ditch it is not their saying they were led thither will help them out S. 20.5 Furthermore although Christ upon occasion of the two disciples desiring of him that they might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left in that temporal Kingdom they fancied he was to have said to Peter and all the Apostles Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you I say though this be so express as you see yet notwithstanding the Pope as pretended successour to St. Peter claims a Supremacy over Kings and a priviledge to be appealed to as the last and highest Tribunal upon earth And in case any Kings turn hereticks to him in denying his Claim and casting off his yoke he takes upon him a power to chastise them to excommunicate them and then to depose and dethrone them and to dispose of their Kingdomes and to absolve their subjects from the duty of their allegiance to their natural Prince And for what reason is this swelling power of overtopping Kings assumed The pretence is that the Pope as head of the Church being Superiour to all Christian Kings as being but members of that body whereof he is head they upon that account are under his conduct and government in using their secular power for the interest of the Christian Religion and Catholick cause and for the chastising of such as are heretical or undutiful and disobedient This is the Pretence But the true design is to render the Pope the more magnificent and venerable the more awful and terrible in the eyes of all and to lift him up to the highest pinnacle of worldly Pomp and greatness attainable in this world and to use the power and interest of such Kings to support and secure him in his Pontifical Chair of State and as executioners of his wrath and displeasure against all that shall but peep and mutter any thing against him or any of his decrees or orders or give him the least disturbance That this is the design tho' the other be pretended appears in that the Pope is well enough contented that these Kings should tolerate or connive at any wickedness in their Dominions though never so dishonourable to Christ and Christianity and destructive to his Religion in the power of it provided they be but tender of his Interest and will not connive at any Affronts put upon his Government as Papal Men may do what they will provided they meddle not with the Popes Crown or the Monks bellies was the saying of Erasmus S. 21.6 Again as the Popes do claim a supremacy over Temporal Princes for themselves so they do a priviledge and exemption for their subordinate Clergie from the Temporal power Concil Trid. Sess 25. as holding immediately under their Ecclesiastical Head the Pope which is another device to strengthen their Interest For hereby all his Clergy are the faster tied and engaged to their grand Master the Pope and at the greater liberty act securely in abetting his Interest and serving his designs as occasion and opportunity serves S. 22. 7. As the false Apostles broached Doctrines tending to Licentiousness to increase their party and strengthen their Interest so the Authors and Founders of Popery have set on foot certain corrupt doctrines good for nothing but to increase their party and wealth thereby and to strengthen their Interest Such is that of a pretended power vested in the Pope and from him derived to every Priest of absolving men and forgiving their sins upon such easie terms as the confessing them to the Priest and doing such slight Penances as he out of his Indulgence to them if they please him is pleased to appoint And which is yet worse if worse can be viz. the Doctrine of the Popes power not only of granting Indulgences for Sins past but also Dispensations to commit them for time to come And that such a power is pretended to we learn from Authors of their own Espenseus hath told us that They allow not only the Laity but also their very Clergie-men to dwell with Whores and Harlots and to beget Bastards for a certain Tax Comment on Tit. p. 478 479. Also De Continentia Lib. 2. Cap. 7. And the Princes of the Roman Empire assembled at Noremberg in the years 1522 1523. complained that the Popes sucked the marrow of the peoples Estates by Indulgences and that they heightened the imposture by their hireling Cryers and Preachers and that Christian piety was banished while to advance their Market they cried up their Wares for the granting of wonderful peremptory pardons not only of Sins already committed but of Sins that shall be committed So that by the Sale of these Wares as they said together with being spoiled of their money Christian Piety is extinguished while any one may promise himself impunity upon paying the rate that is set upon the Sin he hath a mind to commit Fasciculus rerum experendarum fol. 177 178. And if the people can believe that the Pope hath power by his Dispensations to bear them out for money in such Immoralities they may as well believe also that he hath power to dispense with their taking of such Oaths and entering into such Obligations which they never intend to keep or to do any other thing as bad especially if it any way tend to the advancing of the Catholick Cause And if so by what Test can they be discovered to be really what they are when they have a mind to conceal it or what security can such Oaths or other Obligations be to Protestant Princes of their true allegiance to them And what is said in this is the more considerable it we add thereto those other two loose Doctrines of theirs the one touching the lawfulness of their breaking Faith with Hereticks such as they esteem Protestants to be and the other the Jesuitical Doctrine of Equivocation with mental Reserves Wherein also they exactly follow their Leaders the false Apostles For they as I have shewed thought or at least taught that in some cases they might deny Christ in word so they did but retain a belief in him in their hearts and partake with Idolaters in their Idol Sacrifices so they did but retain in their minds a belief that there were no other Gods but one and intended not any honour to the Idol The very complexion of these and such like Doctrines shews them to be calculated not to promote Religion and Virtue but to hook in filthy lucre to gratifie any that will but be for them in giving scope to their Lusts and to set men free from all ties of Religion and Conscience when they stand in the way of their Cause and Interest That which the Prophet of Old from the Lord charged upon the Priests then when he said They eat up the sin of my people and set their heart on their Iniquity Hos 4 8. falls upon
their carnal and corrupt designs it is not unusual for God then to give up such men to other absurd opinions and practices though not serviceable to them in any such way Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved but the love of some errors instead and under pretence of truth that they might compass and bring about their worldly design therefore and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness saith St. Paul 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. I intend not to dispute the several points in difference between Papists and Protestants or to prove them to be such additions and corruptions as I term them to be for that hath been done many a time over sufficiently and abundantly already by Reformed Authors But methinks it should go as far and signifie as much with the Popish Laity if not much more as a just and full confutation of those additions as erroneous would do when they shall come to see how they have been abused and imposed upon by their Leaders and Guides and made to believe and do such things for the saving of their Souls as have no such tendency but the contrary and by dancing after their Pipe have been made use of as Engines meerly to work their ends and to serve their carnal design by them to squeez and drain them to fill themselves or as men make use of horses to carry them out of the dirt and to ease themselves by their labour Which puts me in mind of the woman that sate upon the Beast having upon her forehead a name written Mystery Babylon the great c. Rev. 17.3.5 All that I would desire of the Laity is that they would see with their own eyes and use their own reason in the things I shall now lay before them and not suffer their Clergie to blow out the Candle or to hoodwink them while they play tricks and pick their pockets In giving instances of the Popish corruptions by which the design of domination and worldly greatness hath been begun and carried on by the Romish Bishops and their Seconds and assistance under a Religious pretence I shall begin with that which was laid as the foundation of the Papal fabrick S. 16. First then they would bear the world in hand that the Bishops of Rome successively are St. Peter's successours and as such are invested with a kind of Apostolical Authority and their See the Apostolical See and that as St. Peter was superiour to all Bishops and Presbyters in jurisdiction so they as his successours are so too Yea that the Bishop of Rome for the time being is Christs Vicar on Earth and visible Head of the Church Which claim of theirs puts me in mind of those who said they were Apostles but were not but were found liars Rev. 2.2 And if it shall be affirmed that the Bishops of Rome are successours of these in their design and pretence they themselves have given a more cogent proof of it than ever they did of being St. Peter's successours in such headship and power as they pretend to But as the false Apostles by pretending to be Apostles indeed when they were nothing less did procure to themselves such a reputation with those that were deluded by them as did greatly advantage them in that worldly design which they undiscernedly carried on under that pretence just so have the Popes by making their deluded adherents believe that they are St. Peters successors Christs Vicars and head of the Church raised to themselves such a reputation as is greatly advantagious to them also in the like but greater worldly design of theirs For as the Proselytes of the false Apostles were by their delusive persuasion made not only plyant but even zealously active in serving them in their design so have the deluded adherents of the Popes been in like manner in serving them in theirs Into what mould may not such men cast the people when they have insinuated themselves into their opinion to be such marvellous men as they pretend themselves to be The Galatians though after the false Apostles had corrupted them began to look upon Paul with a jealous eye as if he had been their enemy by exposing them to that trouble in professing the Gospel which the other taught them how to avoid yet so long as they retained that veneration for him which sometime they had while they esteemed him the undoubted Apostle of Christ they could if it had been possible have pluckt out their very eyes to have given him as he saith Gal. 4.15 16. And when the false Apostles were taken for true ones they had such an interest in the deluded people thereby as that they did even what they would with them Which made St. Paul say ye suffer if a man bring you into Bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself 2 Cor. 11.20 Words doubtless applicable to the Popish Laity upon as great reason as ever they were to the deluded Corinthians So great is the power of false opinion when men whether false Apostles or Popes are taken to be what they least are Besides as this lofty claim and high pretence of supremacy and headship over the whole Christian world prepared the Popes way for commanding and doing what he pleased among them that received and owned him in that capacity So it was the direct road to the highest pitch of Vain Glory that is of being esteemed and honoured for what he is not since all mâ—n are wont to proportion the honour they give to men according to what they esteem them to be And honey is not sweeter to the mouth than honour and glory is to ambitious minds And therefore if Diotrephes loved to have the preheminence and the false Apostles thought it a prize worth striving for to be counted the head of a small party when but low and kept under in the world how was his Holinesses fancy tickled may we think with the contemplation of being Vniversal Head of the whole Christian World And what would not ambitious men give or do for such a purchase and to keep it when they have it Simon Magus we know would have purchased the power of working Miracles as the Apostles did with money but for what end but that he might not be outdone by the Apostles and so lose that high esteem he had among the people whom he had deceived with his Magick as if he had been the great power of God even as the Popes have done by their Arts. I appeal to the Papists themselves is it not apparent that honour from men was a great part of the prize for which the Bishop of Rome ran when he first laid his design for Universal Bishop and to bring all others under him And hath it not been a sweet morsel to his successors for the time
they used all the art they could to defend and justifie what they had done and had perswaded others to do And to render the opposition they had herein from the holy Apostles the less available in the eyes of others they sought by one means or another to disparage them and to undermine the authority and reputation they had in the hearts of the Christians And by these means they corrupted and drew away many after them and that not of the more ordinary Disciples only but probably many of those also who were become preachers of the Gospel whereof it may be Demas might be one who as St. Paul said had forsaken him and embraced this present world And indeed this Contagion spread so fast and prevailed so much that St. Paul complained saying all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Phil. 2.21 Thus having given you an account of the Rise of the False Teachers in the Apostles days I shall now give you a more particular and full account of their design And their Design as I have already intimated was worldly it was to Secure and Procure a worldly corrupt interest It is not unlikely but that at the first their design in complying so much as they did with the profest enemies of Christianity was only to avoid those sufferings for the Gospel sake which the sincere Christians were exposed to and underwent both in their persons and estates But afterwards when they had carried away many by their deceits and were become the Head and ring-leaders of a Party a farther worldly advantage offered it self and came in prospect which we may well conceive they were not so dull as not to perceive nor so careless and negligent as not to pursue and that was an opportunity of Gain of making merchandize of the seduced Christians besides the opportunity of gratifying their ambition in becoming the Head of a Party As the false Prophets of old and the corrupt Priests when by prophesying and preaching pleasing things to the people they found no small benefit in the liberal gifts and rewards that course did procure were encouraged to make a trade of so doing in which respect those Prophets were said to divine for money and those Priests to teach for hire even so the false Apostles also perceiving that to be a thriving way applyed themselves to preach for Doctrine such things as pleased the unsound and timorous professors of the Gospel and so made their carnal ends on them They taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake as St. Paul saith and thereby subverted whole houses Tit. 1.11 They found that the preaching such loose Doctrine in point of compliance as tended to ease the professors of Christianity of the burden of persecution was very gainful it gained them many Proselytes for they came in by whole housholds we see and it gained them much of filthy lucre also For their Proselytes grew very kind to them for teaching them an easier and safer way of professing Christianity than they knew before Yea so it was that the poor deluded people became so much their servants upon account of that satisfaction they took in that new discovery that St. Paul upbraided some of them with it in these words Ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face 2 Cor. 11.20 The design of these men to be a worldly and fleshly design is plentifully as well as plainly discovered in the Epistles of the Apostles The sincere Christians indeed ventured all their worldly concerns and sacrificed all their worldly interest upon the service of the Gospel their holy profession and their own Souls but these men as St. Paul characteriseth them were enemies to the Cross of Christ they were such as made their belly their God and minded earthly things Phil. 3.18 19. They were enemies to the great duty of taking up the Cross and suffering for Christ earthly things having more of their heart than he had These who by their pleasing doctrine aforesaid caused divisions and offences among the Christians contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned from the true Apostles were such as served not the Lord Jesus Christ whatever they pretended but their own bellies Rom. 16.17 18. And St. Peter describing them saith they had hearts exercised with covetous practises having for saken the right way and going astray followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.14 15. They ran greedily after the way of Balaam for reward as Jude hath it vers 11. And through covetousness with feigned words they made merchandise of the people whom they deluded 2 Pet. 2.3 Now in case of Persecution 't is true indeed that when Christ sent forth his Disciples as Sheep among Wolves he advised them to be wise as Serpents but innocent as Doves to use as much prudence for the avoiding of persecution as would consist with innocency Mat. 10.16 And no doubt but that the sincerest Christians were willing enough to make use of all the prudence they had to shun persecution so far as lawfully they might But yet were still careful to preserve and maintain their own innocency and integrity in all they did in that kind and not in the least to betray the Cause of Christ And therefore they could say in those suffering times This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom as the false Apostles but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 But the false Apostles and their followers used so much subtilty and carnal policy to avoid the Cross as that the wisdom of the Serpent did devour the innocency of the Dove They made themselves friends of the world indeed by unlawful compliance and by adulterating the Christian Religion by impure mixtures but then they thereby made themselves enemies to God as St. James saith in betraying his Truth and Cause James 4.4 By the way then we may see by what hath been said how dangerous a thing it is inordinately to desire and love the friendship of the world the accommodations of this present life it is we see that which hath betrayed multitudes otherwise in a hopeful way of Salvation into cursed and destructive Practises They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have been seduced from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows saith St. Paul speaking of those corrupt Christians whose inordinate love to the things of this world drew them into such sinful Compliances to preserve them as were inconsistent with Christianity in the truth and power of it 1 Tim. 6.9
thus Are they Ministers of Christ I am more 2 Cor. 11.23 They preached Christ indeed as St. Paul saith but it was of envy strife and contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds Phil. 1.15 16. They envied him the honour and respect he had among the Christians by preaching Christ and Salvation by him to them and so they preached Christ and Salvation by him too but yet in a way of opposition to Paul by preaching Christ insincerely mixing other things with his doctrine that were more gratifying to the flesh and thereby drawing off the respect of the Christians from Paul to themselves which if effected must needs add affliction to his bonds They zealously affect you but not well saith St. Paul yea they would exclude us that you might affect them Gal. 4.17 And that they might not be thought inferiour to the Apostles of Christ who were extraordinarily sent and of a higher standing than any other in the Evangelical Ministry they also some of them pretended themselves to be the Apostles of Christ that they might put the more glorious colour upon their design and arts of deceiving Such are false Apostles deceitful workers saith St. Paul transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11.13 Nay it should seem some of them did not only pretend to an equality with Paul but also to a more unquestionable Apostolick authority than was in him For they called St. Paul's Apostleship into question and sought to undermine the reputation of his Apostolical authority Upon this account and for this cause it was that Paul was constrained to vindicate his Apostleship to the Corinthians as he did in 1 Ep. Chap. 9. Ver. 1 2. Am I not an Apostle am I not free have not I seen the Lord are not you my work in the Lord if I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the Seal of my Apostleship are ye in the Lord. See farther for this 2 Cor. 10.8 11.5 12.11 12. 13.3.6 They insinuated that Paul had not seen Christ as those that were truly his Apostles had and that he had received the Gospel which he preached but from men and not immediately from Christ and that therefore he might be mistaken In opposition to which it was that St. Paul said I certifie you brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither received it of men neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ Gal. 1.11 12. But though too many were so weak as to be deceived with these mens great swelling words yet there were others that were too wise to be imposed upon by their pretensions to Apostleship And such were those of the Church of Ephesus for a while at least till they fell from their first love Thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them liars saith Christ to the Angel of that Church Rev. 2.2 As for such as were deceived and did take them to be what they pretended themselves to be Apostles and upon that account could give as much credit to what they said as to what Paul said it was no marvel if they thought themselves in a better condition by their coming among them than they had been in by following Paul in as much as they taught them an easier and cheaper way of being Christians than he had done as I have often said And that they did think themselves in a happier condition appears by that representation of their thoughts which St. Paul made when he said now ye are rich now ye are full ye have reigned as Kings without us 1 Cor. 4.10 S. 12.2 And to gain yet the more credit among the Christians whom they laboured thereby to seduce they pretended to promote the ends of the Gospel holiness and righteousness in what they did and taught For the Gospel is so express for these that the professors of it could hardly be cheated and corrupted in there profession of it but under a pretence of promoting these And therefore there is no question but that these false Apostles talked as high for holiness and righteousness and made as great a noise about it in sound of words and name of the thing in general terms as seducers use to do as the true Apostles themselves And therefore St. Paul saith that they transformed themselves as the ministers of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.15 They were for a form of godliness in profession though they denied it in the power and practice of it 2 Tim. 3.5 They were wells and clouds without water as Peter and Jude describe them they in profession promised the furtherance of Religion and vertue as wells promise water and clouds rain but they were but as empty and deceitfull wells and clouds in this Nay they did not only pretend to holiness and righteousness as well as the true Apostles but they pretended to more strictness in some things than the Apostles themselves They pretended to go farther in mortification and self-denial than the Apostles did in imposing upon themselves and others abstinence from some meats and from Marriage forbidding them to marry and commanding them to abstain from some meats was part of the doctrine of these seducing Spirits 1 Tim. 4.18 Touch not tast not handle not said they which things saith St. Paul have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Col. 2.21.23 They pretended that St. Paul and such as he walked but according to the flesh in comparison of themselves who lived a more abstemious and mortified Life as they would have others to think I think to be bold saith St. Paul against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 Let no man judge you saith he in meat or in drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath dayes Col. 2.16 They were for judging the Christians that followed St. Paul as not so tender and conscientious about these things as they themselves pretended to be For that we see hath been and indeed still is the manner of Seducers to pretend to great strictness in some little things which are not necessary in themselves thereby to gain a great reputation among people of weak minds for holiness mortification and strictness of living when in the mean time they are deeply culpable in other things of moment in the eyes of those of more discerning Spirits Like the Pharisees who were for tithing Mint Anise and Cummin and for divers washings when they omitted and passed over the weightier matters of the Laws Judgment Mercy and the Love of God yea and made void the Commandments of God that they might establish their own traditions By reason of these and other like pretensions they came at last to Separation it self and withdrew themselves from Communion with the Orthodox
Christians as if they had not been Spiritual enough for their Communion They went out from us saith St. John 1 Joh. 2.19 These are they who separate themselves sensual not having the spirit saith St. Jude ver 19. And yet in this state of Separation they were so far from becoming a more pure and Spiritual Community as that they were indeed the Synagogue of Satan as they are stiled Rev. 2.9 as being most impure both in principle and practice and were really Spots in the Christian Feasts of Charity before they separated Jude 12. And therefore it seems somewhat strange that they should fancy themselves to be more Spiritual than the Orthodox Christians But it seems they esteemed themselves more knowing than others in Evangelical Mysteries and valued themselves by that knowledge and so came to arrogate to themselves the Title of Gnosticks or the Knowing men For they to reconcile that which was indeed their corrupting the Christian Religion with that Religion it self would needs understand the Christian Doctrine in a more mystical sense than the Apostles Orthodox Christians did By which and by wresting the Scriptures of the Old Testament to an undue sence they perverted the Gospel of Christ making it another thing another Gospel as St. Paul phraseth it than it was in it self Gal. 1.6 And by reason of these Mystical Speculations which they esteemed for Divine Illuminations they conceited themselves to have fellowship with God even then when in point of practice they walked in ways of darkness as we may perceive by what S. John suggesteth concerning them when he saith If we say we have fellowship with him God and walk in darkness as they did we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 Which plainly intimates that they grounded this perswasion of their having fellowship with God upon somewhat abstracted from a good and holy life which is the proper end and use of Divine Knowledge without which it will do them that have it no more good than it doth the Devils when they have it and what could that be but an opinion that their bare knowledge and belief of things invested them with that priviledge As too many in like manner now a days hope to enjoy partnership or fellowship in the righteousness of Christ meerly upon account of their belief or Orthodox opinion though of impure lives And truly well might St. Paul say in reference to these Gnosticks and in this very respect if any man think that he knoweth any thing and values himself by that knowledge he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 These mystical and unintelligible speculations they called Science though falsly as St. Paul saith and these they opposed to the plain and intelligible doctrine of the Apostles as the Quakers in like manner do theirs in doing of which they erred from the faith as we are told in 1 Tim. 6.20 21. avoiding profane and vain babling and oppositions of Science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Now when they had obtained a reputation among simple people of being the Ministers of Christ the Apostles of Christ and of being for holiness and righteousness and more strict and abstmeious in some things than the true Apostles were and more sublime and spiritual how easie a matter was it then for them to mould the poor simple and deluded people into what form they pleased especially in things that tended to their ease in the flesh And no doubt but as they pretended to Apostolical Authority and to greater strictness of life in some things than they would acknowledge in the holy Apostles themselves So they would pretend likewise that such complyances with the Jewes on the one hand and with the gentiles on the other as they advised to and practised did tend to the propagating of the Christian Religion and that by such complyances they might gain upon their neighbours and friends to come more easily over to them in the acknowledgment of Christ and profession of the Christian Religion And therefore as it seems they taxed St. Paul with imprudence in preaching the Gospel and managing his Ministry in so blunt a manner as they thought he did to the exasperating of all sorts against him For St. Paul represented the thoughts that such had of him as had been corrupted by the false Apostles when he said We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ i. e. in professing Christ or the Gospel of Christ 1 Cor. 4.8 They thought it seems that he had not been so prudent in managing the Christian cause as their new Teachers had taught them to be For since they had met with those wiser methods as they were taught to esteem them to be they had reigned as Kings free from those disturbances oppositions and sufferings which Pauls way of professing the Gospel had exposed them to And thus by good words and fair speeches they deceived the hearts of the simple and caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine they had once learned Rom. 16.17 18. S. 13.3 When they had gained the reputation aforesaid among the simple and carnal minded Professors of the Gospel they could by virtue thereof easily incline them without any great scruple to do any thing they would have them to procure fair quarter from the Unbelievers among whom they lived And therefore to give themselves and their seduced adherents the greater liberty and ease in their minds to do such things as they did in prosecution of their worldly design without any great scruple they broached among them the doctrine of licentiousness under the notion of Christian liberty They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness as S. Jude speaks ver 4. Of these and the course they took in this kind St. Peter likewise speaks thus in 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption By these and other Scriptures it should seem they spread some such Doctrine as this That the Grace of God in Christ was so large that if men did but believe in Christ they were in no danger of damnation though they used a greater liberty than such as Paul would allow of They thought it seems that faith without works would have saved them a conceit which St. James opposed them in saying What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and hath not works can faith save him Jam. 2.14 And St. Paul gives this character of those false Teachers who did resist the Truth preached by the Apostles just as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses viz. that they were men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 They held and taught corrupt notions concerning the doctrine of being saved by Faith in Christ And when once they perswaded the people to believe such a doctrine as tended to Liberty and Licentiousness and yet undertook to secure them of Salvation all the while upon account of a notional Faith