Letter of Resolution to Six Queries, Query 1

Letter of Resolution to Six Queries · Query 1

p. 1The first Quaere. Concerning the way of Resolving those Controversies which are not so clearly stated and resolved in the Scriptures.

FOr the answering of this first §. 1 Quaere, I shall need but to demand this one thing, (which will, if not granted, be easily demonstrated (and the Contradictory to it appear to be little less then Blasphemy) that whatever hath been delivered by God, is equally of infallible truth: and, if a Precept of infallible obligation to those, to whom it is given, whatever hath been the method to deliver it, whether by the Dictates of Nature, or by Voyce from Heaven, or by Writing with the finger of God in Tables, &c. And consequently that the onelyonly thing required to secure our faith, that it be not placed on a fallible, in stead of an infallible object, is the assurance which we have, that the thing proposed came from God, and p. 2not the particularity of the way, or sort of the conveyance.

§. 2 For the illustrating of which, it may be expedient to recount the several wayes, that men have had of receiving things from God. These, beside that of the law of Nature, the Jews have reduced to four heads, the Voyce from heaven, the Urim and Thummim, the holy Spirit, and Prophesie.

§. 3 To begin with that of the law of Nature. It is the known style of that,Of the Law of Nature. to be foreign an unwritten law, put in mans heart by God at the first creation, (foreign Reason, which is by nature a law, saith Arrianus Didymus, foreign, planted in the essence of every reasonable nature, saith Hierocles on the Golden verses) and so, as the Apostle saith in another case, graven in the fleshly tables of mens hearts, not foreign in any tables of stone or wood &c. 2 Cor. 3.3. And of these I suppose there is no question, but that as it is in some measure delivered downe from man to man with his very soul by traduction, so the infallibility of Gods speaking by this inarticulate voyce (this foreign, asaaLib. Pej… rem insidiari meliori. Philo calls it, this man which dwells in every soul, and that man bbad Agricult.foreign, a prime commander within us, foreign, a guardian Angel, that will not permit us to be wholly ignorant p. 3of our duty, nor to transgress it without some admonition and check, nay, saith Theophilus, foreign,Ad Autol. the onelyonly God of those Atheists, which acknowledge no other Deity, and the certainty of the obligation of it upon all mankinde, even upon those that have no eyes to see any other engrossing of it, nor ears to hear it proclaimed or promulgated more articulately, is as great and irrefragable, as any other written Revelation or image of Gods Will of any other kinde, or of this it self, when it was afterward, in several branches, committed to Books or Tables. For if the writing of the several branches of this in the Tables of the Mosaick Law, were that one Necessary, which satisfied men of the obligation to observe it; then 1. they that lived before that time of writing it, must have wanted the means of satisfaction: and 2. the obligation must have equally extended to all, that was thus written, and so to every circumstance of the Judaical Sabbath, as well as to the acknowledgement of the one God, &c. Nor can this obligatoriness be assigned by us to any former supposeable writing of it in Adams or Noahs time, it being uncertain to us now, whether there were ever any such so anciently written, much more whether what was written, was, as the Tables of the Law, by the finger of God, or such as could truly pretend to his appointment: p. 4It being very probable, that what was before Moses written in that kinde, was written by men on their own suggestions and choice, whether as conclusions, and deductions from the Law of Nature, or whether as transcripts of Positive Laws given to the Fathers by God, which were thus thought fit to be conserved by their posterity, but neither of these by Gods immediate appointment, or inspiration, or command for the writing of them. To which it is necessarily consequent, that the obligation of such Law was praecedaneous to such writing, and did not follow it, or depend upon it.

§. 4 Next then for the first of the Jewish wayes of Revelation, Of the voice from heaven.the Voyce from heaven, styled by them foreign the daughter of a Sound, whether a Wind, or Thunder, which used to usher it in; 'tis certain that in the former ages of the world, God commonly declared his Will by this means, or, which is all one, by appearances of Angels signally and irrefragably testified to be such. Thus did he to Adam, foreign, saith Aquila, in the wind of the day, most probably in a rushing wind, as to Elias, 1 King. 19.11. & Act. 2.2. And in some like manner to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, &c. And what hath been thus spoken by God, hath been by the Writers of the Old Testament thus far only mentioned p. 5unto us, that God did thus reveal his Will to them, and speak divers things, of which onelyonly some few, not all, are recorded by them.

Of which notwithstanding it is 1. unquestionably §. 5 true, that those that are not recorded, were as truly delivered by God, as those that are: Those that are recorded, having been delivered many years before they were recorded, and nothing differing (in respect of their coming from God) now that they are, from what they were when they were not recorded. In like manner, as of the Acts of any Emperor, it is evident, that they were as truly done by him, when there was no diary kept, nor Commentaries or Story written of them, or before either of those were actually engrossed, as now they are known to be, after the writing or engrossing of them.

And 2. that those that were not recorded, §. 6 were as obligatory to those to whom they were given, as if they had been written in Tables or Books, or ingraven on Pillars, and so delivered to them. Thus 'tis evident in the instance of the forbidden fruit, a prohibition given by voyce from heaven, without the help of writing or engraving, and yet obliging so severely, that all the death that hath involved Adam, and all his posterity ever since, hath been acknowledgedly the punishment of that transgression of a particular, personal, positive, unwritten Law.

p. 6§. 7 And as that Law was given to Adam personally, The laws to the Sons of Adam.so the Jews with one consent tell us there were six heads of Laws given to his sons, the first foreign, Of strange Worship, or renouncing all manner of false worship: the second, foreign, Of the benediction of the Name, i. e. adoring, praying to, and praising the true God: the third, foreign, Of Judgements, erecting of Magistrates, and requiring administration of Justice: the fourth, foreign, Of disclosing Nakednesses, setting bounds to lusts, and prohibiting Mariages within such degrees of propinquity: the fifth, foreign, Of shedding blood, or against homicide: the sixth, foreign, Of These or Rapine, and of doing to all, as they would be done to by others. And of these Laws it appears not to us, that they were ever given to them in writing; or if they were, that sure was onelyonly as a memorative to preserve, not as an instrument to give an obligingness to them.

§. 8 And when beside these substantial precepts, And of Noah.there was in the repeating the fifth of them (that against Murther) an additional mound cast up, or hedge set, a Ceremony prescribed to Noah and his sons, on purpose to deterre them from this sin, and keep them at a full distance from it: But flesh with the life thereof, i. e. the blood thereof, shall you not eat, Gen. 9.4. p. 7(In like manner as afterwards to Abraham, And of Abraham.for the fortifying them against all the assaults of the lusts of the flesh, so abominably indulged to by the corrupt world, the Ceremony of Circumcision was instituted) And this, and the six former dispersed and scattered among the heathen, so that Phocylides gives us a touch of them, foreign, Not to eat blood, and to abstain from the Idol-sacrifices, yet were none of these committed to writing in a long while after, and consequently had no part of their obligingness from Scripture.

Thus again in the Story of Moses being §. 9 with God in the mount, 'tis evident,The Ten Commandments. that the Ten Commandments, Exod. 20. together with many other Precepts, c. 21, &c. (less weighty in respect of the matter of them) were together delivered by God, but at that time none of them written; and that afterwards, when the former part was graven in Tables (ten Chapters after, c. 31, 18.) and delivered to Moses in that form, to be brought down by him, and the latter also, in process of time, written by Moses in those Books which are called by his Name: yet this graving, or that writing, was but subsequent still, and so extrinsick and accidentall to the delivering of them.

p. 8§. 10 And thus also in the times of the New Testament, The New Testament.beside Gods speaking to Christ, and testifying of him from heaven, and the condescension and presence of that foreign, the eternal Word of God among us, we know that by word of mouth he revealed his Fathers Will unto men in long continued discourses and sermons, in occasional speeches, and answers, and parables, making them his continual task for three years or four together; none of which were, till after his Resurrection some years, set down in writing: and then so small a part of what was in all that space delivered by him, that S. John cannot express the proportion betwixt the number of the things said and done by him, which were committed to writing, and those which were not, in any calmer style, then of [I suppose the whole world would not contain the books that would be written, Joh. 21.25.

§. 11 The second way of revealing the Will of God, The Urim and Thummim.was among the Jews called foreign the Pectoral of the High-Priest, wherein, say the learned of the Jews, there were so many words written (the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve Tribes, with this addition, foreign All these are the Tribes of Israel) as contained in them all the letters of the Alphabet, and by the prominency and shining of those letters, the responses were p. 9received, and communicated to the people. And all these were certainly the responses, or Oracles of God, and are so called Rom. 3.2. though very few of them are at all communicated to posterity by writing. And for those that are (as the response to David about the men of Keilah, &c.) they continued some competent time unwritten, before they were so communicated.

A third way there was known among §. 12 them by the title of foreign the holy Spirit: The holy Spirit.which is thus defined by them: that a man being awake and in his full senses, speaks and acts like another man, but the Spirit of God (Spiritus excelsus) ex…ites him, and suggests unto him words, that he shall say. According to that of S. Peter, 2 Ep. 1.20, 21. that Prophesie is not foreign, of the mans own incitation, or motion, (or starting, and letting loose, as it were) but men of God spake foreign, acted, o… carried by the holy Ghost. Whereas the ordinary, secret working of the Spirit, is but illumination of the understanding, and guidance of the affections in the known wayes of God, revealed to all the men of God. Prophets and the like, were extraordinarily moved and carried by this Spirit, and spake as they were thus incited by God. Answerable to this is, under the New Testament, the holy Ghost, p. 10not onelyonly descending visibly upon the Apostles (as before on Christ) and teaching them all things belonging to their Office, but the same Spirit, by some miraculous gifts, evidencing it self in others, without that visible descent, as in those on whom foreign, The holy Ghost fell, Act. 10.44. and they spake with tongues, &c. and of whom 'tis said, that by imposition of the Apostles hands they received the holy Ghost, Act. 8.17. And certainly many things have thus been spoken by, or from the holy Ghost, which were never registred by the pen of any, and many more, which never came to our hands as such.

§. 13 Their last way was that of foreign Prophecy, Prophecie.and that of two sorts, Joel 2.28. in time of sleep (foreign, by dream) or waking (but being cast into a trance or extasie) by way of vision. And many of both these sorts are not mentioned, but referred to, both in the Old and New Testament, especially that foreign, abundance of Revelations afforded to S. Paul, 2 Cor. 12.7. of which there is little more recorded to us in Scripture, then that there were such.

§. 14 Of the many matters made known to men by all these means, this one thing will be generally observable, that the books of the Old and New Testament were never meant by God to be so full and ample p. 11Registers of all facts or stories, as that in them all these should be recorded. A truth which (to omit all other wayes of evidencing it) may appear by Scripture it self, there being many things intimated and referred to in Scripture, as known and acknowledged among men, which yet are no where else set down in Scripture, but where they are thus obscurely touched and intimated.

And thus those Precepts forementioned §. 15 of the Sons of Adam and Noah, which are no where so much as historically set down in the Old Testament, (save onelyonly that of not eating of blood, Gen. 9.) are referred to, Act. 15.20. but that so obscurely, that were it not for the Traditions of the Jews, (their writings which were never in the Canon of the Scripture among them or us) we,The Canon of the Councel at Jerusa…em. that are now so removed from those nations and times, should never know to what that reference belonged; But by comparing of this with them, and with that breviate of them in Phocylides, (which, though it named but two, abstinence from blood, and Idol-sacrifices, was an intimation, and reference to the rest of them) we have a clear view of the whole matter, and of the reason of that part of the Apostles decree in that place, if that were not too long to be here insisted on.

So when the Author to the Hebrews §. 16 p. 12mentions it as an act of faith in Moses's parents, that they hid their childe, because they saw him fair, Heb. 11.23. or, as Philo, De vit Mos.foreign, a greater beauty, or majesty of countenance then could belong to an ordinary person, we have reason to conclude, that there had been some Revelation, (a foundation of that faith) that a deliverer should about that time be born to them. And by S. Steven we are clearly told, Act. 7.25. that it was early revealed to Moses himself, that he was to be that deliverer, He supposed that his brethren would (at that time) have understood, Moses a deliverer.how that God by his hand would deliver them; and yet neither of these revelations is set down in the story of this matter in the Old Testament, but must be conceived to have come to S. Steven, and the Author of that Epistle, by the same, or the like Tradition, by which he knew that Moses was skilled in all the wisdome of the Aegyptians, His skill.Act. 7.22. and that he was forty years old, at that point of the story, when he went to visit his brethren, v. 23. (which is not to be found Exod. 2. or any where else in the Old Testament, but is in the Jewish Records. See Midrasch Rabba Beresith) or by which S. Paul knew the names of the chief Magicians (not named in Exodus) to be Jannes and Jambres, The Magicians na…es.2 Tim. 3.8. viz. out of the Cabala, or Tradition of the p. 13Jews (as we now finde in the Chaldee Paraphrase of Jonathan, Exod. 7.11. and 1.15. that they are said to be Princes, or chief of the Magicians; and in the Talmud are called Jochanne and Mambre: and in the life of Moses, Jane and Mamre, and in Tanchuma, Jonos and Jombros) and not out of any part of Holy Writ: Or by which S. James had learnt, that it was by Elias's prayers, that the drought was brought, and continued for the space of three years and six moneths, and then removed from the land, Jam. 5.17, 18. which is not to be found in the History, any otherwise, then that there should be no rain for these years, but according to his word, 1 King. 17.1.

So though it be certain that Baptism §. 17 was instituted by Christ, Baptism.and his Disciples very early appointed to receive believers or Proselytes after that manner, and consequently in John Baptist's time it is said, that Christs disciples baptized more then he, whose title it was to be the Baptist; yet is not the story of that institution set down, either at the sending out of the Disciples, Mat. 10. or elswhere, till, at his departing from the world, the Commission is enlarged to all Nations, and the form particularly prescribed, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost, Mat. 28.19. which is rather an evidence that it was before instituted, p. 14then the history of the institution. And the like might be said of Confirmation, Confirmation.the practise of which we finde in some places, (and the Ceremony used in it, Imposition of hands, in others) but the Institution of it we do not finde in the New Testament.

§. 18 And the reason of these, whether Omissions, The reason why some things are not set down clear in Scripture.or Obscurities of Intimations, is clear, and may here fitly be mentioned. before we proceed any farther. Because in those times wherein (and among those, for whose present use) the Scriptures of the New Testament were written, these things were already so exactly known in their Originals, and in all other circumstances of them, that any larger description of them was perfectly superfluous, some things being instituted in their times, other by known Records delivered, and by daily discourse or practise made familiar to them. Thus in Christs first Sermon to his Disciples, there was no necessity that he should command them the observation of those three great parts of Religion, Alms giving, Prayer, and Fasting, being all of them by Jewish Laws and Usages sufficiently known among them. And therefore when Mat. 6. he gives rules for the regulating the circumstances of these, he doth rather suppose them already practised among his Auditors, then give any Commands for the practise p. 15of them, When thou dost alms, v. 3. When ye pray, v. 7. and, When ye fast, v. 16. And then if this acknowledgedness of such particulars, was the reason of making no larger, or clearer mention of them, how unreasonable would it be from that Negative argument of their not being expresly mentioned in Scripture, to prove that they were not Instituted, or to make doubt or question of the institution of them. And whereas it may probably be replied, that the Scriptures were written for our instruction, and not onelyonly for them in whose age they were written, the answer will be most satisfactory, that although it be with all thankfulness to God acknowledged to be so, in respect of those things which are largely set down in Scripture, and even of those, in some degree, which are not, but onelyonly intimated and referred to there, yet that mercy of Gods is not lessened to us, but improved by the addition of this other, that for those things, which are not at large set down there (and so may usefully be explained to those, that at this distance are not able to read that darker character) the same God hath graciously provided a competent supply by those Records of Primitive and pure Antiquity, that are by the good hand of Providence happily preserved to us.

What hath been thus instanced in Baptism and Confirmation, will on occasion §. 19 p. 16of the subsequent Quaeres be farther exemplified. Mean while it is evident, that not onelyonly the Nazaren Gospel, The Nazaren Gospel.which is not admitted into the Canon, doth yet record to us many speeches of Christs, which we finde not in our Gospels (as that excellent one of, Nunquam laeti sitis, nisi cum fratres in charitate videritis, that his disciples should never be merry, but when they saw the brethren live lovingly together, and some other the like, of the truth of which there is little reason to doubt, though we have no Canonical Writer to testifie them) but even the Gospels themselves record each of them many things (but especially that of S. John) which are not set down by the rest, and is more to our present purpose) S. Paul sets down in the Acts a speech used by Christ, when he was here on earth (viz. that It is more blessed to give, then to receive) which in none of the four stories of Christ had been recorded, and probably had been lost, certainly had not come to us on such Authority Apostolical, had not S. Paul incidentally made use of it, and accommodated it to his purpose.

§. 20 So Christs tears upon the Cross Christs tears on the Cross.are by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews distinctly mentioned, Heb. 5.7. and by their conjunction with the strong cryes, (or his crying with a loud voice, Mat. 27.50. Mar. 15.37. Luk. 23.26.) determined p. 17to the particular time, in which they were shed, viz: when he delivered those words [Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.] And yet in all the four Gospels there is no mention of them.

So the appearance of Christ to S. James §. 21 Christ appearance to James.after his resurrection, being not mentioned by the Evangelists, is yet related by S. Paul, 1 Cor. 15.7. And although to the work of his conversion, and the Gospel which he was appointed to preach, and the Commission which he had thereto, he truly affirmeth, that he neither received it, nor was taught it by man, Gal. 1.12. yet there is no reason to doubt, but that such particulars as these, might be communicated to him by them which had knowledge of them, and not be parts of Christs immediate Revelations to him.

So again of the Apostles, The Apostles.whose preachings, §. 22 and doctrines, and institutions are so owned by Christ himself (by the Commission he gave them, Joh. 20.21. and by the Spirit he promised them, which should lead them into all truth, and by his interpreting mens hearing and receiving of them, to be the hearing and receiving of Christ himself) that what is truly Apostolical, is immediately, and by necessary consequence, divine and infallible also, these things will, to this present purpose, be observable, 1. That there is no authentick or Canonical Record of theirTheir Preachings. p. 18journeyings, and practises, and institutions, and words, (excepting those passages which of S. Paul are incidentally mentioned in his Epistles) but what the story of the Acts hath furnished us with: which also is chiefly spent on S. Pauls (and that onelyonly on the former part of his) Apostolacy, reaching no farther then his first coming to Rome (and for that which is said of S. Peter, 'tis far from being the thousandth part of what is reasonable to suppose of so zealous an Apostle, in the space of so many years, as he survived Christ.) 2. That it cannot be imagined, but that the other eleven Apostles which took their several provinces, and planted the faith by themselves, or their proxies, over all the world, did or spake many things, of which there is no account to be expected; but what must be received from other Writings then those which are taken in by the Church to the Canon of Scripture.

§. 23 And for the Epistles, Their Epistles.3. That 'tis evident that most of S. Pauls (all but that to the Romans, Ro. 1.10, 11, 13. and c. 15.22, 23. and that to the Colossians, Col. 2.1.) suppose the whole Church or Churches (for the most part, the whole province, consisting of many Episcopal Sees) to which they were written, to have been formerly planted by him, and after that plantation, false teachers and hereticks to p. 19have crept in, which generally occasioned his second journeys; and, in the mean while to supply that defect, his monitory Epistles to them.

4. That before all this could be done, §. 24 'tis necessary many things should be said and done by that Apostle, which will amount to a far larger series of story in each of those Churches; then the Book of his Acts (or rather of his sufferings) in all those Churches, sets down in all of them. And as those Epistles relate to many other passages of story, for which we have no other evidence from Scripture, but those obscure references, so is it necessary we should borrow from other Writings the fuller understanding of those intimations, or el…e remain in some degree ignorant of them.

One thing it will not be amiss here to §. 25 adde, in stead of many, that although we finde by many passages in the Epistles, that there was a form of sound words, Form of sound wordsa number of special doctrines, which were by all the Apostles consent to be maintained and preached in all their journeyings and plantations, foreign, one faith or summary of things to be believed, Eph. 4.5. foreign, the faith once, or at once, or altogether (or, as the foreign may signifie foreign, at first) delivered to the Saints, Jude 3. foreign, a short breviary of wholesome words, or orthodox p. 20doctrine, 2 Tim. 1.13. foreign, a good depositum, or trust, delivered by the Apostles to others, v. 14. and in like manner a Rule for rites and practises more extrinsecal, institutions and ordinances, the same in all Churches (though in some few things of lower nature, according to the different tempers of the places, some variety be observable:) Yet what all these doctrines, or these customes were, is no where set down, either in the story of the Acts, or in any of the Epistles, save onelyonly as they lye dispersed in several corners, and from the preachings of the Apostles by the Records of the first times (which never pretended to be inspired) are put together and interpreted to us. In which respect it is, that the pure and Primitive Church of Ephesus (and, by analogie with that, any other particular Church, and all succeeding ages of it, as far as they adhere to, and accord with that) is styled the pillar and basis of truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. i. e. (by the figure foreign) a pillar firmly set upon its basis (such as customarily their houses were built on, Jud. 16.26.) and the truth of the Gospel (deposited by the Apostles, and kept in each Church by the fidelity of the Bishops there, Timothy, &c.) said to be held up firmly by this pillar, supported and sustained by it.

§. 26 Having thus far touched on some few of the many evidences, which are ready to p. 21demonstrate and testifie this truth, that God hath done and spoken by himself, by his Prophets and Apostles, many things in all times which are not, nor can be supposed to be at large set down in the Scriptures either of the Old or New Testament, that which is behinde will be easily reducible to these three Propositions.

First, that the Authority of the Canon §. 27 of Scripture, The first Propositionor the first ground of beleiving it to contain (what with all reverence it is by all Christians most justly beleived to do) the word and will of God, Ofis taken from the authentick testimony of the Christian Church of the first ages,the Authority of the Canon of Scripture. and not from any other wayes of probation (one or more) abstracted from this, or not superstructed on it. Two parts there are of this Proposition, an Affirmative and a Negative.

First, I say, the Canon of Scripture is §. 28 taken from the Authority and Testimony of the Church: Proved in both parts, the Affirmative,And if there were any need of confirming this, this one argument ad homines were sufficient, That the Canon of Scriptures, as it now stands in all the Reformed Churches, and as they differ from the Romanists in the assigning of the Books Canonical and Apocryphal, was certainly agreed on by the Governors of the several Churches at the Reformation, not from any other more particular reason p. 22or motive, but from the affirmations of the Ancients, that these, which we now call Canonical books, were, as such, delivered them down by their Fathers; and that the Apocryphal, with some note of distinction, were in like manner transmitted by them, as useful to be read in the Church, and so placed not among Divine, but Ecclesiastical Writings. The words of S. Jerom and of Ruffinus, are ordinarily known to this purpose, of the one, Haec sunt quae Patres intra Canonem concluserunt: and, Haec nobis à Patribus tradita, These are the writings which the Fathers have concluded within the Canon, these are delivered to us by the Fathers. And then a Catalogue set down exactly concordant to what the Reformed Churches uniformly receive at this day. And of the other, Hos quidem Ecclesia legit, sed inter Canonicas Scripturas non recipit, These the Church reades, but receives not among Canonical, and alii non Canonici, sed Ecclesiastici à majoribus appellati sunt, Others have been called by our ancestors Ecclesiastical, not Canonical, adding an enumeration of all those, which we call Apocryphal. And this is so evidently the way of determining, used by the Reformed Churches, that it is not imaginable, to what other motive it can be imputed, that we all have pitcht exactly on the same Canon. And truly if the Testimony p. 23of the Church (or Bishops of Asia, I suppose, upon whose entreaty Eusebius tells us, he wrote his Gospel) annext to the Gospel of S. John [We know that his testimony is true] was of so much authority, as to be thought meet to have a place in the holy Canon, Joh. 21.24. we shall have little reason to envy the whole Primitive Church of Christ that honour, and dignity of being the Conservatory of our Records in this matter.

Secondly, as the Canon is confessedly §. 29 received from this authentick Testimony of the Christian Church, so it is not,The Negative. nor can it be imagined to be taken from any other way of probation.

Not from the private spirit, 1. Not from the private spirit.from any §. 30 perswasion in, or of mine own breast, giving me that assurance of it: For that being confined personally to me, or the like, cannot be supposed of so much validity, as the more universal spirit, and the perswasion and testification of the whole Church. This being so much a weaker, as it is a more particular way of probation: And such as it is, it cannot miss being confuted, as soon as ever it is produced. The spirit of the illiterate, though pious man, being no more able to give that testimony of any verse of Scripture in the original, when it were read to him, then of any period in any heathen Greek, or Arabick Author; nor p. 24the spirit of the most learned able to distinguish betwixt the latter part of the twelfth verse of the first chapter to Titus, and what was dictated by the spirit of a man, a verse in Epimenides a Greek Poet. And for the whole Canon, as such, it is evident that the leaving out any integral part of that, or taking in any other part, is the changing of the whole, and consequently, that if every mans spirit be left the onelyonly judge, every single person in thus judging, may differ from every other, (for what some men have done, it is sure that all men may) and so by this way of proceeding, there may be as many Canons of Scripture, infinitely multipliable, as there be, or shall be Christians to constitute them: which is an absurdity as gross, as can reasonably be faln upon. And if all these inconveniences did not lye against this pretension, yet it is most certain, that the spirit of a private man is to judge for none but himself (for, Who hath constituted him a judge or distributer?) and consequently that the spirit of such an one can never judge of a Canon or Rule, which being such, is to regulate others, to impose Laws universally on all Christians, and not one particular onelyonly.

§. 31 Nor 2. from the judgement of reason, or rational discourse, 2. Not from reason, or rational discourse.from the style, &c. because though it be most reasonahle to p. 25beleive whatever appears to be affirmed by God, yet Reason is no judge whether God have affirmed such a thing or no, any otherwise then by concluding it from testimonies, that affirm he hath affirmed it. For as to the subject matter of Scripture, there are many things there, which are but historical narrations, genealogies, &c. and cannot by help of reason be discriminated from the same, described by any humane pen: many things again which are above reason, the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Resurrection, &c. the faith of which must come by hearing, and not by reasoning: and many things again, of which there is no other reason to be given, but the will of God, which could not have been known to be his will, had they not been revealed to be so. And on the contrary, many things are highly reasonable, which yet are not the word of God. The Pythagoreans golden verses are, almost all of them, eminently so, and Epictetus, and Arrian, and Hierocles, and Seneca, are most full of sublime and divine reason: and those writings of Orthodox Christians, which have transcribed several truths from that great Original, are yet no part of that Canon.

Nay, nor 3. from the undoubted inspiredness §. 32 of the Apostles 3. Not from the inspiredness of the Apostles.of Christ, and the promise, That the Spirit, when it came upon them, should lead them into all p. 26truth. For that, though it be, in thesi, a most acknowledged truth, yet being applied to this matter, is the begging of the question, and supposes these to be the writings of those inspired persons, which it should prove to be so.

§. 33 All which being thus inferred, and supposed, is yet as far from subjecting this discourse to that (sacrilegious) blame of raising the authority of the Church above the Scriptures, as the designation of John Baptist to his office of foreign, to proclaim, or give testimony to Christ, can be thought to have elevated, and dignified him above the Messias, whose shoe-latchet he professeth himself unworthy to unloose: Or as the lowly, but useful ministery of a disciple, can be deemed a pretension to (or usurpation of) superiority over the Master. A distance which cannot be rightly measured, but by that of one extreme or contrary from another.

§. 34 Secondly, that the accepting of so great a thing,The second Proposition. as is the Canon of Scripture, primarily and fundamentally from this testimony of the ancient Church, and onelyonly secundarily (and subordinately to that) from the inward characters of Divinity observable in it, is a very great presumption, and acknowledgement of the force of the argument drawn from the universal testimony of the first and purest ages of the Church. And consequently that as p. 27any thing which should appear to us to have been delivered from the Apostles of Christ, by the same or equal evidences, by which we acknowledge and receive the Canon of Scripture, could not with any reason be disbeleived, or without impiety be rejected by us: so whatsoever is testified to come from the same fountain, by those evidences which approach nearest to those on which we receive the Canon of Scripture, that (supposing the Scripture to define nothing in it) is in all reason to be beleived before the contrary, which is either testified by a less competent authority, or undertaken to be proved but by probable arguments.

From which Premises the least which, §. 35 in the third place, can be concluded, The third propositi…n, or the Co… clusion.is this, That whatsoever hath the concordant attestation of the Christian Church of the first ages (the Scripture remaining obscure, or silent in the matter) that it was the doctrine or practise Apostolical, there remains not to any that now lives (thus remote from those fountains of story, and onelyonly repositories of such truths) any imaginable ground of sober or prudent doubting, or questioning the truth of it. It being 1. evident to any mans sight, That this is a question meerly of fact, whether such a doctrine were taught, or practise taken up by the Apostles, or no: and 2. the rule being undeniable, that, in such p. 28matters,Judges of …atte…s of fact. no probable reason, one or more, no collection, or conspiration of such (be it never so lucky) is in any degree competent, or considerable against that one argument, taken from testimony of those, who cannot be imagined ignorant, nor presumed to have conspired to the deceiving of us: It being certain, that nothing is ever done, but 'tis possible any one of an hundred things else might have been then done in stead of it, (the action still depending on the then free choice of the agent, and not at all dictated to him by my present way of reasoning) and the addition or application of probable reasons to a possible event, being meerly the work of a good invention first, and then of prudence, and dexterity of contrivance, that what is feigned, may not betray, and confute it self. And then seeing it is affirmed by God himself, that his wayes are unlike ours, his methods of wise disposal most contrary to those which our passions, or interests, or prejudices would (if taken into consultation) have suggested to him, the conclusion must be, That our way of judging Gods positive acts, doctrines or institutions, by what seems in it self probable to us, must needs be of all others the most fallacious and improbable; and consequently that the surest means of interpreting such obscurities of Scriptures, of deciding such Controversies as these, which p. 29are not interpretable, Testimony of the first times.and decideable by plain verdict of the Scripture it self, is the testimony of those Writers of the first times, which have set down more clearly, what is but obscurely (in passing, and without occasion of adding more) intimated or touched in the Scripture, or which record the doctrine or practise of the Apostles, which is not there recorded.

To which purpose it is observable, that §. 36 there being two sorts of Doctors among the Jews, the one of the Talmudists, who profess to superadde the traditions of men, to the commands of God in Scripture, Mat. 15.9. the other the Karaeans, or Scripturarians; which explicate the Law according to the literal sense, foreign without any addition to it; yet, according to their own confession, three things they make use of in inte…preting or deciding any Controversie, foreign, the Scripture it self, Argumentation or Consequence from Scripture, and the transmission or delivering down of interpretations. So wide a difference is there between traditions of men, and Tradition, or transmission of Interpretations from the Authors of the Scripture themselves, or those that lived next them, and best understood their meaning, that they which kept closest to Scripture, and were most distant p. 30from the former, thought it fit and necessary to make use of the la…ter of them.

What hath been thus far said, must be §. 37 taken with this caution, that it be not extended any farther then (to what it is in the premises distinctly applied) to the testimonies of the Primitive Ancients, Caution.and again to an accordance of those testimonies (without any considerable opposition) that this or that was delivered from the Apostles.

For otherwise, as in matter of doctrine, §. 38 the bare affirmations & opinions of ancient writers, Bare affirmations or opinions of Ancients.are but the affirmations & opinions of men, and others as ancient (if there be no sure ground of judging) may be, and oft are of contrary opinions, as in the doctrine of the Millennium might be instanced at large,The Millennaries. where Justin Martyr, the prime assertor of it, confesses other Christians of pure and pious intentions to be otherwise minded, (Cont. Tryph. p. 306.) so it is very ordinary for such opinions of some few to be taken up successively by others, as that of the Millennium was from Papias by Irenaeus, &c. which is but an argument that those others approved what they thus took up, and no farther confirmation of the truth of it.

§. 39 And so likewise for testimonies in matters of fact, Singular testimonies in matters of fact.if, being but humane, they be also later, or but singular testimonies, and those either actually contradicted by p. 31others, of equal authority with them, or else the force and concludency of them evacuated by comparing some greater autho…ities, it will be a very infirm argument that is drawn from such testimonies, and that which will receive but little validity from the credulity of some one or two others, which have delivered them down from such testimonies. Papias, of Christs age.As when Irenaeus from Papias, and Papias from the pretended testimony of the Elders before him, that saw the Apostles, affirms Christ to have been near fifty years old, when he was put to death, the writings of the Evangelists, though they affirm not the contrary in terminis, nay are made use of for the founding the mistake, Joh. 8.57. do yet afford evidences to disprove, and those far more considerable, then the testimony of one Papias to confirm the contrary to have been the tradition of the Apostles.

What hath been said, might now at §. 40 large be exemplified in all the particulars, Two Deductions of use, for particular persons.which either the Socinians, or other Hereticks and Schismaticks have of late pretended, contrary to the doctrine or practise of the first ages of the Universal Church, upon this one presumption of preferring their own reason, or private spirit (which is but another name to signifie the same thing) before the concordant testimonies of those times (which are p. 32most competent for matters of fact) and the more universal reason, and publick spirit of the whole Church of the purest ages: which is a thing in it self most contrary to their fundamental pretension, i. e. excessively unreasonable.

§. 41 And from hence also might be deduced those rules of Christian Piety and Paternal Duty, For the Church it self.which the whole body of the Christian Church of these later ages, but especially each particular branch of it might prudently transcribe, and accommodate to present uses; That peculiarly of Gravity, and Temper, and Waryness, not to multiply Articles of Faith, or Canons for Censures, or Dogmatical Determinations, above what the ancient Church of the first ages, which was nearest the spring-head, and most likely to know the Apostles minde, did also think meet to determine: There being no earthly Providence so likely to secure the Obedience of children, as that of the Parents not provoking them, and the difference being not great (and the danger equal) whether that be done by too great severity of punishments, or levity of commands, the one abating the Love, the other the Reverence due to the Parent, and either of those wants much weakening the band of Obedience, on which all Religion so eminently depends, but both of them together (considered with the imperfectness of p. 33that work, which the Precepts and Profession of Christianity have as yet produced on the hearts of men, through the world) being almost ascertained to tempt that petulancy, and encourage that contumacy, which unarmed Laws will not be sufficient to check.

But these are so large fields, and so far §. 42 extended beyond the bounds of my present design or task, The Conclusion.that I shall rather content my self at this time with the contemplation of the Usefulness, and Propriety of these Premises to the superstructures, which the following Quaeres have squared out, and fitted for them, and therefore immediately proceed unto them.