Wrong

difcerned in

by the un

letters.

principal guide, which neither moths nor time can wear out, nor tranfcribers nor tranflators corrupt; which none are fo young, none fo illiterate, none in fo 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 beft rid of those difficulties that occur to us concerning the fcrip

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: for I have known fome of tranflations my friends, who profefs the fame faith with me, of feripture faithful fervants of the Moft High God, and full the Spirit of divine knowledge of his truth, as it was immelearned in diately 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 fome of them could not read their own vulgar language, who being preffed by their adverfaries with fome citations out of the English tranflation, and finding them to difagree with the manifeftation of truth in their own hearts, have boldly affirmed the Spirit of God never faid fo, and that it was certainly wrong; for they did not believe that any of the holy prophets or apoftles had ever written fo; which when I on this account feriously examined, I really found to be errors and corruptions of the tranflators; who (as in moft tranflations) do not fo much give us the genuine fignification of the words, as ftrain them to exprefs that which comes nearest to that opinion and notion they have of truth. And this feemed to me to fuit very well with that faying of Auguftine, Epift. 19. ad Hier. Tom. ii. fol. 14. after he has faid, "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 fhall meet with any thing in "thefe

thefe writings that feemeth repugnant to truth, I shall not doubt to fay, that either the volume is faulty or erroneous; that the expounder hath not reached what was faid; or that I have in no wife understood it." So that he fuppofes that in the transcription and tranflation there may be

errors.

§. V. If it be then asked me, Whether I think Object. bereby to render the fcriptures altogether uncertain, or useless?

I answer; Not at all. The propofition itself de- Anfw. clares 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 fcriptures the fecond place, even whatsoever they fay of themselves; which the apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places, Rom. xv. 4, Whatfoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the fcriptures might have hope. 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17. The holy fcriptures are able to make wife unto falvation, through faith which is in Jefus Chrift. All scripture given by infpiration of God, is profitable for correction, for inftruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

For tho' God doth principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit, yet he fometimes conveys his comfort and confolation to us through his children, whom he raises up and infpires to speak or write a word in season, whereby the faints are made inftruments in the hand of the Lord to ftrengthen and encourage one another, which doth alfo tend to perfect and make them wife unto falvation; and fuch as are led by the Spirit cannot neglect, The faints but do naturally love, and are wonderfully che- comfort is rished by, that which proceedeth from the fame the fame Spirit in another; becaufe fuch mutual emanations of the heavenly life tend to quicken the mind,

G

when

mutual

Spirit in all.

tures a

1oking

glafs.

when at any time it is overtaken with heavinefs. 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 thefe things, though ye know them, and be established in the prefent truth; yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to ftir you up, by putting you in remembrance.

God is teacher of his people himself; and there is nothing more exprefs, than that fuch as are under the new covenant, need no. man to teach them: yet it was a fruit of Chrift's afcenfion to fend teachers and paftors for perfecting of the faints. So that the fame work is afcribed to the fcriptures as to teachers; the one to make the man of God perfect, the other for the perfection of the faints.

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 Chrift hath purchased unto us by his blood; fo neither is the fcripture to go before the teaching of the Spirit, or to rob us of it.

Anf. 2. Secondly, God hath feen meet that herein we The fcrip- fhould, as in a looking-glafs, fee the conditions and experiences of the faints of old; that finding our experience anfwer to theirs, we might thereby be the more confirmed and comforted, and our hope of obtaining the fame end ftrengthened; that obferving the providences attending them, feeing the fnares they were liable to, and beholding their deliverances, we may thereby be made wife unto falvation, and feasonably reproved and inftructed in righteoufnefs.

The fcripThis is the great work of the fcriptures, and tures work their fervice to us, that we may witness them fuland fervice. filled in us, and fo-difcern the ftamp of God's Spirit and ways upon them, by the inward acquaintance

we

we have with the fame Spirit and work in our hearts. The prophecies of the fcriptures are also very comfortable and profitable unto us, as the fame Spirit enlightens us to obferve them fulfilled, and to be fulfilled; for in all this it is to be obferved, that it is only the fpiritual man that can make a right use of them: they are able to make the man of God perfect (fo 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 faints; concerning fuch the apostle speaks: for as for the others, the apoftle Peter plainly declares, that the unstable and unlearned wreft them to their own deftruction: 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 fafely prefume that Peter himself, being a fisherman, had no skill; for it may with great probability, yea certainty, be affirmed, that he had no knowledge of Ariftotle's logick, which both Papifts and Pro- Logick. teftants now,* degenerating from the fimplicity of 1675. truth, make the handmaid of divinity, as they call it, and a neceffary introduction to their carnal, natural, and human ministry. By the infinite obfcure labours of which kind of men, intermixing their heathenifh ftuff, the fcripture is rendered at this day of fo little fervice to the fimple people: whereof if Jerome complained in his time, now twelve hundred years ago, Hierom. Epift. 134. ad Cypr. Tom. 3. faying, It is wont to befal the most part of learned men, that it is harder to understand their expofitions, than the things which they go about to expound; what may we fay then, confidering those great heaps of commentaries fince, in ages yet far more corrupted?

*

§. VI. In this refpect above-mentioned then we have fhewn what fervice and ufe the holy fcriptures, as managed in and by the Spirit, are of to G 2

the

sondary rule,

The fcrip- the church of God; wherefore we do account tures a fe- them a fecondary 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 fuppofed by the injury of times to have flipt in, are not fuch but that there is a fufficient clear teftimony left to all the effentials of the Chriftian faith; we do look upon them as the only fit outward judge of controverfies among Chriftians; and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their teftimony, may therefore juftly be rejected as falfe. And for our parts, we are very willing that all our doctrines and practices be tried by them; which we never refused, nor ever fhall, in all controverfies with our adversaries, as the judge and teft. We fhall alfo be very willing to admit it as a pofitive certain maxim, That whatsoever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is contrary to the fcriptures, be accounted and reckoned a delufion 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; fo we know, that as every evil contradicts the fcriptures, fo it doth alfo the Spirit in the firft place, from which the fcriptures came, and whofe motions can never contradict one another, though they may appear fometimes to be contradictory to the blind eye of the natural man, as Paul and James seem to contradict one another.

Thus far we have fhewn both what we believe, and what we believe not, concerning the holy fcriptures, hoping we have given them their due place. But fince they that will needs have them to be the only, certain, and principal rule, want not fome fhew of arguments, even from the fcripture itfelf (though it no where calls itself fo) by which they labour to prove their doctrine; I fhall briefly lay them down by way of objections, and anfwer them, before I make an end of this matter.

§. VII.