The Holy Scriptures were not written for occasional purposes only, as is the doctrine of the Papists, but for the use of the church throughout all ages, as well under the gospel as under the law. Exod. xxxiv. 27. “write thou these words; for after the tenour of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." Deut. xxxi. 19. “write ye this song for you.... that this song may be a witness for me." Isai. 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." xxx. 8. "write it.... that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever." Habak. ii. 2. “write.... for the vision is yet for an appointed time.” Luke xvi. 29. “they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." John v. 39. "search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life." 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.” 1 Cor. x. 11. "they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

Almost every thing advanced in the New Testament is proved by citations from the Old. The use of the New Testament writings themselves is declared John xx. 31. “these are written that ye might believe―." Eph. ii. 20. "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Philipp. iii. 1. “to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe." 1 Thess. v. 27. "I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.' 1 Tim. iii. 15."—if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." 2 Tim. iii. 15-17. "from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus: all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." It is true that the Scriptures which Timothy is here said to have known from a child, and which were of themselves able to make him wise unto salvation through faith in Christ, were probably those of the Old Testament alone, since no part of the New Testament appears to have existed during the infancy of Timothy; the same is, however, predicated of the whole of Scripture in the succeeding verse, namely, that it is profitable for doctrine;

1 Cor. x. 15.

even to such as are already wise and learned." I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say," to men arrived at Christian maturity, Philipp. iii. 15. "let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded," such as Timothy himself, and Titus, to whom Paul wrote; and to the strong in faith, 1 John ii. 14. "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you." 2 Pet. i. 12, 15. 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; moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance." iii. 15, 16. even as our beloved brother Paul also, according unto the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you." For although the epistle of Paul here alluded to was more immediately directed to the Romans, Rom. i. 7, 15. Peter in the above passage expressly intimates that it was addressed not to that church alone, but to believers generally. 2 Pet. iii. 1, 2. "this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." 1 John ii. 21. I have not written unto you, because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it." Rev. i. 19. "write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.'

From all these passages it is evident, that the use of the Scriptures is prohibited to no one; but that, on the contrary, they are adapted for the daily hearing or reading of all classes and orders of men;2 of princes, Deut. xvii. 19. of magistrates, Josh, i. 8. of men of all descriptions, Deut. xxxi. 9— 11. "Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi.. and unto all the elders of Israel: and Moses commanded them, saying.... Thou shalt read this law before all Israel." xi. 18-20. "therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand. . . . and thou shalt write them upon the

2 The papal antichristian church permits not her laity to read the Bible in their own tongue; our church, on the contrary, hath proposed it to all men.. . Neither let the countryman, the tradesman, the law. yer, the physician, the statesman excuse himself by his much business from the studious reading thereof.' Of true Religion, &c. Prose Works, II. 516.

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door-posts of thine house." xxix. 29. "those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words-." xxx. 11. "for this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off." 2 Chron. xxxiv. 30. "he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant." Isai. viii. 20. "to the law and to the testimony." Nehem. ix. 3. "they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah;" that is, the whole people, as appears from the second verse of the chapter. To the same purpose may be adduced the testimony of a writer whom the opponents of this opinion regard as canonical. 1 Macc. i. 56, 57. “wheresoever was found with any the book of the testament, the king's commandment was that they should put him to death.”

The New Testament is still more explicit. Luke x. 26. "what is written in the law? how readest thou?" This was the question of Christ to one of the interpreters of the law, of whom there were many at that time, Pharisees and others, confessedly neither priests nor Levites; neither was expounding in the synagogue forbidden to Christ himself, whom we cannot suppose to have been considered as particularly learned in the law; much less therefore could it have been unlawful to read the Scriptures at home. xvi. 29. "they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." John v. 39. search the scriptures." Acts viii. 28. "he read Esaias the prophet." xvii. 11. "they searched the scriptures daily.” xviii. 24. "mighty in the scriptures." 2. Tim. iii. 15. " from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures." Rev. i. 3. "blessed is he that readeth."

The Scriptures, therefore, partly by reason of their own simplicity, and partly through the divine illumination, are plain and perspicuous in all things necessary to salvation, and adapted to the instruction even of the most unlearned, through the medium of diligent and constant reading. Psal. xix. 7.

3 I offer it to the reason of any man, whether he think the knowledge of Christian religion harder than any other art or science to attain. J suppose he will grant that it is far easier, both of itself, and in regard of God's assisting Spirit. Therefore are the Scriptures translated into every vulgar tongue, as being held in main matters of belief and salvation plain and easy to the poorest, and such no less than their teachers have the Spirit to guide them in all truth, John xiv. 26. xvi. 13.'

Con

"the law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple." cxix. 105. "thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." v. 130. "the entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple;" whence it follows that the liberty of investigating Scripture thoroughly is granted to all. v. 18. " open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Luke xxiv. 45. "then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." Acts xviii. 28. "he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ." 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation; for the prophecy came not in the old time by the will of man ;" neither therefore is it to be interpreted by the judgement of man, that is, by our own unassisted judgement, but by means of that Holy Spirit promised to all believers. Hence the gift of prophecy, mentioned 1 Cor. i. 4.

If then the Scriptures be in themselves so perspicuous, and sufficient of themselves to make men wise unto salvation through faith, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, through what infatuation is it, that even Protestant divines persist in darkening the most momentous truths of religion by intricate metaphysical comments, on the plea that such explanation is necessary; siderations on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church. Prose Works, III. 23.

the truth,

Left only in those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood.

he who receives

Paradise Lost, XII. 511. ·

Light from above, from the fountain of light,
No other doctrine needs, though granted true.

Paradise Regained, IV. 288.

The study of Scripture, which is the only true theology-.' Considera tions on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, &c. Prose Works, III. 27. 5 Considering the language employed in parts of this treatise, Milton more frequently censures the metaphysical divinity than might have been expected. His practice at least, in this as well as in some other points, is not very consistent with his theory. He speaks, however, in other works in the same slighting manner of the sophistry of the schools. In the following passage it is not impossible that he may allude to the very Treatise now published. Somewhere or other, I trust, may be found some whole

stringing together all the useless technicalities and empty distinctions of scholastic barbarism, for the purpose of elucidating those Scriptures, which they are continually extolling as models of plainness? As if Scripture, which possesses in itself the clearest light, and is sufficient for its own explanation, especially in matters of faith and holiness, required to have the simplicity of its divine truths more fully developed, and placed in a more distinct view, by illustrations drawn from the abstrusest of human sciences, falsely so called,

It is only to those who perish that the Scriptures are obscure, especially in things necessary for salvation. Luke viii. 10. "unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand." 1 Cor. i. 18. "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." ii. 14. "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 2 Cor. iv. 2, 3. "by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God: but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." 2 Pet. iii. 16. speaking of the epistles of St. Paul, "in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

No passage of Scripture is to be interpreted in more than one sense; in the Old Testament, however, this sense is sometimes a compound of the historical and typical, as in Hosea xi. 1. compared with Matt. ii. 15. "out of Egypt have I called my son," which may be explained in a double sense, as referring partly to the people of Israel, and partly to Christ in his infancy.

The custom of interpreting Scripture in the church is mentioned Nehem. viii. 8, 9. "they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to un

some body of divinity, as they call it, without school-terms and metaphysical notions, which have obscured rather than explained our religion, and made it difficult without cause.' Considerations, &c. Prose Works, III. 26.