V e R. 3. Ephefians, Chap.3. at !earl throw in a letter ofour mind, which notwithftanding will bee never the nearc unleffewe conveylight to read the fame: fo I fay; ei- ther God mutt call unto us inan audible voyce, or fend his Angels, or raife up afrefh fome extraordinary meanes ofrevealinghis will , or elfefend his letters ofhis mind to us his loving friends , redeemed by the bloodofChrift, yea and reach us light alto for the perufingof the fame, orfurely we (hall never aslong as we live attaine to the know- ledgeofhis will, it is impoffible. Now I grant that there bookes of Scripture doe containe the divinewill ofGod, but fuch is the darkneffe ofour underftanding, that wecannot conceive thereof unleffe the out- ward meanes ofrhe preachingof the Word be joyned with theinward workingoftheSpirit, as fire to enlighten the whole houfe. Not that the Word in it (rife is obfcure and darke, but that it lighteth into thofe hands of lochblind expofitors, in whom is nothing but darkneffe, as the bright filver lying in a darkecheft. As Iwroteabeveinfew words.] Now followeth the proof- from the effed, the Apoftlehis writing, which his writing is amplified from the uleor fruit of itin the verfe following. In his writing might bee confidered two things. a. Thewriting it felfe. a. Themanner. But the latteronely I will obferve: it bath two parts. a. Theconformity withhis revelation. a. Thebrevityof it. On that I infift. That the Apoftle didwrite in fewwords: Obi. hence; Thatthe Apofiles writings are butfummes andbriefer as itwereof that Dad; they uttered: thus Mores he did write hat fummarily the things which The Apotiles he had often dclivc red, and that largely: fo the Prophets, we fee the burra brier®f Sermons of them as they are written , may bee read in few homes which their preach- were in preaching forty yeares: This we have is but anabftral i"gs and abridgementof that they largely uttered.Revèl. so. io. this booke is called a little book. For thus God would havehis Scriptures not Reafor r: greatin bulke, but ofgreat virtue : asgold amongít metalls,fo is Gods Scripture amongft writing: Thefe are little, but have more virtue then all the volumesofmen; the wifdomeof it fuch as cannot bee founded with the fathomeofhumane underftanding. God knew that reading much was but a wearifomeneffe to the 'Rs*, . flefh, Ecclef. la. That theworld could not have received all particularities : lohna/. ?eafon . Many other things refits did, the which if they fhould bee written e very one, I fuppof the world couldnot contain thebooker that /liouldbee Ioh° " ss written. God would have thembriefe, becaufe he would have the gift of in- ,eeafx 4. terpretation take place in the Church,and therefore did proportion the Scripture fo as might ferve with this purpofe. This being fo, it muff move us to acknowledge the gnodneffeof pp, God,who whenhe might have chargedus with great volumes , bath onely
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