Name Protestant is a common Title to discriminate all those who renounce and forsake the Romish Communion because of its contradiction to the Holy Scripture from those who do own and are of that Communion But it was not designed to descriminate one sort of people renouncing and protesting against that Communion on the aforesaid Account from others who agree in the same Point And therefore in every Age and Nation other Names have been made use of to discriminate Protestants one from another according to the matter in difference betwixt them True Protestantism then consisteth more especially in two Points First Protesting against and renouncing Popish Corruptions and especially all such Infallibility Supremacy and Authority as the Bishops of Rome have for some Ages laid a claim to It is the renouncing the thing it self which Protestantism chiefly respects its reference to such a particular person is only accidental by reason of his audacious and arrogant challenging that Power But Protestantism would be equally against the Claim if that Bishop should lay it down and any other either in France or in any other Countrey should challenge it or if it should be pretended to be lodged in any other Man or Body of Men. Secondly Protesting for the Sufficiency and Authority of the Scripture That the Holy Scripture is a safe and full Rule for the Instruction of us in all things needful to be known or done in order to Eternal Life and that nothing ought to be admitted as an Article of Christian Faith which cannot by just consequence be proved by this Rule according as the Church of England expresseth her self Article 6. In these two things Protestantism doth consist the denial and renouncing of the Pope's arrogated Supremacy and all those Superstructions which have no foundation but that Authority and the owning and adhering to the Scriptures as the only compleat Rule of Religion This is the great fundamental positive Principle in Protestantism For Protestantism doth not take away an andue boundless Power and Authority from the Pope and conser it on another person It ascribes indeed to the Supream Power in every Nation what belongs to the same according to the constitution of the Government protesting against all forreign and every unjust pretence and claim to the prejudice of the rightful Owner And it asserts the only right of the Scripture to be the Rule that every Supream Power on Earth should observe in restoring and reforming Religion as occasions are offered by reason of the Decays or Corruptions which may have prevailed The Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants whatsoever else they Believe besides it and the plain irrefragable indubitable Consequences of it well may they hold it as a matter of Opinion but as matter of Faith and Religion neither can they with coherence to their own grounds Believe it themselves nor require the Belief of it of others without most high and Schismatical Presumption And now seeing Protestantism doth mainly or rather only consist in asserting the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule the only Rule by which all Christians are to govern and manage themselves in all matters of Religion So that no Doctrine is to be owned as an Article of Faith on any account but what hath very plain warant and sound evidence from the Scriptures nor no instance of Religious Worship to be owned or submitted to as necessary nor any thing to be entertained as a part of Religion but what the Scripture doth appoint and warrant It may not be altogether unuseful to inquire briefly whether this Principle be really justifiable or no Or whether those who are called Protestants on this Account be truly in the right touching this matter For if we be right in this Point then the great Fundamental opposite Point of our Adversaries must needs have a slaw in it and cannot be solid and substantial and consequently all the particular Doctrines and Practices which have their whole being and Dependance on that Authority must necessarily expire and give up the Ghost Now much might be offered to evince that Protestants have very good ground to rest assured that they are not mistaken in this matter but I will only offer these few considerations which being well considered and improved may suffice to satisfie any unprejudiced and impâ—â—tial honest meaning person that Protestantism is not a â—â—mersome precarious thing but is really accompanied with the greatest evidence and certainty any Perswasion can justly pretend unto First It is universally acknowledged by all who profess themselves Christians that the Holy Scriptures viz. those Books contained in the Old and New Testament as received by Protestants are the Word of God and were written at the appointment of God for the constant Use and Benefit of his Church and People by Persons Divinely Inspired for that purpose Secondly Supposing but not granting that those Scriptures do not contain the whole Revelation God hath made of his Mind and Will for the constant perpetual and obliging Use of his Church yet it is most evident that these Scriptures are a safe and most certain Rule in Matters of Religion so far as they do extend They are a certain Rule touching those matters of which they do treat and so far as they do treat of them So that there can be no just pretence of a Divine Revelation for any Doctrines or Practices which are inconsistent with or contradictory to what God hath declared in these Scriptures Because the Divine Veracity and Truth which is Essential to the Deity cannot permit that God should contradict himself All that can be pretended with reference to this matter is that God may make more Declarations of his Will and either inlarge the Discoveries He hath made of his Will touching particulars already made known or add Declarations of His Mind concerning Matters which He doth not at all discourse of in the Scriptures But it is not consistent with the Natural Notions of a Deity not with the Revelations God hath made any way of Himself that He should overthrow the Truth of a Former Revelation by a Latter or that Contradictions should be reconcileable in His Will. For any Man to affirm that a Divine Revelation may contradict any thing taught in the Scriptures whil'st he professeth these Scriptures are pure Divine Revelations is not only to involve himself in most obvious and horrid Absurdities but to contract upon himself to burthen and overwhelm himself with the guilt of the most plain and unnatural Blasphemy against God. If any thing that plainly contradicts the Scripture can be a Divine Revelation then a Man may be indispensibly obliged to Believe and not to Believe the same thing to do and not to do the same work And so Man will be brought under such Circumstances that whether he Believe or do not Believe whether he Practice or do not Practice it will be the same thing he will be equally guilty But certainly if our Adversaries can pretend to
former Ages were acquainted with devising new ways to satisfie for Sin and undertaking to save Mens Souls after they are dead in Sins Hence there is something Men call Religion that must certainly please the Careless and as some tell us as certainly Save them If you are melancholly and inclined to strictness and Corporal Mortifications they will humour you in that they can provide you Pennances and Securities which shall sufficiently vex and macerate your Flesh If you are soft and tender if you would have a Jovial Religion and would allow your selves in wantonness and excess c. and yet not miscarry at last they can fit you with Indulgencies and Pardons and will not question to send you safely to Heaven by vertue of the Merits and Righteousness of some of their Antient Friends who never had a Being in the World or of others who tho they might have a Being here on Earth in all probability never got to Heaven themselves I am sure they never had Righteousness enough of their own to carry them to Heaven however it is grown so bulky since they left it behind them and has crept into the Churche's Treasury But the Apostle acquaints us that Antichrist will come with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish 2 Thes 2. 10. Sâ—condly Declining from their Love to and Zeal for the Faith growing cold and indifferent concerning the Faith when People have not that affection and concern for the Faith with which they seemed at first to entertain and welcome it See Rev. 2. 4 5. People are too prone thus to Apostatize from the True Faith after that they have made a Profession of it and if Matters be well considered there is not much ground to wonder it should be so For 1. People do too ordinarily make a Profession of the Faith upon unsuitable Motives and Principles not because they understand it and have their Consciences convinced of its truth and excellency but meerly because it is the fashion and custome of the People where they live to make such a Profession or it is a Profession that has got into repute or upon some other such mean and fickle Account Men that have no sound Principles will ever be for that Profession which is uppermost and is attended with most Pomp and Pleasure c. Christ had Followers in abundance whil'st he fed them with Loaves but how did they fall off and slink away when they failed of their Expectations Joh. 6. 26. 2. Multitudes content themselves with a meer notional knowledge in Religion and take no due care to digest Truths and turn the Principles of Religion into solid Nourishment Now the Doctrines of Religion if they do not sink down into our Hearts if they have not a powerful efficacy on our Affections if they do not put us invincibly upon such a Course of Life as bears some proportion with their nature and tendency they have no fast hold on us they will soon evaporate we shall easily part with them Luke 6. 49. Let the Food we eat be never so good and wholesome for the kind if we do not digest it if our Stomacks do not turn it into good Chyle and Nutriment it will soon become nauseous and the least provocation will make us vomit it up again 3. God doth often in just Judgment leave those to be hurried away by an evil Spirit of Delusion and Impiety who having long injoyed the means for their instruction and settlement in the True Faith have made no careful improvement of the same for those ends God ordinarily suffers such to be led away by Sathan and his lying Emissaries into Opinions drametrically opposite to the plainest Truths as well as to those vile affections which prompt to all uncleanness and practices which are inconvenient even according to the dictates of natural Light. Such are a ready and self-prepared prey to him whose coming is after the workings of Sathan c. 2 Thes 2. 9 10 11 12. 4. Over-loading Ecclesiastical Offices with Worldly Revenues Temporal Power and Dignities hath contributed very much to the prejudice of Christianity Too true did that voice prove This day is poison poured into the Church These things are powerful baits and strong temptations to ambitious covetuous domineering Persons Those who have such Offices so drest up and beautined to confer and bestow need not doubt but they shall find Advocates enough for their own particular Opinions and Ways though never so Erroneous And when Errours and Superstitions are back't with Power Greatness Wealth c. Oh what multitudes will they draw after them Besides when those who have not a mighty concern for the Interests of real Religion are too much advanc't in Ecclesiastical Affairs and rais'd above themselves it too usually falls out that an arbitrary Imperiousness starts up and prevails and then things of no great moment and for which Christ and his Apostles thought not fit to ingage their Authority or lay any stress of Religion on get into their heads and must needs be made terms of Christian Communion that they may be sure their Authority is acknowledged What Contests and Divisions have been raised and created by this means What Heats and Animosities have been this way occasioned Hereby Differences have been carried to such heights that at last Religion it self is even lost in the Quarrels commenc't about its Vestments and Trappings How have People's zeal or fury about things called Indifferent extirpated or quenched all serious and due concernment for the true Interests of Religion 'T is to be feared that hence there is occasioned an indifferency in the minds of multitudes touching the great Substantials of Religion which doth surpass the Indifferency of the things themselves for which we have so desperately contended The love of Worldly Grandure carried Demas away from the Faith 2 Tim. 4. 10. And over much concernedness for little Extra-Religious Matters gave the Apostle ground to suspect that those who were so affected would not be so honest firm and faithful to the Faith of the Gospel as good Christians ought to be Observe how he expostulates with them and lays down the grounds of his fears touching them Gal. 4. 9 10 11 12. 5. God permits Afflictions Persecutions and Sufferings to be brought on them who profess his Truth not only to try the Graces of the Faithful and to make their Graces appear more illustrious by their eminent exercise but that Hypocrites and meer Formalists who have no real love for his Truths nor give any hearty assent unto them may be discovered and have their disguises taken away In times of peace and quiet and whil'st the true Religion is on the thriving hand in the World many pretend to it who too much resemble Erasmus's Good Christian who appeared a very zealous Professor he would always have a New Testament hanging at his Girdle on one side but then he must have a Bottle of good Sack hanging on the other side As long as the True
if the ordinary sort of People be well vers'd in the Holy Scriptures it will not be easie to impose upon them Why cannot Men that would be Teachers now a days be as open and plain as the Prophets and as Christ and as his Apostles were These came not to vent any counterfeit false Wares and therefore they were wiling the People should examine and try what they taught them They were for the People's reading and searching of the Scriptures and judging of the Doctrines which were taught them by those Holy Scriptures which had been delivered unto them They came to deliver people out of Darkness not to keep them in or lead them unto Darkness And those who are their true Successors and Followers will do the like If Men have no Notions to scatter about and perswade People to swallow and submit to but what are sound and true and good and which are authorised by Jesus Christ they will have no occasion to be ashamed or afraid that People should examine them by the Scripture None flee from the Light but those whose Doctrines or Practices will not bear the Light. Christ's Doctrines did accord very well with those Divine Revelations those Jews had amongst them But the Unscriptural Traditions they had got amongst them and our Saviour's Doctrines could not stand together To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Isaiah 8. 20. Secondly Those who profess themselves Protestants ought to take care that they be well fixed and settled in the Protestant Religion The Apostles often require their Followers and Disciples and those they write unto to Stand fast in the Faith 1 Cor. 16. 13. And to Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And to Strive together for the Faith of the Gospel Phil. 1. 27. Now by these and the like Expressions which you meet with in the Apostolick Writing they plainly first warn them of the danger there is of Peoples Apostarizing from the True Faith and Religion of Jesus Christ after that they have made a Profession of the same And secondly excite and stir those up who make a Profession of the True Faith to take care that their Minds and Hearts may be throughly fixed and settled in the Faith least they should yield and waver and decline when Storms and Tryals shall arise and their constancy shall be assaulted And if there be but too much ground to fear that many who make a Profession of the Truth will Apostatize and forsake it when they shall be called to bear witness to it in some Instances which are ungrateful to Flesh and Blood. It highly concerns all who at present profess True Christianity to look well to it that they be so established and confirmed in what they profess that if a day of Tryal should come they may not loose their Crown destroy their Souls or betray the Truth First Those who do profess the True Religion may afterwards Apostatize from and relinquish it And there is too great occasion to fear that many however forward they appear in Profession will do so should they be tryed in any difficult and beloved Instances I do not mean that People who have long habituated themselves to profess the Christian Religion will easily be brought to an open and avowed renouncing of the Name of Christianity as though none could be justly charged with Apostacy from the Truth but those who can vye with Julian for impudence in contemning and trampling under foot the very Name and Profession of the Son of God. The estate of those who proceed so far is beyond measure dreadful Heb. 6. 4 5 6. But there are two things which the Scriptures more especially insist on as imported by People's Apostatizing from the True Faith and which People are generally too prone unto and both which are very displeasing unto and greatly provoking of God. 1. Departing from the Purity and Simplicity of the Faith of the Gospel espousing and imbracing together with those Doctrines and Practices which Christ hath authorized in his Holy Scriptures other Opinions and Practices which are destructive of the Truth and power of Religion Christianity is as really impaired and injured by evil mixtures as by open professed opposition The Apostacy the Apostles spake of which was to accompany or rather constitute that great Antichristian State they foretel would have such a vast and large and durable Empire in the Christian World seems plainly to be of this kind The great Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity should be retained in outward Profession but yet other Doctrines should be introduced and be so vehemently imposed and insisted on that thereby the main Essential of Religion should be slighted oppressed and become in a great measure useless And way has been made for these Innovations by first forging some gross Impostures and counterfeiting some strange things to which they have given the Name of Miracles and so unwary ignorant People have been prevailed with to entertain no better than Diabolical Delusions as Divine Instructions and Commands very agreeable to what the Apostle foretells of Antichrist's coming After the working of Sathan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders 2 Thes 2. 9. 2. Altering the nature and use of many things which were Innovated by the pious Antients without any Divine Authority and purely by the conduct of a warm Zeal and a devout Intention Had no further progress been made in those Instances than those Antients made little prejudice would thence have happened to Religion But God is so jealous of his own Honour that usually when People manifest they have an Opinion that God hath not carefully enough provided for his own Cause and therefore they will guard and sence and provide more effectually for it He blasts all those Devices and suffers such Humane Inventions to be occasions of more than ordinary trouble and sometimes to be prosecuted so far as to make a formal and mortal Opposition to the Vitals of Religion 3. Depressing the Offices and Devotional Duties of Religion with unreasonable heaps of outward Formalities and Ritual Observations that so the Senses might be superfluously carest and by accomodating the Matters of Religion too much to the Rules of Carnal Policy By this means inward Seriousness and the Spirituality of Religion have been dispenc't with and Peoples Minds have been rendred lax and vain aiery and garish And having been thus inured for some time to these meer Externals which they have taken upon trust they have at last been so easie as to content themselves with an Implicite Faith and have rather chose to swallow any thing that should be offered them whole than put themselves to the trouble to enquire into its Nature Rise and Grounds 4. Finding out ways to reconcile what they stile Religion to Men's Carnal Lusts and Natural Tempers and Constitutions devising easier ways as they pretend to Heaven than any of the Saints in
Faith hath outward Honours Preferment Carnal Pleasures and Ease accompanying it it will not want Followers and Attendants but when Storms and Persecutions do arise and it is separated from these external Allurements they will soon shake hands with Religion and court whatsoever shall be drest up in its former Robes Such as espouse the True Religion not for its native Excellency but for its gorgeous Attire and great Dowry in this World will in all probability when Persecutions arise part with their Faith rather than their Pleasures Wealth and Ease they will sooner throw away their Bibles rather than their Bottles 1 Joh. 2. 19. Mat. 13. 20 21. Now if there be such danger of people's Apostatizing from the True Faith after they have made a profession of it it must certainly very importantly concern all who profess the Protestant Religion that is True Christianity as taught and delivered in the Holy Scriptures and as purged and reformed by the guidance and direction of this Divine Rule from all those Errours and Corruptions which have either through people's heedlessness crept into the profession of Christianity or through design have been slily ushered into it or by imperiousness have been forc't upon it I say it very highly concerns them to take care that their Minds and Hearts be so fixed and settled in the Faith of the Gospel that they may never be removed from their Constancy that they may not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of Men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. It should therefore be our care to get our Minds furnished with clear distinct Notions of those Truths in which the Scriptures do instruct people It is not enough that we can talk over in a general way the Doctrines of Religion we ought to labour for an explicite knowledge of Divine Revelations so that we may be able to prove and confirm every part of our Profession by express and clear Scriptures 1 Pet. 3. 15. The Ignorant Man will be always wavering Yea we should strive to get the Truths we profese and understand very strongly indeared unto our Hearts so as to prefer them above all Worldly and Carnal Interests and to have our Affections yea our whole Souls brought under their Power and Influence their Government and Soveraignty our Souls should so cleave unto them they should be so precious and dear unto us that neither Frowns nor Smiles Promises nor Threats may make any unhappy impression on us but the more blustering any Storms may be which can arise the deeper root we may take and grow the more firm and stable Phil. 1. 27 28. For 1. We must expect to meet with Tryals and Sufferings for the Faith of the Gospel which will overwhelm and ruine us if we be not well provided against them Our Passage to Glory is through many Tribulations We have many and various Enemies who will mischief us and obstruct us all they can who will do their utmost to prevail with us both by fair and foul means to make shipwrack both of Faith and a good Conscience We are not only exposed to the malice rage and spite of absurd and unreasonable Men but to the craft and fury too of those infernal Fiends who prompt and excite their carnal and earthly Tools and Instruments to vent and vomit forth their rancour and spleen against the True Faith and its Professors See Eph. 6. 12 13. 1 Pet. 5. 8 9. Rev. 2. 10. If you be not well fixed in the Truth how can you expect to hold out when temptations and sufferings shall come When you shall be in danger of loosing Estate Liberty all that is dear to you in the World yea Life it self for your Religion Did not the House built upon the Sand fall when the Rain descended and the Winds blew and beat upon it Mat. 7. 26 27. 2. Apostacy from the True Faith is a very hainous provoking sin is not this to offer God the utmost affront we can and in effect to say all manner of evil of him Do we not hereby charge him with being the greatest Impostor that ever was Is not this to throw the foulest dirt that is possible upon Religion yea openly to avow that Sathan and his drudgery are much better more ligible than Christ and his most Holy Faith That God is not to be trusted and that his Religion is not what he represents it O what abominable what innumerable what monstrous wickednesses are bred in the womb of Apostacy And what direful consequences and fruits may those expect who thus affront and incense the Almighty God against themselves He will not have a gracious regard for such He will cast off and punish severely all those that cast him off and deal treacherously with Him. The Just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10. 38. The Lord Jesus Christ will reject them and be ashamed of them when he shall appear in all his Glory Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Mark 8. 38. Though you set no value on Christ's Love at present and care for no more but that you may have the Countenance of great Persons and injoy the Pleasures and Wealth of the World yet remember that it will not be long before ye shall have other apprehensions of things than now you have It will not be long before you shall perceive all these things you prefer before the Faith of the Gospel to be very empty and void of all satisfaction and full of torment and horrour when Christ shall appear in Glory with his Holy Angels all these things will fail you and how you will howl and roar and complain then What tears will you then shed How will you curse your Apostacy and all that helpt it forward And now when your Case is thus helpless thus dreadful and all your Comforters are gone the Lord Jesus and his Mercy will fail you too he will send you to them whose favour you prefer'd before his who will tremble and quake as much as you and to your Wealth which will then disappear and to your beloved Pleasures which will then be bitterer than Gall and Wormwood you must only expect to behold his frowns and to feel the terrible discoveries of his insupportable displeasure you can expect no favour at his Hands See Prov. 1. 24. to the end 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9. Nay you have no good ground to hope you shall prosper in any of those designs you intend to drive forward by or under your Apostacy God doth very often notably blast such projects He causeth some remarkable and very fatal Curse to accompany those who relinquish his Cause and Truth What was Judas