and passions be mortified and we shall not fail to know the truth nay all our differences will be at an end or if any remain they will not be destructive either to Charity or that blessed Unity which all good Christians desire to see in the Church of Christ If all will not take this course yet they who do shall stand as unmoveable as a Rock though there be never such strong Winds and violent Gusts of Doctrine abroad that would blow them about For it is only Chaff and Straws and such like light or loose things which are carried about with the Wind Solid and well-built Houses stand firm and unshaken And so will all they who are deeply grounded in holiness and humility They will be stedfast and unmoveable and never be perswaded to follow any other Doctrines than those they have received in this Church though pressed with never so much earnestness because no Doctrines whatsoever can make them better than they are and by the Grace of God intend to be And this truly is a plain Direction whereby to judge of those Doctrines which trouble the Church Do they tend to make men at all the better if they do believe them Will their hearts be more purged from all bad affections Will they become more holy more humble more meek more modest more dead to this World more kind loving and charitable to all men by entertaining those Doctrines which are superadded to the Christian Faith into which we were baptized Or on the contrary Do they not give mens vices greater liberty Do they not puff them up as all windy knowledge doth Will they not dispose us to be more highly conceited of our selves more arrogant more angry more impatient of contradiction more uncharitable and censorious more loose in our conversation more unpeaceable and ungovernable If we find these to be the Fruits of such Doctrines we are assured thereby that they are not the true Christian Doctrines which have the quite contrary effects and make men of another Spirit To conclude There is one piece of Christian piety wherewith all our works must be begun continued and ended and that is earnest Prayer to God whom we must constantly beseech to pour the Grace of his holy Spirit upon us that we may not fail to follow all these Directions and that they may be effectual for our preservation To him let us address our selves with all humility and fervent affection imploring his gracious presence with us at all times to inlighten our minds to guide us in judgment according to his promise to give us understanding in his holy Word to bestow upon us a spirit of discerning that we may clearly perceive the difference of things and not take evil for good falshood for truth but the way of lying may be removed from us and he may grant us his Law graciously But above all things let us beseech him to give us honest and good hearts unbiassed by any carnal or worldly affections Let us pray with David in the Psalm now mentioned cxix 36. that he would incline our heart unto his testimonies and not unto covetousness turn away our eyes from beholding vanity and quicken us in his way For where the love of the World prevails any gainful errour may easily find entertainment And whensoever we find our selves begin to be unsettled in the belief of that which upon the most serious and deliberate consideration we have judged to be the truth whensoever the resolution we took upon that judgment begins to waver and shake let us remember that we are under a temptation and that every temptation is a deceit and would put a cheat upon us for every man is tempted saith St. James when he is drawn away by his own lust and inticed and thereupon let us apply our selves to God with the greater diligence and earnestness for his Grace to purifie our hearts that we may not be seduced by any bad affections but building up our selves in our most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost we may keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life S. Jude 20 21. Finally the Church it self hath put a Prayer into our mouths in the Collect for this Day in which let us not cease to make our humble and hearty requests to Him saying O Almighty God who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly Doctrine of thy Evangelist St. Mark Give us Grace that being not like Children carried away with every Blast of vain Doctrine we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
than the Lord Christ's was Can the Disciples convince men more than their Master did If that be a hopeless thing then there will be Controversies even about this Infallibility Which leads to the Third thing III. It appears plainly from hence that God never intended all errors should be kept out of the Church by an Infallible Authority No directly contrary St. Paul saith 1 Cor. xi 19. There must be heresies that they who are approved may be made manifest That is God thinks it just that men should be permitted to follow their own foolish conceits when they will not be guided by the plain directions of his holy Gospel By which means sincere and upright men are discovered and all men are tried whether they will obey the truth or turn aside unto unrighteousness There must be a tryal made of men and therefore such order must not be taken as to make it impossible there should be any heresies No God hath left it more than possible there should for there must be Heresies that there may be approbation made of Believers whether they will sincerly adhere to the plain truths of Christian Religion or part with them for pleasing and gainful errors Besides if God had intended to prevent this by establishing an Infallible Guide to whom all should resort He would have declared this intention the most plainly of all other things And have told us also where to find such an Authority and not have left this to be controverted and disputed which was intended to be the end of Controversies More especially if any one particular Church was to have this authority over all other Churches it would have been most needful that this should have been so clearly taught as to have put it out of all doubt For we can see no reason not so much as that of convenience why one Church should have it and all others want it but in reason every Church should have it if it were to be had that men might not be put to the trouble of going far for Infallible direction And as for that Church which now pretends to it there is the clearest evidence that no Church anciently thought it to have more Authority than other Churches who lookt upon themselves as her equals I speak of the Church of Rome whose Determinations and Traditions in matters of Doctrine were rejected by St. Cyprian Firmilianus and the rest of the African Bishops who write to the Pope as every one knows who reads St. Cyprian's Epistles not as their Superiour but as their good Brother their Collegue their fellow Priest rebuking him with much sharpness taxing him for pretending vainly * V. Epist LXXII LXXV Edit Oxon. to Apostolical Authority where he had none and for not conforming himself to the rule of Truth and Peace delivered by the Apostle and in downright terms affirming that every Bishop in the administration of his Church hath power to act according to his own judgment and that none could impose Laws upon another And as for matters of Ceremony all the Bishops of the East refused to submit to him challenging as much Authority from St. John as the Roman Bishop did from St. Peter This is notorious in the famous Question about Easter and sufficient to show the truth of what Aeneas Sylvius could not but confess before he came to be a Pope that little respect was had to the Roman Church before the Council of Nice And that Council expresly decreed the ancient Customs should be every where observed By which Antioch and Alexandria claimed the same Authority over the Churches subject to their Jurisdiction that the Roman Bishop did within his Diocess And thus it continued for many years after nor do the greater part by far of the Christian World at this day own any such Authority over them as the Bishop of Rome now challenges Let us not therefore be shaken by this Wind of doctrine no more than by any other wherewith this Church hath been troubled For there is no such Infallible Authority left in the Church for the deciding all Controversies much less can that Church lay the sole Claim to that Authority there is left in it or if it could justly pretend to the highest it would not be able to do what a far more miraculous Authority could not effect and there are other means of unity and peace prescribed by God which if men will not embrace there must be discords and dissentions whereby the integrity or falseness of every mans heart will be discovered What Means those are you shall see anon when I have spoken a few words of the Second Observation which now follows II. It is a childish thing to be unsettled in Religion because of this difference or contrariety of Doctrine wherewith the Church is at any time troubled So the Apostle might well call it because there being as I have lately shown you a form of wholsome words left by them in every Church which they planted a Summary of Sound Doctrine called the Faith once delivered to the Saints there could be no reason that any men who had this deposited with them should be unresolved what to believe and unsettled by the Preaching of other Doctrine but their instability proceeded merely from the weakness of their understanding and the strength of their passions These two things are remarkable in little Children as their understandings are weak so their passions are strong and their desires violent From whence it comes to pass that they are not only credulous but fickle and new-fangled as we speak delighting in that to day which they throw away to morrow These make them rash and hasty apt to quarrel one with another about little differences and dispose them to be taken with empty shows and pageantry with things that affect the senses and have a glistering appearance though void of all inward goodness and solid worth and usefulness In short while we are Children in understanding we are naturally injudicious and consequently inconstant We do not judge aright of things that differ and so are carried uncertainly to and fro as the Apostle here speaks from one thing to another and many times from better to worse especially when we meet with confident people who easily impose upon us This is a very dangerous estate and therefore it highly concerns us to get out of it by growing in knowledge and wisdom imitating little Children only in our endeavours to be without guile but labouring as the Apostle speaks in understanding to be men and to have a thorough knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus This St. Peter prescribes as a remedy against unstedfastness in the conclusion of his second Epistle Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things beware lest ye also being carried away by the errour of the wicked fall from your stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who it is most certain hath not left us in doubt
the sincere practice of all other duties of Christian piety For to do what we know to be the will of God is the surest way to be preserved by him both in truth and in holiness A godly life is the greatest security against all Impostures We shall never doubt of the truth of our belief when we feel it hath effected the design of Faith by bringing forth the fruit of it in all manner of vertue and godliness of living About which there is no doubt nor question no dispute nor controversy for all the parts of an holy life are as plainly set down in the holy Scriptures as that part of it now mentioned We beseech you Brethren know that is love them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Thes v. 11 12. All the rest I say are as express and clear and evident as this whether they be our duties toward God or towards man whether superiours equals or inferiours or whether they concern the right Government of our selves in all Temperance Soberness Chastity Self-denial Contentedness and Contempt of this present World Without which I mean contempt of this present World all the advice that can be given will signify little to secure us in the true Religion If this one thing be wanting we are liable to be deceived and none can help us We shall turn like Weather-cocks by every wind of Doctrine if our interest lie that way and it will not be in the power of any man by the clearest and most solid demonstrations to fix and settle us For the love of this present World of riches honours and preferments dazles the eyes of mens minds blinds their judgment bribes their affections corrupts their consciences and carries them into the foulest dotages Religion and the things of the other world cannot be of any great price in his account who admires and over-values the things of this present life Which will easily perswade him as I had occasion to shew you lately when he cannot keep both to let go his Faith that he may preserve these And therefore if we will stick fast to our Religion we must not cleave too close to this present World We must not frame too high an opinion in our minds of any thing here nor set our hearts and affections on it but learn to want as well as to abound to be satisfied with a little and as the Apostle speaks having food and raiment therewith to be content remembring that godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim. vi 6 8. Such lessons if we learnt and faithfully practised and there is no man that need be ignorant of them or defective in them unless he will they would preserve and keep our minds from being drawn away by plausible and gainful errors Nay more than that they would put an end to all controversies and disputes better than an Infallible Judge could do For when there was one in the world there were still Sects and Factions as I have already shown you But if we would submit to the power of the Gospel and of God's holy Spirit so far as to become obedient to the plain commands which he lays upon us that is to be made truly meek and lowly in heart humble and peaceable tender-hearted and Charitable holy and heavenly-minded having no designs for this world but all for the other not intending to serve any earthly ends by our Religion but only to secure our Souls everlasting salvation being sincere lovers of truth desirous to know the whole will of God ready to imbrace it though never so cross to our present interests conscientiously resolved to do it whatsoever we deny or lose on that account this temper of mind wouldbe a far better expedient and more available for the healing of all Divisions and for the making Peace and Unity in the Christian World than infallibility of Judgment would be could we tell where to find it This is the way of God wherein if we will not walk there must be Heresies and contention and strife nay there will be as St. James's words are every evil work and no remedy can be found for it Whereas in this way I will be bold to go a little further and say that God hath taken care every particular Christian may be infallible as far as is needful for him Much Discourse and Dispute there hath been and is about Infallibility And some you know argue there must be such a thing because of the care which we all believe Christ hath of his Church in which it would be convenient there should be an Infallible Judge and therefore they conclude there is one But if Convenience were the measure and our Understanding the Measurers we might rather conclude that God hath made every particular Christian infallible because that is far more convenient than for every Christian to go a great way to one Infallible Judge and then not be able to know certainly where to find him because they that speak of such a Judge are not agreed whether he be a single Person or whether this Infallibility do not lye in more than in one nay whether it be not in a many but there is as great difference about this as any thing else whatsoever All that we can truly resolve therefore in this matter is That such is the Grace of God such his Care of his Church that He hath made every truly pious Christian infallible though not in all things yet in the main thing if he go on to the end in a course of piety That is with respect to his Journies end he is infallible though not with respect to every step he takes thither He may erre in many things he may sometimes go wrong yet if it be his constant design and watchful endeavour to govern himself faithfully in all his actions by the Rule of God's Word and to follow all the Directions therein he shall infallibly come to Heaven Let no men make you believe the contrary though you do not believe every thing that they tell you is necessary For God hath promised to guide the meek in judgment and to teach them his way His secret is with them that fear him and his Covenant is to make them know it XXV Psal 9 14. They shall certainly understand all things needful and be preserved from damnably erring in their judgment God is faithful and will keep them from falling into the errour of the wicked because they feared him greatly doing his will sincerely as far as they knew it and being ready and desirous to believe and obey it in all other things if they could have known them to be his Will Therefore let us neither decline this way nor distrust it Let us look upon this as the way of peace and let us think our selves safe in it Let all carnal let all worldly let all diabolical lusts