To this end hath the Lord Jesus given us his holy word, a perfect and sure revelation of all that he would have us to believe or do in the worship of God. This he commands us diligently to attend unto, to study, search, and inquire after, that we may know his mind and do it. It is true, in their inquiry into it, various apprehensions concerning the sense and meaning of sundry things revealed therein have befallen some men in all ages; and Origen gives this as one occasion of the differences that were in those days amongst Christians: ToZro, saith he, haa- Xov^nffi, "hiaip'opoi; ix^i'i^af^ivuv roh; clfio. "Tratn •TrttrrivSivras I'lvai 9-iiov; Xoyovs, to yiviir^ai a'liitnis, lib. iii. Con. Cel. cap. 1 ; — " When many were converted unto Christianity, someof them variously understanding the holy Scripture, which they jointly believed, it came to pass that heresy ensued." For this was the whole rule of faith and unity in those days : the means for securing of us in them imposed on us of late by the Romanists was then not heard of nor thought of in the world. But, moreover, to obviate all danger that might in this matter ensue, from the manifold weakness of our minds in apprehending spiritual things, the Lord Jesus hath promised his Holy Spirit unto all them that believe in him and ask it of him, to prevent their mistakes and miscarriages in the study of his word, and to " lead them into all that truth" the knowledge whereof is necessary, that they may beheve in him unto the end, and live unto him. And if they who diligently and conscientiously, without prejudices, corrupt ends or designs, in obedience to the command of Christ, shall inquire into the Scriptures, to receive from thence the whole object of their faith and rule of their obedience, — and who, believing his promise, shall pray for his Spirit, and wait to receive him in and by the means appointed for that end, — may not be, and ai-e not thereby, secured from all such mistakes and errors as may disinterest them in the promises of the gospel, I know not how we may be brought unto any VOL. XIV. 12
1 73 TO THE READER.
certainty or assurance in tlie truths of God, or the everlasting consolation of our own souls. Neither, indeed, is the nature of man capable of any farther satisfac- tion in or about these things, unless God should work continual miracles, or give continually special revelations unto all individuals; which would utterly overthrow the whole nature of that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands. But once to suppose that such persons, through a defect of the means appointed by Christ for the instruction and direction before mentioned, may everlastingly mis- carry, is to cast an unspeakable reproach on the goodness, grace, and faithfulness of God, and enough to discourage all men from inquiring after the truth. And these things the reader will find farther cleared in the ensuing discourse, with a discovery of the weakness, falseness, and insufficiency of those rules and reliefs which are tendered unto us by the Romanists, in the lieu of them that are given us by God himself. Now, if this be the condition of things in Christian religion, as, to any one that hath wdth sincerity consulted the Scripture, or considered the goodness, grace, and wisdom of God, it must needs appear to be, it is manifest that men's startUng at it, or being offended upon the account of divisions and differences among them that make profession thereof, is nothing but a pretence to cloak and hide their sloth and supine negligence, with their unwillingness to come up unto the indispensable condition of learning the truth as in Jesus, — namely, obedience unto his whole will and all his commands, so far as he is pleased to reveal them unto us. With others they ai-e but incentives unto that diligence and watchfulness which the things themselves, in their nature high and arduous, and in their im- portance of everlasting moment, require at your hands. Farther; on those who, by the means fore-mentioned, come to the knowledge of the truth, it is incumbent, according as they are by God's providence called thereunto, and as they receive ability from him for that purpose, to contend earnestly for it ; — nor is theu- so doing any part of the evil that attends differences and divisions, but a means ap- pointed by God himself for their cure and removal ; provided, as the apostle speaks, that they " strive or contend lawfully."
The will of God must be done in the ways of his own appointment. Outward force and violence, corporeal punishments, swords and fagots, as to any use in things purely spiritual and religious, to impose them on the consciences of men, are condemned in the Scripture, by all the ancient or first tvriters of the church, by sundry edicts and laws of the empire, and are contrary to the veri/ light of reason whereby we are men, and all the principles of it from whence mankind consenteth and coalesceth into civil society. Explaining, declaring, jjroving, and confirming the truth, convincing of gainsayers by the evidence of common prin- ciples on all hands assented unto, and right reason, with prayer and supplications for success, attended with a conversation becoming the gospel we profess, is the way sanctified by God unto the promotion of the truth, and the recovery of them that are gone astray from it. Into this work, according as God hath imparted of his gifts and Spirit unto them, some in most ages of the church have been engaged; and therein have not contracted any guilt of the evils of the con- tentions and divisions in their days, but cleared themselves of them, and faith- fully served the interest of those in their generation : and this justifies and war- rants us in the pursuit of the same work, by the same means, in the same days wherein we live. And when at any time men sleep in the neglect of their duty, the envious one will not be wanting to sow his tares in the field of the Lord : which, as in the times and places wherein we live, it should quicken the diligence and industry of those upon whom the care of the preservation of the truth is, by the providence of God, in an especial manner devolved, and who have manifold advantages for their encouragement in their undertaking ; so also it gives counte- nance even to the meanest endeavours that in sincerity are employed in the same