A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and…

5. It sorely prepareth men for Infidelity, and to deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture, and utterly to undo all by overdoing. If Satan could but once make men believe, that the Scripture is a Rule for those things that are not to be found in it at all, and which God never made it to be a Rule for, he will next argue against it, as a delusory and imperfect thing. He will teach every Artificer, to say, That which is an imperfect Rule, is not of God. But the Scripture is an imperfect Rule. For saith, the Watch-maker, I cannot learn to make a Watch by it; saith the Scrivener, I cannot make a Legal Bond or Indentures by it; saith the Carpenter, I cannot build a ⟨p. 100⟩House by it; saith the Physician, I cannot sufficiently know or cure Diseases by it; saith the Mathematician, Astronomer, Geographer, Musician, Arithmetician, the Grammarian, Logician, Natural Philosopher, &c. it is no perfect particular Rule of our Arts or Sciences: The Divine will say, It tells me not sufficiently and particularly what Books in it self are Canonical, nor what various Readings are the right, nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted, nor whether it be to be divided into Chapters and Verses, and into how many: Nor what Metre or Tune I must sing a Psalm in, nor what persons shall be Pastors of the Churches, nor what Text I shall choose next, nor what Words I shall use in my next Sermon or Prayer, with abundance such like: Only in General, both Nature and Scripture say, Let all things be done in Order and to Edification, &c. Spiritually, Purely, Believingly, Wisely, Zealously, Constantly, &c. He that believeth it to be given as such a particular Rule, and then findeth that it is silent or utterly insufficient to that use, is like next to cast it away as a delusion, and turn an Infidel, or Anti-scripturist.

6. This mistake tendeth to cast all Rational Worship out of the Church and World; by deterring men from inventing or studying how to do Gods work aright. For if all that man inventeth or deviseth be a forbidden Image, than we must not invent or find out by study, the true meaning of a Text, the true method ⟨p. 101⟩