The Fryers of old erected their Kingdome by lyes Walsingham reporteth that they were so famous for lying that it was accounted a good argument hee is a fryer Ergo a lyer Do not our lying prophets goe beyond them they tell lyes they write lies they preach lyes they print lyes as if God needed lyes Thou wilt destroy all them that speake leasing saith the Prophet Here I would observe two things 1. That there have beene and always shall be false prophets in the Church 2. Why God suffereth them For the first that there have been and always shall be false prophets in the Church There shal arise saith our Lord false prophets and if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect I know saith St. Paul that after my departing grievous Wolves shall enter in among you Again the spirit speaketh evidently that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith and shall give heed to the spirit of error and doctrines of Devills which speake lyes through hypocrisâ—â— Likewise St. Peter affirmeth But there were false prophets among the people and there shal be also false teachers among you which privily shal bring in damnable hesies even denying the Lord that bought them bring upon themselves swift damnation For example sake wee read of the Devill the archfalse prophet deceiving our first parents in Paradice of Iamnes and Iambres withstanding Moses and resisting the truth In Eliahs time of many false prophets deceiving the people yea in this very time when our Lord preached upon the earth The Church was annoyed with divers pernicious sects as with the Pharisees who like the Papists held Justification by works With the Saduces who held with the Atheists of our time that there is no resurrection With the Essens who like the Anabaptists of our time thought themselves free from all humane authority I might set down the hereticks that sprang up in the most pure ages of the Church viz. In the first 400. yeares after Christ collected by St. Agustine out of Eusebius and Epiphanius The Apostles and holy men seldome planted any Churches but the devill with his false prophets went about to subvert them Heare what St. Paul saith to the Galatians O ye foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Again to the Corinthians I fear lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so you should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ The noble Churches of Antioch Ephesus Alexandria and Constantinople were poisoned by false prophets In Ephesus were the Nicholaitans in Alexandria Arrius in Antioch Samosatenus in Constantinople Eutyches and Nestorius and iâ— Britany Pelagius called in Welch Morgan But how Christian Princes holy Bishops and learned men bestir'd themselves to save their flocks from those Wolves and in the very beginning to suppresse them you may perceive by the ancient Councels in some one of which 400. year 600. Bishops conveâ—ed and ran together yea among us to damne Pelagius heresie Bishops came from beyond the Seas as Germanus and Lupus out of France St. Augustine also Bishop of Hippo in Africa was assisting to us against him as appeareth by his writings extant among us Our histories report that our Welch Arch-bishop Davie was a great meanes to extirpate his heresie who wrote a booke against it As sorreign Bishops were ayding to us in suppressing the hereticks that rose among us so were we assisting to them as Eborius of York Restitutus of LondoÌ„ Adelâ—ius of Colchester with other Brittish and learned men subscribed the Councell of Arles Also some of our Bishops were at the Councell of Nice and Sardis and with others damned the Arrian heresie and absolved Athanasius Our poor Church is at this time oppressed with false prophets not only with Iesuites and other Romish Emissaries but also with unpure Familists who blasphemously pretend to be godified like God whereas indeed they are devillified like their Father the Devill who would be like the most high With illuminated Anabaptists who blaspheme the baptisme of Children and these hereticks whom in time past we burned wee may heare now in our pulâ—its â—educing the people We have also Donatistical Brownists who like the Pharisees of old separate themselves from other men counting all men prophane that are not of their Conventicles We have also Independants who dream that they have a perfect modelâ— of Church-government which Almighty God kept secret from the Patriarks Priests Prophets Apostles and Doctors of the Church and now lately revealed unto them We have also Antinomians who whereas the Papists leave out one Commandement of the ten they null the whole Law not allowing it to be a rule of life This opinion simple people swallow down having as they suppose found a new way to heaven We have Arminians an after-brood of Pelagius We have Sabbatarianss who affirme the old Jewish Sabbath to be kept and not the Lords day We have also Antisabbatarians who would have no speciall Sabboth day at all affirming every day to be a sabbath to a christian man We have Traskites who affirme many Jewish ceremonies to be observed by Christians We have Arrians who deny the deity of Christ We have Antitrinitarians who blaspheme the holy Trinity We have Millenaries who dream that wee must live with Christ 1000. yeares here in earth before the resurrection We have Hetheringtonians who hold a hodg-podg of many heresies We have an Atheisticall sect who affirm that mens soules sleep with their bodies We have Socinians who teach that Christ dyed not to satisfie for our sins but to give us an example of patience with other abhoâ—inable errours Alas what Heresie have we not and most of these are subdivided into many Sects as there are about twenty sorts of Anabaptists fourteen set downe by Alstedius and the rest by Bullinger sundry sorts of Familists Brownists and of others every day begets a new opinion it faring with them as with the ancient Hereticks who having once forsaken the truth wandred from one errour to another they agreeing onely in this one thing to doe mischiefe to the Church of God The old Fable may have relation to our times of an overture of peace tendred by the Wolves to the Sheep but upon condition that they would put away their dogs that were malignant to them and doth not all this follow upon the suspension of Church Government Alas our Church is oppressed by false Prophets and we have no government to helpe The City of God is on fire and who goeth about to quench it The plague of Heresie is among us and we have no power to keep the sick from the whole The Wolves that were wont to lye in the woods dare come into our Sheep-folds and roar in our holy Congregations O thou Shepheard of Israel why hast
thou broken downe the hedges of this thy Vineyard which thy right had had plantted the Boare out of the Wood and the wilde beast out of the field doth devour Oh remember not against us our former iniquities let thy tender mercies prevent us for we are brought very low 2. Why God suffereth false Prophets in his Church Resp. 1. For the punishment of the ungodly as St. Paul affirmeth Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Therefore God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That all might be damned that believed not the truth St. Basil hath a Contemplation why the Devill hath so many servants who is the enemy of mankinde and God so few who hath created us and redeemed us c. The reason he saith is not because the Devill hath spoyled God of his Kingdome but because men loved not the truth God gave them over to be slaves to the Devill Were it possible that men should be so carryed away to believe lyes and fooleries but that they are given over to a reprobate sence 2. God suffereth false Prophets in the Church for the tryall of the godly There must be saith St. Paul Heresies among you that they which are approved may be knowne The Lord proveth you saith Moses whether you love the Lord your God The Uses that we should make of this is First in these distractions to bee more diligent to seek after the truth If Arrius had not so wickedly denyed the Deity of Christ the deep mysteries of the holy Trinity had never beene so accurately determined by Athanasius and other learned Doctors If the Manichees had not so shamefully railed upon the old Testament the learned Doctor St. Augustine had never taken so much paines in answering their lewd Objections If the Brownists and other Sectaries had not so impâ—dently disgorged their malice upon our Church calling her Whore of Babylon c. The learned men of our Age had never by their writings so sufficiently cleared her innocencie in the hearts of understanding men The second use is that the Shepheards should use double diligence taking heed to themselves and to the flâ—cke over which Christ hath made them overseers and to double treble our prayers to the great Shepheard of soules that he would lead us in the paths of righteousnesse for his names sake Let no man slight prayer which is the armour of the Church of great force one onely example I will cite out of Theodoret who reporteth that Alexanders prayers prevailed more against the Arrians then Athanasius profound learning When the Arrian Bishops with the Emperours power threatned to bring in Arrius into Alexanders Church the next day hee prayed all night after this manner O Lord if it be thy will to bring Arrius into my Church then let thy servant depart in peace but if thou wilt be favourable to thy Church of which I am sure then turn thine eye upon the Arrians The next day when the Arrians came with great pâ—mp to have taken possession of his church Arrius going aside his bowels brake asunder like Iudasses Let us earnestly pray to God to keep these hereticks out of our churches let us call upon him with David How long Lord wilt thou be angry with thy people that pray And thus much what false prophets are and why God suffereth them Their outward description in which he setteth downe 1 their Intrusion 2 Insinuation 3 Dissimulation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their intrusion they come they have no calling these false prophets are not sent Paul asketh how they can preach except they besent And this standeth with good reason every true Minister standeth in Gods room being the Lords Embassadour to deliver his wil who dare do this unsent This did the Devil in Paradise and the heretick Arrius as the Alexandrian Synod affirmeth No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God saith the author to the Hebrewes They come but whence come they from the schools of the Prophets No but many of them from mechanick trades as one from a stable from currying his horses another from his stal from cobling his shooes and these fit them downe in Moses chaire to mend all as Embassadors of Jesus Christ as heralds of the most high God These take upon them to reveal the secrets of the most high to open and shut heaven to save soules You may reade of such priests that Jeroboam provided but they were for his calves fit for calves As for the Lords Priests the Majesty of the King and dignity of the Priest hood concurred in one person viz. in the first borne from the beginning to Moses In the Gospel Christ preferreth St. Iohn Baptist before all the Priests and Levites before him and St. Paul commandeth them to have double honour and so they have bâ—en esteemed in all ages either christian or prophane in whom there hath beene any Religion at all But to returne to my Text to heare these base fellows to discourse of the holy Trinity of Gods eternal decree and other deep points of divinity you may hear the mad men in Bedlam to prate as wisely as they are not they that run after such men as mad as they May not Almighty God say to these Prophets what hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant into thy mouth seing thou hatest instruction But they will aske why they may not preach aswel as Peter who was a fisherman and Paul a Tent-maker c. To these I answer that these were immediatly called by our Lord and enabled with gifts fit for so high a calling as to heale the sicke to cleanse Leapers to cast out Devills The holy Ghost came upon them and they spake divers languages They had all manner of learning both humane and divine Neither hath Almighty God alwayes left such presumptuous wretches unpunished Korah Dathan ond Abiram and the 250. Princes who would take upon them to sacrifice with strange fire the earth opened swallowed some of them and fire from heaven consumed the rest Elimas going about to turne the Deputy from the faith was stricken with blindnesse Arrius dyed in a Jakes voyding his bowels with his excrements as Theodoret recordeth Manes was excoriated by the Persian King Montanus and his two mad prophetesses hanged themselves Nestorius tongue was eaten up with worâ—es Anastasius the Emperour a great defender of the Eutychian heresie was smitten with a Thunder-bolt Nicomedia a place where the Arrians were appointed to meet was swallowed up with an Earth-quake and Antioch a nursery of faction and heresies was shaken with an Earth-quake and afterwards burnt with fire from heaven And of late dayes Iohn of Leiden King of the Anabaptists with Knipperdolling and
shal be devoured by these ravening wolves A question may be asked in that our Lord biddeth us to take heed whether it be not lawful for the Magistrate {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} To put false Prophets to death in which question wee are to note whom we are to account false Prophets viz. Not every one that differeth from our Church in opinion or have some naevous opinions But by false Prophets we understand such as hold fundamental errors and persist therein after all means used for their conviction yea not onely persist but also endeavour to disperse their pernicious errours to the perverting of others Again such whose Doctrines are blasphemous as the Arrians are dangerous to the destruction of the government under which they live And where all these concur they deserve death because they corrupt the faith If such as corrupt and poyson Fountains of water at which men and beasts drink do deserve capitall punishment how much more they who as much as in them lyeth do poyson mens soules Againe we have divers examples of this lawfull severity executed upon Idolaters first in Eliah's time commanding all the Prophets of Baal to bee slaine Secondly in Iehu giving the like commandement Thirdly in all the inhabiâ—ants of the Land of Iudah who destroyed all the houses of Baal and slew Mattan he Priest before the Altar Furthermore we have examples in Ecclesiasticall histories as first in Constantine that famâ—us Christian Emperour who enacted that if any man did offer Sacrifice upon the Altars Gladio ultore sterneretur He shâ—uâ—d be puâ— to dâ—ath and his goods confiscated The like alsâ— was enâ—cte bâ—Theodosius Valentinianus and Martianus as Mr. Bullinger reporteth The ground and warrant of this is Gâ—d himselfe That Prophet or dreamer of dreames c. shall be put to death If any man object that this was a judiciall Law I answer if it were so yet the equity of that judiciall Law remaineth to all St. Augustine saith that there is a punishing mercy and a sparing cruelty For it is a punishing mercy when Governours doe punish dangerous seducers for safety of the whole And it were a sparing cruelty to let them goe unpunished for looke how much mercy is shewed to the Wolf so much cruelty is done to the sheep This may serve for the reproofe of such Magistrates who when they have dangerâ—us Wolves discovered unto them wil not lend their helping hands to suppres them To conclude this poynt The Romish seducers are severely punished among us kept from our folds and why not all other false prophets who blaspheme God seduce our people What shall we punish them only that attribute too much to the Sacrament of baptisme affirming Infants un-baptized not to enter heaven And suffer Anabaptists who wil not baptize them at all but blaspheme the baptisme of children calling it the marke of the Beast affirming that it came from Anti-christ and the Devill and suffer them to publish books in defence of this and other their abhominable errors Shall we punish them only that attribute too much to the Element of bread in the holy Communion accounting him no good Christian that will not call it his lord god And suffer such men who mocke and scâ—ffe at the sacrament of the Lords supper calling it a two-peny banqueâ— Shall we punish them that give too much reverence to the blessed Virgin holy Apostles and Saints departed and suffer them that blaspheme the holy Virgin whom all Nations should call blessed Shall we blame the Papists for saying too many Pater-nosters and tolerate the Brownists and other Sectaries who will not say the Lords prayer at all some of them affirming it to be an abhominabâ—e idol although it be commanded to be said by our Lord himself Shall we punish them that not only keep the Lords day but also many holy-holy-dayes and suffer them that will neither keep holy-daies nor the Lords day as the Familists and Antisabbataâ—ians Shall we punish them that confesse their sins and suppose that they cannot enter heaven without a particular Confession of them and tolerate them that will not conâ—esse their sinnes at all and affirme that God can see no sin in them as the Antinomians Shall we punish them that worship God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity and tolerate them that blaspheme the holy Trinity as the Arrians and Antitrinitarians I hope that our Governors wil drive these also from our folds as they doe the Popish Emissaries {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is fit for us that are Christâ—ans to avoyd all those who speak against Christ and hate them as the enemies of God and corrupters of soules This Caveat of our Lords belongeth to every Christian man We are not to keep company with them It was Eves fault to admit conference with the Devill In these false Prophets there is such a malignant spirit that the Devill cannot doe more hurt out of them then in them St. Paul counselleth the Romans to marke them diligently that make divisions and to avoyd them If we must avoyd Schismaticks that make divisions how much more Hereticks St. Iohn in his Epistle to the Elect Lady forbids all society with them if there come any to you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house nor bid him God speed According to his Doctring so was his practice he would not bath with Cerinthus the Heretick nor abide under the same roofe with him but leaped out of the roome and perswaded others so to doe Polycarp St. Iohns Schollar meeting Marcion the Heretick would not salute him Marcion asking him whether he knew him or no was answered by him Yes I know thee well to be the first borne of the devill Would any man entertaine into his family a man infected with the plague how much lesse an Heretick who without the great mercy of God may be the undoing of him and his family This caveat should keep men from hearing those seducers My sheep saith our Lord will not heare the voyce of a stranger Yet such is the folly or madnesse of these times and men have such itching eares that if the Devill himself should preach among us I feare that he would have too many hearers {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} But whereas they pretend to be led by the spirit I beseech you saith St. Paul by the comming of the Lord Iesus Christ that you be not so soone shaken in minde neither by spirit that is by pretence of the spirit for as there is a holy Spirit by whom the Prophets Apostles inspired spake so you may read of a lying spirit in the mouths of false Prophets Therefore St. Iohn commandeth us not to believe every spirit but to search and try the spirits whether they be of God or no How shall I know Gods spirit but by his Word such spirits as speak against