[...]is the same betwixt the Scripture and the unstable People.

We can't suppose them, ( viz. Women, Trades­men, &c.) able to understand the Circumstances of time and place when and where it was written; nor the coherence of things; nor the Customes and Rites of the several Nations to which it alludes; but that they will contrive and apply it, as though it intended the very State and Condition of these Islands. No­thing has been more experienc'd than this. And here the Reader will please to observe, I am not going about to argue this matter from the abuse of Scripture, but from the popular unfitness and incapacity to meddle with it. The argument, I confess, is not good, from the ill use of a thing to take away the use: but I hope the argument is good, Such a man is of a weak digesti­on, Therefore not to be advis'd to the use of strong meats: or he is of a temper apt to quarrel, Therefore let him abstain from much Wine.

That this may appear, let it be remembred, the Or­dinary means to a right understanding of the Scriptures are these, Learning, study, rational inference, collation of places, consulting the Original and Expositions of the primitive Fathers, who liv'd nearest the Age of the Apostles, together with an humble temper and constant prayer for Gods blessing upon all.

Consider also how naturally they mistake these fol­lowing Texts;

Illuminated by these and other Texts, the grave Shop-keeper can see Popery in the Church and Ty­ranny in the State: and in vain shall you or I tell him that he is mistaken in his interpretation of them.

I would only say this, That learning and modesty are necessary to the understanding of the Bible; the Peo­ple generally want both, therefore no competent Rea­ders. What will the grave Inn-keeper say to this? 'Tis true, I am not learned my self, but our Minister Mr. T. is a very precious man, and a Gospel Preacher, and able to teach us the right sence of the aforesaid Texts.

Very good, Though thou beest not learned, nor so and so qualified thy self, thy Minister is; this seems to resolve all into the Minister; and to confess una­wares, That not the unlearned People, but the Church or Pastors thereof are fit to give the sence of Gods Word. Thus, perhaps, unawares art thou confessing that Popery, (about which those of thy Party have so long confounded the peace of Christendom) of [Page 4]resting in the Church or Pastors thereof, for the sence of Gods Word.

Which being duly considered, it seems to me a little incongruous, if not absurd, to say, That every Weaver, Brewer, Taylor hath (notwithstanding his want of the aforesaid requisits, to wit, learning and humility) a judgement of discretion to assent or dissent from the sence given by the Church. To allow him such a judgement, and yet restrain him the external liberty thereof, or censure him for it, seems to him very hard and unjust. My dulness, I confess, apprehends not the difference betwixt this Judgement of discretion and that which some call the private Spirit.

What? am I allowed a judgement of discretion, will the honest Taylor say; and must I be debarr'd the liberty thereof? must I pin my faith on the sleeve of the Church? No (good Mr. Parson) for all your car­nal Sophistry, my Judgement obliges me to cut out my own Religion and set it up for a Fashion.

To this the ingenious and worthy Dr. Tillotson an­swers in his late Sermon on 1 John 4.1. pag. 39. That all Persons having Capacities for it, are to read the Scriptures and judge for themselves in matters of Reli­gion, but with modesty and humility, with great sub­mission to their spiritual Guides.

Having Capacities for it; which excludes all im­modest and unlearned People from judging for them­selves: with submission to their spiritual Guides, makes the Taylors judgement of discretion an impertinent thing. It is to be considered (saith the Doctor in the aforesaid Sermon) That the proper remedy in this case is not to deprive men of this priviledge of judging for [Page 5]themselves in matters of Religion; but to use the best means to prevent the abuse of it. And this means is, we are to caution them not to assume to themselves the Authority of Judges, instead of demeaning themselves with the submission of Learners. 'Tis an excellent cau­tion, were the multitude capable to receive it.

Well, but you will say, it's true, the Multitude may be somewhat incapable to judge so them elves as to doubtful and disputable matters. But as to all mat­ters necessary to salvation, the Scriptures are plain and evident to every Taylors understanding. Perhaps not.

Where the obscurity dwells, of divers Articles ne­cessary to salvation, whether in the Scriptures or the Peoples understandings, I shall not undertake to deter­mine: but this, I hope, will be granted me, that the doctrine of the Trinity, the Article of the Holy Ca­tholick Church, Infants Baptism, obedience to Au­thority Civil and Ecclesiastical are matters necessary to salvation; and yet how many thousands (good seri­ous Tradesmen) do attentively read the English Bible and miss the Orthodox belief of these things? So that to tell us of such a brightness in the Scriptures as to all necessary matters, is to inform us, as Countrey People do Travellers, enquiring their way to such a Town; that we cann't go astray, when nothing is more easie.

I know not, but if the Scriptures were so extream­ly perspicuous, methinks the Controversies between us and the Papists and Socinians were soon at an end: what should hinder it? the blindness of their under­standings or perverseness of their wills; alas! object this to a Presbyterian or Papist, Independent or Socinian, they will exceedingly pity your blindness.

Having premis'd these things, let's proceed to exa­mine what's usually objected to the contrary.

And first are we not commanded to search the Scri­ptures, John 5.39. Indeed our English Bible renders the word Search in the imperative mood; whereas it doth not appear in the Original whether it be indica­tive or imperative. But supposing it to have been spoken imperatively, Go search the Scriptures; 'tis a mistake to think they were the Vulgar and Unlearned Jews our blessed Saviour was then discoursing with, whose incapacities he understood too well to require any such thing of them. By Scriptures here, he meant the Psalms, the Predictions of Ezekiel, Daniel, &c. the Mosaical types and figures of the Messiah; which, at that time, the most learned Jews had enough to do to unriddle. The word [...] Search being a Metaphor taken from such as dig deep in the mines, imports such an Enquiry as unlearned People, who understand not the Original, cannot be thought capable of. The ma­ternal language of Judea at that time and long before was Syriac, and (as learned men say) the Vulgar Jews of that Age understood Hebrew no more than now Vulgar Italians do Latin.

But ('twill be said) The Law and the Prophets were then read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day. Yes, in the Hebrew tongue, as at this day; and in­terpreted by the Scribes and Jewish Doctors; otherwise not understood by the common people: The perfect Hebrew ever since the Captivity ceasing to be the Vul­gar Language of the Jews. The Reader may please to see a further account of this, in Bishop Walton's Preface before his Introduction to the Eastern tongues: Printed Anno 1655.

The Old Testament was not then extant in the Vul­gar, that is, the Syriac tongue: nor perhaps any Chal­dee Paraphrase. Or if it were, a Paraphrase is one thing and a Translation is another. 'Tis to me a lit­tle strange, that our blessed Saviour (if it were a mat­ter of so grand necessity) either left no injunction touching an intire translation of the Scriptures, or that the Apostles recorded it not. 'Tis true, the Old Te­stament was then extant in Greek, which the Vulgar In­habitants of Judea understood not.

But are not the Bereans commended, Acts 17.11. in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so? Yes Paul and Sylas went into the Sy­nagogue at Berca, and there preached to the Jews, open­ing and alledging out of the Old Testament, That Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. Whereupon the Bereans, as many as were capable of it, consulting the Scriptures honestly and without prejudice, were converted to the Christian faith. Where it is to be observed, That these Bere­ans by the Apostles Preaching and Expounding under­stood the Scriptures and never before; though they read them and heard them read every Sabbath day. [...], They were of a more generous and docible temper than other Jews. In all which there is not, that I can perceive, any contradiction to what I have said, that the Multitude cannot of them­selves and by their own Reading understand the Scri­ptures, that is, without the guidance of their Pa­stors.

But the Bereans examined St. Paul's doctrine by the Scriptures, therefore the People are to examine their Pastors doctrine by the Scriptures; It will not follow. The Bereans were as yet no Christians but Jews; and consequently He not as yet acknowledged for their Pastor. The case is not the same between Christian Pastors and Jews, as between Christian Preachers and their own flocks. Christian people, if they regard the Scriptures, are not to judge, but to obey and submit themselves to their own Pastors, who watch for their souls as those that must give an ac­count, Heb. 13.17. We may talk of our judgement of discretion, and mistake our own petulant humours for it. What but confusion and distraction can be the consequence of this maxim, that the Sheep may ar­raign the doctrine of their Pastors? The Clergy there­fore in case of erroneous doctrine are to be accountable to their own Superiors.

There are divers other Texts objected against the premises, but none which the ingeni us Reader (and to such alone I address this Paper) may not easily an­swer. That the Israelites were to meditate in the Law and teach it diligently to their Children, is very often and very impertinently objected. For the Law of God is one thing and the Scripture at large is another. By the Law of God is meant not every passage in the Bible, but the moral, judicial, and ceremonial Laws contained in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deu­teronomy. Which Laws the Israelites were first to be taught by their Priests Deut. 31.11. and afterwards to teach them their Children: This is nothing to our case. That Christian People are to know and understand [Page 9]Gods commandments no body ever doubted; That they are bound (I mean the unlearned) to read or under­stand Ezekiel, Daniel or the Revelations, yea or St. Paul's Epistles, is that which I deny; and I would gladly see a pertinent Text to prove it.

As for S. Paul's commendation of Timothy, that he had known the Holy Scriptures from a Child, it's no con­tradiction to what has been said.

Imagine Timothy, a select Person, an Angel of the Church, understood all the Prophecies of the Old Testament from a Child, will it follow that every Wo­man and Tradesman can be so happy? Again, by the Holy Scriptures cannot be meant here all the Prophecies of the Old Testament; because divers parts thereof, as the beginning of Genesis, the Book of Canticles, the first and last Chapters of Ezekiel were not to be read by the ancient Jews under thirty years of age, as S. Hierom informs us in his Epistle to Paulinus.

In whose dayes the Scriptures being so profan'd by Vulgar hands, mov'd him to this following resentment, which the Reader will give me leave to transcribe out of that Epistle.

Agricolae, Caementarii; Fabri metallorum, Lignorum (que) Caesores, Lanarii quoque & Fullones & caeteri qui vari­am supellectilem fabricant, absque doctore esse [...]non pos­sant. Quod medicorum est, promittunt medici; tra­ctant fabrilia fabri. Sola Scripturarum ars est, quam passim omnes sibi vendicant. Hanc garrula [...]anus, han [...] delirus senex, hanc Sophista verbosus, hanc universi praesumunt, lacerant, docent antequam discunt, &c. That is, to be a Smith, or Mason, or Carpenter, or any other sort of Craftsman, there is need of a Master. [Page 10]only the Trade of expounding Scripture is a Mystery which every one arrogates to himself. Here the Phy­sician will be prescribing receits, the Lawyer will be demurring, and every handy-crafts-man will be handling the Word of God with impure hands. This the prat­ling huswife, this the old Dotard, this the wrangling Sophister, in a word this men of all sorts take upon them to have skill in, and to teach what they never learn'd. Thus he.

The Bible then in his dayes (you will say) had been translated into the vulgar tongue. It was so, and per­haps two centuries before: and into Greek long before our Saviours time. The question all this while is not whether the Scriptures may be read in the Vulgar Lan­guage? no, that which S. Hierome resented, was the promiscuous and unlicens'd use of them by all sorts of ill dispos'd People. Let the question therefore be whe­ther the Church in prudence might not restrain such profanation of them? or whether conduces more to the honour of Religion, the peace and unity of the Church, to have the use of Vulgar Translations with or without Licence?

I don't find the Church of Rome themselves abso­lutely forbidding the use of Vulgar Translations; but only providing that the unlearned and unstable people may read, but not wrest them to their own destructi­on, as S. Peter speaks. See Bellarm. lib. 2. de. Verbo Dei cap. 15. I wish it were the worst of their errors; whereby they have preserved themselves, if not from all disputes of Religion, at least, from that Labyrinth of Reformation, into which we of these Nations seem to have brought our selves at this day. For as if Re­ligion [Page 11]had not been often enough reform'd since Hen. 8. we are at this day not without our apprehensions, nor our numerous Adversaries without their strong hopes of another Reformation.

Let it be remembred that envy and inconstancy are the natural humours of the Multitude; and that no experience hath found these humours any whit abated, but rather heightned by their familiarity with the Scriptures.

The High Commission Court in causes Ecclesiastical, if restor'd, were a happy remedy (some think) to suppress heresies, errors, schisms, blasphemies, and abu­ses in Religion. But alas! reflect a little on our late times, and then tell me what did this High Commission Court signifie against the multitude intoxicated with mistakes of Holy Scripture?

But Heresies and Schisms (you will say) have been vented for the most part not by ignorant but learned men. I know not: perhaps if the truth were known, their pride and ill nature would be found much greater than their learning; and their schisms might have ex­pir'd with themselves, were not the Holy Scriptures unadvisedly expos'd into the rude hands of the Mul­titude.

To be short, let the Reader please to observe with me this one thing, that unlearned People, when they read the Bible, must of necessity construe it by an im­plicit faith on the skill of the Translators: and why not by the same faith and much more safety and hu­mility receive the substance and effect of it, collected by the Church into Books of Piety and Devotion? This (I humbly think) were not to keep them in ig­norance, [Page 12]but in sobriety and in their wits. A man would think (considering the popular incapacity and weakness to receive so strong meat, not being chew'd nor prepar'd for them) such Books as the Catechism of the Church of England, or the whole Duty of man much fitter for them. S. Paul gave this judgement concerning his Corinthians, 1 Cor. 3.2. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for bitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet are ye able.

Unlearned People (I say) whether they will or no, must depend on the fidelity of the Translators of Holy Scripture. For ought they know, it may be all mis­interpreted into the Vulgar Language, as certainly ma­ny places are in our English Bible. To instance in a few.

Matth. 28.19. Gal. 5.17. Coloss. 2.20. 1 Cor. 7.9. Matth. 19.11. Job 7.1. 1 Cor. 11.2. Daniel 4.27. Acts 17.22.

All which and many other Texts are made use of at every turn to justifie their loose and Fanatical opinions. Particularly you shall find Gal. 5.17. cited by the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines, to prove the impos­sibility of keeping Gods Commandments; the words in the Original admitting no such construction.

We will not pin our faith on the sleeve of the Church, no by no means; The Church is not infallible: but on the sleeve of Translators we will pin all our Religion.

Well, in vain did we expect the common Peoples amendment by their own reading of the Scriptures. In vain have they eaten of this Tree of knowledge. And whereas divers of them, who read the Bible, are yet modest and tractable enough to Government, and conformable to the present establisht Church; some, you may observe, are indifferent for any Religion; others are conformable not so much from their under­standing of that book, as out of the loyalty and ho­nesty of their natures: and that such may have li­cence to read it, no body denies. For the rest, who are inclin'd to faction and change, experience hath made it apparent enough, the liberty of the Scriptures hath made them more factious and seditious.

For instance, there are many extraordinary passages or matters of fact in the Old Testament, particularly in the Books of Samuel, the Kings and Chronicles, which to them are very good arguments against the present Government of Church and State. The de­struction of the Groves and high places and molten Images by Josiah, the slaughter of Baal's Priests by Jehu, have been very good arguments against the Hie­rarchy and Cathedral Service of the Church of England. The spoiling of the Egyptians, the zeal of Phinehas against Zimri and Cozbi, are good Precedents for Re­formation and defensive Arms against the King. And examples, so they be Scripture, are as argumentative with the Vulgar, as any Precepts whatsoever.

The English Bible is become a Glass, wherein the factious Multitude can see all the Vices, but none of the Vertues of their Governours.

'Tis too apparent that English men were never so ill-natur'd towards one another, so sacrilegious towards God, nor so regardless of their Clergy, as they have been for this last Century. And the Author of the late book entituled, The Reasons of the Contempt of the Clergy, might have assigned one Reason, for it, which I think he has forgot, namely the liberty of the English Bible.

For in Scripture I do not find (saith the judicious Inn­keeper) any such necessity of the Clergy: do I not read Joel 2.28. It shall come to pass in the last dayes, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see Visions; and also. upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those dayes will I pour out my spirit and they shall prophesie.

And do I not read, 1 Cor. 12.7. To every man is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit withall. And Heb. 8.11. They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest.

Ve [...]ily, methinks the Scripture (saith the profound Weaver) holds forth rather a Presbyterial than Pre­latical Government. For don't I read Luke 22.25. The Rings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, but it shall not be so among you. And 1 Tim. 4.15. Neglect not the gift that was given thee by Prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. And in vain shall you or I tell him that he is mistaken in his interpretation of these Texts. Yea as for Luke [Page 15]22.25. the spirit, saith he, witnesseth with my spirit, whatever your carnal Greek sayes to the contrary, I am not mistaken.

To dress any meat on the Lords Day is with him a breach of the fourth Commandment, Thou shalt do no manner of work, thou nor thy maid-servant, &c.

The Scriptures came at last to be so abused, that about the year 1645. you might have seen Papers pub­lickly affixt on Walls and Posts in the City of London with these and the like inscriptions. On such a day such a Brewers Clerk exerciseth; such a Taylor ex­poundeth, such a Waterman teacheth, &c.

Which impudence S. Basil reproved long ago in De­mosthenes, Cook to the Emperour Valens, Tuum est pul­menta decoquere, non Evangelium exponere; mind your Pottage, and meddle not with the Mysteries of Scri­pture.

I end all with a passage or two out of our own Hi­stories. The first out of Howes in the Life of Q. Mary.

In the year 1553. Sr. John Gates was Arraigned and sentenced to death for Rebellion against his So­veraign the Princess Mary, Eldest Daughter to King Hen. VIII. At the place of Execution he made his Confession to the People in these words.