THE

LIVELY ORACLES

GIVEN TO US.

OR THE

Christians Birth-right

AND DUTY,

In the custody and use of the

HOLY SCRIPTURE.

By the Author of
The Whole Duty of Man, &c.

Search the Scriptures, Joh. 5. 39.

At the Theater in Oxford, 1713

All that I require is that men would bring as much readiness to entertain the Holy Scriptures, as they do to the reading profane Authors, I am asham’d to to say, as they do to the incentives of vice and folly, nay, to the libels and invectives that are levell’d against the Scriptures.

If I obtain this, I will make no doubt that I shall gain a farther point; that from the perusal of my imperfect conceptions, the Reader will proceed to the study of the Scriptures themselves: there tast and see how gracious the Lord is, Psal. 34. 8. and, as the Angel commands Saint John, Revelat. 10. 9. eat the Book: where he will experimentally find the words of David verify’d, Ps. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law, converting the Soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, and giveth wisdom to the simple. The Statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoyce the heart; the Commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light to the eyes. The Fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever, the Judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desir’d are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than hony and the hony-comb. Moreover by them is thy servant taught, and in keeping of them there is great reward.

It is said of Moses, Exod. 34. 29. that having receiv’d the Law from God, and convers’d with him in Mount Sinai fourty days together, his face shone, and had a brightness fix’d upon it that dazled the beholders; a pledge and short essay not only of his appearance at Mount Tabor, Matt. 17. 1. where, at the Transfiguration he again was seen in glory: but of that greater, and yet future change when he shall see indeed his God face to face, and share his glory unto all eternity. The same Divine Goodness gives still his Law to every one of us. Let us receive it with due regard and veneration; converse with him therein, instead of fourty days, during our whole lives, and so anticipate and. certainly assure our interest in that great Transfiguration, when all the faithful shall put off their mortal flesh, be translated from glory to glory, eternally behold their God, see him as he is, and so enjoy him.

Conversation has every where an assimilating power; we are generally such as are the Men, and Books, and business that we deal with: but surely no familiarity has so great an influence on Life and Manners, as when Men hear God speaking to them in his Word. That Word which the Apostle Hebr. 4. 12. declares to be quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edg’d sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart.

The time will come when all our Books however recommended for subtilty of discourse, exactness of method, variety of matter, eloquence of Language; when all our curious Arts, like those mention’d Acts 19. 19. shall be brought forth, and burnt before all men: When the great Book of nature, and heaven it self shall depart as a scroul roll’d together, Revel. 6. 14. At which important season ’twill be more to purpose to have study’d well, that is, transcrib’d in practice this one Book, than to have run thro’ all besides, for then the dead, small and great, shall stand befere God, and the Books shall be open’d, and another Book shall be open’d which is the Book of Life, and the dead shall be judg’d out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works, Revel. 20. 21.

In vain shall men alledge the want of due conviction, that they did not know how penal it would be, to disregard the Sanctions of Gods Law, which they would have had enforc’d by immediate miracle; the apparition of one sent from the other world who might testify of the place of torment. This expectation the Scripture charges every where with the guilt of tempting God, and indeed it really involves this insolent proposal, that the Almighty should be oblig’d to break his own Laws, that men might be prevail’d with to keep his. But should he think fit to comply herein, the condescension would be as successless in the event, as ’tis unreasonable in the offer. Our Saviour assures, that they who hear not Moses and the Prophets, the instructions and commands laid down in holy Scripture, would not be wrought upon by any other method, would not be persuaded by that which they allow for irresistable conviction, tho’ one rose again from the dead, Luke 16. 31.

8. INDEED so many are the abuses we offer it, that he that considers them would scarce think we own’d it for the words of a sensible man, much less of the great omniscient God. And I believe ’twere hard to assign any one so comprehensive and efficacious cause of the universal depravation of manners, as the disvaluing of this divine Book, which was design’d to regulate them. It were therefore a work worthy another inspired writing, to attempt the rescue of this, and recover it to its just estimate. Yet alas, could we hope for that, we have scoffers who would as well despise the New as the Old; and like the Husbandmen in the Gospel, Mat. 21. 36. would answer such a succession of messages by repeating the same injuries.

9. To such as these ’tis I confess vain for man to address; nay ’twere insolence to expect that human Oratory should succeed where the divine fails yet the spreading infection of these renders it necessary to administer antidotes to others. And besides, tho’ (God be blest) all are not of this form, yet there are many who, tho’ not arriv’d to this contempt, yet want some degrees of that just reverence they owe the sacred Scriptures, who give a confus’d general assent to them as the Word of God, but afford them not a consideration and respect answerable to such an acknowledgment. To such as these, I shall hope it may not be utterly vain to attempt the exciting of those drowsy notions that lie unactive in them; by presenting to them some considerations concerning the excellence and use of the Scripture: which being all but necessary consequences of that principle they are supposed to own, viz. that they are Gods word, I cannot much question their assent to the speculative part: I wish I could as probably assure my self of the practick.

10. INDEED were there nothing else to be said in behalf of holy Writ, but that it is Gods word, that were enough to command the most awful regard to it. And therefore it is but just we make that the first and principal consideration in our present discourse. But then ’tis impossible that that can want others to attend it; since whatsoever God saies, is in all respects compleatly good. I shall therefore to that of its divine original add secondly the consideration of its subject Matter; thirdly, of its excellent and no less diffusive end and design; and fourthly, of its exact propriety and fitness to that design: which are all such qualifications, that where they concur, nothing more can be requir’d to commend a writing to the esteem of rational men. And upon all these tests, notwithstanding the cavil of the Romanists and others, whose force we shall examin with the unhappy issue of contrary counsels, this Law of God will be found to answer the Psalmists character of it Ps. 19. 7. The Law of God is perfect: and ’twill appear that the custody and use thereof is the Birth-right and Duty of every Christian. All which severals being faithfully deduced, it will only remain that I add full cautions as will be necessary to the due performance of the aforesaid duty, and our being in some degree render’d perfect, as this Law of God, and the Author thereof himself is perfect, Matt. 5. 48.

24. NOW the motives of our belief in the present case, are such as are extrinsick, or intrinsick to the Scriptures; of which the extrinsick are first, and preparative to the other; and indeed all that, can reasonably be insisted on to a gain-saier, who must be suppos’d no competent judge of the latter. But as to the former, I shall adventure to say, that the Divine Original of the Scripture hath as great grounds of credibility as can be expected in any thing of this kind. For that God inspir’d the Pen-men of Holy Writ, is matter of fact, and being so, is capable of no other external evidence but that of testimony: and that matter of fact being also in point of time so remote from us, can be judg’d of only by a series of Testimonies deriv’d from that Age wherein the Scriptures were written, to this: and the more credible the testifiers, and the more universal the Testimony, so much the more convincing are they to all considering men.

25. AND this attestation the Scripture hath in the highest circumstances, it having been witnes’d to in all Ages, and in those Ages by all persons that could be presum’d to know any thing of it. Thus the Old Testament was own’d by the whole Nation of the Jews, as the writings of men inspir’d by God, and that with such evidence of their mission, as abundantly satisfied those of that Age, of their being so inspir’d; and they deriv’d those Writings with that attestation to their posterity. Now that those of the first Ages were not deceiv’d, is as morally certain as any thing can be suppos’d. For in the first part of the Bible is contain’d the history of those miracles wherewith God rescued that people out of Egypt, and instated them in Canaan, Now if they who liv’d at that time, knew that such miracles were never done, ’tis impossible they could receive an evident Fable as an inspir’d truth. No single person, much less a whole Nation can be suppos’d so stupid. But if indeed they were eye-witnesses of those miracles, they might with very good reason conclude, that the same Moses who was by God impower’d to work them, was so also for the relating them; as also all those precedent events from the Creation down to that time, which are recorded by him.

26. SO also for the preceptive parts of those Books, those that saw those formidable solemnities, with which they were first publish’d, had sure little temptation to doubt that they were the dictates of God, when written. Now if they could not be deceiv’d themselves, ’tis yet less imaginable that they should conspire to impose a cheat upon their posterities; nor indeed were the Jews of so easy a credulity, that ’tis at all probable the succeeding Generations would have been so impos’d on: their humour was stubborn enough, and the precepts of their Law severe and burdensome enough to have tempted them to have cast off the yoak, had it not been bound upon them by irresistible convictions of its coming from God. But besides this Tradition of their Elders, they had the advantage of living under a Theocracy, the immediate guidance of God; Prophets daily were rais’d up among them, to fore-tell events, to admonish them of their duty, and reprove their back-slidings yet even these gave the deference to the written Word; nay, made it the test by which to try true inspirations from false: To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to it, there is no light in them, Esay 18. 20. So that the veneration which they had before acquir’d, was still anew excited by fresh inspirations, which both attested the old, and became new parts of their Canon.

27. NOR could it be esteem’d a small confirmation to the Scriptures, to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books; for nothing less than divine Power and Wisdom could foretell, and also verify them. Upon these grounds the Jews universally thro’ all successions receiv’d the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles, and look’d upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them: and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them, that their Masorits numbred not only the sections, but the very Words, nay Letters, that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem’d so sacred. A farther testimony and sepiment to which, were the Samaritan, Chaldee, and Greek Versions: which being made use of in the Synagogues of Jews, in their dispersions, and by the Samaritans at Sichem, could not at those distances receive an uniform alteration, and any other would be of no effect. Add to this, that the Original exemplar of the Law, was laid up in the Sanctuary, that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him, and transcribe it with his own hand; that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation, teach it his Children, and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead. And now sure ’tis impossible to imagine any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced, or irrefragably testified, nor any thing believ’d upon stronger evidence.

28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews, that they did thus own these Writings as divine, appears not only by the Records of past Ages, but by the Jews of the present, who still own them, and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians. And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews, (as he must be most absurdly sceptical that shall deny) they must be so to Christians also, who derive them from them: and that with this farther advantage to our Faith, that we see the clear completion of those Evangelical prophecies which remain’d dark to them, and consequently have a farther Argument to confirm us, that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are certainly divine.

29. THE New has also the like means of probation: which as it is a collection of the doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles, must if truly related be acknowledged no less divine than what they orally deliver’d. So that they who doubt its being divine, must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preach’d to be so; else distrust the fidelity of the relation The former strikes at the whole Christian faith; which if only of men, must not only be fallible but is actually a deceit, whilst it pretends to be of God, and is not. To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendous miracles with which the Gospel was attested such as demonstrated a more than human efficacy. And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men, is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain.

30. ’TIS true, there have been by God permitted lying miracles, as well as true ones have been done by him; such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt, in opposition to the other of Moses; but then the difference between both was so conspicuous, that he must be more partial and disingenuous, than even those Magicians were, who would not acknowledge the disparity, and confess in those which were truely supernatural the finger of God, Exod. 8. 19. Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted, that false Prophets should arise, and do signs and wonders, Deut. 13. 1. Matt. 24. 11, 24. as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion; whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommend a deceiver, before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver’d to the sons of men by the God of truth. Whether the trick of a Barchochebas, to hold fire in his mouth; that of Marcus the Heretick, to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear blood; or that of Mahomet, to bring a Pidgeon to his ear, ought to be put in balance against all the Miracles wrought by Moses, our Saviour, or his Apostles. And in a word; whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras, or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus, deserve to rival those of the Evangelists. It is a most just judgment, and accordingly threatned by Almighty God that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie, 2 Thes. 2. 11. But still the Almighty, where, any man or devil do’s proudly, is evidently above him, Exod. 18. 11. will be justified in his sayings, and be clear when he is judged, Rom. 3. 4.

31. BUT if men will be Scepticks, and doubt every thing, they are to know that the matter call’d into question, is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution; probability, and testimony. First for probability, let it be consider’d, who were the first promulgers of Christs Miracles. In his life time they were either the patients on whom his Miracles were wrought, or the common people, that were spectators: the former, as they could not be deceiv’d themselves, but must needs know whether they were cur’d or no; so what Imaginable design could they have to deceive others? Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion; but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not? As for the Spectators, as their multitude adds to their credibility; (it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter so obvious to their senses) so do’s it also acquit them from fraud and combination. Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatch’d in the dark, in close Cabals, and private Junctos. That five thousand men at one time, and four thousand at another, should conspire to say, that they were miraculously fed, when they were not; and all prove true to the fiction, and not betray it, is a thing as irrational to be suppos’d, as impossible to be parallel’d.

32. BESIDES, admit it possible that so many could have join’d in the deceit, yet what imaginable end could they have in it? Had their lie been subservient to the designs of some potent Prince that might have rewarded it, there had been some temptation: but what could they expect from the reputed Son of a Carpenter, who had not himself where to lay his head? Nay, who disclaim’d all secular power; convey’d himself away from their importunities, when they would have forced him to be a King: And consequently, could not be look’d on as one that would head a Sedition, or attempt to raise himself to a capacity of rewarding his Abettors. Upon all thee considerations, there appears not the least shadow of probability, that either those particular persons who publish’d the cures they had receiv’d, or those multitudes who were witnesses and divulgers of those, or his other miracles, could do it upon any sinister design, or indeed upon any other motive but gratitude and admiration.

33. IN the next place, if we come to those miracles which succeeded Christs death, those most important; and convincing of his Resurrection and Ascension, and observe who were the divulgers of those, we shall find them very unlikely to be men of design; a set of illiterate men, taken from the Fisher-Boats, and other mean occupations: and such as needed a miracle as great as any of those they were to assert (the descent of the Holy Ghost) to fit them for their office. What alas could they drive at, or how could they hope that their testimony could be received, so much against the humour and interest of the present Rulers; unless they were assur’d not only of the truth of the things, but also of some supernatural aids to back and fortify them? Accordingly we find, that till they had receiv’d those; till by the descent of the Holy Ghost they were endued with power from on high, Luk. 24. 49. they never attempted the discovery of what they had seen: but rather hid themselves, kept all their assemblies in privacy and concealment, for fear of the Jews, Jo. 20. 10. and so were far enough from projecting any thing besides their own safety. Afterwards, when they began to preach, they had early Essays, what their secular advantages would be by it; threatnings and revilings, scourgings and imprisonments, Act. 4. 20. 5. 18, 40. And can it be imagined, that men who a little before had shewed themselves so little in love with suffering, that none of them durst stick to their Master at his apprehension, but one forswore, and all forsook him; can it, 1 say, be imagin’d that these men should be so much in love with their own Fable, as to venture all sorts of persecution for the propagating it? Or if they could, let us in the next place consider what probability there could be of success.

34. THEIR preaching amounted to no less than the Deifying of one, whom both their Roman and Jewish Rulers, nay, the generality of the people had executed as a malefactor: so that they were all engag’d, in defence of their own Act, to lift their testimony with all the rigour that conscious jealousy could suggest. And where were so many concern’d inquisitors, there was very little hope for a forgery to pass. Besides the avow’d displeasure of their Governours made it a hazardous thing to own a belief of what they asserted. Those that adher’d to them could not but know, that at the same time they must espouse their dangers and sufferings. And men use not to incur certain mischiefs, upon doubtful and suspicious grounds.

35. YET farther, their doctrine was design’d to an end to which their Auditors could not but have the greatest reluctancy: they were to struggle with that rooted prepossession which the Jews had for the Mosaical Law, which their Gospel out-dated; and the Gentiles for the Rites and Religion of their Ancestors; and, which was harder than either, the corruptions and vices of both: to plant humility and internal sanctity, so contrary to that ceremonial holiness, upon which the Jews so valued themselves, and despis’d others: and Temperance, Justice, and Purity, so contrary to the practice, nay, even the religion of the Heathen: and to attempt all this with no other allurement, no other promise of recompence but what they must attend in another world, and pass too through reproaches and afflictions, torments and death; These were all such invincible prejudices, as they could never hope to break thorough with a lie; nay, which they could not have encounter’d even with every common truth, but only with that, which being divine, brought its aids with it; without which ’twas utterly impossible for all the skill or oratory of men to overcome such disadvantages.

36. AND yet with all these did these rude inartificial men contest, and that with signal success: no less than three thousand Proselytes made by Saint Peter’s first Sermon; and that in Jerusalem, the Scene where all was acted; and consequently where ’twas the most impossible to impose a forgery. And at the like miraculous rate they went on, till as the Pharisees themselves complain, they had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, Acts 5. 28. nor did Judea set bounds to them; their sound went out into all Nations, Rom. 10. 18, and their doctrine spread it self through all the Gentile world.

37. AND sure so wonderful an event, so contrary to all humane measures, do’s sufficiently evince there was more than man in it. Nothing but the same creative Power that produc’d light out of darkness, could bring forth effects so much above the proportion of the cause. Had these weak instruments acted only by their natural powers, nothing of this had been achiev’d. Alas could these poor rude men learn all Languages within the space of fifty days, which would take up almost as many years of the most industrious Student? and yet had they not been able to speak them, they could never have divulg’d the Gospel to the several Nations, nor so effectually have convinc’d the by-standers, Acts 2. that they acted by a higher impulse. And to convince the world they did so, they repeated their Masters miracles as well as his doctrine; heal’d the sick cast out devils, rais’d the dead. And where God communicated so much of his power, we may reasonably conclude he did it to promote his own work, not the work of the devil, as it must have been if this whole Scene were a lie.

38. WHEN all this is weigh’d, I presume there will remain little ground to suspect that the first planters of Christian Faith had any other design than what they avowed, viz. the bringing men to holiness here, and salvation hereafter. The suspicion therefore, if any, must rest upon latter times; and accordingly some are willing to perswade themselves and others, that the whole Scheme of our Religion is but a lately devis’d Fable to keep the world in awe, whereof Princes have made some use, but Clergy-men more; and that Christ and his Apostles are only actors whom themselves have conjured up upon the Stage to pursue their plot.

39. 1N answer to this bold, this blasphemous suggestion, I should first desire these Surmisers to point out the time when, and the persons who began this design; to tell us exactly whence they date this politick Religion, as they are pleas’d to suppose it. If they cannot, they are manifestly unjust to reject our account of it when they can give none themselves; and fail very much of that rigid demonstration they require from others. That there is such a profession as Christianity in the world, is yet (God be blest) undeniable; (though at the rate it has of late declin’d, God knows how long it will be so:) we say it came by Christ, and his Apostles, and that it is attested by an uninterrupted testimony of all the intervening Ages, the suffrage of all Christian Churches from that day to this. And sure they who embraced the Doctrine, are the most competent witnesses from whence they receiv’d it.

40. YET lest they should be all thought parties to the design, and their witness excepted against, it has pleas’d God to give us collateral assurances, and make both Jewish and Gentile Writers give testimony to the Antiquity of Christianity. Josephus do’s this, lib. 20. chap. 8. and lib. 18. chap. 4. where, after he has given an account of the crucifixion of Christ exactly agreeing with the Evangelists he concludes, And to this day the Christian people, who of him borrow their name, cease not to increase. I add not the personal elogium which he gives of our Saviour; because some are so hardy to controul it: also I pass by what Philo mentions of the religious in Egypt, because several Learned men refer it to the Essens, a Sect among the Jews, or some other. There is no doubt of what Tacitus and other Roman Historians speak of Christ as the Author of the Christian doctrine; which it had been impossible for him to have done, if there had then been no such doctrine, or if Christ had not been known as the Founder of it. .So afterward Pliny gives the Emperour Trajan an account both of the manners, and multitude of the Christians; and makes of the innocence of the one, and the greatness of the other, an Argument to slacken the persecution against them. Nay, the very bloody Edicts of the persecuting Emperors, and the scoffs and reproaches of Celsus, Porphyry, Lucian, and other profane opposers of this Doctrine, do undeniably assert its being. By all which it appears, that Christianity had in those Ages not only a being, but had also obtain’d mightily in the world, and drawn in vast numbers to its profession: and vast indeed they must needs be, to furnish out that whole Army of Martyrs, of which profane, as well as Ecclesiastick writers speak. And if all this be not sufficient to evince that Christianity stole not clancularly into the world, but took its rise from those times and Persons it pretends, we must renounce all faith of Testimony, and not believe an inch farther than we see.

41. I suppose I need say no more to shew that the Gospel, and all those portentous miracles which attested it, were no forgeries, or stratagems of men. I come now to that doubt which more immediately concerns the Holy Scripture, viz. whether all those transactions be so faithfully related there, that we may believe them to have been dictated by the spirit of God. Now for this, the process need be but short, if we consider who were the Pen-men of the New Testament; even for the most part of the Apostles themselves: Matthew, and John who wrote two of the Gospels were certainly so: and Mark, as all the Ancients aver, was but the Amanuensis to Saint Peter, who dictated that Gospel. Saint Luke indeed comes not under this first rank of Apostles; yet is by some affirm’d to be one of the seventy Disciples: however an Apostolical person ’tis certain he was, and it was no wonder for such to be inspir’d. For in those first Ages of the Church men acted more by immediate inflation of the Spirit than since. And accordingly we find Stephen, tho’ but a Deacon, had the power of Miracles and preach’d as divine as the prime Apostles, Acts 7. And the gift of the Holy Ghost was then a usuial concomitant of conversion, as appears in the Story of Cornelius, Acts 10. 45, 46. Besides, Saint Luke was a constant attendant on Saint Paul (who deriv’d the Faith not from man, but by the immediate revelation of Jesus Christ, as himself professes, Galat. 1. 12.) and is by some said to have wrote by dictate from him, as Mark did from Saint Peter. Then as to the Epistles they all bear the names of Apostles, except that to the Hebrews, which yet is upon very good grounds presum’d to be Saint Paul`s. Now these were the Persons commissionated by Christ to preach the Christian doctrine, and were signally assisted in the discharge of that office; so that as he tells them, it was not they, who speak, but the spirit of the Father that spake in them, Matt. 13. 11. And if they spake by Divine Inspiration, there can be no question that they wrote so also. Nay, indeed of the two, it seems more necessary they should do the latter. For had they err’d in any thing they orally deliver’d, they might have retracted and cured the mischief: but these Books being design’d as a standing immutable rule of Faith and Manners to all successions, any errour in them would have been irreparable, and have entail’d it self upon posterity: which agreed neither with the truth, nor goodness of God to permit.

42. NOW that these Books were indeed writ by them whose names they bear, we have as much assurance as ’tis possible to have of any thing of that nature, and that distance of time from us. For however some of them may have been controverted, yet the greatest part have admitted no dispute; whole Doctrines agreeing exactly with the others, give testimony to them. And to the bulk of those writings, it is notorious that the first Christians receiv’d them from the Apostles, and so transmitted them to the ensuing Ages, which receiv’d them with the like esteem and veneration. They cannot be corrupted, faies Saint Austin in the thirty second Book against Faustis the Manich. c. 16. because they are and have been in the hands of all Christians. And whosoever should first attempt an alteration, he would be confuted by the inspection of other ancienter Copies. Besides, the Scriptures are not in some one Language, but translated into many: so that the faults of one Book would be corrected by others more ancient, or in a different Tongue.

43. AND how much the body of Christians were in earnest concern’d to take care in this matter, appears by very costly evidences; multitudes of them choosing rather to part with their lives than their Bibles. And indeed ’tis a sufficient proof, that their reverence of that Book was very avowed and manifest; when their Heathen persecutors made that one part of their persecution. So that as wherever the Christian Faith was receiv’d, this Book was also, under the notion we now plead for, viz. as the writings of men inspir’d by God: so it was also contended for even unto death: and to part with the Bible was to renounce the Faith. And now, after such a cloud of testimonies, we may sure take up that (ill apply’d) saying of the High Priest, Matt. 26. 65. what farther need have we of witnesses.

44. YET besides these, another sort of witnesses there are, I mean those intrinsick evidences which arise out of the Scripture it self; but of these I think not proper here to insist, partly because the subject will be in a great degree coincident with that of the second general consideration; and partly because these can be argumentative to none who are not qualified to discern them. Let those who doubt the Divine Original of Scripture, well digest the former grounds which are within the verge of reason; and when by those they are brought to read it with due reverence, they will not want Arguments from the Scripture it self to confirm their veneration of it.

45. IN the mean time, to evince how proper the former discourse is to found a rational belief that the Scripture is the word of God, I shall compare it with those measures of credibility upon which all humane transactions move, and upon which men trust their greatest concerns without diffidence or dispute.

46. THAT we must in many things trust the report of others, is so necessary, that without it humane society cannot subsist. What a multitude of subjects are there in the world, who never saw their Prince, nor were at the making of any Law? if all these should deny their obedience, because they have it only by hear-say, that there is such a man, and such Laws, what would become of Government? So also for property, if nothing of testimony may be admitted, how shall any man prove his right to any thing? All pleas must be decided by the sword, and we shall fall into that state (which some have fancied the primitive) of universal hostility. In like manner for traffick and commerce; how should any Merchant first attempt a trade to any foreign part of the world, if he did not believe that such a place there was? and how could he believe that, but upon the credit of those who have been there? Nay, indeed how could any man first attempt to go but to the next Market Town, if he did not from the report of others, conclude that such a one there was? so that if this universal diffidence should prevail, every man should be a kind of Plantagnus, fix’d to the soil he first sprung up in. The absurdities are indeed so infinite, and so obvious, that I need not dilate upon them.

47. BUT it will perhaps be said, that in things that are told us by our contemporaries, and that relate to our own time, men will be less apt to deceive us, because they know ’tis in our power to examine and discover the truth. To this I might say, that in many instances it would scarce quit cost to do so, and the inconveniences of tryal would exceed those of belief. But 1 shall willingly admit this probable argument, and only desire it may be applied to our main question, by considering whether the primitive Christians who receiv’d the Scripture as divine, had not the same security of not being deceiv’d, who had as great opportunities of examining, and the greatest concern of doing it throughly, since they were to engage, not only their future hopes in another world, but (that which to nature is much more sensible) all their present enjoyments, and even life it self upon the truth of it.

48. BUT because it must be confess’d that we who are so many Ages remov’d from them, have not their means of assurance; let us in the next place consider, whether an assent to those testimonies they have left behind them, be not warranted by the common practice of mankind in other cases. Who is there that questions there was such a man as William the Conqueror in this Island? Or, to lay the Scene farther, who doubts there was an Alexander, a Julius Cæsar, an Augustus? Now what have we to found this confidence on besides the Faith of History? And I presume even those who exact the severest demonstrations for Ecclesiastick story, would think him a very impertinent Sceptick that should do the like in these. So also, as to the Authors of Books; who disputes whether Homer writ the Iliads, or Virgil the Æneids, or Cæsar the Commentaries, that pass under their names? yet none of these have been attested in any degree like the Scripture. ’Tis said indeed, that Cæsar ventured his own life to save his Commentaries, imploying one hand to hold those above the water, when it should have assisted him in swiming. But whoever laid down their lives in attestation of that, or any humane composure, as multitudes of men have done for the Bible?

3. SECONDLY, as to the truth of the relation, tho’ to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof; yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it. The most undoubted symptom of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality. Now this is very eminent in Scripture writers: they do not record others faults, and baulk their own; but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others. Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message, Ex. 4. 14. his provocation of God at the waters of Meribah, Numb. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behaviour towards God, with as great aggravations as any of his enemies could have done. Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel, neither omits nor extenuates his sin; all he seems to speak short in, is his repentance, Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners.

4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults, so neither did any nearness of relation, any respect of quality bribe them to a concealment: Moses relates the offence of his Sister Miriam in mutining. Numb. 12. 1. of his Brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf, Exod. 32. 4, with as little disguise as that of Korah and his Company. David, tho’ a King, hath his adultery and murder display’d in the blackest Characters: and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his treasures do’s not escape a remark. Nay, even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the Sacred Writers; but they freely tax their crimes: the Israelites murmurings in the wilderness, their Idolatries in Canaan, are set down without any palliation or excuse. And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude, as the Canaanites are for their abominations. So that certainly no History in the world do’s better attest it’s truth by this evidence of impartiality.

5. IN the last place it commends it self both by the pleasure and profit it yields. The rarity of those events it records, surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration; and that mixture of sage Discourses, and well-couch’d Parables wherewith it abounds, do’s at once please and instruct. How ingeniously apt was Nathans Apologue to David, whereby with Holy artifice he ensnar’d him into repentance? And it remains still matter of instruction to us, to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves. So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin, is set out with such particularity, that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst. His own lust with Bathsheba was answer’d with Amnons towards Thamar; his murder of Uriah with that of Amnon; his treacherous contrivance of that murder, with Absoloms traitorous conspiracy against him. So that every circumstance of his punishment was the very Echo and reverberation of his guilt. A multitude of the like instances might be produc’d out of Holy Writ; all concurring to admonish us, that God exactly marks, and will repay our crimes; and that commonly with such propriety, that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings, than the very sufferings themselves. Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the Historical part of Scripture, that flow so easily and unconstrain’d, that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them: therefore ’twould be impertinent here multiply instances.

6. LET us next consider the Prophetick part of Scripture, and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind. The Prophetick Books are for the most part made up (as the Prophetick Office was) of two parts: prediction and instruction. When God rais’d up Prophets, ’twas not only to acquaint men with future events, but to reform their present manners: and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect, so they are Watch-men and Sheepherds in another. Nay, indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end; their gift of fore-telling was to gain them authority, to be as it were the seal of their commission, to convince men that they were sent from God: and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions. And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end: the denouncing of judgements being the most frequent Theme, and that design’d to bring men to repentance; as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh. And in this latter part of their office, the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence.

7. WITH what liberty and zeal do’s Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboth’s murder, and foretell the fatal event of it, without any fear of his power, or reverence of his greatness? And Samuel, when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection, do’s passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin, 1 Sam. 15. 17. Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the prophetick Writings, the same truth of prediction, and the same zeal against vice.

8. FIRST for the predictions, what signal completions do we find? How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfill’d, where repentance has not interven’d? He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities, both under the Assyrians and Babylonians, and especially under the Romans, would think their oppressors had consulted it, and transcrib’d their severities thence. And even these Nations, who were the instruments of accomplishing those dismal presages, had their own ruins foretold, and as punctually executed. And as in Kingdoms and Nations, so to private persons none of the prophetick threatnings ever return’d empty. The sentence pronounc’d against Ahab, Jezebel, and their posterity, was fulfill’d even to the most minute circumstances of place and manner; as is evident by comparing the denunciation of Elijah, 1 Kings 21. 19. 23. with their tragical ends recorded in the following chapters. And as for Jehu, whose service God was pleased to use in that execution, tho’ he rewarded it with entailing the Crown of Israel on him for four descents, yet he fore-told those should be the limits: and accordingly we find Zachariah, the fourth descendent of his line, was the last of it that fate on that throne, 2 Kings 15. 10. So also the destruction of Achitophel and Judas, the one immediate, the other many hundred years remote, are foretold by David, Psal. 109. and we find exactly answer’d in the event.

9. NOR was this exactness confin’d only to the severe predictions, but as eminent in the more gracious. All the blessings which God by himself, or the Ministry of his Prophets promis’d, were still infallibly made good. At the time of life God return’d and visited Sarah with conception, notwithstanding those natural improbabilities which made her not only distrust, but even deride and laugh at the promise, Gen. 18. The posterity of that Son of Promise, the whole race of Abraham was deliver’d from the Egyptian bondage, and possess’d of Canaan, at the precise time which God had long before signified to Abrabam, Gen. 15. So likewise the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity was fore-told many years before their deportation, and Cyrus named for their restorer, before he had either name or being save only in Gods prescience, Is. 44. 28. But I need not multiply instances of national or personal promises. The earliest and most comprehensive promise of all was that of the Messiah, in whom all persons and Nations of the world were to be blest, Gen. 22. 11. that seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head, Gen. 3. 15. To him give all the Prophets witness, as Saint Peter observes, Acts 10. And he who was the subject, made himself also the expounder of those prophecies in his walk to Emmaus with the two Disciples, Luk. 24. 13. beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself.

10. THIS as it was infinitely the greatest blessing afforded mankind, so was it the most frequently and eminently predicted; and that with the most exact particularity as to all the circumstances. His immaculate conception, the union of his two natures implied in his name Immanuel; Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel; is most plainly fore-told by Isaiah chap. 7. 14. Nay, the very place of his birth so punctually fore-told, that the Priests and Scribes could readily resolve Herods Question upon the strength of the Prophecy, and assure him Christ must be born in Bethlehem, Mat. 2. 5. As for the whole business and design of his life, we find it so describ’d by Isaiah, chap. 61. as Christ himself owns it, Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

11. IF we look farther to his death, the greatest part of the Old Testament has a direct aspect on it. All the Levitical œconomy of Sacrifices and Ablutions were but prophetick Rites, and ocular Predictions of that one expiatory Oblation. Nay most of Gods providential dispensations to the Jews, carried in them types and prefigurations of this. Their rescue from Egypt, the sprinkling of blood to secure them from the destroying Angel; the Manna with which they were fed, the Rock which supplied them water: these and many more referr’d to Christ, as their final and highest signification.

12. BUT besides these darker adumbrations, we have (as the Apostle speaks) a more sure word of prophecy. Saint Peter in his calculation begins with Moses, takes in Samuel, and the whole succession of Prophets after him, as bearing witness to this great event of Christs passion, Acts 4. 22. 24. And indeed he that reads the Prophets consideringly, shall find it so punctually describ’d, that the Evangelists do not much more fully instruct him in the circumstances of it. Daniel tells us his death, as to the kind of it, was to be violent: The Messiah shall be cut off; and as to the design of it ’twas not for himself; Dan. 9. 26. But the Prophet Isaiah gives us more than a bare negative account of it; and expressly saies, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on him, and by his stripes we were healed, chap. 53. 5. And again, ver. 10. Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin; and ver. 11. my righteous Servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Nor is Job, an Idumean, much short of even this Evangelical Prophet; in that short Creed of his, wherein he owns him as his Redeemer, I know that my Redeemer liveth, &c. Job. 19. 25.

13. AND as the end, so the circumstances of his sufferings are most of them under prediction: His extention upon the Cross is mention’d by the Psalmist: They pierced my hands, and my feet; I may tell all my bones, Psal. 22. 16, 17. As for his inward dolours, they are in that Psalm so pathetically describ’d that Christ chose that very form to breath them out in: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ver. 1. So his revilers did also transcribe part of their reproaches from ver. 8. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him, Matt. 27. 43. That Vinegar which was offered him on the Cross, was a completion of a Prophecy; In my thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink, Psal. 69. 21. the piercing of his side was expressly fore-told by Zachary: they shall look on him whom they have pierced, Zach. 10. 12. The company in which he suffer’d, and the interment be had, are also intimated by lsaiah, He made his Grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, Isai. 53. 9. Nay even the disposal of his Garments was not without a Prophecy: they parted my Garments among them, and upon my Vesture did they cast Lots Psalm 22. 18. Here are a cloud of witsnesses which as they serve eminently to attest the truth of the Christian Religion; so do they to evince the excellency of the Sacred Scripture, as to the verity of the Prophetick part.

14. AS to the admonitory part of the Prophetick Writings, they are in their kind no way inferiour to the other. The reproofs are authoritative and convincing. What piercing exprobations do we find of Israels ingratitude? How often are they upbraided with the better examples of the brute Creatures? with the Ox and the Ass by Isaiah Chap. 1. 3. with the Stork, and the Crane and the Swallow, by Jeremiah, Chap. 8. 7. Nay the constancy of the Heathen to their false Gods is instanc’d to reproach their revolt from the true. Hath a Nation chang’d their Gods which yet are no Gods? but my People have chang’d their Glory for that which doth not profit, Jer. 2. 11. What awful, what Majestick representations do we find of Gods power, to awake their dread! Fear ye not me saith the Lord? will ye not tremble at my presence who have plac’d the Sands for the bounds of the Sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass over? and tho’ the Waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; tho’ they roar, yet can they not pass over it, Jer. 22. And again; Thus saith the High and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the High and Holy Place, Is. 57. 15. So we find him describ’d as a God Glorious in Holiness, fearful in Praises, doing Wonders, Exod. 15. 11. These and many other the like heights of Divine eloquence we meet with in the Prophetick Writings: which cannot but strike us with an awful reverence of the Divine Power.

15. NOR are they less Pathetick in the gentler strains. What instance is there of the greatest tenderness and love, which God has not adopted to express his by? He personates all the nearest and most endearing relations: that of a Husband; I will Marry thee to my self, Hos. 2. 19. of a Father; I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first Born: nay, he vies Bowels with the tender Sex, and makes it more possible for a Mother to renounce her compassions towards the Son of her Womb, than for him to with-draw his, Isa. 49. 15. By all these endearments, these cords of a man, these bands of love, as himself stiles them, Hos. 11. 4. endeavouring to draw his people to their duty, and their happiness. And when their perversness frustrates all this his Holy Artifice; how passionately do’s he expostulate with them? how solemnly protest his aversness to their ruin? Why will ye die O House of Israel? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, Ezek. 18. 31, 32. with what regrets and relenting do’s he think of abandoning them? How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? my Heart is turn’d within me, my repentings are kindled together; Hos. 11. 8. In short, ’twere endless to cite the places in these Prophetick Books, wherein God do’s thus condescend to solicit even the sensitive part of man; and that with such moving Rhetorick, that I cannot but wonder at the exception some of our late Criticks make against the Bible, for its defect in that particular; for Oratory is nothing but a dextrous application to the affections and passions of men. And certainty we find not that done with greater advantage any where than in Sacred Writ.

16. YET it was not the design of the Prophets (no more than of the Apostle) to take men with guile; 2 Cor. 12. 16. to inveigle their affections unawares to their understandings; but they address as well to their reasons, make solemn appeals to their judicative faculties. And now judge I pray between me and my Vineyard, says Isa. 5. 3. Nay, God by the Prophet Ezekiel solemnly pleads his own cause before them, vindicates the equity of his proceedings from the aspersions they had cast on them; and by most irrefragable Arguments refutes that injurious Proverb which went current among them; and in the close appeals to themselves, O House of Israel are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Ezek. 18. the evidences were so clear that he remits the matter to their own determination. And generally we shall find that among all the Topicks of disswasion from sin, there is none more closely prest, than that of the folly of it. Idolatry was a sin to which Israel had a great propension, and against which most of the Prophets admonitions were directed. And certainly it can never be more expos’d, and the sottish unreasonableness of it better display’d, than we find it in the 44. Chap. of Isaiah. In like manner we may read the Prophet Jeremy disswading from the same sin by Arguments of the most irrefragable conviction, Jer. 10.

17. AND as the Prophets omitted nothing as to the manner of their address, to render their exhortations effectual, the matter of them was likewise so considerable as to command attention. It was commonly either the recalling them from their revolts and Apostacies from God by Idolatry, or else to convince them of the insignificancy of all those legal Ceremonial performances they so much confided in, when taken up as a supersedens to moral duties. Upon this account it is, that they often depreciate, and in a manner prohibit the solemnest of their Worships. To what purpose are the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me? bring no more vain Oblations: incense is an abomination to me; the new Moons and sabbaths, the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with: if Iniquity even your solemn meetings, &c. Is. 1. 11. 13. Not that these things were in themselves reprovable; for they were all commanded by God; but because the Jews depended so much on these external observances that they thought by them to commute for the weightier matters of the Law (as our Saviour after stiles them) Judgement, Mercy and Faith, Mat. 23. 23. look’d on these rites which discriminated them from other Nations, as dispensations from the universal obligations of nature and common justice.

18. THIS deceit of theirs is sharply upbraided to them by the Prophet Jeremy; where he calls their boasts of the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, lying words; and on the contrary, lays the whole stress of their obedience, and expectation of their happiness on the justice and innocence of their conversation, Ch. 7. 4. And after do’s smartly reproach their insolence in boldly resorting to that house, which by bringing their sins along with them, they made but an Asylum, and Sanctuary for those crimes. Will ye steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other Gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house? Is this house which is called by my name become a Den of robbers in your eyes? Chap. 7. 9, 10, 11. Indeed all the Prophets seem to conspire in this one design, of making them look thro’ shadows and ceremonies, to that inward purity, Justice and Honesty, which they were design’d to inculcate, not to supplant. And this design as it is in it self most excellent, most worthy the command of God, and the nature of man; so we have seen that it has been pursued by all the most apt, and most powerful mediums, that the thing or persons addrest to were capable of; and so that the Prophets are no less eminent for the discharge of this exhortatory part of their office, than they were in the former, of the predicting.

19. THE next part of Scripture we are to consider, is the Doctrinal; by which I shall not in this place understand the whole complex of Faith and Manners together; but restrain it only to those Revelations which are the object of our Belief; and these are so sublime, as shews flesh and blood never reveal’d them. Those great mysteries of our Faith, The Trinity, the Incarnation, the Hypostatical union, the Redemption of the world by making the offended party the Sacrifice for the offence, are things of so high and abstruse speculation, as no finite understanding can fully fathom. I know their being so is by some made an Argument for disbelief; but doubtless very injustly for (not to insist upon the different natures of Faith and Science, by which that becomes a proper object of the one which is not of the other) our noncomprehension is rather an indication that they have a higher rise, and renders it infinitely improbable that they could spring from mans invention. For ’twere to suppose too great a disproportion between human faculties to think men could invent what themselves could not understand. Indeed these things lye so much out of the road of human imagination, that I dare appeal to the breasts of the most perverse gain-sayers, whether ever they could have fallen into their thoughts without suggestion from without. And therefore ’tis a malicious contradiction to reject these truths because of their dissonancy from human reason, and yet at the same time to ascribe their original to man. But certainly there can be nothing more inconsistent with mere natural reason, than to think God can be, or do no more than man can comprehend. Never any Nation or person that own’d a Deity, did ever attempt so to circumscribe him: and it is proportionable only to the licentious profaneness of these latter days, thus to measure immensity and omnipotence by our narrow scantling.

20. THE more genuine and proper effect of these supernatural truths is, to raise our admiration of that Divine Wisdom, whose ways are so past finding out; and to give us a just sense of that infinite distance which is between it, and the highest of that reason wherein we so pride our selves. And the great propriety these Doctrines have to that end may well be reckon’d as one part of their excellency.

21. INDEED there is no part of our holy Faith, but is naturally productive of some peculiar virtue; as the whole Scheme together engages us to be universally Holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Pet. 1. 15. And it is the supereminent advantage true Religion hath over all false ones, that it tends to so laudable an end.

22. THE Theology of the Heathens was in many instances an extract and quintessence of vice. Their most solemn Rites, and Sacred’st Mysteries were of such a nature, that instead of refining and elevating, they corrupted and debased their Votaries; immers’d them in all those abominable pollutions which sober nature abhorr’d. Whereas the principles of our Faith serve to spiritualize and rectifie us, to raise us as much above mere manhood as theirs cast them below it.

23. AND as they are of this vast advantage to us, so also are they just to God, in giving us right notions of him. What vile unworthy apprehensions had the Heathen of their Deities, intitling them not only to the passions but even to the crimes of men, making Jupiter an adulterer, Mercury a thief, Bacchus a drunkard, &c, proportionably of the rest? Whereas our God is represented to us as an essence, so spiritual, and incorporeal, that we must be unbodied our selves before we can perfectly conceive what he is: so far from the impotent affections and inclinations of men, that he has neither parts, nor passions; and is fain to veil himself under that disguise, to speak sometimes as if he had, merely in condescention to our grosser faculties. And again, so far from being an example, a patron of vice, that his eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, Hab. 1. 13. Holiness is an essential part of his nature, and he must deny himself to put it off.

24. THE greatest descent that ever he made to humanity was in the incarnation of the second person: yet even in that, tho’ he was linked with a sinful nature, yet he preserv’d the person immaculate; and while he had all the sins of the world upon him by imputation, suffer’d not any one to be inherent in him.

To conclude, the Scripture describes our God to us by all those glorious Attributes of infinity, Power and Justice, which may render him the proper object of our Adorations and Reverence and it describes him also in those gentler Attributes of Goodness, Mercy and Truth, which may excite our love of, and dependence on him. These are representations something worthy of God, and such as impress upon our mind great thoughts of him.

9. BUT ’twill be said, this danger she wards by her doctrine of infallibility: that is, she enervates a probable supposition attested by event, by an impossible one confuted by event. For ’tis certain that all particular Churches may err; and tho’ the consciousness of that forces the Roman Church upon the absurd pretence of universality, to assert her infallibility; yet alas Tyber may as well call it self the Ocean, or Italy the world, as the Roman Church may name it self the universal; whilst ’tis so apparent that far the less part of Christians are under her communion. And if she be but a particular Church, she has no immunity from errours, nor those under her from having those errours (how pernicious soever) impos’d upon them. As to her having actually err’d, and in diverse particulars, the proof of that has been the work of so many Volumes, that ’twould be impertinent here to undertake it: I shall only instance in that of Image-worship, a practice perfectly irreconcilable with the second commandment; and doubtless clearly discern’d by her to be so; upon which account it is, that tho’ by Translations and Paraphrases she wrests and moulds other Texts to comply with her Doctrines, yet the dares not trust to those arts of this: but takes a more compendious course, and expunges the Commandment; as is evident in her Catechisms and other Manuals. Now a Church that can thus sacrilegiously purloin one Commandment (and such a one as God has own’d himself the most jealously concen’d in) and to delude her Children split another to make up the number, may as her needs require, substract and divide what others she please: and then whilst all resort to Scripture is obstructed, how fatal a hazard must those poor souls run, who are oblig’d to follow these blind, or rather these winking guides into the ditch?

10. BUT all these criminations she retorts by objecting the dangers of allowing the Scriptures to the vulgar, which she accuses as the spring of all Sects, Schisms, and Heresies. To which 1 answer first, that supposing this were true, ’twas certainly foreseen by God, who notwithstanding laid no restraint; probably as fore-seeing, that the dangers of implicite faith (to which such a restraint must subject men) would be far greater: and if God saw fit to indulge the liberty, those that shall oppose it must certainly think they do not only partake, but have transplanted infallibility from God to themselves.

11. BUT secondly, ’tis not generally true, that Sects, Schisms, and Heresies are owing to this liberty: All Ecclesiastical Story shews us that they were not the illiterate Lay-men, but the learned Clerks who were usually the broachers of Heresies. And indeed many of them were so subtile and aerial, as could never have been forg’d in grosser brains; but were founded not on Scripture merely mistaken, but rack’d and distorted with nice criticisms, and quirks of Logick, as several of the Ancients complain: some again sprang from that ambition of attaining, or impatience of missing Ecclesiastical dignities; which appropriates them to the Clergy. So that if the abuse infer a forfeiture of the use, the Learned have of others the least title to the Scriptures; and perhaps those who now ingross them, the least title of all the Learned.

12. ON the other side, Church story deed mentions some Lay-propugners of Heresies but those for the most part were either so gross and bestial; as disparag’d and confuted themselves and Authors, and rose rather from the brutish inclination of the men, than from their mistakes of Scripture: or else they were by the immediate infusion of the devil, who back’d his Heretical suggestions with sorcerie and lying wonders, as in Simon Magus, Menander, &c. And for latter times, tho’ sometimes there happens among the vulgar a few pragmatick spirits, that love to tamper with the obscurest Texts, and will undertake to expound before they understand; yet that is not their common temper: the generality are rather in the other extreme, stupid and unobservant even of the plainest doctrines. And if to this be objected the multitude of Quakers and Fanaticks, who generally are of the ignorant sort; 1 answer, that ’tis manifest the first propugners of those tenets in Germany were not seduc’d into them by mistakes of Scripture, but industriously form’d them, at once to disguise and promote their villainous designs of sedition and Rapine: and as for those amongst us, it is not at all certain that their first errours were their own productions: there are vehement presumptions that the seeds were sown by greater Artificers; whose first business was to unhinge them from the Church, and then to fill their Heads with strange Chimera’s of their priviledges and perfections; and by that intoxication of Spiritual Pride, dispose them for all delusions: and thereby render them like Samsons Foxes, fit instruments to set all in combustion.

13. BUT admit this were but a conjecture, and that they were the sole Authors of their own frenzy; how appears it that the liberty of reading the Scriptures was the cause of it? Had these men been of the Romish Communion, and so been interdicted private reading, yet some broken parts of Scripture would have been in Sermons and Books of Devotion communicated to them; had it not been as possible for them to have wrested what they heard as what they read? In one respect it seems rather more likely: for in those loose and incidental quotations the connexion is sometimes not so discernable: and many Texts there are whose sense is so interwoven with the context, that without consulting that, there may be very pernicious mistakes: on which account it is probably more safe that the Auditor should have Bibles to consult. So that this restraint of Scripture is a very fallible expedient of the infallible Church. And indeed themselves have in event found it so; for if it were so soveraign a prophylactick against errour, how comes it to pass that so many of their members who were under that discipline have revolted from them into that which they call Heresie? If they say, the defection was made by some of the Learned to whom the Scripture was allow’d, why do they not (according to their way of arguing) take it from them also upon that experiment of its mischief, and confine it only to the Infallible Chair? but if they own them to have been unlearned (as probably the Albigenses and Waldenses, &c. were) they may see how insignificant a guard this restraint is against errour: and learn how little is got by that policy which controuls the Divine Wisdom.

14. NOR can they take shelter in the example of the primitive Christians: for they in the constant use of the Holy Scriptures yielded not unto the Jews. Whereas the Jews had the Scriptures read publickly to them every Sabbath-day; which Jorephus against Appion thus expresses: Moses expounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary learning of the Law; not by hearing it once or twice, but every seventh day laying aside their works, he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law, and throughly and exactly to learn it. Parallel to this was the practice of the primitive Church, perform’d by the Lector, or Reader, of which Justin Martyr in his 2 Apol. gives this account. On the day call’d Sunday, all that abide in Towns or the countries about, meet in one place, and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read, so far as there is place. So Tertullian in his Apol. describing the offices in the publick Assemblies: We feed our faith with the sacred Words, we raise our hopes, and establish our reliance.

15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety, to let three days pass without the offices thereof in the congregation; and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week, and there perform’d the duties of fasting, prayer, and hearing the Holy Scriptures; concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee, Luk. 18. 12. in conformity hereto the Christians also, their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following, that the like number of days might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation, met together on the Wednesdays and Fridays which were the days of Station, so frequently mention’d in Tertullian, and others, the first writers of the Church. Tertullian expressly says, that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety, the fourth and sixth day of the week: and Clemens Alex. says of the Christians, that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts, to wit, those of the fourth day of the week, and that of preparation before the Sabbath, commonly call’d Wednesday and Friday. Where, by the way, we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church, and the Litanies then appointed, so much neglected in this profligate Age.

16. BUT secondly, as the Jews were diligent in the private reading of the Scripture; being taught it from their infancy: which custome Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3. 15. whereof Josephus against Appion says, That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws, he will tell every thing readier than his name: for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing, they retain them imprinted in their minds. So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledge of divine Truth. The whole life of a Christian says Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a Holy solemnity, there his sacrifices are prayers and praises; before every meal he has the readings of the Holy Scriptures; and Psalms, and hymns at the time of his meals. Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and St. Cyprian in the end of the Epist. to Donatus.

17. AND this is farther evidenc’d by the early and numerous Versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages; concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks, Serm. 5. We Christians (says he) are enabled to shew the power of Apostolick and Prophetick Doctrines, which have fill’d all Countries under Heaven. For that which was formerly utter’d in Hebrew, is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians, but also the Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Armenians, Scythians, Samaritans; and in a word into all the Languages that are us’d by any Nation. The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint John.

18. NOR was this done by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men, but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern’d herein: such as Origen, who with infinite labour contriv’d the Hexapla. Saint Chrysostom, who translated the New Testament, Psalms, and some part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue, as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost. So Ulphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the Holy Scripture into the Gothick; as Socrat. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. cap. 33. and others testifie. Saint Jerome, who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew, the Old Italick version having been from the Greek; but also into his native vulgar Dalmatick: which he says himself in his Epistle to Sophronins.

19. BUT the peoples having them for their private and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution: and when divers did faint in that trial, and basely surrender’d them, we find the Church levell’d her severity only against the offending persons, did not (according to the Romish equity) punish the Innocent, by depriving them of that Sacred Book, because the others had so unworthily prostituted it (though the prevention of such a profanation for the future had been as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make:) but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent, nay indeed importunate in their exhortations to the private study of Holy Scripture, which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks, Ages, and Sexes.

20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhortation. The word, says he, is not hid from any, it it a common light that shineth to all men; there is no obscurity in it; hear it you that be far off, and hear it you that are nigh.

21. TO this purpose St. Jerome speaks in his Epistle to Leta, whom he directs in the education of her young daughter, and advises, that instead of gems and silk, she be enamour’d with the Holy Scripture; wherein not gold, or skins, or Babylonian embroideries, but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith, will recommend its self. Let her first learn the Psalter, and be entertain’d with those songs; then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon: let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things; transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue: let her pass then to the Gospels, and never let them be out of her hands: and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind, the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles. When she has enrich’d the storehouse of her breast with these treasures, let her learn the Prophets, the Heptateuch, or books of Moses, Joshua and Judges, the books of Kings and Chronicles, the volumes of Ezra and Esther; and lastly the Canticles. And indeed, this Father is so concern’d to have the unletter’d Female Sex skilful in the Scriptures, that tho’ he sharply rebukes their pride and over-weening; he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures, but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them.

22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin, who in his Epistles to unletter’d encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture, assuring Volusianus Ep. 3• that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned, as a familiar friend; in the mysterious, mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind, (as the poor are in their addresses to the rich;) but invites all with lowly speech, feeding with manifest truth, and exercising with secret. And Ep. 1. 21. tells the devout Proba, that in this world, where we are absent from the Lord, and walk by faith and not by sight, the soul is to think it self desolate, and never cease from prayer, and the words of Divine and Holy Scripture, &c.

23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons, house-holders, and people engag’d in trades and secular professions; telling them, that the reading of the Scripture is a great defensative against sin; and on the other side, the ignorance whereof is a deep and head-long precipice; that not to know the Law of God, is the utter loss of salvation; that this has caused Heresies, and corruption of Life, and has confounded the order of things: for it cannot be by any means, that his labour should be fruitless, who employs himself in a daily and attentive reading of the Scripture.

24. I am not, says the same Saint Chrysostom, Homil. 9. on Colos 3. a Monk, I have Wife and Children, and the cares of a Family. But ’tis a destructive opinion, that the reading of the Scripture pertains only to those who have addicted themselves to a Monastick life; when the reading of Scripture is much more necessary for secular persons: for they who converse abroad, and receive frequent wounds, are in greatest needs of remedies and preservatives. So Hom. 2. on Matt. Hearken all you that are secular, how you ought to order your Wives and Children; and how you are particularly enjoyn’d to read the Scriptures, and that not perfunctorily, or by chance, but very diligently.

25. LIKEWISE Hom. 3. on Lazarus. What sayest thou, O man? it is not thy business to turn over the Scripture, being distracted by innumerable cares; no, thou hast therefore the greater obligation: others do not so much stand in need of the aids of the Scripture, as they who are conversant in much business. Farther, Homil. 8. on Hebr. 5. I beseech you neglect not the reading of the Scriptures; but whether we comprehend the meaning of what if spoken or not, let us always be conversant in them: for daily meditation strengthens the memory; and it frequently happens, that what you now cannot find out, if you attempt it again, you will the next day discover: for God of his goodness will enlighten the mind. It were endless to transcribe all the Exhortations of the ancient Doctors and Fathers of the Church; they not only permitted, but earnestly prest upon all Christians, whatever their state or condition were, the constant reading of the holy Scripture. Nor indeed was their restraint ever heard of till the Church of Rome had espous’d such doctrines as would not bear the test of Scripture and then as those who deal in false wares are us’d to do, they found it necessary to proportion their lights accordingly.

26. THIS Peter Sutor in his second Book Cap. 22. of the Translation of the Scripture honeisly confesses, that whereas many things are enjoyn’d which are not expresly Scripture, the unlearned observing this will be apt to murmur and complain that so heavy burthens are laid upon them, and their Christian liberty infringed. They will easily be with-drawn from observing the Constitutions of the Church, when they find that they are not contain’d in the Law of Christ. And that this was not a frivolous suggestion, the desperate attempt of the Romanists above mention’d, in leaving out the second Commandment in their Primers and Catechisms, which they communicate to the people, may pass for an irrefragable evidence; For what Lay-man would not be shockt to find Almighty God Command, not to make any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Water under the Earth; that no one should bow down to them, nor worship them: when he sees the contrary is practiced and commanded by the Church.

27. BUT would God none but the Romanist were impeachable of this detention of Scripture: there are too many among us that are thus false and envious to themselves: and what the former do upon policy and pretence of reverence, those do upon mere oscitancy and avow’d profaneness; which are much worse inducements. And for such as these to declaim against detention of the Scripture, is like the Law-suits of those who contend only about such little punctilio’s as themselves design no advantage from, but only the worsting their Adversaries and it would be much safer for them to lie under the interdict of others, than thus to refrain themselves: even as much as the errours of obedience are more excusable, than those of contempt and profaneness.

28. AND here I would have it seriously consider’d that the Edict of Diocletian for the demolishing the Christian Churches, and the burning their Bibles, became the character and particular aggravation of his most bloody persecution. Now should Almighty God call us to the like trial, should Antichristian violence, whether heathen or other, take from us our Churches and our Bibles, what comfort could we have in that calamity, if our contempt of those blessings drove them from us nay, prevented persecution, and bereft us of them even whilst we had them in our power? He who neglects to make his constant resort unto the Church, which by Gods mercy now stands open; or to read diligently the holy Scriptures, which by the same divine Goodness are free for him to use, is his own Diocletian; and without the terrours of death, or torments, has renounc’d, if not the Faith, the great instruments of its conveiance, and pledge of God Almighties presence among the sons of men.

29. BUT what if men either upon the one motive or the other, will not read; yet the Scriptures continue still most worthy to be read: they retain still their propriety for all those excellent ends to which God design’d them: and as the Prophet tells the Jews, Ez. 2. 5. whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, they shall know that there has been a Prophet among them: so whether we will take the benefit or no, we shall one day find that the holy Scripture would have made us wise unto salvation. If thro’ our fault alone they fail to do so, they will one day assume a less grateful office; and from guides and assistants, become accusers and witnesses against us.

9. ANOTHER excellency of the stile, is its propriety to the several subjects it treats of. When it speaks of such things as God would not have Men pry into, it wraps them up in clouds and thick darkness; by that means to deter inquisitive man (as he did at Sinai) from breaking into the Mount, Exod. 20. And that he gives any intimation at all of such, seems design’d only to give us a just estimate how shallow our Comprehensions are; and excite us to adore and admire that Abyss of Divine Wisdom which we can never fathom.

10. THINGS of a middle nature, which may be useful to some, but are not indispensibly necessary to all, the Scripture leaves more accessible; yet not so obvious as to be within every mans reach: but makes them only the prize of industry, prayer, and humble endeavours. And it is no small benefit, that those who covet the knowledge of divine Truth, are by it engag’d to take these vertues in the way. Besides, there is so much time requir’d to that study, as renders it inconsistent with those secular businesses wherein the generality of men are immerst: and consquently ’tis necessary that those who addict themselves to the one, have competent vacancy from the other: And in this it hath a visible life by being very contributive to the maintaining that Spiritual subordination of the people to the Pastors; which God has establish’d. Miriam and Corahs Partisans are a pregnant instance how much the opinion of equal knowledge unfits for subjection and we see by sad experience how much the bare pretence of it has disturb’d the Church, and made those turn Preachers who never were understanding Hearers.

11. BUT besides these more abstruse, there are easier truths in which every man is concern’d; the explicit knowledge whereof is necessary to all: I mean the Divine Rules for saving Faith and Manners. And in those the Scripture stile is as plain as possible; condescends to the apprehensions of the rudest Capacities: so that none that can read the Scripture but will there find the way to bliss evidently chalked out to him. That 1 may use the words of Saint Gregory, The Lamb may wade in those waters of Life, as well as the Elephant may swim. The Holy Ghost, as Saint Austin tells as, lib. 2. of Christian doctrine, cap. 6. has made in the plainer places of Scripture magnificent and healthful provision for our hunger; and in the obscure, against satiety. For there are scarce any things drawn from obscure places, which in others are not spoken most plainly. And he farther adds, that if any thing happen to be no where explain’d, every man may there abound in his own sense.

12. SO again in the same Book, cap. 9. he saies, that all those things which concern Faith and Manners, are plainly to be met with in the Scripture: and Saint Jerome in his Comment on Es. 19. tells us, that ’tis the custom of the Scripture to close obscure sayings with those that are easy; and what was first express’d darkly, to propose in evident words: which very thing is said likewise by Saint Chrysostom, Hom. 9. 2 Cor. 4. 11. who in his first Homily on St. Mat. farther declares, that the Scriptures are easy to be understood, and expos’d to vulgar capacities.

13. HE saies again, Hom. upon Esay, that the Scriptures are not mettals that require the help of Miners, but afford a treasure easily to be had to them that seek the riches contain’d in them. It is enough only to stoop down, and look upon them, and depart replenish’d with wealth; it is enough only to open them, and behold the splendour of those Gems. Again Hom. 3. on Gen. 14. It cannot be that he who studious in the holy Scripture should be rejected: for though the instruction of men be wanting, the Lord from above will inlighten our minds, shine in upon our reason, reveal what is secret, and teach what we do not know. So Hom. 1. on Jo. 11. Almighty God involves his doctrine with no mists, and darkness, as did the Philosophers: his doctrine is brighter than the Sun-beams and more illustrious; and therefore every where diffus’d: and Hom. 6. on Jo. 11. His doctrine is so facile, that not only the wise, but even women, and youths must comprehend it. Hom. 13. on Gen. 2. Let us go to the Scripture as our Mark, which is its own interpreter. And soon after saies, that the Scripture interprets itself, and suffers not its Auditor to err. To the same purpose saies Cyril in his third book against Julian. In the Scripture nothing is difficult to them, who are conversant in them as they ought to be.

14. IT is therefore a groundless cavil which men make at the obscurity of the Scripture; since it is not obscure in those things wherein ’tis our common interest it should be plain: which sufficiently justifies its propriety to that great end of making us wise unto Salvation. And for those things which seem less intelligible to us, many of them become so, not by the innate obscurity of the Text, but by extrinsick circumstances (of which perhaps the over-busy tampering of Paraphrasts, pleased with new notions of their own, may be reckon’d for one.) But this subject the Reader may find so well pursued in Mr. Boyls Tract concerning the stile of Scripture, that I shall be kindest both to him and it to refer him thither; as also for answer to those other querulous objections, which men galled with the sense of the Scripture have made to its stile.

5. THUS Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions ch. 6. It is not lawful for us to introduce any thing of our own will, nor make any choice upon our arbitrement. We have the Apostles of our Lord for our Authors, who themselves took up nothing on their own will or choice; but faithfully imparted to the Nations the discipline which they had receiv’d from Christ. So that if an Angel from heaven should teach another doctrine, he were to be accurst. And ch. 25. ’Tis madness, says he of the Hereticks, when they confess that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing, nor taught things different, to think that they did not reveal all things to all: which he enforces in the following Chapter. In his Book against Hermogenes, ch. 23, he discourses thus; I adore the plenitude of the Scripture, which discovers to me the Creator, and what was created. Also in the Gospel I find the Word was the Arbiter and Agent in the Creation. That all things were made of preexistent matter I never read. Let Hermogenes, and his journey-men shew that it is written. If it be not written, let him fear the woe, which belongs to them that add or detract. And in the 39 ch. of his Prescript, We feed our faith, raise our hope, and establish our reliance with the sacred Word.

6. IN like manner Hippolytus in the Homily against .Noctus declares, that we acknowledge only from Scripture that there is one God. And whereas secular Philosophy is not to be had but from the reading of the doctrine of the Philosophers; so whosoever of us will preserve piety towards God, he cannot otherwise learn it than from the holy Scripture. Accordingly Origen in the fifth Homily on Leviticus, says, that in the Scripture every word appertaining to God, is to be sought and discust; and the knowledge of all things is to be receiv’d.

7. WHAT Saint Cyprian’s opinion was in this point, we learn at large from his Epistle to Pompey. For when Tradition was objected to him, he answers; Whence is this Tradition? is it from the authority of our Lord and his Gospel; or comes it from the commands of the Apostles in their Epistles? Almighty God declares that what is written should be obey’d and practised. The Book of the Law, says he in Joshua, shall not depart from thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and keep all that is written therein. So our Lord sending his Apostles, commands them to baptise all Nations, and teach them to observe all things that he had commanded. Again what obstinacy and presumption it is to prefer human Tradition to divine command: not considering that Gods wrath is kindled as often as his Precepts are dissolv’d and neglected by reason of human Traditions. Thus God warns and speaks by Isaiah: This people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me; but in vain do they worship me, teaching for docrines the commandments of men. Also the Lord in the Gospel checks and reproves, saying; you reject the Law of God, that you may establish your Tradition. Of which Precept the Apostle Saint Paul being mindful, admonishes and instructs, saying; If any man teaches otherwise and hearkens not to sound doctrine, and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is proud, knowing nothing: From such we must depart. And again he adds, There is a compendious way for religious and sincere minds, both to deposit their errours, and find out the truth. For if we return to the force and original of divine Tradition; humane errour will cease, and the ground of heavenly mysteries being seen, whatsoever was hid with clouds and darkness, will be manifest by the light of truth. If a pipe that brought plentiful supplies of water, fail on the suddain, do not men look to the fountain, and thence learn the cause of the defect, whether the spring it self be dry; or if running freely, the water is stopt in its passage; that if by interrupted or broken conveyances, it was hindred to pass, they being repair’d, it may again be brought to the City, with the same plenty as it flows from the spring? And this Gods Priests ought to do at this time, obeying the commands of God, that if truth has swerv’d or fail’d in any particular, we go backward to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition, and there found our actings: from whence their order and origination began.

13. THE fourth rule of the Index of prohibited Books compos’d upon the command and auspice of the Council of Trent, and publish’d by the Authority of Pius the fourth, Sixtus the fifth, and Clement the eighth, runs thus: Since ’tis manifest by experience, that if the Holy Bible be suffer’d promiscuously in the Vulgar Tongue, such is the temerity of men, that greater detriment than advantage will thence arise; in this matter let the judgement of the Bishop or Inquisitor be stood to: that with the advice of the Curate or Confessor, they may give leave for the reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue, Translated by Catholicks, to such as they know will not receive damage, but increase of Faith and Piety thereby. Which faculty they shall have an writing; and whosoever without such faculty shall presume to have or to read the Bible, he shall not ’till he has deliver’d it up, receive Absolution of his Sins. Now (to pass over the iniquity of obliging men to ask leave to do that which God Almighty commands) when ’tis consider’d how few of the Laity can make means to the Bishop or, Inquisitor, or convince them, or the Curate or Confessor, that they are such who will not receive damage, but increase of Faith and Piety by the reading of the Scripture; and also have interest to prevail with them for their favour herein: and after all, can and will be at the charge of taking out the faculty, which is so penally requir’d: ’tis easy to guess what thin numbers of the Laity are likely, or indeed capable of reaping benefit by this Indulgence pretended to be allowed them.

14. BUT, besides all this, what shall we say, if the power it self of giving Licences be a mere shew, and really signifies just nothing? In the observation subjoyn’d to this fourth rule it is declar’d, that the Impression and Edition thereof gives no new faculty to Bishops, or Inquisitors, or Superiors of regulars, to grant Licenses of buying, reading, or retaining Bibles publish’d in a vulgar Tongue; since hitherto by the command and practice of the holy Roman and universal Inquisition, the power of giving such faculties, to read or retain vulgar Bibles, or any parts of Scripture of the Old or New Testament, in any vulgar Tongue; or also summaries or historical compendiums of the said Bibles or Books of Scripture, in whatsoever Tongue they are written, has been taken away. And sure if a Lay-man cannot read the Bible without a faculty, and it is not in any ones power to grant it, ’twill evidently follow that he cannot read it: And so the pretence of giving liberty, owns the shame of openly refusing it, but has no other effect or consequence. And if any Romanist among us, or in any other Protestant Country enjoys any liberty herein, ’tis merely by connivance, and owed to a fear lest the Votary would be lost, and take the Bible where it was without difficulty to be had, if strictness should be us’d. And should Popery, which God forbid, become paramount; the Translations of the Scripture into our Mother Tongues would be no more endur’d here, than they are in Spain and they who have formerly been wary in comunicating the Scriptures, remembring how thereby their errours have been detected, would upon a revolution effectually provide for the future, and be sure to keep their people in an Egyptian darkness that might it self be felt, but that allow’d the notices of no other object. They would not be content with that composition of the Ammonites, to thrust out all the right eyes of those that submitted to them, 1 Sam. 11. 2. but would put out both, as the Philistines did to Samson, that they might make their miserable captives for ever grind in their Mill, Jud. 16. 21.

15. BUT this heaviest of judgements will never fall upon the reform’d Churches, till by their vicious practice and contempt of the divine Law, they have deferred their profession, and made themselves utterly unworthy of the blessings they enjoy, and the light of that Gospel which with noon-day brightness has shin’d among them. Upon which account, I suppose it may not be impertinent in the next place to subjoyn some plain directions, and cautionary advices, concerning the use of these sacred Books.

24. BESIDES, our Saviour tells us, the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown, Matt. 13. 19. And unless we have some better guard than our own vigilance, he is sure enough to prosper in his attempt. Let it therefore be our care to invoke the Divine Aid; and when ever we take the Bible into our hands, to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation, that we may find its effects in our hearts. Let us say with holy David, open thou mine eyes, O Lord, that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law. Blessed art thou O Lord, O teach me thy statutes, Psal. 119. Nay, indeed ’twill be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion, as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent: a prayer so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular, that if we transcribe not only the example, but the very words, I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously.

25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir’d of us at the time of reading the Scripture; which consist principally in two things. The first of these is attention, which is so indispensably requisite, that without it all Books are alike, and all equally insignificant: for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads, the wisest discourses signify no more to him, than the most exquisite Musick do’s to a man perfectly deaf. The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred than those of another Book; ’tis the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir’d: and he that considers only the former may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book.

26. WE must therefore keep our minds fix’d and attent to what we read: ’tis a folly and Iightness not to do so in human Authors, but ’tis a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book. We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contempt and disvalue, than to hear a man speak, and not at all mind what he says: yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God, who hear or read his Word, and give it no attention. Yet I fear the practice is not more impious than it is frequent: for there are many that read the Bible, who, if at the end of each Chapter they shall be call’d to account, I doubt could produce but very slender collections: and truly ’tis a sad consideration, that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those, who read it as some preach the Gospel, Phil. 1. 15. out of envy and strife. How curiously do men inspect, nay ransack and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection; whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation read with such a rechless heedlesness, as if it could tell them nothing they were concern’d in: and to such ’tis no wonder if their reading bring no advantage. God is not in this sense found of those that seek him not, Esai. 65. 1. ’tis Satans part to serve himself of the bare words and characters of holy Writ, for charms and amulets: the vertue God has put there consists in the sense and meaning, and can never be drawn out by drousy inadverting Readers.

27. THIS unattentiveness fore-stalls all possibility of good. How shall that convince the understanding, or persuade the affections, which do’s not so much as enter the imagination. So that in this case the seed seems more cast away than in any of those instances the parable gives, Matt. 13. In those it still fell upon the soil, but in this it never reaches that; but is scatter’d and dissipated, as with a mighty wind, by those thoughts which have prepossess’d the mind. Let no man therefore take this sacred Book into his hand, till he has turn’d out all distracting fancies and has his faculties free and vacant for those better objects which will there present themselves. And when he has so dispos’d himself for attention, then let him contrive to improve that attention to the best advantage.

28. TO which purpose it may be very conducive to put it into some order and method. As for instance, when he reads the doctrinal part of Scripture, let him first and principally advert to those plain Texts which contain the necessary points of Faith: that he may not owe his Creed only to his education, the institution of his Parents or Tutors; but may know the true foundation on which it is bottom’d, viz. the word of God, and may thence be able to justify his Faith: and as Saint Peter exhorts, be ready to give an answer to every man that asks him a reason of the hope that is in him, 1 Pet. 3. 15. For want of this it is, that Religion fits so loose upon men, that every wind of doctrine blows them into distinct and various forms; till at last their Christianity it self vaporus away and disappears.

29. BUT let men be careful thus to secure the foundation, and then ’twill be commendable in them (who are capable of it) to aspire to higher degrees of speculation: yet even in these it will be their safest course chiefly to pursue such as have the most immediate influence on practice, and be more industrious to make observations of that sort, than curious and critical remarks or bold conjectures upon those mysteries on which God has spread a veil.

30. BUT besides a mans own particular collections, it will be prudence in him to advantage himself of those of others, and to consult the learnedest and best Expositors; and that not only upon a present emergency, when he is to dispute a point; (as most do) but in the constant course of his reading, wherein he will most sedately, and dispassionately judge of the notions they offer.

31. AS to the choice of the portions of Scripture to be read in course, though I shall not condemn that of reading the whole Bible in order, yet ’tis apparent that some parts of it (as that of the Levitical Law) are not so aptly accommodated to our present state, as others are; and consequently not so edificatory to us: and therefore I cannot see why any man should oblige himself to an equal frequency in reading them. And to this our Church seems to give her suffrage, by excluding such out of her publick Lessons. And if we govern our private reading by her measure it will well express our deference to her judgement; who has selected some parts of Scripture, nor that she would keep her children in ignorance of any, but because they tend most immediately to practice.

32. NEITHER will the daily reading the Scripture in the Rubricks order hinder any man from acquainting himself with the rest. For he may take in the other parts as supernumeraries to his constant task, and read them as his leisure and inclination shall prompt. So that all the hurt that can accrue to him by this method, is the being invited to read sometimes extraordinary proportions.

33. IF it be objected, that to those who daily hear the Church Service ’twill be a kind of tautology, first to read those Lessons in private, which soon after they shall hear read publickly; I answer, that whatever men may please to call it, ’twill really be an advantage: For he that shall read a Chapter by himself with due consideration, and consulting of good Paraphrasts, will have div’d so far into the sense of it, that he will much better comprehend it when he hears it read: as on the other side, the hearing it read so immediately after, will serve to confirm and rivet the sense in his mind. The one is as the conning, the other the repeating the Lesson; which every School-boy can tell us is best done at the nearest distance to each other. But I shall not contend for this, or any particular method: let the Scriptures be read in proportion to every mans leisure and capacity, and read with attention; and we need not be scrupulous about circumstances when the main duty is secur’d.

34. BUT as in the Doctrinal, so in the Preceptive part, there is a caution to be us’d in our attention. For we are to distinguish between those temporary precepts that were adapted to particular times and occasions, and such as are of perpetual obligation. He that do’s not this may bring himself under the Jewish Law, or believe a necessity of selling all and giving it to the poor, because ’twas Christs command to the rich man; Matt. 19. or incur other considerable mischiefs.

35. THUS frequently commands are put in comprehensive indefinite words, but concern only the generality to whom the Law is written and not those who are intrusted with the vindication of their contempt. Accordingly ’tis said, thou shalt not kill, Mark 10. 19. which concerns the private person but extends not to the Magistrate in the execution of his office, who is a revenger appointed by God, and bears not the sword in vain, Rom. 13. 4. So the injunction not to swear at all, Matt. 5. 34. refers to the common transactions of life, but not those solemn occasions where an oath is to give glory to God, and is the end of all strife, Hebr. 6. 16. Yet these mistakes at this day prevail with Anabaptists and Quakers, and bottom their denyal of the Magistrates power to protect his Subjects by War, and to determine differences in Peace by the Oath of witnesses in judicial proceedings.

36. THERE is another distinction we are to attend to; and that is between absolute and primary commands, and secundary ones: the former we are to set a special remark upon, as those upon whose observance or violation our Eternal Life or Death inseparably depends. And therefore our first and most solicitous care must be concerning them. I mention this not to divert any from aspiring to the highest degrees of perfection, but to reprove that preposterous course many take, who lay the greatest weight upon those things on which God lays the least; and have more zeal for oblique intimations, than for express downright commands; nay, think by the one to commute for the contempt of the other. For example, Fasting is recommended to us in Scripture, but in a far lower key than moral duties: rather as an expedient and help to vertue, than as properly a vertue it self. And yet we may see men scrupulous in that, who startle not at injustice and oppression (that clamorous sin that crys to Heaven) who pretend to mortify their appetites by denying it its proper food, or being luxurious in one sort of it; and yet glut their avarice, eat up the poor, and devour widows houses, Matt. 23.

37. TO such as these ’twould be good advice to fix their attention on the absolute commands, to study moral Honesty and the essentials of Christianity; to make a good progress there, and do what God indispensably requires: and then it may be seasonable to think of voluntary oblations: but till then they are so far from Homage, that they are the most reproachful Flattery: an attempt to bribe God against himself; and a Sacrilege, like that of Dionysius, who took away Apollo’s golden robe and gave him a stuff one.