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Moses commanded them, saying...... Thou shalt read this law before all Israel.' xi. 18-20.therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand..... and thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house.' xxix. 29. those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words-.' xxx. 11. for this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.' 2 Chron. xxxiv. 30. he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant.' Isai. viii. 20. ' to the law and to the testimony.' Nehem. ix. 3. they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah; that is, the whole people, as appears from the second verse of the chapter. To the same purpose may be adduced the testimony of a writer whom the opponents of this opinion regard as canonical. Macc. i. 56, 57.wheresoever was found with any the book of the testament, the king's commandment was that they should put him to death.'

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The New Testament is still more explicit. Luke x. 26. what is written in the law? how readest thou?" This was the question of Christ to one of the interpreters of the law, of whom there were many at that time, Pharisees and others, confessedly neither priests nor Levites; neither was Christ himself, whom we cannot suppose to have been considered as particularly learned in the law, forbidden to expound in the synagogue; much less therefore could it have been unlawful to read the Scriptures at home. xvi. 29. they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' John v. 39. search the scriptures.'

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Acts viii. 28. he read Esaias the prophet.'
they searched the scriptures daily.'
'mighty in the scriptures.' 2 Tim. iii. 15.
child thou hast known the holy scriptures.'
3. blessed is he that readeth.'

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xvii. 11. xviii. 24.

from a Rev. i.

The Scriptures, therefore, partly by reason of their own simplicity, and partly through the divine illumination, are plain and perspicuous in all things necessary to salvation, and adapted to the instruction even of the most unlearned, through the medium of diligent and constant reading.* Psal. xix. 7. the law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.' cxix. 105. 'thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.' v. 130. 'the entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple ;' whence it follows that the liberty of investigating Scripture thoroughly is granted to all. v. 18. 'open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.' Luke xxiv. 45. then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.' Acts xviii. 28. he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.' 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation; for the prophecy came not in the old time by

I offer it to the reason of any man, whether he think the knowledge of Christian religion harder than any other art or science to attain. I suppose he will grant that it is far easier, both of itself, and in regard of God's assisting Spirit...... Therefore are the Scriptures translated into every vulgar tongue, as being held in main matters of belief and salvation plain and easy to the poorest, and such no less than their teachers have the the Spirit to guide them in all truth, John xiv. 26. xvi. 13.' Considerations on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church. Works, III. 372.

Prose

the will of man;' neither therefore is it to be interpreted by the judgment of men, that is, by our own unassisted judgment, but by means of that Holy Spirit promised to all believers.* Hence the gift of prophecy, mentioned 1 Cor. i. 4.

If then the Scriptures be in themselves so perspicuous, and sufficient of themselves to make men wise unto salvation through faith, and that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, through what infatuation is it, that even Protestant divines persist in darkening the most momentous truths of religion by intricate metaphysical comments,† on the plea that such explanation is necessary; stringing together all the useless technicalities and empty distinctions of scholastic barbarism, for the purpose of elucidating those Scriptures, which they are continually extolling as models of plainness? As

the truth,

Left only in those written records pure,

Though not but by the Spirit understood. Paradise Lost, XII. 511.

... he, who receives

Light from above, from the fountain of light,
No other doctrine needs, though granted true.

Paradise Regained, IV. 288.

'The study of Scripture, which is the only true theology-.' Considerations on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, &c. Prose Works, III. 377.

+ Considering the language employed in parts of this treatise, Milton more frequently censures the metaphysical divinity than might have been expected. His practice at least, in this as well as in some other points, is not very consistent with his theory. He speaks however in other works in the same slighting manner of the sophistry of the schools. In the following passage it is not impossible that he may allude to the very Treatise which is now for the first time published. Somewhere or other, I trust, may be found some wholesome body of divinity, as they call it, without school-terms and metaphysical notions, which have obscured rather than explained our religion, and made it difficult without cause. Considerations, &c. Trose Works, III. 375.

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if Scripture, which possesses in itself the clearest light, and is sufficient for its own explanation, especially in matters of faith and holiness, required to have the simplicity of its divine truths more fully developed, and placed in a more distinct view, by illustrations drawn from the abstrusest of human sciences, falsely so called.

It is only to those who perish that the Scriptures are obscure, especially in things necessary for salvation. Luke viii. 10. 'unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.' 1 Cor. i. 18. the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.' ii. 14. the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' 2 Cor. iv. 2, 3. by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God: but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.' 2 Pet. iii. 16. speaking of the epistles of Paul, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction.'

No passage of Scripture is to be interpreted in more than one sense; in the Old Testament, however, this sense is sometimes a compound of the historical and typical, as in Hosea xi. 1. compared with Matt. ii. 15. 'out of Egypt have I called my son,' which may be explained in a double sense, as referring partly to the people of Israel, and partly to Christ in his infancy.

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The custom of interpreting Scripture in the church is mentioned Nehem. viii. 8, 9. they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading: and Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people-.' 2 Chron. xvii. 9. they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of Jehovah with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people.' Luke iv. 17. then was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias.' 1 Cor. xiv. 1. desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.' The requisites for the public interpretation of Scripture have been laid down by divines with much attention to usefulness, although they have not been observed with equal fidelity. They consist in knowledge of languages; inspection of the originals; examination of the context; care in distinguishing between literal and figurative expressions; consideration of cause and circumstance, of antecedents and consequents; mutual comparison of texts; and regard to the analogy of faith. Attention must also be paid to the frequent anomales of syntax; as for example, where the relative does not refer to the immediate antecedent, but to the principal word in the sentence, though more remote. See 2 Kings xvi. 2. compared with v. 1. 'twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign,' that is, Jotham the father of Ahaz, as appears by considering the age at which Hezekiah began his reign, xviii. 2. See also 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9. when he began to reign,' compared with 2 Kings xxiv. 8. Psal. xcix. 6. Moses and Aaron among his priests.' John viii. 44. he is a liar and the father of it.' Last

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