Anfo. 2.

tures a

Glafs

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 prefent Truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this Tabernacle, to ftir you up, by putting you in Re

membrance.

God is the Teacher of his People himself; and there is nothing more exprefs, than that fuch as are under the New Covenant, they need no Man to teach them: Yet it was a Fruit of Chrift's Afcenfion, to fend Teachers and Paftors, for Perfecting of the Saints. So that the fame Work is afcribed 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 Priviledge, which Chrift hath purchased unto us by his Blood; fo neither is the Scripture to go before the Teaching of the Spirit,

or to rob us of it.

Secondly, God hath feen meet, that herein we fhould, as in a Looking-Glafs, fee the Conditions The Scrip- and Experiences of the Saints of Old; that finding our Experience anfwer to theirs, we might thereby be the more confirmed and comforted, and our Hope ftrengthened of obtaining the fame End; that obferving the Providences attending them, feeing the Snares they were liable to, and beholding their Deliverances, we may thereby be made wife unto Salvation, and feafonably reproved, and inftructed in Righteoufnefs.

The Scrip

This is the great Work of the Scriptures, and tures Work their Service to us, that we may witnefs them fuland Service. filled in us, and fo difcern the Stamp of God's Spi

rit and Ways upon them, by the inward Acquain

tance

tance we have with the fame Spirit and Work in our Hearts. The Prophecies of the Scriptures are also very comfortable, and profitable unto us, as the fame Spirit enlightens us, to obferve them fulfilled, and to be fulfilled: For in all this, it is to be obferved, that it is only the Spiritual Man that can make a right Ufe of them: They are able to make the Man of God Perfect (fo it is not the natural Man) and whatfoever was written aforetime, was written for our Comfort, [our] that are the Believers, [our] that are the Saints; concerning fuch the Apostle fpeaks: For as for the other, the Apoftle Peter plainly declares, that the unftable and unlearned wreft them to their own Destruction: These were they that were unlearned in the Divine and Heavenly Learning of the Spirit, not in Humane and School-Literature; in which we may fafely prefume, that Peter himself, being a Fither-man, had no Skill; for it may, with great Probability, yea Certainty, be affirmed, that he had no Knowledge of Ariftotle's Logick, which both Papifts and Logick. Proteftants, now degenerating from the Simplicity of Truth, make the Hand-maid of Divinity (as they call it) and a neceffary Introduction to their carnal, common, natural and humane Ministry. By the infinite obfcure Labours of which Kind of Men, mixing in their Heathenish Stuff, the Scripture is rendred at this Day of fo little Service to the fimple People: whereof if Jerom complained in his Time, now twelve hundred Years ago, Hierom. Epift. 134. ad Cypr. Tom. 3, faying, It is wont to befal the most Part of learned Men, that it is harder to underftand their Expofitions, than the Things which they go about to Expound; What may we fay then, confidering thofe great Heaps of Commentaries fince, in Ages yet far more corrupted?

§. VI. In this Refpect above-mentioned then, we have fhewn what Service and Ufe the Holy Scriptures, as managed in and by the Spirit, are of, to L 2

the

tures a Se

condary Rule.

the Church of God; wherefore we do account The Scrip- 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 fuppofed by the Injury of Times to have flipt in, are not fuch, but that there is a fufficient clear Teftimony left to all the Effentials of the Christian Faith; we do look upon them, as the only fit outward Judge of Controverfies among Christians; and that whatfoever Doctrine is contrary unto their Teftimony, may therefore juftly be rejected as false. And for our Parts, we are very willing, that all our Doctrine and Practices be tried by them; which we never refufed, nor ever fhall, in all Controverfies with our Adverfaries, as the Judge and Teft. We fhall alfo be very willing to admit it, as a pofitive certain Maxim, That whatfoever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, be accounted and reckoned a Delufion of the Devil. For as we never lay Claim to the Spirit's Leadings, that we may cover our felves in any Thing that is Evil, fo we know, that as every Evil contradicts the Scriptures, fo it doth alfo the Spirit in the first Place, from which the Scriptures came, and whose Motion can never contradict one another, though they may appear fometimes, to be contradictory, to the blind Eye of the natural Man, as Paul and James feem to contradict one another.

Thus far we have fhewn both what we believe, and what we believe not, concerning the Holy Scriptures; hoping, we have given them their due Place. But fince they that will needs have them to be the Only, Certain and Principal Rule, want not fome Shew of Arguments, even from the Scripture it self (though it no where calls it felf fo) by which they labour to prove their Doctrine; I fhall briefly lay them down by Way of Objections, and answer them, before I make an End of this Matter.

§. VII.

§. VII. Their firft Objection is ufually drawn Objet. I. from Ifaiab viii. 20. To the Law and to the Teftimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no Light. Now this Law, Teftimony and Word, they plead to be the Scriptures.

To which I Answer; That that is to beg the 4. L Thing in Queftion; and remains yet unproved. Nor do I know, for what Reafon we may not fafely affirm this Law and Word to be Inward: But fuppofe it was Outward, it proves not the Cafe at all for them, neither makes it against us; for it may be confeffed, without any Prejudice to our Caufe, That the outward Law was more particularly to the Jews a Rule, and more principally than to us; feeing their Law was outward and literal, but ours, under the New Covenant (as hath been already faid) is exprefly affirmed to be Inward and Spiritual; So that this Scripture is fo far from making against us, that it makes for us; for if the Jews were directed to try to try all all Things by their Law, which was without them, Things, by written in Tables of Stone; then if we will have this Advice of the Prophet to reach us, we must make it hold parallel to that Difpenfation of the Gofpel, which we are under: So that we are to try all Things (in the firft Place) by that Word of Faith, which is preached unto us, which the Apoftle faith, is in the Heart; and by that Law, which God hath given us, which the Apoftle faith also exprefly, is written and placed in the Mind.

Laftly; If we look to this Place, according to the Greek Interpretation of the Septuagint, our Adverfaries shall have nothing from thence to carp; yea, it will favour us much: For there it is faid, that the Law is given us for an Help; which very well agrees with what is above afferted.

what?

Their fecond Objection is from John v. 39. Search Object. II,

the Scriptures, &c.

Here,

Here, fay they, we are commanded, by Christ himfelf, to fearch the Scriptures.

I Anfwer, First; That the Scriptures ought to be fearched, we do not at all deny; but are very willing to be tryed by them, as hath been above declared: But the Queftion is, Whether they be the Only and Principal Rule? Which this is fo far from proving, that it proyeth the contrary; for Chrift checks them here for too high an Efteem of the Scriptures, and neglecting of him that was to be preferred before them, and to whom they bare Search the Witnefs; as the following Words declare. For in Scriptures, them ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they

which teftify of me: And ye will not come unto me, that ye might have Life. This fhews, that while they thought, they had Eternal Life in the Scriptures, they neglected to come unto Chrift, to have Life, of which the Scriptures bore witnefs. This anfwers well to our Purpofe, fince our Adverfaries now do alfo exalt the Scriptures, and think to have Life in them; which is no more, than to look upon them as the only principal Rule, and Way to Life; and yet refufe to come unto the Spirit, of which they testify, even the Inward Spiritual Law, which could give them Life: So that the Cause of this People's Ignorance and Unbelief, was not their Want of Refpect to the Scriptures; which though they knew, and had an high Efteem of; yet Chrift teftifies in the former Verfes, that they had neither feen the Father, nor beard bis Voice at any Time; neither bad bis Word abiding in them; which had they then had, then they Af. II. had believed in the Son. Moreover, that Place may be taken in the Indicative Mood, Ye fearch the Scriptures; which Interpretation the Greek Word will bear, and fo Pafor tranflateth it: Which by the Reproof following, feemeth alfo to be the more genuine Interpretation, as Cyrillus long ago hath obferved.

§. VII.