deeply to disoblige his other senses by bringing in those restraints and mortifications which the Scripture would impose upon them 62. THUS we see how little probability there is that any of these waies of revelation would convince these incredulous men And indeed those that will not believe upon such inducements as may satisfy men of sober reason will hardly submit to any other method according to that Assertion of Father Abraham If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead Luk. 16. 31. Now at this rate of infidelity what way will they leave God to manifest any thing convincingly to the world which is to put him under an impotency greater then adheres to humanity for we men have power to communicate our minds to others tell whether to we own such or such a thing to which we are intitled and we can satisfy our Auditors that it is indeed we that speak to them but if every method God uses do's rather increase then satisfy mens doubts all intercourse between God and man is intercepted and he must do that of necessity which Epicurus phancied he did of choice viz. keep himself unconcern'd in the affairs of mortals as having no way of communicating with them Nay what is yet if possible more absurd he must be suppos'd to have put the works of his Creation out of his own reach to have given men discoursive faculties and left himself no way of address to them 63. THESE inferences how horridly soever they sound yet I see not how they can be disclaim'd by those who are unsatisfied with all those waies by which God hath hitherto revel'd himself to the world For can it be imagin'd that God who created man a reasonable creature that himself might be glorified in his free and rational obedience when all other creatures obey upon impulse and instinct can it I say be imagin'd that he should so remisly pursue his own design as to let so many Ages pass since the Creation and never to acquaint

nay made it the test by which to try true inspirations from false To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to it there is no light in them Esay 8. 20. So that the veneration which they had before acquir'd was still anew excited by fresh inspirations which both attested the old and became new parts of their Canon 27. NOR could it be esteem'd a small confirmation to the Scriptures to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books for nothing less then divine Power and Wisdom could foretell and also verify them Upon these grounds the Jews universally thro all successions receiv'd the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles and lookt upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them that their Masorits numbred not only the sections but the very words nay letters that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem'd so sacred A farther testimony and sepiment to which were the Samaritan Chaldee and Greek versions which being made use of in the Synagogs o● Jews in their dispersions and the Samaritan● at Sichem could not at those distances receive a uniform alteration and any other would be of no effect Add to this that the Original exemplar of the Law was laid up in the Sanctuary that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him and transcribe it with his own hand that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation teach it his children and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead And now sure 't is impossible to imagin any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced or irrefragably testified nor any thing believ'd upon stronger evidence 28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews that they did thus own these Writings as divine appears not only by the Records of past Ages but by the Jews of the present who still own them and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews as he must be most ab●urdly sceptical that shall deny they must be so to Christians also who derive them ●●om them and that with this farther ad●antage to our Faith that we see the clear ●ompletion of those Evangelical prophecies ●hich remain'd dark to them and conse●uently have a farther Argument to confirm ●s that the Scriptures of the Old Testament ●re certainly divine 29. THE New has also the like means of ●robation which as it is a collection of the ●octrin taught by Christ and his Apostles must if truly related be acknowledged no less divine then what they orally deliver'd So that they who doubt its being divine must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preacht to be so or else distrust the fidelity of the relation The former strikes at the whole Christian Faith which if only of men must not only be fallible but is actually a deceit whilst it pretends to be of God and is not To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendious miracles with which the Gospel was attested such as demonstrated a more then human efficacy And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain 30. 'T IS true there have bin by God permitted lying miracles as well as true ones have bin don by him Such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt in opposition to the other of Moses but then the difference between both was so conspicuous that he must be more partial and disingenuous then even those Magicians were who would not acknowledg the disparity and confess in those which were truly supernatural the finger of God Exod. 8. 19. Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted that false Prophets should arise and do signs and wonders Deut. 13. 1. Mat. 24. 11. 24. as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommended a deceiver before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver'd to the sons of men by the God of truth Whether the trick of a Barchochebas to hold fire in his mouth that of Marcus the heretic to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear bloud or that of Mahomet to bring a Pidgeon to his ear ought to be put in balance against all the miracles wrought by Moses our Savior or his Apostles And in a word whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus deserve to rival those of the Evangelists It is a most just judgment and accordingly threatned by Almighty God that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie 2 Thes. 2. 11. But still the Almighty where any man or devil do's proudly is evidently above him Exod. 18. 11. will be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged Rom. 3. 4. 31. BUT if men will be Sceptics and doubt every thing they are to know that the matter call'd into question is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution probability and testimony First for probability let it be consider'd who were the first promulgers of Christs miracles In his life time they were either the patients on whom his miracles were wrought or the common people that were spectators the former as they could not be deceiv'd themselves but must needs know whether they were cur'd or no so what imaginable design could they have to deceive others Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not As for the Spectators as their multitude adds to their credibility it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter so obvious to their senses so do's it also acquit them from fraud and combination Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatcht in the dark in close Cabals and privat Juncto's That five thousand men at one time and four thousand at another should conspire to say that they were miraculously fed when they were not and all prove true to the fiction and not betray it is a thing as irrational to be suppos'd as impossible to be parallel'd 32. BESIDES admit it possible that so many could have join'd in the deceit yet what imaginable end could they have in it Had their lie bin subservient to the designs of som potent Prince that might have rewarded it there had bin som temtation but what could they expect from the reputed son of a Carpenter who had not himself where to lay his head Nay who disclaim'd all secular power convei'd himself away from their importunities when they would have forc'd him to be a King And consequently could not be

those intrinsic evidences which arise out of the Scripture it self but of these I think not proper here to insist partly because the subject will be in a great degree coincident with that of the second general consideration and partly because these can be argumentative to none who are not qualified to discern them Let those who doubt the divine Original of Scripture well digest the former grounds which are within the verge of reason and when by those they are brought to read it with due reverence they will not want Arguments from the Scripture it self to confirm their veneration of it 45. IN the mean time to evince how proper the former discourse is to found a rational belief that the Scripture is the word of God I shall compare it with those mesures of credibility upon which all human transactions move and upon which men trust their greatest concerns without diffidence or dispute 46. THAT we must in many things trust the report of others is so necessary that without it human society cannot subsist What a multitude of subjects are there in the world who never saw their Prince nor were at the making of any Law if all these should deny their obedience because they have it only by hear-say there is such a man and such Laws what would become of government So also for property if nothing of testimony may be admitted how shall any man prove his right to any thing All pleas must be decided by the sword and we shall fall into that state which som have phancied the primitive of universal hostility In like manner for traffic and commerce how should any Merchant first attemt a trade to any foreign part of the world if he did not believe that such a place there was and how could he believe that but upon the credit of those who have bin there Nay indeed how could any man first attemt to go but to the next Market Town if he did not from the report of others conclude that such a one there was so that if this universal diffidence should prevail every man should be a kind of Plantagnus fixt to the soil he first sprung up in The absurdities are indeed so infinite and so obvious that I need not dilate upon them 47. BuT it will perhaps be said that in things that are told us by our contemporaries and that relate to our own time men will be less apt to deceive us because they know 't is in our power to examin and discover the truth To this I might say that in many instances it would scarce quit cost to do so and the inconveniences of trial would exceed those of belief But I shall willingly admit this probable Argument and only desire it may be applied to our main question by considering whether the primitive Christians who receiv'd the Scripture as divine had not the same security of not being deceiv'd who had as great opportunities of examining and the greatest concern of doing it throly since they were to engage not only their future hopes in another world but that which to nature is much more sensible all their present enjoiments and even life it self upon the truth of it 48. BuT because it must be confest that we who are so many Ages remov'd from them have not their means of assurance let us in the next place consider whether an assent to those testimonies they have left behind them be not warranted by the common practice of mankind in other cases Who is there that questions there was such a man as William the Conqueror in this Island or to lay the Scene farther who doubts there was an Alexander a Julius Caesar an Augustus Now what have we to found this confidence on besides the faith of History And I presume even those who exact the severest demonstrations for Ecclesiastic Story would think him a very impertinent Sceptic that should do the like in these So also as to the Authors of Books who disputes whether Homer writ the Iliads or Virgil the Aeneids or Caesar the Commentaries that pass under their names yet none of these have bin attested in any degree like the Scripture 'T is said indeed that Caesar ventured his own life to save his Commentaries imploying one hand to hold that above the water when it should have assisted him in swimming But who ever laid down their lives in attestation of that or any human composure as multitudes of men have don for the Bible 49. BUT perhaps 't will be said that the small concern men have who wrote these or other the like Books inclines them to acquiesce in the common opinion To this I must say that many things inconsiderable to mankind have oft bin very laboriously discust as appears by many unedifying Volumes both of Philosophers and Schole-men But whatever may be said in this instance 't is manifest there are others wherein mens real and greatest interests are intrusted to the testimonies of former Ages For example a man possesses an estate which was bought by his great Grand-father or perhaps elder Progenitor he charily preserves that deed of purchase and never looks for farther security of his title yet alas at the rate that men object against the Bible what numberless Cavils might be rais'd against such a deed How shall it be known that there was such a man as either Seller or Purchaser if by the witnesses they are as liable to doubt as the other it being as easy to forge the Attestation as the main writing and yet notwithstanding all these possible deceits nothing but a positive proof of forgery can invalidate this deed Let but the Scripture have the same mesure be allowed to stand in force to be what it pretends to be till the contrary be not by surmises and possible conjectures but by evident proof evinc'd and its greatest Advocats will ask no more 50. A like instance may be given in public concerns the immunities and rights of any Nation particularly here of our Magna Charta granted many Ages since and deposited among the public Records to make this signify any thing it must be taken for granted that this was without falsification preserved to our times yet how easy were it to suggest that in so long a succession of its keepers som may have bin prevail'd on by the influence of Princes to abridg and curtail its concessions others by a prevailing faction of the people to amplify and extend it Nay if men were as great Sceptics in Law as they are in Divinity they might exact demonstrations that the whole thing were not a forgery Yet for all these possible surmises we still build upon it and should think he argued very fallaciously that should go to evacuate it upon the force of such remote suppositions 51. Now I desire it may be consider'd whether our security concerning the holy Scripture be not as great nay greater then it can be of this For first this is a concern only of a particular Nation and

severals First the Historical secondly the Prophetic thirdly the Doctrinal fourthly the Preceptive fifthly the Minatory sixthly the Promissory These are the several veins in this ●ich Mine in which he who industriously labors will find the Psalmist was not out in his estimate when he pronounces them more to be desir'd then gold yea then much fine gold Psal. 19. 10. 2. To speak first of the Historical part the things which chiefly recommend a History are the dignity of the subject the truth of the relation and those plesant or profitable observations which are interwoven with it And first for the dignity of the subject the History of the Bible must be acknowledged to excel all others those shew the rise and progress of som one people or Empire this shews us the original of the whole Universe and particularly of man for whose use and benefit the whole Creation was design'd By this mankind is brought into acquaintance with it self made to know the elements of its constitution and taught to pu● a differing value upon that Spirit which was breath'd into it by God Gen. 2. 7. and the fle●● whose foundation is in the dust Job 4. 19. And when this Historical part of Scripture contracts and draws into a narrow channel when it records the concerns but of one Nation yet it was that which God had dignified above all the rest of the world markt it out for his own peculiar made it the repository of his truth aud the visible stock from whence the Messias should come in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 18. 18. so that in this one people of the Jews was virtually infolded the highest and most important interests of the whole world and it must be acknowled'gd no Story could have a nobler subject to treat of 3. SECONDLY as to the truth of the relation tho to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it The most undoubted symptom of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality Now this is very ●minent in Scripture writers they do not record others faults and baulk their own but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message Ex. 4. 13. his provocation of God at the wa●ers of Meribah Num. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behavior towards God with as great aggravations as any of his enemies ●ould have don Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel neither omits nor extenuates his sin all he seems to speak short in is his ●epentance Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners 4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults so neither did any ●earness of relation any respect of quality ●ribe them to a concelement Moses relates the ossence of his sister Miriam in muti●ing Num. 12. 1. of his brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf Ex. 32. 4. with as little disguise as that of Korah and his company David tho a King hath his adultery and murder displaied in the blackest characters and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his tresures do's not escape a remark Nay even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the sacred Writers but they freely tax their crimes the Israclites murmurings in the wilderness their Idolatries in Canaan are set down without any palliation or excuse And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude as the Canaanites are for their abominations So that certainly no History in the world do's better attest its truth by this evidence of impartiality 5. IN the last place it commends it sell both by the plesure and profit it yields The rarity of those events it records surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration and that mixture of sage discourses and well-coucht Parables wherewith it abounds do's at once please and instruct How ingenuously apt was Nathans Apologue to David whereby with holy artifice he ensnar'd him into repentance And it remains still matter of instruction to us to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin is set out with such particularity that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst His own lust with Bathsheba was answer'd with Amnons towards Thamar his murder of Vriah with that of Amnon his trecherous contrivance of that murder with Absoloms traiterous conspiracy against him So that every circumstance of his punishment was the very echo and reverberation of his guilt A multitude of the like instances might be produc'd out of holy Writ all concurring to admonish us that God exactly marks and will repay our crimes and that commonly with such propriety that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings then the very sufferings themselves Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the historical part of Scripture that flow so easily and unconstrain'd that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them therefore 't would be impertinent here to multiply instances 6. LET us next consider the prophetic part of Scripture and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind The prophetic Books are for the most part made up as the prophetic Office was of two parts prediction and instruction When God rais'd up Prophets 't was not only to acquaint men with future events but to reform their present manners and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect so they are Watch-men and Shepherds in another Nay indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end their gift of fore-telling was to gain them autority to be as it were the seal of their commission to convince men that they were sent from God and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end the denouncing of judgements being the most frequent theme and that design'd to bring men to repentance as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh And in this latter part of their office the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence 7. WITH what liberty and zeal do's Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboths murder and foretel the fatal event of it without any fear of his power or reverence of his greatness And Samuel when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection do's passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin 1 Sam. 15. 17. Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the propheties Writings the same truth of prediction and the same zeal against vice 8. FIRST for the predictions what signal completions do we find How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfill'd where repentance has not interven'd He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities both

whereas the will in all other oppressions retains its liberty this tyranny brings that also into vassallage renders our spirits so mean and servile that we chuse bondage are apt to say with the Israelites Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians Ex. 14. 12. 83. AND what greater kindness can be don for people in this forlorn abject condition then to animate them to cast off this yoke and recover their freedom And to this are most of the Scripture exhortations addrest as may be seen in a multitude of places particularly in the sixth chapter to the Romans the whole scope whereof is directly to this purpose 84. NOR do's it only sound the alarm put us upon the contest with our enemies but it assists us in it furnishes us with that whole armor of God which we find describ'd Eph. 6. 13. Nay further it excites our courage by assuring us that if we will not basely surrender our selves we can never be overpower'd if we do but stand our ground resist our enemy he will fly from us Ja. 4. 7. And to that purpose it directs us under what banner we are to list our selves even his who hath spoil'd principalities and powers Col. 2. 15. to whose conduct and discipline if we constantly adhere we cannot miss of victory 85. AND then lastly it sets before us the prize of this conquest that we shall not only recover our liberty manumit our selves from the vilest bondage to the vilest and cruellest oppressors but we shall be crown'd for it too be rewarded for being kind to our selves and be made happy eternally hereafter for being willing to be happy here 89. AND sure these are terms so apparently advantageous that he must be infinitly stupid foolish to destruction that will not be thus made wise unto salvation that despifes or cavils at this divine Book which means him so much good which designs to make him live here generously and according to the dignity of his nature and in the next world to have that nature sublimated and exalted made more capacious of those refin'd and immense felicities which there await all who will qualify themselves for them who as the Apostle speaks by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Rom. 2. 7. 87. BUT besides the greatest and principal advantages which concern our spiritual interest it takes in also the care of our secular directs us to such a managery of our selves as is naturally apt to promote a quiet and happy life It s injunction to live peaceable with all men keeps us out of the way of many misadventures which turbulent unruly spirits meet with and so secures our peace So also as to wealth it puts us into the fairest road to riches by prescribing diligence in our callings what is thus got being like sound flesh which will stick by us whereas the hasty growth of ill-gotten wealth is but a tumor and impostume which the bigger it swells the sooner it bursts and leaves us lanker then before In like manner it shews us also how to guard our reputation by providing honest things not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men Cor. 8. 28. by abstaining even from all appearance of evil 1 Thes. 5. 22. and making our light shine before men Mat. 5. 16. It provides too for our ease and tranquillity supersedes our anxious cares and sollicitud's by directing us to cast our burden upon the Lord Psal. 55. 22. and by a reliance on his providence how to secure to our selves all we really want Finally it fixes us in all the changes supports us under all the pressures comforts us amidst all the calamities of this life by assuring us they shall all work together for good to those that love God Ro. 8. 28. 88. NOR do's the Scripture design to promote our interests consider'd only singly and personally but also in relation to Societies and Communities it gives us the best rules of distributive and commutative Justice teaches us to render to all their dues Ro. 13. 7. to keep our words to observe inviolably all our pacts and contracts nay tho they prove to our damage Psa. 15. 4. and to preserve exact fidelity and truth which are the sinews of human commerce It infuses into us noble and generous principles to prefer a common good before our private and that highest flight of Ethnic vertue that of dying for ones Country is no more then the Scripture prescribes even for our common brethren 1 To. 3. 16. 89. BUT besides these generals it descends to more minute directions accommodated to our several circumstances it gives us appropriate rules in reference to our distinct relations whether natural civil ecclesiastical or oeconomical And if men would but universally conform to them to what a blessed harmony would it tune the world what order and peace would it introduce There would then be no oppressive Governors nor mutinous Subjects no unnatural Parents nor contumacious Children no idle Shepherds or straying Flocks none of those domestic jars which oft disquiet and somtimes subvert families all would be calm and serene and give us in reality that golden Age whereof the Poets did but dream 90. THIS tendency of the Scripture is remarkably acknowledg'd in all our public Judicatories where before any testimony is admitted we cause the person that is to give his testimony first to lay hold of with his hands then with his mouth to kiss the holy Scriptures as if it were impossible for those hands which held the mysteries of Truth to be immediatly emploi'd in working falsehood or that those lips which had ador'd those holy Oracles should be polluted with perjuries and lies And I fear the civil Government is exceedingly shaken at this day in its firmest foundation by the little regard is generally had of the holy Scriptures and what is consequent thereto the oaths that are taken upon them 91. 'T IS true we are far remov'd from that state which Esaiah prophecied of under the Gospel tho we have the Bible among us that when the Law should go forth of Sion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem they should heat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks Es. 2. 4. but that is not from any defect in it but from our own perversness we have it but as the Apostle speaks in another sense as if we had it not 1 Cor. 7. 29. We have it that is use it to purposes widely different from what it means Som have it as a Supersedeas to all the duty it injoins and so they can but cap texts talk glibly of Scripture are not at all concern'd to practice it som have it as their Arsenal to furnish them with weapons not against their spiritual enemies but their secular applying all the damnatory sentences they there find to all those to whose persons or opinions they have prejudice And som have it as a Scene of their mirth