End, and have been miraculously preferved through Torrents of Deftruction to this Time for the fame Purpose; being efteemed fuch by the Believers in the first Ages of Christianity; who, had there been a fuperior Guide, muft undoubtedly have known it; it being impoffible to fuppofe thofe mistaken in the fundamental Principle of their Faith, who lived fo near the Time of our SAVIOUR'S Appearance upon Earth, and must have had the best Opportunities of fearching into the Nature and Privileges of the Gofpel-Difpenfation.

My Friend afferted the Chriftians Primary Rule of Faith and Practice to be the HOLY SPIRIT; from whence, faid be, the Scriptures are derived, like the Stream from the Fountain, as the Scriptures themselves all along declare; and the Manner in which they were always delivered, fufficiently evinces they were never defigned for more than a Secondary Help, and that only by the Affiftance of the fame Spirit which produced them, which must ever be the Seal of their Authority. For Example: How fhall I know the Scriptures to contain my Duty to God, and to my Neighbour? Perhaps you will answer, that they are fufficiently proved to contain these, and all other Duties, by having been the fole Guide of the first Believers, who, by following the Precepts therein contained, obtained peculiar Marks of Favour from Heaven; and therefore recommended them in that Light to their Succeffors; in confequence of which all the Councils of the Church receiv'd them as a complete Rule of Chriftian Faith, and put their Seals to their Authority, tranfmitting them as a fufficient Guide to all following Ages. But this Plea is of no Weight when you confider, that whatever you own to be the Caufe of your be

lieving

lieving the divine Authority of the Scriptures, you acknowledge to be a Primary Rule to the Scriptures themselves, and worthy Superior Regard; fince you can then regard them only as recommended by it; whether it be a Decree of a Council of Bishops, &c. or the Traditions of your Fore

fathers.

In answer to this, I CITED many Texts of Scripture that recommended the Scriptures as the best Rule of our Actions, and only Oracle of our Faith; particularly where the Prophet refers the Jews to the Law, and to the Teftimony; where CHRIST Commands us to Search the Scriptures, and commends the Bereans for fo doing; and to prove them a complete Rule, I quoted the Words of St. John, where he fays, If any Man fhall add unto thefe Things, God fhall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book: And endeavoured to fhew the Excellence and univerfal Use of a Written Guide, from its making every Man that knows us, equally with ourselves, Judges of our Faith and Conduct; while an Internal Guide, being only to be understood by a Man's felf, leaves him at Liberty, under Pretence of obeying a Leader whose Voice cannot be heard by another, to plead an inward Authority for his Practices, when, perhaps, they are scarcely confiftent with unenlightened Reafon; whereas the fame written Words must always bear the fame Senfe, while Fancy or Enthusiasm may perfuade Men to believe that to be the divine Will, which is no more than a wild Imagination, or a Chimera of a diftempered Brain.

To which my Opponent replied: IT is a very dif ficult Tafk to demonftrate, from what you have urged, or any thing that can be added, That the ALMIGHTY

ALMIGHTY defigned the Scriptures for the fole or even the principal RULE to his Church. For, what were the Scriptures in the time of the Patriarchs? What in the time of David? David, indeed, tells us of meditating in the Law of God; but, in his Days not many Books of our Prefent Scriptures were wrote, and, probably, fewer collected together: Whence it is more probable that this Law of GOD was the Divine Will, which was in an extraordinary manner made known to him on feveral Occafions, than any written Rule existing at that time. And what are the Complete Scriptures at this Day, is not eafily determined; fome Churches efteeming that a Part of the Infallible Law, which others reckon no more than amufing Stories. Befides, WHO had the Care of collecting thefe Writings, and WHEN was it done? The Ecclefiaftical Hiftorians tell us of much Dispute and Contention in the General Councils on this Head, and that one Affembly frequently difannulled what another had enjoined. When CHRIST was upon Earth, he mentioned, as you have observed, THE SCRIPTURES; but what then bore that Name, we can no farther tell, than that it is probable he alluded to The Prophets, whofe Writings are still preferved, and fome others which are now loft: For, certain it is, that the beft, and, to us, by much the most useful Part of what we now call The Scriptures, i. e. the NEW TESTAMENT, Was not then penned; very little of the Subject-Matter thereof having then occurred: So that The Scriptures cannot always have been a complete, fufficient Rule: For, had they been fuch, when CHRIST mentions the Scriptures, what need was there of all the Gospels and Epiftles which followed, fince no Rule can be more than complete and fufficient? Or, does it appear, from the Nature of feveral

Books

Books of the New Teftament, that they were defigned, even at the Time of their Writing, to be Part of an Entire and Complete Rule to Christians in all fucceeding Ages? Were not fome of them wrote on accidental Occafions, on particular Subjects, fometimes to particular Perfons, and fent by a chance Meffenger? Does not the Private and Minute Matters mentioned in the Epistles fully prove this beyond Contradiction?

C

WHAT you infer from the Certainty of a writ ten Guide, because the fame Words bear always the fame Meaning, will be found wide of Experience, when we confider the innumerable Meanings which have been drawn from the fame Sentence by fuch as have been allowed moft capable of Interpreting the Sacred Scripture: And, are there not many Places, which, to a Man unfkilled in Languages, and unable to infer, compare, and difcern very closely, contain Sentiments of apparent Contradiction to one another? As, among many other Inftances: Are there not feveral Paffages, befides the Second Commandment, which pofitively affirm that the Child ball fuffer for the Iniquity of its Parent; and others that declare the Son fhall not fuffer for the Father, nor the Father for the Son? Do not fome Texts attribute Salvation to the unalterable Will of God in faving the Elect, and others merely to the Merit of Good Works? Does not one Place imply no more than an Annihilation at Death, whilft another asfures us of an After-Existence? In these, and the like Cafes, what muft the illiterate Peafant do? Must he determine for himself, according to his own Conceptions, though he differs from every body else, and be justifiable in fo doing? Or, as I apprehend you will rather approve, must he confault the Learned Divines and Commentators, and C

abide

abide by their Decifion? Not to infist on the Impoffibility of this being the right Step for his Information, let us for the prefent confider it as fuch, and view the certain Confequences: If the learned Man he applies to, is his Rule in what Senfe to understand the Scriptures, do not the Scriptures thereby cease to be any other Guide to this Man, than what his Interpreter chufes to make them? And, with Regard to this Enquirer, is not the Scripture as ductile in the Hand of the Explainer, as Clay in the Hand of a Potter, and liable to bear what Form he beft approves ?

BESIDES this, the Warmth with which Men of different Sentiments generally enjoin their own Sense of these Difputable Texts on their Auditors, is often of bad Effect to People well affected to the Scriptures: A Man's Fondnefs of his own Sentiment being frequently fo prevalent among Divine Instructors, of every Denomination, as to make them chufe to bend their best Abilities to the eradicating fome inoffenfive Opinion in their Hearers, to make room for another equally infignificant, of their own, while the Practice of Chriftian and Moral Duties, to Heaven, our Neighbour, and Ourselves, are Topicks feldom mentioned; and when they do happen to be the Subject of a Difcourfe, the Coolness and Indifference with which they are declared, fall far fhort of the Rigor, Concern, and Agitation with which an Opinion decried by another Society, is recommended and enforced, fometimes on Penalties little short of Damnation! Thus, from the Pulpit, we have been told that in oppofing a Church of England Clergyman, we immediately oppose the ALMIGHTY, and that every Churchman muft believe King Charles I. in the most elevated Hea