II. As to the means for the understanding of Scripture, two kinds are specified. — 1. Such as are general and necessary, as the reading of Scripture ; and, 2. Such as are ex- pedient and conducive to the improvement of it. And the latter are threefold : — (1.) Spi- ritual means, such as prayer, susceptibility of gracious impressions, practical obedi- ence, desire for progress in knowledge, and attention to the ordinances of worship, vh. ; (2.) Disciplinary, skill in the original languages of Scripture, acquaintance with history, geography, and chronology, and expertness in reasoning, vni; and, (3.) Eccle- siastical, under which the deference due to catholic tradition, the consent of the fathers, and pious authorship, is estimated, ix.— Ed.
THE PREFACE,
I shall in a few words give the reader an account of the occasion and design of the small ensuing discourse. Some while since I published a treatise about the " Eeason of Faith, or the Grounds whereon we Believe the Scripture to be the Word of God," with that faith which is our duty, and pre-required unto all other acceptable obedience. But although this be the first fundamental principle of supernatural religion, yet is it not sufficient unto any of the ends thereof (that we believe the Scripture to be a divine revelation), unless we understand the mind and will of God therein revealed. At least, the knowledge and understanding of those things -wherein our present duty and future state of blessedness or misery are immediately concerned, are no less indispensably ne- cessary unto us than is the belief of the Scripture to be the word of God. To declare the ways and means whereby we may assuredly attain that understanding is the de- sign of the ensuing discourse, as those whereby we come infallibly to believe the Scrip- ture with faith divine and supernatural are the subject of the former. My principal scope in both hath been, to manifest that such is the abundant goodness, wisdom, and grace of God, in granting unto us the inestimable benefit of his word, that no persons whatever shall or can come short of the advantage intended by it but through their own sinful negligence and ingratitude, — the highest crimes in things of a spiritual and eternal concernment ; for he hath given such convincing evidences of the procedure or emanation of the Scripture from himself, by the divine inspiration of the penmen thereof, and so plainly declared his mind and will therein as unto the faith and obedi- ence which he requires of any or all sorts of persons in their various circumstances, that every one who takes care of his own present and eternal welfare may and shall, in the due use of the means by him appointed, and discharge of the duties by him pre- scribed unto that end, with a due dependence on the aid and assistance which he will not withhold from any who diligently seek him, infallibly attain such measure of the knowledge of his mind and will, with full assurance therein, as will be sufficient to guide him unto eternal blessedness. The same measure of divine knowledge is not re- quired in all and every one, that they may live unto God and come unto the enjoyment of him. The dispensation of God towards mankind, in nature, providence, and grace, is an invincible spring of such variety among them, as will not allow a prescription of the same measures of knowledge unto all who have a consistency with divine wisdom and goodness ; and a supposition of it would bring confusion into all the order of things and persons which is of divine constitution. Nor is it pretended that any one man may or can have, in the use of any means whatever, a full comprehension of all divine revelations in this life, nor perhaps of any one of them ; or that all men, in the use of the same means prescribed unto them, shall have the same conceptions of all things re- vealed. The Scripture was given for the use of the whole church, and that in all ages, states, and conditions, with respect unto that inconceivable variety of circumstances which all sorts of causes do distribute the whole multitude of them into. Wherefore, the wisdom of God therein hath suited itself unto the instruction of every individual believer, unto the moment of his entrance into eternity. That any one of them, that any society of them, should have a perfect comprehension of the entire revelation of God, or a perfect understanding of the whole Scripture, and every part of it, with all that is contained therein, was never required of them in a way of duty, nor ever de- signed unto them in a way of privilege : for besides that he hath replenished it with unfathomable stores, unsearchable treasures of divine mysteries, wherein we cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection, and hath provided another state for the compre- hension of that by sight which is the object of adoration and admiration in believing, such knowledge is not necessary unto any that they may lead the life of faith, and discharge the duties thereof, in all holy obedience unto God ; yea, such a knowledge
120 THE PREFACE.