IV. BOOK and the life of us all, did bid us openly search the Scriptures, assuring us herein to find eternal life, to find ful testification of al his graces and benefits towards us, in the treasure thereof. Joh. xiv. Of what sort they Therfore it is most convenient, that we should al suppose, are that for- that Christ spake to us all in this his precept of searching bid the peo- the Scriptures. If this celestial Doctour (so aucthorized by Scriptures. the Father of heaven, and commanded, as his onely Son, to ple the be heard of us all) biddeth us busily to search the Scripture, of what spirit can it proceed, to forbid the reading and studying of the Scriptures? If the gross Jewes used to read them, as some men think, that our Saviour Christ did shew, by such kind of speaking, their usage, with their opinion they had therin to find eternal life, and were not of Christ rebuked or disproved, either for their searching, or their opinion they had therin to find eternal life, how superstitiously or superficially soever some of them used to expend the Scriptures; how much more unadvisedly do such, as boast themselves to be either Christ's Vicars, or be of his garde, to loth Christen men from reading, by their covert slaunderous reproches of the Scriptures, or in their authoritie by law or statute to contract this liberty of studying the word of eternal salvation? Christ calleth them not onely to the single reading of Scriptures, (saith Chrysostome,) but sendeth them to the exquisite searching of them, for in them is eternal life to be found, and they be (saith himself) the witnes of me. For they declare out his office, they commend his benevolence towards us, they record his whole works wrought for us to our salvation. Antichrist therfore he must be, that, under whatsoever colour, would give contrary precept or counsil to that which Christ did give unto us. Very little do they resemble Christ's loving spirit, moving us to search for our comfort, that wil discourage us from such searching, or that would wish ignorance or forgetfulnes of his benefit to raign in us; so that they might by our ignorance raign the more frankly in our consciences, to the Psal. xxi. danger of our salvation. Who can take the light from us in this miserable vale of blindnes, and mean not to have us IV. stumble in the paths of perdition, to the ruine of our souls? BOOK to teach, to reprove, to reform, to instruct in righteousness, 130 Search therefore, good reader, (on God's name,) as Christ biddeth thee, the holy Scripture, wherin thou mayest find thy salvation. Let not the volume of this book (by God's own warrant) depart from thee; but occupy thy self therin in the whole journey of this thy worldly pilgrimage, to understand thy way how to walk rightly before him al the dayes of thy life. Remember, that the Prophet David pronounc- Psal. i. eth him the blessed man, which will muse in the law of God both day and night. Remember, that he calleth him blessed, Psal. cxix. which walketh in the way of the Lord, which wil search diligently his testimonies, and wil in their whole heart seek the same. Let not the covert suspicious insinuations of the adversaries drive thee from the search of the holy Scriptures, either for the obscurity which they say is in them, or for the inscrutable hidden mysteries they talk to be comprized in them, or for the strangeness and homeliness of the phrases they would charge God's book with. Christ exhorteth thee therfore the rather for the difficulty of the same, to search them diligently. S. Paul willeth thee to have thy Heb. v. senses exercised in them, and not to be a child in thy senses, but in malice. Though many things may be difficult to thee 1 Cor. xiv. to understand, impute it rather to thy dul hearing and reading, then to think that the Scriptures be insuperable to them which with diligent searching labour to discern the evil from the good. Only search with an humble spirit, ask in conti- Mat. v. nual prayer, seek with purity of life, knock with perpetual perseverance, and cry to that good Spirit of Christ the comforter. And surely to every such asker it wilbe given, such Mat. xi. searchers must needs find, to them it will be opened. Christ Esay Ixi. IV. 1 Cor. xii. Apoc. iii. Sap. i. Job xiv. BOOK himself wil open the sense of the Scriptures, not to the proud, or to the wise of the world; but to the lowly and contrite in heart. For he hath the key of David, who openeth, and no man shutteth, who shutteth, and no man openeth. For as this spirit is a benigne and liberal spirit, and wilbe easily found of them which wil early in carefulnes rise to seek him, and as he promiseth he wilbe the comforter from above to teach us, and to lead us into al the wayes of truth, if that in humility we bow unto him, denying our own natural senses, or carnal wits and reasons: so he is the spirit of purity and cleannes, and wil recede from him, whose conscience is subject to filthines of life. Into such a soul this heavenly wisdome will not enter. For al perverse cogitations. wil separate us from God. how busily soever we search this holy table of the Scripture, yet wil it then be a table to such to their own snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and a recompence to themselfe. We ought therfore to search to find out the truth, not to oppress it; we ought to seek Christ, not as Herod did, under the pretence of worshipping him to destroy him; or as the Pharisees searched the Scriptures to disprove Christ and to discredit him, and not to follow him; but to embrace the salvation which we may learn by them. Psal. lxviii. And then Nor yet is it enough so to acknowledg the Scriptures, as some of the Jewes did, of the holiest of them, who used such diligence, that they could number precisely, not onely every verse, but every word and syllable, how oft every letter of the alphabet was repeated in the whole Scriptures. They had some of them such reverence to that book, that they would not suffer in a great heap of books any other to lay over them, they would not suffer the book to fal to the ground, as nigh as they could, they would costly bind the books of holy Scriptures, and cause them to be exquisitely and ornately written. Which devotion yet, tho' it were not to be discommended, yet was it not for that intent, why Christ commended the Scriptures, nor they therof allowed before God. For they did not call upon God in a true faith, they were not charitable to their neighbours; but in the IV. midst of al this devotion, they did steal, they were adulterers, BOOK they were slaunderers and backbiters: even much like many of our Christian men and women now a dayes, who glory much that they read the Scriptures, that they search them and love them, that they frequent the publick sermons in an outward shew of al honesty and perfection; yea, they can pike out of the Scriptures vertuous sentences and godly precepts to 131 lay before other men. And tho' these manner of men do not much erre fro such searching and studying, yet they see not the scope and principal state of the Scriptures: which is, as Christ declareth it, to find Christ as their Saviour, to cleave to his salvation and merits, to be brought to the low repentance of their lives, and to amend themselfe, to raise up their faith to our Saviour Christ, so to think of him as the Scriptures dò testifie of him. These be the principal causes why Christ did send the Jewes to search the Scriptures. For to this end were they written, saith S. John. John xx. Hæc scripta sunt ut credatis, et ut credentes vitam habeatis æternam. These were written to this intent, that ye should believe, and that through your beliefe ye should have everlasting life. And here, good reader, great cause we have to extol the wondrous wisdome of God, and with great thanks to praise his providence, considering how he hath preserved and renewed from age to age, by special miracle, the incomparable treasure of his Church. "For first he did inspire Moses, as "John Chrysostome doth testify, to write the stony tables, ❝ and kept him in the mountain fourty dayes to give him his "law. After him he sent the Prophets; but they suffered Heb. v. many thousand adversities; for battailes did follow, al "were slain, were destroyed, books were brent up. He then 66 66 66 inspired again another man to repaire these miraculous Scriptures, Esdras I mean, who of their leavings set them "again together. After that, he provided that the Seventy "Interpreters should take them in hand. At the last came "Christ himself: the Apostles did receive them, and spred "them throughout al nations. Christ wrought his miracles " and wonders; and what followed? After these great vo IV. 1 Cor. x. BOOK "lumes, the Apostles also did write, as S. Paul doth say, These "be written to the instruction of us that be come into the end "of the world. And Christ doth say, Ye therefore do erre, Matt. xxii. because ye know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God. "And Paul did say, Let the word of Christ be plentiful Psalm cxix. " among you. And again saith David, Oh! how sweet be Col. iii. Deut. xvi. thy words to my throat, above the honey or the honey-comb "to my mouth. Yea Moses saith, Thou shalt meditate in "them evermore, when thou risest and when thou sittest "down, when thou goest to sleep, continue in them, he "saith; and a thousand places more. And yet after so "many testimonies thus spoken, there be some persons that "do not yet so much as know what the Scriptures be. Wherupon nothing is in good state amongst us, nothing worthily is done amongst us. In things which pertain to "this life, we make very great hast, but of spiritual goods "we have no regard." Thus far John Chrysost. 66 66 It must needs signify some great thing to our understanding, that Almighty God hath had such care to prescribe these books thus unto us: I say, not prescribe them onely, but to maintain them, and defend them against the malignity of the Devil and his ministers, who alway went about to destroy them. And yet could these never be so destroyed, but that he would have them continue whole and perfect unto this day, to our singular comfort and instruction, where other books of mortal wise men have perished in great numbers. It is recorded, that Ptolomeus Philadelphus, King of Egypt, had gathered together in one library at Alexandria, by his great cost and diligence, seven hundred thousand books, whereof the principal were the books of Moses; which, reserved not much more than by the space of two hundred years, were al brent and consumed in that battail, when Cæsar restored Cleopatra again Johan. Sa- after her expulsion. At Constantinople perisht under Zenon, by one common fire, a hundred and twenty thousand books. At Rome, when Lucius Aurel. Antonius did raign, his notable library by a lightning from heaven was quite consumed. Yea, it is recorded that Gregory the First did cause a risberiens. in Polycratico. lib. 8. сар. 19. W. de Regibus. |