SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE. 245
the " Animadversions," that yon have no mind to imdertake the exa- mination of it; but labour to divert the discourse unto that which may appear something else, but indeed is not so. 8. For your dis- tinction between Protestants and Puritans in England, I know not well what to make of it. I know no Puritans in England that are not Protestants, though all the Protestants in England do not abso- lutely agree in every " punctilio " relating to religion, nor in all things relating unto the outward worship of God ; no more than did the churches in the apostles' days, or than your Catholics do. You give us, then, a distinction like that which a man may give between the church of Rome and the Jesuits or Dominicans ; or the sons of St Bene't or of St Francis of Assisi; — a distinction or distribution of the genus into the genus and one species comprehended under it, as if you should have said, " That ' animal' is either ' animal' or ' homo.'"
4. Though I had rather, therefore, that you had placed your instance between the church of Rome and Protestants, yet because any in- stance of persons that have different apprehensions about things belonging to the worship of God will suffice us as to the present pur- pose, I shall let it pass : only I desire you once more, that when you would endeavour to render any thing, way, or acting of men odious, that you would forbear to cast the Scripture into a copartnership therein; which here you seem to do. " The Puritan," you say, " with the Scripture rose up and rebelled." Rebellion is the name of an outrageous evil, such as the Scripture giveth not the least counte- nance unto ; and therefore when you think meet to charge it upon any, you may do well not to say that " they do it with the Scripture." It will not be to your comfort or advantage so to do. This is but my advice; you may do as you see cause.
. "Tales casus Cassandi'a canebat." — Virg. JEn. iii. 183.
5. The differences you suppose and look upon as undeterminable by the Scripture, are about things that in themselves really and in truth belong unto Christian religion, or such as do not so indeed, but are only fancied by some men so to do. If they are of this latter sort, as the most of the controversies which we have with you are, — as about your mass, purgatory, the pope, — we account that all differences about them are sufficiently determined in the Scriptures, because they are nowhere mentioned in them. And this must needs be so, if the word of God be, as you here grant, " the sufficient and only means both of our conversion and settlement, as well in truth as in virtue." Sir, I had no sooner written these words, in that haste wherein I treat with you, but I suspected a necessity of craving your pardon for supposing my inference confirmed by your concession; for whereas you had immediately before set down the assertion supposed to be yours about
246 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
tlie Scriptures, you add the words now mentioned, " God's word is the sufficient and only means of our conversion and settlement in the truth." I did not in the least suspect that you intended any leger- demain in the business, but that the Scripture and God's word had been only various denominations with you of the same precise thing, as they are with us: only, I confess, at the first view, I wondered how you could reconcile this assertion with the known principles of your church; and, besides, I knew it to be peifectly destructive of your design in your following inquiry. But now I fear you play hide-and-seek in the ambiguity your church hath put upon that title, " God's word;" which it hath applied unto your unwritten traditions as well as unto the written word, as the Jews apply the same term unto their oral law. And therefore, as I said before, I crave your pardon for supposing my inference confirmed by your concession, wherein I fear I was mistaken, and only desire you that for the future you would speak your mind plainly and candidly, as it becomes a Christian and lover of truth to do. But my assertion I esteem never the worse, though it have not the happiness to enjoy your approbation; especially considering that, in the particular instances mentioned, there are many things delivered in Scripture inconsistent with and destructive of your notions about them, sufficient to exter- minate them from the confines of the city of God. 6. Suppose the matters in difference do really belong unto religion and tlie worship of God, and that the difference lies only in men's various conception of them, you ask, " Can the Scripture alone of itself decide the busi- ness?" What do you mean by "alone of itself?" If you mean, without men's application of themselves unto it, and subjecting of their consciences unto its authoritative decisions, neither it nor any thing else can do it. The matter itself is perfectly stated in the Scripture, whether any men take notice of it or no ; but their various apprehensions about it must be regulated by their applications unto it in the way mentioned. On this only supposition, that those who are at variance about things which really appertain unto the religion of Jesus Christ will refer the determination of them unto the Scrip- ture, and bring the concejDtions of their minds to be regulated thereby, standing unto its arbitrament, it is able alone and of itself to end all their differences, and settle them all in the truth. This hath been proved unto you a thousand times, and confirmed by most clear tes- timonies oi the Scripture itself, with arguments taken from its nature, perfection, and the end of its giving forth unto men ; as also from the practice of our Lord Jesus and his apostles, with their directions and commands given unto us for the same purpose; from the practice of the first churches, witli innumerable testimonies of the ancient fathers and doctors. Neither can this be denied without that horrible dero-