eafy to guess what thin numbers of the Laity are likely, or indeed capable of reaping benefit by this Indulgence pretended to be allowed them.

14. BUT, befides all this, what shall we say, if the power it self of giving Licences be a mere fhew, and really fignifies juft nothing? In the obfervation fubjoin'd to this fourth rule it is declar'd, that the Impreffion and Edition thereof gives no new faculty to Bishops, or Inquifitors, or Superiors of regulars, to grant Licences of buying, reading, or retaining Bibles publifht in a vulgar Tongue; fince bitherto by the command and practice of the holy Roman and univerfal Inquifition, the power of giving fuch faculties, to read or retain vulgar Bibles, or any parts of Scripture of the Old or New Te ftament, in any vulgar Tongue; or alfo fummaries or hiftorical compendiums of the faid Bibles. or Books of Scripture, in whatsoever Tongue they are written, has bin taken away. And fure if a Lay-man cannot read the Bible without a faculty, and it is not in any ones power to grant it; 'twill evidently follow that he cannot read it: And fo the pretence of giving liberty, owns the fhame of openly refufing it, but has no other effect or confequence. And

if any Romanist among us, or in any other Proteftant Country enjoies any liberty herein, 'tis merely by connivance, and owed to a fear left the Votary would be loft, and take

the

the Bible where it was without difficulty to be had, if strictness fhould be us'd. And should Popery, which God forbid, become paramount; the Translations of the Scripture into our Mother Tongues, would be no more endur'd here, than they are in Spain: and they who have formerly bin wary in communicating the Scriptures, remembring how thereby their errors have bin detected, would upon a revolution effectually provide for the future, and be fure to keep their people in an Egyptian darkness, that might it felf be felt, but that allow'd the notices of no other object. They would not be content with that compofition of the Ammonites, to thrust out all the right eies of those that fubmitted to them, 1 Sam. 11. 2. but would put out both, as the Philiftins did to Samfon, that they might make their miserable captives for ever grind in their Mill, Jud. 16. 21.

15. BUT this heavieft of judgements will never fall upon the reform'd Churches, till by their vicious practice and contemt of the divine Law, they have deferted their profeffion, and made themselves utterly unworthy of the bleffings they enjoy, and the light of that Gospel which with noon-day brightness has fhind among them. Upon which account, I suppose it may not be impertinent in the next place to fubjoin fome plain directions, and cautionary advices, concerning the ufe of these facred Books.

SECT.

SECT. VIII.

Neceẞary cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scriptures.

T is a common obfervation, that the moft generous and fprightly Medicines are the moft unfafe, if not appli'd with due care and regimen: And the remark holds as well in fpiritual as corporal remedies. The Apostle afferts it upon his own experience, that the doctrine of the Gofpel, which was to fome the favor of life unto life, was to others the favor of death, 2 Cor. 2. 16. And the fame effect that the oral Word had then, the written Word may have now; not that either the one or the other have any thing in them that is of it felf mortiferous, but becomes fo by the ill difpofition of the perfons who fo pervert it. It is therefore well worth our inquiry, what qualifications on our part are necessary to make the Word be to us what it is in it felf, the power of God unto falvation, Rom. 1. 16. Of these fome are previous before our reading, fome are concomitant with it; and fome are fubfequent and follow after it.

2. Of those that go before, fincerity is a moft effential requifit: by fincerity, I mean B b

an

an upright intention, by which we direct our reading to that proper end for which the holy Scriptures were defign'd: viz. the knowing God's will in order to the practicing it. This honeft fimplicity of heart is that which Chrift reprefents by the good ground, where alone it was that the feed could fructify, Mat. 13. 8. And he that brings not this with him, brings only the fhadow of a Difciple. The word of God, is indeed, fharper than a two-edged fword, Heb. 4. 12. but what impreffion can a fword make on a body of air; which still flips from, and eludes its thrufts? And as little can all the practical difcourfes of Holy Writ make on him, who brings only his fpeculative faculties with him, and leaves his will and affections behind him; which are the only proper fubjects for it to work on.

3. To this we may probably impute that ftrange inefficacioufnefs we fee of the Word. Alas, men rarely apply it to the right place: our most inveterate difeafes lie in our morals; and we fuffer the Medicine to reach no farther than our intellects. As if he that had an ulcer in his bowels should apply all his balfoms and fanatives only to his head. 'Tis true, the holy Scriptures are the treafuries of divine Wifdom; the Oracles to which we fhould refort for faving knowledge: but they are alfo the rule and guide of holy Life: and he that covets to know God's will for any purpose but to pra

ctice it, is only ftudious to entitle himself to the greater number of ftripes, Luke 12. 47.

4. NAY farther, he that affects only the bare knowledge, is oft difappointed even of that. The Scripture, like the Pillar of fire and cloud, enlightens the Ifraelites, thofe who fincerely refign themselves to its guidance; but it darkens and confounds the Egyptians, Ex. 14. 20. And 'tis frequently feen, that those who read only to become knowing, are toll'd on by their curiofity into the more abstruse and mysterious parts of Scripture, where they entangle themselves in inextricable mazes and confufions; and inftead of acquiring a more fuperlative knowledge, loose those eafy and common notions which lie obvious to every plain well meaning Reader. I fear this Age affords too many, and too frequent inftances of this, in men who have loft God in the midst of his Word, and ftudied Scripture till they have renounc'd its Author.

5. AND fure this infatuation is very just, and no more than God himself has warn'd us of, who takes the wife in their own craftiness, Job. 5. 13. but appropriates his fecrets only to them that fear him, and has promis'd to teach the meek his way, Pfal. 25. 9. 14. And this was the method Chrift obferv'd in his preaching; unveiling thofe truths to his Difciples, which to the Scribes and Pharifees, his inquifitive, yet refractory hearers,he wrapt up in parables, Bb 2

not