Animadversions on a treatise entitled Fiat lux, or, A guide in differences of religion,…Animadversions on a treatise intituled Fiat lux, or, A guide in differences of religion,…

5. But that which is the chief ingredient of these Sections, is the plea, that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God, but by the Church, that is, the present Church of Rome; which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it, and difficulties which men meet withal in their enquiry, whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone, he interweaves in his discourse, many expressions and comparisons, tending directly to the slighting and contempt, both of its Penmen, and Matter, which is said to be, Laws, Poems, Sermons, Histories, Letters, Visions, several fancies in a diversity of composure; the whole, a book whereby men may as well prove their negative, in denying the immortality of the soul, heaven or hell, or any other thing, which by reason of many intricacies, are very difficult, if not impossible at all to be understood; see p. 190, 191, 192, &c. Concerning all which, I desire to know, whether our Author be in good earnest or no; or, whether he ⟨p. 236⟩thinks as he writes; or, whether he would only have others to believe what he writes, that he may serve his turn upon their credulity. If he be in good earnest indeed, he calls us to an easy, welcome employment; namely, to defend the holy Word of God, and the wisdom of God in it, from such slight and trivial exceptions, as those he lays against them. This path is so trodden for us by the Ancients, in their Answers to the more weighty Objections of his Predecessors in this work, the Pagans, that we cannot well err or faint in it: If we are called to this task, namely, to prove that we can know and believe the Scripture to be the Word of God, without any respect to the Authority or Testimony of the present Church of Rome; that no man can believe it to be so, with faith Divine and Supernatural upon that testimony alone; that the whole counsel of God in all things to be believed or done, in order to our last end, is clearly delivered in it; and that the composure of it, is a work of infinite wisdom, suited to the end designed to be accomplished by it, that no difficulties ⟨p. 237⟩in the interpretation of particular places, hinder the whole from being a complete and perfect rule of Faith and Obedience, we shall most willingly undertake it, as knowing it to be as honourable a service and employment as any of the sons of men can in this world be called unto.