I think that any one who will compare these Constitutions with the writings which we are sure were given by inspiration of God, will easily discern a vast difference in the style and spirit. What is the chaff to the wheat?
* [1]"Where are ministers, in the style of the true apostles, called priests, high priests? Where do we find in the apostolical age, that age of suffering, of the placing of the bishop in his throne? Or of readers, singers, and porters, in the church?"
I fear the collector and compiler of those Constitutions, under the name of Clement, was conscious to himself of dishonesty in it, in that he would not have them published before all, because of the mysteries contained in them; nor were they known or published till the middle of the fourth century, when the forgery could not be so well disproved. I cannot see any mysteries in them, that they should be concealed, if they had been genuine; but I am sure that Christ bids his apostles publish the mysteries of the kingdom of God upon the house-tops. And St. Paul, though there are mysteries in his Epistles, much more sublime than any of these Constitutions, charges that they should be read to all the holy brethren. Nay, these Constitutions are so wholly in a manner taken up, either with moral precepts, or rules of practice in the church, that if they had been what they pretend, they had been most fit to be published before all. And though the Apocalypse is so full of mysteries, yet a blessing is pronounced upon the readers and hearers of that prophecy. We must therefore conclude that, whenever they were written, by declining the light they owned themselves to be apocryphal, that is, hidden or concealed; that they durst not mingle themselves with what was given by divine inspiration; to allude to what is said of the ministers, (Acts 5. 13.) Of the rest durst no man join himself to the apostles, for the people magnified them.
So that even by their own confession they were not delivered to the churches with the other writings, when the New-Testament Canon was solemnly sealed up with that dreadful sentence passed on those that add unto these things.
And as we have thus had attempts made of late upon the purity and sufficiency of our New Testament, by additions to it, so we have likewise had from another quarter a great contempt put upon it by the papal power. The occasion was this:
One Father Quesnel, a French papist, but a Jansenist, near thirty years ago, published the New Testament in French, in several small volumes, with Moral Reflections on every verse, to render the reading of it more profitable, and meditation upon it more easy. It was much esteemed in France, for the sake of the piety and devotion which appeared in it, and it had several impressions. The Jesuits were much disgusted, and solicited the pope for the condemnation of it, though the author of it was a papist, and many things in it countenanced popish superstition.
After much struggling about it in the court of Rome, a bull was at length obtained, at the request of the French king, from the present pope, Clement XI., bearing date September 8, 1713, by which the said book, with what title or in what language soever it is printed, is prohibited and condemned; both the New Testament itself, because in many things varying from the vulgar Latin, and the Annotations, as containing divers propositions, (above a hundred are enumerated,) scandalous and pernicious, injurious to the church and its customs, impious, blasphemous, savouring of heresy. And the propositions are such as these — "That the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the effectual principle of all manner of good, is necessary for every good action; for without it nothing is done, nay, nothing can be done"—"That it is a sovereign grace, and is an operation of the Almighty hand of God"—"That when God accompanies his word with the internal power of his grace, it operates in the soul the obedience which it demands"—"That faith is the first grace, and the fountain of all others"—"That it is in vain for us to call God our Father, if we do not cry to him with the spirit of love"—"That there is no God, nor religion, where there is no charity"—"That the catholic church comprehends the angels and all the elect and just men of the earth, of all ages"—"That it has the Word incarnate for its Head, and all the saints for its members"—" That it is profitable and necessary at all times, in all places, and for all sorts of persons, to know the holy Scriptures"—"That the holy obscurity of the word of God is no reason for the laity not reading it"—" That the Lord's day ought to be sanctified by reading books of piety, especially the holy Scriptures"—And "that to forbid christians from reading the Scriptures, is to prohibit the use of light to the children of light." Many such positions as these, which the spirit of every good christian cannot but relish as true and good, are condemned by the pope's bull as impious and blasphemous. And this bull, though strenuously opposed by a great number of the Bishops in France, who were well affected to the notions of Father Quesnel, was yet received and confirmed by the French king's letters patent, bearing date at Versailles, February 14, 1714, which forbid all manner of persons, upon pain of exemplary punishment, so much as to keep any of those books in their houses; and adjudge any that should hereafter write in defence of the Propositions condemned by the pope, as disturbers of the peace.
It was registered the day following, February 15, by the Parliament of Paris, but with divers provisos and limitations.
By this it appears that popery is still the same thing that ever it was, an enemy to the knowledge of the Scriptures, and to the honour of divine grace. What reason have we to bless God, that we have liberty to read the Scriptures, and have helps to understand and improve them; which we are concerned diligently to make a good use of, that we may not provoke God to give us up into the hands of those powers that would use us in like manner.
I am willing to hope that those to whom the reading of the Exposition of the Old Testament was pleasant, will find this yet more pleasant; for this is that part of scripture, which does most plainly testify of Christ, and in which that gospel-grace which appears unto all men, bringing salvation, shines most clear. This is the New-Testament milk for babes, the rest is strong meat for strong men. By these, therefore, let us be nourished and strengthened, that we may be pressing on toward perfection; and that, having laid the foundation in the history of our blessed Saviour's Life, Death, and Resurrection, and the first preaching of his gospel, we may build upon it by an acquaintance with the mysteries of godliness, to which we shall be further introduced in the Epistles.
I desire I may be read with a candid, and not a critical, eye. I pretend not to gratify the curious; the top of my ambition is, to assist those who are truly serious, in searching the Scriptures daily. I am sure
- ↑ Edit. Joan. Clericl, p. 245.
