An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

§. 25. Therefore it is that the Church hath ever selected the great and most necessary Truths, and taught Children and Catechised Persons these before the rest, by way of Catechism; of which the foresaid Creed, Lords Prayer, and Decalogue are the Sum, and the Sacramental Covenant is that Sum yet more contracted. And it hath not been the Churches way to teach Children or Converts the Bible over in order indifferently, without selecting first the Marrow out of the whole, which the Ignorant cannot do for themselves.

§. 26. Besides the Method or Order of the Scripture books, there is specially to be studied by those that will be more perfect than the rude• fort, the true Method of the Body of Doctrine, contained in all the Scriptures: For all the parts ⟨p. 147⟩of that Doctrine have that Place, Order, and Respect each to other, as maketh up the Beauty and Harmony which is in the whole. And even in the Covenants, the Creed, Lords Prayer, and Decalogue, there is a most excellent Order and Method, above all that is found in Aristotle, or any humane Writers, though, alas! too few perceive it.

§. 27. Therefore they that gather true Systems of Theology, do not add to the Scripture, nor feign it to have a Method which it hath not (no more than Catechisms do) but only gather out that Doctrine which is there, and deliver it in the true Scripture-method; not as it lieth in the order of Words, but in the order of Relation that one Truth hath to another. And to despise this real Method, because every dull and slothful Wit doth not see it in the Scriptures, is indeed to despise the Matter and Design of the Scripture, and to despise all true and clear Knowledge of things Divine: For to see Truths placed in their proper Order, doth differ from a knowing of some confused parcels, as knowing the parts of a Man, a Picture, a Clock, a House, a Ship, &c. duly compaginated, and seeing all the parts cast confusedly on a heap. But to draw up a true Method is the Work of a skilful hand; and mistaken ones so seduce, that one Error in the Order leads to many.