shie of receiving any notions which have not the species and colour of Truth since men profess a willingness to buy it almost at any rate and to value the possession of it above the World and even to sacrifice their Lives for Truth sake it seemeth strange that there should be any such Anomalous Creatures and Monsters among the Sons of men as will care so little for it as to exchange it for a Lye and not onely to plead and dispute but moreover to suffer and become Martyrs for a Falshood O foolish Galatians who have betwitched you that you should not obey the Truth Gal. 3. 1. 'T is such a senseless thing to be in Love with Error that none but meer Fools and Sots and such Fools as are bewitched too can be thought capable of suffering themselves willingly to be abused with wrong apprehensions especially in matters of Religion But he was not much out that divided the whole World into Cheaters and Cheatees There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some that Deceive and others that are Deceived 2 Tim. 3. 13. It has been so in all Ages and yet all Ages have admired at it and 't is that which we stand amazed at in these days to see not only mean and silly People that are but as Mushromes of the Earth but even Persons of Honourable Extraction of Parts and Learning and Generous minds to be both the Disciples and Patrons of a Religion which of all the Religions that ever were set up in the World is not only the most Bloody but the most Ridiculous But the Reasons which may be given of it are these chiefly 1 Education whereby men suck in mistakes with their first milk and have false Principles entailed upon them as part of their Inheritance And questionless great is the power of Education it being so difficult a matter to raze those principles out of mens minds which cleave to 'em from their Infancy and grow up with 'em from their Cradle especially if either the Tutor be not Faithful or the Scholer be not Inquisitive or Means be not afforded for the enlightning of the understanding as it is we know in many places beyond the Seas where Priests are either ignorant or dishonest and the Layety are nursed up in blindness taking their Guides for so many infallible Oracles who deprive 'em of the Bible and other usefull Books and breed 'em up as you would breed up Pyes and Parrots to say any thing which they do not understand No wonder if these miserable Souls believe a thousand things for Truths which we who have the means of Knowledge plainly find to be no other than Impostures and we doubt not but God who is rich in mercy will Pardon the invincible Ignorance of these deluded wretches and require of them according to what they have and not according to what they have not But God be blessed this is not the case of those Romanists who live amongst us They cannot pretend that they are not or may not be better instructed such of them especially as have deserted our Communion 't is not through Ignorance that They are deluded but very probably it happeneth that they are brought to believe a lye 2. By the Love they bear to some base and sinister ends For certainly nothing doth more corrupt and abuse Mens understanding than their Affections Either the Hatred of a party or the Hope of Promotion or the Fear of great mens frowns or the Love of Riches when they run greedily after the Errour of Balaam for reward but above all a desire of gratifying their Sensual Lusts and Appetites carrieth a mighty hand over their Reason to make it receive Falsehood for Truth and to believe not that which is Rightest but that which is most popular most pleasant and most advantageous Reason is either the best or the worst Counsellour When it sits in the Throne commanding the lower faculties of the Soul it gives True judgement and faithful directions But when it hearkeneth to the Oratory of Interest and submits to the Empire or flattery of the will it is like the hand of a disordered Dial that pointeth to any Figure and it is impossible for that man to be free from mistakes who is guided and led away by his Lusts For these do strangely paint every object to make it lovely and beautiful so that when it is presented to the understanding Reason is like an eye that is infected with the jaundies or that looks through a false Glass and every thing seems to be of the same hue and complexion and colour with the Medium Hence it cometh to pass mainly that there are so many errors in Religion because men are willing to comply with those doctrines which are most consistent with their Inclinations and most suitable to their Appetities And this is that I fear which hath perswaded so many to warp from the Protestant Religion there being variety of such Baits ministred by the cunning Anglers upon Tyler as are very delightful to every mans palate and Gusto whether they be the Clergy or Lay-people 1. They of the Priest-hood have by a thousand stratagems brought it so to pass that they are made privy to all mens secrets and are become Masters of all mens Consciences and make both Peasant and Peer truckle to their commands and exact what Tributes they please as just offerings to the Church Now by these means they throughly secure themselves from that contempt and Poverty which with us to the shame of us be it spoken is the common reward of many a Learned painfull and Honest Divine especially when we have to do with people of sordid and degenerous principles who neither Respect nor Feed the Ox that treadeth out the Corn. Now when a Religion is so advantageous 't is no wonder that there are found men who for their Interest sake both profess it themselves and teach it others too though it be full of Impostures We read in Act. 19. that when Demetrius and his follow-crafts men saw that their Trade and their wealth was in danger they strenuously oppos'd the Doctrine of St. Paul though it wanted neither Reasons nor Miracles to confirm it Sirs by this crast ye know we get our wealth and that was likely to be lost if the world should once be perswaded to believe that they be no Gods which are made with hands and therefore for the sake of the Silver shrines they cried up Diana of the Ephesians though it was but a sorry Puppet which they worshipt all this while I am afraid that there are many Demetriuses now adayes that meerly for their profit and gain cry up Diana of the Romans also For by this craft they get their Honours and Riches and 't is not strange that men who aim at base and secular Ends should first be perswaded to Admire and then be concern'd to Defend a Religion that brings them such a large and plentiful Dowry The wonder is that the Vulgar sort should
suffer themselves to be abus'd and cheated by men who count gain to be Godliness For as the World now goes people are not easily to be fool'd and baffled out of their Reason their Liberty and their Money too And yet we see there are some and those of no mean extraction or pitiful Parts who have been brought to subscribe to many Delusions which that Church teacheth for Catholick Doctrines But Secondly even these I fear do it for their Interest too Though it be not for their Spiritual and Eternal Interest to give themselves up to believe a Lye yet for their Worldly and Carnal Interest it is for the Interest of their Lusts and sensual Appetites which some are more fond of than of a good Conscience For certainly there is not a more easie Religion in the World For of Good Works they reckon but three sorts Alms Fasting and Prayer so that let a man but shew Mercy in some indifferent measure let him but forbear eating of flesh when the Church bids him let him but hear the service though in an unknown Tongue and run over the Rosary consisting of 150 Ave Mary's and 15 Pater Nosters and he need not much fear his future state So likewise of Mortal Sins they reckon but seven viz. Pride Envy Covetousness Carnality Gluttony Anger and Sloath So that let a man forbear these Seven though he commiteth Seventy times Seven more yet to Hell he shall not go Or though he commiteth These too yet if he do but confess to the Priest once a year or before he dieth he is Absolved at a cheap rate and if he chance to expire before all his Penance be done t is but leaving behind him a good Legacy for a Mass and then the pains of Purgatory shall not hold him long What an Heap of Sophistry is here and yet they call it Religion and are willing to believe that it is the only True Religion not because it is a Rational but a Pleasant Model for it strains no Sinews it breaks no bones but saves them the charge of mortifying their Lusts of crucifying their Affections of subduing their earthly Members of cutting off a right hand or pulling out a right eye and as long as things go at this rate it is a wonder to me that all lewd and vicious people in the world do not throw themselvs into the bosome of that Church where they may live as merrily as they list and yet if they be not careless or niggardly or poor may die as securely and happily as they can wish I have been the longer upon this Subject because I was minded to give you some account of that which at this day seemeth such a strange thing that every one is ready to lift up his hands in admiration that when the world generally is so knowing some should be prevailed with to forsake a Grave Serious and Excellent Religion to embrace a Profession which is made up of Fooleries Chimaera's and Ridicules 'T is Interest many times that opens the gate and le ts out a Renegado or an Apostate And yet 3. Thirdly there is yet another account and the weightiest of all which the Apostle gives of it in my Text God doth many times send men strong delusions that they should believe a Lye For the right understanding of which words two things are to be noted 1. That the words are not so to be understood as if God did directly infatuate the minds of men or actually blind their understandings by working so powerfully upon them that they cannot but Err. For as he doth not Tempt so neither doth he delude any but every man is led away by his own Lusts and by the wiles and devices of the Prince of darkness the place then is not to be understood in a Positive but in a Negative sense rather viz. that God is many times pleased to permit men to be deluded to deliver them up to themselves to let them follow their own imaginations and to suffer them to be deceived by letting the reins loose to the Spirit of Error and by withdrawing from wicked people though not a sufficiency yet that plenty of Grace whereby they might have been kept out of the snare of the Devil God is said to have sent an evil Spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem Judg. 9. To have moved David to number Israel and Judah 2 Sam. 29. To have put a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets 2 Chron. 18. To have poured out upon the Jews the Spirit of a deep Sleep Is 29. And to have given them the Spirit of Slumber Rom. 11. 8. But all these Texts and expressions must be understood of Gods Permission and purpose of suffering Satan to use his Arts and Stratagems to close mens eyes and to cast a mist before their understandings and to draw them into Errors And so here God shall send them strong Delusions that is will suffer and permit the Devil and his Instruments to delude them that they should believe a Lye 2. It is to be noted that when God is pleased to do this it is not with an immediate design and direct intention that men shall be deluded that they may perish For he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance But the Apostle speaketh of the event and issue of things that the wickedness and ingratitude of People would bring them to that pass and upshot that they would believe any thing in the End though never so Romantick and Fabulous And so the sense of these words being opened the consideration which now lyeth before us is this that however some are necessarily Deluded through their invincible ignorance and others are willing to be Deluded for their interest and advantage yet that many are delivered up to strong Delusions is a just judgement of God upon them as a punishment of their unrighteousness Because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved for that cause saith our Apostle God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye An example whereof we have in King Ahab 2 Chron. 18. Because he would not credit the account which Michaiah gave him concerning his going up to Ramoth Gilead the Lord suffered him to be deceived and thereby to be slain The Lord said who will entice Ahab King of Israel that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And there came out a certain Spirit and said I will entice him I will go out and be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets And the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Go out and do even so In like manner he dealt with the whole Nation of the Jews when they were in Love with Lies and required the Prophets to Prophesie deceit unto them God chose their Delusions and gave them up to the ways and imaginations of their hearts insomuch that the Prophets prophesied falsly and the Priests
and was delivered of a Popeling and so cozened the whole Church and her self too notwithstanding her Infallibility but as to this it will be said that it was not Error in Capite a judicial Error but a personal slip only an hurt in the Elbow or the Shin or else they will deny that there was ever such a Pope and with them it is a Rule that Fortiter mentiri to Lye strenuously and to swear to it for the sake of the Catholick cause is not only pardonable but meritorous too I shall only add what is very well known that Sixtus the 5th set forth a Latine Translation of the Bible and cursed all that would not use that and after him came Clement the 8th and set forth another and different Translation and cursed all that would not use that so that let the Romanists turn themselves which way they please they are all accursed and damned if it be so that their Popes be indeed Infallible But 't is a wonder that any Learned person should be of that opinion of men who have been so vicious so ridiculous and so inconsistent with themselves that the Italians themselves have made them the Subjects of the bitterest Pasquils and Satyrs only I do remember what a Learned Writer hath observed of Aeneas Bishop Taylor lib. of Proph. Sect. 7. Silvius that before he came to be preferred to the Popedome he laughed at the conceit of the Popes Infallibility and the reason why some did set him above Councils was this as he ingeniously confest because the Pope had the disposal of all Spiritual Preferments which Councils had not and so the thing fairly ends that 't is not the Love of Truth but the Love of Interest which has made men to sweat to defend this pretence of Infallibility A pretence which I have been the longer upon because it is the grand Delusion on which many others are built and though many who dare not believe their own Senses are so senseless and sottish as to believe this fancy yet I consider that thousands have been justly given up to believe a Lye That great impostor Montanus pretended that he was the Paraclete or Comforter that was promised and that Delusion prevailed so that the Acute and Learned Tertullian himself was at last perswaded of the Truth of it Though it be a dangerous yet 't is no New thing for the worst of men to say they are Infallible Those false Prophets and false Teachers who seduced the World in the Apostles days pretended the same thing and it was the grand Delusion which the Righteous God delivered them and their followers up to believe because they loved not the Truth 2. Another thing observable of those first Hereticks is that they taught the worship of Images S. John cautioned his little Children to keep themselves from Idols 1 Joh. 5. 21. And S. Paul spake of some Idolaters that were in the World in his days 1 Cor. 5. 10. Now by these are to be understood not only those who worshipped the Pagan Deities but those also who worshipped Pictures whether of God or of Christ or of Men. And that such there were in those first times is very clear out of the Writings of many Ancient Doctors in the Church and though they called themselves Christians as the sincere Professors of the Gospel were called yet were they condemned and prescribed by the Church as vile and abominable Hereticks Such were the Cerinthians who boasted of their immediate Revelations and yet honoured the Picture of Judas himself because he was the occasion of Christs death Simon Magus of whom I spake Epiph. Haeres 21. Iren. l. 1 c. 20. Augustinus Eusebius before delivered an Effigies of himself to his Followers in the shape of Jupiter and another of his Strumpet Helena in the shape of Minerva and his Disciples by his directions worshipped these with prostrations with incense with meat and drink-Offerings In like manner the Carpocratians had the Pictures of Christ and of Iren. l. 1. c. 24. Paul and of others to which they gave religious worship and by so doing did conceive that they greatly honoured Christ himself and his Apostles Now all these poysonous Branches of Idolatry proceeded from one bitter Root that wicked Sorcerer who was the Author of all * Cyril Cat. 5. Vide Ouzel in Min. Faelic p. 54. Heresies And the learned Dr. Hammond is of opinion that Saint Paul pointeth to these Impostors Rom. 1. 23. where he saith that they changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like unto a corruptible man for they supposed that God himself was adored and worshipped in and by these Images and Representations Like unto this old abominable and heretical Practice is the modern Practice of the Church of Rome in worshipping the Pictures of the Persons in the Holy Trinity of the Holy Virgin and of the Apostles and other Saints And tho they would come off with a nice and foolish distinction between Latria and Dulia which yet their Writers do not throughly agree in yet suppose they do not pretend to give Divine worship to the Images themselves but to the Prototypes that is to God and to Christ who are thus Represented this is a very gross delusion and a Lie in the Scripture sense of the Word that is down right Idolatry For they who worshipped the golden Calf in the Wilderness are called by the Apostle Idolaters 1 Cor. 10. 7. and yet they were not so sottish as to think that the Image which they had just formed with their hands was the very True God but looked upon it as the Symbol of Gods presence and worshipt it as Gods Representative and their Worship was ultimately directed not to the Calf but to God himself by the Image and under that Similitude and so they were guilty of Idolatry in the Manner tho not in the Object of their worship for they worshipped the True God after a False way And indeed this was the Idolatry of the very Pagans For tho many of the vulgar sort among them terminated their worship in the Images themselves yet the wiser sort did conceive and prefer that they worshipped the Great God by their Images and not the Images themselves So Celsus declared in his Disputations with Origen that he was no better than a perfect Fool that looked upon those things things of Wood and Stone of Brass and Gold to be Gods and not rather as Origen cont Cels l. 7. Images of the Gods And the Pagans in Arnobius profest that they worshipp'd Statues only Arnob. l. 6. because through them honor is given to the Gods whereas the Images themselves were worshipt only for their Dedication and Relation sake unto the Deity This was the Plea of the Heathens and this is the Plea of the Papists so that either they are guilty of Idolatry or else neither Jews nor Heathens were ever guilty of it And whatever evasions they make use of to excuse