interpretationis as they were Pastours of the Church and while they conferred together seeking God they were in the use of the best means to find out truth and under a promise also but not of infallibility and therefore although we cannot make them the rule of our faith yet ought we not rashly to reject them when they are offered to us nor to slight their judgements as if they were nothing worth but seriously to examine their reasons and grounds on which they went We honour the Fathers as men whom God's providence raised up and indued with gifts to quell the growing heresies of their times and doubtlesse if they were more lookt into they would furnish us with tried weapons armour approved to subdue the self-same heresies risen again among us in these our dayes and prove as successefull as that stratagem of the Scythians was who put their rebel-slaves to flight by but shewing them the rods where with they had been wont to whip them But though we honour the Fathers yet we dare not worship them we may not believe in them nor make their writings the rule of our faith This is that which themselves did never desire but forbid and abhorre the thought of they seem to say to us Stand up for we also were but men subject to like infirmities with you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Worship God believe in him I doubt not but they that mended many faults in their own writings left some behind and I wish others had not added more We admit them as witnesses but not as a rule since they also were but fallible The Church of Rome ha's boasted so long of the Fathers till at length they grow almost weary of it At first they had like to have put the Centuriatours out of countenance but afterwards Bishop Jewell was so bold as to challenge them in a Sermon at Paul's Crosse afterward printed and to offer that if they could produce any one ancient Father General Councel or example of the Primitive Church for the first six hundred yeares that sided with them against us in any one of 27 articles by him named and in controversie between us he would subscribe to them This challenge Dr. Humfryes thought was more than he needed to have made yet having made it he made it good against Harding and yet died a Protestant and this was no more than we all promise sayes learned Dr. Whitakar against Campian's fifth reason So that the Jesuite needed not to have arrogated to the Church of Rome that priviledge of the Jews Whose are the Fathers and Malone might have spared his scurrilous title-page against the Reverend and learned Primate Though you have ten thousand USHERS yet have ye not many FATHERS We boast not of ten thousand but are glad that we have one worth ten thousand of their Popish-Fathers and as many head-masters of their schools to boot But we hope we have the Fathers with us and I am sure we honour them more than they and yet make them not the rule of our faith neither They honour them not as Fathers but as Lords and Masters as Peter Cotton was wont to call him My Lord St. Austin At servum scis te genitum blandéque fateris Dum dicis dominum Sosibiane Patrem Let them therefore be the vassals if they please while we are the true and genuine sonnes of those ancient Fathers And yet some of the Papists to say the truth cared not overmuch for the judgement of the Fathers when it made against them Cardinal Cajetan will not fear to go against the generall torrent of all the ancient Doctours for which Canus indeed blames him but then Andradius takes his part and I am sure what Cajetan said was no other than what was put in practise by Maldonate Jansenius and divers others Fourthly Nor is the judgement or testimony of the Church a sufficient rule of divine faith The Papists cry up the Church as much as the Jews of old did the Temple but by the Church they mean their own which by that time the Jesuites have done with it is nothing else but the Pope But wee 'll keep their tearm the Church whose testimony they say is infallible and necessary to a divine faith of any one article in religion and although de-Valentia and Canus would fain mince the matter and make it onely necessary as a condition yet that will not serve the Romanists turn which Bellarmine and a-Sacro-bosco knew well enough and therefore make the testimony of the Church necessary as a medius terminus and Cause of assent in all divine faith and so they must say or come over to us Now infallibility as it is required to a rule of doctrine is nothing else but the constant assistance of the holy Ghost which the Papists require a man to believe that their Church hath before he can believe so much as that there is an holy Ghost for that 's one article of faith none of which say they can be believed without the infallible testimony of their Church Wee 'l leave the Jesuites to distinguish themselves out of this contradiction if they can and i' th' mean while let us examine their proofs They offer us Tradition for proof but for them to go about to prove the Churche's infallibity from the tradition of the Church is to beg the question Let them first convince us that the Church is infallible as it gives the tradition and then wee 'l spare them any further pains to prove that it is infallible They often attempt to prove it to us by Scripture by which very practise they do but condemn themselves For First then it seems the Scriptures infallibility may be first known before and without the believing of the Churches infallibility quod minimè vellent for then the latter may be spared And secondly hereby once for all they appeal to mens private judgements and that in a point on which their whole cause turns and if they think the Scriptures so cleare for the Churche's infallibility that a private Christian may discern it I do appeal to themselves whether many other articles be not laid down more clearly in Scripture we say all Well but it may be some will say the Churches infallibility is first known before we know the Scriptures to be infallible I say then 1. let them prove it 2. why do they go about to prove it by Scripture 3. let them avoid the above-named contradiction Or if they 'l be willing to draw stakes with us and have neither the infallibility of the one nor of the other to be first believed Then first let them never more quote Scripture for the Churche's infallibility Secondly let them not require us to prove the Scriptures by the testimony of the Church Thirdly they must give us leave to fetch all the articles of our faith immediately from the Scriptures without the midwifry of their Porphyry-chair and then wee 'l casily grant them if it
will do tnem any good that there is no prius and posterius in the belief of the infallibilities of the Scriptures and of the Church because there is no posterius that of the Church being none at all Fifthly nor are the words and doctrine of our teachers and ministers to be looked upon as an infallible rule of divine faith A private Christian ought to be very observant of his Pastour the Scripture every-where calls for it he is to reverence him as his spirituall Father to obey him as his governour to follow him as his guide yet no farther then he ha's the Scripture for his warrant Be ye followers of me saith the Apostle as I am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 The words of a godly and able pastour are of great authority as of one that for his fidelity would not willingly for a world lead souls into errour and for his ability hath a greater measure of the spirit of discerning joyned with the advantages of acutenesse of parts much study and reading and long experience therefore must he be heard with reverence not rashly dÃsbelieved nor his doctrine rejected unlesse upon examination we find it to be condemned by the Scriptures Among humane authorities such an ones testimony is of very great weight but a divine faith will digge till it come to the rock of infallibility before it build which is not to be found save in that holy breath of the unchangeable Spirit which is the Scriptures Sixthly therefore the onely true adequate and infallible rule of divine faith is the holy Scripture this is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this is that balance of the sanctuary wherein faith weighs and tries all mens doctrines before it entertain them That this was infallibly inspired by the Holy Ghost is granted on all sides and that it may be known to be such may sufficiently appeare by what hath been already said That it is and ought to be the rule of faith might be fully and at large demonstrated but since it hath already devoured all the other pretended rules as Aaron's rod did those of the Egyptian Sorcerers and because I would not be prevented in that which lies before me I shall content my self briefly to have pointed at an argument or two and so passe on to what remains But first give me leave to premise onely thus much that whereas some of our Divines make Scripture the judge others the rule of controversies I conceive by a little distinguishing both may be admitted and that the Scripture is both Judge and Sentence the Law Rule and Principle of faith The holy Ghost in Scripture is the Judge Every truth exprest in Scripture is a definitive Sentence when ever it se lf is called in question and in respect of truths deducible from it it is a Law and Principle in respect both of truths formally contained in it and rightly deducible from it it is and may be truly called a Rule or canon of faith and life a rule to try and examine doctrines by and this I shall prove briefly in three words thus 1. The Bereans are commended by the holy Ghost for making the Scripture the rule and trying doctrines by it and that such doctrines as were delivered by the immediate assistence of the holy Spirit as was said before 2. The Scripture is the rule according to which men ought to preach and therefore also ought their doctrine to be examined by it To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning-light in them Isaiah 8. 20. and 1 Tim. 6. 3. These things teach and exhort and if any man teach otherwise or any other thing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godlinesse he is proud knowing nothing c. See also Deut. 13. v. 1 2 3. and in the 12. Rom. 6. Let us prophesie according to the analogy or proportion of faith by which is usually understood the doctrine contained in the Scriptures But that is a remarkable place Gal. 1.8 9. if we or an angel from heaven if any man preach any other Gospel than what ye have received let him be accursed 3. The Scripture is the rule by which we must be judged at the last day therefore ought it to be the rule of our faith and life here Rom. 2. 16. God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel and this we may be sure of that that must needs be suitable to God's will accepting and approving which is agreable and according to the same will commanding and prescribing faith and duty to us which is revealed in his word But this truth having been so much insisted upon by our writers and being so well known as it is I forbear further inlargement on it at the present The Scripture then is the onely rule of faith And though some would admit of something else for a secondary rule for my part I see not how that can be admitted for if that same supposed secondary rule do exactly accord with the Scripture then is it not another and so not a secondary rule but if it swerve never so little from it then is it false and erroneous and not fit to be a rule at all but take it at the best it is but regula regulanda a rule that must be tried it self and who will choose to measure with a Carpenters rule when he hath the standard by him The Scripture is the rule and the standard by which all doctrines may and must be tried by arraigning them before the tribunall of the Spirit in the Scriptures but it will not be amisse to draw forth of Scripture a character or two to judge of doctrines by 1. The first shall be that of Paul but lately mentioned good doctrine must be according to the analogy and proportion of faith There is a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} spoken of in Scripture a body of divine truth as I may call it between the parts and members whereof there is an exact harmony symmetry and proportion as therefore in the natural body a member would become monstrous should it exceed its due proportion to the other its fellow-members so is it here We must therefore carefully compare a doctrine concerning one article with the truth concerning others and for instance so speak of the unity of God's essence as not to impair the Trinity of persons so treat of the justice of God as not to let it devoure his mercy and so to advance his mercy as not to violate his justice since he is so said to be love 1 John 4. 8. as that he is also called a consuming fire Heb. 12. 29. Let a man study a single point
fountains and returns to it again by the rivers Col. 1.9 10. We desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing there 's the first being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God there 's the second Let it be our care therefore brethren so to try all things as not to let go our hold of the things that are good and hold fast that which is good that we may the better prove all things and let this be the end of all our proofs and of all our trialls that having found out that which is good we may believe and practse accordingly Thus have I done with the words in their relative consideration I come now to speak to them absolutely and in themselves II. Sermon Hold fast that which is good IN handling whereof I shall briefly shew by way of explication First what is meant by that which is good Secondly what it is to hold it fast and then proceed First for the first that which is good There beimany that say Who will shew us any good Worldlings they are and worldly goods they mean such as are corn and wine and oyl these they are apt enough to hold fast quocunque modo rem and vestigia nulla retrorsum Here they are close-fisted enough what they get by diligence they will keep with care and need no exhortation to good husbandry The good here spoken of is a greater good and of another nature Three things there are as I conceive very pertinent to the Apostle's scope and the meaning of the words 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for the Apostle speaking here about doctrines it 's impossible a doctrine should be good that is not true To make one's word good is to make it true True doctrine is good doctrine This was that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that good thing committed to Timothie's charge which S. Paul exhorts him for to keep 2 Tim. 1. 14. and this is that which S. Paul himself kept I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith 2 Tim. 4. 7. where faith is put for truth the object of it for 't is no commendation to believe a lie and to persist in errour is but obstinacy Our Saviour Christ commends the Church in Pergamus for holding fast his nam Rev. 2.13 Thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith my faith that is either the true doctrine concerning me or the true doctrine which I taught thee So then Paul charges Timotby to keep the truth he professes himself had kept it and our blessed Saviour commends the Church in Pergamus for keeping of it what hinders then but that we may conclude that S. Paul exhorting the Thessalonians to hold fast good doctrine did partly mean such as was true Ertour has done us the mischief and it must be truth must do us good 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Good doctrine is holy doctrine All true doctrine is good but holinesse adds a greater degree of goodnesse to it There are some truths which tend onely to enrich the understanding and to accomplish the intellect but there are others which do change and sanctifie the heart and make it good That doctrine which is agreeable to the holy and good will of God and which tends unto sanctification whereby we are made good is holy and good doctrine as the Law is said to be holy and just and good Rom. 7. 12. in respect of the first it 's called the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. and as it relates unto our sanctification and salvation it 's called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Tim. 6. 3. The doctrine which is according to godlinesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Tim. 6. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Tit. 8. and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Tim. 4. 3. found and wholesome words and doctrine Sound not rotten which will deceive a man if he trust unto it and wholsome both for food and Physick a nourishing word and an healing word With this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this sincere milk of the word was Timothy nourisht and brought up {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from an infant he suckt it in with his mothers milk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the words are of him 1 Tim. 4. 6. nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine which carryes in it both a corrasive to eat off and subdue corruption and also a cordiall to restore and comfort the fainting soul That doctrine which is according to the will of God is such as sanctifies the heart for this is the will of God even your sanctification This all truth cannot do onely the truth of God which is his word whence it is that our Saviour prayes John 17. 17. Sanctific them through thy truth thy word is truth Such doctrine then as kills sinne and corruption by purging it out of the soul and restores the soul to a spirituall health by working saving grace in the heart and nourisheth it unto eternall life by making it like unto God in righteousnesse and true holinesse such I say is holy doctrine and therefore good 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that which is tried and approved This is a further requisite in the doctrine which we are to hold fast It may be true and holy in it self but unlesse we know it to be such we are not yet sufficiently prepared to assent unto it But now when we have proved it compared it with the rule and brought it to the touch-stone and tried in the furnace and upon triall found it to be pure and true and good then must we close with it and hold it fast we must no longer doubt of it or question the goodnesse of it When the Assay-master ha's once tried a piece of gold and it endures the test he pronounces it to be good and so it passes for current So that if a doctrine be true and not false doctrine if it be holy and pure and not corrupt doctrine and if upon examination by the good word of God we find it to be so then 't is good doctrine and such as we are here exhorted to hold fast Which is the second thing to be explained viz. What it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to hold fast The word is sometimes used to signifie to detain and so the truth is said to be detained both when we conceal and keep it from the knowledge of others and also when we depose it from bearing rule in our hearts and keep it down from springing up and bearing fruit in our lives this is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
wind of doctrine but that we may grow up unto him who is the head and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ephes. 4. 15. Follow the truth in love not out of fansie as children do That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith we must be rooted and grounded in love Ephes. 3. 17. and therefore where the love of truth once decayes there truth it self staies not long after it We reade of some Rom. 1. 28. who not liking to retain God in their knowledge he gave them over to a reprobate mind And it a remarkable place that of 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. where it is said that the man of sinne should come after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish See what becomes of those who are deceived by the man of sinne they perish and if ye ask why so the words following will give you an answer Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved See there how necessary the love of truth is to salvation For indeed where there is no sineere love of the truth there can be no true belief of it For as the Apostle there goes on For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse Observe the opposition A sad place it is and I wish it were well considered by all that are so coldly affected to the truth especially by such as hate it and are so much inclined in their minds and affections to the errours of that man of sinne whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and will destroy with the brightnesse of his coming as he there threatens In the 10 verse 't is they received not the love of the truth and by the 12 verse 't is come to they believed not the truth they had lost the truth for want of love to it Would we hold truth fast we must hold it in corde as well as in capite hold it fast by loving it unfainedly Thirdly hold fast that which is good by remembring it faithfully and doubtlesse where truth is believed and beloved the mind will often be upon it quae curant meminerunt 1 Cor. 15. 1 2. Moreover brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if ye hold fast keep in memory what I preached unto you unlesse ye have believed in vain Those that do truly believe the truth will be carefull to keep it in memory which is a speciall means to preserve the faith and love of it in their hearts Memory holds fast the truth while faith and love renew their acts upon it for this cause ought we to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} lest we leak and let them slip and so we that I say not they be spilt and perish irrecoverably Heb. 2.1 The Spirit of God confirms us in the truths taught by bringing them to our remembrance The Scriptures were written that we might believe that by hearing them preached by frequent reading them and meditating upon them as David did we might have faith begotten increased in us Therefore we ought {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be taken up with these duties As Paul to Timothy The minister is appointed for a remembrancer to us 1 Tim. 4.6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things then shalt thou be a good minister of Jesus Christ and when S. Paul himself went over again the cities where he had formerly preached the word the text tells us what the succese was And so were the Churches est ablished in the faith Acts 16. 5. And S. Peter thought it meet as long as he continued in his earthy tabernacle to put Christians in remembrance of the truths delivered that so they might have them alwayes in remembrance after his decease and that although they knew them already 2 Pet. 1. 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth Though they were already established and therefore might seem not to need putting in remembrance which is the means of establishment yet the Apostle thought it meet to do it alwayes even as long as he lived for it would further confirm them and be a means to keep them from falling from their stedfastnesse and to persevere in holding fast that which is good Fourthly another way of holding fast that which is good is by practising it conscientiously To keep the commandments is to obey them Jesus Christ tells his disciples John 15.10 if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love as many branches as bring forth fruit abide in the vine and are fastened in it by the sap they draw S. John 1. cpist 3.c last verse He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us S. Peter 2. cpist 1. chap. exhorts to give all diligence to adde unto faith vertue temperance godlinesse charity and the rest of the graces there reckoned up for if these things be in you and abound they will make you fruit full in the knowledge of Jesus Christ they will put forth themselves into acts and what then vers. 10. if ye do these things ye shall never fall Oft times custome engages men to continue in evil practises while they are ashamed of their principles but when good practises are backt with good principles the engagement is the stronger to continue in them and defend them An honest and good heart having heard the word keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience A good heart is the fittest cabbinet to keep the good word of God in And indeed when once the word is ingraffed upon the soul by faith it over-rules the sap of the stock and sanctifies the fruit Truth being espoused to the soul by faith and bedded by love brings forth fruit unto holinesse faith working by love and proles firmat conjugium If we would be stedfast and immoveable let us be alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. If we would but follow that which is good as we are exhorted in the 15 verse before my text we should find that one means and a good one too of holding fast that which is good Fifthly a fifth way that we must hold fast that which is good is by professing of it constantly S. Paul was not ashamed to preach the Gospel no more must we be
even unto obstinacy though brayed in a mortar they will not part with them It is said of the Pharisees and their traditions Mark 7.4 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they received them to hold them fast they took them with a resolution not to let them go for better for worse Zeal is good in a good matter but this their holding fast is to their own mischief as a sinking man holds fast the weeds that help to drown him 3. This reproves those that hold and it is good which they hold but they do not hold it fast all wavering and inconstant persons But these also I have already spoken something to in the aforegoing part of my discourse Use 2. I will therefore conclude all with a word of exhortation which yet I perceive is nothing else than what I have been doing all this while I will adde onely to what hath been said a motive or two and a few means or directions 1. Motive 1 The first motive let be the consideration of our own concernment how much it is our interest to hold fast that which is good Truth is our treasure and a wise man doth not use to be over easily perswaded to part with that 'T is our possession a man will sue hard before he will suffer himself to be ejected out of his inheritance 'T is our evidence our evidence for a Kingdome and shall we not look carefully to it It is our fortresse while we keep that that will preserve us like Ulysses his mast tie our selves fast to it and we shall be safe yea 't is our life as Solomon of wisdome keep her for she is thy life our eternal salvation depends upon our holding of it If we give over believing he that believes not shall be damned If we grow weary of well-doing without holinesse no man shall see God If any love not Christ and his truth let him be anathema If any man deny them before men him will Christ deny before his Father which is in heaven It is abundantly then our manifold interest to hold fast that which is good 2. Hold truth fast considering the danger we are in of loosing it in respect of deceivers who would cheat us of it and juggle it from us in respect of open enemies that would by force wrest it from us The Devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devoure And as at all times we had need to hold fast the truth so especially in times of seduction and apostasie in times of temptation and in time of persecution we had need to double our guards when the Enemy is at hand But of this before 3. Let us consider how the Lord Jesus Christ stands affected towards his truth and such as adhere unto it We may see both in his speech to the Church in Pergamos Rev. 2.13 Thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith Even in those dayes when Antipas was my faithfull martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth Observe how he doth aggrandise and amplisie their faithfulnesse to him and his truth from the consideration of time and place they adhered to him in times of persecution and in a most dangerous place where Satan dwelleth He that was wont to go about like a roaring lion and to go to and fro up and down the earth had now it seems taken up in Pergamos resolving to make that the seat of his tyranny where he would display the bloudy ensignes of his rage and cruelty and yet in this very place there were not wanting those who under his nose and to his very teeth did professe themselves the sworn servants of Christ and truth and his utter enemies What an honour was this to christ who maintained himself a Church in Satans own Imperial city and how kindly doth he take it from those who at such a time and in such a place did stick so close unto him and to his truth Which he calls my faith and my name he can as soon forget his own name and neglect his own glory as his truth But then how feelingly how pathetically doth he remember and even by name make mention of Antipas In those dayes when Antipas was my faithfull martyr c. In those dayes he keeps an exact account of the time and makes Antipas his death the Epocha to compute other things by when Antipas he had kept Christ's name and you see Christ keeps his he had born witnesse and set his seal unto Christ's truth and Christ wears him as a signet upon his right hand and engraves him upon the palms of his hands he is neare and deare unto him Christ knows him and calls him by name Antipas my faithfull martyr O what a pang of affection was there Sirs I am not able to conceive it much lesse expresse it I beseech you assist me with your thoughts and supply by your meditations what my expression cannot reach Antipas my faithfull martyr Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints and blessed are they that die in the Lord but much much more pretious is their death and thrice happy are all they whom the Lord calls forth and inables to die for his sake and to lay down their lives in witnesse-bearing to his truth I wonder no longer that the Primitive Christians were so ambitious of martyrdome who would not be martyr many times over to have such a testimoniall such an affectionate commemoration from his blessed Saviour which will afterwards be seconded with an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} well fought My sonne and with that Euge bone serve fidelis well done good and faithfull servant enter thou into thy masters joy So much for motive now a few directions which I will but name leaving them to be enlarged by your own private meditations 1. That thou maist be sure to hold fast take thy hold on that rock of diamonds the holy Scriptures for sand will crumble and wash away 2. Make sure of heaven and then sufferings will be light Facile est quidvis suadere persuasis mori Let me say paratis mori They will not fear shipwrack who have sent their souls before and ensured them in heaven that man need not fear death whose life is hid with Christ in God 3. Turn all traitours out of thy heart which else will betray both truth and thee Such are lusts hypocrisie by-respects curiositie carelesnesse Get thy self cured of thy natural levity and slipperinesse it is good that the heart be established with grace 4. Hold not too fast your own prejudicate opinions if you mean to hold truth fast or indeed to entertain it For then non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris They do but pretend to be suitours unto truth who are before wedded to their own opinions 5. Fifthly and lastly grasp not the world too hard for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and is seldome a friend to sometimes incompetible with that which is good Catch not at honour applause profit or interest in your holding of truth these will winnow from truth sometime or other and then the dog will hunt no longer in the roade when the hare hath left it but Demas will take his leave of truth and embrace the present world I will end all in those words of the Apostle 2 Thess. 2. and the later end Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the faith which ye have been taught which ye have believed Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work CUI LAUS IN SECULA FINIS Doctr. Reas. 1. Object Answ. Reas. 2. Consid. 1. Consid 2. 1. Requisite A faculty 1. Reasonable 2. Enlightened 2â— 2â— q. 8 art 4. 3. sanctified 2. Requisite A Rule 1 Not Reason 2. Antiquity 3. Councels and Fathers Praefat. in Pentat 4. Church 5. Teachers But Scriptures Mark 1. Mark 2. Mark 3. Object 1 Answ. Object 2 Answ. Object 3 Answ. 1. Part of the text considered 1 Relatively As a caution A means An end 2. Absolutely 2. Dectr Six wayes to hold fast truth 1. Believing 2. Loving 1. Remembring 4. Practising 5. Professing 6. Contending Asa 1 Kings 15. 14. So Jehoash Amasia Azariâ— Jotham Jehoshaphal Use 1. Use 2. Direction
ashamed to professe it if we be Christ will be ashamed of us another day Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels And whosoever shall deny him before men him will he also deny before his Father which is in heaven Matth. 10.33 Christ will have his truth owned by his followers The devil indeed will allow men to professe truth while they harbour errour in their hearts but Christ will not allow of such discord between heart and tongue Corde creditur adjustitiam With the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 10. 10 11. for the Scripture saith He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed Profession is the badge of truth and a fealty due to the God of truth By constant profession of and bearing witnesse to the truth the truth it self is propagated and God's glory is advanced and other Professours of truth are much encouraged And when was there ever greater need of bearing witnesse to the truth than at this day when errour does on every side so much abound When the unclean spirits like froggs bred of the slime of the earth come out of the mouth of the dragon then blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garment Rev. 16. 15. Wherefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Let us hold fast the profession of our faith unmoved without wavering Heb. 10. 23. for beloved we count them happy which endure James 5. 11. and our Saviour assures us more than once that they that endure to the end shall be saved Matth. 24. 13. Mark 13. 13. Nay himself encourages us from heaven Rev. 2. 10. Bethou faithfull unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life again Hold that thou hast let no man take thy crown Rev. 3. 11. That 's a fifth way of holding fast that which is good by the constant profession of it Sixthly the sixth and last way that I shall name is by contending for it earnestly Indeed so long as a man can enjoy his house by an undisturbed possession he need not contend about it but when thieves shall attempt to break it open when a robber shall set upon him for his purse striving by violence to take it from him then he must resolve to contend for it if he mean to keep it Now such is the condition of truth in this world it 's in a state militant continually surrounded and beset with enemies whose ring-leader is Satan the father of lies who layes continuall siege to truth not that he desires to have it himself but that he may dispossesse others of it and slight it when he ha's done 'T was but needfull then that the Apostle should exhort us to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Judo 3. They were betrusted with it as with a fort or castle and it would be treachery or cowardise not to defend it to the last And Paul's exhortation may be of singular use to us for our encouragement 1 Cor. 16. 13. Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit your selves like men and be strong A gallant speech of a tried souldier who had fought a good fight himself and was now ready to receive his crown Now though it be the duty of every Christian to contend for truth and that earnestly yet every one in his own rank and order for a man is not crowned except he strive lawfully Private Christians they must strive by earnest prayer to God that his truth may have a free passage and be victorious while others whom God hath given commission and abilities must also contend for it by preaching disputing and writing in defence of it all by suffering for it yea and dying in witnesse to it if God in his providence should call them forth to it Beloved ye have not yet resisted unto bloud but ye know not what times may come the clouds gather apace and some begin to fear a storm it concerns us in wisdome however to provide for the worst to be well-settled in the faith to buckle on our harnesse and to fortifie our selves in holy resolutions to stand to our arms having our loyns girt about with truth and we had need have truth girt close about us else we may chance to have a lap of it cut off and we never the wiser as Saul's skirt was by David while he slept and perceived it not Or else in time of persecution we may deal with it as the young man in the Gospel did by his linen cloth when souldiers laid hold of him he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked Mark 14. 51 52. Some it may be may think it but a nicety that some of the Primitive Christians sthood upon when they chose to sacrifice their own lives rather than sprinkle a little frankincense upon an idol's censer Some may imagine perhaps that the Martyrs of later years were too straight-laced many of them suffering upon the article of Transubstantiation but died Abner as a fool did those Worthyes foolishly and needlesly cast away their lives No surely they understood well enough that to deny the truth was to deny Christ and worshipping the bread was no lesse than grosse idolatry both grievous sinns had they been lesse they might not they durst not have committed them though to save their lives But as people and Ministers must contend for the truth so Magistrates are not excused from it What an abatement was it in the coats of divers of the Kings of Judah and those good Kings otherwaies that idol-worship was tolerated and winkt at in the high-places and not utterly rooted out O beloved God is a jealous God he will not endure his worship to be corrupted and do we think he will suffer his truth to be adulterated Will he not suffer the worship of devils but will he permit doctrines of devils Is not his truth precious to him and is he not jealous over that God will not endure those that worship another God besides him nor those who tempt others to it reade over Deut. 13. especially 6 7 8 9 verses and is Christ contented that they should be tolerated who openly declaim against his Godhead No certainly Our blessed Saviour blames the Church in Thyatira for suffering Jezabel to seduce his servants Rev. 2.20 and he professes that he hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and layes it heavily to the charge of the Church in Pergamos that she suffered those that taught it Rev. 2. 14 15. Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate Repent or I will come quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth The Church it self was for the genetall and the Governours of it orthodox
holding fast the faith and that in the midst of persecution as Christ himself bears her witnesse yet because there were some such hereticks in it whom it had not supprest therefore Christ threatens her as you have heard and 't is observable how he styles himself when he begins to speak to that Church These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two-edges vers. 12. O my beloved when I reade this I cannot but think should now the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven thus endite England Thou hast there in the midst of thee those that maintain the doctrine of the Papists of the socinians of the Arminians which things I hate yea thou sufferest those that publickly oppose my truth revile my faithfull Ministers blaspheme my word yea even deny my very Godhead Should Christ I say plead thus against us I besecch you sadly to consider it what could we be able to answer for our selves Beloved if Christ be God let us follow him and let us follow him throughly with a perfect heart Let us not with Gallio think our selves unconcerned and so stand by and look on while truth and errour fight it out Say not God stands not in need of our help no more did he need the help of Meroz how mighty soever the enemies were but if he please to make use or means Meroz must afford her help or else Meroz must be cursed And though the Lord could have wrought the deliverance of his people and rescued them from the cruelty of cursed Haman by an out-stretched and immediate arm from heaven yet Mordecay is bold to tell Queen Esther that if she held her peace she and her fathers house should be destroyed and deliverance should come some other way Esther 4. 14. Neither let any man say Let truth alone it will be sure to prevail and be victorious For be it true that not all the malice and subtilty of Satan nor all the powers of darknesse shall ever be able to make any one syllable of the truth of God prove false though they should coelum terrámque miscere heaven and earth should passe away but not the least iota of God's truth should fail yea though they do Acheronta movere the gates of hell shall not prevail against it all this we grant and avow yet let me tell you that truth would be truth though never a man in England did acknowledge it The truth of the Gospel abides still though the seven once famous churches of Asta be at this day engulfed in the abysse of Mahumetan superstition It is not truth in the Idea but in the subject that we are to contend for not truth in heaven but truth upon the earth that we must be valiant for Jeremy 9. 3. God doth not require of us that we should make his truth to be true but that we should entertain it in our hearts and hold it fast that we should own it and countenance it and maintain it in its possession of our selves and others that so the truth may runne and be glorified and God may be glorified amongst us least for our ingratitude and want of zeal for his truth he remove the candlestick and bestow it upon some other Nation Then our crown is gone our glory is departed our day is done And England will be nothing else but a kennel and denne of night-monsters Ziim and Jim and Ochim with the rest of that dismall crew and so much the more dark then it was before it entertained the faith of Christ by how much a blaze of thorns doth leave the house darker than it found it When the light of the Gospel shall be removed moved the Prince of darknesse will double his guards and heap on irons even chains of darknesse O let it therefore be our care to hold fast the truth while we have it to contend for it earnestly that we be not spoiled and robbed of it But that we may contend aright take these two rules 1. It must not be out of contentiousnesse a minister is forbidden being contentious and yet is commanded to contend and that earnestly for the faith A quarelsome contentious humour will raise up strife about words when there is no ground or fundamentum in re A proud man though perhaps orthodox in his judgement will not content himself with the received form of sound words the usuall language of Christians in all ages but will invent a new set of phrases and uncouth expressions which no man else can without pain it is well if himself can understand He will not trade with the world but in a coin and language of his own what a troublesome man is this that imposeth upon the world a necessity of making new Dictionaries if they mean to converse with him if every man should do the like what a prety Babel should we have and all this is but that he may seem to be singular and to differ something from other men But we must not contend out of a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not out of a love of contention or affectation of singularity but out of a sincere love and affection to the truth and a pure zeal for the glory of God Neither may we make these pretensions of our own private quarels as too many are apt to do I have read of one Matthias King of Hungary and one George a King of Bohemia that fought a ten years warre upon a difference in point of Religion and then at length agreed that their two fools should decide the controversie by fifty-cuffs By the warre they shewed how much they pretended to truth and religion and by the way of agreement how little indeed they cared for it and I think if Plutarch were now alive it would be no hard matter for him to find a parallel 2. Our zeal and contention for the truth must be proportionable unto the matter wherein it is as fire burns hotter in iron than in straw so must we contend more earnestly for truths of greater weight moment and importance wherein the glory of God and the salvation of souls is more emphatically concerned We must not contend for all alike much lesse be more earnest for minth and cumine and neglect the greater things because our private stomach or other interest is bound up more in those than these But I have now done with the sixth and last way of holding fast that which is good viz. contending for it earnestly It now remains that I should close up all with a word of use and application and very briefly Use 1. If then it be the duty of every Christian to hold fast that which is good hence then are to be reproved diverse sorts of persons I will but point at them 1. The Sceptick that holds nothing at all 2. Those that hold fast indeed but it is that which is not good that hold errours and heresies and of these they are tenacious enough