Light for Smoke, Section 21
SECT. XXI. Mr. Saltm. his miſtake touching the building of the Temple. Of the difference of the patterne of the Temple and the patterne of the Government of the Gospel. Mr. Saltm. confuſedly jumbleth them together.
Smoke. Pag. 52. TO the difference I made of the materiall and Gospel patterne you ſay nothing, and that is the onelyonly conſiderable. It may be, as you ſaid of me, you are beſt able to deale with the other.
Light.I confeſſe I paſſed over ſomewhat in your Quere, more in your laſt Booke, but nothing in either wherein I conceived there was any thing of weight, or pertinencie to the cauſe in difference betwixt us. Yet to that differenceaSect. 11. p. 37. I ſaid ſomething in its proper place, andbSect. 5. p. 16, 17. referred you to another Section where I obſerved more differences then you brought in; and whether I owe you any thing for that particular, the Reader ſhall judge; and if he find I was in your debt, he ſhall ſee I ſhall make ready payment of what is behinde; and it may be by that time I have done with your objection, you will thinke it better you had taken no notice of this omiſſion, then occaſioned me to make ſuch an amends for it as now I muſt doe.
In the laſt leaſe of your Quere, when you had brought in your reaſons for retarding the Governement, you bring in two objections, and make Anſwers to them; the former is this,cNew Quere. p. 7. Ob. 1. But the Temple was builded with all ſpeed in Nehemiahs time, and Haggai cals to the building, Is it time, &c. Hag. 1.4.
Before I bring in my Reply to your Anſwer, I muſt minde you of a miſtake in your ſingle ſheet; which though it be but ſhort is lyable to a very juſt exception for an errour in Story; and you ſhould have heard of it ſooner from me, but that I obſerved it not my ſelfe untill I found I was miſguided by your allegation; for I tooke it upon truſt from you, becauſe I did not ſuſpect you would miſalledge any thing, which did no way conduce unto your cauſe, as the time of the building of the Temple doth not; now though the errour were originally yours, the correction may be mine, which you may better receive from me, then I might take miſpriſion from you; you ſay the Temple was built in Nehemiahs time, but the truth is it was not, as you affirme, built in, but before Nehemiahs time, for the foundation of it was laide in the ſecond yeare of Darius, Hag. 2.10.17. (i.) in the yeere of the world 3452. 519 yeers before the Incarnation of Chriſt; and it was finiſhed in the ſixth yeere of Darius, Ezra 6.15. that is, in the yeare of the world 3456. 515 yeers before Chriſts Incarnation; but that building of Nehemiah was the building of the wals of Jeruſalem, Nehem. 2.17, 18, 19. and this was in the yeere of the world, 3527. about 444. yeeres before the birth of the Meſſias; this worke about the wals was a worke but of 52. dayes, Nehem, 6.15. the former about the Temple laſted about 4. yeeres, as from the Scriptures forealledged may be inferred.
Now for your Anſwer it is this, Yea but the materiall patterne was more clearely left, and knowne then the Gospel patternes, the other were more in the letter, and theſe more in the ſpirit; now there muſt be a proving of all things, elſe there may be more haſte then good ſpeed, as the Temple may be built by a falſe patterne as well as by a true; and then better no building then no right Cedar to build withall.
This is all for which you challenge my ſilence; and whereas you intimate ſome ſoliditie in it, which I was not ſo well able to deale with, as with the other part of your Anſwer: Truly Sr. I neither had, nor have any ſuch opinion of it; it ſeemed to me at firſt, and it doth ſo now upon the review, to be an intricate, perplexed, and confuſed jumbling of Metaphoricall, and literall expreſſions together; and not more darke for lack of light, then weake for want of ſtrength to that purpoſe for which it was framed: and therefore I thought it more fit for a tacit preterition, then for an expreſſe examination. But if you will have this rather, you ſhall have it; and ſo I ſay unto it,
Firſt, that if the patterne were more cleare for building the Temple, then the Goſpel patterne for the ſetting up of a Church-Government, why are you ſo confident, and peremptory, and punctuall for your Goſpel patterne?
Secondly, Why tell you us of Goſpel patterns in the plurall number? is there any more then one patterne of Government in the Goſpel? if ſo, though the Independent patterne be yeelded to be a Goſpel patterne, (which cannot be proved) the Presbyterian may be ſo too, for if there be more then one, that rather then any other may be allowed to be another.
Thirdly, when you ſay the other were more in the letter, theſe more in the ſpirit, what is your meaning by theſe words? were there more formes and patternes of the Temple then one? if there were, why doe you not ſpeake more clearely to the point of difference, betwixt them? if not, why ſay you they were more in the letter? and when you ſay theſe Goſpel patterns are more in the ſpirit; I would know whether they be written, or not written; if they be written, they are as much in the letter as the other; if they be not written, how can you tell they be Goſpel patterns?
Fourthly, whereas you ſay, The Temple may be builded by a falſe patterne, if you meane it of the materiall Temple, you deny the cleareneſſe of the patterne which before you profeſſed. And,
Fifthly, When you ſay, The Temple may be builded by a falſe patterne, as well as by a true, if you meane it of the materiall Temple in Ezra's time, what is that to the Goſpel Government, in, or ſince our Saviours time? or if any thing, it is to contradict your ſelfe, who make the Temple patterne ſo cleare that there is no danger of a falſe patterne of miſguidance. If you meane it of the Government of the Goſpel, why doe you ſo confound what in the beginning of your Anſwer to the Objection you pretend to diſtinguiſh, to wit, the materiall Temple and the Evangelicall order of the Church?
Laſtly, whereas you ſay, Better no building at all then no right Cedar to build withall, what's your meaning by this metaphor? Cedar was the matter to build with, not the patterne whereby the building was to be formed, and ſet together; which was the thing, whereof you would make the Reader beleeve you made a fit compariſon, and ſhewed a materiall difference why the building of the Temple might be haſtened in Ezra's time, and yet the ſetting up of Government ſhould be delayed in our time; for which you have ſaid nothing either to declare, or aſſure what you tooke upon you to illuſtrate, and make good unto your Reader, whom I require now againe to judge betwixt us, whether this paſſage of your Quere were not better omitted by me, then remembred by you, to put me to make ſuch an Anſwer unto it as I have done.