readings of character by reason of the points, which some plead the Hebrew for, as coeval with the first writings, which others,

character,

&c.

with no less probability, allege 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 Jerom, 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 alleged, 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 unmovable 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 moth 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

of scripture

the Spirit

by the un

letters.

have been a witness of, with great admiration of the love of God to his children in these latter days: for I Wrong have known some of my friends, who profess the same translations faith with me, faithful servants of the Most High discerned in God, and full of divine knowledge of his truth, as it was immediately and inwardly revealed to them by learned in 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. If it be then asked me, Whether I think OBJECT. hereby to render the scriptures altogether uncertain, or useless?

I answer; Not at all. The proposition itself de- ANSW. 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 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, thoroughly 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, 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 The saints' by the Spirit cannot neglect, but do naturally love, mutual.com- and are wonderfully cherished by that which prosame Spirit ceedeth from the same Spirit in another; because

fort is the

in all.

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.

looking

Secondly, God hath seen meet, that herein we ANnsw. 2. should, as in a lookingglass, see the conditions and The scripexperiences of the saints of old; that finding our ex-tures a perience answers to theirs, we might thereby be the glass. 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.

and service.

This is the great work of the scriptures, and their The scripservice to us, that we may witness them fulfilled in tres' work 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 proba

G

Logic.

* 1675.

The scriptures a se

condary rule.

bility, yea, certainty, be affirmed, that he had no knowledge of Aristotle's logic, which both Papists and Protestants now*, 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, Hierom. Epist. 134, ad Cypr. tom. 3, saying, It is wont to befall 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 then, considering those great heaps of commentaries since, in ages yet far more corrupted?

§. VI. In this respect abovementioned then we have shown 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 slipped 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