the thing therefore requires we should have our eyes intent upon this light and illumination. For this end God hath given us this invaluable treasure, the holy Scriptures, that we should make them our study.

It must be observed carefully, that it is not enough to be much in reading the Scriptures; but while we read, we should employ all our attention to understand them. The Scriptures may be understood, but evidently not in every degree by every man; for as there are various forts and degrees of knowledge in Scripture, fome perhaps, at prefent, beyond the reach of any man that ever yet was in the world; and as there are in men various capacities, and degrees of learning; fo it is manifeft, all men cannot attain to the fame degree of understanding in divine things: but there must neceffarily be a great difference between the knowledge of one man and another in matters of faith and revelation. This fhews the abfurdity of the Popish fcheme, which pretends to reduce the Chriftian faith in all its parts to a certain invariable standard, to which every man either explicitly or implicitly, either with or without understanding, must conform.

This fhews, how much foever it is our duty to communicate knowledge one to another, that it is quite contrary to true religion to quarrel with one another, or to be difpleafed because we have not all the fame degree of understanding in matters of faith and religion; because this, according to the prefent conftitution of our minds, and of the Revela tion God hath given us, which he never intended should be equally understood by all, is quite impracticable. But although the Scriptures are not to be underftood in every degree by every man, yet they may be understood by every man so far as God requireth, i. e. fo far as he is capable of underftanding them; for what a man can understand, he may understand, if he is not wanting to himself.

And as God can require of no man beyond his abilities, fo no more than what a man can understand of Scripture is to him a rule of faith and practice; for what he cannot understand, he cannot be bound to believe or do. Further, thofe things in Scripture which are of the highest importance, and moft conducive to a holy life, are generally very eafy to be understood; and therefore, how perplexed foever those other things may be about which men have differed, though not fo perplexed in Revelation as they are in men's heads and writings,-yet, I fay, how perplexed and difficult foever they may be, the grand principles of faith and practice are so evident, that any ordinary capacity may, with due care and attention, eafily gain the most comfortable knowledge of them. Thus the Scriptures may be understood.

So far as they are not understood, they are at least useless to us. Nay further, the Scriptures mifunderstood may prove very hurtful to us. The things chiefly to be understood in Scripture are principles, or the grounds and reafons of things, and precepts which are the rules of duty: now, if we miftake either, we fhall throw all into confufion, our way will be all mift and cloulds; that which fhould be light will be darkness, or, which is all one, a falfe light to mislead us; that which fhould be our joy, will be our heaviness; that which should be our comfort, and infpire cheerful hope, will be a dead weight to burthen our spirits and clog our course. Our path, which should be. as the fhining light, that shineth more and more, will be a gloomy melancholy road, and we

4

fhall

fhall make our way with difficulty, because we want that true fenfe and knowledge of the ways and will of God, which is neceffary to give life, comfort, and vigour. Chimeras and frightful images will terrify our confciences, and fill us with ground lefs fears; God will be painted in monstrous colours; and all the ravishing glories of his truth, wisdom, and love, which should powerfully draw our hearts to him, will be hid from our eyes. The luftre of redeeming grace will in part, or wholly, be eclipfed. Some parts of religion will be fuperftitiously magnified, while others of greater confequence will be undervalued.

Further, if for want of due attention to the sense of Scripture we miftake and fall into error, we ought to be fenfible, that religious error is of a far worse nature than any other; not only as it is error in a matter of the greatest importance, but as it is of all others the most difficult. to be corrected. For under the facred name of religion it fhelters and defends itself, and gains the character of truth, of important, neceffary, awful, and perhaps excellent truth; and the unwary think themfelves bound in confcience and duty to maintain it with zeal; and then, whoever endeavours to correct it, though ever so much in the fpirit of meeknefs and peace, muft do it at his peril. Hence thofe groffer inftances of perfecution and bloodshed which have fouled the Chriftian name; hence thofe wranglings, debates, heats, animofities, which have deftroyed Chriftian focieties. Thefe things are the fruit of men's taking their religious principles upon truft, and not fetching them from the Scriptures, studied, and understood by themfelves. Such contempt and neglect of the word of God expofeth them to ftrong delufion, and fuchs religion leads them to fight in the dark for they know not what. Thus religion is corrupted, the corruption of it defended, and irreligion and infidelity propagated, even by religious people themselves. So the fceptic, who is indifferent to any principles, when he finds abfurdity mixed with the Chriftian faith, taking the whole for a true account of Chriftianity, rejects the whole; for even common fenfe will not allow that Revelation to be divine, which cannot, in many of its parts, be reconciled with the known perfections of God.

By this unhappy means what numbers in our land have been drawn into Deifm! And, by this unhappy means, I guess, if the truth were known, religion appears but in a doubtful light to many who seem to be ftrict profeffors of it; for where it is not received in its proper evidence, there cannot be, I think, a full and strong affent of faith; and no man can receive it in its proper evidence, who doth not endeavour earefully to understand the Scriptures.

Thus many who talk much of the word of God, and pretend a great reverence for it, may poffibly at the last day be ranked among the defpifers of it; becaufe, although they have, perhaps, been much in reading of it, they never fet themselves in good earnest to understand it, and fo in effect might as well not have read it at all; for their reading of it is only from a fuperftitious opinion, as Turks, and Jews, and Papifts, turn over the books in reputation among them, not from the love of truth, not with a defire to understand the truth; that most people fuppofe they understand before they read their bibles, or however without reading their bibles; not to open their eyes, and to give them

a more

a more juft and diftinct view of the ways and difpenfations of God, fuch things they learn from other books; not to confirm and eftablifh their minds in the faith of God and of Chrift; not for thofe purposes, I fear, are the Scriptures read, but only in a cuftomary, fuperftitious, or however in a very careless, fuperficial way and therefore there are fo few Chriftians that grow in grace, that rife in fpiritual ftrength, peace, love, and joy, because there are fo few that grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. 2 Pet. iii. 18.

The full knowledge of Chrift most people prefume they have attained long ago; and to talk of knowing more of Chrift, or in a clearer and more rational way, is perfectly fhocking to them. They have somewhere or other fixed the precife ftandard of Divine knowledge, and either more or less than that ftandard of theirs is impious and heretical. How then can they grow in the knowledge of Chrift? How can they fet themfelves to understand the Scriptures, who in another way, as they think, have already gained the whole fum and body of spiritual understanding? See Rom. xv. 4. Whatfoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, for our inftruction, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. We have hope through that patience and comfort which is taught in the Scriptures; but the grounds and reafons of that patience and comfort must be understood, otherwife we cannot establish in our minds a fure and folid hope. Hence it is that the Chriftian hope, that faith and hope which overcometh the world, is fo great a rarity; therefore fo few rejoice in hope, because fo few underftand the Scriptures, which are the ground of the Chriftian hope. Laftly, because the Scriptures are but little understood, therefore they are fo little valued. We delight not in them, because we know fo little of them.

Let it be remembered, that we fhall have the benefit of the Scriptures by ftudiously endeavouring to understand them. Then fhall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. So far as we understand the word of truth, we shall be truly enlightened, our confciences will be rightly directed, and all our principles well established; we fhall fee its real excellency, and it will accordingly be valued and efteemed; we fhall tafte its comforts, feel its power, be convinced of its Divine original, and it will be pleasant and precious to us. The more we understand of the Scriptures, the more we fhall with pleasure fee the righteoufnefs, wifdom, and goodness of all the Divine difpenfations, that all of them are adjusted and fettled by the love of a Father, and calculated to promote our happiness. This will draw our hearts to God, and fhew us the infinite reasonableness of comporting with the conftitutions of his grace.

If we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, our faith will ftand upon a fure bottom, and not upon the weak, precarious judgment of man; henceforth we shall be no more children toffed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, Ephef. iv. 14. but shall by use have our fenfes exercifed to difcern both good and evil. Thus we fhall with our own eyes fee the truth, and be inftrumental in preferving the purity of our religion. Thus we fhall grow up into Chrift in all things, in knowledge, in faith, and love. Thus we fhall be rooted and grounded in love, in the love of God, of truth, and of

our

our neighbour. The knowledge we gain, whether it be more or less, being drawn from the true fountain, will compofe our fpirits, and incline us neither to despise the weakness of those that know lefs, nor to reject the inftructions of those that may know more than ourselves.

Thefe weighty confiderations fhould engage us to read the Scriptures with all poffible care and diligence, to study them with an upright defire to gain their true sense and meaning. We all know how much men are at variance about the fenfe of Scripture, one affirming that this, another that that is the true fenfe. So it may well be expected to be in our prefent weakness; and fo God hath permitted it to be; not to give us oc cafion to cenfure, judge, and difparage one another, as is too common, for this is exprefsly forbidden; but this variety of fentiments is permitted, to teach us to cease from man, and fhould convince us that we ought not to refign our understandings or confciences to any man's judgment whatsoever.

The Hiftory of REVELATION, and fome OBJECTIONS to it answered.

The authority and original of holy Scripture; and then,

The ufe and importance of it; it is profitable for doctrine, for reproofs for correction, for inftruction in righteousness. 2 Tim. iii, 16. and fo is profitable for the nobleft purposes, the enlightening of our minds, the purifying of our hearts, the regulating of our practice, and the faving of our fouls.

As to the authority and original of holy Scripture, it is faid, by a very good and fufficient judge, that it is given by inspiration of God. How we are to understand being given by infpiration of God, the Apoftle PETER will inform us, 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. Knowing this, fays he, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation, fenfe, or impulfe; meaning, that no prophecy did iffue or proceed from the private fense or thoughts of the writer; it was not giving a loofe to his own conceits and imaginations. For, as it follows, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the holy Ghoft; or by the holy Spirit of God, enlightening their minds, and directing them what to fay. Thus the Scriptures are inspired, they are the word of God; and what is contained in them, we are to understand and reverence, as fpoken by God himself. But then, in the ftricteft fense, this is to be understood only of what Prophets, as Prophets, have delivered to us; fuch as Mofes, Samuel, David, Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and the reft. YOL. I.

M

No

No prophecy of Scripture did proceed from the private sense of the writer, but was dictated by the fpirit of God. But as for the hiftorical writings, though, doubtlefs, they owe their original to the fpecial Providence of God, yet it is fufficient to fuppofe that they were wrote by men of probity, fully acquainted with the facts which they relate.

This premifed, I fhould now advance a few arguments to establish the authority and excellency of the Scriptures, that they were indeed given by infpiration of God, or that in them holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the holy Spirit. But to prepare the way, it is necessary I fhould give a general account and hiftory of Revelation; then remove fome Objections which are levelled againft it, as if it were needlefs, too partial, or too ineffectual, to be confiftent with the Divine goodness; or as if we were not fufficiently fecure, that we now have in poffeffion thofe very books entire and perfect, in which Revelation was originally recorded.

Revelation is that which makes known to us the will and ways of the moft high God, the Father of the univerfe, the Fountain of all being and happiness, upon whom we have a neceflary dependence for life, for understanding, and knowledge, for well-being, and enjoyment, at all times and in every refpect; for without him we cannot live, we cannot breathe, we can have no kind or degree of fenfe and understanding. This is true. And it is equally true, that the best and most beneficent of Beings, the greatest and the kindeft of all Fathers, could have no other end or defign in creating mankind, but his own glory, and their happiness. The chief end of man must be to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever; for perfect goodnefs cannot be conceived to propose any lower end in making a creature fo noble and excellent. But then it is certain, both from the holiness of God, and the nature of an intelligent rational being, that a character of holiness and virtue, of obedience, righteousness, or right conduct, is neceffary, on our part, to our enjoyment of God, or our happinefs in his favour and bleffing. It is neceffary that we love the great Author of our being, that we pay him all due honour and obedience, that we are dutifully fubmiffive to his will, that we understand our dependence upon him, and what we have to expect from him, that we may be excited to gratitude, and a due improvement of his benefits.

We cannot love, honour, and obey God, unless we know him, and are acquainted with him; nor can we poffibly have any knowledge or understanding, of any kind whatever, but what must come originally from God. Therefore, that God, our Father, fhould inftruct and teach his creatures, whom he has made for the highest and nobleft ends, in thofe things which immediately relate to his glory and their happiness, is perfectly confonant to his goodness and love. And that Infinite wifdom, the Lord and Proprietor of all Being, fhould have various ways of making known himself and his will to us, is alfo perfectly true. He hath produced a great variety of creatures with different powers and inftincts in our world, by them to fhew that he can bestow upon us any kind or degree of being; he hath difplayed his immenfe greatnefs, power, wifdom, and goodness, in the numberless glorious bodies which, by his hand, are perpetually rolled about us in the heavens. His continually

providing