READER THere is newly published a Volume of LXI Sermons Preached by the same Author Printed for Rich. Marriott and Sold by most Book-Sellers in London THE Spirit of Enthusiasm EXORCISED IN A SERMON PREACHED Before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD on ACT-SUNDAY July 11. 1680. By George Hickes D. D. Prebendary of Worcester and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Lauderdale Printed at the request of Mr. Vice-Chancellor and many others who heard it Preached Diserti sunt multi inter illos magnae linguae flumina linguarum nunquid Angelicè loquuntur omnia illa nihil iis prosunt quia conscindunt unitatem Paulus loquitur si sciam omnia sacramenta c. Nemo ergo vobis fabulas vendat Pontius fecit miraculum Donatus oravit Deus ei respondit de Coelo Crederem si non divisisset unitatem nam contra istos ut sic loquar mirabiliarios cautum me fecit Deus meus dicens in novissimis temporibus teneamus ergo unitatem fratres mei prater unitatem qui facit miracula nihil est Proinde fratres mei nemo vos fallat nemo vos seducat amate pacem Christi c. August exp in Evang. Johan tract 13. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXX To the Reverend Doctor TIMOTHY HALTON Provost of QVEENS-COLLEDGE and VICE-CHANCELLOR Of the UNIVERSITY of OXFORD SIR THIS Discourse which was so acceptable to You from the Pulpit comes now in all Humility from the Press to offer it self to your further Acceptance and Protection and to the Perusal of all those Learned and Orthodox men who desired me to Publish it as containing some Sober and wholsom doctrines which they judged seasonable for the age I had a mind to satisfie my self in this Subject and having by Gods blessing upon my enquiries attained to satisfaction in them I framed my Observations on purpose into a Sermon to see if happily I could satisfie other mens reasons by the same Arguments by which I had convinced my own And because the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets I chose to Preach it in that Audience where are always so many Competent and able Judges of Truth and Error and what I said on that obscure Subject as Chrysostom calls it having been approved therein I am encouraged to hope that it will find the like Entertainment in other places especially among all ingenuous spirits who are wont to read with unprejudiced minds But lest any should think that the Scheme by which I go in this Discourse were an Hypothesis of my own inventing I have confirmed the passages in it which I thought would be most surprizing with good Authorities because how plausible soever any Notions in Divinity may be yet they may reasonably pass for suspected unless they appear to be agreeable to the Sentiments of the Writers of the Oecumenical Church To write all things consonantly to Catholick Antiquity is a safe and excellent rule and it is for adhering to it in her Doctrine and Discipline that the Church of England and Her Clergy have been always persecuted by the Papists those Pseudo-Catholicks on one hand and their Instruments the Anti-Prelatical Sects on the other and because under God the Vniversities are the support of the Church therefore have they been decryed for want of Learning by those and want of Virtue and Religion by these although they have been and are as fruitful Seminaries of both as any Schools or Vniversities that are or ever were in the world And now having occasion to speak of the Vniversities it would be real injustice to your Merits not to let the world know how happy ours is in Your Government I might justly speak great things of Your Severity in punishing of Vice of the great encouragement you give to Virtue and Learning and of your Care and Vigilance both over your own Colledge and the Vniversity particularly in giving life to the Publick Exercises in the Schools of which you are in all Arts and Faculties so great a Judge It is under such Governours as You that the Muses will flourish in Oxford and that true Learning and Sound Religion will always be taught therein And therefore that there may never want a Succession of such Vice-Chancellours as You to Govern that Famous Vniversity nor of such Learned Masters and Scholars as now adorn it is the hearty prayer of SIR Your most Obliged and Humble Servant GEORGE HICKES THE SPIRIT OF Enthusiasm EXORCISED 1 COR. xii 4. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit THE Discourse which I intend to make upon this Verse will oblige me to explain the most obscure and difficult passages of this Chapter from the misunderstanding of which and most other places of the Gospel which speak of the Spirit and Spiritual gifts Impostors on one hand and Enthusiasts on the other have raised such absurd and exorbitant doctrines as are utterly inconsistent not only with the use and Authority of the Scriptures but the Tradition of the Universal Church the Orders of the Ministery and the Study of Divinity and by consequence render the Christian Religion which consists of such Sober and Rational Doctrines the most wild uncertain and unintelligible institution that ever was in the world But how groundless and unwarrantable the Enthusiastical Interpretations of this and other like places of Scripture are will appear from the process of this Discourse in which I intend to treat so particularly of the Gifts of the Spirit as to leave out nothing which may be said in such a short Discourse to illustrate such an excellent Subject the knowledge of which is a most Soveraign Antidote against the poison of Enthusiasm which is the Spiritual drunkenness or Lunacy of this Schismatical age and so distempers the minds of men of the other Communions with extravagant phancies as to make them more or less affect the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and then conceit like Poets in Religion that they have them and are inspired Thus much I thought convenient to premise concerning the matter and design of this Discourse in which I shall proceed according to this familiar method First I intend to speak of the several kinds of Spiritual gifts and shew which sort is mentioned in my Text. Secondly I shall treat of the number and variety of them and explain the nature of each particular gift Thirdly I shall discourse of the true use of them and shew the reasons why they were given by God to the Primitive Church and not to the Churches of latter times And Lastly I shall make some Practical improvement of the whole discourse First then as to the kinds of these Spiritual gifts I know my Text is often misapplyed by way of accommodation to signifie the natural or acquired gifts of mans mind which in a Physical sense indeed may be called Spiritual because they transcend the Mechanical powers of matter and proceed more or less from the
delivered up to Satan in an * 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5 Ecclesiastical meeting at Corinth although he was not there And such a tender regard had God for the Order and Discipline of the Church that he concurred with the Apostles in the execution of this power not only against those who continued obstinately in ‖ 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5 incest * 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 2.17 blasphemy heresies and such like sins but against those also that were prating malitious Schismaticks opposers of the Bishop and disturbers of the peace and order of the Church Such an one was Alexander the Copper-smith and Diotrephes in the Church of Ephesus whom S. John assured the Church he * 3 Epist would remember i. e. censure when he came for his evil deed We cannot imagine that our Lord who came not to destroy mens lives but save them would have given the Apostles such a power over mens lives but in order to such a considerable end It was necessary that they their assistants and Successors the Bishops who are likewise called Apostles 2 Cor. 8.23 Gal. 1.19 Phil. 2.25 should be invested with this power to preserve their Authority as Governours and thereby secure the discipline and government of the Church which as such is a Spiritual body politick consisting of Magistrates and Subjects and so ought to have its proper laws Therefore God who in his infinite wisdom could not erect a Society without Governours nor constitute Governours without investing them with a sufficient power of casting contumacious transgressours out of their Government thought fit in the Churches minority to execute judgment upon those whom they ejected in which concurrence I conceive consisted their miraculous power of inslicting supernatural diseases and death A power more than Imperial and greater than Caesar could shew which made their Ecclesiastical subjects reverence their persons and dread their displeasure and by consequence shews that it was put into their hands in that exigence as the Sword is put into the hand of the Secular Magistrate that they might be a terror to evil doers and assert their Spiritual government over the Church This is plain from the story of Ananias and Sapphira whose sudden miraculous death was a terror to the rest for as the text tells us great fear came upon all the Church and plainly shews that the Church was not a mere voluntary Society nor the Apostolical authority precarious but the undoubted Ordinance of God From all which I hope it is plain that the necessities of the Primitive Church were the reason why God gave these gifts of the Holy Ghost to Her and not to the Churches of later times And this is apparently asserted by the Apostle in the 4th chap. of his Epist to the * Chrysost in ep ad Eph. c. 4. Hom. 11. Ephesians where after he had spoken of the ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl upon the place gifts which our Saviour gave in different measures to the several Ministers of the Church to the Apostles Prophets * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id Evangelists ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id Pastors and Teachers saith that it was for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying the body of Christ till they came in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ From * August Quaest ex Evang whence it is evident that as the Gospel increased and the Church grew up God like a wise nurse weaned her by degrees from these miraculous gifts till at last having arrived at her full stature in Christ he left her as Parents leave their children when they are grown to be men to subsist without extraordinary helps and supplies And therefore as the Scriptures increased God ceased by degrees to discover the doctrines of the Gospel by Inspiration to the Ministers of the Church and by that time the writings of the New Testament were made up and the Scripture-canon as it were Sealed the Successors of the Apostles in the time of Clemens Polycarp and Papias the Disciples of S. John and of Justin Martyr pretended to no other way of revelation or coming to the knowledge of the Christian Religion than by the ‖ Apostolorum Successores Discipulisacrorum Evangeliorum libros iis qui fidei sermonem nondum audivissent tradebant word of God And then as the Gospel began to be Preached in Latin and Greek and native Romans and Graecians were admitted to be Ministers of the Word the Gift of tongues which was the first of the gifts of the Spirit began to grow useless and cease Till at last Churches being gathered in all Provinces of the Empire and every Nation having Ministers of its own the Gospel was Preached without Inspiration in all languages of the world The gift of Prophecy properly so called continued somewhat longer in the Church because in these times of danger and persecution it was necessary for Christians as I shewed before to be forewarned of future events * Lib. 3. hist c. 37. Eusebius tells us that Quadratus and ‖ Hist lib. 5. c. 17. Ammius Philadelphensis who lived in the beginning of the Second Century together with the daughter of Philip the Apostle had the gift of foretelling things to come and cites a passage out of the dialogue of Justin Martyr with Trypho the Jew wherein he asserts that Prophecy was still to be seen in the Church Irenaeus also lib. 2. c. 57. reckons the Prophetical influx in Visions and predictions among the spiritual gifts which he saith the Disciples in that age received in different measures for the good of the Church Origen also in his Seventh Book against Celsus mentions this among other miraculous gifts which were then extant But though at that time the Prophetical spirit was still in being yet it was very extraordinary and soon after ceased altogether in the Church We read of the power of raising the dead in the forecited passage of Irenaeus who speaking of his own time saith And now the dead are raised and have lived among us many years But the gift of healing being so beneficial to mankind continued longer in the Church as is evident out of * Epâ—ad Donatum Cyprian and ‖ Lib. 1. contra Cels Origen but little or no mention is made of it after till the latter end of the Fourth and beginning of the Fifth Century when God was pleased to work that and many other * Chrys Hom. 37. in S. Jul. Hom. 43. in S. Mach. de S. Bab. contr Gentiles Aug. Ep. 137. ad elerum pleb Hippon Chrys Hom. 69. En. com Mart. Aegypt Aug. l. 22. de civ dâ—i c. 8. lib. 1 â—etract c. 23. Miracles at the tombs and by the Reliques of Martyrs which were the last Miracles in the Church As for Miracles specially so
called they also began to grow scarce about the latter end of the Second Century after God had sufficiently sealed the truth of the Gospel by them and in spite of the powers of hell brought the world to embrace the Christian Faith But yet because there still remained an * Apollo gave Oracles in Daphne the pleasant Suburbs of Antioch in the time of Constantius and Julian the Ap. Chrys de S. Babylá Mart. contra Gentiles Oracle now and then to be silenced a Pythonist to be exorcised a Magical spirit to be rebuked or an insulting and blasphemous Demoniack to be dispossessed God continued them upon these and ‖ As upon the building of the Temple by the Jews in Julians time Naz. 2. invect contra Julian Marcell lib. 22. such like occasions longer in the Church and yet they too * Aug. contra Manich. de ver relig lib. 1. retract c. 13. ceased about the beginning of the Fifth Century when ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys de S. Babylâ Idolatry was almost quite extinguished and when the Church built Her Faith not on present but past Miracles and her Hieroms Augustins and Chrysostoms like us were not inspired but studied Divines As for the gift of Praying and Preaching by the spirit there is no mention made of it in the Ecclesiastical Writers even where they enumerate the rest of the Spiritual gifts Unless * Lib. 1. cap. 57 Euseb hist lib. ◠cap. 7. Irenaeus comprehend it under the gift of strange tongues with all sorts of which he saith many of the brethren spoke in his time by the Holy Ghost Neither need we wonder that there is no further account to be found of it out of the Apostles writings since the Christians might learn what to pray for and how out of the Scriptures which are an excellent rule of devotion as well as Faith and since that gift was also rendered useless by the ‖ Cassand Liturg Dr. Ham. View of the new Directory early general use of Liturgies wherein the Church made Offices for the Sacraments for the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons for the Catechumeni the Penitents and Possessed persons and Supplications and Prayers and Intercessions and giving of Thanks for all men for Kings and all that were in Authority in a good and acceptable manner through the name of the only Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus Thus exspired these miraculous gifts of the Spirit the actual communication and exercise of which the Apostle in the 7. ver of this chap. calls the manifestation of the Spirit and saith that they were given to every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the benefit and advantage of the Church But as the Church grew up from an infant to her full stature in Christ so they grew useless till at last some sooner some later they were quite taken away This St. Paul who could do all Miracles foretold in the 13th chap. of this Epist wherein he exhorts the Corinthians to covet the saving rather than the miraculous Graces of the Spirit because these should but those should never fail Charity saith he is a gift that never faileth but other gifts shall for whether there be * Si enim Prophetiae linguae sunt propter susceptionem fidei side undique explicatâ tanquam superflua cessabunt in praesenti maximè autem in futuro Theoph. Prophecies they shall fail or whether there be * Si enim Prophetiae linguae sunt propter susceptionem fidei side undique explicatâ tanquam superflua cessabunt in praesenti maximè autem in futuro Theoph. tongues they shall cease or whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away For we know what we know by Revelation but in part and we Prophesie by inspiration but in part but when the perfect knowledge of the Christian Religion or the perfect state of the Church is come then that which is imperfect and obscure shall be done away Even as when I was a child I ‖ Dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanquam ad linguas referat id spake as a child I * Hoc ad prophetias referre videtur id understood as a child I thought and conceived things as a child but when I became a man and to the full use of my reason I put away childish conceptions and things For now we see Divine Revelations as the Prophets did of old in a dark Enigmatical manner and by Symbolical representations of things upon the fancy as in a glass but then in the adult state of the Church we shall see them after the Mosaical manner in a more rational way and more accommodate to humane nature as it were face to face Now I know them imperfectly but then I shall know them clearly even as I am known To conclude there are three permanent gifts Faith Hope and Charity but the most excellent of these is Charity Having thus discoursed First of the kinds of Spiritual gifts and Secondly of the number and variety of that miraculous sort which is understood in my text and having in the Third place shewed the reasons which moved God to give them to the Primitive Church and not to the Churches of latter times I proceed in the last place to make some improvement of the whole discourse First then I desire you to reflect on the difference betwixt the Saving and Miraculous gifts of the Spirit and then to consider how much more excellent and desirable the former are than the latter and how much rather you ought to covet these than those although they were extant yet in the Church As for these they neither supposed any saving Grace in the gifted person nor brought any along with them nor drew any after them but as * 1. Cor. 12. Hom. 29. S. Chrys compares them to riches so like riches they tempted men to ‖ Chrys in Eph. 4. Hom. 11. Pride Vanity and contempt of their Governours as also to * Theoph. on 1 Cor. 12.1 envy and hate one another so that this Apostle was fain to make use of the same Apologue to allay the envy of some and the grief of other Corinthians who had none or not so many or not such spiritual gifts or not to such a degree as others had as Menenius Agrippa did to appease the Commons of Rome by comparing the body politick of the Church to the natural body which cannot be all head hand or eye but hath several members some more honourable than the other and all conspire to the good of the whole Nay so inconsiderable are these gifts in themselves and so unprofitable to any Christian as to his main concern that * Ress ons ad quast 5. ad Orthodox in Justin Mart. August de Serm. domini like the sun and rain they were given to good and bad and when they were given to a truly good Christian they could not secure him in a state of Grace for
all which it appears how much more excellent and desirable the saving Graces of the Spirit are than all these pompous miraculous gifts in which there is really no intrinsecal excellence nothing why we should desire or expect them further than as they may be useful for the Church instruments of Religion and motives to Faith and Repentance in defect of ordinary means and acquired gifts All which I would have those especially to consider whose Enthusiastical tempers or educations encline them first to admire and then to conceit these miraculous gifts till by insensible degrees they impose upon their own imaginations and commence within themselves illuminated men Secondly I proceed to shew what little reasons the Romish Doctors have to make miracles a sign of the true Church For Miracles were formerly wrought for signs to confirm the Authority of the Apostles and their Assistants and Successors and to seal the truth of that new doctrine which they were to preach about the world Therefore to suppose that the Church stands always in need of Miracles is to suppose her to be still in a state of Minority and her doctrine to be always a publishing to the world or else to suppose that infinite wisdom may become impertinent and seal the same truths ten thousand times over Indeed as they argue in the Church of the Jews there were always miracles to be found because their Theocratical constitution of Church and State was miraculous God as their King being obliged to make known his pleasure in Civil and Military as well as in Ecclesiastical matters unto them by Voices from heaven Oracles and Prophecies as other Princes do by Proclamations and messages and their Prophets were always to work signs and wonders to prove the Truth of their mission and sometimes the certainty of what they foretold should come to pass But then besides the miracles which belonged to the nature of their Theocratical Government God wrought others for them and among them to render himself and that particular Church more conspicuous in the eyes of the Gentile world Hither we may refer their miraculous victories by single men or armies over their enemies which God wrought to convince them by sensible experiments of his Omnipotence that of all the divinity of the Eastern world he alone was the true God But had the Law been published among all Nations like the Gospel and Judaism become the Universal Religion of the world Miracles at length would have grown out of use as indeed they grew very rare after the Jews were dispersed among the Nations and their Law was translated into Greek which at the time of the Translation was become the most general Language of the world Thirdly I proceed to shew you how unreasonably the Church of Rome hath acted in verifying the Fanatical pretensions of so many gross Impostors and Enthusiasts as she hath done to Inspiration Prophesie Visions Dreams Familiar converses with God and the glorified person of our Saviour working of wonders Communion with Saints and Angels Raptures Impulses and all other sorts of Miraculous gifts that we read of in the Primitive Church Such as these were Dominic Francis of Assize Francis of Pole Francis Xaverius Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits Genvieve Tiresia Catherin of Siena Brigit and many more of both Sexes whom she hath not only Canonized for Saints but to the great scandal of the Christian Religion hath incorporated Religious Societies of men and women to live according to their pretended inspired rules For which not only the Common people and the Brethren and Sisters of the Orders but their Learned Doctors pretend to have as great and it may be a greater veneration than for the Gospel it self Fourthly I proceed to shew you what a sandy foundation the Popes Infallibility is grounded upon For it must be resolved into this Enthusiastical principle of immediate Inspiration which according to the doctrine I have now Preached neither he nor any other Bishop or Presbyter of the Church hath warrant from the Scriptures to pray for or expect I say it is a most dangerous and Fanatical pretension which is so far from having any ground in Scripture that it makes it a most imperfect and useless rule of Faith destroys the certainty of the Christian belief which was fixed above Sixteen hundred years ago and instead of being a means of ending controversies as Papists pretend it introduces everlasting Scepticism into all the parts of Divinity by making truth or falshood good and evil light and darkness sweet and bitter nay what shall I say by making right and wrong God and Belial Christ and Anti-christ depend upon the breath of a single man In the Fifth place let me shew you what a dangerous damnable and precarious principle that is which * George Reiths immediate Revelation Printed 1676. asserts that immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased but is a standing and perpetual gift in the Church of Christ belonging to the very substance of the Gospel-Covenant and of indispensable necessity to the whole body and every member thereof And that this spirit of immediate Revelation or Spiritual light is not like the Spirits in Primitive times to be tryed by the * Barclay 's Theses or Apologia Theolog. Scriptures and reason but that both of them are to be tryed by it This doctrine differs from the preceding only in this that that makes only the Bishop of Rome but this makes every private Christian a Pope and as it utterly overthrows the Authority of the Scriptures and makes them an useless rule of Faith So hath it already cashiered the use of the Sacraments and annulled the Ministerial Orders contrary to the Precepts and Precedents of the Gospel and the practice of Gods Universal Church And when time shall serve it can as effectually convert the Professors of it into down-right Popery consistently with their own principles for they have nothing more to do than to say that the Spirit hath told them that the Church of Rome is the only true Church and that supra hanc Petram belongs to the Pope As this doctrine was first privately sowed among us by ‖ Foxes and Fire-brands pag. 15. c. Printed 1680. Popish Emissaries so hath it been published in our and other countries by those who were Papists as by Robert Barclay who was bred in the Scottish Covent at Paris and Labbade a Jesuit defrooqued In the next place to montion will be sufficient to confute the Pseudo-Prophetical Spirits of this age such as Nayler Venner and Muggleton with his companion Reeve who call themselves the Lords Two last Witnesses and Prophets and have framed many tracts and letters from Jesus and the Holy Spirit a collection of which may be had in Print I deny not but that God is free to send Prophets when he pleases and that he may do so when the exigence of the Church doth require it but then whensoever he sends them he will as he hath always
streets and pray together and the Lord should hear Heugh Kennedy and remove that stroke Which saith he fell out in every thing as the man of God had foretold ib. At the siege of St. Jane de Angeli he desired the Canonier to discharge such a piece of Cannon assuring him that God should direct the shot p. 254. He astonished the King of France with a few words and made him say Surely this is a man of God p. 255. Welsh and other Scottish Ministers In the fulfilling of the Scripture printed 1669. From whence not to mention other examples it will appear that unless God in mercy rebuke that Spirit of Enthusiasm which is gone out amongst us in these Three Kingdoms we may have as many Legends from some sort of Protestants as we have formerly had from the Church of Rome There are excellent uses which might be made of what I have said upon this subject 1. Concerning the greatness of the Apostolical or Episcopal power as we find it exercised by this Apostle over those who were inspired For by virtue of that Ecclesiastical Authority which he and the other Apostles received from Christ and derived upon their Successors the Bishops he silenced the Prophetesses regulated the speaking of the Prophets commanded that not above two or three inspired linguists should speak at one meeting and that not all together but every one in his turn But if there happened to be no Interpreter then that they should all keep silence in the Congregation and only speak mentally to themselves In a word he commanded that all things should be done decently regularly and according to his appointment He reproved them for coveting the gift of tongues and told them plainly that if any man thought himself a Prophet or any other ways inspired he should shew himself to be such in receiving his orders as the commandments of God Secondly Concerning the usefulness of humane learning and the necessity of erecting Schools and Universities for the teaching thereof For the Christian Religion cannot be supported against its adversaries without humane learning inspired or acquired And therefore as the Apostles and Apostolical preachers died God supplyed their mortality by calling Philosophers and other Learned men to the rational defence of the Gospel against Jews Heathens and Hereticks whom the former had redargued not so much by words of mans wisdom as by the demonstration of the spirit and of power Nay among the Jews themselves there were * These schools of Prophetical Education were at Naioth in Ramah 1 Sam. 19.19 20. at Jerusalem 2 Kings 22.14 at Bethel and Jericho 2 Kings 2.3 4 5. and at Gilgal 2 Kings 4.38 Schools of the Prophets in which as the Jewish writers agree the youth were trained up by study and discipline for the reception of the Prophetical Spirit which according to Maimonides whom the Jews call the second Moses rarely came but upon persons so qualified and prepared And I dare boldly say were it not for the two Schools of the Prophets in our Israel that the Nation would soon be overrun with ignorance and Religion quite born down with Popery and other monstrous Sects among us which have increased with the same proportion that humane learning hath been decryed and the Two Vniversities dis-used Thirdly Concerning the goodness and wisdom of God his goodness in sending his Spirit with miraculous gifts to supply the necessities of his infant Church and his wisdom in taking away these extraordinary means when ordinary means were to be had But I have been too tedious already God grant that what I have now delivered so plainly on this subject may conduce to make us all have right and worthy apprehensions of the Christian Religion which however it hath suffered by some mens Enthusiastical Notions and zeal yet ingenuous and teachable souls and such there are among the most erroneous Sects will easily discern from the frame and tenour of this discourse that as it was designed by its blessed founder so it really is the most rational sober and regular institution that he could have given to the sons of men FINIS