those Things that were surely believed among Christians and wherein he himself had been instructed And if it were to assertain us of the Principles of Chrstianity that he wrote his Gospel certainly he would take care to write it after such a Manner as that those that read it might understand it otherwise he must run counter to his own Design Thus also St. Iohn saith that he wrote his Gospel that Men might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God but how could his Gospel induce Men to believe This unless it be so written as that Men may understand it And so also for his Epistles he tells us that he wrote them that they that believed in Iesus might know that they have eternal Life and that they may believe or continue to believe on the Name of the Son of God And if this were his End to be sure he would take care to write so as that they might understand otherwise how could they know by his Writing that they had eternal Life or be moved thereby to continue to believe on the name of Jesus For there is nothing can create in Men either Knowledge or Faith but what they understand Seeing therefore the great End of Writing the Scripture was to instruct the World in the great Things of Religion either we must say that both the Writers of the Scripture and the Holy Ghost that inspired them were defective in Skill or in Care so to write as to obtain this End or that their Writings are an effectual Means to obtain it which it is impossible for them to be unless they are plain and clear as to the great Things of Religion In short every wise Agent pursues his End by the most proper and effectual Means and I would fain know whether to write plainly or obscurely be the most proper Means to instruct Men by Writing if to write plainly then either the Apostles wrote so or they were not wise Agents since to instruct was the great End of their Writing The most natural Way of conveying to Mens Minds the Notices of Things is by Words either spoken or written and seeing whatsoever can be spoken in plain and intelligible Words may be written in the same Words there can be no doubt but those Words will be as intelligible when they are written as when they are spoken for why should the same Words be more obscure when conveyed to us by our Eyes than when conveyed to us by our Ears Seeing then the Sense of Scripture may be as plainly conveyed by Words written as by Words spoken and seeing that even those who deny the Plainness of Scripture do yet allow that the Sense of it may be plainly conveyed by Words spoken or which is the same thing Oral Tradition if the Scripture be not plain it can be resolved into no other Reason but this that God would not have it so for there is no Doubt but he could have spoken as plainly as Men and have written as plainly as he spoke and therefore if he hath not done so it was because he would not but to say that he would not write those Things plainly which he thought necessary for all Men to know and which he wrote on purpose that all Men might know is to say that he would and would not at the same time or that he wrote them on purpose that Men might know them and yet that he wrote so as that they might not know them 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture it is also evident that in all necessary Things it is plain and clear That God doth not only allow but will and require us to read the Scripture I shall shew at large hereafter when I come to treat of searching the Scripture Supposing therefore at present the Thing to be true I would fain know to what Purpose should God require us to read the Scripture if in those things which are necessary for Men to know and believe it be not plain and intelligible Doth God require us to read it for the sake of reading it or for the sake of understanding it If the former reading any other Book might as well have answered God's End as reading the Scripture because reading is reading whatsoever it be that we read if the later then either the Scripture is plain and intelligible as to all those Things which he requires us to understand or he requires us to read it in vain For to what Purpose should we read that we may understand if that which we are to read be not plain enough to be understood by us As for Instance the Bereans Acts 17. 11. are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily now I would fain know was this a Virtue in them or was it not If not why are they commended for it if it were it was certainly their Duty What was the Intendment of it was it only that they might be expert Readers Why are they so commended for reading the Scriptures above any other Book seeing that reading any other Book would have done as well for that Purpose as reading the Scriptures But the Text it self tells us that the Intendment of their reading the Scripture was that they might know whether those things were so or no which St. Paul had preached to them but how should they know this by reading the Scripture if the Scripture which they read were not plain enough to be understood by them Again St. Paul gives this as a great Commendation of his Son Timothy that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures whence by the Way we may learn that it is not so great a Reproach to our Church as the Romanists intend it for that we permit Women and Children Tinkers and Cobblers to read the Scripture But I pray what was the Meaning of Timothy's knowing the Holy Scripture from a Child Was it that he knew the Words of it only or the Sense of it also If the former a Parrot may be taught as much as Timothy had learned and consequently deserve as high a Commendation as he if the later then it seems the Scripture is plain enough for a well-disposed Child to know the Sense of it so far forth at least as it is necessary to be known and this is as much as we desire If therefore God requires us to read the Scripture as Timothy did to the End that we may know and understand it as he did then either we may understand the Sense of it by reading it or else God requires us to read it in vain 4. And lastly From the Obligation we lie under upon Pain of Damnation to believe and receive those Necessaries to Salvation contained in Scripture it is also evident that as to all those Necessaries it is plain and clear That we are obliged to believe under Pain of Damnation all that the Scripture proposes as necessary to our Salvation is agreed on all hands but how can Men be justly obliged
briefly as I can argue the Point from these following Topicks 1. From the Obligations which the Iews were under to Read and Search the Scriptures of the Old Testament 2. From our Saviour's and his Apostles Approbation of their Practice in pursuance of this their Obligation 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures 4. From the Direction of these Holy Writings to the People 5. From the great Concernment of the People in the Matters contained in them 6. From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter 1. From the general Obligation which the Iews were under to Read and Search their Scriptures For so God requires them to keep the words which he commanded them in their Hearts and to teach them diligently to their Children and to talk of them as they sat in their Houses and as they walked in the way and when they lay down and when they rose up and to bind them as a sign upon their hands Deut. 6. 6 7 8. And elsewhere This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night speaking to the Children of Israel in general Ios. 1. 8. And again Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul that your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your Fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth Deut. 11. 18 21. And to meditate on God's Law day and night David makes a Part of the Character of the Blessed Man Psal. 1. 3. Now if they could not keep God's Laws in their Hearts as most certainly they could not if they could not teach them to their Children if they could not talk of them upon all just and proper Occasions and in a word if they could not meditate on them day and night without being very well acquainted with them by diligent Search and Reading them it is most certain that to Read and Search into them was their indispensable Duty Now if there be the same Reason why we should Read the Scriptures as there was why the Iews should then the Obligation of these Commands must extend to us as well as to them because the Reason of the Law is the Law but 't is evident even beyond Contradiction that there is no good Reason assignable for the one which is not of equal force for the other and whatsoever is objected by our Adversaries in this Point against our Reading the Scriptures is of equal validity against the Iews Reading them It is Objected That our Reading them through our Incapacity to understand them must occasion a great many Errors and Heresies in the Church And why should not their Reading them occasion the same since neither their Understandings were larger than ours nor their Scriptures clearer and more intelligible than ours It is farther objected that because of the many ill Examples recorded in Scripture it is dangerous for the People to read it because of their Aptness to be misled and corrupted by Example But I beseech you are there not more bad Examples in the Old Testament than in the New And were not the Iews as apt to be corrupted by them as we Christians And therefore since these Objections do press as much against their reading the Scriptures as ours it is certain they ought to keep both from it or neither Seeing therefore notwithstanding these Objections God obliged the Iews to read them it 's plain they are not of Force enough to disoblige us from doing the same 2. From our Saviour and his Apostles Approbation of this Practice of the Iews in Pursuance of their Obligation to it it is also evident that we are obliged to the same That the Common People of the Iews did ordinarily read the Scriptures in our Saviour's Time is evident not only from the Text Search the Scriptures which if you take them Indicatively are an express Declaration that they did read them and if you take them Imperatively necessarily imply that they themselves owned that they ought to read them but also from those Questions which our Saviour frequently ask'd them in his Conferences with them such as Have ye not read Have ye never read in the Scripture And hath not the Scripture said so and so Which Question would be very impertinent if reading the Scripture were not then ordinarily practised by that People And that even their holy Women were then so well instructed in the Scriptures as to be able to instruct their Children Timothy is a signal Instance who though his Father were an Heathen had known the holy Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 10. which Knowledge he must necessarily have derived from his Grand-Mother Lois and his Mother Eunice whose Faith St. Paul celebrates 2 Tim. 1. 10. And this Practice of reading the Scriptures which was so common among that People in our Saviour's time is so far from being discontinued either by himself or his Apostles that it is always mentioned by them with Applause and Approbation Thus the Bâ—reans are commended as a People of a nobler Strain than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those Things which St. Paul had preached to them were so or no. And St. Paul is so far from reprehending Timothy for medling with the Scriptures whilst he was a Lay-man that he mentions it to his Honour that he had known the Scriptures from a Child And in all those Passages wherein our Saviour takes it for granted that the Common People of the Iews did read the Scripture we have not the least Intimation of his dislike of their Practice which we should certainly have had had he apprehended it to be either dangerous or unwarrantable Seeing therefore neither our Saviour nor his Apostles do in the least disallow of the Scriptures being read by the Common People but on the contrary do expresly commend it this is a plain Argument that it was their Intention to perpetuate the Practice of it to future Ages For seeing the Iews read the Scriptures in Obedience to an express Command of God as was shewn before had our Saviour intended that they should not continue it he would doubtless have repealed that Command by some Countermand which he was so far from doing that he not only every where allows of their reading the Scriptures but also expresly approves and commends it whereby he plainly establishes the Obligation of that ancient Command in Obedience to which they did read them 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures it is also evident that the People are still obliged to Read them It is plain that the great Design of Writing the Scripture was to instruct Men in the Knowledge and persuade them to the Practice of True Religion For thus of the Scriptures of the Old Testament St. Paul tells us That whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning
4. From the Directions of these Holy Writings to the People p. 414. to 417. 5. From the great concernment the People have in the Matters contained in the Scripture p. 418 to 422. 6. From the universal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter p. 422. to 426. An Answer to that Objection of the Church of Rome That a general permission of the Scriptures to the People must necessarily open a wide door to Errors and Heresies p. 427. to 434. Another Objection That it will prove an unavoidable occasion of great Corruptions in Manners answered p. 434. to 438 Two Inferences from the whole p. 439. to the end Discourse V. A Dissuasive from Apostacy AN Explication of the VVords of the Text p. 452. to 455. The general Proposition p. 456. Six Instances of the mighty Tendencies there are in a vicious course of Life to Error and Apostacy from true Religion As 1. It corrupts Mens Reason and Understanding p. 457 458. 2. It renders the Principles of true Religion uneasie to their Minds p. 459 460 461. 3. It deprives men of the greatest encouragements to constancy and steadiness in Religion p 462. 463. 4. It weakens the natural force of Men's Consciences p. 464. 465 466. 5. It strengthens and enforces the Temptations to Apostacy p. 467. to 470. 6. It provokes God to give us up to the Power of Delusiâ—n p. 471. to 474. Two Inferences from the whole p. 474. to the end OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART IV. MATTH xvi 26. What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul IN the 24th verse our Saviour urges his Disciples to that necessary Duty of denying themselves that is of surrendering up their Wills to the conduct of his and renouncing all their Worldly Interest when it comes in Competition with their Duty and of taking up their Cross and following him that is of preparing themselves to endure Persecution for his sake and to persist couragiously in the Profession and Practice of his Religion whatsoever Oppositions they should meet with from the World And to press them hereunto he urges this Argument Ver. 25. For whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life shall find it Where the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Life may perhaps be better render'd Himself it being familiar both with Hebrews and Syrians to call a man's Life and Soul Himself so the Psalmist thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell that is thou shalt not leave me Perishing in my Grave Psal. 16. 10. And Levit. 20. 25. Ye shall not make your Souls abominable i.e. your selves And that it should be so render'd here is evident because St. Luke so expounds it What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Luke 9. 25. And indeed the Soul being the Principal Part of a Man and that which advances him into a Species of Being above that of a mere Animal may very well be called himself according to that of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy Soul is Thee thy Body thine and thy outward Goods thy Bodies And if instead of Life we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Himself the Words will be very plain and easy for whosoever will save himself by renouncing me and my Religion shall lose himself forever and whosoever will be content to lose himself for my sake shall save himself forever And this he farther inforces in the Text What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul that is what will it avail a Man to gain the whole World if he forever ruin himself by it and when he hath thus ruined himself what would he give if it were in his Power to save and recover himself again The words thus explained I shall resolve the sense of them into these five Propositions I. That a Man or the Soul of a Man is a Thing of inestimable Price and Value for our Saviour here weighs it against the whole World that is against all the Pleasures Profits and Honours that this inferiour World can afford and declares that in the just Ballance of his Esteem it out-weighs them all And certainly that must needs be exceeding precious whose Worth the whole World cannot counter-poise II. That this precious Soul may be lost This our Saviour plainly supposes in these Words if he lose his own Soul III. That our renouncing of Christ and his Religion will most certainly infer this Loss For these Words as I have shewed you our Saviour urges as an Argument to dissuade Men from Apostacy but if without losing our Souls we might renounce him and apostatize from him there would be no Force in all this Argument to dissuade us from it IV. That when this Soul is lost 't is lost irrecoverably What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul Where the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Exchange is used in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a price of Redemption denoting that if a Man should or could give never so much to buy his Soul from Perdition yet no Price of Redemption will be taken for it V. That this irrecoverable Loss of a Soul is of such a vast Moment that the Gain of the whole World is not sufficient to compensate it What is a Man profited that is he is not at all profited nay he is so far from that that he is a vast Loser I. That the Soul of a Man is a Thing of an inestimable Price and Value And for the Proof of this Proposition I shall endeavour these two Things First To represent to you of what vast Worth it is in Respect of its own natural Capacities Secondly To shew you of what vast Esteem it is in the Judgment of all those who as we must needs suppose do best understand the Worth of it 1. I shall endeavour to represent to you of what vast Worth it is in Respect of its own natural Capacities particularly in these four 1. In Respect of its Capacity of Vnderstanding 2. Of Moral Perfection 3. Of Pleasure and Delight 4. Of Immortality 1. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Vnderstanding For certainly to understand is the greatest and noblest Operation that a Being is capable of for it is this that gives Beauty and Excellence to all our other Operations whether they be natural or moral 'T is this that proposes the Ends and directs the Course and Prescribes the Measures of all our other Actions and tho we had never so much Force or Power yet unless we had Vnderstanding to guide and manage it it would be altogether insignificant For Blind Power acts at Random and if we had the Force of a Whirl-wind yet without
to what they have done in the Flesh And even the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is the profoundest Mystery of all our Religion hath been owned and professed by the greatest and most famous Philosophers that ever were And as for those Doctrines that are purely Christian such as the Birth and Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour together with his Sitting at the Right-hand of God and coming at the last Day to judge the World they are all of them so excellently contrived to serve the great Ends of Religion so wonderfully pregnant with Motives and Arguments to engage Men to the greatest Purity and Goodness that by their own native Beauty and excellent Contrivance they manifest themselves to be the Products of a divine Wisdom So that there can be no reasonable Pretence to contemn Christianity either because it is a Revealed Religion or because it contains any thing in it that is any ways unworthy of the Revealer And that there wants not sufficient Evidence to demonstrate it to be the Revelation of God I have already proved in the former Inference So that after all the lewd Talk of these confident Men it 's apparent there is not the least Colour of Reason for their impious Censures of Christianity But alas it's evident that the Foundation of their Quarrel against it lies not so much in their Reason as their Lusts. Christianity lays them under severe Restraints and will not permit them to be wicked in quiet which provokes them to arm their Wit and the little Reason that they have against it that so having baffled or rather laughed themselves out of their Religion they may be left at liberty to play the Fools and Mad-men without Controul or Disturbance And I make no doubt but if instead of that strict Piety and Virtue which Christianity enjoins it had but indulged to them the Liberties of the Heathen Religion so that they could have but acted all their Wickedness with Devotion sacrificed to the Gods in drunken Bowls and worshipped in the Arms of a Strumpet there are no Men in the World would have been more zealous Christians than they But let no Man be so foolish as to imagine that he can alter the Nature of Things by laughing at them or that Christianity will cease to be true in Compliance with our wicked Interest and Desires no no Things will be as they are in despite of us and howsoever we will please to fancy them And if after all our rude Contempts of Religion it be found to be true as I doubt not but it will we shall be sensible when it is too late that it had been more for our Safety to have play'd before the Mouth of a Cannon while it is spitting Fire or to have catch'd hold of a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds than to have plaid with Religion and made it the Subject of our impious Scorns and Buffooneries 4. And lastly They saw the Glory of his immaculate Holiness and Purity From whence I infer that Holiness and true Goodness is the greatest Glory and Honour to humane Nature For this was the Glory of the Son of God himself when he assumed our Nature and dwelt among us and there is nothing more glorious in Christ than his Goodness and notwithstanding those excellent Doctrines that he preached those stupendous Miracles that he wrought and that visible Splendor in which he was inrobed he had not deserved the Name of a great and glorious Man if he had not been just and charitable temperate and humble and Heavenly-minded and eminent in all those divine and humane Virtues which are the proper Glory and Ornament of humane Nature For that which makes a Man more honourable than a meer Animal and advances us into the next Degree of Beings to Angels is our Reason by which alone we border upon the Divinity and do claim Kindred with the Angelical Natures That therefore which is truly our Honour and Glory consists in living according to that Reason by which we are advanced above all sublunary Natures that is in governing our Passions and Appetites Words and Actions according to those Eternal Rules of Righteousness which Right Reason dictates to us and if instead of doing thus we wholly resign up our selves to the Dominion of our brutish and unreasonable Inclinations we thereby render our selves more despicable and infamous than the most beastly Brutes in all the Creation and even those Goats and Wolves and Swine and Tygers whom we resemble in our beastly Manners could they see our Shame would doubtlesly hiss at us and reproach us for greater Beasts than themselves for they all live up to the best of their Natures and regularly pursue the highest End for which they were created whereas we who are Allyed to the noblest of Beings and are created and designed for the most glorious Ends do by our base and unreasonable Condescentions shamefully under-value our selves in pursuing no Ends but what are extremely unworthy of us So that it had been much more for our Honour and Reputation to have assumed the Shape and Nature of Brutes when we assumed their Manners and Customs for then our Actions would have very well become us and neither God nor Men could have justly upbraided us for them But to lead the Lives of Brutes in the Shape and Nature of Men is monstrous 't is to advance the Beast above the Man to place our Heels where Nature hath placed our Head and become our own Reverse and Antipodes OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scripture JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life BY the Scriptures here must be meant the Old Testament for as yet the greatest Part of the New was unrevealed and the whole of it unwritten They were those very Scriptures which the unbelieving Iews to whom our Saviour was now preaching owned and acknowledged to be the Word of God for in them says our Saviour ye think ye have eternal life which it's certain they did not think of any other Scriptures but only those of the Old Testament and they are they says he which testify of me And to be sure there were no other Scriptures which could testify of Christ to the unbelieving Iews but only those of Moses and the Prophets these being the only Scriptures whose Testimony they credited But yet the Reason which our Saviour urges to move them to read the Old Testament doth as much oblige us to read the New as well as the Old as it did them to read the Old for in them ye think to have eternal life that is in them ye think ye have eternal Life promised and all the Necessaries to be believed and done by you in order to your obtaining it proposed to you And indeed as they thought so it was they had eternal Life proposed to them in Hieroglyphicks for that was the Mystery of their Holy of Holies that was the Interpretation of
of David was to excite and encourage Men to study and observe the Law But what though the Law makes the simple wise when they understand it what Encouragement is this for the simple to study it if it be so obscure that they cannot understand it And since they must understand it before they can observe it what Encouragement doth this Consideration give them to observe it that it will make them wise when they understand it if it be not plain enough for them to understand it But then that forecited Passage of Moses doth in express Words contradict this Cavil of Bellarmin for he tells the People that the Commandment he gave them was not hidden from them whereas if it had been so obscurely delivered to them by Moses that upon their sincere and diligent Enquiry they could not understand it it is certain that it had been still hidden from them how wise soever it might make them when they did understand it And to say that such a Proposition will make me wise when I do understand it is no Argument at all that it is not hidden from me if it be so obscurely expressed as that upon my sincere Enquiry I am not capable of understanding it But that the Old Testament at least in all necessary Matters was plain enough even to common Capacities is evident from the frequent Appeals our Saviour makes to it in his Contests with the Common People of the Iews Thus in the Text he bids them Search the Scriptures for they are they which testify of me and in other Places What saith the Scripture and doth not the Scripture say so and so Now how impertinent would it have been for our Saviour thus to appeal to it at the Tribunal of the People if he thought it so obscure that the People were not capable of understanding it How trifling would it be for a Man to appeal to Suarez's Metaphysicks in a Controversy with a Plow-man or to refer him to Euclid's Elements for the determining the Bounds and Measures of a Field And as from what hath been said 't is apparent that the Scriptures of the Old Testament were at least in all Necessaries plain and clear to the Iews so it is no less evident that the Scripture of the New Testament are so to Christians since it gives the same Testimony to it self of its own Clearness as the Old Testament doth For thus 2 Cor. 4. 2 3 4. the Apostle tells us that they did not handle the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the Truth commending themselves to Mens Consciences in the sight of God But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them Supposing then that they wrote with the same Plainness and Clearness with which they spake which there is no shadow of Reason to doubt of then from these Words it is evident First That they did neither in their Preaching nor Writings affect to discourse dubiously or obscurely but that their great Design was so to manifest and make known the Truth as that by their Plainness and Simplicity they might recommend themselves to the Consciences of all that heard or read them Secondly That in Fact they had in their Sermons and Writings so clearly taught the Gospel that if after all it remained hidden or obscure to any it was only to such as were lost and irrecoverable Thirdly That that which render'd the Gospel which they had taught and written hidden or obscure to such was not the Obscurity either of the Matter which they taught or of their Manner of teaching it but their own worldly Affections which blinded their Eyes and hinder'd them from seeing that which in it self was illustriously visible Which is an unanswerable Evidence of the Clearness and Plainness of the Scriptures of the New Testament in all necessary Things for if they are clear to all but such as wilfully shut their Eyes against them they are as clear as they need be to honest and teachable Minds for there is nothing can be clear enough to such as are not willing to understand And accordingly the Gospel which the Apostle calls the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation is said to have appeared or shone forth to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tit. 2. 11. Now if the Gospel did shine forth unto all Men it must be in the Sermons and Discourses of those that had preached it to the World and if they so preached it as that it shone forth to all Men they must necessarily have preached it very plainly and clearly Either therefore it was wrote as it was preached or it was not if it was not it was not wrote truly and sincerely if it was it was wrote very plainly so as to make it appear and shine forth to all that read it 'T is true there are some Things obscure both in the Old Scriptures and New but then these are such Things as are no Parts of the Necessaries and Essentials of Religion such Things as Men may be safely ignorant of or be mistaken about without any Hazard of their eternal Life For all that the fore-cited Testimonies prove is only this that that true Religion by which God governs the Faith and Manners of Men is so far forth as it is necessary to be believed and practised plainly and clearly revealed to them in the Holy Scriptures But besides this all Men agree there are a great many other Things revealed in Holy Scripture which because they are not necessary for all Men to understand are many of them not so plainly revealed as that all Men may understand them But since the Scripture was written to teach and instruct Men to be sure it teaches them most plainly that which is most necessary for them to know and therefore since there are some Things plainly taught in Scripture as is evident to any one that reads it to be sure among these Things are contained all that is necessary for Men to know and understand 2. From the avowed Design of writing the Scripture it is also evident that in all Things necessary it is plain and clear For thus concerning the Old Testament St. Paul tells us that whatsoever things were writtenafore time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15. 4. And if they were written for our Learning and Instruction to be sure they were so written as to teach and instruct us that is plainly and clearly especially as to those Things wherein we have most need to be instructed And then as for the New Testament St. Luke tells his Theophilus that the Reason of his writing his Gospel was that he might know the certainty of
to believe such Things as are obscure and doubtful and uncertain and of which they can have no certain Knowledge Either the Necessaries to Salvation must be plainly and clearly expres'd in Scripture or we have not sufficient Reason to believe them and to say God will damn us for not believing those Things which he hath not given us sufficient Reason to believe is to charge him with the most outragious Oppression and Injustice But we are told that though God hath not clearly revealed to us in Scripture those Things which he hath obliged us to believe upon Pain of Damnation yet he hath left us sufficient Reason to believe them for he hath left us to the Conduct of an infallible Church that is to say of the present Church of Rome in all Ages whom he hath authorized to explain and define to us all Things that are necessary to be believed which we are to receive upon her Authority and not upon the Scriptures so that if we firmly believe what She defines and proposes to us we are sure to believe all Things that are necessary to be believed Now in Answer to this Objection which indeed is the great Foundation that the Faith of those of the present Church of Rome relies on I desire these Things may be seriously considered 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of the present Church of Rome in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of that Church are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith 3. That after all these Things upon our relying on that Church's Authority we are left to the same or greater Uncertainties than upon our relying upon the Authority of Scripture 4. That in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what is necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of that Church supposing it to be a certain Ground as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of that Church in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture As for Instance we must in the first Place believe that there is a Church or Society of Christians separated from the World or incorporated by a peculiar Divine Charter Now whether there be such a Church or no is a Question that must be resolved by the Scripture and not by the Church because to believe that there is a Church because the Church saith there is a Church is to take that for granted which is the Thing in Question Secondly We must believe that this Church hath Authority to define and propose to us the Articles of our Faith which must also for the same Reason be believed on the Authority of the Scripture and not of the Church For to believe that there is a Church that hath Authority to propose to us the Articles of our Faith is to believe that there is a Church which we are obliged to believe and how can I believe this upon the Church's Authority unless I can believe it before I do believe it Thirdly Before we can rely upon this Church's Authority in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe that this Church is infallible for if she be not infallible how is it consistent with the Truth of God to oblige us to believe Her seeing in so doing he must oblige us whensoever She errs to believe her Errors but that She is infallible is not to be believed upon her own Authority for then her infallible Authority must be the Reason of our Belief that She is infallible that is we must believe her infallible because we believe her infallible Seeing then we cannot believe it on her own Authority if we believe it at all it must be upon the Authority of Scripture Fourthly Before we can rely upon the Church of Rome's Authority to define to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe the Church of Rome to be this infallible Church But seeing this is no self-evident Principle we must have some other Evidence besides her self to induce us to believe it and what else can that be but Scripture We are told indeed by some of her greatest Divines that there are certain Marks and Notes of a true Church peculiar to the Church of Rome by which we are obliged to believe Her the true Church such as Antiquity Vniversality Holiness of Doctrine c. But seeing no Doctrine can be holy that is not true we must be satisfied that that Church is true before we can know that it is holy so that before we can reasonably submit to her Athority we must be very well assured that her Doctrine is true and this we cannot be assured of by her Authority because that as yet is the Matter in Qustion and therefore we can be no otherwise assured of it but only by the Authority of Scripture and when we are assured beforehand by the Authority of Scripture that her Doctrines are true her Authority comes too late to assure us Seeing therefore it is evident that there are some if not all the Articles of the Roman Faith that must be known and believed by us upon the Authority of Scripture before we can safely rely upon her Authority to define them to us how can we be obliged to settle our Faith upon her Authority when as before we can reasonably admit her Authority we must believe several of the Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of Scripture For I would fain know are these Articles of Faith or no That there is a Church that this Church hath Authority to define the Articles of our Faith and that in so defining this Church is infallible and that this infallible Church is the Church of Rome If they be as they themselves own they are then there are some Articles it seems that must be believed without the Church's Authority upon the single Authority of Scripture and if some why not all why should not the Scripture be as sufficient to authorize us to believe the Rest as these since its Authority is as great in one Text as in onother Especially considering 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of the Church of Rome are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith The great Reason urged by the Romanists against our Relyance upon the Scripture for our Faith is the Obscurity of it and if this be a good Reason it proves a great deal more than they would have it
Oral Tradition how can I know what that is who never heard Her speak either in its diffused Body or in a General Council or in any other Representative unless it be that of my own Parish-Priest perhaps who for all I know may be Ignorant or Heretical and so either not understand himself the Church's Oral Tradition or wilfully pervert it to a contrary Meaning And if the Church deliver her Sense to me by Writing as She hath done in the written Decrees of her General Councils must I read over all her Decrees How should I do that who understand not so much as the Languages in which they are written Or suppose they were Translated how shall I know that they are faithfully render'd any more than I do that the Scripture is so But suppose I were certain of this and should thereupon proceed to read them alass I find in them a great many difficult and dubious Expressions yea and at least seeming Contradictions to each other how then can I be more certain of the true Sense of these Writings than of the Sense of the Writings of Scripture But you will say the Church hath digested her Sense of all her Articles of Faith into a plain Creed and Catechism viz. that of the Council of Trent whereby the plainest Reader may without any laborious Enquiries be readily instructed what he ought to believe This I confess is something but as for those Articles of Faith wherein We and the Church of Rome are agreed we find them as plainly expressed in Scripture as in that Creed and Catechism and therefore we have Reason to believe that if those Articles wherein we disagree had ever been intended for Articles of Faith they would have been as plainly express'd there as these but 't is no wonder we should not find them plainly express'd there when we cannot find them express'd there at all But do we not find that the Scriptures even in the plainest Expressions of Articles of Faith have yet been perverted by Hereticks into a contrary Meaning And what then Are not the Words of Councils as liable to be perverted into a contrary Meaning as the Words of Scripture For do not the Roman Doctors differ as much about the Sense of their Councils as we do about the Sense of our Scriptures Yea and have we not a notorius Instance of it at this very Day For what can be more contrary than Belarmine's Exposition of the Trent Faith and the Bishop of Condom's And yet both allowed by the Pope who by the Authority of that Council is made sole Arbitrator of the Sense of it But then Fourthly and lastly As to the Sense of Scripture our Reliance on the Authority of that Church leaves us at as great an Uncertainty as it found us For where the Scripture designs to speak plainly as it doth in all Things necessary to salvation the Church cannot speak plainer and therefore there we may understand the Scripture as well without the Church as with it but where it doth not speak plainly the Church of Rome hath left us no infallible Commentary whereby to understand it so that where the Scripture is plain She hath not made it plainer and where it is obscure She hath left it as obscure as ever So that after all the Noise that is made of Infallibility her Doctors are fain to apply themselves to the same Methods of Understanding Scripture that is to consult the Sense of Antiquity and compare Text with Text and the like that we fallible Protestants do and when they have done all are as lyable to be mistaken as we Nay they themselves confess that even General Councils themselves may be mistaken in their Applications of Scripture that is that they may misapply them to wrong Purposes which they cannot do without mistaking the Sense of them of which there are a great many notorious Instances in the second Council of Nice which to prove it the Duty of Christians to worship Images urges God's taking Clay and making Man after his own Image and likewise that of Esay There shall be a Sign and Testimony to the Lord in the Land of Egypt and also those Passages of David Confession and Beauty is before him Lord I have loved the beauty of thy House O Lord my Face hath sought for thee O Lord I will seek after thy Countenance O Lord the light of thy Countenance is sealed over us And from that Passage As we have seen so have we heard they argue that there must be Images to look on and because it is said God is marvellous in his Saints they conclude that the Church must be deck'd with Pictures And from No man lighteth a Candle and putteth it under a bushel they wisely infer that Images must be set upon the Altar All which are as remote from their Sense as the first Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis What greater Certainty have they with their Infallibility than we without it We can know as well the Sense of plain Texts of Scripture as of plain Texts of Councils or Creeds or Catechisms and we can as easily pervert the Sense of the one as of the other And as for those that are not plain even General Councils you see for all their Infallibility may be mistaken about them as well as we So that when all comes to all by forsaking the infallible Authority of Scripture to rely upon the infallible Authority of that Church we are so far from arriving at a greater Certainty of Faith that we are involved in greater Uncertainties than ever But then 4. And lastly in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of the Church of Rome supposing it were as sure a Ground of Faith as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it It is pretended though falsly you see that that Church's Authority is so sure a Ground of Faith that while a Man depends upon it he cannot be mistaken in any necessary Article of Faith which in Reality amounts to no more than this That while a Man believes as that Church believes which infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation and it is equally true that while a Man believes as the Scripture teaches which infallibly teaches all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation that is both are equally false For no Man can infallibly believe either the Church or Scripture because Infallibility exceeds the Capacity of humane Nature no Man can so believe either but that he may be mistaken and if he may be mistaken its possible he may not believe all that is necessary to Salvation whether he grounds his Faith upon the Church or the Scripture But because this Church pretends so to secure my Faith while I
directed them to Men neither Priests nor People were obliged to read them and therefore seeing the great Reason why any Men ought to read them is because they are directed to Men this Reason obliges all Men to read them because they are directed to all Men. For not to be highly concerned to know and understand what it is that God writes to us is an Argument that we have a very mean Regard both of his Majesty and his Mind and Will But to be sure whosoever is highly concerned to know what such a Writing contains will if he can be very curious to peruse it with his own Eyes at least supposing that it is not unlawful for him so to do because there is nothing gives that Satisfaction to a Man's Mind as the Information of his own Sense So that for Men wilfully to neglect reading the Scripture which God hath so expresly directed to them and thereby not only licensed but obliged them to read it argues a very prophane Disregard both of the Author of it and of the Matter it contains and for any Man or Society of Men to forbid the People to read what God hath written and directed to them is not only to deprive them of a Right which God hath given them but also to acquit them of a Duty which he hath laid upon them For St. Paul in those Epistles which he wrote to the Christian People in general of such and such Churches still takes it for granted that they would read them as being not only warranted but obliged thereunto by his writing them for so Ephes. 3. 3 4. speaking of that great Mystery of the calling the Gentiles which God had revealed to him concerning which saith he I wrote afore in few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. So also 2 Cor. 1. 13. We write no other things unto you than what you read that is than what you may at least and are obliged to read by vertue of our writing them to you And as for his Epistle to the Thessalonians which he wrote to that whole Church he gives Charge that it should be read to all the holy Brethren 1 Thes. 5. 27. So also for that of the Colossâ—ans When this Epistle is or hath been read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea Where you see he all along either supposes or requires that what he wrote to all should be read by all and to all If therefore this Authority of St. Paul be sufficient to over-rule the Authority of any pretended Successor of St. Peter then it 's certain that reading the Scripture is still the Duty of Lay-men notwithstanding any Papal Prohibition to the contrary 5. From the great Concernment the People have in the Matters contained in Scripture it is also evident that they are obliged if they are able to read it and acquaint themselves with it For as for the Matters which the Scriptures contain they are such as are of everlasting Moment to the People as well as to the Clergy The Articles of Faith which the Scripture proposes are as necessary to be believed by the People as by the Clergy The Precepts of Life which the Scripture prescribes are as necessary to be practised by the People as by the Clergy The Promises and Threats with which the Scripture inforces those Precepts are as necessary to be considered by the People as by the Clergy And seeing both are equally concerned in the great Matters which the Scriptures contain what Reason can be assigned why both should not be obliged to acquaint themselves with them I know 't is pretended that it is the proper Office of the Clergy to study the Scriptures for the People as well as for themselves and that therefore the People are obliged to receive the Sense of the Scriptures upon Trust from their Teachers without making any farther Enquiry But I beseech you are you sure that your Teachers are infallible That they are not so is most certain it being notorious that most of the prevailing Heresies of Christendom were first set on broach by the Teachers of the Church and it is impossible they should be infallible who have so often actually erred even in Matters of the highest Moment Suppose then what is fairly supposable that your Teachers should mislead you and not only into dangerous but damnable Errors are you sure that they shall be damned for you and that you shall escape If so then Heresy in the Layty can never be damnable if they receive it upon Trust from their Teachers and consequently their Souls are as safe under the Conduct of false Teachers as true provided always that right or wrong they believe what is taught them But if your selves must give an Account to God as well for your Faith as for your Manners and are liable in your own Persons to eternal Damnation as most certainly you are as well for Heresy as Immorality then it is the most unreasonable Thing in the World that you should in all Things be obliged to believe your Teachers upon Trust for at this Rate a Man may be eternally damned mâ—erly for believing what he is obliged to believe If it be said that the People are not bound to believe what their particular Pastor teaches but what the Church teaches them and the Church cannot err though their particular Pastor may I would fain know how shall the People be otherwise informed what the Church teaches them than by the Expositions of their particular Pastors they being at least as incapable of informing themselves what the Doctrine of the Church is as what the Doctrine of the Scripture is and therefore if their Pastor should err damnably in expounding to them what the Church teaches as it is supposable he may if he be not infallible there is no Remedy but they must err damnably in believing whatsoever their Pastor teaches But we are farther told that it is sufficient for the People that they believe in the gross that whatsoever the Church teaches is true and that as for the particulars there is no Necessity that they should be informed about them because he who believes that all that the Church teaches is true implicitly believes all that is necessary seeing the Church teaches all that is necessary But the mischief of it is that this compendious Way of Belief is utterly insignificant and doth no way comport with the Design and Intention of a Christian's Faith For God doth not require our Faith meerly for its own sake but in order to a farther End that it may purify our Hearts and influence our Lives and Manners that is that the Matters which we believe might by being believed by us affect our Wills and continually move and persuade us to abstain from all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World and if our
Use of the Bible is a case so plain that they who of later Ages have thought meet to repeal this Allowance have never been able to produce so much as one probable colour of Primitive Authority to warrant their Practice And though in other Points they not only claim but ravish Antiquity in despite of Modesty as well as Truth yet here they are so abandoned of all pretence to it that they are not able to produce so much as one Passage of any Primitive Father that seems to discourage the People from Reading the Scripture and much less that forbids them so to do And 't is notorious to all the World That in the Primitive Ages when the Latin was the Vulgar Language of the Romans the Bible was translated into that Language for the Use and Instruction of the People but when through the many Incursions of the Barbarous Nations into the Roman Empire this Language was worn out by degrees and instead of being the vulgar became an unknown Tongue to that People the Governours of that Church having to serve their own secular Ends introduced into it sundry corrupt Doctrines and Practices which they feared the Light of the Scripture might detect to the People they thought it most advisable not to translate it into the New Vulgar but to let it remain lockt up from their Cognizance in the Old Latin which by this Time very few except the Clergy understood And when for some Time it had lain hid from them in an unknown Tongue they proceeded at last wholly to forbid the Use of it to the Layty So that about the Ninth and Tenth Ages which all agree were over-cast with gross Darkness and Ignorance the Scriptures were shut up like the Sybilline Oracles in the Capitol and none but the Priests were allowed to Read and Consult them And though upon the Commencement of the Reformation the Bible was for some time set forth again in sundry vulgar Languages among the People yet did the Guides of that Church soon find it necessary for Defence of their own Vnscriptural Doctrines and Practices to remit it to its old Confinement For First The Council of Trent in the Fourth Rule of their Index Expurgatorius forbids the Layty to read or so much as to have the Bible in the Vulgar Language though translated by those of their own Church without a Licence in Writing from the Bishop of the Diocess or the Inquisitor and this upon Pain of not receiving Absolution of their Sins unless they delivered up those their Bibles to their Ordinary To which Rule Pope Clement the Eighth afterwards added this Observation That hitherto by the Command and Practice of the Holy Roman and Vniversal Inquisition the Faculty of granting such Licences for reading or keeping Bibles in the Vulgar Tongue or any Summaries or Historical Compendiums of the said Bibles is taken away which is to be inviolably observed And in the Index of Prohibited Books published by Pope Alexander the Seventh not only those Bibles that are translated and printed by Hereticks but also all Bibles in any Vulgar Tongue are absolutely forbidden And though where the Reformation hath prevailed they are forced against their own Laws more freely to indulge the Use of the Scripture to their People yet in those Countries where they are sole Masters this Priviledge is very rarely granted And now being thus necessitated to deprive the People of the Light of the Scripture lest they should thereby discover their Errors and Corruptions it was necessary for them to invent some plausible Pretences to justifie a Practice so contrary both to Scripture and Primitive Antiquity and so enormously derogatory to the common Right of Christians and when it must be done it is a very hard Case if Men of Wit and Learning cannot find something to say for any thing Now the two main Pretences that are urged in this Case are First That a general Pâ—rmission of the Use of Scripture to the People must necessarily open a wide Door to Errors and Heresies Secondly That it will prove an unavoidable occasion of great Corruptions in Manners 1. That a general Permission of the Use of Scripture to the People must necessarily open a wide Door to Errors and Heresies because there are many Things in Scripture which are hard to be understood and which the Vnlearned who are unqualified to understand them aright will be apt to wrest into a wrong Sense to their own Destruction To which I answer 1. That this Reason holds as good against the writing and publishing the Scripture at first in Languages that were vulgarly known to the People as against the Translating them now into the vulgar Languages For the Hebrew in which the Old Testament was written was the vulgar Language of the Iews and the Greek in which the New Testament was written was then the most vulgar Language of the Iews and Gentiles and yet notwithstanding there were the same hard Things then in the Scripture as now and the People were as unlearned then and as apt to wrest these hard Scriptures to their own Destruction then as now yet God notwithstanding thought fit to write and publish it in Languages that were most known to the People and therefore either we must say that he did not take that Care that he ought to have done to prevent Errors and Heresies or that this is no good Reason why the People should be debarred of the Scripture in their own vulgar Language For why should not the Writing the Scriptures at first in the vulgar Languages as much open a Door to Heresie as the translating them afterwards seeing it is neither their being written in the Vulgar Language nor their being translated into the Vulgar Language but their being in the Vulgar Language that is here pretended to set open this dangerous Door to Heresies 2. This Objection strikes with equal force against God's writing and publishing the Scripture to the People as against their reading and consulting it For that God wrote these Scriptures to the People and that in so doing he not only gave them a Right but also laid on them an Obligation to Read them I have already shewed If therefore the Reading the Scripture by the People be such an unavoidable Inlet of Error and Heresie as this Objection pretends it was doubtless very unadvisedly done of God to publish such a dangerous Book to the World which those for whom he published and to whom he directed it cannot familiarly converse with without eminent Peril of being infected with Heresie And if the Scripture be such a quarrelsome Knife as these Men say it is that the People can hardly touch it without cutting their Fingers they are certainly more beholding to the Church for taking it from them than they are to God for bestowing it on them 3. This Objection makes as much at least against the Priests Reading the Scripture as the People For most of those Heresies that have been broacht to the People were first
THE Christian Life Wherein is shew'd I. The Worth and Excellency of the Soul II. The Divinity and Incarnation of our Saviour III. The Authority of the Holy Scripture IV. A Dissuasive from Apostacy VOL. V. and Last By IOHN SCOTT D. D. Late Rector of St. Gile's in the Fields LONDON Printed for Richard Wilkin at the King's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIX To the Honourable SUSANNA NOEL Mother to the Right Honourable Baptist Earl of Gainsborough THis last Volume of the Works of my Dear Deceased Friend the Reverend Dr. Scott is humbly and gratefully Dedicated by Her Honours Most obliged and most Devoted Servant Humphrey Zouch The CONTENTS Discourse I. Of the Worth and Excellency of the Soul THe Connexion and Explication of the Text p. 1 2. The inestimable price and value of the Soul of Man in respect of its own natural Capacities represented under 4 Heads viz. It s Capacity of Vnderstanding p. 5 6. Of Moral Perfection p. 7 8 9. Of Pleasure and Delight p. 10 11 12 13. Of Immortality p. 14. to p. 19. Of what Esteem the Soul is in the Iudgment of those who best know the worth of it viz. the whole world of Spirits p. 20. to p. 32. Four Inferences from hence p. 33. to p. 43. What is meant by losing ones Soul explain'd p. 44. The Soul liable to a sevenfold Damage in the other World p. 45. to p. 65. Seven Causes of the Danger we are in of incurring this Damage p. 66. to p. 89. Men may forsake Christ and thereby lose their Souls 4 ways By a total Apostacy p. 90 91. By renouncing the Profession of his Doctrine p. 92 93. By obstinate Heresie p. 93 94 95. By a wilful Course of Disobedience of which there are three degrees the first proceeds from a wilful Ignorance of Christs Laws the 2d from a wilful Inconsideration of our Obligation to them the 3d from an Obstinacy in Sin against Knowledge and Consideration p. 95. to 103. Four Reasons why our forsaking of Christ infers this fearful loss of our Souls p. 104. to 115. That God if he be so determin'd may without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the bondage of Hell for ever prov'd in 6 Propositions p. 117. to 130. That God is actually determin'd so to do demonstrated by 3 Arguments p. 131. to 139. A Comparison between the gain of the World and the loss of a Mans Soul in 6 Particulars whereby is shewn of which side the Advantage lies p. 140. to 164. Discourse II. Of the Divinity and Incarnation of our Saviour A General Explication of this Term. The Word p. 166. A full account of it in 4 Propositions shewing That it was derived from the Theology of the Iews and Gentiles 167. to 174. That we ought to fetch the Sense of it from that antient Theology p. 174 176. That in that Theology it signifies a vital and divine Subsistence p. 176. to 180. And that our Saviour to whom it is applied in the NewTestament is that vital and divine Subsistence p. 180 181 182. To be the Word of God denotes 4 Things To be generated of the Mind of the Father To be the perfect Image of that Mind To be the Interpreter of the Fathers Mind and to be the Executer of it and in these is founded the Reason of our Saviours being called The Word p. 183. to 196. What we are to understand by the Word 's being made Flesh p. 197 198. Five Inferences from this Doctrine p. 199. to 213. What is meant by the Words dwelling among us explain'd p. 215. to 225. His is dwelling among us full of Grace explain'd in five particulars p. 226. to 245. His dwelling among us full of Truth explain'd in general p. 246 to 256. Four Instances of his dwelling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical way of his Tabernacling among the Iews p. 247. to 270. Four Inferences the first From his dwelling among us p. 270. to 277. The 2d From his dwelling among us full of Grace and that 1. In respect of his own personal Disposition p. 277. to 280. 2. Of his Laws p. 281 282 283. 3 Of the gracious Pardon which he hath procured for us and promis'd to us p. 284 285 286. 4. Of the abundant Assistance he is ready to vouchsafe us p. 287 288. And 5. Of the glorious Recompence he hath promised to and prepared for us p. 289 290. The 3d From his dwelling among us full of Truth p. 291. to 296. The 4th From all these laid together He dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth p. 297. to 305. The Glory of the Word which the Apostles beheld consisted in 4 things 1. A visible splendor and brightness which encompass'd him at his Baptism and Transfiguration p. 307. to 311. 2. Those great and stupendous miracles which he wrought p. 311 312 313. 3. The surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine p. 314. to 317. 4. The incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life p. 317. to 321. This Expression The Glory as of the Only-begotten Son explain'd p. 321 322. That the glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was such as became the Only-Begotten Son of the Father prov'd in the several particulars â—â—herein it consists p. 323. to 336. Four Inferences from this fourfold glory of the Word which the Apostles saw p. 337. to the end Dis. 3. Of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures THe fulness of the Scriptures as a Rules of Faith and Manners prov'd in 3 Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspir'd the Writers of them with all that is necessary 〈◊〉 eternal Life p. 364. 2. That they preached to the World all those necessaries which they were taught p. 365. 3. That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in the Scriptures p. 366. to 380. The clearness of the Scriptures prov'd 1. From the express Testimony of Scripture p. 381. to 386. 2. From the avowed design of writing it p. 387 388. 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read it p. 389 390. 4. From the obligation that lies upon us under pain of Damnation to believe and receive all those necessaries to Salvation contained in it p. 391. Four Considerations in answer to those of the Church of Rome who tell us that though all things are not revealed clearly in the Scriptures yet we have sufficient reason to believe them since God has left us to the condact of an infallible Church p. 392. to the end Dis. IV. Of the Obligation of the People to read the Scriptures THat the People are obliged to search and read the Scriptures prov'd 1. From the Obligation the Iews were under to read and search the Scriptures of the Old Test p. 408 409. 2. From our Saviour and his Apostles apprebation of this practice of the Iews p. 410 411. 3. From the great design and intention of writing the Scriptures p. 412 413.
Souls with such dreadful Imaginations as are far more sharp and exquisite than any bâ—dily Torment And if now they have such Power over us when God thinks fit to let them loose what will they have hereafter when these our wretched Spirits shall be wholly abandoned to their Mercy and they shall have a free Scope to exercise their Fury upon us and glut their hungry Malice with our Vexations and Torments It seems at least a mighty probable Notion that that horrid Agony of our Saviour in the Garden which caused him to shriek and grone and sweat as it were great Drops of Blood was only the Effect of those preter-natural Terrors which the Devils with whom he was then in Combat impressed upon his innocent Mind And if they had so much Power over his pure and mighty Soul that was so strongly guarded with the most perfect and unspotted Vertues what will they have over ours when God hath abandoned us to them and thrown us as Preys into their Mouths with what an hellish Rage will they fly upon our guilty and timorous Souls in which there is so much Tinder for their injected Sparks of Horror to take Fire on When therefore our guilty Spirits shall not only be liable to the Scourge of God but Devils and damned Ghosts too shall have their full Swing at them doubtless the Hell within them will be far more intollerable than any Hell of Fire and Brimstone without them 4ly The Soul of Man is also liable to be confined to the most dismal and uncomfortable Abodes What or where the Abode of wicked Spirits is till the Morn of the Resurrection is no where expressly determined in the Holy Scripture but since wheresoever they are they are doubtless under the Power and Dominion of the Devil who as the Scripture assures us is Prince of the Power of the Air it is highly probable that their present Residence is in these lower Regions of the World that either being chased by those infernal Powers under whose Tyranny they are they are continually hurrying about in these inferior Tracts of Air or which perhaps is more probable that they are imprisoned by those invisible Ministers of the divine Justice vvithin the dark Abysses and under-ground Vaults of the Earth and not permitted but upon special Occasions to come abroad into this upper Region of Light and Liberty But vvheresoever they are it is doubtless in some such horrid and dismal Prison as is fit only to receive such vile and desperate Malefactors and secure them till the great Assizes vvhen they shall be brough forth to receive their Tryal and final Judgment And then being united to their Bodies and thereby made liable to corporeal Torments the Scripture expresly affirms that they shall be shut up in everlasting Flames and be tormented for ever in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone for then the Lord himself shall come in Flames of Fire to render Vengance to all those that obeyed not his Gospel and having vvith those raging Flames set every Part of this lower World on Fire he vvill re-ascend vvith all his Train to the celestial Mansions and leave the Wicked vveltring for ever in this burning Vault belovv for it is plain that the everlasting Fire to vvhich he vvill then Sentence them is the Conflagration of the World vvhich after the Iust are raised and caught up into the Clouds above the Reach of its aspiring Flames shall break forth on every side and turn all this Atmosphere into a Furnace of inquenchable Fire and therein shall those wicked Miscreants that vvould not be reclaimed be condemned to live for ever For the Judgment being ended the Judg and all his Retinue shall return and leave them in the midst of a burning World surrounded vvith Smoak and Fire Darkness and Confusion and vvrapt in fierce and merciless Flames vvhich shall stick close to and pierce through and through their Bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And vvhat an intolerable Mulct this is I leave every Mans natural Sense to judg 5ly The Soul of Man is also liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross wild and furious Passions We have sufficient Experience in this Life how vexatious our cross and excessive Passions are for when our Passions are divided and contrary Objects have raised contrary Desires and Appetites in us how do they rend and distract our Souls and cause perpetual Mutinies and Tumults within us But by Reason of those many sensual Gratifications with which we now make a shift to stop the Mouths of those Daughters of the Horse-Leech when they cry out give give we cannot be so sensible of the Trouble and Vexation of them but unless we now subdue and mortifie them we shall be forced to carry them into Eternity along with us For by being separated from their Bodies the Souls of Men are never separated from their prevailing Tempers but in their separated State are for the main of the same Disposition as they were here and do retain the same Passions and Appetites 'T is true they cannot be supposed to retain their bodily Appetites after they have thrown off their Bodies but when they have wholly accustomed themselves in this Life to fleshly Pleasures and have never Experienced spiritual ones it is impossible but that in the other they should be tormented with an outragious Desire of being imbodied again that so being incapable of relishing any other they may repeat those fleshly Pleasures which heretofore they were accustomed to and act over the brutish Scene anew And this vehement Hankering of these carnalized Souls to return into their Bodily State is perhaps the only Sensuality that a seperate Soul is capable of but it is such a Sensuality as must necessarily render such Souls extreamly miserable for in that State it will be like the Hunger of a Starving Man that is Immured between two dead Walls that is it will be a fierce Desire without Hope of Satisfaction a corroding Hunger sharpened with Despair of Food than which there is nothing more intolerably grievous and tormenting For how will it vex the wretched Spirit to look back from the Shores of Eternity into this corporeal World and to ruminate thus with it self O miserable Creature that I am here am I cast away for ever upon a strange and desolate Shore where I must Famish for want of Food pine away a long Eternity and wander to and fro for ever tormented with restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desires where there is not one Pleasure that I can relish not an Object that I can taste any sweetness in Wo is me yonder are all my Ioys and Comforts all that is dear and precious to me O that I might go back again and be once more restored to the Injoyment of them but alas between me and them there runs an impassible Gulph that deprives me of all hope of returning For thus will the unhappy Soul torment it self with an outragious Longing for
the Use of our Reason for in our tender years these are the only Goods that we can relish they are these that do feed clothe and furnish us in hand with whatsoever our natural Appetites do gape for that are the sole Entertainment of our childish Fancies and the only Objects our yet unfledg'd Thoughts and Desires can reach at and our Youth being thus intirely inured to them by that time we are grown up to the Age of Reason and the Capacities of Virtue and Religion we have generally contracted such an excessive Inclination towards them and are so strongly biass'd with the Love of them that whensoever they beckon to us we are ready to follow them through all the forbidden Tracts that lead to everlasting Ruin For our Natures being thus vitiated the Temptations without us have a strong Party within us a Party of traytorous Inclinations which upon every Summons sollicites us to yield and surrender up our Vertue and Innocence and no sooner can any Temptation from without give the Alarm but presently our own Lusts are up raising a Mutiny within us and with the Heats of our corrupted Fancy do many times so disorder our Understanding that it cannot rally up its Considerations against them For before ever our Understanding could be Furnished with Considerations our Hearts were prepossessed with such an excessive degree of ambitious covetous and luxurious Inclinations that when afterwards the Pleasures Profits and Honours without begin to hold forth their grateful Lures to us and to tempt us away to Fraud or Treachery to Vanity or Licentiousness those depraved Inclinations have gotten such Head within us that they prove most commonly too strong for all our Consideration and with their impetuous Current carry us away and drive us headlong down towards eternal Ruin and unless we put forth all the strength of our Reason and Resolution and the Grace of God also come in to our Aid it will be impossible for us to stem such a furious Tide when it is driven by the Wind of an outward Temptation When therefore our own Inclinations do so vigorously conspire with the Temptations without to thrust us on into Sin and Perdition how can we be insensible of the eminent danger we are in of Miscarrying forever But 5ly We are liable also to fall into a sinful State and from thence into Eternal Misery from the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of and apply these Temptations to us For that the Devil doth commonly as an assistant Genius to the Corruption of our Natures excite and provoke Men to Wickedness is very evident from Scripture where he is said to work in the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2. 2. To fill the Heart of Ananias to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts. 5. 3. And to take away the Word out of Mens hearts lest they should believe and be saved Luke 8. 12. All which Expressions do plainly imply that the Devil is a constant Agent in the Sins of Men. And being a Spiritual Agent he must needs be supposed to have a nearer Access to the Soul than any material Cause whatsoever For tho he be totally debarr'd from all kind of Intercourse with the immediate Operations of the reasonable Soul and can no more look into the Thoughts than we can into the Bowels of the Earth yet he can easily get into the Fancy which stands next to that mysterious Chamber that is open to no Eye but Gods and make what use he pleases of the infinite Images and Phantasms that are in it and dispose and order and distinguish them into the Pictures of what Objects he pleases just as the Painter doth his numerous Colours that lie confusedly before him in their several Shells and continue and repeat those Pictures and Representations as long and as oft as he pleases And then considering what the natural Use of the Fancy is both to the Vnderstanding and Will how it prompts the one with matter of Invention and supplies it with Variety of Objects to work on and draws forth and excites the other to chuse or reject those Objects it presents according as they are pleasing or displeasing we must needs suppose that the Devil hath a vast Advantage of insinuating his black Suggestions into the Soul by having such free Access into the Fancy And accordingly he is said to put it into the heart of Iudas to betray Christ John 13. 2. But then he being not only a spiritual but also an intellectual Agent of a vast and capacious Understanding by Nature and particularly improved in the black Art of tempting by a long Experience of its Wiles and Stratagems having been a Tempter almost ever since he hath been an Angel he must needs be supposed to be wonderfully expert and sagasious in it that after having had five Thousand years experience of the Methods of seducing Souls to increase and perfect his natural Subtilty he must by this be fully instructed when and how to apply himself to every Age and Constitution For this hath been his sole Business wherein he hath been infinitely intent and active ever since he became a Devil and if from a Man then much more from a Devil of one Busines Good Lord deliver me from a Devil that for five thousand Years hath been continually making Experiments of Temptation and drawing them into Rules to direct and order his mischievous Practice on the Souls of Men. But besides as the Devil is of a spiritual and intelligent Nature so he hath a vast Number of his black Angels continually roving about the World to seduce and captivate us into Sin and Ruin And tho these malignant Spirits have no ligament of natural Love between them to tie and oblige them to one another yet by that perfect Hatred which they all bear to God and Men they are united together in an inviolable League and go hand in hand with one another in pursuance of their desperate Design to involve our wretched Souls in the same eternal Ruin with themselves which renders their Force so much the more formidable And when we have so many spiritual subtil and Powerful Adversaries combining against and continually wandring to and fro like roaring Lyons to devour us we cannot but apprehend our Danger exceeding great especially considering the infinite Temptations from without that this World fords the great Variety of sensual Goods and Evils which they have to object to our carnalized Minds For these mischievous Spirits having so great Insight into our Tempers and so great a Choice of Objects to suggest to our Fancies can never be at a Loss how they may nick us vvith a convenient Temptation and that which gives their Temptations a vast Advantage over us is that vve knovv not hovv to distinguish them from the Motions of our own Hearts For could vve see the Devil at our Elbovvs or hear him vvhispering at our Ears every time he insinuates his wicked suggestions into our Minds vve should doubtless
of the Word of God But how impossible it is to prove by the unanimous Testimony of the Church that any unwritten Doctrine is Part of the Word of God necessary to be believed by all Christians is evident from hence because for several Ages after our Saviour the Church unanimously taught that whatsoever was necessary to be believed was contained in Scripture and for the same Church at the same time to testify that this or that unwritten Doctrine is a Part of God's Word necessary to be believed and yet that all Doctrines necessary to be believed are written is plainly to contradict it self And yet we find the Primitive Fathers unanimously attesting that the Scripture is the Rule from whence we draw all the Assertions of our Faith the last Will and Testimony of our Saviour by which all Controversies are to be decided the Boundaries of the Church out of which it is not to depart the Touchstone of Truth the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith for the Time to come and the only certain Principle of Christian Doctrine and Demonstration in Matters of Faith These are their own Expressions and abundance more than these we meet with to the same purpose and which is very observable they not only assert the Scripture to be a full and adequate Rule of Faith but severely declaim against all Additions to it Thus Eusebius Pamphilus in the Name of the Fathers of the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. those Things which are written believe those Things which are not written neither think upon nor enquire after Thus also St. Austin Quicquid inde audieritis è Scripturâ sacrâ hoc vobis bene sapiat quicquid extra est respuite ne erretis in nebula Whatsoever ye hear from the Holy Scriptures let it savour well with you whatsoever is without them refuse lest ye wander in a Cloud St. Bazil declares that it is a manifest falling from the Faith and an Argument of Arrogancy either to reject any point of those Things that are written or to bring in any of those which are not written and that it is the Property of a faithful Man to be fully perswaded of the Truth of those Things that are delivered in the Holy Scripture and not to dare either to reject or to add any thing thereunto Thus Tertullian advers Hermog Si enim non est scriptum timeat Vae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum If what he pretends be not written let him fear that Woe that is denounced against such as add or take away What Likelihood therefore is there that they who thus severely forbid adding any thing to the written Word of God did ever so much as dream of another Word of God consisting of unwritten Traditions And indeed methinks it is very strange if there had been any other Word of God besides what is written there should no notice be taken of it in that which is written especially considering that if it be as necessary to be believed as the Roman Church defines it it is as necessary that we should have Direction where to find it and how to know it when we have it but of this we have not the least Intimation in Scripture For as for those Words of St. Paul 2 Thess. 2. 15. Hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle all that can be justly inferred from them is only this that the Thessalonians at the Writing of this Epistle had only an Oral Tradition of a great Part of that Gospel which St. Paul had preached to them the Gospels being as yet either not collected into Writing or not dispersed abroad into the Churches so that then this and his former Epistle to them were perhaps the only written Part of the New Testament that was yet arrived to their hands and if so then this Command of holding the Traditions by word did oblige no longer than till they had received the written Gospel because then those Traditions by Word were all recorded in Scripture and being there recorded they were thenceforth obliged to hold them as Scripture and no longer as Traditions by Word But supposing there are still unwritten Traditions in the Church that are not in Scripture but yet were delivered by Christ or his Apostles and so are equally the Word of God with the Scripture I would fain know how we who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles should either know where to find or be assured that they are such when we have them We know very well that even in the Primitive Ages there were sundry counterfeit Traditions which Hereticks pretended to derive from Christ and his Apostles and if it were so easy a matter to counterfeit Traditions then how much more easy is it now I confess Vincentius Lirinensis gives us a very good Rule how to distinguish counterfeit from true Traditions Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est hoc est vere proprieque Catholicum That which was every where and always and by all Christians believed that is truly and properly Catholick And by this Rule we are willing to abide if they can shew us any Article of Christianity not recorded in Scripture which hath been every where and always believed by all Christians we will readily admit it as an unwritten Word of God and with the same Respect and Reverence as we do that which is written But this we are fully assured they will never be able to perform seeing as was shewn before the Primitive Church doth with one Consent attest the Scripture to be an entire Rule of Faith in which all the Articles of Christianity are contained But we are told that for these unwritten Traditions we must rely upon the present Church of every Age and receive as a divine Tradition whatsoever she defines to be so where by the present Church is meant the present Roman Church that is to say whatsoever this Church defines we must believe it because she defines it which we cannot but think is a hard Case First Because we know very well that the Roman Church is at best but a Part of the Church universal and we know no Right that any Part hath to impose upon the Whole and to oblige it to believe whatsoever she proposes meerly because she proposes it Secondly Because in Fact we are very well assured that the Roman Church is so far from being a sincere Preserver of Tradition that there is no Church in the World hath more studiously attempted to counterfeit and deprave it of which innumerable Instances are given by our Authors many of which are now acknowledged even by their Authors to be true For even their Vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible it self which they prefer before the Originals is confessed by themselves to abound with manifest Errors and Corruptions and even to the very Canon of the Bible they have added sundry Apocryphal Books which we certainly
viz. that we ought not to rely upon Scripture even for those Articles without believing of which we can have no sufficient Ground to rely upon the Authority of their Church For I would fain know is it clear and plain from Scripture that the present Catholick Church of every Age hath Authority to define the Articles of Faith and that in all its Definitions it is infallible and that the present Church of Rome is this Catholick Church If so how come those Texts upon which those Articles are founded to be understood in a quite different Sense not only by us but by the greatest Part of the Primitive Fathers as hath been abundantly proved by Protestant Writers Supposing that we should be so blinded by our Partiality to our own Tenets as to misapprehend plain and clear Expressions of Scripture it is very strange methinks that the Fathers who were never engaged in the Controversy and so could not be biass'd either one way or t'other should yet misapprehend them too What is this but to say that let Men be never so indifferent yet they may be easily mistaken in the Sense of very plain and clear Expressions and if so what signifies either Speaking or Writing But to proceed to some Instances will any modest Man in the World affirm that the Church of Rome's infallibility in defining Articles of Faith to all succeeding Generations is more plainly exprest in those Words of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church than the Divinity of our Saviour is in the Beginning of the first Chaper of St. Iohn's Gospel where it is expresly affirmed that he is God whereas in the other there is not the least mention either of the Church of Rome or of Infallibility or defining Articles of Faith Why may we not then as well depend upon the one Text for the Article of our Saviour's Divinity as upon the other for that of the Church of Rome's Infallibility Again are there not innumerable Texts of Scripture wherein the Articles of Remission of Sin the Resurrection of the Dead the last Iudgment and the World to come are at least as plainly exprest as the present Church of Rome's Infallibility is in any of those Texts that are urged in the Defence of it and therefore if we believe the later upon the Authority of Scripture notwithstanding the pretended Obscurity of it why may we not as well upon the same Authority believe all the former since the former are at least as plainly exprest as the later Either therefore the Scripture is plain enough to be relyed upon as to this Article of the Church of Rome's Infallibility or it is not if it be not we have no Ground for our Dependence upon the Authority of her Definitions and Proposals if it be it 's plain enough to be relyed upon in all other necessary Articles of Faith since these are all as plainly at least expres'd in Scripture as that For if we may not rely upon Scripture because it is not plain then where it is equally plain it is equally to be relyed on 3. That when we come to rely upon this Church's Authority we are exposed to far greater Uncertainties than while we relied upon the Authority of Scripture For in the first place we are of all sides agreed that the Scripture is infallible and that such and such Writings are Parts of Scripture and therefore are absolutely secure that if we follow the true Sense of it it cannot mislead us But the much greater Part of Christians deny that the Church of Rome is infallible even the Church of Rome it self owns the Authority we rely on to be infallible but all Christians all the World over besides those of her own Communion disallow hers to be so and to forsake our Dependence upon an Infallibility which all own to rely upon an Infallibility which but few in Comparison admit is certainly a very dangerous Venture And then Secondly As for the Infallibility of Scripture we are certain where to find it viz. in every Text and in every Proposition therein contained which being all the Word of God must be all infallible But as for the Infallibility of the Roman Church as they have handled the Matter it is almost as difficult to find as to prove it some cry lo it is here and some lo it is there some place it in the Pope only others in the Pope and his College of Cardinals some in the Pope presiding in a General Council others in a General Council whether the Pope preside in it or no. So that in this Church it seems there is Infallibility somewhere but what are we the better for it if we know not where to find it If we go to the Pope for it there have been two or three Popes at once that have decreed against one another and therefore one or t'other of them to be sure were mistaken How then shall we know which is the true infallible one And when I have found the true Pope others tell me I am not yet arrived at the Seat of Infallibility until I have found him in his College of Cardinals and when I have found him here I am still to seek seeing I find the same Pope Eugenius the Fourth for Instance decreeing one Thing in his College of Cardinals and the quite contrary in a general Council and therefore I am sure he could not be infallible in both Therefore others send me to the Pope in a General Council but when I come thither I find my self at a Loss again because I meet with several Instances of one Pope's defining one Thing in one General Council and another Pope the quite contrary in another and therefore in one or t'other Council I am sure the one or t'other Pope was mistaken And as for General Councils themselves there are sundry of them which are owned by some and rejected by others of the principal Doctors of the Roman Communion And even when Councils are legally assembled there are so many nice Disputes among them what it is that makes them General and when it is that they act Conciliariter as they call it that is so as to render their Decrees perpetually and universally obliging that though we were resolved to build our Faith upon the Authority of this Church yet if we will use that Caution in believing that we ought to do in a Matter of so great Moment we should find our selves involved in greater Uncertainties concerning these Things than we are concerning the Sense even of the most difficult Places of Scripture But then Thirdly When we are pass'd over all these Difficulties we are still at as great a Loss to understand what is the Sense of the Church to be believed by us as what is the Sense of Scripture For the Church hath no other way to deliver her Sense to us but either by Oral Tradition that is by Word of Mouth or by Writing If She deliver her Sense to me by
depend upon her Authority as that I cannot be mistaken for this very Reason I cannot depend upon it because I am sure of this that God never designed for me any such Means of Believing as should render my Faith infallible For to what End should he require me to take so much Pains and Care to secure my Faith from Errors if he hath furnished me with any certain Means of being infallible It would be but applying that Means whatever it is and my Danger would be immediately over and then I need trouble my Head no further being now so secured as that I cannot be mistaken after which it would be very impertinent methinks for God to trouble me with those unnecessary Injunctions of trying all Things and holding fast to that which is good of searching the Scriptures and trying the Spirits whether they be of God and taking heed whilst I stand lest I fall What need a Man be at the Expence of all this Labour and Caution whose Faith is already secured Seeing therefore God requires these Things at our Hands it is a plain Case that he never intended us any Method how to be infallible in believing and therefore since the Church of Rome's Authority is pretended to be such a Method for that Reason it ought to be rejected It 's plain that God intended that our Faith should be a Grace and a Virtue and consequently that it should be an Act of our Wills as well as of our Understandings which supposes the Evidence of it not to be irresistible for what Virtue is it to believe that the Sun shines when it glares full in our Eyes Since therefore our Faith must be a free and voluntary Assent upon such Motives as are sufficient to satisfy an honest Mind but not to compel either an obstinate Infidel or self-deceived Hypocrite God did not think fit so to secure our Faith as to leave it impossible for us to err damnably And indeed if he had it would have been no Virtue in us to believe savingly for what Virtue is it for a Man to do that which it is impossible for him not to do It is sufficient that we cannot err damnably in our Faith without some damnable Fault in our Wills but if we either refuse to enquire into this Revelation for what is necessary for us to believe or will only enquire into it with a Mind that is byass'd with wicked and sinful Prejudices or will not submit our Understandings to it upon the clearest Conviction there is no doubt but we may be ignorant and we may be deceived in Things of the greatest Moment and it is but just and fit that we should And if notwithstanding these Faults we could not err for God's sake what Virtue would it be to be Orthodox But if with honest humble and teachable Minds we will diligently enquire into divine Revelation we shall there find all the Necessaries to Salvation so clearly and plainly proposed to us that 't will be morally impossible for us either to be ignorant of or deceived about them So that by relying on Scripture you see we are exposed to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith a Virtue and God doth as much require that our Faith should be vertuous as that it should be Orthodox that it should be the Act of an honest humble diligent and teachable Mind as that it should be extended to all Things necessary to Salvation Now our Faith may be Orthodox without an infallible Certainty but it canot be vertuous and rewardable with it To what purpose then do the Romanists talk of an infallible certainty in Believing Is it reasonable to expect more certainty than God ever intended to give He hath given as much as is necessary for honest Minds and no more and whether Knaves and Hypocrites believe right or wrong is of no great Concernment If therefore our Faith be liable to no other Uncertainty than just what is necessary to try our Honesty that is much better for us in Respect of the Virtue of our Faith than an infallible Certainty Supposing therefore that the Church of Rome were as infallible as it pretends it is certain that the Scripture is as infallible as that but whether we relie upon one or t'other we are fallible still And could that Church render us as infallibly certain as it pretends it would thereby preserve indeed the Orthodoxy of our Faith but then at the same Time it would destroy the Virtue of it For to believe right when we cannot believe wrong is fatal and necessary but to believe right when through our own Default we may believe wrong this is virtuous and rewardable By what hath been said therefore I think it is sufficiently evident that it is upon the Scripture we are to relie and not upon the Church especially upon the Roman Church for all Things necessary to Salvation and therefore since we are obliged to believe these Things upon Pain of Eternal Damnation it necessarily follows that they must be plain and clear and Scripture otherwise we could not be justly so obliged to believe them And thus I have shewn at large that the Scripture is the great Rule of our Faith and Manners and that as such it is both full and clear as containing in it all Things necessary to Salvation and proposing them so plainly and clearly as that upon an honest and diligent Enquiry all Men may find and discover them A Second Discourse Upon JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life WHether these Words are to be rendred Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures as some would have them or Imperatively Search the Scriptures as our Translation renders them amounts to the same thing For if we render them Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures it is evident that they are spoken with Approbation Ye do read the Scriptures and ye do very well in so doing For thus we find the Bereans commended for Searching the Scriptures and Timothy for knowing them from a Child And if to Search the Scripture be a commendable Practice then to be sure our Saviour here mentions it at least with Approbation and what he approves when done that to be sure he would have us do Whether therefore it be delivered in the Form of a Command or of a bare Assertion it is equivalent to a Command it being at least an Assertion of a Thing which he approves and consequently would have all Men to Practise But because there is a numerous Party in the Christian World which doth not only forbid the People to Search the Scriptures but represents it as a Practice of very dangerous Consequence it is hereby become necessary that we should not only assert but prove their Obligation to it which otherwise would be very needless there being nothing more plain and evident in it self Now to prove that the People are obliged to Search and Read the Scriptures I shall as
Faith hath not this Effect upon us St. Iames assures us that it is a dead Faith and will profit us nothing But how is it possible that our believing such and such Propositions should move and persuade us if we do not know what those Propositions are and what is the true Sense and Meaning of them What Man can be persuaded by such Proposals as he doth not understand and of which he hath no Manner of explicite Knowledge An Heathen that believes that whatsoever God teaches is true doth implicitly believe that Iesus Christ came from God to reveal his Will to Mankind because it is certain that God teaches this but what is he the better for this his implicite Belief What Influence can it have upon his Heart and Manners who perhaps never heard of Iesus Christ nor of any one Proposition which he revealed to the World And so he who believes that whatsoever the Church teaches is true doth implicitly believe that there shall be a future Iudgment a Resurrection of the Dead and an everlasting State of Happiness or Misery after Death because all these Things the Church teaches but if he never hear of them or hath no explicite Knowledge and Belief of them how is it possible they should operate on his Will and Affections or ever persuade him to be the better Man or the better Christian And the same is to be said of all the other Articles of Christianity So that either we must believe to no Purpose and content our selves with an insignificant Faith that will not at all avail us or take up our Faith upon Trust from fallible Teachers who may mislead us into damnable Errors and if they should we must be liable to answer for it in our Persons and at our own eternal Peril or which is the Truth of the Case we must be allowed to enquire and judge for our selves at least in all Things necessary to our eternal Salvation Seeing therefore there are many Things in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me upon Pain of Damnation to believe it hence necessarily follows that so far forth as the Scripture obliges me to believe what it teaches it obliges me to understand what it teaches otherwise I must believe I know not what which is impossible and so far as the Scripture obliges me to understand what it teaches it must oblige me to search enquire and judge what it teaches because I cannot understand without enquiring and judging But how can I enquire what the Scripture teaches if I cannot be admitted to read and consult the Scripture And so again there are many Duties in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me to practise upon pain of eternal Damnation but how can it oblige me to Practise what it doth not oblige me to Understand or how can it oblige me to Understand what it doth not oblige me to enquire after But how can I enquire what it is that the Scripture obliges me to Practise when I am forbid all access to it and it is lockt up from me in an unknown Tongue In short therefore seeing the Things contained in Scripture are of the highest Moment to the People and it is as much as their Souls are worth not to Believe and Practise what it Teaches and seeing they can neither Believe nor Practise what they do not understand it is of infinite concern to them so far at least to Read Consult and Understand the Scripture as they stand obliged to Believe and Practise its Doctrines and Precepts 6. And lastly From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter it is also evident that the People are obliged to read or acquaint themselves with the Holy Scripture For the Primitive Church for above six hundred years were so far from debarring the People the Use of the Scripture that it continually urged and press'd it upon them as a matter of indispensable Obligation For so Origen wishes That all would do as it is written viz. Search the Scriptures So also Clemens Alexandrinus Hearken ye that are afar off hearken ye that be near the Word of God is hid from no man it is a Light common to all Men and there is no Darkness in it So also St. Austin Think it not sufficient that ye hear the Scriptures in the Church but do you also read the Scriptures your selves in your own Houses or get some other to read them to you So also St. Ierom The Lord hath spoken to us by his Gospel not that a few but all should understand And elsewhere speaking of the Women that were at Bethlehem with Paula It was not lawful saith he for any one of all the Sisters to be ignorant of the Psalms nor to pass over any day without learning some part of the Scriptures And elsewhere We are taught saith he That the Lay-People ought to have the Word of God not only sufficiently but also with abundance that so they may be able to teach and counsel others So also St. Chrysostome Hear me O Layty get ye the Bible the most wholsom remedy for the Soul and if ye will no more at least get the New Testament St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts that they may be your continual and earnest Teachers And elsewhere he affirms That it is more necessary for the Lay-People to read the Scriptures than either for the Monks or Priests or any others And to cite no more of the infinite Authorities of the Fathers to this purpose St. Basil observes The Scripture of God is like an Apothecary's Shop full of Medicines of sundry sorts that so every Man may there choose a convenient Remedy for his Disease And that the People as well as the Priests were then allowed the Use of the Bible is evident from a notorious matter of Fact for when the Roman Emperors endeavoured to force the Christians by Persecution and Torments to deliver up their Bibles to be burnt that so by extinguishing those Sacred Records they might extinguish Christianity they examined not only the Bishops and Clergy but also the People of all Degrees and both Sexes many of whom as well Women as Men owned that they had Bibles but rather chose to die than to deliver them up and many others who to avoid Death delivered up their Bibles and are therefore branded with the ignominious Name of Traditors for which they were excluded the Communion of the Church and could not be readmitted without a long and severe Penance But it is impossible the People could have been Traditors if they had had no Bibles to deliver up and therefore being so is an undeniable Argument that the People were then allowed the Use of the Scripture as well as the Priests And by the way it 's very strange that any Community of Christians should think that a proper Way to extinguish Heresie which those Heathen Persecutors made use of to extinguish Christianity But that in those first Ages the People were allowed the
brewed by the Priests from whose Lips the People do commonly derive their Errors as well as their Knowledge Witness those famous Heresies with which the Christian World hath been so distracted from one Generation to another such as the Novatian the Donatist the Arian the Pelagian the Eutichian the Eunomian all which Counterfeits and a great many more were first coined by the Clergy and dispersed for current Christianity among the Layty And therefore if this Pretence that the Reading of Scripture opens a Gap to Heresie be a sufficient Reason why the Layty should not Read it it is a much more sufficient Reason why the Clergy should not Read it For it requires Skill and Learning as well to wrest the Scripture into such false Senses as are likely to impose upon the World as to interpret it into its true Sense and I am very sure that it ordinarily requires more Wit and Art to extort from the Scripture probable Errors than it doth to discover by it necessary Truth and if so then if the danger of letting in Heresies is a true Reason why any should not Read it it is much more a true Reason why the Learned should not Read it than the Vnlearned and consequently why the Priests should not Read it than the People seeing the former are more qualified to extract Heresies from it than the later If therefore this Objection signifie any Thing it must be this That it is a very dangerous thing for any Body to Read the Bible that this same Divine Book which God thought fit to publish to the World and which the Primitive Church thought fit to oblige all that were able to Peruse and Study is now become such a dangerous Inlet of Heresie that like Pandora's Box you can no sooner open it but Swarms of Errors and False Doctrines will presently fly abroad into the World so that it would be very well for the World if it were either utterly extinguished or hid in some inaccessible Repository where no Mortal Eye might ever approach it 4. This Objection expresly contradicts our Saviour and the Primitive Fathers For Matt. 22. 29. our Saviour tells the Sadducees who were cavelling with him about the Resurrection Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Had therefore the Sadducees been of the same Mind with our Objectors they would doubtless have told him by your good Leave Sir in this Point you your self are in an Error for in all Probability had we known the Scripture or been intimately acquainted with it we should have err'd much more Either therefore our Saviour was mistaken in charging the Errour of the Sadducees upon their Ignorance of Scripture or our Objectors are mistaken in making it so necessary an Expedient for the Prevention of Error to forbid the People being acquainted with Scripture for 't is plain He and They are of quite Different Opinions in the Case But whatever their Opinion is I am sure the Primitive Fathers were of the same Opinion with our Saviour For Irenaeus writing of the Valentinian Hereticks All those Errors they fall into because they know not the Scriptures So St. Ierom We must search the Scriptures with all Diligence that so as being good Exchangers we may know the lawful Coyn from the Copper And elsewhere That infinite Evils arise from Ignorance of the Scriptures and that from this Cause the greatest Part of Heresies have proceeded St. Chrysostom is of Opinion that if Men would be conversant with the Scriptures and attend to them they would not only not fall into Errors themselves but be able to rescue those that are deceived and that the Scriptures would instruct Men both in right Opinions and good Life And to name no more Theophilact tells us that nothing can deceive them who search the Holy Scriptures for that saith he is the Candle whereby the Thief is discovered But it seems according to Modern Experiments this Candle of Scripture rather serves to light the Thief into the House than to discover him when he is there and therefore it is thought necessary for honest Men's security either that it should be wholly extinguished or at least hinder'd from giving Light by being shut up in a dark Lanthorn of an Vnknown Tongue But when they who were once the honest Men are become the Thieves it is no wonder that they should thus change their Note and complain of the Light of this Candle as dangerous to them which heretofore they esteemed their greatest Security I am sure the Reason assigned by St. Peter why some Men wrested the Scriptures to their own Destruction was not their reading the Scripture but contrary wise their not reading it enough which they that are unlearned saith he wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. Vnlearned in what Why doubtless in the Holy Scripture For as to humane Learning St. Peter himself was as unlearned as they and if it were their being unlearned in Scripture that occasioned them to wrest it into an heretical Sense then it is not Mens reading the Scripture that leads them into Heresy but their not reading it enough To say therefore that the Peoples reading the Scripture is an Inlet of Heresy and to say no it is not their reading it but their not reading it enough is the Inlet of Heresy is an express Contradiction the former our Objectors say the latter our Saviour his Apostles and the Primitive Church say and I think it is no hard Matter to determine which of these two Contradictions we ought to believe 5. And lastly According to this Objection the best Way to keep Men from being Hereticks is to deprive them of all Means of arriving at the Knowledge of the Truth And this I confess is a very certain Way though not a very Honest one Let Men know nothing of Religion and to be sure they cannot be Hereticks it being impossible for Men to err in their Conceptions of those Things whereof they have no Notion Put out a Man's Eyes and you certainly prevent his being imposed upon by false Medium's of Sight to mistake one Colour or Figure for another And yet I fancy most Men would think this a cruel Kind of Courtesy But if Men must not be allowed Scripture to instruct them in the Truth for this Reason because it may occasionally mislead them into Errors and Heresies then they must be allowed no Means of Instruction that may occasion them to err and consequently no Means at all there being no imaginable Means of Instruction which may not be an Occasion of Errors and Heresies Is the Scripture it self in its own Nature an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy or not If you say it is consider before you say it how it could consist with the Truth and Veracity of God to publish such a Book to the World as tends in its own Nature to seduce and mislead the Understandings of those that read it If you say it is not so in it self but only that it may
be so accidentally I would fain know what Means of Instruction is there which may not accidentally become an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy and therefore if this be a sufficient Reason to deprive Men of Scripture it is sufficient to deprive them of all other Means of Instruction And seeing the Knowledge of Religion is the Food of Mens Souls to keep them in Ignorance for fear they should err is to deny them Food for fear they should surfeit There is no doubt but Men whose Minds are tinctured with Heretical Pravity will be apt enough to extract the Poison of Error out of the clearest Conveyances and Discoveries of Truth but what then Do not bad Men ordinarily apply the best Things to the worst Purposes If Men fall into Heresy by reading the Scripture where lies the Fault not in the Scripture sure no Christian will pretend that and if it be in themselves in their Pride or Vain-glory or Covetousness or Sensuality as it is demonstrable it is is it just that All should be deprived of it because some ill Men have made an ill Use of it Some Men have surfeited by Eating and Drinking is it just that all Mankind therefore should be deprived of Meat and Drink Suppose a Prince pretending to be an infallible Geographer should issue out a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to travel at Mid-night and should assign this as the Reason of it that he had been certainly informed that several of them had lost their Way at Noon and wandred into Bogs and Precipices by the Light of the Sun would any one imagin this to be the true Reason or rather would not every one believe that his true Design was to keep his People in Ignorance of the Roads and Situation of his Country that so they might never be able to discover the Errors of his Maps which would perhaps discover him to be not only a fallible Geographer but also a very erroneous one And where the People are forbid travelling in the Light of the Scripture whatever may be pretended wise Men will believe that the true Reason is not to prevent the Peoples falling into Errors but to prevent the discovering the Errors of those to whose Guidance and Direction they are wholly and solely subjected And this I conceive is a sufficient Answer to the first Objection viz. That the Allowance of the Scripture to the People is a dangerous Inlet of Error and Heresy I proceed therefore to the Second which is this Object 2. That there are many Things recorded in Scripture which are very apt to suggest leud Thoughts to the People and thereby to corrupt their Manners as particularly the many bad Examples therein related which are of a very contagious Nature and consequently dangerous for the People to converse with In Answer to which I desire these four Things may be seriously considered 1. That this Objection strikes as much against the Scripture it self as against the People's reading it For what worse Thing can be said of the Scripture than this that it is such an infectious Book so apt to excite impure Thoughts in Mens Minds and to Kindle leud Affections in their Hearts that it is by no Means fit the People should read it Should this be said to a Turk or a Heathen who had never read one Word in the Bible he would certainly conclude it to be nothing but a Canto of Ribbaldries written for no other End but to provoke and entertain the lascivious Inclinations of Mankind And certainly had our Objectors but as much Reverence for this Holy Book as they pretend they would rather oblige their People to read it than withhold it from them upon a Pretence that doth so scandalously reflect upon its Reputation If there be any such Passages in Scripture as are apt to start leud Thoughts in Mens Minds the utmost that can be fairly pretended is That those Passages ought to have been left out of the Peoples Bibles or at least to have been left untranslated But to urge this as a Reason why all the rest of the Scripture should be denied to the People insinuates as if the whole were nothing else but a meer Kennel of contagious Obscenities For to urge that for a Reason why the Scripture in general should not be read by or to the People which at most is only a Reason why some few Passages of it should not be read by them is to suppose the whole Scripture to be made up of such Passages as are apt to infuse vicious Thoughts into the People than which what can there be supposed more false in it self or more derogatory to the Scripture 2. This Objection if it proves any Thing doth as well prove that it was unfit for God to publish the Scripture to the People as it is for the People to read it For is it fit that He who is a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity should publish such Things to the World as are apt to engender impure Thoughts in Mens Minds And yet though Mens Minds were as apt to imbibe impure Thoughts when these Things were first published as they are now this hindred not God from publishing them to the World in such Languages as are best known and understood by the People Either therefore God did not so well know what is apt to corrupt Mens Minds as our wise Objectors or He was less concerned than they to preserve them from being corrupted or what they object is both false and scandalous For to say That the wise and holy God hath published such Things to the World as his Ministers find necessary to conceal from the World lest its Thoughts should be corrupted by them is in effect to say that his Ministers are grown wiser than he or are more concerned for the Interest of Holiness than he If the Vicious Examples for instance that are recorded in Scripture are more apt to deprave Men than to instruct them what need they have been recorded What is there in the meer Story of Noah's Drunkenness and Incest and David's Adultery considered abstractly from the good Instructions it gives that should move God to deliver it down to all future Posterity If it serve no good Ends it is recorded to a bad purpose and therefore if for this Reason because it is apt to corrupt Mens Minds the Church be obliged to conceal it now for the very same Reason God was obliged to have concealed it for ever Either therefore we must say that God did very ill in publishing it or that the Church doth very ill in suppressing it for God could have no other End in publishing it to the World but only to instruct the World by it If therefore it be not instructive God was mistaken but if it be it is fit the World should be acquainted with it 3. That this Objection doth expresly contradict the Scripture it self For whereas it tells us that the bad Examples recorded in Scripture would be apt to deprave
the Peoples Minds and Manners St. Paul tells us the quite contrary These Things were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they i. e. the Israelites in the Wilderness lusted Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 6 7 8 9 10 11. Whereas this Objection urges that there are sundry Passages in Scripture which should the People read would excite evil Thoughts in their Minds The same St. Paul tells us That all Scripture is profitable not only for Doctrine and Reproof but also for correction for instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 16. Whereas this Objection pretends that it would be very unsafe for young People especially to be allowed the Scripture because there are several amorous Stories and Passages in it which will be apt to suggest wanton Thoughts to their gay and amorous Fancies David it is plain was of a quite contrary Mind for wherewith saith he shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal. 119. 9. than which two Passages what Assertions can be more contrary one to another 4. And lastly That supposing this Objection to be thus â—ar true that there are some Passages in Scripture which may sometimes occasionally excite bad Thoughts in Mens Minds yet this is no just Reason why the Use of Scripture should be forbid to the People For every Thing which the People occasionally make bad Uses of is for that Reason to be forbid to them even Prayer and the Sacraments and the Profession of Christianity ought to be forbidden them as well as the Scripture seeing of the one as well as of the other many People do occasionally make very bad Uses So long as the Scripture is good in it self and apt in its own Nature to instruct and edifie those that read it this is sufficient not only to warrant the Peoples Use of it but to enjoyn and require it and if it sometimes occasion corrupt Thoughts in corrupt Minds this is no more a Reason why the People should be deprived of the Light of it than some bad Mens making ill Use of the Light of the Sun is why the Sun should be extinguished or why the People should be for ever shut up from the Light of it in dark and dismal Dungeons But as for those very Passages of Scripture which do sometimes occasion ill Thoughts in Mens Minds they are so far from doing it of their own Natures that as they are delivered in Scripture there is nothing more naturally apt to repress bad Thoughts and to arm and fortifie Mens Minds against them As for instance The bad Examples recorded in Scripture are generally delivered with infamous Characters severe Prohibitions and dreadful Instances of God's Vengeance attending them which render them much more apt to repress than to excite evil Thoughts in Mens Minds to quicken them to Prayer and Watchfulness against Temptations and when at any Time they have been overcome by them to encourage them to Repentance or when they have overcome them to stir them up to a grateful Acknowledgment of that preventing and assisting Grace of God by which they have been enabled to resist and repel them These are the natural Uses of those bad Examples recorded in Scripture and therefore if instead of making these Uses of them some Men pervert them to bad Purposes that is their Faults and not the Scriptures It is sufficient that the bad Examples in Scripture as they are there recorded are in themselves of excellent Use to the People but should Men be deprived of the Use of every good Thing they abuse I would fain know what one good Thing would be left free to their Enjoyment And now having proved at large the Peoples Right and Obligation to Use and Search the Holy Scripture and answered the main Objections against it I shall conclude with these two Inferences from the whole 1. If the People are obliged to acquaint themselves with Scripture then they are obliged to receive upon the Authority of Scripture those Divine Truths which it proposes to their Belief For to what other end should we be obliged to read and consult the Word of God but only that we may learn from it what is his Mind and Will but how should we learn from Scripture what God's Mind is if we are not to believe what he therein declares upon Scripture Authority If I must not believe when I read the Scripture that this is God's Mind because the Scripture says so it is impossible I should ever learn God's Mind by reading it and consequently I am obliged to read it to no Purpose For there is nothing can teach me what God's Mind is but that which gives me sufficient Ground to believe that what it teaches is the Mind of God When therefore I read the Scripture and find such a Proposition plainly asserted in it is this a sufficient Ground or no for me to believe it to be the Mind of God If it be then the Authority of Scripture is a sufficient Ground for my Belief If it be not then the Scripture cannot teach me what God's Mind is because it cannot give me sufficient Ground to believe any one Proposition in it to be the Mind of God We are told indeed that we are not to receive the Sense of the Scripture from the Scripture but from the Church who alone hath Authority to Expound it to us and whose Expositions in all Matters of Faith are infallible But if this be so to what End should we read the Scripture seeing the only End of Reading is to learn the Sense of what we read which according to this Principle is not to be learnt from Scripture So that though there be no other wise End of reading the Scripture but only to learn from it what it means yet it seems for Men to read it for this End is a perfect Labour in Vain seeing it is not from the Scripture but from the Church that they are to learn the Meaning of Scripture For as for the Scripture if these Men are to be believed it is nothing but a heap of unsensed Characters so they expresly term it But what do they mean by it Is it that the Scripture consists of a company of Letters and Syllables and Words that carry with them no determinate Sense that God Almighty hath written and published a Book to the World that means nothing If so then when the Church by its infallible Authority pretends to expound the Scripture Her meaning is not to expound the
Sense of it but to impose a Sense on it which was never in it for how can She expound the Sense of a Book which hath no Sense in it If the Church is to expound the Sense of Scripture the Scripture must have a certain determinate Sense in it before she expounds it for to expound the Sense of That which hath no Sense is Nonsense And if the Scripture hath a certain Sense in it antecedently to the Church's Exposition of it why do they call it a Parcel of Vnsensed Characters If their Meaning be only this that the Sense of Scripture as it is delivered in Scripture is so obscure and ambiguous that without the infallible Exposition of the Church we can never be certain what it is besides that this is notoriously false the Scripture in all necessary Points both of Faith and Manners being so very plain and clear that any Man that reads it with an unprejudiced Mind may be as certain of the Sense of it as he can be of the Sense of any Writing and consequently of the Sense of any written Exposition of the Church besides this I say it is evident that whatever these Men pretend it is not meerly because of the obscurity of Scripture that they oblige Men to ground their Faith upon the Church and not upon the Scripture For they own as well as we that in many Things the Scripture is very plain and clear and yet they will by no Means allow Men to ground their Belief of these things upon the Authority of Scripture but all must be resolved into the Authority of the Church By which it is evident That if all the Scripture were as plain as the plainest Scriptures they would still contend for the Necessity of Mens relying upon the Church and not upon the Scripture and consequently that the true Reason why they contend for it is not because the Scripture is obscure but because they are resolved to advance their Church's Authority We own as well as they that where the Scripture is obscure Men ought to be guided by the Authority of the Church which we freely allow to be the best Expositor of Scripture But the true State of the Difference between them and us is this That whereas we require plain Men to judge of plain Things with their own Understandings and all Men so far forth as they are capable to judge for themselves in Matters of Religion and not content themselves to see with the Church's Eyes where they are able to see with their own nothing will satisfie these Men but to have all Men as well Wise as Simple surrender up their Faith and Judgment to the Church and wink hard and believe what-ever the Church believes purely because the Church believes it Whatever they pretend therefore the Truth of the Case is this They will by no means allow us to believe upon the Authority of Scripture not because the Scripture is obscure though this they pretend for were it never so plain the Case would be the same but because they are sensible that this will inevitably subvert their usurped Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of Men. But we must believe upon the Authority of the Church and who is this Church I beseech you Why they themselves are this Church So that whereas God hath published a Book called the Bible on purpose to declare his Mind and Will to the World here are started up a Sort of Men that call themselves the Church who very gravely tell us Sirs You must not so much as look into this Book or if you do must not believe any one Word in it upon its own Credit and Authority For though we do confess it is the Word of God yet we are the sole Iudges of the Sense of it and therefore whatsoever we declare is its Sense how unlikely soever it may seem to you you are bound in Conscience to receive and believe it for this very Reason because we declare it In short you must resign up your Eyes your Faith your Reason and Vnderstandings to us and see only with our Eyes and believe only with our Faith and judge only with our Iudgment and whithersoever we shall think fit to lead you you must tamely follow us without presuming to examin whether we lead you right or wrong But yet after all to induce us thus to inslave our Understandings to them they themselves are fain to appeal to Scripture and allow us in some Things to judge of the Sense of it and to believe those Things upon its Authority For no wise and honest Man will ever believe either that They are the Church or the infallible Judges of the Sense of Scripture without some Proof and Evidence and for this they are fain to produce several Texts of Scripture such as Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Now supposing that to be true which is notoriously false viz. that those Texts do necessarily imply that They are the only true Catholick Church and that as such they are constituted by God infallible Judges of Scripture yet before I can believe so I must judge for my self whether this be the Sense of them or no and if I judge it is I must believe that they are the Church and infallible upon the Scripture's Authority and not theirs for their Authority is the Thing in debate and I cannot believe upon it before I believe it So then though we must believe nothing else upon Scripture Authority yet upon this very Authority we must believe that they are the Church and that they are infallible which are the fundamental Principles of their Religion that is to say we must believe as much upon Scripture Authority as will serve their turn and no more But may I be certain of the Truth of these two Fundamental Principles upon Scripture Authority or no If I may why may I not as well be infallibly certain upon the same Authority of other Principles of Christianity as well as those seeing there are no common Principles of Christian Religion but what are at least as plainly revealed in Scripture as these But this will spoil all for if Men may be infallibly certain of the Principles of Religion upon Scripture Authority what will become of the Necessity of Mens relying upon the Church which is founded upon this Principle that Men can arrive at no infallible Certainty in Religion by relying upon the Authority of Scripture or indeed any other Authority but the Church's But if I cannot be infallibly certain of those two Principles viz. that they are the Church and Infallible by those Authorities of Scripture which they urge to prove them how can I be infallibly certain of any Thing that they declare and define For if I am not certain that they are the Church for all I know the Church may be infallible and yet they may be mistaken and if I am not certain that they are infallible for all I know they may
be the Church and yet still be mistaken In short no Authority can render me infallibly certain but that which is infallible no Infallibility can render me infallibly certain but that of which I have an infallible Certainty Either therefore the Scripture can render me infallibly certain of the Infallibility of their Church and if it cannot I am sure nothing can or it cannot if it can why may it not as well render me infallibly certain of other Principles of Christianity which are at least as plainly revealed in it as that If it cannot how can I be infallibly certain that any Thing she defines and declares to me is true If then the Authority of Scripture can give us an infallible Certainty we have as just a Pretence to it as They it being upon this Authority that we ground our Faith if it cannot neither they nor we can justly pretend to it because they can no otherwise be infallibly certain of their own Infallibility but by Scripture But the Truth of it is God never intended either that they or we should be infallibly certain in the Matters of our Religion for after all the Means of Certainty that he hath given us he still supposes that we may err and plainly tells us that there must be Heresies and that even from among the Members of the true Church where infallible Certainty is if it be any where there should arise false Teachers who should bring in damnable Doctrines which could never have happened if he had left any such Means to his Church as should render her Children infallibly certain All that he designed was to leave us such sufficient Means of Certainty in Religion as that we might not err either dangerously or damnably without our own Fault He hath left us his Word and in that hath plainly discovered to us all that is necessary for us to believe in order to eternal Life He hath left us a standing Ministry in his Church to explain his Word to us and to guide us in the Paths of Righteousness and Truth but still he requires us to search the one and attend to the other with honest humble and teachable Minds and if we do not we may err not only dangerously but damnably and it is but fit and just we should But if we diligently search the Scripture and faithfully rely upon its Authority without doing of which we search it in vain if we sincerely attend to the publick Ministry with Minds prepared to receive the Truth in the Love of it though we may possibly err in Matters of less Moment yet as to all Things necessary to our eternal Salvation our Faith shall be inviolably secured and this is as much as any honest Man needs or as any honest Church can promise 2. From hence also I infer that in the Matters of our Faith and Religion God doth expect that we should make use of our own Reason and Judgment For to what End should he put us upon searching the Scriptures but that thereby we may inform our selves what those Things are which he hath required us to believe and practise But if it were his Mind that we should wholly rely upon the Authority of our Church or of our Spiritual â—â—ids and submit our Faith to their Dictates without any Examination what a needless and impertâ—â—â—nt Imployment would this be for us to search and consult the Scriptures Consult them for what it we are not to follow their Guidance and Direction and to take the Measures of our Faith and Manners from them And if for this End God hath obliged us to consult them as to be sure it can be for no other End then he hath obliged us to imploy our own Reason and Judgment to consider what they say and enquire what they mean otherwise he hath obliged us to consult them to no Purpose It is as evident therefore that God will have us use our own Reason and Judgment in discerning what we are to believe and what not in Religion and not lazily rely upon others to see and discern and believe for us as it is that he would have us search and consult the Scriptures and that I think is evident enough from what hath been said to any one that is not resolved to admit of a Conviction And indeed seeing our Reason is the noblest Faculty we have it would be very strange if God should not allow it to intermeddle in the highest and most important Affair wherein he hath engaged us and seeing it is our Reason only that renders us capable of Religion what an odd Thing would it be for God to forbid us making use of our Reason in the most important Concerns of Religion that is indistinguishing what is true Religion from what is false and what we ought to believe from what we ought to reject I know it is pretended by those who urge the absolute Necessity of submitting our Reason to the Church that they allow Men to make Use of their own Reason and Judgment in discovering which the true Church is and that all they contend for is only this that when once Men have found the true Church they ought to enquire no farther but immediately to deliver up their Reason and Understanding to it and believe every Thing it believes without any farther Examination So that before Men come into their Church it seems they are allowed to see for themselves but after they are in they must wink and follow their Guides and depute them to see and understand for them which to such Men as are not quite sick of their own Reason and Understandings should methinks be a great Temptation to keep them out of their Church for ever For if I may judge for my self while I am out of it but must not while I am in it I must be very fond of parting with my own Eyes and Reason if ever I come into it at all But suppose I was always in it and had been bred up in its Communion from my Infancy will they allow me when I come to the full use of my Reason fairly to question whether theirs be the only true Church or no and to hear the Reasons and examine the Scriptures and consult the Doctors on both sides No by no means this I am forbid under the Penalty of being deprived of the Benefit of Priestly Absolution So that in short they will allow me to make Use of my Reason if I have been bred an Heretick in order to my Reconciliation to their Church but if I have never been an Heretick I must never use my Reason to examine the Truth either of my Church or Religion that is to say I may use my Reason when there is no other Remedy and I must continue a Heretick if I do not But it were much better that I had never had Occasion to use my Reason at all So that according to these Men the Use of our Reason in Religion is only the least of two Evils
so evil as its Evils and the one being his Heaven and the other his Hell all other Considerations are overcome by them and to obtain the one and avoid the other he must stick at nothing no not at renouncing his God and his Religion together with all his Hopes of a future Immortality 6. And lastly Living in any known Course of Sin provokes God to give us up to the Power of Delusion For so long as Men submit themselves to the Guidance and Direction of a good Conscience the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of Truth abides with them and not only directs their Wills but also informs their Understandings and enables them to discern the Beauty and Reality of those heavenly Truths which he hath revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures For though since he hath revealed already the whole Will of God to us concerning our eternal Salvation we have no Reason to expect that he will reveal new Truths to us yet seeing so far forth as it is necessary he hath promised and engaged that he will co-operate with us to enable us as well to understand the Will of God as to perform it we have the greatest Reason in the World to depend upon it that so long as we cherish his heavenly Inspirations by yielding to them our free and ready Compliance he will be so far an assâ—sting Genius to our Understandings as to suggest to us those Truths which he hath already revealed and set them before our Eyes in so fair a Light as that we shall not fail more clearly to discern and more distinctly to apprehend them than otherwise we should or could have done For when he writes his Truth upon our Minds it is with such a Victorious Sun-beam as will endure neither Cloud nor Shadow before it Whenever he speaks He speaks not to our Ears but to our Minds and represents Things nakedly and immediately to our Understandings He converses with our Spirits as Spirits do with Spirits without involving his Sense in articulate Sounds or material Representations but objects it to us in its own naked Light and characterizes it immediately on our Understandings And as he proposes the Divine Light to us so he also illuminates our Minds to discern and comprehend it He raises and exalts our Intellectual Powers and as a vital Form to the Light of our Reason invigorates and actuates it and thereby renders its Apprehension of Things more quick and piercing and sagacious Thus doth the Holy Spirit more or less assist us in the true Understanding of Divine Things as he finds us more or less compliant with his heavenly Pleasure and though he stands no more obliged to render our Minds infallible than our Wills impeccable yet so long as by our sincere Obedience to his holy Suggestions we keep our selves under his Conduct and Direction we may depend upon it he will either preserve us from all dangerous Errors or if for just Reasons he should permit us to fall into any such they shall not prove dangerous to us but either we shall be convinced of them while we live or obtain Pity and Pardon for them when we die But whilst we persist in any willful Course of Sin we do not only violate our own Conscience but also repel those good Motions of the Spirit of God whereby he strives to reduce and reclaim us in doing which we continually grieve him and if we do not forbear shall at length provoke him wholly to forsake and abandon us to give us up to our own Hearts Lusts as desperate Wretches with whom he hath hitherto strove and struggled in vain and of whose future Recovery there remains no farther Hope or Prospect And when He hath forsaken us our Mind will not only be left naked and destitute of all those Helps and Advantages for the understanding of Divine Truths which it receives from him but also be exposed to the Cheats and Fallacies of Evil Spirits whose Recreation it is to put Tricks upon our Minds to banter and play upon our easie Faith to cast Mists before our Eyes and therein to juggle away all true Religion from us and foist in the Room of it the most fulsom Errors and Mistakes For so the Apostle tells us of Antichrist the great Deceiver that he should come with all deceivableness of unrighteousness to them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And that for that Cause viz. their not receiving the truth in the love of it God should send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that is by abandoning them to the Power of cheating and deluding Spirits That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. And God grant that this at last prove not our Fate that because we have sinned against the clearest Light and gone astray in all Unrighteousness under the best and purest Religion in the World we are not at length given up by God to follow the wild Delusions of Antichrist and to believe all those fulsom Lyes and Impostures which he from Age to Age hath been imposing upon the World But whether it prove thus or no this I am sure of that by persisting in any vicious Course against the Light and Conviction of our Consciences we highly provoke Almighty God to withdraw his Grace from us and give us up to our own Hearts Lusts and when this is done our own Hearts Lusts will soon betray and give up our Faith to false and vicious Principles of Religion And now having shewn at large what strong and prevalent Tendencies there are in a wicked Life to Apostacy from true Religion I shall conclude this Argument with two or three Inferences 1. From hence I infer What a great Malignity there is in Mens being inconstant to and apostatizing from the true Religion in Compliance with their sinful Affections it being as you see the ill Daughter of a bad Mother a debauched and a dissolute Conscience and consequently partaking of all its natural Bane and Malignity even as all other bad Effects do of the malignant Nature of their bad Causes But the Truth of this will more fully appear by considering the particular Evils which Mens Inconstancy to and Proneness to revolt from the true Religion implies of which I shall give you these five Instances 1. The great Impiety of it 2. The desperate Folly of it 3. The foul Dishonesty of it 4. The shameful Cowardize of it 5. The vast Hazard and Insecurity of it 1. Consider the great Impiety of it He who can part with his Religion or any Principle of it upon any other Terms than a full Conviction of the Falshood of it is either a down-right Atheist who believing no Religion to be true governs himself by this Principle That the wisest Course is to profess none but that which is uppermost and most for his Interest or a prophane and impious