all mortal Errors as by attending to this And if the disputing men of the Age proceeded by this measure and studied as much to expose the wickedness as to display the falshood of Opinions their labour would be less and their success more Men may sooner discern good from evil than true from false A little measure of knowledge and honesty will enable men to do the first but it requires a quick judgment sometimes to do the second for falshood wears the mantle of truth and many times it is no easie thing to discover the Impostor And supposing men honest they are more effectually convinced by the wickedness of an Opinion than by any arguments of its untruth For they do not know but men may impose upon them in these but they can judge themselves in the other And I should think these two things were enough to recommend this way of determining controversies to the Scribes and the Disputers of this world Since it would reduce the controversies to a narrow compass and men would more effectually be concluded by a solid determination upon that issue and consequently by this means they would sooner be ended 1. For first there are few people so impudent and past shame as to plead openly for Baal and contend for doctrines that every one sees to be introductive of wickedness Impostors generally take another course and gild their Pills and wrap their poisons in sweet and gay appearances and let the Opinions they would promote be never so pernicious yet they are always managed with mighty pretences of zeal and piety and by this they hope to prevail more than by all their subtil Arguments and fine Disputings and indeed they do so and simple honest people are easily entrapped by them who have not time or skill or both to search into the bottom of all their doctrines So that to encounter with them upon this were to rob them of that in which their strength mostly lieth it were to suit the Antidote to the Poison and to disarm Heresie of that weapon by which it doth the most mischief it were to uncase the Wolf and shew what really he is which would more affect men with horror and hatred of him than ten thousand fine discourses about him would be able to do 2. For secondly blessed be God men especially that pretend Religion are not so far debauched but that they retain a veneration for piety and goodness and a secret abhorrence of sin and profaneness Many that live in the one yet condemn themselves in it and most men though far from being good themselves yet have a secret esteem and love for those that are And therefore when Errors are truly discovered and the impiety of them made known then the Net is spread in the sight of the Bird and men are arm'd against the fine pleas and the enchanting pretences for them and are hardly proselyted into a belief of them 3. And thirdly when the disputes are brought to this issue and the contest is upon it and nothing left to determine but which doctrine tends to make men holy and which doth not so then the judgment and the determination is more easily made For as I hinted before the lines of duty are plain and not so subject to those varieties of mistakes that other things are Almost all practical things are plain and easily understood unless it be in some rare cases And for the most part disputes and questions about them do more perplex and intangle than they do unfold and explain them About these every honest man is in a good measure able to instruct himself supposing him to have any competent knowledge and better able to judge than he is of questions that are curiously managed with great skill and art on both sides 4. And fourthly for Controversies and Disputes that no way concerned holiness or related to it men would soon perceive them to be impertinent and needless and the pursuing of them to minister only to Faction and Vanity and so would concern themselves neither one way or other about them but let them fall to the ground with as little notice taken of them as there was reason to start them 2. But the great design of these Papers and therefore the chief Inference I intend from this Subject is for the Vindication of the Church of England and of the Reformed Religion professed by it To this Rule it may most safely appeal and not fear to be tried by it And as Bishop Sanderson saith The God that answereth by Fire let him be God If amongst all competitions and contending Sects among us there be any to be found that doth exceed or equal her for conformity to this Rule they shall readily have the right hand of fellowship and due precedence yielded to them And I challenge any of them all to joyn issue with her upon this principle And certainly this is a very fair offer since all the Separations amongst us have been commenced upon this pretence They have first separated from her and then from each other upon pretences of impurity in her Communion and in quest of greater purity still If a man therefore offer to make good these two things 1. That there is no reason at all for Separation upon this account nor just cause to object unholiness and impurity against her Let her Articles and Homilies be examin'd her Liturgy as closely considered as may be and if there be any thing in either contrary to holiness then condemn her and spare not she will I am sure acknowledge her error and patiently endure a reproof for it But I defie any man living to do this provided he exercise but any measure of charity and honesty in expounding things and do not imitate the severity of that Heathen Momus who rather than find no fault in the Picture of Venus would quarrel with her slip-shooe and whose Motto in hunting for faults is Aut inveniam aut faciam 2. That all and every of those ways and forms of Religion that these men have deflected unto are much inferior to her in this matter and may clearly be detected to be false by this Rule since every one of them espouseth doctrines which either immediately or in their just consequences are introductive of wickedness and contrary to holiness in some instance or other He I say that offers to make good both these things as he will do a good service to the Church so he will do that which may justly shame and reproach the several contending Factions that have so unjustly and unreasonably separated from her Now these are truths which no man need fear undertaking to make good and perhaps a specimen of them may ere long appear In the mean time I think it mine own and intimate it as the duty of others too to bless God and give him our heartiest praise that hath caused us to be brought up in such a Church whose Faith is truly Christian and Primitive and that Faith which is according to Godliness whose Worship is truly Pious and Grave and Serious as such should be All whose Doctrines and Articles whose Offices and Ceremonies are truly adapted to promote the same amongst all her Votaries And if Salvation be to be had in Communion with any Church in the World I am sure it is in such an One. And to this to add a serious resolution to adhere stedfastly to the same and not permit our selves like fools and children to be turned to and fro with every slight of doctrine by cunning and designing men whose Interest or whose Passion and some pitiful low design oblige them to defame and destroy her and to make Factions and Rents in her as the most certain methods unto both And to conclude this Inference when we are importuned and solicited by any of these and take upon us to judge of the Doctrines offer'd to us let us not so much consider the fine pleas that subtil men make for them but bring them to this touchstone and try them honestly and carefully by it and we shall soon satisfie our selves and find enough to preserve us against the infection of them and as S. John saith Hereby know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Conclusion AND now Sir I have finished that trouble which I intend to give you at this time I am very sensible that besides the imperfections attending what I have done there are two or three things greatly wanting to complete this design and worthy of a larger consideration being but only lightly touched in these Papers 1. To Vindicate all the Articles in the Christian Faith by this Rule and shew the conduciveness of each to the great purpose of Holiness 2. Secondly To joyn issue with all Heresies and the considerable Sects and Opinions that disturb the peace of the Church at present upon this question and try if the Principles of them all be not condemnable by this Rule But Sir these are things which will take up more time than at present I can spare to them And I am willing to see how you resent this that I have done before I burthen you with more But to let you see how wholly I am at your command provided you remit me to my own time us I am sure you will I promise to do in these what you think fit to require of me Being extremely desirous in every thing so to acquit my self as may secure me the reputation and honour of being Your most humble Servant FINIS
towards the Jewish Converts you will soon perceive how far they were from censuring any errors presently for Heresies if they maintained the necessity of holiness and a good life For you will scarcely be able to instance in a doctrine more truly contrary to Christian Faith and the whole purport of the Gospel than that of those Jewish Converts was which thought it absolutely necessary to Salvation to observe the Ancient Rites and as S. James informs S. Paul Acts 21.20 were all zealous of the Law of Moses And yet we know these were always tolerated no ill characters fixed upon them fellowship always allowed them indulged and permitted to their error which lasted among them for the time of fifteen Christian Bishops who were all Circumcised yea till the final destruction of the City and Temple and all under Adrian the Emperor and long afterwards And this was the reason we know of the Apostolick Canons in that first great Council which were all contrived in favour to them and counted necessary only in order to the avoiding scandal to them as was also the observation of the seventh day Sabbath for some Centuries of years only for the same reason From whence we may safely collect thus much that in those best and most charitable of times no man was counted an Heretick that did erre bonâ mente and retain'd a necessity of holiness and a belief of the great grounds upon which that necessity was founded And now Sir this Addition will not be impertinent to our purpose for all Heretical doctrines are some way or other contrary unto holiness and their being this is the reason of their being the other and while they are not one we ought by no means to call them the other unless we will imitate the passion of those men who can indure none no not the least dissenting in opinion from them in any thing under any kinder character than Heresie So that he that maintained the being of Antipodes was like to be branded once with that name and Galileo hardly escaped the same character for maintaining the Copernican hypothesis But Sir if you desire to see this matter of Heresie more fully discoursed I refer you to a place in Dr. Taylor 's Works where it is insisted on at large with that plainness and candor and strength of reason that is so common and usual to that most excellent man it is his Liberty of Prophesying a good Book under an ill name But truly I know not for what reason unless it were for endeavouring by much truth to asswage and mitigate the rash zeal and unjust severity of the late times against the Church of England and all that adhered unto her From whence whoever takes liberty to traduce that great man as an allower of all Opinions and any Medley in Religion will be very unjust and proclaim himself either ignorant or unobservant of his design which though it be to gain favour to some speculative Opinions yet no man reflects more severely upon all that contradict holiness and a good life and are vented to the disorder and disturbance of the Government either of the Kingdom or Church And therefore I do not well see what disservice it can do that Church which is far enough from imperiously imposing upon the Consciences of men and rigorous tying them up to exact compliance with it in all doctrines but allows as all Churches must whether they will or no a liberty to mens thoughts provided they reserve them to themselves and vent them not in order to Schism and Faction But whether it be thus or not is not my business to determine much less becoming me to undertake to reach those above me what to say or think but this I freely say I have so great an honour for the name of Dr. Taylor that I would not willingly have any ill thing to blot his memory and would do more than this were it in my power to cause it might not CHAP. VI. The Arguments from reason for the proof of the Collection Four of these propounded and Two insisted on in this Chapter The first taken from the ends of these Two Spirits in the World The second from the great design of Christian Religion AND now I am at liberty to advance to the Second way I proposed for the proof of this Assertion and that is from Reason and Arguments and there are Four of these I shall chuse to insist on not that I think them the only ones we have in this matter but so sufficient that they may supersede all need of others 1. The first shall be taken from the consideration of the different ends and designs of these two Spirits in the World 2. The second from the great end and design of Christian Religion 3. The third from the inconvenience of substituting any other Rule besides this in this case 4. From the manifest advantage of this above any other that can be so substituted These Four things will give assurance enough to this truth and make it very evident 1. I begin with the first which is taken from the consideration of the designs that these two Spirits have in the World The strength of which argument to our present purpose will discover it self in these two or three consequential notices 1. First As these are directly contrary to each other so they must needs be supposed to intend and drive on different aims and designs in the World The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God the Spirit of error is the Spirit of the Devil And when light and darkness are reconciled each to other when Christ and Belial become friends then may we suppose these Two Spirits to consent and agree together in the fame designs but not before There is no communion saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.14 nothing that 's in common nothing that 's mutually shared betwixt light and darkness But as soon as one appears the other presently flies away as when the rayes of the morning discover themselves the dark shades run away and hide themselves on the other side of this Globe And so it is with these two Spirits they are inconsistently opposite and contrary each to other and can never be any more reconciled in their designs than they are in their natures But those will still be as different as these are as we see it still to be in all other things whose natures are contrary each to other 2. Secondly all the doctrines that issue from or are suggested to men by these two Spirits must needs be supposed to be directed to these different ends and designed on purpose to promote the same To suppose otherwise were to imagine them false to their own Interests and neglectful of them or at least dull and short-sighted and unable to chuse or pitch upon proper means for the promoting of the same when no man hath any reason to imagine either of these things For the Spirit of God is both
pretences of knowledge bring them to the Law and to the Testimony and if in any thing they differ from that then there is no morning or light in them but they arise out of the infernal specus and are suggested by the Spirit and Prince of darkness This seems to me to be very clear and yet I shall add something more that this was not only appointed to be the Rule of judging in all ordinary differences about doctrines but in the most extraordinary also that could possibly happen I shall instance in Two that were the chiefest of all pretensions to Prophecy and working of Miracles These were indeed extraordinary cases and therefore though the judging of them did not belong to every private man but only to the great Sanhedrim as learned men have clearly proved yet it will be very much to our purpose if we can prove that even this great Consistory was to judge by this Rule of the Truth or Falshood of both of them And first for Prophets I think the case is sufficiently clear from that place of Moses Deut. 13. from verse 1 to 6. from which if you read and consider it well you will be able to make this Collection that neither the predicting of a future Event no nor the coming of that to pass according to the prediction are safe and warrantable things to judge a Prophet by for if that Prophet entice any way to Idolatry or deliver any thing that may draw them away from their duty in walking after the Lord and fearing him and keeping his Commandments and obeying his voice he is to be rejected yea to be stoned as an Impostor and a deceiver So that the truth of the Prophet and the divinity of his prophecy was to be judged only or at least chiefly by the consonancy thereof to the Law of God This is a thing that I judge worth our taking notice of at this time Alas if the bold pretenders to prophecy in this Age could make this plea for themselves that things fall out exactly according to their predictions what a great noise would they soon make how mightily would they boast and plead and perhaps believe too themselves to be true Prophets And yet God himself tells us this is no safe and sure Rule to judge men true Prophets by For the Spirit of Error may possibly predict many things and the Events answer the predictions and many times we know it hath been thus And we do not know how far the skill of the Devil may extend in this matter Besides God hath told us that he many times permits such things to come to pass that he may thereby try the love and fidelity of men Cause these to be a punishment unto all those that are unreasonably fickle and unconstant and on the other hand that as the Apostle speaks in case of Heresies those that are cordial and approved may be made known 1 Cor. 11.19 I know there are many Rules laid down by the Jewish Rabbies and others after them for the trial of Prophets and a great stir made about them But he that will considerately read them over as he will find this always mentioned as one Rule so he will find that it is the chiefest and safest and that to which all at last are forced to flee The Second case that I chose to instance in was the case of Miracles for that there are true and lying wonders the Scripture clearly assures us But how to distinguish betwixt these is really a very great and perplexing difficulty and some men have taken a great deal of pains to give directions herein And indeed must do so still until they come to fix and rest upon this For when all is done this certainly is the easiest and safest too namely to consider what the effects and designs of them are if they have Divine effects upon men especially if they only design to make men holy and good or to attest a doctrine that teacheth men how to be so then they carry the clearest stamp of Divinity upon them that can be but if they tend in any measure to the contrary either to encourage men in sin or attest any doctrine that teacheth any thing contrary to the holy Law and Precepts of God then they are to be suspected and rejected as immediate effects of the Spirit of delusion CHAP. V. A further discourse of Miracles and of their Evidence and how to know which are Divine and which not An addition to all from the Nature of Heresie and wherein the Notion of it doth chiefly consist BUT this Sir may perhaps by you be thought too little to be said on this great subject of Miracles for the whole World doth look upon them to be Divine Testimonies sufficient Evidences of truth and able to assure the verity gain assent to and entertainment of any doctrine that they are intended to attest The Christian Church in all Ages hath spoken great things of them and gloried in them and argued with great assurance the Divinity and Truth of the Christian Religion from them And he would certainly do a great disservice to Christianity that should go about in any measure to weaken the testimony of them And therefore Sir that I may not suffer under any of these prejudices I shall a little further enlarge this discourse of them and what I have to say that it may be distinct and plain shall be contained in these subsequent propositions 1. I do most readily grant and cordially believe that Divine Miracles are certain Evidences of Truth For it is no way reasonable to suppose that God should annex his Seal to attest any thing that is untrue Whatever God asserts must needs for that very reason be true were there none else and all the World is agreed in their belief of this So that I take it Miracles are not added to confirm the truth of what God hath declared but rather to convince men that he doth declare such things or to attest the Divine Commission of those that are his Instruments therein 2. But then secondly I do as assuredly believe that they are not the only Evidences of truth A Divine doctrine may carry in it many things that may be as clear signatures and ought to be as convincing characters of Truth as immediate Miracles are This may in some measure be collected from that parabolical discourse of Abraham to the rich man in Hell Luke 16.31 If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though one rose from the dead Intimating that those doctrines in Moses and the Prophetick writings had as much Evidence of Truth and as clear Convictions thereof in them as the miraculous appearance of one from the dead could give to them But there is a clearer place in the Gospel to assure this upon for our Saviour doth in one place viz. John 15.22 as much aggravate the guilt of the Jews Infidelity in not believing his heavenly pure doctrine