hath given to his Church for this ver relates to the 11. He gave some Apostles and some c. that henceforth c. and to them doth the Apostle commit the charge of the flock to watch over them against wolves Acts 20. 28 29. 2. The holding fast and pursuance of the substance and great things of Religion ver 15. but being sincere in love grow up in all things into him which is the head It s an excellent growth to grow up into the head that is into communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ which triviall opinions nothing at all advance observe the antithesis or opposition he makes between being carried about c. and following the truth in love for contraria contrariis diseases are cured by contraries so the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. gives the same receipt against unstedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to take off teachers from fables and genealogies and questions of no value Paul commends to them the aiming at godly edifying which is by faith and to hold to that which is the end of the commandement charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. If both Ministers and people would but drive this trade it would take off that wandring and hunting after novell opinions and doctrines and would keep us constant in the wholesome pastures even now that the hedge of setled government is wanting If you have good feeding why should not that keep you from wandering untill the pale be set up wait upon God in the use of his saving ordinances and pray for us If Moses stay long in the mount must the people be setting up golden calves and say we know not what is become of this Moses Aarons rod Exod. 7. 12. shal swallow up all the rods of Iannes and Iambres in due time The Apostle puts us in hope of a vil ultra to such 2 Tim. 3. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all FINIS Magnalia DEI ab Aquilone Set forth in a SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS at Saint MARGARETS Westminster upon Thursday July 18 1644. Being the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great VICTORY obtained against Prince RUPERT and the Earl of Newcastles Forces neer YORK By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the County of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of both Houses LONDON Printed by R. L. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1646. Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That Mr. Vines hath hereby thanks given him by this House for the great pains hee hath took in his Sermon Preached before the Lords and Commons on Thursday the eighteenth of this instant Iuly in Margarets Church Westminster it being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York And that the said Mr. Vines be intreated to Print and publish his said Sermon which no man is to presume to Print or reprint without his authority under his hand as he will answer the contrary to this House John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Robert Harley do give the thanks of this House to Mr. Vines for the great pains hee took in the Sermon hee Preached at the intreaty of both Houses at St. Margarets Westminster upon the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great Victory obtained against Prince Rupert and the Earle of Newcastles Forces and he is desired to publisht it in Print H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. I appoint Abel Roper to Print my Sermon Richard Vines To the Right HONOURABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in Parliament Right Honourable and Noble Senatours BY this time it is cleere day even their eyes whose unwillingnesse to beleeve it made them blinde are now waken to see that God did indeed put matter of thanksgiving both into our hands and mouthes To disguise so solemne a duty onely to support reputation in the eyes of the world is no lesse then to put an Irony upon GOD. Thanksgiving is the reply we make to GODS answer of our prayer of whom if we walke worthy he will surely make rejoynder of new mercies Though we cannot expect but that we may shift our garments and somtimes weare sackcloth The Lord set our hearts in tune whether to Lachrymae or Hallelujah Beware of that rock which the Israelites fel foul upon in their wildernesse condition where being at Gods more immediate finding and having all their entertainment from Heaven they most of all did then imbitter GOD by their murmurings against and temptations of him The good Lord command the West to blow as sweet a gale as the North hath done and so finish his own worke that unto Henricus Rosas Regna Jacobus may be added Ecclesias Carolus So prayeth Your unworthy servant for Christ Richard Vines A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS assembled in Parliament upon the 18th day of July 1644. It being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York ISAIAH 63. 8. For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lie So he was their Saviour WHat the Historian sayth of that day wherein Non suit maior sub imperio Romano dies c. Florus lib. 2. cap. 6. de bello Punico secundo Scipio and Hannibal disputed that long depending cause between Rome and Carthage in open field The Romane Empire untill that time had not seen a greater day The same may I justly say of the occasion of this our meeting Nor we nor our fathers in this Kingdom considering the numbers on both sides the Interests that lay at stake the fulnesse of the victory the hopefull consequence of it have had more cause to sing They compassed me about like Bees they are quenched as the fire of thorns for in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly Psal 118. 12 13 14 15 16 c. for though God have cleerly attested his presence with us by many visible tokens thereof ever since we came into this wildernesse so that we may truly say Take counsell together and it shall
second comming of Christ or at least untill he shall gloriously declare himself in the destruction of the beast and false Prophet and in the calling of the Jewes These things being laid together doe cry aloud unto you to consider your danger and to hearken to the frequent inculcations of the Apostles in their Epistles in almost all their a 2 Cor. 11. 3. Epistles describing false teachers to bee like the Serpent that beguiled Eve branding them with the name of Jannes and Jambres Balaam false Apostles deceitfull workers ministers of Sathan c. stigmatizing their doctrins with the names of damnable haeresies doctrines of Devills c. Fortifying Christians with effectuall arguments and exhortations against the impressions and infections of such poysonous errours And if you looke upon those Epistles which were sent from heaven to the seven Churches you shall finde that the greatest part of those comminations in them contained are thundred forth against haeresies or doctrinall errours maintaining or cherishing as I may call them haereticall lusts there wee finde them b Revel 2. 2. that said they were Apostles but were lyers the c cap. 2. 9. 14. 15. 20. 24. blasphemy of such as said they were Jews but were the Synagogue of Satan the doctrine of Balaam the doctrine of the Nicolaitans the teaching and seducing of Jezebel the depths of Sathan c. The Churches are commended or the Angels of those Churches who found out these disguised seducers and kept the truth uninfected by them and those Angels or Churches blamed which d Revel 2. 15. had them and suffered them in their bosome These things I offer to your serious and sad consideration you have not made use of the point as soone as you have said The Minister railes It s not my meaning to poure out all this that hath beene said upon every errour either preacht or followed in our times but to shew you that false teachers and haeresies must be and shall be in the Gospel Churches and to put you in minde what the Scripture saith concerning them and how much you are concerned to looke about you for I observe that men are not so jealous over themselves or so affraid of e Vers 20. corruption of their minds as they ought to be nor so sensible of sin in intellectuall errours as in morall corruptions and yet we know diseases in the head are mortall too and that a fish begins to corrupt and stink in the head and so throughout corrupt manners usually and naturally follow upon corrupt minds they that are not sound in the faith no wonder if they be not sound in the feare and in the wayes of God whither will this new scepticisme come and into what will it be resolved but into Athiesme when men begin to fall we see by experience that many fall from story to story till they come to the very bottom And therefore I exhort and beseech you all to that which the scripture exhorts and injoynes upon Christians who are in danger of being seduced by false teachers or their doctrines and that is to try the spirits whether they are of God 1. John 4. 1. To contend for the faith once delivered Jude 3. To beware lest you be carried away with the errour of lawlesse men 2. Pet. 3. 17. To turne away from such as creep into houses and lead captive silly women 2. Tim. 3. 5. 6. To avoid foolish questions which are unprofitable and vaine Titus 3. 9. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. To continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of out of the word of God 2. Tim. 3. 14. And lastly If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Epistle of John 10. 11. For he that bids him god speed is partaker of his evill deeds where the Apostle supposes that false teachers are men of evill deeds besides their false doctrines or that indeed their false doctrine is evill deeds in the plurall number and therefore not to be slighted off as a thing of the minde or mentall mistake onely you see that to countenance or encourage such teachers is to be partaker of their evill deeds and whatsoever credit you will give to the report of f lib. 3. cap. 3. Irenaeus concerning John his leaping out of the bath from Cerinthus or Polycarp his refuseal of Marcion his acquaintance yet the observation which he makes upon those reports or histories is to be taken notice of that the Apostles and their followers would Tantum Apostoli eorum discipuli c. Iren lib. 3. cap. 3. not so much as verbo tenus communicate with any of them that had adulterated the truth how much lesse should private Christians close with such seducers who are more likely to pull them into the water then they to pull them out Naturally wee are tinder too apt to take fire by their sparkes he that fishes with an haereticall bait may haply catch more in a moneth than some godly Minister shall bring to Christ with all his travell and paines as long as he lives for he hath the advantage of the bait and therein lies the odds of successe between preaching of errour and preaching of the truth I maruell saith the Apostle that you are so soone removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospell Gal. 1. 6. there was the wonder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were removed so quickly and the Apostles wonder may be ours also wee have been a people of as powerfull godlinesse as any in the world practicall divinity was improved to a great height of clearenesse and sweetnesse but I feare that I may truely say we were best in worst times wee held our cloake in the winde and now are laying it off in the sun A miserable declination from the life and power of godlinesse is come to passe within these few yeares our practicals our inward and close wayes of walking with God in faith and love are sublimed into fancies and vapour out into fumes of new opinions and which is worst of all we take this dropsy to be growth and conceive our selves to be more spirituall and refined because more ayry and notionall The Lord humble us for our declensions and swervings from the g 1 Tim. 6. 3. end of the commandement which is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained and for our turnings aside to vaine ianglings The best way of fortification of our selves against the allurements and assaults of false teachers is 1. To be grounded in the principles of the doctrines of Christ or else we shall easily be tumbled up and downe like loose stones that lie not fast in the building upon the foundation 2. To study and adhere unto the doctrine which is h 1 Tim. 1. 5. 6. according to
Common-wealth yet it perishes to you if you be not carried with hearts full to God Many a man is a Carpenter to build Noah an Ark wherein himself is not saved There are many rest in their meer opposition to and hate of Popery as if that should seal up their salvation and many again will reason thus The cause wherein I am is good it will swim out its gods and that is their plea. Alas this is not all for be the Protestant truth never so cleer to thee and be the cause thou art in never so good yet thou mayest be lost in it as the Egyptians were lost while they went in the same path wherein the Israelites were saved therefore pray and seek for such a spirit of chusing and following the Lord thy God as may ensoule thy actions or outward works and then beside the acceptance and testimony thy ways shall find with God thou shalt be able to go through fulfill after the Lord which a man upon naturall parts and strength of morall principles or vertues shall never do for youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall utterly fall Isa 40. 30. that is men their own ends they rest and proceed no farther such a spirit therefore as Caleb had doe you restlesly seeke of God the giver of it to them that ask him that being sincerely carried which in great and glorious actions is the more hard you may reap the Euge of a good conscience which is better then the Hic est of all the World and not only so but there will be more hope of the worke when it is carried on by such hearts as God said of David he was a man after his own heart and what follows He shall fulfill all my will Acts 13. 22. And of Hezekiah it is said that in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the Law and in the Commandements to seek his God he did it withall his 2 Chron. 31. 21 heart and prospered such hearts such successe wee pray to them that are now engaged in this great work that so promises with the entayle of them upon Posterity may follow such Calebs for ever FINIS Die Mercurii 30. Novemb. 1642. IT is this Day Ordered by the Commons now assembled in Parliament that Mr. Vines shal be desired from this House to print the Sermon he preached before this House at Saint Margarets Westminster this Day at the publike Fast And it is further Ordered that he shall have the usuall priviledges as others formerly have had that none shall Print or reprint his Sermon but those whom he shall appoint Henry Elsyng Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. I appoint Abel Roper to Print this Sermon Richard Vines THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered In a SERMON before the Right Honourable the LORD MAJOR and Court of ALDERMEN of the City of London at their Anniversary meeting on Tuesday in Easter week April 23 1644. at Christ-Church By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the Country of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of DIVINES The second Edition 2 TIM 2. 17. And their word will eat as doth a Gangrene LONDON Printed by J. M. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sun over against Dunstans Church 1656. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAJOR AND COURT OF ALDERMEN of the Famous City of LONDON Right Honourable and Right Worshipfull AN Epistle Dedicatory usually bespeakes a Patron and then the Reader is epistled afterward I intreat Readers only and Patrons no further then the Truth may challenge them suo jure Though I should have done my self but right in sending this Sermon forth into publike yet your Commands were the stronger tye upon me It was received with ill resentment by some whose Character not I but the Apostles gives in this Text the aspect whereof is I beleeve no more pleasing then the Sermon Either they should not wear such faces as are afraid of this glasse or wash first and then they will not be angry I should rejoyce to offend any man for his good and be afraid to please him for his hurt I intended it for a stay to the mutant and unstable a stop to that Gangrene which I hope is not crept so neer the Head as to have taken any of you who in other things have been so far from being Children tossed to and fro with windes stormy winds that from you posterity shall learn to be men The very holding up of the Text in open view may be a quo vadis to one or other If not Yet Thou hast delivered thy soul Ezek. 3. 19 21. is some comfort to him who humbly presents this Sermon to your hands and eyes with some enlargements here and there which the time denyed to your eares and whose honour it is to be Your Servant for Christ RICHARD VINES THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered EPHES. IV. XIV XV. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ THE Gospel had no sooner ascended the Horizon of the Gentiles and dispel'd that universall shade wherein they had been benighted but the Devill erected his factories in those new discoveries to intercept the trade of truth therefore is our Apostle in many of his Epistles so much in fortifying beleevers against the impressions of seducing teachers and the hystorie of a Fatemur quidem novas quasdam antea non auditas sectas Anabaptistas Libertinos Mennonios Zwenkfeldianos statim ad exortum Evangelii extitisse Juel Apol. Eccle. Anglicanae Vide Sleidanum in commentariis Luthers time doth witnesse also that it is the lot of reformations while they are green and recent to be infested with such sects and doctrines as haply were never before heard of and therefore it concernes all to be careful what money they take when the markets are so full of adulterate coyn and to be armed against the scandal thence arising as if the truth was the mother of such monsters which are none of hers but are laid at her door to bring her into discredit we must expect no lesse nay haply we have hereby an argument that the truth is at the threshold for it is not ordinary that tares grow any where but in the wheate field The Text too fitly serves our own Meridian being purposely chosen to give antidote against the infection of seducing teachers Whether the word Henceforth do look back to the time past and imply that the Ephesians had been like children tossed to and fro as is generally conceived by the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christost Theophilact Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek expositors and others I shall neither enquire nor insist upon it but shall take it
against them and shall overcome and kill them In a word the axe that cuts down the tree is hafted with the wood of the same tree the enemies power over us lies in our own sins And so much for this Point Doct. 4 David is resolved to be every way at Gods dispose Here am I. A happy fraâ—e of spirit it is to be able to perish and resign our selves up to God for such a man shall be always in possession of himself out of the gun-shot of all storms and tempests steeled with courage and resolution and however he be tossed too and fro up and down yet shall always light upon his feet If Cannae bring Hannibal to the very walls of Rome If wave rise after wave if Pillars be shaken if rotten Boughs fall off the Tree with winds if Alsolom stir Israel be up Shimei curse yet he is at this Point Here I am I have not much to say upon this Point This is the sum Do your duty and perish in it Si fractus illabatur orbis Conscience of sincerity and uprightness of heart in duty will make a man sing Ecce ego Here am I. Middle region men and lower Region must be tossed and weather-beaten they live and have their treasure where winds and clouds and waves come but he is in the Serene and above all these whose hope the Lord is you may be sooner killed then hurt and if God should deliver you up to the enemy and bring in difficult times be sure that there is few of them that hate you now but would be ready to write upon the statue of each one of you that lives and dies faithful utinam viveres or if such days should come that men shall be afraid to name your names or own your worth yet as it was said of the Pictures of those Patriots that durst not come forth and appear in after times Eo magis fulgebant quià non viseban ur they shined the more because they were not to be seen Be true to God to his truth it will save you but if there be any of you that come in and adhere to God and his Cause only for shelter and safety that is not thank-worthy with God no man thanks another for being driven into his house to stand dry in a showr That you may be able to say Here I am when God shal please to declare that he hath no delight in you these things are requisite 1. To have a good conscience on your side that will feast you within doors even when the hailstones rattle upon the tiles of the house you know what Luther said when he was convented before the Emperor at Wormes No winds shake the earth but those within it If you be in a good cause that is not all for hypocrisie and base ends will more pull you down than the goodness of the cause will lift you up It 's a tirrible thing to be hem'd in by the wrath of God on one side and the galling of a guilty conscience on the other side He that dare not face his own conscience must needs fly from the presence and sight of God he cannot say Hâ—re I am 2. A submissive faith to trust God and leave your selves in his hand accepting the punishment of your iniquity with silence and justification of God lying down as patiently under his knife as Isaac under Abrahams 3. Acquaintance with God so as to lay up your lives with Christ in God having tasted his goodness to you in former experiences such a man may be killed all but the head but that 's above the reach of any enemy and though he be forsaken yet he carries my God my God with him from the cross to his grave David states his happiness to consist in the fruition of God and his ordinances He will bring me again and shew me his Ark and the habitation of it He saith not he will bring me to my house again to my Concubines which are left behind but he will shew me his Habitation The Ark and the Temple were the things that he accounted worth the enjoying and here you may observe what a godly heart looks at not revenues and trading but Gods Ark and habitation The Romane Hâ—storians observe how the first seven Kings did contribute to the State of Rome Romulus the first gave it esse then Pompilius the next brought in the sacra Religion is indeed the very keel of the ship The main work we have to do is to settle it and it 's our greatest wages to see it establisht it will pay us for all our layings out Vse Let the same mind be in you as was at this time in David account it your happines and the most lively mark of Gods favour to you if he shall bring you again and shew unto you his Ark and his Habitation for therein lies the glory of Israel I would the Reformation did not lie under an ill report with many amongst us God would not bring the Isralites into Canaan whilst it was under an ill report with them by reason of the spies who undervalued it It may cost us a longer march in this wilderness if we look upon it with a scornful eye and yet the prejudices against it and the aspersions cast upon them whom you have set on work to be hewers in the Mountains to prepare the materials of the Temple are many and I fear the reason is because nothing that is one can please except it be a quodlibit a grand sallet it will not fit such variety of pallates as are amongst us I pray God such a birth may be brought forth as that there may remain no divisions or separation from us in conscience but only in pride and affected singularity there is the lesse regard to be had of such as are resolved aforehand not to be fixed in the same or be with us but like the erratick stars must each one have an oabe to himself If any mans conscience lie as I may so say in his fancy then to give liberty to that would be nothing else but to give him leave to be mad David expresses his sufferings yea his utmost sufferings by the phrase Good in Gods eyes If he say thus I delight not in thee Here I am let him do that is good in his eyes He might feel it evil but if it be good in Gods eyes he yields to it and so let our hearts be humbled and framed in expectation of Gods hand to us at this time that we may kiss the rod and say with old Eli when he heard the fall of his house It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. We know not what Promises or Prophesies God hath given forth to his Church in his Word to be served and fulfilled by or upon our ruins If God please not to honour himself by our labours let him honour himself by our ashes FINIS Die Veneris 14. Martii 1644. IT is this
wind It s good saith he that the heart be establisht and to that end that we converse in such doctrines as doe profit them that are exercised in them Heb. 13. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still asking our selves this question what improvement is there of my soul heavenward by such or such doctrine What healing of the gashes of conscience What further inlet or admission into communion with Christ What cleansing from al filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. If this be your aime then steer this point intend this scope and let go questions and vain janglings contending towards the end of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1. 6. the commandement which mark saith the Apostle may never shoot at 1 Tim. 1. 6. in their ministery or doctrine nor indeed do many hearers aime at any such thing I mean our Nomades as I may call them or walkers who will not endure to sit at the feet of a constant godly ministery which yet is the best way of proficiency in knowledge and godlinesse but by reason of their feverish thirst as they distast each one so they desire to tast all waters of which sort is he that wanders away the Sabbath by peeping in at Church-dores and taking essay of a sentence or two and then if there be no scratch for his itch lambit fugit he is gone 3. These children are tossed to and fro and carried about by doctrine and that implies that they are hearers that are thus unsetled and they are teachers by whom they are unsetled 1. They are hearers and must not they be hearers What else condemned be the atheisme of the care of them who turn away their ear from God who speakes by the hand of his messengers let us leave to the Papists ministorum muta officia populi caeca obsequia the dumb offices of the Priests and blind obedience of the people when Scribes and Phariâ—ees hold the chair our Saviour saith not Mark 4. 24. Luk. 8. 18. hear not but take heed how you hear Take heed what ye hear beware of their â—eaven 2. They are teachers that unsettle these hearers They have troubled you w th words subverting your soules Acts 15. 24. It much concerns the Church yea and the State into what hands doctrine is committed by reason of the unsettlement of the people which may be occasioned thereby I should beseech them that are in the office of teachers that they would take heed to themselves and to the doctrine 1 Tim. 4. 16. and that they would teach milk or meat and not wind nor lead on people first into cirticismes before they have laid in them the plain Grammar rule of sound and wholesome words that they may be made proselites to Iesus Christ not to an opinion yea though you may beare the name of a party as Paul might have done at Corinth yet to cry them down who would cry you up and put over your Disciples to Christ as John did telling them that say I am of Paul I of Apollo that they are carnall 1 Cor. 3. 4. and so you will wean them unto Christ whose they are As for others that teach indeed but yet are no teachers for whatsoever they do by gifts yet themselves are not the gifts of Christ unto men in the sence of the 11th verse of this chapter I should desire to know whether every one that hath a gift to be a servant must therefore be a steward or that hath gifts enabling him to deliver a message must therefore be an Embassadour If in truth you be as Amos said of himself Herdesmen or gatherers of Sycomore fruit then you must produce Amos 7. 14 15. your extraordinary commission as he did saying And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and said go prophesie to my people Israel or else you muâ—t be taken to be but Herdsmen still and so it will be no wonder that strange teachers should carry credulous people about with strange doctrines as the Apostle cals them Heb. 13. 9. 4. The doctrine by which these children are tossed to and fro and carried about is called wind and that doth not denote the pure Word of God but some illegitimate doctrine which the adulterers and ravishers of the truth do beget upon it what heresie ever came abroad without verbum Domini in the mouth of it The Arrian pleaded out of that text John 14. 28. The Father is greater then I. The Anabapâ—â—st from that Matth. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and disciple all nations and when he shall be thriven to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full stature he will undermine Magistracy by that Rom. 12. 19. Avenge not your selves The Antinomian hath for his plea that 1 Tim. 1. 9. The law is not made for a righteous man arguing that he who hath Evangelicall grace for his principle of obedience should not have the law for a rule thereof as if a new principle and an old rule might not stand together but because I intend not a particular confutation of these or the like errours therefore finally you all know that the devill hath a scriptum est ready Matth. 3. 6. the Spider sucks poyson out of the Rose not that I would imply that there is any such thing in the Word iâ—self for ex veris nil nisi verum but that a corrupt stomack concocts wholesome food inâ—o â—iâ—ease And why wind of doctrine 1. Because there is no solidity in it but being wind it breeds but wind in the hearer and not good bloud and here I cannot but bewail our Pulpits of late times filled with hay and stubble in stead of gold and silver as namely invectives against Bishops and Cavaliers news and novel opinions and in the mean time the staple commodities of Heaven as Christ Faith Love c. are laid aside like breath'd ware which no body cals for I would not be thought to be a patron of any such obnoxious persons against whom the Word of God shoots an arrow but this I plead for that people who come to look for soul-nourishing food may not be served with scum and froth 2. Because of the changeablenesse variety and novelty of it for indeed such teachers do fit their lettice to the lips of their auditory and do easily take them by their itching eares nothing more pleasing to an Athenian eare then novelty which affects the hearers while it is fresh and green but when they shall come to chew this wind they find nothing in it and so they hunt about again untill they start a new notion Christ is the onely everlasting meat who though he be like a great standing dish which by reason of Kickshawes and fine Sallets is now adayes not much fed upon by many yet a truly humble soul is never weary of Christ neither can sit down to a meal I mean hear a Sermon without him and this sound appetite is
was not in Rome but at Veij I shall not meddle with those Episcopal dissentions in the auncient Churches commonly called schismes nor those about the Popedome d Spalato lib. 4. de rep eccles cap. 11. thirty in number as they are reckoned Schisme simply and nakedly is a breaking off or breaking off from the communion of the Church upon such grounds as have no weight in the word of God to allow them as namely when c Schisma ni fallor est eadem opinantem atque eâ—dem ritu colentem quo caeteri solo congregationis delectari dissidio Aug. contra Faustum lib. 20. et contra Cresconium grammat the same faith or doctrine in substantialls is held and there is accordance and agreement in them yet through passions and private ends or fancies there is offence taken at lesser matters of fact or order and so the divorce is made for such faults in the yoke-fellow as are farre short of adultery as if the members of any of the seven Churches should have separated because of some drosse in those Golden Candlesticks The Donatist who separated upon that principle that there was no true Church where good and bad were mixt and that the chaffe in the floore made the wheate uncleane or that the communion of the godly was blasted and polluted by the mixture of ungodly ones amongst them was in open schisme both in breaking off from the Churches of Christ upon that reason and in assumeing liberty to erect new Churches onely which he called the true Churches of Christ Now for haeresy it is schisme and somwhat more as the Apostle implies and what is that majus quid as Tertullian calls it or that somewhat more the answere is given in that generally received saying of Ierome haeresis perversum dogma habet Haeresy goes with a perverse opinion or errour in doctrine which I conceive to be a very truth though d Grotius in 1 Cor. 11. Grotius affirme that ex vi vocis it be nihil aliud quam schisma because the word haeresy in all authors from the first use of it hath signified a sentence or dogmaticall tenet or assertion as the severall Sects of Philosophers who differd in their opinions are called haeresies and therefor i Jamblichus lib. 2. cap. 1. Jamblichus haveing written of the life of Pythagoras now saith he it remaines that I speake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning his tenets or opinions so the sects of Saducees and Pharisees who differd in opinions are called haeresies and the f Hoeresin Syri vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrinam Drusius in Act. 24. 5. Syriake calls haeresy doctrine in which sense it must be taken Acts. 28. 22. this haeresy that is this doctrine concerning Christ is every where spoken against or contradicted and the Apostles Peter and Jude are expresse that these haeresies are brought in by false teachers and are opposite to the faith denying Christ Iesus the Lord and his redemption 2. Pet. 2. 1. Jude 3. 4. upon all which considerations and that as Tertullian elegantly saith haeresy is a degenerate thing which arises from the corruption and adulterating of the truth tanquam caprificus a papauere fici oleaster ex olivae grano c. I am cleer enough that in haeresy there must be matter of opinion or doctrine and so the meaning of the Apostle in this place of the Corinthians is to shew that as there were already schismes amongst them and dividing into parties as their partiality affection and selfe-respects led them so there must be also haeresies or errours in doctrine which should fight against the truth of the Gospell patronize vitious and filthy lusts of the flesh to which both errours and lusts there would be some that would decline but those that were approved and sound-hearted would be made manifest among them and so I conclude that haeresy is a renting or tearing the communion of the Church as it is schisme and a subverting of the doctrine of truth and holiness as it is haeresy like sedition in the common wealth for schisme as one saith is an ecclesiastical sedition when it is not only made against the faults of some persons or their miscarriage in government or some abuses in fact but ariseth from principles or errours opposite and destructive to the fundamentall lawes and justice of the Kingdom The second place is that Gal. 5. 19. 20. The workes of the flesh are manifest which are adultery fornication c. Seditions heresies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated divisions Rom. 16. 17. is here translated seditions seditions or divisions and haeresies may well be set together for they goe together haeresies are workes of the flesh manifest workes of the flesh The workes of the flesh are said to be manifest either because they are the product and fruites of that inward corruption called flesh and are the tokens and markes of a carnall man or because they may be discerned and knowne by the g Mr. Perkins in Galath 5. light of reason and of a naturall conscience except the light be by strength of lusts extinct or by the judgement of God darkned or put out Divines usually from this place doe prove against the Papists that by flesh is not onely meant the sensuall appetite or inferiour faculties of the Soule but the higher also as the minde and judgement because haeresy is an errour of the minde and so no doubt it is though it may be called carnall also in respect of those fleshly lusts or ends which carry men thereinto and are exercised under the patronage thereof Austin sometime saith that in his judgement it either not at all or very hardly can be regularly defined h Aut non omnino aut difficulter c. Aug. ad quod vult deum in proefatione what makes an haeretick but he comes very neere it in another place saying hee is an haeretick in my opinion who for some or other temporall profit especially his owne glory or dignity doth either beget i De vtilitate credendi cap. 1. qui alicuiustemporalis commodi maxime glorioe principatusque sui gratia c. or follow false and new opinions The Scripture notion of the word haeresy runs very much this way and it is to be feared that mens selfe ends wealth eminency interests have too much ingrediency into their opinions in these times the Lord will discover and blast the doctrine which he hates and them also that hold up such opinions as are under his anathema and haply against the conscience also of those that follow them for their private and unworthy ends The third place is that Titus 3. 10. 11. A man that is an haeretick after the first and second admonition reject Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himselfe In the former verse there is an exhortation to avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and striveings about the Law because they are