this Doctrine I. What wisdom and what esteem of our wisdom is not here condemned Ans 1. Not any real useful knowledg at all whilst every thing keepeth its proper place and due esteem as is said 2. That which of it self primarily is of so small use as that it falleth under the contempt of the Apostles yet by accident through the subtilty of Satan and the viciousness of the World may become to some men in some measure necessary And here cometh in the calamity of Divines Of how little use is it to me in it self to know what is written in many a hundred Books which yet by accident it much concerneth me to know And if God restrain him not the Devil hath us here at so great an advantage that he can make our work almost endless and hath almost done it already yea can at any time divert us from greatest Truth and Works by making another at that time more necessary If he raise up Socinians our task is increased we must read their Books that we may be able to confute them so must we when he raiseth up Libertines Familists Seekers Quakers and such other Sects If he stir up controversies in the Church about Government Worship Ceremonies Circumstances Words Methods c we must read so much as to understand all that we may defend the truth against them If Papists will lay the stress of all their controversies on Church History and the words of Ancients we must read and understand all or they will triumph If School-men will build their Theology on Aristotle all men have not the wit with the Iberian Legate at the Florentine Council in Sagyrophilus to cry against the Preacher What have we to do with Aristotle But if we cannot deal with them at their own weapons they will triumph If Cavillers will dispute only in mood and figure we must be able there to over-top them or they will insult If the Plica Pox Scurvey or other new diseases do arise the Physician must know them all if he will cure them And hence it is that we say that a Lawyer must know the Law and a Physician must know Physicks and Medicine c. But a Divine should know all things that are to be known because the diseased world hath turned pretended knowledg into the great malady which must be cured but is the thing it self of any great worth Is it any great honour to know the vanity of Philosophical Pedantry And to be able to overdo such gamesters any more than to beat one at a game at Chess or for a Physician to know the Pox or Leprosie 3. Yet indeed as all things are sanctified to the holy and pure to the pure a wise man may and must make great use of common inferiour kinds of knowledge especially the true Grammatical sense of Scripture words the true precepts of Logick the certain parts of real Physicks and Pneumatology For God is seen in his Works as in a Glass and there to search after him and behold him is a noble pleasant Work and Knowledg And I would that no Israelite may have need to go down to the Philistines for instruments of this sort 4. It is not forbidden to any man to know that measure of wisdom which he truly hath God bindeth us not to err nor to call Light Darkness or Truth Error or to belie our selves or deny his gifts 1. It is desireable for a man absolutely to know as much as he can preferring still the greatest things and to know that he knoweth them and not to be sceptical and doubt of all 2. It is a duty for a converted sinner comparatively to know that he is wiser than he was in his sinful state and to give God thanks for it 3. It is his duty who groweth in wisdom and receiveth new accessions of Light to know that he so groweth and to give God thanks and to welcome each useful truth with joy 4. It is the duty of a good and wise man comparatively to know that he is not as foolish as the ungodly nor to think that every wicked man or ignorant person whom he should pity and instruct is already wiser than he every Teacher is not to be so foolish as to think that all his flock are more judicious than himself In a word it is not a true estimate of the thing or of our selves that is forbidden us but a false It is not belying our selves nor ingratitude to God nor a contradiction to know a thing and not to know that I know it nor an ignorance of our own minds which is commanded us under the pretence of humility But it is a Proud conceit that we know what we do not know that is condemned Chap. 3. What pretended knowledge is condemned and what Philosophy and Learning it is that Paul disliked II. MOre distinctly 1. It is condemnable for any man to think himself Absolutely or Highly wise because our knowledg here is so poor and dark and low that compared with our Ignorance it is little we know not what or how many or how great the things are which we do not know but in general we may know that they are incomparably more and greater than what we do know we know now but as Children and Darkly and in a Glass or Riddle 1 Cor. 13.11 12. In the sence that Christ faith none is good but God we may say that none is wise but God. For a man that must know unless he be a very sot that he knoweth nothing perfectly in the World that he knoweth but little of any Worm or Fly or pile of Grass which he seeth or of himself his Soul or Body or any Creature for this man to assume the Title of a Wise man is arrogant unless comparatively understood when he is ignorant of ten thousand fold more than he knoweth and the predominant part denominateth The old enquirers had so much modesty as to arrogate no higher name than Philosophers 2. It is very condemnable for any man to be proud of his understanding while it is so low and poor and dark and hath still so much matter to abase us He knoweth not what a Dungeon poor mortals are in nor what a darkened thing a sinful mind is nor what a deplorable state we are in so far from the Heavenly light no nor what it is to be a man in Flesh who findeth not much more cause of humiliation than of pride in his understanding O how much ado have I to keep up from utter despondency under the consciousness of so great ignorance which no study no means no time doth overcome How long Lord shall this Dungeon be our dwelling And how long shall our foolish Souls be loth to come into the Celestial light 3. It is sinful folly to pretend to know things unrevealed and impossible to be known Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our Children
contexture of many proofs or on any long operous work of Reason men have a natural consciousness of the uncertainty of it Yea though our Doctrines of the Immortality of our own Souls and of the Life of Retribution after this and the Truth of the Gospel have so much certain Evidence as they have yet a Lively certain Faith is the more rare and difficult because men are so conscious of the fallibility of their own understandings that about things unseen unsensible they are still apt to doubt whether they be not deceived in their apprehensions of the Evidence By these twenty instances it is too plain that there is little solid wisdom in the world that wise men are few and those few are but a little wise And should not this suffice to make all men but especially the unlearned half-learned the young and unexperienced to abate their ungrounded confidence and to have humble and suspicious thoughts of their own apprehensions Chap. 17. Inference 5. That it is not the dishonour but the Praise of Christ his Apostles and the Gospel that they speak in a plain manner of the Certain Necessary things without the Vonity of School-uncertainties and feigned unprofitable nations I Have been my self oft Scandalized at the Fathers of the 4th Carthage Council who forbad Bishops the reading of the Heathens Books and at some good old unlearned Christian Bishops who spake to the same purpose and oft reproach Apollinaris Aetius and other Hereticks for their Secular or gentile Learning Logick c. And I wondered that Julian and they should prohibit the same thing But one that is so far distant from the action is not a competent Judge of the reasons of it Perhaps there were some Christian Authors then who were sufficient for such literature as was best for the Church Perhaps they saw that the danger of reading the Heathens Philosophy was like to be greater than the benefit Both because it was them that they lived among and were to gather the Churches out of and if they put an honour upon Logick and Philosophy they might find it more difficult to draw men from that party which excelled in it to the belief of the Scriptures which seemed to have so little of it And they had seen also how a mixture of Platonick notions with Christianity had not only been the Original of many heresies but had sadly blemished many great Doctors of the Churches Whatever the cause was it appeareth that in those days it was the deepest insight into the Sacred Scriptures which was reckoned for the most solid Learning Philosophy was so confounded by Differences Sects Uncertainties and Falshoods that made it the more despicable by how much the less pure And Logick had so many precarious Rules and Notions as made it fitter to wrangle and play with than to further grave men in their deep and serious enquiry in the great things of God and mysteries of Salvation But yet it cannot be denied but that true Learning of the Subservient Arts and Sciences is of so great use to the accomplishing of mans mind with wisdom that it is one of the greatest offences that ever was taken against Christ and the holy Scriptures that so little of this Learning is found in them in comparison of what is in Plato Aristotle Demosthenes or Cicero But to remove the danger of this offence let these things following be well considered I. Every means is to be judged of by its aptitude to its proper use and end Morality is the subject and business of the Scriptures It is not the work of it to teach men Logick and Philosophy any more than to teach them Languages Who will be offended with Christ for not teaching men Latine Greek or Hebrew Architecture Navigation or Mechanick Arts And why should they be more offended with him for not teaching them Astronomy Geometry Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. It was none of his work II. Nature is presupposed to Grace and God in Nature had before given man sufficient helps to the attainment of so much of the knowledge of Nature as was convenient for him Philosophy is the knowledge of Gods works of Creation It was not this at least chiefly that man lost by his fall It was from God and not from the Creature that he turned And it was to the knowledge of God rather than of the Creature that he was to be restored What need one be sent from Heaven to teach men the order and rules of speaking Or to teach men those Arts and Sciences which they can otherwise learn themselves As it is presupposed that men have reason so that they have among them the common helps and crutches of reason III. The truth is it is much to be suspected lest as an inordinate desire of Creature-knowledge was a great part of our first Parents sin so it hath accordingly corrupted our nature with an answerable vicious inclination thereunto Not that the thing in it self is evil to know Gods works but good and desireable in its place and measure But it is such a good as by inordinacy may become a dangerous evil Why should we not judge of this desire of knowing the Creatures as we do of other Creature-affections It is lawful and meet to love all Gods Creatures His works are good and therefore amiable And yet I think no man is damned but by the inordinate loving of the Creature turning his Heart from the love of God. And as our Appetites are lawful and necessary in themselves and yet Natures pravity consisteth much in the prevalency of them against reason which is by reasons infirmity and the inordinacy of the sensitive Appetite even so a desire to know Gods works is natural and good but its inordinateness is our pravity and a sinful Lust Doubtless the mind and phantasie may find a kind of pleasure in knowing which is according to the nature and use of the thing known When it is vain or low and base the pleasure is vain and low and base When the object is ensnaring and diverting from higher things it doth this principally by delight Verily this inordinate desire of Creature-knowledge is a Lust a vicious Lust I have been guilty of it in some measure my self since I had the use of reason I have lived a Life of constant pleasure gratifying my Intellect and Phantasie with seeking to know as much as I could know And if I could not say truly that I referred it as a means to the knowledge and love of God I should say that it was all sin But because I have loved it too much for it self and not referred it to God more purely and intirely I must confess that it was never blameless And the corruption of the noblest faculty is the worst The delights of Eating Drinking Venery are the matter of common Sensuality when they are inordinately desired And is not the inordinate desire of Creature-knowledge if it be desired from the like principle and to the like ends
But in other places it is otherwise So that it 's hard to be certain of Truth or Error Good or Evil by the meer Consent Opinion or Experience of any XVI But the last and great instance is that in the holy Scriptures themselves there is a great inequality in point of Certainty yea many parts of them have great uncertainty Even these that follow I. Many hundred Texts are uncertain through various Readings in several Copies of the Original I will not multiply them on Capellus his opinion Though Claud. Saravius Who got the Book Printed and other worthy men approve it I had rather there were fewer Varieties and therefore had rather think there are fewer But these that cannot be denied must not be denied Nor do I think it fit to gather the discrepancies of every odd Copy and call them Various readings â—ut it is past denial that the world hath no one ancient Copy which must be the Rule or Test of all the rest and that very many Copies are of such equal credit as that no man living can say that this and not that where they differ hath the very words of the Holy-Ghost And that even in the New Testament alone the differences or various Readings of which no man is able to say which is the right are so great a number as I am not willing to give every reader an account of Even those that are gathered by Stephanus and Junius and Brugensis and Beza if you leave out all the rest in the appendix to the Polyglot Bible In all or most of which we are utterly uncertain which Reading is Gods Word II. There are many hundred words in the Scriptures that are ambiguous signifying more things than one and the context in a multitude of places determineth not the proper sense so that you may with equal Authority translate them either thus or thus The Margin of your Bibles giveth you no small number of them It must needs here be uncertain which of them is the Word of God. III. There are many hundred Texts of Scripture where the Phrase is General and may be applyed to more particulars than one In some places the several particulars must be taken as included in the General And where there is no necessity a General Phrase should not be expounded as if it were particular But in a multitude of Texts the General is put for the particular and must be interpreted but of one sort and yet the context giveth us no certain determination which particular is meant This is one of the commonest uncertainties in all the Scriptures Here it is Gods will that we be uncertain IV. In very many passages of the History of Christ the Evangelists set both Words and Deeds in Various Orders one sets this first and another sets another first As in the order of Christs three Temptations Mat. 4. and Luk. 4. And many such like Though it is apparent that Luke doth less observe the order than the rest yet in many of these cases it is apparent that it was Gods will to notifie to us the Matter only and not the Order And that it must needs be uncertain to us which was first said or done and which was last The same is to be said of the time and place of some speeches of Christ recorded by them V. Many of Christs Speeches are recorded by the Evangelists in various words Even the Lords Prayer it self Mat. 6. and Luk. 11. Besides that Matthew hath the doxology which Luke hath not which Grotius and many others think came out of the Greek Liturgy into the Text. And even in Christs Sermon in the Mount and in his last Commission to his disciples Mat. 28.18 19 20. and Mar. 16. Now in some of these cases as of the Lords Prayer it is uncertain whether Christ spake it once or twice Though the former is more likely In most of them it is plain that it was the Will of Gods Spirit to give us the true sense of Christs sayings in various words and not all the very words themselves For the Evangelists that differ do neither of them speak falsly and therefore meant not to recite all the very words If you say that one giveth us the true words and another the true sense we shall never be certain that this is so nor which that one is So that in such cases no man can possibly tell which of them were the very words of Christ VI. There are many Texts of the Old Testament recited in the New where it is uncertain whether that which the Penman intended was an Exposition or Proof of what he said or only an Allusion to the Phrase of Speech as if he should say I may use such words to express my mind or the matter by As Matth. 2.23 He shall be called a Nazarene So v. 16 17. Rom. 10.6 7 8 18. and others I know the Excellent Junius in his Parallels hath said much and more than any other that I know to prove them all or almost all to be expository and probatory Citations But withal confessing that the generality of Ancient and Modern Expositors think otherwise he thereby sheweth a great uncertainty when he himself saith not that he is Certain of it and few others thought it probable VII There are many Texts cited in the New Testament out of the Septuagint where it differeth from the Hebrew Wherein it is utterly uncertain to us whether Christ and his Apostles intended to justifie absolutely the translation which they use or only to make use of it as that which then was known and used for the sake of the sense which it contained If they absolutely justifie it they seem to condemn the Hebrew so far as it differeth If not why do they use it and never blame it It seemeth that Christ would hereby tell us that the sense is the Gold and the words but as the Purse and we need not be over-curious about them so we have the sence As if I should use the vulgar Latine or the Rhemists Translation with the Papist because he will receive no other VIII There are many Aenigmatical and obscure expressions which a few Learned men only can probably conjecture at few or none be certain of the full sense If any certainly understand much of the Prophecies in Daniel and the Revelations it must needs be very few When Calvin durst not meddle with the latter And though most of the famous Commentators on the Revelations are such as have peculiarly made it their Study and set their minds upon it above all other things and rejoiced in conceit that they had found out the true sense which others had overseen as men do that seek the Philosophers Stone yet how few of all these are there that agree And if ten be of nine minds eight of them at least are mistaken Franc. du Jon the Lord Napier Brightman Dent Mede and my godly Friend Mr. Stephens yet living since dead with many others have studied
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
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
they be the Word of God as of Ruth Judges Joshua Chronicles c. Yea if he doubted of all the Old Testament and much of the New yet if he believe so much as containeth all the Covenant of Grace and the foresaid Summaries though he sin and lose much of his helps yet he may and will be saved if he sincerely receive but this much The reason is before given Though no man can believe any thing truly who believeth not all that he knoweth to be Gods Word yet a man may doubt whether one thing be Gods Word who doubteth not of another by several occasions And here you see the Reason why a particular or explicite Belief of all the Scripture it self was never required of all that are baptized nor of all or any man that entered into the Ministry For the wisest Doctor in the world doth not attain so high For no man hath a particular explicite Belief of that which he doth not understand For it is the matter or sence that we believe and we must first know what that sence is before we can believe it to be true And no man in the World understandeth all the Scripture Yea more it is too much to require as necessary to his Ministry a subscription in General that he implicitely believeth all that is in that Bible which you shall shew him For 1. Many faults may be in the Translation if it be a Translation 2. Many errors may be in the Copy as aforesaid Nay such a subscription should not as absolutely necessary be required of him as to all the real Word of God. For if the man by error should doubt whether Job or the Chronicles or Esther were Canonical and none of the rest I would not be he that should therefore forbid him to Preach Christs Gospel I am sure the ancient Church imposed no such terms on their Pastors when part of the new Testament was so long doubted of and when some were chosen Bishops before they were Baptized and when Synesius was chosen a Bishop before he believed the Resurrection I would not have silenced Luther Althamer or others that questioned the Epistle of James What then shall we say of the Roman insolence which thinketh not all the Scripture big enough but Ministers must also subscribe to many additions of their own yea and swear to Traditions and the Expositions of the Fathers and take whole Volumes of Councils for their Religion No wonder if such men do tear the Churches of Christ in pieces 1. By this time I hope you see to what use Baptism and the Summaries of Religion are 2. And of how great use Catechizing is 3. And that Christianity hath its essential parts 4. And how plain and simple a thing true Christianity is which constituteth the Church of Christ And how few things as to knowledge are necessary to make a man a Christian or to Salvation Multitudes of opinions have been the means of turning Pastors and People from the holy and diligent improvement of these few truths in our practice where we have much to do which might take up all our minds and time Chap. VIII Inference 2. Of the use of Catechizing THough it be spoken to in what is said I would have you more distinctly here note the use of Catechizing 1. It collecteth those few things out of many which the Ignorant could not themselves collect 2. It collecteth those necessary things which all must know and believe that will be saved 3. It containeth those Great practical things which we have daily use for and must still live upon which are as Bread and Drink for our food Other things may be well added the more the better which God hath revealed But our Life and our comfort and our Hope is in these 4. And it giveth us the true method or order of holy truths which is a great advantage to understand them Not but that the things themselves have the same orderly respect to one another in the Scripture but they are not delivered in the same order of words Therefore 1. Catechisms should be very skilfully and carefully made The true fundamental Catechism is nothing else but the Baptismal Sacramental Covenant the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments the Summaries of our Belief Desires and Practice And our secondary Catechism must be nothing else but the plain expositions of these the first is a Divine Catechism the second is a Ministerial Expository Catechism And here 1. O that Ministers would be wiser at last than to put their superfluities their controversies and private opinions into their Catechisms and would fit them to the true end and not to the interest of their several sects But the Roman-Trent Catechism and many more of theirs must needs be defiled with their trash and every sect else must put their singularities into their Catechisms so hard is it for the aged decrepit body of the diseased Church for want of a better concoction of the common essentials of Christianity to be free from these heaps of inconcocted crudities and excrementitious superfluities and the many maladies bred thereby I deny not but a useful controversie may be opened by way of Question and Answer But pretend it not then to be what it is not Milk for Babes Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations The Servant of the Lord must be apt to teach but must not strive 2. And it is not commonly believed how great skill is needful to make a Catechism that the method may be true and that it may neither be too long for the memory nor too short for the understanding for my part it is the hardest work save one which is the full methodizing and explaining the whole body of Divinity that ever I put my hand to And when all 's done I cannot satisfy my self in it II. Why is not Catechizing more used both by Pastors and Parents I mean not the bare words unexplained without the sence nor the sence in a meer rambling way without a form of words But the words explained O how much fruit would poor Souls and all the Church receive by the faithful performance of this work would God but cure the prophaneness and sloth of unfaithful Pastors and Parents which should do it But I have said so much of this in my Reformed Pastor that I may well forbear more here Chap. IX Inference 3. The true Preservative of puzled Christians from the Errours of false Teachers who vehemently sollicite them to their several parties IT is the common out-cry of the World. How shall we know which side to be on And who is in the right among so many who all with confidence pretend to be in the right Ans Your Preservative is obvious and easie but men usually bestow more labour and cost for Error and Hell than for Truth and Heaven Pretend not to Faith or knowledge before you have it and you are the more safe SUSPEND your judgments
certain Conditions all sound mens Senses and Intellects are Infallible V. Certainty of Evidence consisteth in such a Position of the thing evident as maketh it an Object perceptible to the faculty perceiving to which many Conditions are required As 1. That the Thing it self have such intrinsick qualifications as make it fit to be an Object 2. That it have the due extrinsick conditions concomitant 1. To the Nature of an Object of perception it is necessary 1. That it be a thing which in its Nature is within the reach of the perceiving faculty And not as Spirits are to sense so above us or alien to us as to be out of the Orb of our perception 2. That they have a perceptible Quantity Magnitude or Degree 3. That if it be an Incomplex term and object and not an Universal of the highest notion it be hoc aliquid and have its proper Individuation 4. That it have some special distinct conformity to the distinct perceiving faculty In sum that it be Ens Unum Verum Bonum vel hisce contraria reductivè per accidens cognita 2. To the extrinsick Conditions it is necessary 1. That the Object have a due site or position 2. And a due distance neither too near nor too far off 3. And that it have a due medium fitted to it and to the faculty 4. And that it have a due abode or stay and be not like a Bullet out of a Gun imperceptible through the celerity of its motion VI. That the perception of sense be certain it is necessary 1. That the Organ be sound in such a measure as that no prevalent Distemper undispose it 2. That it be not oppressed by any disturbing adjunct 3. That the sensitive Soul do operate on and by these Organs For else its alienation will leave the Organ useless As some intense meditations make us not hear the Clock 4. That it be the due Sense and Organ which meeteth with the Object as sounds with the Ear light with the Eye c. besides the foresaid necessaries VII Common Notitiae or Principles are not so called because men are born with the Actual Knowledge of them But because they are truths which mans mind is naturally so disposed to receive as that upon the first exercises of Sense and Reason some of them are understood without any other humane teacher VIII Even self-evident Principles are not equal but some of them are more and some less evident And therefore some sooner and some later known And some of them are more commonly known than others IX The self evidence of these Principles ariseth from the very nature of the Intellect which inclineth to Truth and the Nature of the Will which essentially inclineth to Good and the Nature and Posture of the Objects which are Truth and Goodness in the most evident position compared together or Conjunct some call it Instinct X. It is not necessary to the certainty of a Principle that it be commonly known of all or most For Intellects have great Variety of Capacities Excitation Helps Improvements and even Principles have various degrees of evidence and appearances to men XI Mans mind is so conscious of its own darkness and imperfections that it is distrustful of its own Inferences unless they be very Near and Clear. When by a long Series of Ergo's any thing is far fetcht the mind is afraid there may be some unperceived error XII He therefore that holdeth a true Principle as such and at once a false inference which contradicteth it is to be supposed to hold the principle first and fastest and that if he saw the Contradiction he would let go the consequent and not the principle XIII He that denieth the certainty of Sense Imagination and Intellective perception of things sensed as such doth make it impossible to have any certainty of Science or Faith about those same Objects but by miracle And therefore the Papists denying and renouncing all these Sense Imagination and Intellective perception when they say that there is no Bread nor Wine in the Sacrament do make their pretended contrary Faith impossible For we are men before we are Christians and we have Sense and Intellects before we have faith And as there is no Christianity but on supposition of humanity so there is no Faith but on supposition of sense and understanding How know you that here is no Bread and Wine Is it because Scripture or Councils say so How know you that By Hearing or Reading But how know you that ever you did hear or read or see a Book or Man By sense or no way If sense be fallible here why not there You 'l say that sense may be fallible in one case and not in others I answer either you prove it infallible from Nature even by Sense and Intellective perception of and by sense or else by supernatural Revelation If only by this Revelation how know you that Revelation How know you that ever you heard read or saw any thing which you call Revelation If by a former Revelation I ask you the same question in infinitum But if you know the certainty of Sense by Sense and Intellective perception then where there is the same evidence and perception there is the same certainty But here is as full Evidence and Perception as any other Object can have 1. We see Bread and Wine 2. We tast it 3. We smell the Wine 4. We hear it poured out 5. We feel it 6. We find the effects of it It refresheth and nourisheth as other Bread and Wine 7. It doth so by any other creature as well as by a man. 8. It corrupteth 9. It becometh true flesh and blood in us and a part of our bodies Even in the worst Yea part of the body of a Mouse or Dog. 10. It 's possible for a Mouse or Dog to live only upon consecrated Bread and Wine Is his body then nothing but Christ 11. In all this perception the Objects are not rare but commonly exhibited in all ages They have all the Conditions that other sensible evident objects have as to site magnitude distance medium 12. And it is not one or two but all men in the World of the soundest senses who sense and perceive them to be Bread and Wine So that here is as full evidence as the words which you read or hear can have to ascertain us Obj. But if God deny sense in this case and not in others we must believe sense in others and not in this Ans But again I ask you How you know that God biddeth or forbiddeth you any thing if sense be not first to be believed Obj. But is it not possible for sense to be deceived Cannot God do it Ans 1. It is possible for sense to be annihilated and made no sense and it is possible that the Faculty or Organ or Medium or Object be depraved or want its due conditions and so to be deceived But to retain all these due Conditions and yet to
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
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
Layman that can not tell him what is in the Councils or by a Priest that never read the Councils and whether the variety of natural capacities bodily temperaments education and course of Life before do not make as great variety of proportions to be necessary to the sufficiency of this Proposal And what mortal man can truly take the measure of them And how then can any man be Certain what those points are which are necessary for him to believe X. Those things are uncertain which depend upon an uncertain Author or Authority For instance the Roman faith dependeth on the exposition of the Scriptures by the consent of the Fathers and on the Tradition of the Church and the decrees of an authorized Council And here is in all this little but uncertainties 1. It is utterly uncertain who are to be taken for Fathers and who not Whether Origen Tatianus Arnobius Lactantius Tertullian and many such be Fathers or not Whether such a man as Theophilus Alexandrinus or Chrysostom was the Father when they condemned each other Whether such as are justly suspected of Heresy as Eusebius or such as the Romanists have cast suspicions on as Lucifer Calaritanus called a Heretick Socrates Sozomens falsly called Novatians Hilary Arelatensis Condemned by the Pope Leo and Claud. Turovens Rupertus Tuitiens and such others When the ancients renounced each others Communion as Martin did by Ithacius and Idacius and their Synod when they describe one another as stark Knaves as Socrates doth Theophil Alexandrin and Sulpitius Severus doth Ithacius which of them were the Fathers 2. How shall we know certainly which are the true uncorrupted writings of these Fathers among so many forgeries and spurious Scripts 3. How shall it be known what exposition the Fathers consented on when not one of a multitude and but few in all have commented on any considerable parts of the Scripture and those few so much often differ 4. When in the Doctrine of the Trinity it self Petavius largely proveth that most of the writers of the three first Centuries after the Apostles were unsound and others confess the same about the Millennium the corporeity of Angels and of the Soul and divers other things doth their consent bind us to believe them If not how shall we know in what to believe their consent according to this Rule 2. And as to the Church they are utterly disagreed among themselves what that Church is which hath this authority 1. Whether the Pope alone 2. Or the Pope with a Provincial Council 3. Or the Pope with a General Council 4. Or a General Council without the Pope 5. Or the universality of Pastors 6. Or the universality of the people with them 3. And for a Council 1. There is no certainty what number of Bishops and what consent of the Comprovincial Clergy is necessary to make them the true representatives of any Church 2. And more uncertain in what Council the Bishops had such consent 3. And uncertain whether the Popes approbation be necessary The great Councils of Constance and Basil determining the contrary 4. And uncertain which were truly approved 5. And most certain that there never was any General Council in the world unless you will call the Apostles a General Council but only General Councils of the Clergy of one Empire with now and then a stragling Neighbour even as we have General Assemblies and Convocations in this Kingdom And who can be certain of that faith which dependeth upon all or any of these uncertainties XI That must needs be an uncertainty which dependeth on the unknown thoughts of another man. For instance with the Papists the Priests intention which is the secret of his heart is necessary to the being of Baptism and Transubstantiation And so no man can be certain whether he or any other man be baptized or not Nor whether it be Bread or Christs Body which he eateth We confess that it is necessary to the being of a Sacrament that the Minister do seem or profess to intend it as a Sacrament But if the reality of his intent be necessary to the being of it no man can be certain that ever he had a Sacrament XII It is a hard thing to be certain on either side in those controversies which have multitudes and in a manner equal strength of Learned Judicious Well-studyed Godly Impartial men for each part I deny not but one clear-headed man may be certain of that which a multitude are uncertain of and oppose him in But it must not be ordinary men but some rare illuminated person that must get above a probability unto a Certainty of that which such a company as aforesaid are of a contrary mind in XIII There is great uncertainty in matters of private impulse When a man hath nothing to prove a thing to be Gods will but an inward perswasion or impulse in his own Breast let it never so vehemently incline him to think it true it 's hard to be sure of it For we know not how far Satan or our own distempered Phantasies may go And most by far that pretend to this do prove deceived That which must be certain must be somewhat equal to Prophetical Inspiration Which indeed is its own Evidence But what that is no man can formally conceive but he that hath had it Therefore we are bid to Try the Spirits XIV It is a hard thing to gather certainties of Doctrinal conclusion from Gods Providences alone Providential changes have their great use as they are the fulfilling or execution of the word But they that will take them instead of the Scripture do usually run into such mistakes as are rectifyed to their cost by some contrary work of Providence ere long These times have fully taught us this XV. It is hard to gather Doctrinal certainties from Godly mens Experiences alone Even our Experimental Philosophers and Physicians find that an experiment that hits oft-times quite misseth afterwards on other Subjects and they know not why A course of effects may oft come from unknown causes And it 's no rare thing for the common Prejudices Selfconceitedness or corruption of the weaker and greater number of good people which needeth great repentance and a cure to be mistaken for the Communis Sensus Fidelium the Inclination and Experience of the Godly Especially when consent or the honour of their Leaders or Themselves hath engaged them in it In my time the common sense of the strictest sort was against long hair and taking Tobacco and other such things which now their common practice is for In one Countrey the common consent of the strictest party is for Arminianism In another they are zealously against it In Poland where the Socinians are for sitting at the Sacrament the Godly are generally against it In other places they are for it In Poland and Bohemia where they had holy humble perswading Bishops the generality of the Godly were for that Episcopacy as were all the ancient Churches even the Novatians
side and the other to receive and rashly tell about lies of one another that I confess I am grown to take little heed of what such say in such a case unless the report continue a year uncontrolled For it 's common for them to tell those things as unquestionable which a few months prove false And yet never to manifest any repentance but to go on with the like one month disproving what the former hatcht and vended And indeed the very wisest and best of men are guilty of so much Ignorance Temerity Suspiciousness of others partiality c. That we must believe them though far sooner than others yet still with a reservâ—â—o change our minds if we find them mistaken 〈◊〉 still on supposition that they are fallible persons and that all men are Liars VII Another great cause of pretended false Knowledge and Confidence is the unhappy prejudices which our minds contract even in our Childhood before we have time and wit and Conscience to try things by true deliberation Children and Youth must receive much upon trust or else they can learn nothing But then they have not wit to proportion their apprehensions to the Evidence whether of Credibility or Certainty And so fame and tradition and education and the Countreys Vote do become the ordinary Parents of many Lies and folly maketh us to fasten so fearlesly in our fâ—rst apprehensions that they keep open the door to abundance of more falshoods And it must be clear Teachers or great impartial studies of a self-denying mind with a great blessing of God that must deliver us from prejudice and undeceive us And therefore all the World seeth that almost all men are of the Religion of their Country or their Parents be it never so absurd Though with the Mahometans they believe the Nonsence of a very sot once reading a quarter of whose Alcoran one would think should cure a man of Common reason of any inclination to his belief And among the Japonians even the eloquent Bonzii believe in Amida and Xaca To mention the belief of the Chinenses the People of Pegu Siam and many other such yea the Americans the Brasilians Lappians c. that correspond with Devils would be a sad instance of the unhappiness of mens first apprehensions and education And what doth the foresaid instance of Popery come short herein which tells us how Prejudice and Education and Company can make men deny all mens common sence and believe common unseen Miracles pretended in the stead VIII Another cause is the mistaking of the nature of the duty of submitting our judgment to our Superiours and Teachers especially to the Multitude or the Church or Antiquity No doubt but much reverence and a humane belief is due to the Judgment of our Teachers credibly made known But this is another thing quite different 1. From knowing by Evidence 2. And from believing God of which before and after IX Another cause is base slothfulness which makes men take up with the judgment of those in most reputation for Power Wisdom or Number to save them the labour of searching after the scientifical Evidence of things or the certain Evidence of Divine Revelations X. Another frequent cause is an appearance of something in the Truth which frighteneth men from it either for want of a clear methodical advantageous representation or by some difficult objection or some miscarriage in the utterance carriage or life of them that seem most zealous for it such little things deceive dark man And when he is turned from the Truth he thinks that the contrary Errour may be embraced without fear XI Another great cause of Confidence in false Conceits is the byass of some personal Interest prevailing with a corrupted Will and the mixture of Sense and Passion in the Judgment For as interested men hardly believe what seemeth against them and easily believe that which they would have to be true so Sense and Passion or Affections usually so bear down Reason that they think it their right to possess the Throne Not but that Sense is the only discerner of its own sensible Object as such and Reason by Sense as it is intelligible But that 's not the matter in hand But the Sensualist forceth his Reason to call that Best for him which his Sense is most delighted with and that Worst which most offendeth Sense The Drunkard will easily judge that his drinking is good for him and the Glutton that his pleasant meats are lawful and the Time-waster that his Plays are lawful and the Fornicator the wrathful revenger c. that their lusts and passions are lawful because they think that they have Feeling on their side It 's hard to carry an upright Judgment against Sense and Passion XII Sometimes a strong deluded Imagination maketh men exceeding confident in Errour some by Melancholy and some by a natural weakness of Reason and strength of Phantasie and some by misapprehensions in Religion grow to think that every strong conceit which doth but come in suddenly at reading or hearing or thinking on such a Text or in time of earnest prayer especially if it deeply affect themselves is certainly some suggestion or inspiration of God's Spirit And hence many Errours have troubled poor Souls and the Church of God which afterward they have themselves retracted Hence are the confidence of some ignorant Christians in expounding difficult Scriptures Prophecies and the boldness of others in expounding dark Providences and also in foretelling by their own surmises things to come XIII And not a few run into this mischief in some extreams by seeing others run into Errour on the other side Some are so offended at the credulity of the weak that they will grow confident against plain certainties themselves As because there are many feigned Miracles Apparitions Possessions and Witchcrafts in the World divulged by the Credulity of the injudicious therefore they will more foolishly be confident that there are no such things at all And because they see some weak persons impute more of their opinions performances and affections to God's Spirit than they ought therefore they grow mad against the true operations of the Spirit and confident that there is no such thing Some deride Praying by the Spirit and Preaching by the Spirit and Living by the Spirit when as they may as well deride understanding willing working by a Reasonable Soul no holy thing being holily done without God's Spirit any more than any act of life and reason without the Soul And they may on the same grounds deride all that Live not after the flesh and that are Christians Rom. 8.5 6 7 8 9 13. or that Love God or that seek Salvation Yea some run so far from spiritual Fanaticisms that they deny the very Being of Spirits and many confidently set up a dead Image of true Religion in bitter hatred and opposition of all that hath Life and serious Holiness So mad are some made by seeing some feverish persons dote XIV Another Cause
though they do some job of present service the next way at the end we shall find that they did more harm than good And that to say the contrary and that men will cease to be Christians unless they be kept to it by deceit is the way to downright infidelity And yet that you may see how much more than ordinary I favour the weaknesses of such I will here answer a great question Quest Whether a Man can have true saving Faith who believeth the Gospel or Scripture to be Gods word and Christ to be the Saviour of the World upon reasons or grounds not sure nor cogent and concluding yea possibly not true for the most part Ans He that readeth Mr. Pinks excellent Sermons and many other such Divines will find them thus describing the Faith of Hypocrites that they conclude have no true saving Faith that they believe in Christ but on the same or like reasons as a Turk may believe in Mahomet that is because the most the greatest the Learnedst and the best and all the Countrey are of their minds and in that way their Parents did educate them in For my part I easily confess 1. That such a belief which buildeth on unsound grounds is wanting proportionably in its own soundness 2. And that it should not be rested in 3. Much less cherished against all counsels that would cure it 4. And that though uncertain reasons are 1. The first 2. And the most prevailing with him afterwards yet every true Believer discerneth some intrinsick Signs of Divinity at least as probable in the Word it self But yet supposing that wrong motives be his chief and that he discerneth not that in the word it self which most prevaileth with him I am of opinion that 1. If the end of such a Believer be sound the reducing of the Soul to God and attainment of Glory and the perfect Love of God. 2. And if that man unfeignedly believe all that is Gods Word to be true 3. And if he believe all the substance of the Gospel to be Gods word though by an unsound and non-concluding medium as his chief 4. And if he by this belief be brought himself to the actual love of God as God This unsound Believer is sound in the Essentials of Christianity and shall be saved The objection is An uncertain yea deceived belief upon false suppositions is no true belief and therefore cannot save I answer There is a double Truth in such a belief 1. That all Gods Word is true 2. That this Gospel is Gods Word and Christ is the Messiah You will say that there can be no more no surer no better in the Conclusion than is in the weaker of the Premises I answer I grant it And all that will follow is that the Conclusion is not necessary from these Premises and that the believer was mistaken in the reason of his inference and that he concluded a truth upon an unsound medium I grant all this and consequently that his Faith hath some unsoundness or diseasedness in it But for all this I see not but such a believer may be saved 1. Because Christs promise is that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life without excepting such as are drawn to it by non-cogent arguments And he that will put in an exception against the Covenant of Grace must prove it or be injurious to Christ to his Gospel and to mens Souls 2. Because by experience I find that it is but a small part of serious Godly Christians who believe the Scriptures upon cogent evidence or at least many do not But abundance take it upon trust from Godly Preachers or Parents and go on without much examining of their grounds And are not able to bring a cogent proof of the Divinity of the Scriptures when they are called to it And I am not willing to conclude so great a part of humble upright Christians to Damnation as know not such reasons for their Faith as would hold good in strict disputation Not that our Charity must bend the Scripture to it But that Scripture commandeth such Charity and it no where condemneth any man that believeth upon uncogent reasons For he that doth so may yet firmly Trust on Jesus Christ and firmly believe that the Gospel is true as being the very Word of God and may take Heaven for his Portion and Love God as God and therefore may be saved Though yet I think it impossible that any man should truly believe the Scriptures and not perceive in them some Characters of Divinity which as an intrinsical Evidence much encourage and induce him to believe them And-though this secret gust and perception be not the medium that he useth in arguing or be not the chief yet it may have an effectual force with his Soul to hold him close to Christ But if you suppose the man to have no Spiritual sight and tast of a difference between Gods Word and a common Book then he cannot be supposed to be a sound believer As a man that hath one ingredient in his medicine which is effectual may be cured though in the composition the main bulk be vanities or as a debtor that hath many insufficient sureties may do well if he have one sufficient one though he more trust the rest or as a mans cause may go for him in Judgment that hath one or two good Witnesses and twenty bad ones which he put more trust in and as he truly proveth his position who bringeth one sound argument for it and twenty bad ones So I think that the common way of the illiterate in believing is first to believe Gods Word to be his Word by humane Faith and after upon trial to find a Spiritual light and goodness in the Word it self and by both together to believe that it is Gods Word And the worser reasons may be the more powerful with him and yet not destroy the sincerity of his Faith. Nor doth this make his Faith meerly humane For the Question now is not why he believeth God's Word to be True trusteth on it For that is because it is God's Word discerned by him so to be but he that by an insufficient Medium at least with a Better though less understood doth take it to be God's may yet by a Divine Faith believe it because he judgeth it his Word If a man should counterfeit himself an Angel from Heaven and come in some splendid deceitful appearance in the night to an Heathen and tell him that he is sent from God to bring him this Bible as his Certain Word and if the man receive it and believe it on his credit to the death and by that Believing it be brought to see an excellency and credibility and taste a spiritual sweetness in it and be brought by it as he may be to Holiness and the Love of God that man shall be saved though I cannot say that the Intrinsick Evidence of the Word alone would have
of Children in general and their inception of a new life so in special he seemeth to respect them as Disciples set Children to School and their business is to hear and learn all day They set not their wits against their Masters and do not wrangle and strive against him and say It is not so we know better than you But so abominably is humane nature corrupted by this Intellectual Pride that when once Lads are big enough to be from under a Tutor commonly instead of Learning of others they are of a teaching humour and had rather speak two hours than hear one And set their wits to contradict what they should learn and to conquer those that would instruct them and to shew themselves wiser than to learn to be more wise and we can scarce talk with Man or Woman but is the wisest in the Company and hardliest convinced of an errour But two things here I earnestly advise you 1. That you spend more time in Learning than in Disputing Not but that disputing in its season is necessary to defend the Truth But usually it engageth mens wits in an eager opposition against others and so against the truth which they should receive And it goeth more according to the ability of the disputants than the merits of the cause And he that is worsted is so galled at the disgrace that he hateth the truth the more for his sake that hath dishonoured him and therefore Paul speaketh so oft against such disputing and saith that the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle and apt to teach and in meekness instruct opposers I would ordinarily if any Man have a mind to wrangle with me tell him If you know more of these things than I if you will be my Teacher I shall thankfully hear and learn and desire him to open his Judgment to me in its fullest evidence And I would weigh it as the time and case required And if I were fully satisfied against it I would crave leave to tell him the reasons of my dissent and crave his patient audience to the end And when we well understood each others mind and reasons I would crave leave then to end in peace unless the safety of others required a dispute to defend the Truth 2. And my specially repeated counsel is that you suspend your judgment till you have cogent evidence to determine it Be no further of either side than you know they are in the right cast not your self into other mens opinions hastily upon slight reasons at a blind adventure If you see not a Certainty judge it not Certain If you see but a Probability judge it but Probable Prove all things and hold fast that which is good The Bereans are commended for searching the Scripture and seeing whether the things were so which Paul had spoken Truth feareth not the light It is like Gold that loseth nothing by the fire Darkness is its greatest Enemy and Dishonour Therefore look before you leap you are bid Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God. Stand still till you know that the ground is safe which you are to tread on When Poysoners are as Common as Physicians you will take heed what you take It 's safer when once you have the essentials of Christianity to take too little than too much For you are sure to be saved if you are meer true Christians but how far Popery Antinomianism c. may corrupt your Christianity is a controversie Wish them that urge you to forbear their haste in a matter of everlasting consequence These are not matters to be rashly done And as long as you are uncertain profess your selves uncertain and if they will condemn you for your ignorance when you are willing to know the truth so will not God. But when you are certain resolve in the strength of God and hold fast whatever it cost you even to the death and never fear being losers by God by his Truth or by Fidelity in your Duty PART II. Of true saving Knowledge I. Causing our Love to God. II. Thereby Qualifying us for his Love. 1 Cor. 8.3 But if any man Love God the same is known of him Chap. I. Knowledge is to be estimated more by the end it tendeth to than by it self HAving done with that Epidemical mortal disease SELF-CONCEITEDNESS or PREFIDENCE or overhasty judging and Pretending to know that which we know not which I more desire than hope to cure I have left but a little room for the nobler part of my Subject True saving Knowledge because the handling of it was not my principal design The meaning of the Text I gave you before The true Paraphrase of it is as followeth As if Paul had said You overvalue your barren notions and think that by them you are wise whereas Knowledge is a means to a higher end is to be esteemed of as it attaineth that end And that end is to make us Lovers of God that so we may be known with Love by him For to Love God and be beloved by him is mans felicity and ultimate end and therefore that which we must seek after and live for in the world and he is to be accounted the wisest man that loveth God most when unsanctified Notions Speculations will prove but folly This being the true meaning of the Text I shall briefly speak of it by parts as it containeth these several Doctrines or Propositions Doct. 1. Knowledge is a means to a higher end according to which it is to be estimated Doct. 2. The End of Knowledge is to make us Lovers of God and so to be known with Love by him Doct. 3. Therefore knowledge is to be valued sought and used as it tendeth to this holy blessed end Doct. 4. And therefore those are to be accounted the wisest or best-knowing men that Love God most and not those that are stored with unholy knowledge For the first of these that Knowledge is a means to a higher end I shall first open it and then prove it I. Aquinas and some other Schoolmen make the Vision or Knowledge of God to be the highest part of mans Felicity And I deny not but that the three faculties of mans Soul Vital Activity Intellect and Will as the Image of the Divine Trinity have a kind of inseparability and coequality And therefore each of their perfections and perfect Receptions from God and operations on God is the ultimate end of man But yet they are Distinguishable though not divisible and there is such an Order among them as that one may in some respects be called the Inceptor and another the Perfecter of humane operations and so the Acts of one be called a means to the Acts of the other And thus though the Vision or Knowledge of God be one inadequate conception if not a part of our ultimate end yet the Love of God and Living to God are also other conceptions or parts of it yea