illiterate and yet good Men are there in the Church of God, who cannot
read a Letter in their own Mother Tongue? Which Imperfection, though
it be inconvenient, I cannot tell whether we may safely affirm it to
be sinful. These can have no immediate Knowledge of the Rule of their
Faith; so their Faith must needs depend upon the Credit of other
Men’s Reading or Relating it unto them; where either the altering,
adding, or omitting of a little Word may be a Foundation in the poor
Hearer of a very dangerous Mistake, whereby he may either continue in
some Iniquity ignorantly, or believe a Lie confidently. [Sidenote:
2. Papists _conceal the Second Commandment from the People._] As
for Example, The _Papists_ in all their Catechisms, and publick
Exercises of Examinations towards the People, have boldly cut away
the Second Command, because it seems so expresly to strike against
their Adoration and Use of Images; whereas many of these People,
in whom by this Omission this false Opinion is fostered, are under
a simple Impossibility, or at least a very great Difficulty, to be
outwardly informed of this Abuse. But further; suppose all could read
the Scriptures in their own Language; where is there one of a Thousand
that hath that thorough Knowledge of the Original Languages, in which
they are written, so as in that Respect immediately to receive the
Benefit of them? [Sidenote: 3. _The Uncertainty of the _Interpreters_
of the Scripture, and their Adulterating it._] Must not all these
here depend upon the Honesty and Faithfulness of the Interpreter?
Which how uncertain it is for a Man to build his Faith upon, the
many Corrections, Amendments, and various Essays, which even among
_Protestants_ have been used (whereof the latter have constantly blamed
and corrected the former, as Guilty of Defects and Errors) doth
sufficiently declare. And that even the last Translators in the vulgar
Languages need to be corrected (as I could prove at large, were it
proper in this Place) learned Men do confess.
But last of all, there is no less Difficulty occurs even to those
skilled in the Original Languages, who cannot so immediately receive
the Mind of the Authors in these Writings, as that their Faith doth
not at least obliquely depend upon the Honesty and Credit of the
Transcribers, since the Original Copies are granted by all not to be
now extant. [Sidenote: Jerome _Epist. 28. ad_ Lucin. _p. 247._] Of
which Transcribers _Jerome_ in his Time complained, saying, _That
they wrote not what they found, but what they understood._ [Sidenote:
_Epiph. in Anachor. Tom. Oper._] And _Epiphanius_ saith, _That in the
good and correct Copies of _Luke_ it was written, that _Christ Wept_,
and that _Irenæus_ doth cite it; but that the _Catholicks_ blotted it
out, fearing lest Hereticks should have abused it._ Other Fathers also
declare, _That whole Verses were taken out of _Mark_, because of the_
Manichees.
[Sidenote: _The various Readings of the _Hebrew_ Character_, &c.] But
further, the various Readings of the _Hebrew Character_ by Reason
of the _Points_, which some plead for, as coæval with the first
Writings, which others, with no less Probability, alledge to be a
later Invention; the Disagreement of divers Citations of Christ and
the Apostles with those Passages in the Old Testament they appeal
to; the great Controversy among the Fathers, whereof some highly
approve the _Greek Septuagint_, decrying and rendering very doubtful
the _Hebrew Copy_, as in many Places vitiated, and altered by the
_Jews_; other some, and particularly _Jerome_, exalting the Certainty
of the _Hebrew_, and rejecting, yea, even deriding the History of the
_Septuagint_, which the Primitive Church chiefly made use of; and
some Fathers that lived Centuries before him, affirmed to be a most
certain Thing; and the many various Readings in divers Copies of the
_Greek_, and the great Altercations among the Fathers of the first
three Centuries, who had greater Opportunity to be better informed
than we can now lay claim to, concerning the Books to be admitted or
rejected, as is above observed; I say, all these and much more which
might be alledged, puts the Minds even of the Learned into infinite
Doubts, Scruples, and inextricable Difficulties: Whence we may very
safely conclude, that Jesus Christ, who promised to be _always_ with
his Children, to lead them into _all Truth_, to guard them against the
Devices of the Enemy, and to establish their Faith upon an _unmoveable
Rock_, left them not to be principally ruled by that, which was subject
in itself to many Uncertainties: And therefore he gave them his
_Spirit_ as their principal Guide, which neither Moths nor Time can
wear out, nor Transcribers nor Translators corrupt; which none are so
young, none so illiterate, none in so remote a Place but they may come
to be reached, and rightly informed by it.
Through and by the Clearness which that Spirit gives us, it is that we
are only best rid of those Difficulties that occur to us concerning
the Scriptures. The real and undoubted Experience whereof I myself
have been a Witness of, with great Admiration of the Love of God to
his Children in these latter Days: [Sidenote: _Wrong Translations of
Scripture discerned in the Spirit by the Unlearned in Letters._] For
I have known some of my Friends who profess the same Faith with me,
faithful Servants of the Most High God, and full of Divine Knowledge
of his Truth, as it was immediately and inwardly revealed to them
by the Spirit, from a true and living Experience, who not only were
ignorant of the _Greek_ and _Hebrew_, but even some of them could not
read their own vulgar Language, who being pressed by their Adversaries
with some Citations out of the _English_ Translation, and finding
them to disagree with the Manifestation of Truth in their own Hearts,
have boldly affirmed the Spirit of God never said so, and that it
was certainly wrong; for they did not believe that any of the holy
Prophets or Apostles had ever written so; which when I on this Account
seriously examined, I really found to be Errors and Corruptions of the
Translators; who (as in most Translations) do not so much give us the
genuine Signification of the Words, as strain them to express that
which comes nearest to that Opinion and Notion they have of Truth. And
this seemed to me to suit very well with that Saying of _Augustine,
Epist._ 19. _ad Hier. Tom._ ii. Fol. 14. after he has said, “That he
gives only that Honour to those Books which are called _Canonical_, as
to believe that the Authors thereof did in Writing not err,” he adds,
“And if I shall meet with any Thing in these Writings that seemeth
repugnant to Truth, I shall not doubt to say, that either the Volume is
faulty or erroneous; that the Expounder hath not reached what was said;
or that I have in no wise understood it.” So that he supposes that in
the Transcription and Translation there may be Errors.
§. V. [Sidenote: Object.] If it be then asked me, _Whether I think
hereby to render the Scriptures altogether uncertain, or useless?_
[Sidenote: _Answ._] I answer; Not at all. The Proposition itself
declares how much I esteem them; and provided that to the Spirit from
which they came be but granted that Place the Scriptures themselves
give it, I do freely concede to the Scriptures the second Place, even
whatsoever they say of themselves; which the Apostle _Paul_ chiefly
mentions in two Places, _Rom._ xv. 4. _Whatsoever Things were written
aforetime, were written for our Learning, that we through Patience and
Comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope._ 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17.
_The Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto Salvation, through
Faith which is in Jesus Christ. All Scripture given by Inspiration of
God, is profitable for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness,
that the Man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good
Work._
For though God doth principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit,
yet he sometimes conveys his Comfort and Consolation to us through
his Children, whom he raises up and inspires to speak or write a Word
in Season, [Sidenote: _The Saints mutual Comfort is the same Spirit
in all._] whereby the Saints are made Instruments in the Hand of the
Lord to strengthen and encourage one another, which doth also tend
to perfect and make them wise unto Salvation; and such as are led by
the Spirit cannot neglect, but do naturally love, and are wonderfully
cherished by, that which proceedeth from the same Spirit in another;
because such mutual Emanations of the heavenly Life tend to quicken the
Mind, when at any Time it is overtaken with Heaviness. _Peter_ himself
declares this to have been the End of his Writing, 2 _Pet._ i. 12, 13.
_Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in Remembrance of
these Things, though ye know them, and be established in the present
Truth; yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this Tabernacle, to
stir you up, by putting you in Remembrance._
God is Teacher of his People himself; and there is nothing more
express, than that such as are under the New Covenant, _need no Man to
teach them_: Yet it was a Fruit of Christ’s Ascension to send Teachers
and Pastors for perfecting of the Saints. So that the same Work is
ascribed to the Scriptures as to Teachers; the one to make the Man of
God perfect, the other for the Perfection of the Saints.
As then Teachers are not to go before the teaching of God himself under
the New Covenant, but to follow after it; neither are they to rob us
of that great Privilege which Christ hath purchased unto us by his
_Blood_; so neither is the Scripture to go before the teaching of the
Spirit, or to rob us of it.
[Sidenote: _Answ._ 2.] _Secondly_, God hath seen meet that herein
we should, [Sidenote: _The Scriptures a Looking-Glass._] as in a
Looking-Glass, see the Conditions and Experiences of the Saints of old;
that finding our Experience answer to theirs, we might thereby be the
more confirmed and comforted, and our Hope of obtaining the same End
strengthened; that observing the Providences attending them, seeing
the Snares they were liable to, and beholding their Deliverances, we
may thereby be made wise unto Salvation, and seasonably reproved and
instructed in Righteousness.
[Sidenote: _The Scriptures Work and Service._] This is the great Work
of the Scriptures, and their Service to us, that we may witness them
fulfilled _in_ us, and so discern the Stamp of God’s Spirit and Ways
upon them, by the inward Acquaintance we have with the same Spirit and
Work in our Hearts. The Prophecies of the Scriptures are also very
comfortable and profitable unto us, as the same Spirit enlightens us
to observe them fulfilled, and to be fulfilled; for in all this it
is to be observed, that it is only the Spiritual Man that can make a
right Use of them: They are able to make the Man of God perfect (so
it is not the Natural Man) and whatsoever was written aforetime, was
written for _our Comfort_, [_our_] that are the Believers, [_our_]
that are the Saints; concerning such the Apostle speaks: For as for the
others, the Apostle _Peter_ plainly declares, that the _Unstable and
Unlearned wrest them to their own Destruction_: These were they that
were unlearned in the Divine and Heavenly Learning of the Spirit, not
in Human and School Literature; in which we may safely presume that
_Peter_ himself, being a Fisherman, had no Skill; for it may with great
Probability, yea Certainty, be affirmed, [Sidenote: _Logick._] that
he had no Knowledge of _Aristotle_’s Logick, which both _Papists_ and
_Protestants_ now,[47] degenerating from the Simplicity of Truth, make
the Handmaid of Divinity, as they call it, and a necessary Introduction
to their carnal, natural, and human Ministry. By the infinite obscure
Labours of which Kind of Men, intermixing their Heathenish Stuff, the
Scripture is rendered at this Day of so little Service to the simple
People: Whereof if _Jerome_ complained in his Time, now twelve Hundred
Years ago, _Jerome_ Epist. 134. _ad Cypr._ Tom. 3. saying, _It is wont
to befal the most Part of learned Men, that it is harder to understand
their Expositions, than the Things which they go about to expound_:
what may we say now, considering those great Heaps of Commentaries
since, in Ages yet far more corrupted?
[47] 1675.
§. VI. [Sidenote: _The Scriptures a Secondary Rule._] In this Respect
above-mentioned then we have shewn what Service and Use the Holy
Scriptures, as managed in and by the Spirit, are of to the Church of
God; wherefore we do account them a Secondary Rule. Moreover, because
they are commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the
Dictates of the Holy Spirit, and that the Errors which may be supposed
by the Injury of Times to have slipt in, are not such but that there
is a sufficient clear Testimony left to all the Essentials of the
Christian Faith; we do look upon them as the only fit outward judge
of Controversies among Christians; and that whatsoever Doctrine is
contrary unto their Testimony, may therefore justly be rejected as
false. And for our Parts, we are very willing that all our Doctrines
and Practices be tried by them; which we never refused, nor ever
shall, in all Controversies with our Adversaries, as the judge and
Test. We shall also be very willing to admit it as a positive certain
Maxim, _That whatsoever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is
contrary to the Scriptures, be accounted and reckoned a Delusion of
the Devil_. For as we never lay claim to the Spirit’s Leadings, that
we may cover ourselves in any Thing that is evil; so we know, that as
every Evil contradicts the Scriptures, so it doth also the Spirit in
the first Place, from which the Scriptures came, and whose Motions
can never contradict one another, though they may appear sometimes to
be contradictory to the blind Eye of the natural Man, as _Paul_ and
_James_ seem to contradict one another.
Thus far we have shewn both what we believe, and what we believe
not, concerning the Holy Scriptures, hoping we have given them their
due Place. But since they that will needs have them to be the only,
certain, and principal Rule, want not some Shew of Arguments, even from
the Scripture itself (though it no where calls itself so) by which they
labour to prove their Doctrine; I shall briefly lay them down by Way of
Objections, and answer them, before I make an End of this Matter.
§. VII. [Sidenote: Obj. 1.] Their first Objection is usually drawn from
_Isaiah_ viii. 20. _To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not
according to this Word, it is because there is no Light in them._ Now
this _Law_, _Testimony_, and _Word_, they plead to be the Scriptures.
[Sidenote: _Answ._] To which I answer; That that is to beg the Thing
in Question, and remains yet unproved. Nor do I know for what Reason
we may not safely affirm this _Law_ and _Word_ to be _Inward_: But
suppose it was _Outward_, it proves not the Case at all for them,
neither makes it against us; for it may be confessed, without any
Prejudice to our Cause, that the outward Law was more particularly to
the _Jews_ a Rule, and more principally than to us; seeing their Law
was outward and literal, but ours, under the New Covenant (as hath been
already said) is expresly affirmed to be _Inward_ and _Spiritual_; so
that this Scripture is so far from making against us, that it makes
for us. [Sidenote: _To try all Things, by what?_] For if the _Jews_
were directed to try all Things by their Law, which was without them,
written in Tables of Stone; then if we will have this Advice of the
Prophet to reach us, we must make it hold parallel to that Dispensation
of the Gospel which we are under: So that we are to try all Things, in
the first Place, by that _Word of Faith_ which is preached unto us,
which the Apostle saith is _in the Heart_; and by that Law which God
hath given us, which the Apostle saith also expresly _is written and
placed in the Mind_.
_Lastly_, If we look to this Place according to the _Greek_
Interpretation of the _Septuagint_, our Adversaries shall have nothing
from thence to carp; yea, it will favour us much; for there it is said,
that _the Law is given us for an Help_; which very well agrees with
what is above asserted.
[Sidenote: Obj. 2.] Their second Objection is from _John_ v. 39.
_Search the Scriptures_, &c.
_Here, _say they_, we are commanded, _by Christ himself_, to search the
Scriptures._
[Sidenote: _Answ. 1._] I answer, _First_, That the Scriptures ought to
be searched, we do not at all deny; but are very willing to be tried by
them, as hath been above declared: But the Question is, _Whether they
be the Only and Principal Rule?_ Which this is so far from proving,
that it proveth the contrary; [Sidenote: _Search the Scripture_, &c.]
for Christ checks them here for too high an Esteem of the Scriptures,
and neglecting of him that was to be preferred before them, and to
whom they bore Witness, as the following Words declare; _For in them
ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they which testify of me:
and ye will not come unto me, that ye might have Life._ This shews,
that while they thought they had Eternal Life in the Scriptures, they
neglected to come unto Christ to have Life, of which the Scriptures
bore witness. This answers well to our Purpose, since our Adversaries
now do also exalt the Scriptures, and think to have Life in them; which
is no more than to look upon them as the only principal Rule and Way
to Life, and yet refuse to come unto the Spirit of which they testify,
even the inward spiritual Law, which could give them Life: So that
the Cause of this People’s Ignorance and Unbelief was not their Want
of Respect to the Scriptures, which though they knew, and had an high
Esteem of, yet Christ testifies in the former Verses, that they had
neither _seen the Father, nor heard his Voice at any Time; neither
had his Word abiding in them_; which had they then had, then they had
believed in the Son. [Sidenote: _Answ. 2._] Moreover, that Place may
be taken in the Indicative Mood, _Ye search the Scriptures_; which
Interpretation the _Greek_ Word will bear, and so _Pasor_ translateth
it: Which by the Reproof following, seemeth also to be the more genuine
Interpretation, as _Cyrillus_ long ago hath observed.
§. VIII. [Sidenote: Obj. 3.] Their third Objection is from these Words,
_Acts_ xvii. 11. _These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in
that they received the Word with all Readiness of Mind, and searched
the Scriptures daily, whether those Things were so._
[Sidenote: _Answ. 1._] _Here, _say they_, the _Bereans_ are commended
for searching the Scriptures, and making them the Rule._
I answer; That the Scriptures either are the principal or only Rule,
will not at all follow from this; neither will their searching the
Scriptures, or being commended for it, infer any such Thing: For we
recommend and approve the Use of them in that Respect as much as any;
yet will it not follow, that we affirm them to be the principal and
only Rule.
[Sidenote: _Answ. 2._] _Secondly_, It is to be observed that these
were the _Jews_ of _Berea_, to whom these Scriptures, which were the
Law and the Prophets, were more particularly a Rule; [Sidenote: _The_
Bereans _searching the Scriptures, makes them not the only Rule to try
Doctrines._] and the Thing under Examination was, whether the Birth,
Life, Works, and Sufferings of Christ, did answer to the Prophecies
concerning him; so that it was most proper for them, being _Jews_, to
examine the Apostle’s Doctrine by the Scriptures; seeing he pleaded
it to be a fulfilling of them. It is said nevertheless, in the first
Place, That _they received the Word with Chearfulness_; and in the
second Place, _They searched the Scriptures_: Not that they searched
the Scriptures, and then received the Word; for then could they not
have prevailed to convert them, had they not first minded the _Word
abiding in them_, which opened their Understandings; no more than the
_Scribes_ and _Pharisees_, who (as in the former Objection we observed)
searched the Scriptures, and exalted them, and yet remained in their
Unbelief, because they had not the _Word abiding in them_.
[Sidenote: _Answ. 3._] But _Lastly_, If this Commendation of the
_Jewish Bereans_ might infer that the Scriptures were the only and
principal Rule to try the Apostle’s Doctrine by, what should have
become of the _Gentiles_? How should they ever have come to have
received the Faith of Christ, who neither knew the Scriptures, nor
believed them? [Sidenote: _The _Athenians_ instanced._] We see in the
End of the same Chapter, how the Apostle, preaching to the _Athenians_,
took another Method, and directed them to somewhat of _God within_
themselves, that they might _feel after him_. He did not go about to
proselyte them to the _Jewish Religion_, and to the Belief of the _Law_
and the _Prophets_, and from thence to prove the coming of Christ;
nay, he took a nearer Way. Now certainly the principal and only Rule
is not different; one to the _Jews_, and another to the _Gentiles_;
but is _Universal_, reaching both: Though secondary and subordinate
Rules and Means may be various, and diversly suited, according as the
People they are used to are stated and circumstanced: Even so we see
that the Apostle to the _Athenians_ used a Testimony of one of their
own Poets, which he judged would have Credit with them; and no doubt
such Testimonies, whose Authors they esteemed, had more Weight with
them than all the Sayings of _Moses_ and the _Prophets_, whom they
neither knew nor would have cared for. Now because the Apostle used
the Testimony of a Poet to the _Athenians_, will it therefore follow,
he made that the principal or only Rule to try his Doctrine by? So
neither will it follow, that though he made use of the Scriptures to
the _Jews_, as being a Principle already believed by them, to try
his Doctrine, that from thence the Scriptures may be accounted the
principal or only Rule.
§. IX. The last, and that which at first View seems to be the greatest
Objection, is this:
[Sidenote: Obj. 4.] _If the Scripture be not the adequate, principal,
and only Rule, then it would follow that the Scripture is not complete,
nor the Canon filled; that if Men be now immediately led and ruled by
the Spirit, they may add new Scriptures of equal Authority with the
Old; whereas every one that adds is cursed: Yea, what Assurance have
we, but at this Rate every one may bring in a new Gospel according to
his Fancy?_
[Sidenote: _Answ._] The dangerous Consequences insinuated in this
Objection were fully answered in the latter Part of the last
Proposition, in what was said a little before, offering freely to
disclaim all pretended Revelations contrary to the Scriptures.
[Sidenote: Obj. 1.] But if it be urged, _That it is not enough to deny
these Consequences, if they naturally follow from your Doctrine of
Immediate Revelation, and denying the Scripture to be the only Rule_:
[Sidenote: _Answ. 1._] I answer; We have proved both these Doctrines
to be true and necessary, according to the Scriptures themselves; and
therefore to fasten evil Consequences upon them, which we make appear
do not follow, is not to accuse us, but Christ and his Apostles, who
preached them.
[Sidenote: _Answ. 2._] But _Secondly_, We have shut the Door upon all
such Doctrine in this very Position; affirming, _That the Scriptures
give a full and ample Testimony to all the principal Doctrines of the
Christian Faith_. For we do firmly believe that there is no other
Gospel or Doctrine to be preached, but that which was delivered by the
Apostles; and do freely subscribe to that Saying, [48]_Let him that
preacheth any other Gospel, than that which hath been already preached
by the Apostles, and according to the Scriptures, be accursed_.
[48] Gal. i. 8.
[Sidenote: _A new Revelation is not a new Gospel._] So we distinguish
betwixt a Revelation of a _new Gospel_, and _new Doctrines_, and a
_new Revelation_ of the _good old Gospel_ and _Doctrines_; the last we
plead for, but the first we utterly deny. For we firmly believe, That
_no other Foundation can any Man lay, than that which is laid already_.
But that this Revelation is necessary we have already proved; and this
Distinction doth sufficiently guard us against the Hazard insinuated in
the Objection.