An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

SECT. IV.

These men abound in Scripture, ¹but they accommodate Scripture-expressions to their own dreams and fancies, being possest with Schemes and Ideas of Religion; whatever they look on, appears of the same shape and colour wherewith their minds are tinctured; if any word sound like the tinkling of their own fancy, ⟨p. 113⟩it is no less than a demonstration, that that is the meaning of the spirit of God; every little shadow confirms them in their preconceived opinions: As Irenaeus observes of the Valentinians, that they used one artifice or other to adopt all the speeches of our Saviour, and Allegories of Scripture, malè composito phantasmati, to the contrived figment of their own brain: These acquaintances of Christ, first contrive their religion, and possess their fancies with their private opinions, and then read the Scripture with no other design, than to find something there to stamp Divinity on their own conceits; they dote upon words and Metaphors, and Allusions; they found their Religion on obscure Texts, or mystical interpretations of plain Texts, and by the help of distinctions, and glosses, curtailing of Texts, transplacing of words and Comma's, or separating a single sentence from the body of the discourse, make the Scripture speak their sense as plainly, as the Bells ring what every boy will have them; which is to deal with Scripture; as Irenaeus observes, as if a man should take a picture of a King, which consisted of an artificial composition of precious stones, and transplace all those stones into another form; as ⟨p. 114⟩suppose of an Ape, and then should persuade silly people, that that was the Kings picture: At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible, as well as make so many Books different and contrary to each other, from the various composition of twenty four letters: These acquaintances of Christ: (And who may better make bold with him than they) pervert the Gospel to serve their opinion; there are two ways of expounding Scripture in great vogue among them: First, By the sound and clink of words, which is all some men understand by a form of sound words: Secondly, When this will not do, they reason about the sense of Scripture from their own preconceived notions, and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture, because otherwise it is not reconcilable to their dreams, which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith.