then is known, tho' there be difficulties in the explication, but the explication concerns the manner of existence, not the truth of it. For that may certainly be, and we may certainly know it to be, which yet we know not how it fhould be. And the Doarine it felf only is revealed, as neceffary to be believed, not any particular explication of it. And if it can be proved, that this is the Doctrine of Scripture, and it be plain to be understood what is meant by this Doctrine, as it is delivered in Scripture, this fhews the plainnefs of the Chriftian Religion in all things neceffary to Salvation. tho' divers things relating to this Doctrine be difficult to be explained, because the Doctrine is intelligibly and plainly enough delivered, fo far as it is required to be understood and believed. Several Arts and Sciences, which are very difficult and abftrufe in the Theory, are eafie in the Practice, and a Man may very well understand what the Theorem it felf is, which is to be proved, tho' he be altogether uncapable of understanding the proof of it. Now, what God fays, is as certain as any demonstration can be, and what he has plainly delivered, is plain as well as certain; and it is never the lefs certain or plain, because we cannot make out the proof of it, nor are able to understand how it can be. It is fufficient that the Scriptures are plain in this Doctrine, fo far as we are concerned to know it; it is not neceffary that the Doctrine it felf fhould be plain in all the Controverfies, which may be raised about it; when we know the meaning, we must take God's Word for the Truth of it. The manner of the distinction of Perfons, and the Unity of Effence in the Godhead, is not required to be believed, but the Thing, and we know the Thing to be fo, becaufe God himself has faid it, tho' we can know nothing of the manner of it. We know the Propofition, which is to be believed; tho' we cannot make good the Proof of it in the way of of natural Reasoning, but only from the Authority of the Revealer, which is of it felf fufficient, and ought to be instead of all other Reasons to us. 2. Some parts of the Scriptures were fitted and accommodated to former Ages, and were more proper and useful for them, than if they had been written in fuch a manner, as to be lefs obfcure and difficult. We may well imagin, that many parts of the Scriptures must have been more peculiarly adapted to their use and advantage, for whom they were immediately defigned and the Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times confifted in Parables and Proverbs and obfcure Forms of Speech, in Prophecies, in Subtil and Dark Parables, and in the fecrets of grave Sentences, Eccl. xxxix. 1, 2, 3. And it was foretold of the Meffias in particular, that he should speak in Parables, as a matter of great excellency. I will open my mouth in a Parable, I will utter dark Sayings of old, Pfal. Ixxviii. 2. Matt. xiii. 35. This was in ancient Times the Language of Courts, and the propereft way of Address to Kings. Nathan the Prophet, and the Woman of Tekoa, came to David with a Parable, 2 Sam. xii. 1. xiv. 4. And Jehoafh, King of Ifrael, fent a Meffage of the fame nature to Amaziah, King of Judah, 2 Kings xiv. 9. and Cyrus anfwers the Petition of two Nations at once to him, in a fhort Parable. To underftand a Proverb, and the Interpretation, the Words of the Wife, and their dark Sayings, was the best description that Solomon himself could give of Wisdom, Prov. i. 6. The Queen of Sheba came to prove him with hard Queftions, 1 Kings x. i. And Solomon and Hiram are related by Jofephus, to have propounded Problems and Riddles, or Parables to each other, upon condition of a Forfeiture to be paid by him, who could not explain the Riddle fent him. This would be looked a Herodot. lib. i. c. 141. b Jofeph. Antiqu. lib. viii. c. 2. & Contr. Apion. Lib. i. L4 upon A C upon now as a strange correfpondence between Kings; but then it was otherwife thought of; many of their Epiftles were preferv'd, as he tells us, to his time at Tyre; and the Heathen Hiftorians, whofe Teftimonies he produceth, thought it deferv'd their particular Obfervation. This was that Prize of Wisdom between Amafis King of Egypt, and the King of Athiopia, and it was cuftomary among the ancient Greeks. This Custom of propounding Riddles was as old as Sampfon's time, Judg. xiv. 12. and Examples of the fame nature are to be feen in Herodotus and other Authors. Whether it be true or falfe that Homer died of Grief, because he could not explain the Riddle of the Fishers, it fhews that Riddles were in great request amongst the Ancient Greeks: for otherwise there could have been no ground either for the Truth or Fiction of fuch a Story. Plutarch relates it, as the true Cause of Homer's Death; and no less is imply'd in the Oracle, which was written under Homer's Statue in Brass at Delphi: and when f Herodotus denies this, he owns the Report; and by the Verfes, which he fays Homer spoke upon this occafion, it appears what opinion Homer had of this fort of Wit. Hefiod is by & Quintilian thought the Author of the Fables, which pafs under the Name of Afop; however, this makes it probable that he did write Fables, and perhaps there were few Men of Learning and Note in thofe times, who did not. g Mythology was in the highest esteem amongst the Ancients, and indeed all the Ancient Learning was of this kind. The Egyptians, who were in great Reputation for Learning, deliver'd their Notions in Hieroglyphicks, as if they had refolv'd not to be undertood. And the Philofophers of old, Pythagoras, He "Aurane Zopias, Plut. Conviv. Sapient. • Paufan. Phocic. - "Μια νέων παίδων αίνιγμα φύλαξαι. Quintil. Inftitut. lib. v. c. xi, raclitusp raclitus, &c. greatly affected Obfcurity. Socrates himfelf, and Plato, and Ariftotle, purposely conceal'd their Meaning in many cafes from vulgar Capacities: and Thucydides took the fame courfe in his History, and was obfcure out of defign, as Marcellinus has obferv'd in his Life. The Books of the Old Teftament for the most part seem to have been the most plain, and the most easily intelligible, of any Writings of ancient times; and they could not have been more obvious but they must have been contemptible and useless to those for whom they were immediately defign'd. The Precepts and Exhortations are always plain and obvious, and the Obfcurity of other things is fo far from being an Exception to the Books of Scripture, that it was neceffary, according to the Learning and Customs of ancient times. The Parables of our Bleffed Saviour are explain'd to us, and there can now be no Pretence of Obfcurity in them; and in his Difcourfes with the Jews, to whom they were not explain'd, he alluded to thofe Proverbs and Customs, which were best known and most in use among them, to whom upon any occafion he spoke; that thereby all, who had ears to hear, and were not by their Sins hinder'd from attending to what they heard, might be the more affected with them, and the better inclined to give themselves up to his Inftructions, when they heard him make use of fuch Allufions, as they knew, according to the way of teaching amongst them, had fome excellent hidden Meaning, which they would be very defirous to become acquainted withal. 3. Many places of Scripture, which are obfcure to us, were not obfcure in the Ages in which they were written. (1.) Because the Obfcurity for the most part is rather in the form and manner of Speech, than in the Notions themselves; fo that that might be clear at first, which is obfcure to us, who are but little ac f quainted quainted with the Phrafes and Idioms of the Language, and the Eloquence of those Times and Countries. For the Fashions of Speech vary as much as those of the Garb and Habit, and the Eloquence and ways of Expreffion are as different, as the Dialects and Languages of divers Ages and Nations. (2.) The Names of Animals, of Flowers and Plants and Minerals are very liable to be mistaken, and efpecially whatever is peculiar to any Country, muft needs be difficult to be understood by Foreigners, who have no fuch things among them, and perhaps want words to express their Nature, and can scarce have a true and exact Notion of them. Synonymous Names of things may easily be mistaken for different Species: In the Book of Job, five feveral Words are used, to fignify a Lion, in two Verses, Job iv. 10, II. and in three other Verses, Gold is mention'd under four distinct Names, Job xxviii. 15, 16, 17. And if all these Words did not occur in other places of Scripture, they might have been taken for five kinds of Animals, and four forts of Metals; which must sometimes happen in a Language, of which there is fo little extant, as of the Hebrew Tongue. The precife Value of Coins, and Proportion of Weights and Measures, ufed fo long ago, and in Countries fo far from ours, can hardly now be known, and must neceffarily admit of great Variety of Opinions: there is much Uncertainty about thefe in all ancient History, but the great Antiquity of the Jewish Hiftory, above others, may make us reasonably expect to find many more fuch difficulties in it. It is Rashness to pretend, that the Sum, which David left for the Building the Temple, is extravagant, (1 Chron. xxii. 14.) fince no Man can now be certain of the Value or Weight of a Ta lent of Gold and of Silver, in David's time. For the Weight and Valuation of Coins has, in different Ages, vary'd in all Countries. We read of a Talent of Lead, Zech, v. 7. which is but a piece of Lead of an uncertain |