Book IV. 0 F T HE H 0 L y s c R I p T u R E s. xi Scripture fo JPtaketh, that with the Heigh; of it, it lattghs proud mzd lofty-JPi~ited Men to .[corn; with the Depth of rt, tt terrifies thofe who wtth .dttentzo11 look tnto tt ; wzth the Truth of it, it feeds Men of the greate.ft Knowledge and Underjlandmg; andwttb theSweet– .nefs of it, it nourifheth Babes and Suckling;. IV. That excellentSpirit ofHolinefs, which every where breathes in and from the Scrip– tures, is another fair Lineament of the Hand of God in the framing them. To this Holi– nefs they moll: powerfully perfuade Men, by exprefs Commands: re}hall be holy,for I am holy, Lev. xi. 44· As };e who bath called you ts holy; fo be ye holy zn all.Manner ofConver– Jaiion, 1 Pet. i. 15. And by Threatenings, Without Ho/inefs no Man }hall fee God, Heb. xii. 14. And by a Multitude of Examples of holy Men, as .dbrabmn, Davzd, and all the Prophets and Apo!l:les, and efpecially of that immaculate Lamb of God, the blelfed JESUS. As on the other Side, it fets before us the dreadful Vengeance that attends all Prophanenefs, Unrighteoufnefs, Uncleannefs, Pride, _and worldly Lufts; requires not only an Abftinence from the Grofs outward ACts of Sm, but fearches the Heart, and condemns the very Thoughts and Inclinations : He that htlteth his Brother is a Mttr• derer. He that lu.fteth after a Woman, bath committed Adultery. The DoB:tine taught every where in this Book, is direB:ly oppoote 10 the whole Corporation of debauched and wicked Men; de!l:ruB:ive to all Impiety, and corrupt DoB:rines and PraCtices what– foever, and perfectly ruinous and de!l:ruEtive 10 the Intere!l:s of the Devil in the World: A DoB:rine, that has vilibly the higheft Tendency to thofe two great Ends of all Reli– gion, the Ho11or of God, and Man's prefent and future Happinefs. What pitiful, crooked, and imperfeB: Lmes have the w1feft and beft of meer Men, as Socrates, Plato, .Arif– totle, 'J'ul/y, Seneca, Plutarch, or any others, drawn in their faireft Documents, both Moral and Divine, compared with this complete and tranfcendent Rule of holy Liv– ing! What undefiled Religion, what pure and fpiritual Worlhip is here! How fuit– .abJe to the holy Nature of God 1 What fuperlative Piety and Virtue, without any Spot of Vice! What punB:ual and perpetual Truth and Hone!l:y is here required ! yet without the Jeafr Taint of bafe Means, or unworthy fordid Ends! No Vain-glory! no E!l:eem of Men! no corrupt Advantages! But on the contrary, what Charity is here required! What repeated Commands not to offend weak Ones ! What mutual For– aivenelfes ! ·what Provocations to Love ! With what Patience and Meeknefs, ]u!l:ice, ~nd Mode!l:y, are we taught to behave ourfelves ! In a Word, it is fuch a Doctrine as makes a Man perfeB:, thoroughly furnifhed to every good Work; which brings Men to the bell: Way of Living, the noble£1: ·way of Suffering, and the comfortablefr Way of Dying.-Now mu!t not fuch pure Streams needs flow from the Fountain of all Per– fection? Does fuch a ferious and effeB:ual Advancement of 1-Jolinefs in the World, look like an lmrigue of polluted Man, or any unclean Spirit? How can we better judge of a Law, that declares it proceeds from God, and is of divine Obligation, tha11 by its Nature, Tendency and Influence on human Life? Whether it be fuitable to thofe Pretcnoons, and fuch .an adorable and unfpotted Original? And when w.e find fo holy and excellent a Deogn, as appears throughout this whole Book, for the Hqnor of God, and completing the Happinefs of Men, by Methods fo agreeable, and yet above the Reach of human Invention; what can we judge, unlefs we will be obftinately per– verfe, but that fuch a Book's Teftimony of itfelf is true, and that it is indeed of God, and not of Men ? V. The fweet and admirable Agreement, Confent, Dependence, and Harmony, that we find in all and every Part of Scripture, though there ·are fo many Books thereof, written by fo many different Perfons, of various Conditions, many Ages removed, in feveral Places, and in different Languages, yet all agreeing with each other, and every Part with the Whole, which could not be forefeen or contrived by any human Wifdom or Cunning, in the vVritiog of any one Part: For all the Hi!l:ories, Prophecies, Pro– mifes, Types, and DoB:rines, in an orderly ConneCtion, tend to promote the fame Thing; and every Age proves a frefh Interpreter, and reveals to us more and more of this admirable Concord, which could not be the EffeB: of human Artifice, nor of any other Caufe, but an infinite Comprehenlion and Forelight, and that the feveral Wri. ters of this Book were in all Times guided in what they wrote by the fupreme Wif– dom of that one God, who is always conftant to himfelf, and the fame r e.fterday, to Day, and for e·ver. 2 Vl. Thi~
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