VI. pétent conveyer of truth. 3dly, That some books were ART. written for the conveyance of those matters, which have been in all ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred. 4thly, That the writers of the first ages do always argue from, and appeal to, these books: And, 5thly, That what they have said without authority from them has been rejected in succeeding ages; the truth of this branch of our Article is fully made out. If what is contained in the Scripture in express words is the object of our faith, then it will follow, that whatsoever may be proved from thence, by a just and lawful consequence, is also to be believed. Men may indeed err in framing these consequences and deductions, they may mistake or stretch them too far: but though there is much sophistry in the world, yet there is also true logic, and a certain thread of reasoning. And the sense of every proposition being the same, whether expressed always in the same or in different words; then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture, is an object of faith, though it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture, and every just inference from it must be as true as the proposition itself is: therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article. That was the method of all the ancient heretics: Christ and his Apostles argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament, to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them, and so did all the fathers; and therefore so may we do. The great objection to this is, that the Scriptures are dark, that the same place is capable of different senses, the literal and the mystical: and therefore, since we cannot understand the true sense of the Scripture, we must not argue from it, but seek for an interpreter of it, on whom we may depend. All sects argue from thence, and fancy that they find their tenets in it: and therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred truth, since so many do err that follow it. In answer to this, it is to be considered, that the Old Testament was delivered to the whole nation of the Jews; that Moses was read in the Synagogue, in the hearing of the women and children; that whole nation was to take their doctrine and rules from it: all appeals were made to the Law and to the Prophets among them: and though the prophecies of the Old Testament were in their style and whole contexture dark, and hard to be understood; yet when so great a question as this, who was the true Messias? came ART. to be examined, the proofs urged for it were passages in VI. the Old Testament. Now the question was, how these were to be understood? No appeal was here made to tradition, or to church-authority, but only by the enemies of our Saviour. Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense, and in the consequences that arose out of them. They did in that appeal to the rational faculties of those to whom they spoke. The Christian religion was at first delivered to poor and simple multitudes, who were both illiterate and weak; the Epistles, which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament, were addressed to the whole Churches, to all the Faithful or Saints; that is, to all the Christians in those Churches. These were afterwards read in all their assemblies. Upon this it may reasonably be asked, were these writings clear in that age, or were they not? If they were not, it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole body, and how they came to be received and entertained as they were. It is the end of speech and writing, to make things to be understood; and it is not supposable, that men inspired by the Holy Ghost either could not or would not express themselves so as that they should be clearly understood. It is also to be observed, that the new dispensation is opposed to the old, as light is to darkness, an open face to a vailed, and substance to shadows. Since then the Old Testament was so clear, that David both in the 19th, and most copiously in the 119th Psalm, sets out very fully the light which the laws of God gave them in that darker state, we have much more reason to conclude, that the new dispensation should be much brighter. If there was no need of a certain expounder of Scripture then, there is much less now. Nor is there any provision made in the new for a sure guide; no intimations are given where to find one: from all which we may conclude, that the books of the New Testament were clear in those days, and might well be understood by those to whom they were at first addressed. If they were clear to them, they may be likewise clear to us for though we have not a full history of that time, or of the phrases and customs, and particular opinions of that age; yet the vast industry of the succeeding ages, of these two last in particular, has made such discoveries, besides the other collateral advantages which learning and a niceness in reasoning has given us, that we may justly reckon, that though some hints in the Epistles, which relate to the particulars of that time, may be so lost, that we can at best but make conjectures about them; yet, upon the whole matter, we may well understand all that is necessary to salvation in the Scripture. We may indeed fall into mistakes as well as into sins; and into errors of ignorance, as well as into sins of ignorance. God has dealt with our understandings as he hath dealt with our wills: he proposes our duty to us, with strong motives to obedience; he promises us inward assistances, and accepts of our sincere endeavours: and yet this does not hinder many from perishing eternally, and others from falling into great sins, and so running great danger of eternal damnation; and all this is because God has left our wills free, and does not constrain us to be good. He deals with our understandings in the same manner; he has set his will and the knowledge of salvation before us, in writings that are framed in a simple and plain style, in a language that was then common, and is still well understood, that were at first designed for common use; they are soon read, and it must be confessed that a great part of them is very clear: so we have reason to conclude, that if a man reads these carefully and with an honest mind; if he prays to God to direct him, and follows sincerely what he apprehends to be true, and practises diligently those duties that do unquestionably appear to be bound upon him by them, that then he shall find out enough to save his soul; and that such mistakes as lie still upon him, shall either be cleared up to him by some happy providence, or shall be forgiven him by that infinite mercy, to which his sincerity and diligence is well known. That bad men should fall into grievous errors, is no more strange, than that they should commit heinous sins and the errors of good men, in which they are neither wilful nor insolent, will certainly be forgiven, as well as their sins of infirmity. Therefore all the ill use that is made of the Scripture, and all the errors that are pretended to be proved by it, do not weaken its authority or clearness. This does only shew us the danger of studying them with a biassed or corrupted mind, of reading them too carelessly, of being too curious in going farther than as they open matters to us; and in being too implicit in adhering to our education, or in submitting to the dictates. of others. So far I have explained the first branch of, this Article. The consequence that arises out of it is so clear, that it needs not be proved: That therefore nothing ought to be esteemed an Article of Faith, but what may be found in it, or proved from it. If this is our rule, our entire and only ART. VI. ART. rule, then such doctrines as are not in it ought to be reVI.jected; and any Church that adds to the Christian religion, is erroneous for making such additions, and becomes tyrannical if she imposes them upon all her members, and requires positive declarations, subscriptions, and oaths, concerning them. In so doing she forces such as cannot have communion with her, but by affirming what they believe to be false, to withdraw from that which cannot be had without departing from the truth. So all the additions of the five Sacraments, of the invocation of angels and saints, of the worshipping of images, crosses, and relics; of the corporal presence in the Eucharist; of the sacrifice offered in it for the dead as well as for the living, together with the adoration offered to it, with a great many more, are certainly errors, unless they can be proved from Scripture; and they are intolerable errors, if as the Scripture is express in opposition to them, so they defile the worship of Christians with idolatry: but they become yet most intolerable, if they are imposed upon all that are in that communion, and if creeds or oaths in which they are affirmed are required of all in their communion. Here is the main ground of justifying our forming ourselves into a distinct body from the Roman Church, and therefore it is well to be considered. The further discussing of this will come properly in, when other particulars come to be examined. From hence I go to the second branch of this Article, which gives us the Canon of the Scripture. Here I shall begin with the New Testament; for though in order the Old Testament is before the New, yet the proof of the one being more distinctly made out by the concurring testimonies of other writers, than can possibly be pretended for the other, and the New giving an authority to the Old, by asserting it so expressly, I shall therefore prove first the Canon of the New Testament. I will not urge that of the testimony of the Spirit, which many have had recourse to this is only an argument to him that feels it, if it is one at all; and therefore it proves nothing to another person: besides, the utmost that with reason can be made of this is, that a good man, feeling the very powerful effects of the Christian religion on his own heart, in the reforming his nature, and the calming his conscience, together with those comforts that arise out of it, is convinced in general of the whole of Christianity, by the happy effects that it has upon his own mind: but it does not from this appear how he should know that such books and such passages in them should come from a divine ori VI. ginal, or that he should be able to distinguish what is ART. genuine in them from what is spurious. To come therefore to such arguments as may be well insisted' upon or maintained. The Canon of the New Testament, as we now have it, is fully proved from the quotations out of the books of the New Testament, by the writers of the first and second centuries; such as Clemens, Ignatius, Justin, Irenæus, and several others. Papias, who conversed with the disciples of the Apostles, is cited by Eusebius in confirma- Lib. iii. tion of St. Matthew's Gospel, which he says was writ by Hist. c. 39. him in Hebrew: he is also cited to prove that St. Mark c. 25. writ his Gospel from St. Peter's preaching; which is also confirmed by Clemens of Alexandria; not to mention later writers. Irenæus says St. Luke writ his Gospel ac- Eus. 1. ii. cording to St. Paul's preaching; which is supported by Hist. c. 15. some words in St. Paul's Epistles that relate to passages in that Gospel yet certainly he had likewise other vouchers; those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word; though the whole might receive its full authority from St. Paul's approbation. St. John writ later than the other three; so the testimonies concerning his Gospel are the fullest and the most particular. Irenæus has Lib. iii. cap. laboured the proof of this matter with much care and at- 11. tention he lived within an hundred years of St. John, and knew Polycarp that was one of his disciples: after him come Tertullian and Origen, who speak very copi- Tert. 1. iv. ously of the four Gospels; and from them all the ecclesi- cont. Mar. astical writers have without any doubting or controversy Orig. apud acknowledged and cited them, without the least shadow Ens. lib. vi. of any opposition, except what was made by Marcion and cap. 25. the Manichees. cap. 1. Synops. Next to these authorities we appeal to the catalogues of the books of the New Testament, that are given us in the third and fourth centuries by Origen, a man of great industry, and that had examined the state of many churches; by St. Athanasius, by the council of Laodicea Athan. in and Carthage; and after these we have a constant succes- Conc. Can. sion of testimonies, that do deliver these as the Canon 60. Carth. universally received. All this laid together does fully iii. c. 47. prove this point; and that the more clearly, when these particulars are considered. 1st, That the books of the New Testament were read in all their churches, and at all their assemblies, so that this was a point in which it was not easy for men to mistake. 2dly, That this was so near the fountain, that the originals themselves of the Apostles were no doubt so long preserved. 3dly, That both |