A Treatise of Justifying Righteousness, Letter · Section 10 – Section 11
§. X. But pag. 17. you set upon your great undeceiving Work, to shew the evil of ill using Words: [Words (you say) as they are enfranchised into Language, are but the Agents and Factors of things, for which they continually negotiate with our Minds, conveying Errands on all occasions, &c. (Let them mark, that charge the vanity and bombast of Metaphors on others, one word [Signa] should have served our turn instead of all this). [Whence it follows, that their use and signification is Ʋnalterable, but by the stamp of the like publick usage and imposition from whence at first they received their being, &c.]
Answ. O Juniors, Will not such deceiving Words save you from my Deceits? But, 1. Is there a Law, and unalterable Law for the sense of Words? Indeed, the Words of the sacred Text must have no new Sense put upon them. 2. Are you sure that it was Publick usage, and Imposition from whence they first received their being? How shall we know that they grew not into publick use from one Mans first Invention, except those that (not Publick use, but) God Himself made? 3. Are you sure that all or most Words now, Latine or English, have the same, and only the same use or sense, as was put upon them at the first? Is the change of the sense of Words a strange thing to us? 4. But that which concerneth our Case most, is, Whether there be many Words either of Hebrew and Greek in the Scripture, or of Latine, English, or any common Language, which have not many Significations? Your Reputation forbids you to deny it. And should not those many Significations be distinguished as there is Cause? Are not Faith, Works, Just, Justice, Justification, words of divers senses in the Scripture? and do not common Writers and Speakers use them yet more variously? And shall a Disputer take on him, that the use or signification of each is but one, or two, or is so fixed that there needeth no distinction? 5. Is the change that is made in all Languages in the World, made by the same publick usage and imposition, from which at first they received their being? 6. If (as you say) the same thing can be represented by different words, only when they are Syn…nym…us, should we not avoid seeming to represent the same by Equivocals, which unexplained are unfit for it▪
Pag. 20. You tell me what sad work you are doing, and no wonder, Sin and Passions are self-troubling things: And it's well if it be sad to your self alone, and not to such as you tempt into Mistakes, Hatred, and Division. It should be sad to every Christian, to see and hear these whom they are bound to Love, represented as odious: And you are still, pag. 19. feigning, that [Every eye may see Men dealing Blows and Deaths about, and therefore we are not wise if we think them agreed.
But doubtless, many that seem killed by such Blows as some of yours, are still alive? And many a one is in Heaven, that by Divines pretending to be Orthodox, were damned on Earth! And many Men are more agreed than they were aware of. I have known a Knavish Fellow set two Persons of quality on Fighting, before they spake a word to one another, by telling them secretly and falsly what one said against the other. Many differ, even to persecuting and bloodshed, by Will and Passion and Practice, upon a falsly supposed great-difference in Judgment. I will not so suddenly repeat what Proof I have given of some of this in the place you noted, Cath Theol. Confer. 11, 12, & 13. There is more skill required to narrow differences, than to widen them; and to reconcile, than to divide; as there is to quench a Fire, than to kindle it; to build, than to pull down; to heal, than to wound.
I presume therefore to repeat aloud my contrary Cautions to your Juniors.
Young-Men, after long sad Experience of the sinful and miserable Contentions of the Clergie, and consequently of the Christian World, that you may escape the Guilt, I beseech you, whoever contradicteth it, consider and believe these following Notices: 1. That all Words are but arbitrary Signs, and are changed as Men please; and through the Penury of them, and Mans imperfection in the Art of Speaking, there are very few at all, that have not various Significations.
2. That this Speaking-Art requireth so much time and study, and all Men are so defective in it, and the variety of Mens skill in it is so very great, that no Men in the World do perfectly agree in their interpretation and use of Words. The doleful plague of the Confusion of Tongues, doth still hinder our full Communication, and maketh it hard for us to understand Words our selves, or to be understood by others; for Words must have a three-fold aptitude of Signification. 1. To signifie the Matter, 2. And the Speakers conceptions of it. 3. And this as adapted to the hearers Mind, to make a true Impression there.
3. That God in Mercy hath not made Words so necessary as Things, nor necessary but for the sake of the Things: If God, Christ, Grace, and Heaven, be known, believed, and duly accepted, you shall be saved by what Words soever it be brought to pass.
4. Therefore Real Fundamentals, or Necessaries to Salvation, are more easily defined than Verbal ones: For more or fewer Words, these or other Words are needful to help some Persons, to Faith, and Love, and Holiness, as their Capacities are different.
5. But as he that truly believeth in, and giveth up himself to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant, is a true Christian, to be loved, and shall be saved; so he that understandeth such Words, as help him to that true Faith and Consent, doth know so much of the Verbal part, as is of necessity to his Christianity and Salvation.
6. And he that is such, holdeth no Heresie or Error inconsistent with it: If he truly love God, it's a contradiction to say, that he holdeth an Error inconsistent with the Love of God.
7. Therefore see that you Love all such as Christians, till some proved or notorious inconsistents nullifying his Profession disoblige you.
8. Take your selves to be neither of Roman, or any other Church as Ʋniversal, which is less than the Ʋniversality of all Christians headed by Christ alone.
9. Make this Love of all Christians the second part of your Religion, and the Love of God, of Christ, of Holiness and Heaven, the first; and live thus in the serious practice of your Covenant, even of Simple Christianity: For it's this that will be your Peace, in Life and at Death.
10. And if Men of various degrees of Learning (or Speaking-skill) and of various degrees of Holiness, Humility, and Love, shall quarrel about Words, and forms of Speech, and shall hereticate, and revile, and damn each other, while the Essentials are held fast and practised, discern Right from Wrong as well as you can; but take heed that none of them make Words a snare, to draw you injuriously to think hatefully of your Brother, or to divide the Churches, or Servants of Christ: And suspect such a Snare because of the great ambiguity of Words, and imperfection of Mans Skill and Honesty in all Matters of debate: And never dispute seriously, without first agreeing of the Sense of every doubtful term with him that you Dispute with].
Dr. Tully's Allarm, and other Mens militant Course, perswaded me as a Preservative, to commend this Counsel to you.
§. XI. Pag. 19. You next very justy commend Method, ordering, and expressing our Conceptions, of which (you say) I seem to make little account in Comparison].
Answ. 1. Had you said, that I had been unhappy in my Endeavours, your Authority might have gone for Proof with many: But you could scarce have spoken a more incredible word of me, than that I seem to make little account of Method, I look for no sharper Censure from the Theological Tribe, than that I Over-do in my Endeavours after Method. You shall not tempt me here unseasonably, to anticipate what Evidence I have to produce for my acquittance from this Accusation.
2. But yet I will still say, that it is not so necessary either to Salvation, or to the Churches Peace, that we all agree in Methods and Expressions, as that we agree in the hearty reception of Christ, and obedience to His Commands? So much Method all must know, as to know the Beginning and the End, from the Effects and Means, God from the Creature, and as our true consent to the Baptismal Covenant doth require; and I will thankfully use all the help which you give me to go further: But I never yet saw that Scheme of Theologie, or of any of its Heads, which was any whit large, (and I have seen many) which was so exact in Order, as that it was da…g…ous in any thing to forsake it. But I cannot think meet to talk much of Method, with a Man that talketh as you do of Distinguishing, and handleth the Doctrine of Justification no more Methodically than you do.