V
e R.
3.
Ephefians,
Chap.3.
at
!earl
throw
in
a
letter
of
our mind, which notwithftanding will bee
never
the
nearc unleffe
we conveylight
to
read
the
fame:
fo
I fay;
ei-
ther God mutt
call unto
us in
an
audible
voyce,
or
fend his
Angels,
or
raife
up
afrefh fome
extraordinary
meanes
of
revealing
his
will
,
or
elfefend his
letters
of
his
mind to
us
his loving friends ,
redeemed by
the blood
of
Chrift,
yea and reach
us
light
alto for
the perufing
of
the
fame,
or
furely we
(hall
never
as
long
as
we live attaine
to the
know-
ledge
ofhis
will,
it is
impoffible.
Now
I
grant
that
there bookes
of
Scripture doe containe the divine
will
of
God,
but
fuch
is
the
darkneffe
of
our underftanding,
that
we
cannot
conceive
thereof
unleffe
the out-
ward meanes
ofrhe
preaching
of
the
Word
be
joyned with theinward
working
ofthe
Spirit,
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
loch
blind expofitors,
in
whom
is
nothing but darkneffe,
as
the
bright
filver lying in
a
darke
cheft.
As
I
wrote
abeveinfew words.]
Now
followeth the proof- from the
effed, the Apoftle
his
writing, which
his
writing
is
amplified
from
the ule
or
fruit
of
itin
the
verfe
following.
In
his
writing
might
bee
confidered
two
things.
a.
The
writing it felfe.
a. The
manner.
But
the latter
onely
I
will obferve:
it bath
two
parts.
a.
The
conformity with
his
revelation.
a.
The
brevity
of
it.
On that
I infift.
That
the Apoftle did
write in few
words:
Obi.
hence;
That
the
Apofiles
writings
are butfummes
and
briefer
as
it
were
of
that Dad;
they
uttered:
thus
Mores
he did
write
hat
fum
marily
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 an
abftral
i"
gs
and
abridgement
of
that they largely uttered.Revèl.
so.
io.
this booke
is
called a
little
book.
For thus
God
would have
his
Scriptures
not
Reafor
r:
great
in
bulke, but
of
great virtue
:
as
gold amongít
metalls,fo
is
Gods
Scripture amongft writing:
Thefe
are
little, but
have more virtue then
all
the volumes
of
men; the wifdome
of
it
fuch
as
cannot
bee
founded
with the fathome
of
humane underftanding.
God
knew
that
reading much was
but
a
wearifomeneffe
to the
'Rs*,
.
flefh,
Ecclef.
la.
That
theworld could not have
received all particularities
:
lohn
a/.
?eafon
.
Many
other
things
refits
did,
the which
if
they fhould
bee
written
e
very
one,
I
fuppof
the world could
not
contain
the
booker
that
/liould
bee Ioh°
"
ss
written.
God
would have
them
briefe, 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
gnodneffe
of
pp,
God,
who when
he
might
have charged
us
with great volumes
,
bath
onely