In the greatest part of his fourth section, entitled, “How
men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancy,” I am not
much concerned; save that the foundation of the whole, and that which
animates his discourse from first to last, is laid in an impudent calumny,
— namely, that I declare that “our religion is wholly owing to an
acquaintance with the person of Christ, and could never have been clearly
and savingly learned from his gospel, had we not first grown acquainted
with his person.” This shameless falsehood is that alone whence he takes
occasion and confidence, to reproach myself and others, to condemn the
doctrine of all the reformed churches and openly to traduce and vilify the
Scripture itself. I shall only briefly touch on some of the
impotent dictates of this great corrector of divinity and religion. His
discourse of accommodating Scripture expressions to men’s own dreams, pp.
99–101, being such as any man may use concerning any other men on the like
occasion, if they have a mind unto it, and intend to have no more regard to
their consciences than some others seem to have, may be passed by. P. 102,
he falls upon the ways of expounding Scripture among those whom he sets
himself against, and positively affirms, “that there are two ways of it in
great vogue among them:— First, By the sound and clink of the words and
phrases; which, as he says, is all some men understand by keeping a form of
sound words. Secondly, When this will not do, they reason about the sense
of them from their own preconceived notions and opinions, 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.”