to induce a firm Faith in those things which do not nor can't falls justly under this censure For greater assurance then these give us in their respective objects we cannot have and upon this men adventure all that is dear to them even their lives and he that is so much Infidel to himself as to disbelief his own sense or to the whole world as to refuse that security which is universally accepted amongst men engages himself in invincible jealousies of all persons actions and things whatsoever he may as well suspect the Food on his own Table as adore that on Gods and question any Record as well as that of the Bible So fair do Scepticism and Infidelity bid for the Lye that they cut off all the means not of all faith in God only but also in men yea of all knowledge and civil correspondence Lastly VVhatever errors destroy a good life and licentiate wickedness such for instance as confound the difference of Good and Evil that dispense with subjection truth honesty and mercy and the inseparable duties of Relations that decry the necessity of good works that establisheth a Religion void of Virtue a Faith without Obedience Repentance without Amendment all which do not by a perplext course of consequences but by a direct force set up Iniquity as by a Law The common sense of Mankind the universal Conscience is the most safe and steddy ark and repository of Truth firmer then Seths Pillars or the two Tables which can never moulder away in which all the virtues of a good life are so deeply ingrav'd that they are not to be eras'd without the violation of it Truth and Justice Charity and Sobriety are older then the Laws of the Sons of Noah and more durable then Mount Sinai they are the same yesterday to day and for ever the Data of all Laws the bonds of all Societies the hallowed soyl all Religions have been built on of which that is the best that is most exactly fram'd to them all men approve and defend these as their common Birth-right their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are ready joyntly to prescribe him as a common enemy that assaults them The grosseness of any Error is not in the little remote absurdities that Art may urge it with God forbid that the misnaming or misplacing the terms in a Syllogism should be damnable but in the immediate mischievous effects of it if the next streams be deadly we may conclude the fountain to be poysonous and whatsoever Doctrine authorizes evil we may boldly pronounce it to be a Lye A name so hateful for the relation it bears to the Devil that I dare not affix it to any errors but such as stand anathematiz'd for such by the truest oecumenical council even the common consent of the whole world And now it may be wondered how in so nice and squeamish an Age such tough and unsavoury Untruths should be so greedily swallow'd and I might be thought were not such conceipts too notoriously own'd to have devis'd some Monsters to make sport with how men whose understandings serve them well as to other things should yet be so stupid as to deny him that made them or to make him such an one as they please or to turn Infidels to themselves and all men or lastly to think real virtue upon which their own all other mens comfort and security depend to be but an old Heathen notion a Levitical shadow as very a trifle in Gods accompt as in their own This may seem strange but the wonder will soon be over if we will consider the second part of the Text The reason of this sad doom Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved A sad charge as heavy as the doom That it imports more then bare Infidelity is plain from the words which signifie 1. An unworthy reception of truth they received not the love of it 2. The defeating the design of it were not saved by it There are too many that receive the Doctrines and Promises of a holy Life for that is the specifical sense of truth in the holy Scripture with scorn and contempt who disdaining the sneaking guilt of the triflers in my Text aspire to that of Blasphemers of Truth for whom therefore a more dreadful judgment then that here if any can be so is of old appointed Because you have set at naught all my Counsel I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your fear cometh Others receive it with more civility with an agreeable countenance and behaviour but a cold indifferency as they would a stranger and if its approach dresse Language or arguing chance to please them their civility may improve to that gladness that Herod afforded the Baptist and 't is a welcome Guest for an hour A third sort receive it with a zealous fondness with Passions and Raptures yet not it but the phrase the tone the action that conveighs it For let the same truth be read in a Lesson in a lower key and with a more compos'd behaviour and it looses its warm entertainment And what is all this but flattery and falshood It may be the love of something that is agreeable to the Ears as sweet Accents or smooth Periods are let the matter be serious or frivolous or to the Fancy as such discourses as sooth mens particular tempers whether they are true or false or to the Understanding as a well-fram'd Hypothesis of the motions of the Planets But all this even the clearest notion of truth falls short of the love of it This admits it beyond all the chambers of imagination and discourse into the treasures the affections of the Soul seats it there in full power casts out whatsoever is distastful to it and subjects all things even its dearest inclinations to its Laws and whatsoever is short of this is but being slightly pleas'd or instructed by it not saved which is the second part of their charge That men look upon Salvation as a bare Reversion which hath nothing of duty or happiness in it on this side the Grave as it argues a strong love of their Sins so it doth a gross ignorance of the design of the Gospel the onely effect of which that should or can be expected from it here as it every where declares is that it save us from our sins without which the strongest hopes of Heaven are but the Dreams of a Fools Paradise If therefore men will not be better'd by it if notwithstanding its plainest Precepts highest Promises and most frightful Terrors if in defiance to the strongest motives the Blood of Jesus and the Bowels of God to invite them and all the Aids of Heaven tender'd to assist them and all the treasures of Love and Vengeance laid open to perswade them they will continâ—e in their wickedness and not be saved with whatsoever solemnity they receive they do effectually but reject and baffle the truth This is their
the Nation they live in as their Language their Habit their Laws and Customs are yet we know the great design of it is to instruct and encourage us in those things that may make us good and happy for ever and he that lists not to be so cannot be a true Friend to that Faith which should make him so Yet we see that Education Custom Interest and Prae-ingagement implant even in the worst of men a very tenacious reverence of their Belief but I hope we value ours upon stronger motives which though it be besides the design of my Text to recompt yet that I be not too impudent a Beggar of the Question the Characters I have given of gross and damnable errors will acquit if of the imputation of any such Search and try if there be any thing in it that tends to the denial of God the diminution of his Glory the countenance of Infidelity or a bad Life Then let it suffer in our esteem But if it be so tender of Gods honour that it won't venture to parcel it out to others upon the warranty of any critical distinction if it be so fair and ingenuous as not to impose upon our understandings and senses but subjects it self to the closest sober enquiries if it have so much esteem for true Goodness as to prefer it before all outward Ritualities and set it above the dispensations of any Interests or Powers whatsoever I hope it may find excuse with all those that are true Lovers of God Reason and Virtue But the great fault of our Faith and the sum of all those particulars 't is charg'd with is that it is too stubborn and nice and will not be commanded nor entreated beyond that Rule which the great Author of it hath left us and sure this should not be its reproach but commendation to those whose great glory it is to have transmitted the Holy Scripture to us if it offend in this 't is certainly on the safer side of a great modesty and an humble deference to our blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles Such an accompt of it as this But from his Royal lips who spoke and writ and liv'd and dy'd best for it next to the holy Jesus and his immediate Witnesses render'd it so acceptable to a profess'd Enemy of it Pardre Rhohose Confessor to the Infanta as the story is well known and voucht that he turn'd its Confessor in this honest acknowledgment If this be your Faith for ought I know you may be sav'd as well as I. But to return to my Text whatever accompt hath endear'd it to us nothing so much hazards it as a Pagan life and conversation There are two things men are commonly very fearful of in this case The weakness of their own Understanding and the wiliness and cunning craftiness of those that lye in wait to deceive As for the first however faulty simplicity may be in other things we have no great cause to apprehend it so here Yea the itch of Knowledge which drew man into the first fatal Error hath still continued to have the same evil influence whilst men are contented with that measure of knowledge which is fit for them and answers the offices and necessities of their Lives they are safe within these bounds But when they begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to soar above St. Johns Epistles to his Revelations and leave Charity to expound Mysteries disclose Prophesies and model Polities they enter into Clouds and Darkness and no wonder if they stray Gnostick is the true name of every Heretique Nor is the craftiness of Deceivers so dreadful as men make it For besides that the truly good man is seldom so idle or curious as to hearken to their Charms so his beloved Principles of humility peacefulness and submission make him abhorrent of them yea there is an awfulness in goodness that checks their boldest sollicitations but wickedness doth invite them as the luxurious Prodigal the Cheats and though their good Words and fair Speeches may lead captive silly Women yet 't is only such as are laden with Sins and led away with divers Lusts Let us not then impute that danger to these that is onely due to wickedness of life those do but assault the out-works this strikes at the vitals of our Faith and creates those strong prejudices to it which were they not aw'd by some outward regards would soon break out into open Hostility A sound Faith and a corrupt Life may be found together there are too many such monsters as Orthodox Reprobates men that hold the truth of God in unrighteousness but this they wholly owe to the restraints of the Divine Providence not to any inward friendship that maintains the union Didst not thou oh mighty God who rulest the raging of the Sea didst not thou likewise stop some means Principles from running out into their proper practices and other mens practices from setling in their proper Principles what a deluge of Infidelity and Barbarism would soon overflow thy poor Church Yet by whatever outward bond mens Faith is ty'd to them if it be not ingrasted in their Hearts and Lives it hangs but loose and lies at the mercy of any Engine to remove it that hath as much force as that which upholds it and let such ever bless God that they were born under a most Gracious Defender of their Faith God forbid we should ever again be fool'd with the old shooes and the mouldy bread of the Gibeonites to create of foment any publick jealousies the Language of which we too sadly know when they speak out is nothing but Arm Arm yet there is a godly jealousie the Apostle speaks of which we all ought to have of our selves which would call down our eyes from a busie prying into aspects of the heavenly bodies to behold the fatal Prognosticks in our selves which if we did consider would awaken such apprehensions as these in us How have we seen Truth approaching us with all the powers of reason sweetness and terror with all kind of demonstrations but the miraculous ones of the spirit and in lieu of them with the confirm'd experience of sixteen hundred years But what reception what success hath it found Let shame and sorrow answer If it hath escapt our scorn we have been very merciful to it and a cold patience hath been a high favour and now how indifferent must we needs be for that which we have treated so unworthily How easily may the subtilty of wit or the caresses of friendship perswade us from that which hath been our continual burthen which we have and do actually renounce 2. The best expedient for the defence of Truth and preventing the growth of gross Errors is the enforcement of a good life by the precepts and practice of it How vain and fruitless have Dispute and Controversie been how few Converts have they made and 't is no wonder there is a veil lies upon mens minds which must not be
rudely rent but remov'd with a gentle hand There is a Laesum organum in the case The God of this world hath blinded their minds to the cure of which we must first apply for all the treasures of light open'd upon a sore eye will but more offend it mens understandings are not to be immediately attacqu'd nor carried by storm the more they are press'd the more they resist they lie deeply intrencht in the affections and are never to be gain'd but by those fair representations and powerful applications of goodness that may win these Though the holy Jesus spake so as never man spoke and did those mighty things that none else could do Yet had not his Lips been as full of Grace as they were of Truth and his Works of Benignity as they were of Power he might have astonisht many he had never proselyted any to him The Primitive methods of convincing were by letting their light so shine before men that they might see their good works and by well-doing they did that which we find nothing else can do they put to silence the ignorance of foolish men and we cannot imagine how any other wayes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which were nothing in the worlds accompt should have brought to nought the greatest and the foolish and weak have confounded the wise and the mighty Yea this is the method of all Imposture and Temptation they transform themselves into the appearance of goodness and thus the Serpent winds himself there where the teeth of the Lyon could not enter Let us use some of the Viper in our Antidote for Truth and Error Life and Death make their entry the same way Whilst railing confutes its own best reasoning and the keenness of the argument blunts it and the curiousness of art makes it suspected and all the wayes of wit and anger are unsuccessful then goodness infinuates it self and melts down the iron sinew and the brow of brass For 't is most certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can be so spoken but it may be spoken against but however men may put by the strokes of the strongest reasoning yet they cannot resist the charms of Charity Purity Meekness and Humility and Goodness and Truth are so everlastingly allyed that where men meet with the one they certainly expect the other Which of you convinceth me of sin was such a challenge as the Jews could not answer to our Saviour and if I say the truth why do you not believe me was such an Assumption as they could not object against A good life therefore is the plainest and highest commendation of and would gain more Proselytes to our most holy Faith then all our Pleas and Apologies for it Were we but as good as our Religion is and would have us be our Enemies would flow into our Church and we should not need any either Comprehensive Arts or Colledges pro propaganda side to bring the fam'd argument of universality on our side Yet should this method prove unsuccessful to others it would return to our own profit which is the Last conclusion An honest Obedience to the truths that are universally received or a good life which never yet came into controversie is the best security we can have from all dangerous and damnable Errors To be secure from these is I doubt not the desire study and enquiry of all but 't is too usual for men to find a Dungeon where they look't for a Sanctuary Some fly to a Spirit they have heard much talk of which without any thoughts of their own or the weak helps of Heathen Philosophy Carnal Reason or Spiritual Guides will by an immediate hand direct them and when their fancies are well impregnate with this pleasant conceipt lay by all further care of themselves commit their minds to the strange impulses of it not doubting but under its conduct they shall be led into all truth And so no doubt they would were it the sweet and calm spirit of holiness and sobriety of a peaceable and good life But if we expect this any other way then in the diligent use of our faculties we may wait as long for it as the Jews for their Messias Are all Prophets are all Apostles are all Evangelists that they dream of Inspiration Moreover no Spirit is to be believed without due tryal and that furious Spirit which hath so haunted the World and would turn all things upside down betrays its self by its fruits to be of an evil kind its fierceness and violence plainly speak it to be of kin to that in the Gospel That threw the poor man into the fire and water 'T is no more in short then the force of mens own black and impetuous Lusts which by their strength they take for some omnipotent thing and so suffer themselves to be hurried by it into all the Labyrinths of Darkness By whose misfortunes others grown more sober and wary retire to their own reasonings where having fortisi'd themselves with good sense and great suspition they think they are safe from the assaults of gross tyes And so they were were they not false to themselves by leaving some weak and indefensible places where the enemy may easily enter For such as the man is such is his reasoning if he be soft and voluptuous smcoth and sensual errors may surprise him if cruel and revengeful any bloody and fiery Doctrines will take him and how safe soever the man of argument thinks himself in it yet if he can live in a sin against which he can argue as well as any of those whose trade it is why may he not on the same enducements admit an error which he can as well confute Thus men of the greatest parts and improvements have espous'd the greatest Errors prefessing themselves to be wise they become fools Which whilst others observe grown more fearful and modest by their fall they think it safest to trust themselves with some wise guide and having heard of one that 's infallible they chearfully resign their understandings to his keeping and then they are safe And so surely they are if it be but so But first they must be infallibly assur'd of his infallibility else they have nothing mended their condition For if the proof of this admits of the least doubt as the difference of those that own it where they should fix it doth confess if they have not an unquestionable evidence of the unfailing integrity and wisdom of him they have intrusted with so great a treasure as their Faith and their Souls Then instead of wisely ensuring they may for ought they know onely have tamely enslav'd them And a shrewd suspition there is that it is so in that men must extinguish the Lamp of God in them for their safer guidance and to secure their Faith must abandon their Reason and Sense of which there can be no use nor need to him who is held by an infallible band
and cannot be misguided But sure the world hath had proof enough of the danger of such Guardians of their Faith and 't is to be hoped when men have run through all these mazes and are grown giddy and tir'd therein they will be perswaded to repose themselves whither all men fly at their last distress under the better security of a good life Not that this excludes thoughtfulness or devotion or supersedes the necessity of Church Doctrine or Discipline for the honest use of those and a modest teachable submission to these are great parts of a good life But it calms the Passions purges the Affections tunes the instruments of Reason and eases the Soul of all inward Disorders And that this is the best preparation even for Saecular Wisdom all men do own in that none go reeking in Lust wallowing in Riot flaming in Passion to any serious study Councel or Action they take their most virtuous moods for those and do appear the best men and Christians when they would shew themselves the best Philosophers and Counsellors But a good life doth more then this to the preserving us from deadly Errors for it begets in us a quick sehse of whatsoever is contrary to its self as all such Errors still are and though the good mans art may fail him in small mistakes yet his continual exercise of goodness as the experience of every Artist in his Trade and the naturate sagacity of every Creature in what is good or evil to it makes him very apprehensive of what is very false and dangerous But its greatest safety is in this that it entitles us to Gods especial care and guidance who though he had not told us so often as he hath That the meek he will guide in judgment and teach his wayes If ye continue in my words ye shall know the Truth He that heareth my words and doth them is founded upon a Rock yet if our thoughts be not very unworthy of him we shall not dare to suspect that he will ever abandon a true Lover and Doer of his Will who desires nothing but to be conform'd to himself by it to be bewildred and benighted in the errors of the wicked that lead to death The jealousie of such a sportive cruelty we should abhor to have of any worthy Friend or Master and 't is beyond all expressions base and unreasonable of him who is Light and Love Who should he forsake a Soul wholly devoted to his Laws to wander and be misguided to its ruine must forget not only his Promises but his very Nature his Truth and Goodness and if once we call these into doubt we sink into bottomless Scepticism where we shall not find any surer footing for the certainty of our Senses then of our Faith The same foundations then that Heaven and Earth are built upon the same is every good mans Faith yea Heaven and Earth may pass away but the goodness of the Lord endureth for ever Here therefore is the most firm and Chatholick security that God hath provided for men of all capacities whereby the meanest Reasoner whose head akes at a hard argument is as safe if he be but as honest and good as the Scribe or the Disputer or the man that is mighty at demonstration Let us therefore as the Apostle St. Peter advises us commit the keeping of our Souls to God in weldoing as unto a faithful Creatour and pray ever as our Apostle hath taught us in the end of this Chapter Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father who bath loved us and given us this everlasting consolation and good hope comfort our hearts and stablish us in every good Word and Work to whom be all glory given world without end Amen ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. for their read ment 20. for whether read rather p. 6. l. 1. for 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 disbelief read disbelieve p. 7. l. 12. for prescribe read proscribe p. 18. l. 4. read 〈◊〉 11. after These p. 24. l. 7. read the before aspects p. 28. l. 12. read its for their p. 31. l. 2. for read natural FINIS Mâ—tth 24.24 Ephes 4.14 â—iph bâ—r 2â— Isa 44.20 Rom. 1.23 Greg. Nazian 〈…〉 John 8.44 Prov. 1.20 c. Mark 6 2â— Tit. 2.11 â—2 Rom. 1.18 Ephes 4.19 1 Tim. 1.19 20. Jam. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.4 1 Pet. 2.2 Matth. 13â— 13,14,15 By the Ea 〈…〉 Monmouâ—â— in the Hist the Civil wars of Itaâ— â—ph 4.14 Rom. 16.18 2 Tim 3.6 2 Cor. 11.2 2 Cor. 4.4 Matth. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.15 1 Cor. 1.27.28 â— Cor. 11.13 Joh. 8.46 Joh. 4.1 Mat. 17.15 Rom. 1.2 Psal 25.9 Joh. 8.38 32. Matth. 7.25