Discourse of Mental Errors, Part · Section 7
Cause III.
There is also another evil disposition in the Subject, rendring it easily receptive of Errors, and that is spiritual SLOTHFVLNESS and carelesness in a due and serious search of the whole Scripture, with a sedate and rational consideration of every part and particle therein, which may give us any, though the least light to understand the mind of God in those obscure and difficult points we search after the knowledg of.
Truth lies deep, as the rich Veins of Gold do, Prov. 2. If we will get the treasure, we must not only beg, as he directs, vers. 3. but dig also vers. 4. else as he speaks, Prov. 14. 23. The talk of the lips tends only to poverty. We are not to take up with that which lies uppermost, and next at hand upon the surface of the Text; but to search with the most sedate and considerative mind into all parts of the written Word, examining every Text which hath any respect to the truth we are searching for, heedfully to observe the Scope, Antecedents, and Consequents, and to value every Apex, Tittle, and Iota; for each of these are of Divine Authority, Matt. 5. 18. and sometimes greater weight is laid upon a small word, yea, upon the addition or change of a Letter in a word, as appears in the names of Abram and Sarai.
It will require some strength of mind, and great sedulity, to lay all parts of Scripture before us, and to compare words with words, and things with things, as the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. 2. 13. comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And though it be true that some important Doctrines, as that of Iustification by Faith, are methodically disposed, and throughly clear'd and setled in one and the same Context; yet it is as true, that very many other points of Faith and Duty are not so digested, but are delivered sparsinì, here a little, and there a little, as he speaks, Isa. 28. 10. You must not think to find all that belongs to one Head or Point of Faith, or Duty, lay'd together in a System, or common place in Scripture; but scattered abroad in several pieces, some in the Old Testament, and some in the New, at a great distance one from another.
Now in our searches and inquiries after the full and satisfying knowledg of the Will of God in such Points, it is necessary that the whole Word of God be throughly searched, and all those parcels brought together to an interview. Ex. Gr.
If a Man would see the entire discovery that was made of Christ, to the Fathers, under the Old-Testament, he shall not find it laid together in any one Prophet; but shall find that one speaks to one part of it, and another to another.
Moses gives the first general hint of it, Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head. But then if you would know more particularly of whose Seed according to the flesh, he should come, you must turn to Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed (saith God to Abraham) shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And if you yet doubt what Seed God means there, you must go to the Apostle, Gal. 3. 16. To thy seed, which is Christ. If you would further know the place of his Nativity, the Prophet Micha must inform you of that, Mic. 5. 2. it should be Bethlehem-Ephrata. If you inquire of the quality of his Parent, another Prophet gives you that, Isa. 7. 14. Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and call his name Immanuel. If the time of his Birth be inquired after, Moses and Daniel must inform you of that, Gen. 49. 10. Dan. 9. 24.
So under the New-Testament, If a Man inquire about the change of the Sabbath, he must not expect to find a formal repeal of the Seventh day, and an express institution of the first day in its room; but he is to consider,
First, What the Evangelist speaks, Mark 2. 28. That Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, and so had power, not only to dispense with it, but to change it.
Secondly, That on the first day of the Week Christ rose from the dead, Matt. 28. 1, 2. And that this is that great day, foretold to be the day to be solemnized upon that account, Psal. 118. 24.
Thirdly, That accordingly the first day of the Week is emphatically styled the Lord's day, Rev. 1. 10. where you find his own name written upon it.
Fourthly, You shall find this was the day on which the Apostles and Primitive Christians assembled together for the stated and solemn performance of Publick Worship, Iohn 20. 19. and other publick Church-Acts and Duties, 1 Cor. 16. 1, 2. And so by putting together, and considering all these Particulars, we draw a just Conclusion, That it is the Will of God, that since the Resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week should be observed as the Christian-Sabbath.
In like manner as for the Baptizing of Believers Infants; We are not to expect it in the express words of a New-Testament-Institution or Command, that Infants under the Gospel should be Baptized; but God hath left us to gather satisfaction about his Will and our Duty in that point, by comparing and considering the several Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament which relate to that matter; which if we be impartial and considerative, we may do,
First, By considering, that by God's express Command, Gen. 17. 9, 10. the Infant Seed of his People were taken into Covenant with their Parents, and the then Sign of that Covenant commanded to be applied to them.
Secondly, That though the Sign be altered, the Promise and Covenant is still the same, and runs as it did before, to Believers and their Children, Acts 2. 38, 39.
Thirdly, That the foederal holiness of our Children is plainly asserted under the New-Testament, 1 Cor. 7. 14. Rom. 11. 16.
Fourthly, We shall further find, that Baptism succeeds in the room of Circumcision, and that by an Argument drawn from the compleatness of our Privileges under the New-Testament, no way inferiour, but rather more extensive than those of the Iews, Col. 2. 10, 11, 12.
Fifthly, We shall find that upon the Conversion of any Master or Parent, the whole Houshold were Bapized. By puting all these things, with some others, together, we may arrive to the desired satisfaction about the Will of God in this matter.
But some Men want abilities, and others are too sluggish and lazy to gather together, compare and weigh all these and many more hints and discoveries of the Mind of God, which would give much light unto this point; but they take an easier and cheaper way to satisfy themselves with what lies uppermost upon the surface of Scripture, and so, as it were by consent, let go, and lose their own, and their Childrens blessed and invaluable Privileges, for want of a little labour and patience to search the Scriptures; a folly which few would be guilty of, if but a small earthly inheritance were concerned therein.