Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	good_a	pure_a	unfeigned_a	2,187	5	10.9762	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95963	The authours, nature, and danger of hæresie. Laid open in a sermon preached before the Honorable House of Commons at Margarets Westminster, upon Wednesday the tenth of March, 1646. being set apart as a solemne day of publike humiliation to seeke Gods assistance for the suppressing and preventing of the growth and spreading of errours, heresies, and blasphemies. / By Richard Vines. Printed by order of the House of Commons.	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.	1647 (1647)	Wing V545; Thomason E378_29; ESTC R3304	47,605	81

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 godlinesse practicall and edifying truths which draw up the heart into acquaintance and communion with God and draw it out in love and obedience to him For its good that the heart be stablisht with grace Heb. 13. 9. 3. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. for if we thrust away a good conscience by entertaining base lusts and ends the shipwrack of faith will follow 4. To pray for confirmation and establishment by the hand of God for as it is not a strong constitution that is a protection against the plague so neither is it parts and learning which secure us from beleeving lies and delusions It s a mercy for which we are not enough thankfull that God keeps any of us standing upright when others shrink awry or that wee are enabled to discerne between truth and errour and to stand for the one and withstand the other when so many that have driven a great trade of profession are broken and turned bankerupts 5. To keep as a treasure those truths wherein you have formerly found comfort and which have been attested and confirmed to you by your owne experience sit upon those flowers still and sucke their fresh honey every day A Christian very hardly parts with those truths that have been sealed up to his experience but it s no wonder that a man should lose that out of his head which he never had in his heart To those that bring in or follow these pernicious Vse 2 wayes of damnable haeresy you shall see the crop which you shall reap swift destruction you are under judgement which slumbers not It will be destructive to you to wrest the Scriptures 2. Pet. 5. 16. and to make merchandise of mens soules for sinfull ends 2. Pet. 2. 3. To corrupt the mindes of men from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11. 3. and to cause divisions and scandalls Rom. 16. 17. are things which will cost you deare lay to heart the terrible expressions of wrath which are fulminated against such men in Scripture There may be differences in opinion betweene them that are godly which are not inconsistent with the peace of the Churches and for which its unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the historian saith to make butter and cheese of one another It s a discreet rule which is laid downe by one a Conradas Bergius dedictamine c. Si non idem sentimus de veritate at saltem de pondere If we cannot agree upon the truth of every question or point of divinity yet at least lets be agreed concerning the weight and moment thereof so as not to make as great a stirr about a tile of the house as if it were a foundation stone nor erect new parties or Churches upon every lesser variation but to contend for or pretend a liberty of professing or publishing such doctrins as overthrow the faith and subvert the soule under the name of liberty of conscience can be no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3. 9. a manifest folly or madnesse Is this liberty any part of Christs purchase Hath he made men free to sin and deny him that bought them what yoake of bondage doth this liberty free us from Gal. 5. 1. should we claime a liberty of being in bondage to errour or promise to men a liberty of being servants to corruption which the falseteachers in effect did 2. Pet. 2. 19. God hath as one saith reserved to himselfe as his prerogative three things Ex nihilo creare futura praedicere conscientijs dominari To create out of nothing to foretell things to come to have dominion over conscience and it is true that while a thing is within in the conscience it s out of mans reach but when ' its acted and comes abroad then it comes into mans jurisdiction and is cognizable in foro humano God onely is judge of thoughts men also are judges of actions It s a great mistake and of very ill consequence to imagine that a man is alwayes bound to act or practice according to the light or judgement of conscience though rightly informed in thesi for then I see not that there can be any place for that rule given by the Apostle Rom 14. 22. Hast thou faith have it to thy selfe before God Truth it selfe though never to be denyed yet is not alwayes to be declared for the hurt or scandall may be greater then an inseasonable profession or practice of that which is in it selfe lawfull may be worth but the mistake is yet more grosse to imagine that an erring conscience is a sufficient protection or warranty for an evill act It s sin to goe against an erring conscience Stante dictamine as its sin to ravish and force awhore It s sin also to act according to the dictate of an erring conscience as to committ adul tery with consent To make conscience the finall judge of actions is to wipe out the hand writing of the word of God which doth condemne many times those things which conscience justifies yea and men also may passe just judgement on delusions or lyes though those that vent them doe beleeve them for truths If conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient licence to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their Shop and bee resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience And put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himselfe bound in conscience to draw forth his authority against false teachers or their damnable haeresies and upon that supposed errour should challenge a liberty of judging as wee doe of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walke by a knowne rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawfull it is as easy for him to say that our liberty of preaching or professing errours is so too To you that are Ministers of the word that you would draw forth the sword of the Spirit against these spirits of errour as not onely the duty you owe to Gods truth and mens soules requireth but also the pressing examples of the Apostles doe constraine you let not the Lord Jesus

3. they are laid together by a very learned hand the result and summe will be this that election had the force only of a nomination presentation postulation or consent so as a Minister could not bee obtruded invitae ecclesiae upon a Church whether it would or no if they were able to put in a just exception against him for which end the person to be ordained was first to be proclaimed or as I may say asked in c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Chalced. can 6. the Church for the very reason of Cyprians d Cyprian Ep. 68. E●it Pa●n speech that the people principally have power to chuse the worthy or refuse the unworthy is rendred in the same Epistle that they do fully know the life conversation of every man And therefore it is e Diatrib cap. 11. injudiciously spoken that ordination necessarily follows election for an irrational or meer arbitrary dissent when no just exception could be put in bar against a man could no more hinder a mans ordination then such a peevishnesse now a days can hinder the marriage of one whose name is publisht in the congregation Ab ordinatoribus plebs docenda non sequenda saith Caelestinus The cloze of this point might well have beene an Apology for speaking so much of it in this place had not the Text led me to say something and the necessity of the times together with the present occasion constrained me to this prolixity For the office of the Ministery and the power thereunto belonging are very much undervalued and laid very low by many who differing among themselves in principles doe as in a common interest joyn together to cry downe and degrade them In order to a two-fold liberty The one is the liberty of prophesying or preaching as any man is able to set up the trade in opposition to which they conceive the Ministers do stand for their own livings and power sake The other is the liberty of their lusts and ways of loosenesse and these are such upon whom the feare of the Ministery is fallen whose Spirit cannot bear too free reproofe nor their courses a too close observation And hence it is that some of them having learning doe set their wits on worke to rout this office and the power thereof by bafling the evidences of the word and endeavouring to dispute the Scripture out of doores which though God hath not pleased to deliver Systematically in a way of absolute precept or demonstrative clearnesse in every particular yet ought to be regarded in the hints and consequences and implications which afford foot-hold to a good conscience and not to be out-wrangled for our ends and lusts sake as being the becke of that great God who is able to becken us all into nothing others that calculate by the Ephemerides of policy doe discover or imagine future inconveniences which may arise from the indiscretion passion weakenesse of the Ministers and if they will but goe on to play that Cannon a little further they shall find it will batter and overthrow all Magistracy or any government that is managed by men others whose tongues are sharper then their arguments fall foule upon the ministry and poure treble contempt upon it in lieu of double honour never was ministry more blessed and witnessed unto from heaven by the successe and fruitfullnesse of it in bringing in and bringing up a people unto God though some of their chickens are caught and carried away by kites or have forsaken them as duckes forsake the hen that hatched them never more contemned That which the f Collat. Carthag 3. Donatist objected sometime to Austin is now rife againe tu quis es Filius es Ceciliani an non who ordained you you are the brat of Cecilian are you not whom they pretended to be a traditor or to have given up the holy Scripture to the fire so they say to the Ministers whose sons are you is not your pedigree by lineall descent from Antichrist is not he the top of your kin he that hath but halfe an eye may see the reason why the Wolves would have the Sheep to quitt their dogs The ministry if encouraged and supported to doe their duty will be next under the Parliament who we hope will doe theirs the greatest bulwarke or banke against the inundation of errour haeresy and blasphemy whose increase is the occasion of this humiliation It is the lot of the Ministers of the reformed Churches to be grund betweene two Mil-stones in the first reformation the popish Champions fell pell-mell upon the calling of the a Non missi non vocati non consecrati Bristow motiu Ministers of the reformed Churches pretending it to be null ac proinde nulla ecclesia and consequently saith b Non ab episcopis ordinati ac proinde nulla ecclesia Greg de Valentia Tom. 4. disput 9. quest 3. punct 2. in fine Gregory de Valentia the Churches no Churches because they were not ordained by Bishops The same conclusion is now undertaken That the present Ministers in this Church are not lawfull Ministers upon a medium quite contrary that is because they were ordained by Bishops nor are those who are ordained by Presbyters in much better account with the objectours for they are in the same line of pedigree being but once more removed from the stocke great-grandchildren to the Pope The cauills of the Papists have been long agoe laid to sleepe by the answers of c Mornay of the Church chap. 11. Sadeel de legitim vocat Minister reform eccle 〈◊〉 Minist Anglicano learned men who have distinguisht betweene the corruptions in the persons ordaining or in the fieri of ordination and the substance and validity of ordination in facto esse and the very same answers which were made for the first reformers and the Ministers ordained by them are of as full force for the Ministers now in being with us and the Ministers ordained by them nor can our Ministery fall by this argument now used against us without the fall of all ministery in the Churches of Christ in all times and places where Bishops had a hand in ordination and if the Scripture doe settle the power of ordination in a Presbytery or in the Elders of the Church it can never be made good that a Bishops hand who is also a presbyter being joyned with others can anull the ordination as neither is Baptisme a nullity because administred by a Bishop and haply with some corrupt ceremony used in the administration thereof I proceed to the second point which I will touch but breifly and reserve the use of both and of that which followes untill the close of all These false teachers are they that bring in damnable Heresies Doctrine 2 Stuprant veritatem adulterio haeretico Tertull. de praescript They defloure the truth by haereticall adultery not onely those that teach without commission but such as have a calling to teach doe by doctrines

and wallowing in the mire vers 20. 21 22. and so the shipwrack of faith and the putting away of good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19. goe both together and therefore the Nicolaitans whose doctrine was hatefull to Christ Rev. 2. 15. and whose lusts and filthinesse maintained by their pernicious doctrine a Iren. lib. 1. cap. 20. Clem. Alex. lib. 7. Strom. were monstrous can bee accounted no other then damnable Haereticks and we may judg the like of others of the same stamp being the very persons as is b Epiphan haeres 26. Beza in Revel 2. 15. Quiros in Judam conceived by good Authors whom both Peter and Iude describe as turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse and denying the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Iude 4. So much for the opening of the three points which you may if you please bind up together into one That false teachers shall privily bring in damnable haeresies even denying the Lord that bought them Now we come to search out what Haeresie is The word haeresie is of Greeke originall and is often translated Sect not o Justinian in 21 et 2. a secando from cutting but a sectando from following as being a way which men chuse to follow as it s said The way which they call haeresie Acts 24. 14 A way of worship or doctrine for so he saith so doe I worship the God of my Fathers beleeving c. It appeares to be an act of the will electively pitching upon such a way For the word it selfe signifies election comming not from b Martinius lexicon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expugne or lay waste though that be proper enough but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to chuse or adhere unto and therefore the Septuagint Levit. 22. 18. 21. translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free-will offering by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 election or free-willednesse The Rabbins call an Haeretick c Drusius de 3. sectis Judae lib. 1 cap. 2. Grotius in Tit. 3. 10. Nic. Fuller Miscellan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in f Gen. 1. 12. Levit. 11. 22. Scripture signifies a kinde or species and so they denote a man to be an Haereticke who leaving the common road or way of faith and Doctrine sets up and followes a particular way of his own e Elias in Tishbite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without law that will not bee bound up by the rule but runnes out into his owne way and g Nic. Fuller miscel sacra lib. 2. cap. 3. some derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nehem. 9. 17. Exod. 22. 16. signifying to refuse or deny as if you would say a renegado or denyer of the trueth This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while it kept it selfe among Philosophers Physitians and other Professors of knowledge and learning past for an honest word but when it came into the Churches quarters and was taken up by Christians it became branded stigmatized and odious It s used about sixe times in the h Acts 5. 17. 26. 5. 15. 5. 28. 22 24. 14. 24. 5. Acts of the Apostles and whether it may not in some of those places at least bee taken in good part or indifferently shall not bee my dispute at this time But when you finde it in the Epistles Apostolicall and in the Gospell Churches it hath not a jot of good savour in it but carries a marke of iniquity and infamy upon it In those Epistles it is used about i 1 Cor. 11. 18. Gal. 5. 20. Titus 3. 10. 2 Pet. 2. 1. foure times expresly and because I would not make a definition which you might say is mine owne and so slight it I will lay before you the Scriptures that speake of it that you may in their light see what it is The first place is that 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. I hear that there bee Schismes among you and I partly beleeve it For there must bee also haeresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you The Greeke Interpreters take Schisme and Haeresie in this place for both one in a manner and understand not by the word Haeresie any matter k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chr●●● Oecumen in ●●cum dogmaticall or of Doctrine but others l Beza in loc argue from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also There must also be haeresies that they are distinct and that though haeresie include schisme yet schisme doth not include haeresie and to mee it seemes that they are neare a kinne because the Apostle rises from one to the other saying there are schismes there must also be haeresies but they are not collaterally a kin for by the ascent haeresie seems to be the greater For there must bee also haeresies into which those that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not m Neque enim eos probatos intelligi jubet qui in haeresin fidem demutant Tertull. de prascript easily fall but are made the more conspicuous or manifest for soundnesse and integrity That we may find the true nature of haeresie let me in few words declare what schisme is The word schisme imports a rent or division of things that were or should be in continuity and undevidednesse and as it s taken in the matter of Religion it signifies a rupture in the communion or from the communion of the Church upon unnecessary and unwarrantable causes and grounds A causelesse breaking or breaking off from the communion of the Church in matter of worship or Religion Society and communion are of great importance the evill of schisme is answerable to the good of society and communion we are to judge of schisme by the cause of it For if it bee upon a cause which the Word warrants not it is a sinne of high nature Cameron de Schismat Some distribute it into two sorts or parts b negative and positive Negative is the very rupture and breaking off positive is the coalition of the parts rent off into new bodies or associations under other Pastors and Teachers The formality of schisme consists in the secession or negative part though the coalition into new bodies which was called the setting up altare contra altare may make it more obstinate and pernicious Now I say the cause must rule us in judging of it For as it is not the party which separates that makes the Divorce but the Adulterous party which gives the cause And as Mornay saith it is not the man who commences or begins the suite which makes the trouble but he that detains the right So they are the schismaticks who give the just cause of separation from them what a hurry was made in the Church by the paschal controversie wherin a Tract of schis page 5. as one saith both parties might beschismaticks dividing themselves asunder upon so triviall a

Jude haveing described haerenicks saith ver 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are they that separate themselves 3. A loose and carnall course taken up and followed either privately or openly and that under the patronage and protection of these dogmaticall errours Their lives are as full of Athisme as their opinions of blasphemy or false-hand all which being laid together it appeares that an haereticke's understanding mind is corrupted a good conscience is thrust away his will electively adheres to errour and false wayes his affections are drowned in sensuality and lusts he is subverted and sins being selfe condemned either c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oicumen in tit 3. 8. formerlly by his owne conscience and light yet remaining or d Ideo sibi damnatus quia in quo damnatur sibi eligit Tertull de proe virtually by his voluntary rejection of Gods truth to stick to his owne errour and so in conclusion except the Lord pull him out of the fire by some happy hand in the meane time hee brings upon himselfe swift destruction As touching pertinacy or obstinacy which is generally by Divines put into the definition of haeresie according to that saying errare possum haereticus esse nolo I shall say but this that obstinacy may bee considered either in respect of the crime of haeresie or of the censure and rejection of an Haereticke In respect of the crime of haeresie two ways First that an errour in it selfe not haeresie is made haeresie by obstinacy as some of the Papists will have that to be haeresie which is stifly holden by any man after the e Rhemists Annot. in Tit. 3. 10. determination or admonition of the Church when a Councell or that transcendent thing called the Pope hath defined by the authority of his infallible Chaire that such an errour is haeresie and hath put it under Anathema though f Error in side non ideo haeresis quia ab ecclesia damnatus sed quia fidei contrarius Altenstaig c. verbo haeresis Turre crem summa lib. 4. ● part cap. 3. others of them in my opinion say more rightly that an errour in faith is not therefore haeresie because condemned by the Church but because contrary to the faith or secondly that an errour subverting the faith is not haeresie unlesse attended with obstinacy and that as I conceive cannot be said for as Constancy in that which is good as namely faith or justice doth not make faith to be faith or justice to be justice so neither doth obstinacy in evill or errour make that errour to be haeresie but as vertue is commendable and rendred more glorious by constancy so is haeresie aggravated and made more high by obstinacy The essence or nature and so the denomination of haeresie is not to be measured by obstinacy against the decision or admonition of the Church for then every such obstinate errour should be haeresie but by the contrariety and opposition of it to the principles of faith which are razed or overthrowne In respect of the censure and rejection of an Haeretick which rejection whether it be by a private beleever or by sentence of the Church I now dispute not I suppose obstinacy is requisite for as in other scandalls the rule of proceeding is If hee heare not thee or if he heare not the Church so it s said a man that is an Haereticke reject after the first and second admonition Contumacy is a common adjunct of sinne in order to the finall judgement or sentence of the Church in excommunication In a word I cannot read those words Titus 3. 10. Thus or in this sense g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man that after the first and second admonition is an Haereticke as if he then became an Haereticke by standing out against or after admonition but thus reject a man haereticall after the first and second admonition which argues and demonstrates that he may be an Haeretick before he bee obstinate and so obstinacy is not essentiall to the nature or being of haeresie Though I confesse and doe suggest it to your observation and saddest thoughts that Haeretickes are generally and usually stricken with obstinacy few of them that runne into this labyrinth doe either seeke or finde the way out when the vitall parts of faith are putrified and corrupted in any Patient the recovery is hopelesse weigh seriously that expression or marke set on these very men by Iude ver 12. Trees twice dead plucked up by the rootes when do you see such a tree recover life and fruit It s a hard rescue to fetch a man off that is prisoner to an erring conscience especially if he be fetter'd by both legs his judgment being captivated by errour and his affections enslaved by lusts we must doe our duty and of some have compassion and others of them save with feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 snatching them out of the fire Jude verse 22. 23. Though they complaine of violence offered to their liberty when they are pul'd out of the fire For as h 〈◊〉 qui servat idem facit ●●cidenti Horat. the saying is hee that saves a man against his will hath no more thankes for his labour then if he kill'd him It is a matter of wonder and amazement to see men of eminent parts and learning of great reputation for Religion captivated carried away and made prey of by senselesse and absurd fancies and opinions but that wee know there are no delusions or lies but are strong when God delivers a man up to them in way of punishment for not receiving the truth with love thereof The Lord give us to receive his truth with fear and trembling and make us thankfull whom in this time of wantonnesse as some call it or rather wickednesse of opinions hee hath kept from shipwracke of faith and made to stand upright when men that have lived strictly and religiously as i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Epistola 4. ad Olymp. Chrysostome said of Pelagius seem to warp and to be drawn awry Having thus farre laid open the nature and danger of haeresie by the Scriptures I should now come to the use of all but that in few words I desire to put you in minde in what notion the word haeresie hath passed amongst men in common acceptation and that I shall doe in these two words 1. The Ecclesiasticall or Scholasticall acceptation is this a T●rre●rem sum lib. 4. Haeresie is an errour or assertion contrary to the faith in points fundamentall or momentous holden or maintain'd by a man professing the Christian faith this they call simple haeresie and such a one an Haereticke licet ab ecclesia non recesserit though saith b In Gal. cap. 5. Ierome hee doth not separate or make secession from the Church and though hee cannot be blemisht with wickednesse morall or in conversation All momentous truths are not strictly so called fundamentall there are truths as I may say

very well understand by the last times not onely the times of the Gospell in generall but the time of Antichrists declining as well as of his arising and growth The last of the last times For as the last times of the Jewish Church after it had shaken off the captivity and idolatry were pester'd and infested most of all with haeresies untill Christ came with a new doctrine of the Gospell and untill the desolution of the frame of that Church so the last dayes of Gospell Churches having shaken off the second Babylonish captivity and idolatry shall be infested with these dangerous errours and haeresies and haply untill the very 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 e Vers 20. 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 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 in joynes 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 uponthose reports or histories is to be taken notice of that the Apostles and their followers would Tantum Apostoli eorum discipu●i 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