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A40089 A sermon preached before the judges, &c. in the time of the assizes in the Cathedral church at Gloucester on Sunday Aug. 7, 1681 published to put a stop to false and injurious representations / by Edward Fowler. Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714. 1681 (1681) Wing F1716; ESTC R10669 23,348 42

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them but the more miserable if they did not believe so truly they would not tremble as they do The Devils also believe and tremble Iames 2.19 In short we are not more assured from the Holy Scriptures that God made the Heavens and the Earth than we are of the truth of this Proposition that the most sound belief will not do us the least service while it is accompanied with a naughty life That the most Orthodox Sentiments will nothing avail us while joyned with an Heretical Conversation Thirdly We proceed to shew that mens making shipwrack concerning the Faith is occasioned by their having first put away a good Conscience Which good Conscience some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwrack The Apostle speaking of some that resisted the truth calls them men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 Thereby intimating that their being reprobate concerning the Faith proceeded from the corruption of their minds or naughtiness of their hearts and the prevalence of evil and corrupt Affections And the same Apostle speaking of certain Hereticks attributes their erring from the Faith to their gratifying particularly that last of Covetousness 1 Tim. 6.10 The love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the Faith And S. Peter speaking of wicked Seducers saith that they had eyes full of Adultery and hearts exercised with covetous practices And intimateth that this is the cause of their forsaking the right way and their beguiling unstable Souls 2 Ep. 2.14 15. Now would we be satisfied how this putting away a good Conscience occasioneth mens making shipwrack of the Faith It is evident that it doth thus these three ways First As mens addicting themselves to the satisfying of some lust or other puts them upon devising shifts and tricks to still the disquieting clamours of their Consciences The wrath of God being revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men 't is no easie thing for any one willingly to transgress the Rules of Righteousness without being frequently tormented with fearful expectations and the Horrors of an Accusing and condemning Conscience Now the most effectual way to be rid of these next to sincere Repentance and Reformation is either for a wicked man to perswade himself if he be able that there is no God or nothing after this Life and consequently that the Bible is a cheat and all its threatnings mere scare-crows Or if this he cannot do in regard of the abundant evidence of the Being of a God and the Authority of the Holy Scriptures the course must be so to wrest and pervert the Scriptures as to make them give liberty to certain evil practices or to promise forgiveness of sin to certain performances that are short of forsaking it Thus those Hereticks in the Primitive times wrest●d the places wherein the Gospel is called the Law of Liberty and wherein we are said to be delivered from the Law so as to take off the Obligation of the Moral as well as the Ceremonial Law and to give liberty to sin and to oppose Faith to Obedience in the business of Justification and acceptance with God Many other instances may be given both of Ancient and Modern Hereticks perverting of passages of Scripture so as to make them great encouragements to sin and discouragements to a Holy life perfectly contrary to the whole strain and tenor of the Gospel But I must not enlarge farther upon this Argument because the main thing I intended in the choice of this Subject is yet behind Secondly The putting away of a good Conscience occasions making shipwrack of the Faith through the just judgment of God The former particular gave us an account of wicked mens being strongly enclined to make shiwrack of the Faith and of their endeavouring it this of their putting their inclinations into practice and succeeding in their endeavours Men that are wedded to any lust are very forward for their own ease to endeavour either the embraceing of Atheistical Principles or so to abuse the Scriptures as to take encouragement from them to live in sin but they could hardly so extinguish the light of their own minds as to succeed in their endeavours were it not for the judgment of God upon them in giving them up into the Deceivers hands To this purpose observe what the Apostle saith 2 Thess. 2.10 11. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved or they did not so receive it as to suffer it to have any good effect upon their hearts and lives for this cause God shall send them strong delusions or give them up to be deluded by the tricks of the Devil the signs and lying wonders before mentioned that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Thirdly The putting away of a good Conscience occasions making shipwrack of the Faith as wicked Professors of Christianity do find it a most successful course to promote their corrupt and naughty designs by foisting into the Christian Religion such Doctrines and Practices as favour and encourage such designs I have shewed that those who corrupt the Christian Religion with such Doctrines or Practices as contradict the Design of it do truly make shipwrack of the Faith and whereas there may be given too many instances of such Hypocrites as have so done I shall make it the whole business of what remains of the Doctrinal part of this Discourse to shew that the Church of Rome as she is now Constituted is most shamefully guilty in this particular It is to be acknowledged that she retains the Profession of all the Fundamental and Essential Articles of the Christian Faith a summary of which is that Creed which we call the Apostles and she professeth a Reverence for the whole New Testament If she in express terms rejected any Doctrine that is of the Essence and a vital part of Christianity her members may not be called Christians in any sense and we then do very ill to say the Church of Rome We do not stick at calling them a Church though a most corrupt and degenerate Church as to use the similitude of Bishop Hall a thief is truly a man though not a true man A woman may retain the name of a wife till she 's formally divorced though she be an adulteress The Church of Rome may as truly be called a Church as the Iewish Nation the People of God after their foul Revolt from him and Lapse into Idolatry and other wicked and impious practices But this hath been abundantly made good against this Church that though she holds the Foundation yet she builds Wood Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation that is she mixeth many impure Doctrines of her own with the most holy and undefiled Doctrines of the Gospel Of which I will present you with some instances but must be very brief upon most of them What say