our Principle which doth affirm that the Holy Scriptures are the Only Rule by which Christians are to govern themselves in all Matters of Religion But yet we affirm their doing this would not really advantage their Cause because the same Formal difference would remain betwixt them and us after as before for though we should be obliged on their exhibiting such proof for some particular Revelation which should warrant and oblige to own and use some Doctrine or Practice at present in dispute betwixt us yet the agreement which would then seem to be betwixt them and us in that particular would only be material and not formal because we should then own the Doctrine or Practice what is injoyned purely because taught and commanded by a Divine Revelation throughly evidenced And they would own the Doctrine or Practice the Duty injoyned purely because taught and commanded by a meer Humane Authority which they are pleased to name Infallible And it will not be to any purpose for them to undertake a more quick dispatch in this matter by talking of an Infallible Judge for he cannot be Judge and Rule too There must be Divine Revelation which must be the Rule for their Infallible Judge to exercise and imploy his Infallible Judgment about And seeing all their attempts to prove their Infallible Judge by Scripture have been very unfortunate and without success I may take it for granted when once they have agreed together and found out their Infallible Judge their best proof that that Person or Body of Men which ever they shall agree upon is a Judge and an Infallible Judge in Matters of Religion must be some new Revelation or some old Tradition never hitherto known to be a Divine Revelation for we must have better proof than any that has yet been offered on the behalf of any of their Traditions before we can entertain them as Divine Revelations And when they have well proved that Tradition and its Divine Authority which shall fix and settle their Infallible Judge they must still be at the trouble and pains to produce very substantial proof for every other Tradition they will make a part of the Christian Rule For the Authority of their Infallible Judge will not do here because his Infallibility does not reach to make nor declare a Rule but is purely concerned about the true sense and meaning of an acknowledged Rule when Controversies do arise about the importance of any Expressions contained in that Rule But besides all this Protestants have such evidence as doth create certain assurance that the Holy Scriptures are fully Perfect to instruct and direct Believers in all matters of Religion and do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of necessary and perpetual Use unto his Church greater evidence cannot be desired than the express Witness Testimony and Declaration of the unerring Spirit of the Faithful and True God. And this we have most plainly to the unavoidable and full Conviction of every honest piously disposed ingenious and unprejudiced Person who really owns and believes the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God And this you heard before is the professed Belief of all who profess themselves Christians And if such kind of evidence will not serve peoples turns I must acknowledge they are of a temper I do not much care to deal with for I must confess I am no preat admirer of booted blunderbus Apostles nor do I think he makes any real Proselites who only dragoon's Men into a Perswasion I never lik'd murthering Men for Religion nor persecuting Men because their Consciences would not stretch to every body's phancy I think whil'st the Scriptures are acknowledged on all sides to be Divine Revelations the greatest and best evidence we can have in matters of Religion is plain and express Scripture And if in all our Disputes with our Adversaries we did strictly keep within this compass we should guard and maintain our owe Cause the better and wound our Adversaries Cause the more fatally not but that I am very sensible we have Antiquity the Fathers rhe Primitive Writers and the most General Councils on our side either expresly or by way of silence thereby certifying us that no such Points were known or in question in those days But alas by having ordinary recourse to the Fathers c. we mightily gratifie our Adversaries for hereby they get out of the immediate reach of the Sword of the Spirit And all the Testimonies of Antiquity taken together in their own strength will not do rhe thousandth part of that execution against a Heresy as one plain and express Scripture will. Besides how often do we see that when the greatly Read and Learned on both sides do fall together by the Ears over the Fathers they lengthen the Dispute beyond measure and not only bewilder the Hearer or Reader but even themselves too that by the time they are got half through the Dispute they have well night forgot what it was they began to dispute about And having slipt into this digression I may even adventure to hint one digression more relating to the common way of managing Controversies with our Adversaries the Romanists It may be if it be well inquired into it may appear that we do not ordinarily proceed in our Controversial Discourses with them in that free and ingenious manner we ought but do too much limit and straighten our selves According to that little measure of apprehension I have it seems to me most expedient and most proper for us in opposing our Adversaries to maintain Protestantism or the Protestant Doctrines both really and professedly as such and not to pinnion our selves by pretending to maintain them as Taught or Owned by particular Communions The Cause is a common Cause and the Arguments we can truly maintain it with are common Arguments one Party is no more interested in them than another nor do the Matters in dispute amongst our selves concern the Controversies betwixt us and our Common Adversaries Why should we so affect and hug our selves in our private Notions and particular Differences as to please our selves with or at least receive and keep up the unreasonable Remembrance of them Indeed I do acknowledge the candor of our Adversaries in that they have not improved the advantage they might have taken to have made some Tragical Appearances by falling upon us with reference to this very matter of undertaking to maintain Protestant Doctrines meerly as owned by a particular Party for what doth this properly import but that we relinquish the Common Principle and undertake only to maintain our Doctrines not by the Scripture as the General and Only Rule of Christian Religion but by the Scripture as limited and bounded by those discriminating Terms and Instances whereby we are distinguished from all others who take the Scripture to be the Only Rule in all Matters of Religion Now will not this if insisted on make our task the harder and the more confound and perplex our
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST RISE OF THE Name Protestant And what Protestantism is with a Justification of it and an earnest Exhortation to all Protestants to persist in that Holy Religion By a Professed Enemy to Persecution LORD BISHOP of CORK'S Protestant Peace-Maker Pag. 128. I am and must be in the mind that the Strength of the Protestant Cause both here at Home and throughout Christendom lyes in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Power of Christianity in the World stands or falls with PROTESTANTISM LONDON Printed in the Year 1688. THE EPISTLE TO THE Protestant Reader THE following Papers were for the most part of them writ two Years since and had then been offered to your view if they had not been obstructed by some Persons and for some Considerations of no use to be here mentioned The Author conceived at that time there was occasion to suspect that many who pretended to be Protestants closed with that Profession out of Interest or something a-kin to that rather than from Knowledge and Conscience Many appeared ignorant of the occasion of the Protestant Name and to understand no better what was Protestantism it self These seemed to be so wavering and uneasie under their present Circumstances that little less was necessary to reconcile them to the Roman Religion than to be certainly secured from the terrible effects of Humane Statutes provided to deter Men from such Reconciliation This prompted the Author having some undesired vacation at that time from his usual Imploy to endeavour to contribute something towards the helping of such who were thus unsteady to discern what it was they were about to relinquish and consequently enquire what it is on the other side they must espouse People in matters of Religion ought to be considerate and wary they should not deal with Religion as they do with their Hats and Cloaths when out of the fashion He thinks that Gibbets aad Confiscations and such Engines are no Gospel Appointments to befriend the True Faith. Yea he is of opinion that the Ambition and Sloth of Church-Officers did first introduce Penal Laws to defend and guard Christianity and force People into a Profession of the Truth And that Christianity made greater numbers of real Proselites during Constantine's general Toleration than were made by the Penal Laws under that Emperour's Government or by all the Penal Laws that ever were made since that time He thinks that Penal Laws have not wholly rendred Christianity ineffectual but how much they have impeded its progress he thinks is very hard to comprehend They have certainly very much promoted Hypocrisy and Formality The Author is indeed a Conformist but one that was grieved at the indiscreet and less charitable censures and carriages of many who boasted of the same character He was really troubled to see them who said they were Protestants behave themselves so unbeseemingly towards their fellow Protestants and so industriously weaken and undermine that very Church they made such a clamour about He does not impute what they did intirely to spleen and malice against the Church they pretended to As for many of them he apprehends their Intellectuals were so impotent they had few thoughts of their own by which to govern themselves but were wholly under a forreign conduct which yet they perceived not How many more were influenced by motions too mean and carnal for any good Man voluntarily to resign himself unto For the first sort we may pray as our Saviour did for his Crucifiers Lord forgive them for they knew not what they did But as for the other sort he leaves others to consider what measure of Charity belongs to them who furiously ruine their Religious Neighbours and pull down the Church they seem to own meerly to satisfie their own filthy and most detestable Lusts He manifested some resentment that Protestantism should be treated with so much harshness by those who pretended to the same Religion Which occasioned his having some experience not only of the reproachful language but the ruder effects of the misguided vehemence of some of his own Communion But these things he overlooks and hopes that others whose treatment hath not been very obliging will so forget what is past as not to insist thereon to the prejudice und dammage of the Religion in common amongst us The Prefacer concurring in all these matters with the Author thinks he may with greater confidence apply to all sorts of Protestants in intreating and beseeching them that they will not do any thing now against but for the Truth And more particularly I would desire 1. Those who are indifferent and wavering to consider and think seriously before they change Some it may be would make no scruple to depart from the Protestant Profession were it not they were awed with the dread and terrour of some future danger in this World that may possibly overtake them should they under present Circumstances resign up themselves to a Profession our Laws have made Criminal But true Religion is a matter quite distinct from Humane Laws it is of most necessary and important concern to Men's Souls and their Eternal Salvation And Humane Laws whether for or against it do not alter the Case And therefore both as Christians and as Men you ought to consider and weigh things Where different Religions are propos'd you must examine the Particulars on each side by the Only Rule of Religion and must govern your selves by Evidence The nature and importance of Religion and the unvaluable worth of your own Souls require this There is nothing so foolish and absurd as to be of a Religion you do not understand or to change your Profession you know not why nor wherefore Would you alter to obtain Preferments and Honours Alas how littlt reason have you to expect these things whil'st there are others of more desert and who bring better Testimonials with them than you can For he that changes inconsiderately gives no proof either of his Parts or of his Integrity Do you hope by altering your Religion to escape Troubles and Sufferings This is an ill course to be taken for such a purpose and not likely to succeed because God can find you out and has ways enough to punish you Besides you are assured you shall not be forced to relinquish the Profession or Exercise of your Religion by a Royal Promise A Promise which fully performed will attract greater repute and glory to the Roman Religion than all the Arguments and Devices the most learned and subtil Adherers to that See did ever invent So that you have nothing under which you may shelter your Apostacy nothing to patronize your Revolt And to Apostatise without a Temptation is at once both a Folly and Wickedness that nothing can match on either account 2. Those who pretending to the Church of England have by an extravigant fervency and unneighbourly earnestness done all that was in their power to impoverish macerate and render their follow Protestants uneasie
way they are not the only Persons guilty and of all people in the world the Romanists have the least reason to insist on a charge of this nature for though their fault doth not excuse any of our Writers if guilty in the same manner yet it renders them very unmeet to upbraid and reproach and make tragical complaints against others for what they are more enormiously faulty in themselves It is but too obvious that some pains have been taken of late to misrepresent the Protestants all over and to perswade the world into a belief of very odd and strange things both concerning their Persons and Religion yea the very Name by which they are every where known Indeed the word Protestant and its Rise have been so decyphered and represented under such ungrateful Characters by persons of one complexion and of another that some who it might have been expected had had more knowledge and more wit have been almost or rather quite ashamed of that Name which their Ancestors accounted an honour and by which the Religion they pretend to is every where known what thoughts such have of the Religion it self time may discover Who would ever have thought that Englishmen who had a long time or rather all their time been brought up in the Church of England and would fain have made a Figure in their Countries should yet be at a loss by what name to call the Religion they did profess certainly the common name might have past well enough had not some unjust prejudice prevail'd And it 's very probable this prejudice did take its Rise from one or others misrepresenting and giving a wrong account of that Name Those who prefess true and unmixt Christianity have for a great while been distinguished in most parts of the World by the name of Protestants from others who have mingled with a profession of Christianity a great many gross contradictions and inconsistencies And till now of late none who owned the Religion were ashamed of the Name Those who liked not the Romish Communion did not think it a reproach to be called Protestants Though the Name might be first devised by the Adversaries of our Religion and might be used by them at first in scorn and contempt with reference to those who would not imbrace and submit to all the forreign and unscriptural Notions and Practices which received life and authority from Rome yet the antient love to and zeal for Religion only as commanded by divine Authority and as warranted by those Books which are universally acknowledged by all Christians to be writ by men divinely inspired reconciled our Ancestors to that Name by which the Adversaries of their Religion would have redicul'd them out of their Profession And how it is come to pass that people professing the same Religion should now appear shy and boggle at the Name as if some dreadful and hideous matter were wrapt up in the word Protestant I cannot imagine unless either their love to and zeal for their Religion be less than their Ancestor's was or that some false representations have been made to them of the importance and first occasion of this Name What sort of writers have contributed most to create prejudices in mens minds against the name Protestant I will not determine but I do not lay all the fault of misrepresenting in this case on those who do openly profess themselves of the Romish Communion and yet I cannot wholly excuse them because of late they have been at no small study and trouble to perswade people to entertain very wrong Idea's both of the Protestant Name and Religion We are lately told that The Protestant Perswasion has its Name Being and Support not from what it is in it self but from what it is not in defying and protesting against their Neighbours Rep. in behalf of Amicable Accomod pag. 17. Now it may not be altogether improper in order to the setting of some weaker people right in their apprehensions to give a short and true account of the first occasion and rise of this Name Protestant and its general use ever since from Authors of the best credit and repute on each side And that this Account may be the more clear and distinct it will be requisite to observe in general That a great corruption had for many Ages overspread Christianity in the Romish Church Afterwards we may take notice how Princes and People were more directly prepared to renounce and cast off those Corruptions and then it will be proper to relate the particular matter of Fact which occasioned this Name Protestant and when these are dispatched you shall hear what Protestantism is and wherein Protestantism doth really consist The word Protestant is a forreign word derived to us from other people and it has been and is still used with relation to Religion in all Nations where it is mentioned So that every where those who have owned and professed the Protestant Religion have past currently with all sorts of people for Protestants And the Protestant Religion is the true Christian Religion rescued and reformed from those Corruptions and humane Additions the Church of Rome had for many Ages without good warrant intermixed with it The Mystery of Iniquity which began in the Apostles days did by degrees increase to that height in the Roman Church that it almost overwhelmed true Christianity and made Religion appear and be in the world little else than a trick of policy and a meer piece of Pageantry And when the people had been a great while inured to nothing but lifeless Superstitious Formalities and were brought up blindly in a superstitious carnal gay sort of practice which was called Worship the Bishops of that See did by several artifices and tricks first acquire and then improve opportunities to gratifie their own utmost and unreasonable ambition for the Princes and People were in many places so effeminated made so soft and easie and unthinking by their methods they very tamely and patiently gave way to their most unjust incroachments till at last they were not able to help themselves nor oppose the increasing greatness of that See. And when matters were brought to this pass then several points were forced on the whole Western Church the burthen of which the Inhabitants of those parts had never before felt and which those who first gave way to the Usurpations of that See never dream't of Now an universal Supremacy over the whole Church was challenged and a power pretended to make whatever pleas'd a Duty In short the Bishop of that See pretended an Infallibility which must not be call'd in question he assum'd a power to dispose of People's Sins and Souls as he thought fit and perswaded them he could consecrate any thing they would buy to be an effectual means to purge away their guilt Nay at last he claimed a power to dispose of Governments appropriating to himself a Superiority in every Prince's Dominions and both Princes and People were blinded to that degree
through the Ignorance Superstitions and Impurity which they had given way to and the just infatuation which God suffered to crawl on and over-power them that for a long time very few either of the Princes or People did make any considerable attempts to extricate themselves out of that Bondage or get rid of the Tyranny and Apostacy into which they were sunk But the time hastening on when God would deliver his People out of of that wretched estate The Head and principal Instruments of the Romish State were grown so secure and fearless of danger they gave up themselves to their Lusts and minded nothing but how to invent new ways to impoverish the people by which means they occasioned the people to awake and suggested to their minds the most powerful and justest prejudices against the way they were in and that Church they did then adhere to For though there were many beams of light which shone up and down in the world yet two things did principally dispose the people to cast off that Spiritual and Civil Yoke which had mightily gall'd both their Consciences and their Necks and to inquire after the Truth and Purity of Religion The first was the obvious prodigious Ignorance Sloth and beastly Sensuality and Debauchery of the generality of those who pretended they had the keeping of the people's Souls and Consciences the Wickedness Tyranny and Unsatiableness of the greatest part by far of the Clergy was such as struck most violently on the outward senses of the People So that they were forced to conclude God would not intrust any extraordinary Depositum with such persons A German Bishop in the year 1519 which was not long before the Reformation complains as in Museccle I find him quoted in this manner I am afraid the Doctrine of the Apostle touching the Qualifications of a Bishop is but very ill observed in these days or rather that we are fallen into those Times which he noted when he said I know that after my Departure Ravenous Wolves will come among you not sparing the Flock Where may one see a good Man chosen to be a Bishop One approved by his Works and his Learning And any one who is not either a Child or Worldly or ignorant in Spiritual things They have no love for ony but Sinners they despise the Poor they keep about their persons Pimps Debauchers of Women Flatterers Buffoons Players when they should have wise and holy Men. The Revenues of the Church are given not to the Servants of God but to those of the Devil to Debauchers of Women to Adulterers Gamesters Hunters Flatterers and such like Men. And hence it is that the House of God is become Tributary to the Devil Matthew Paris I remember speaking in his History of the corruption and wickedness of the Clergy saith It was risen to so infamous a height the Devil sent them Letters of Thanks because of the extraordinary service they did him in sending Souls to Hell in greater Troops than ever came thither before You may find large accounts of and complaints against their notorious wickedness in the Writings of Nic. de Clemang and others Several of the Popish Writers do acknowledge their Debauchery and Wickedness was such as did necessitate the people to seek after a Reformation And truly saith Meceray the extream Ignorance of the Clergy many of them scarce able to read the scandalons Lives of the Pastors most of them Concubinaries Drunkards and Userers and their extream negligence gave him viz. Luther a fair advantage to perswade the people that the Religion they taught was corrupt since their Lives and Examples were so bad A second thing which very much awaken'd the Princes and People and prepar'd them to cast off and renounce the Romish Trumpery was the Pope's Bishop's and other Ecclesiastical Officers most enormious prostituting those very things wherein they pretended to place very much of their Religion and by which they pretended to impart to the people the Merits of Jesus Christ and of the Saints For Leo the Tenth having a mind to raise great Summs of Mony to satisfie his own profuse humour and make large Provisions for his Kindred sent abroad his Agents through the Empire but especially in Germany to sell the pardon of Sins publickly under pretence to build the Church of St. Peters at Rome The Sellers of these Indulgencies did prostitute them at the strangest rate imaginable for they would sell them for any thing wherewith they might satisfie their Lusts They would play them away at Taverns at a Game at Dice they would stake a Man against so much Money the Pardon of his sins or a power to deliver Souls out of Purgatiry And when this was complained of and wrote against by Luther the Pope sent his Bull to confirm these Indulgencies asserting his power to give and divulge them in this manner By the power of the Keys given to St. Peter and his Successors the Bishops of Rome had a right to pardon the Faithful all the guilt and punishment of their Actual Sins to wit the guilt by means of the Sacrament of Pennance and the temporal Punishment by means of Indulgencies whether in this life or in Purgatory and that by those Indulgencies he could apply to the Living and the Dead the superabundance of the Merits of Jesus Christ and the Saints either by way of Absolution or by way of Suffrage So that the Living and the Dead participating of those Indulgencies were delivered from the punishment that the Divine Justice would inflict on them for their Actual Sins But Luther's contending this point with the Romish Agents put him and others on a more strict Inquiry into other Corruptions in that Church by which means Light broke forth dayly with more power to the full satisfaction of very many that there was an absolute necessity of a Reformation And the Agents being not able to contest the matter fairly with Luther Eccius and others being quite worsted and baffled in their arguings Sylvester Prierias positively insisted on the Pope's authority acknowledging the Scriptures did not warrant those Indulgencies but that the Pope did whose authority he asserted was above the Scriptures And thus he brought that point on the stage which upon examination appearing to be a meer cheat and gross untruth the people hastened to imbrace the Sufficiency of the Scripture and that the Holy Scriptures were the only Rule God had appointed Christians to guide themselves by in all matters of Religion in opposition to the Pope's pretended authority This of the Pope's authority being the point for which both Head and Members of that Church were mainly concerned and which supports and keeps all the other corruptions in that Church in life when the vanity and ungroundedness the absurdity and wickedness of that claim came to be exposed and laid open to the World the Interest of that Church did very mueh sink and the authority of Scripture was much advanced amongst people So that
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
Revelations which do contradict the Scriptures they cannot pretend to lay any Obligation on us to comply with them in those Matters which the Scriptures do contradict for we have every jot as good Authority to Believe and Practice in direct contradiction to them as they have to Believe and Act in express contradiction to us though we should condescend to an impossible Supposition viz. That a Divine Revelation may contradict the Scriptures Besides they have no need or occasion to trouble themselves to prevail with us to comply with them in their Points for supposing their Revelations to be as they prerend whether we comply or do not comply the Case is just the same for we are never the better if we do comply with them nor is our guilt and offence one jot the more if we do not comply But if what they call Divine Revelations be not really so and they will notwithstanding Believe or Act or both in contradiction to the Scriptures which are known owned and professed Divine Revelations let them seriously consider what is like to be the fruit of their so doing We have reason therefore to conclude that all those Doctrines and Practices which are inconsistent with and do contradict what is declared in the Holy Scripture have not a Divine Original but have their Rise from the fountain of Falshood and Untruth And therefore we cannot be justly blamed if we protest against and reject such Notions and Practices for we certainly have a good Foundation and just Authority for every part of our Religion which Scripture doth expresly and plainly warrant And they must needs be at a great loss for just Authority as to those Points which expresly contradict the Scripture whatever may become of those Points amongst them touching which they may conceive the Scripture is silent But lastly If the Holy Scriptures we are speaking of do contain the whole and intire Revelation of the Mind and Will of God which he hath designed for the constant and perpetual use of his Church and People and do furnish People with full Instructions and Directions in all Matters of Religion then Protestants have very good warrant to affirm and stedfastly adhere to this Point viz. That the Holy Scriptures are the only Rule we are to govern our selves by in all Matters of Religion And we are safe enough as to this part of our main Principle and cannot with any justice be reproached or blamed by our Adversaries on this Account till they can produce very good and substantial evidence for some other Divine Revelation really distinct from those we are discoursing of But this is a task so hard for them to undertake so impossible for them to perform that there is not one understanding person in that Communion I am perswaded who dares adventure to ingage in it For it will not serve the turn to talk honourably of Tradition in general nor to make a noise about Apostolical Traditions without mentioning particular Traditions and proving them to be Divine Revelations and that they are truly Apostolical and were by Divine Appointment set apart for the perpetual use of the Christian Church The Council of Trent speaks loud of Apostolical Traditions and advances them to the same degree with the Holy Scriptures and appears so resolv'd for these Traditions that she makes them necessary to compleat the Scripture in order unto its being a perfect Rule but alas her courage cool'd in a little time for she dared only to talk extravagantly and in excessive terms of Tradition in General she dared not to name particular Traditions which she would own and undertake to prove truly Apostolical and of Divine and constantly binding Authority to the Church And since she thought it not convenient to descend to particulars I am of opinion particular persons in that Communion will not care to meddle in the matter but rather chuse to refer it to another Council when they can get one because if they should undertake it it must only be for our sakes and those of that Communion cannot but know that nothing less will satisfie such cautious reasonable people as Protestants are in a matter of this nature than such evidence as is very substantial and proportionate to the thing to be proved And could they produce ever so good evidence for any particular they will call a Divine Revelation or Apostolical Tradition it would be of no use to those of their own Church who prefer particular Humane Testimony called by another Name before all sort of proper and suitable evidence And after all their pains though they could produce satisfactory evidence which I affirm to be utterly impossible in this case for some Tradition which would inforce some Point the Scriptures do not inforce yet this would not do them any service however it would weaken our Principle as touching the Perfect on of that Body of Divine Revelations we have For notwithstanding we should in obedience to a Divine Revelation though roughly proved and evidenced concur and joyn with them in some Point we did not imbrace before yet the difference betwixt them and us in that matter would be as great as before there would still remain a formal difference betwixt us touching this very particular because though we should Believe or Practice the same thing yet the formal Reason of Believing or Doing it would be totally different So that if any would attempt to produce substantial evidence for any Revelation distinct from the Scriptures their labour will be wholly useless with reference to their Church unless they can produce a Revelation relating to their Church like that Law the flattering Courtiers of an Eastern Prince told him they could find when they were at a loss for a particular Law to warrant some particular Practice the Prince was inclined unto though they knew of no Law relating to what was propos'd yet there was a Law that the Prince might Command and do what he pleased Such a Revelation our Adversaries must produce Indeed I am apprehensive they Act in that Communion as if they had such a Revelation but all the mischief is they cannot produce valid proof for it or else they must be at the trouble of providing distinct Revelations for the several Points in dispute and distinct Evidence unless they can make a shift to croud three or four of their Notions into a single Tradition and so make shorter work of it In short the Protestants do affirm That Divine Revelation is the only Rule of Christian Religion That the Holy Scriptures are confessedly Divine Revelations That these Holy Scriptures do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of perpetual standing obliging Use to his Church and People We acknowledge that were it possible for our Adversaries to produce solid proof that there is any Divine Revelation distinct from what these Holy Scriptures do contain which God hath appointed to be of constant perpetual binding Use to his Church they might thereby invalidate
Controversies But would it not seem odd for a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant to defend Christianiry or the particular Doctrines of Christianity against Jews or Heathens purely as a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant For what have their particular differences to do in matters wherein they all agreed and in maintaining of that for which both sides are equally concerned The main of the Controversy betwixt us and those of the Romish Communion is either whether the Holy Scriptures be the Only Rule in all Matters of Religion Or whether those particular Doctrines wherein they and we do differ have warrant from the Scriptures And what need we intreating on these points to interest any discriminating notions amongst our selves As far as we do agree let us walk by the same Rule Besides by concerning our selves for Protestantism and Protestant Doctrines even in opposition to our Adversaries in common as fixing the Scriptures to be the Only Rule and that our particular Doctrine have plain warrant from the Scripture and those we oppose are either contrary to the Scriptures or have no warrant at all from thence we are excused from any obligation to trouble our selves with defending any unwary or less proper expressions which may have slipt from particular Parties or particular Persons in declaring their sense of particular Doctrines for whether they exprest themselves properly or no or whether their opinion were right or no is not at all material to the Controversy betwixt those of the Church of Rome and us For if any Parties or single Persons have declared their sense and opinions concerning any Doctrine or matter of Practice either that their opinion doth accord with Scripture or it doth not if it do it is the Protestant Doctrine if it do not it is not a Protestant Doctrine and so it doth not at all affect us since we own that persons professing themselves Protestants may mistake as well as we do declare our assurance that those who have been named Infallible in another Communion have erred most grieviously But this we affirm that so far as any do keep strictly and closely to the Holy Scriptures they cannot mistake And Protestants have no real concern to vindicate any Party or Person any further than they do keep unto the Scripture But now to return from these digressions unto what was said before viz. That Protestants have such evidence as doth create certain assurance that the Holy Scriptures are fully perfect to instruct and direct Believers in all matters of Religion and do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of necessary and perpetual use unto his Church I need not relate the whole evidence that might be produced on this occasion I will therefore content my self with these two particulars relating to this matter which certainly must sway powerfully with them who are under an influence which is truly Religious The first is this 1. That the Holy Spirit of God hath expresly declared that the Holy Scriptures are compleat and perfect to all the ends and purposes of Divine Revelations Hear how large and particular the Holy Spirit of God is in declaring the Fullness and Perfection of the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be Perfect throughly furnished unto all Good Works 2. The same Holy Spirit hath solemnly devoted to the most dreadful Curse of Almighty God whomsoever shall be so arrogant and presumptuous as to offer any other Doctrine besides what the Holy Scriptures do teach as a Divine Revelation Gal. 1. 8. But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Now if people will pretend to produce other Divine Revelations which God hath appointed to be of perpetual use to his Church either those must invalidate these Holy Scriptures or else these Holy Scriptures must invalidate them they cannot consist well together If we will own and stick to the Holy Scriptures we must reject whatever additional Discoveries shall be produced because the Spirit hath in these Scriptures excluded them What hath been discoursed concerning the evidence Protestants have for their great and main Principle may justly promt to take notice of two things 1. That they who would hinder and discourage people from reading and studying the Holy Scriptures do give them just occasion to suspect that they have none of the honestest and most commendable designs to manage We are very certain the Holy Prophets of God the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles were Persons beloved of God and Persons who were greatly concerned for Peoples Spiritual Welfare and we are as certain that these were very much and in good earnest in pressing exciting and perswading the common sort of People to read and study the Scriptures they command them in the Name of God to read and learn the Scriptures and those Revelations of the Mind of God which were communicated unto them read Deut. 31. 11 12 13. Deut. 6. 6 7 8 9. John 5. 39. Col. 3. 16. Nay does not the design and end for which God hath made his Will known and caus'd it to be committed to Writing manifest and prove our Duty evidently enough For what end hath God given the Holy Scriptures unto his Church and People Are we not assured that the Scriptures were written for our Learning for our Instruction for our Admonition c. And must we not read them then How will they answer these ends if we must not consult them Were not the Scriptures written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope Read and consider Rom. 15. 4. Have we not then too much ground to suspect that those who would take or keep our Bibles from us are Enemies to our Faith Patience Comfort Hope and Happiness Is not the Word of God that Sword of the Spirit with which we are to defend our selves and worst our Spiritual Enemies Ephes 6. 17. And now what reason have we to take them for our Friends who would lay us open and expose us Naked to the Assaults of Sathan and his Instruments The Holy Penmen of the Scriptures did by the direction of the Blessed Spirit commend People for applying themselves to the Holy Scriptures and endeavouring to improve in the knowledge of them See Psal 1. 2. Act. 17. 11. Act. 18. 24. 2 Tim. 3. 15. And it is certain that the People of God of every rank and condition under the Old Testament Dispensation were obliged by Especial Appointment from God to take care to read and labour after a continual Increase in the knowledge of the Scriptures Now can we imagine that God having given
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
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
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