interpretationis as they were Pastours of the Church and while they conferred together seeking God they were in the use of the best means to find out truth and under a promise also but not of infallibility and therefore although we cannot make them the rule of our faith yet ought we not rashly to reject them when they are offered to us nor to slight their judgements as if they were nothing worth but seriously to examine their reasons and grounds on which they went We honour the Fathers as men whom God's providence raised up and indued with gifts to quell the growing heresies of their times and doubtlesse if they were more lookt into they would furnish us with tried weapons armour approved to subdue the self-same heresies risen again among us in these our dayes and prove as successefull as that stratagem of the Scythians was who put their rebel-slaves to flight by but shewing them the rods where with they had been wont to whip them But though we honour the Fathers yet we dare not worship them we may not believe in them nor make their writings the rule of our faith This is that which themselves did never desire but forbid and abhorre the thought of they seem to say to us Stand up for we also were but men subject to like infirmities with you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Worship God believe in him I doubt not but they that mended many faults in their own writings left some behind and I wish others had not added more We admit them as witnesses but not as a rule since they also were but fallible The Church of Rome ha's boasted so long of the Fathers till at length they grow almost weary of it At first they had like to have put the Centuriatours out of countenance but afterwards Bishop Jewell was so bold as to challenge them in a Sermon at Paul's Crosse afterward printed and to offer that if they could produce any one ancient Father General Councel or example of the Primitive Church for the first six hundred yeares that sided with them against us in any one of 27 articles by him named and in controversie between us he would subscribe to them This challenge Dr. Humfryes thought was more than he needed to have made yet having made it he made it good against Harding and yet died a Protestant and this was no more than we all promise sayes learned Dr. Whitakar against Campian's fifth reason So that the Jesuite needed not to have arrogated to the Church of Rome that priviledge of the Jews Whose are the Fathers and Malone might have spared his scurrilous title-page against the Reverend and learned Primate Though you have ten thousand USHERS yet have ye not many FATHERS We boast not of ten thousand but are glad that we have one worth ten thousand of their Popish-Fathers and as many head-masters of their schools to boot But we hope we have the Fathers with us and I am sure we honour them more than they and yet make them not the rule of our faith neither They honour them not as Fathers but as Lords and Masters as Peter Cotton was wont to call him My Lord St. Austin At servum scis te genitum blandéque fateris Dum dicis dominum Sosibiane Patrem Let them therefore be the vassals if they please while we are the true and genuine sonnes of those ancient Fathers And yet some of the Papists to say the truth cared not overmuch for the judgement of the Fathers when it made against them Cardinal Cajetan will not fear to go against the generall torrent of all the ancient Doctours for which Canus indeed blames him but then Andradius takes his part and I am sure what Cajetan said was no other than what was put in practise by Maldonate Jansenius and divers others Fourthly Nor is the judgement or testimony of the Church a sufficient rule of divine faith The Papists cry up the Church as much as the Jews of old did the Temple but by the Church they mean their own which by that time the Jesuites have done with it is nothing else but the Pope But wee 'll keep their tearm the Church whose testimony they say is infallible and necessary to a divine faith of any one article in religion and although de-Valentia and Canus would fain mince the matter and make it onely necessary as a condition yet that will not serve the Romanists turn which Bellarmine and a-Sacro-bosco knew well enough and therefore make the testimony of the Church necessary as a medius terminus and Cause of assent in all divine faith and so they must say or come over to us Now infallibility as it is required to a rule of doctrine is nothing else but the constant assistance of the holy Ghost which the Papists require a man to believe that their Church hath before he can believe so much as that there is an holy Ghost for that 's one article of faith none of which say they can be believed without the infallible testimony of their Church Wee 'l leave the Jesuites to distinguish themselves out of this contradiction if they can and i' th' mean while let us examine their proofs They offer us Tradition for proof but for them to go about to prove the Churche's infallibity from the tradition of the Church is to beg the question Let them first convince us that the Church is infallible as it gives the tradition and then wee 'l spare them any further pains to prove that it is infallible They often attempt to prove it to us by Scripture by which very practise they do but condemn themselves For First then it seems the Scriptures infallibility may be first known before and without the believing of the Churches infallibility quod minimè vellent for then the latter may be spared And secondly hereby once for all they appeal to mens private judgements and that in a point on which their whole cause turns and if they think the Scriptures so cleare for the Churche's infallibility that a private Christian may discern it I do appeal to themselves whether many other articles be not laid down more clearly in Scripture we say all Well but it may be some will say the Churches infallibility is first known before we know the Scriptures to be infallible I say then 1. let them prove it 2. why do they go about to prove it by Scripture 3. let them avoid the above-named contradiction Or if they 'l be willing to draw stakes with us and have neither the infallibility of the one nor of the other to be first believed Then first let them never more quote Scripture for the Churche's infallibility Secondly let them not require us to prove the Scriptures by the testimony of the Church Thirdly they must give us leave to fetch all the articles of our faith immediately from the Scriptures without the midwifry of their Porphyry-chair and then wee 'l casily grant them if it
John chap. 4. vers. 1. Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God it commends the practise of this duty in the Bereans Acts 17. 11. where 't is said of them that they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} more nobly-spirited than those of Thessalonica for that they searched the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so as the Apostles preached notwithstanding they were assisted by an infallible spirit It was not any slownesse in them to believe which made them examine but an holy prudence for so the words are They received the word with all readinesse of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so they received them readily and yet searched making no more hast then good speed But Bellarmine thinks to take off the edge of this place of Scripture by this distinction The Bereans were but beginners and had not yet entertained the faith and therefore might examine but such as are already Christians and believe the Churche's infallibility are bound to believe the doctrine it proposeth without examination I answer first by way of concession that as many as believe the Churches infallibility are bound consequently to believe whatever she propounds as farre as an errour can bind them But secondly If all be beginners but those that believe that truly for our parts We Protestants do professe our selves to be Bereans and therefore I hope he will give Us leave to examine their doctrine in the balance of the Sanctuary and so we have and found it light And thirdly is Bellarmine sure the Bereans were not believers when they searched since they received the word with all readinesse of mind and then 't is added and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so But fourthly If they were not I wonder how men before they beleive should be better able to judge than afterwards and how they should come to loose that power and priviledge by beleiving Besides these there are many other Scriptures which do ex consequenti not onely permit but also require to try the doctrines before we entertain them as Matth. 24. 4. where our Saviour bids See that no man seduce you and the Apostle Paul in Ephes. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words and 2 Thessal 2. 3. Let no man deceive you by any means To what purpose are all these monitory cautions if we may not try nay do they not implicitly require and command us to try and examine the doctrines whoever they be that bring them S. Paul is bold in Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel let him be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And that you may see that this expression proceeded neither from rashnesse nor passion but a most advised and well resolved deliberation he repeats the words in the verse following As we said before so say I now again If any preach any other Gospel unto you than that you have received let him be accursed Whence I observe these two things to my present purpose first that there must be an examen else how could they know it was another Gospel and so reject it and secondly that the hearers as such and not teachers were to be the judges unlesse wee 'l say they were bound to curse themselves But the truth in hand may be further evidenced to us by reason thus Because we must neither embrace all doctrines nor reject all nor take some such as come next no nor the truth it self upon slight grounds therefore we must examine 1. We must not reject all for so we shall be sure to reject the truth and besides we do ow so much reverence to the name of God as not rashly to reject without examen any doctrine that hath but an appearance of any just pretence unto it 2. Nor may we embrace all promiscuously for so we shall be sure to be in the wrong and I see not how possibly the soul can at the same time assent unto contradictions and yet such there are found among opinions 3. Nor in the third place may we take up a certain number of opinions as they come next to hand as they are offered to us by the place where we live or the next comer by for so there will be great danger of falling into errour and truth is of more concernment to us than that we should adventure it upon the hazard of such a contingency 4. Nor lastly may we entertain truth it self if we should happen on it on so slight grounds if we take no better hold of it we shall never be able to hold it fast If we build upon such a sandie foundation how do we think to stand when the winds and waves of temptation and persecution shall arise It remains therefore that we must examine that so we may both refuse the evil and also hold fast that which is good And for the further quickning of us unto this duty I shall propound onely two considerations and very briefly First Let us seriously consider what great danger there is in being deceived our souls ate at the stake no lesse than the everlasting good of our souls is concerned in it for errour in understanding begets errour in life and practise and the Scripture tells us of damnable heresies and what ever some may think of speculative errours yet surely as they proceed from that maim in the understanding which is the effect of original sinne and as they are cherished and abetted by corruption in the will they are sinns and make us guilty For the actions of the understanding as well as of the other faculties are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} under the law of God and the will shall answer at God's tribunal for not putting the understanding to school to Scripture as well as for not bridling the passions and not governing the outward man Since then there is such danger in errour as you have heard had we not need be carefull had we not need examine especially considering What danger there is of being deceived which is the second consideration For first the best are subject to errour themselves and so may though unwittingly and unwillingly be means of seducing others who do not examine and then their godlinesse and learning which were wont to keep them from errours will become arguments to draw others into them But then secondly how many false prophets deceivers and seducers are there in the world who make it their designe and purpose to deceive MANY shall come in my name faith our Saviour Matth. 24.5 and shall deceive many and Many false prophets ARE gone out into the world 1 John 4. 1. and that which makes them the more dangerous they are indefatigably industrious in their way compassing the earth with their master and compassing sea and land to make a proselyte Which they do the more easily effect by reason of the craft and
subtilty which they use We have it exprest emphatically in Ephes. 4. 14. Be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in wait to deceive Our Saviour hath foretold us that they should come as wolves in sheeps-clothing and the Apostle {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and again With all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse 2 Thessal 2. 9 10. All which places do loudly bespeak our earnest care to look to our selves and to examine doctrines before we embrace them lest unawares we entertain doctrines of devils in stead of the truths of God By this little that hath been said I hope it does appeare that it is our duty to examine But two things there be which are necessarily requifire to the right performance of it as we ought An infallible rule and a faculty rightly prepared the one by which the other with which we are to judge 1. There must be a faculty or a soul rightly prepared and that must be 1. A reasonable soul this is the subject of faith and all our other graces and is the principium quod of all the actions that flow from them Faith is a rational grace although it do not alwayes act discursively E.g. in its assent to the primò credita which is to a testimony not for a testimony no more than the understanding does by discourse induce it self to an assent unto first notions 2. This soul or faculty must be enlightened and assisted by the holy Spirit else it cannot apprehend aright spiritual things The natural man perceives not the things of the sprit neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Not but that a natural man may apprehend and assent unto divers truths recorded in the Scriptures but not with a saving kind of apprehension and assent nor as they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the things of the Spirit so they are not known but in a spiritual manner and by the assistance of the same Spirit Which assistance consists in the infusion of an habit of spiritual wisdome and understanding and the Spirit 's gracious excitation of it and concourse with it whereby the eyes of a believer's mind being enlightened he is enabled in some measure to discern and apprehend the truths and will of God objectively revealed and propounded to him by the same Spirit in the Scriptures This is that donum intellectûs and illumination which is bestowed upon every believer at his first conversion though in a lesser measure both of evidence and object than afterwards for it grows and increases according to the proportion of faith which God hath dealt to every man and extends itself as large as a divine faith does from which it is inseparable Now because all believers have sooner or later a divine faith of all things necessary for them so to be believed and some of more accordingly is this donum intellectûs dispensed all have some more or lesse none all but onely Christ to whom alone the Spirit was given without measure and of whose fulnesse we all receive grace for grace And as it is of the same extent so is it of the same original with a divine faith wrapt in the same womb and nursed by the same breasts it 's both attained and kept by the self same means prayer hearing of the word reading and meditating on it This the Papists are not willing to allow unto private believers yet Aquinas is cleare in the point Nullus habens gratiam caret dono intellectûs quod nunquam se subtrahit sanctis circa ea qua sunt necessaria ad salutem A very cleare and full testimony So that I shall forbear to adde any more 3. That the soul may be rightly fitted for to judge it must be sanctified First It must have a reverence of the divine Majesty and of his word then will it not so boldly go about with Socinus and our modern circulatours to bassle Scripture just as a Sophister would deal with a peice of Aristotle Then shall we not profanely abuse it by I know not what kind of mystical cabalistical interpretations Is this to reverence the word of God would any man take it well at our hands to have his words so played withall so screwed and wrested from their simple and most apparent sense and meaning Secondly the soul must be humble Such the Lord himself hath undertaken to teach they shall be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he resists the proud while he gives grace to the humble grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from those that fear him psal. 25. 14. and 84. 11. A proud man is a bad scholar he will confide in himself rather then in God he is fond of his own opinions and will not yield unto the truth being stubborn and disobedient in will and affections but if any one be humble and obedient if any one will do God's will he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God There is great need of humility also upon this account that those who have the gift in a lesser measure be not presumptuous so as to wade beyond their depth Which Saint Paul thought a seasonable caution in the matter in hand Rom. 12.3 Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith the words are emphaticall {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not out of an overweening opinion of self-sufficiency to enterprise things beyond their strength but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith for according to that is the measure of this gift as you heard before I might adde also in the third place that the soul must be indued with a sincere love of the truth that it must obey the truth and mortifie its own corruptions but of these more conveniently afterwards Thus much may suffice for the first thing required that we may judge aright a faculty rightly prepared 2. The second is the Rule according to which we must judge by which we must examine all doctrines and according to their agreeing or disagreeing with it either entertain or reject them This rule must be 1. in it self infallible 2. in respect of us clear and known 3. in respect of the doctrines to be tryed it must be adequate These are agreed upon as necessary properties of a rule of divine faith Now such a
rule are not First the maxims of naturall reason For 1. they are farre from being infallible many of them being but the product of humane discourse and fallible observation and therefore some of them false if they be extended beyond the sphere of Philosophy for whose meridian onely they were calculated at the first I do not think there is any truth in Philosophy which contradicts any truth in Divinity yet am I sure that many sayings are true in Philosophy which are false in Divinity For maxims and general rules being but collections observed from particulars if the survey be short ad nimis pauca respiciens not taking in all particulars the verdict or maxime must needs be defective and the general rule be liable to exceptions So that a rule may be true in Philosophy as to all those particulars included within the object of Philosophy but false if stretched to take in the things of Divinitie as an observation concerning men may be true of men in France or Italy but false if applyed to those in England who were never attended to in the raising 2. As these maxims are not infallible so neither are they adequate to the things to be believed and therefore cannot make a fit rule of divine faith For there are many divine truths which are nothing at all of kind to any peice of naturall knowledge neither flowing from these maxims nor being reducible to them 3. It is not possible for any of those maxims to be the foundation of any divine faith at all for all assent that is wrought in the soul by them is but either science or opinion both which arise from the evidence of the thing whereas faith assents unto an article without any such respect but meerly for the sake of a testimony and if the faith be divine such also is the testimony which produceth it And yet the Socinians make reason the rule of their faith Quod absurdum est rationi debet esse falsum saith one others more modest or more subtile will seem to grant that reason ought to believe what God sayes be it never so contrary to their apprehensions but then when the question is put whether God say such a thing or no here they will deny it if it agree not with their maxims Thus what they give with the one hand they take away again with the other they passe it in the head but stop it in the house decline the volie but take the rebound which comes all to one at last But how little reason there is for so doing especially in hac foece Romali in this Apostate and fallen condition of humane nature the alone sense of our own infirmities and weaknesses may sufficiently convince O but yet Right Reason Ay where is it many make account they have it and that in those very things wherein yet they contradict one another Some think Aristotle did but bid his scholer go look when he made the judgement of a wiseman the rule of vertues mediocritie many pretend to be wise and many more think themselves such but it 's seldome that either prove so So that indeed a man may sooner find vertue than a wise-man especially considering that he had need to be one himself to know one when he meets him All reason then is not right nor have all men right reason that think they have it reason it self then stands in need of a rule to be tryed by Reason is then right when it is true and then only true when it judgeth according to the truth of things themselves now things to be believed are contained in Scripture let us carry our reason thith'er and trie it by them For as Amesius very well Ratio quaedicitur recta si absoluta rectitudo spectetur non alibi nobis est quarenda quà m ubi existit id est in Scripturis neque differt quatenus spectat bonum aequum à voluntate Dei ad nostrae vita directionem revelatâ Mcdullae lib. 2. cap. 2. So then although the maxims of natural reason may be of singular use in Divinity if rightly limited by the Scriptures yet are they not fit to be canon they are both too short and too weak to make a rule of divine faith of Secondly nor is Antiquity such a rule as is required Antiquity barely considered is no good mark much lesse rule of truth The Romanists in giving marks of the true Church do as Painters who draw the Virgine Mary by their own Mistresses they do not choose the Church by her marks but indeavour to make their marks by their Church In like manner here they do not square their doctrine by the true rule but strive to find out a rule that will fit their doctrine and yet herein too they are oft times much to seek They cry up Antiquity very much bidding us ask for the old way for multitude of dayes shall teach us wisdome and make account they have praised themselves all this while but no such matter unlesse we should look at antiquity and nothing else but then I know who may vie with them the devil was a lier from the beginning For our parts we professe we do very much reverence antiquiry but it must be then in conjunction with truth we cannot admire old errours but as Solomon speaks of the hoary head Prov. 16. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousnesse We shall alwayes rise up before a reverend hoary-headed truth but we must have something else besides its gray hairs to know it by lest in stead of truth we salute her mask and worship a cloud in stead of a goddesse And as for the Papists for all their boasting so much of the antiquity of their doctrine we can easily shew them who brought in this doctrine and that doctrine into their Church this ceremony and that ceremony this corruption and that corruption We need no microscope to see how patcht their coat is of how different a thread and spinning so that it could never hang together but that the new would rend the old in sunder the strong the rotten were it not for that same Catholick plaister of infallibility But while we make the Scriptures to be our rule our doctrine is ancienter than much of theirs pretends to be Thirdly not the writings of the Ancient Fathers nor Canons of Councels neither of these are fit to be made the rule of a divine faith We do attribute much unto the judgements of those ancient Fathers those primitive Saints and Worthies whether exprest in their private writings or signified in lawfull Councels When the Councels were such as they ought to be consisting of holy able and learned Pastours of the Church we look upon them as bright constellations whose light was the greater because of their conjunction They had not onely donum intellectûs and that in a great measure too as they were single Christians but also donum
alone with greatest accuratenesse it will scarce have its just proportion till he doth compare it with the body notwithstanding the best diligence of the artist the wheels of a watch will need some filing when they come to be put together 2. A second character is that of S. John 1.4.3 Every spirit that consesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God of old whatsoever Prophet inticed the people unto idolatry was a false Prophet for all his signes and wonders and prediction of events Deut. 13. 1 2 3. So whatsoever doctrine tends to draw us off from Christ is nought and to be rejected and thus do not onely the Jews who deny that Christ is yet come but the Socinian also who denies him to be God and so by consequence to have come in the flesh in the Apostle's sense and to have made any satisfaction for sinne which was the end of his coming and the Papists also while they undermine him in all his offices and what do the Quakers but in effect deny Christ when they make him to be nothing else but a Metaphor and the Gospel a meer Allegory 3. The third mark is our Saviours own Matth. 7.16 By their fruits ye shall know them observe what the aims and designes are of those that promote them judge not rash judgement but observe the end A meteor may sometimes seem to be in heaven under the immediate tuition of some reall starre but let us watch the parallax and we shall find it many thousand miles below Some fowls there are that will hang hovering in the aire as if it were indifferent to them whether ever they came to earth again or no and yet if you observe them it is ten to one but you shall see them alighting in some puddle or other The Eagle soares high very high when her designe is nothing but carton It will therefore be our wisdome to observe carefully the tendencies of doctrines and their fruits if these be profanenesse or confusion the doctrines themselves cannot be from God for he is an holy God and not the authour of confusion And thus much be spoken concerning the second requisite to the proving of doctrines to wit the Rule and so I have done with the duty it self But here the Romanist pulls me by the sleeve with an objection or two which must be satisfied obj. 1. And first he objects that this would be pride and arrogance to examine the doctrines of our superiours as if private men knew more than they Answ. 1. It is no pride nor arrogance for us to endeavour to see that with our own eyes which our betters tell us they see with theirs especially sith God himself requires it of us 2. It is no whit unbecoming humility and Christian modesty to examine any mens doctrine while we acknowledge their superiority in gifts and reverence them accordingly They discern an hundred truths to my ten yet some of ten may possibly be none of their hundred I must not reject their doctrine without examen out of reverence unto them I may not trust to it as infallible out of reverence unto God I must therefore examine it by that golden rule the Scriptures which is no disparagement to them or to their doctrine for so ought they to preach and so ought we to believe If any man preach let him preach as the oracles of God and we must so heare and entertain the Gospel not as the word of man but as it is indeed the word of God able to save our souls see 1 Thess. 2. 13. obj. 2. O! but people are so ignorant they are not fit to judge Answ. Whose faults that you keep them from the Scriptures and the Scriptures from them and then say with the Pharisees This people who knowrth not the law are accursed John 7. 49. Well but if they must not judge of the doctrine what must they do to be resolved whether the Protestants or the Papists doctrine be to be followed de Valentia tells them they must adhere to that doctrine whose teachers have the most authority but how shall they know that why forsooth by their multitude sanctity antiquity and miracles Which is all one as if he had said Because thou art not book-learned thou art not fit to examine doctrines by Scripture therefore take onely this course travell over all the world and count how many Papists there be and then how many Protestants and by the way enquire into their lives then reade but over the histories of all ages and see which were the most ancient and lastly take notice of the number of miracles that have been done but let him believe none but those who saw them done and then thou shalt know which doctrine is the truest at least if these marks fail him not Now I think I should set the poore man an easier task if I should bid him reade or get some other to reade the Scriptures to him and there he should see what he might trust unto The necessary points of faith are cleare enough laid down there for any ordinary apprehension and such an one is as capable of the donum intellectûs without which none can savingly understand as a more learned man and I am sure the Scripture is the best collyrium which doth not onely cleare the sight but also enlighten the eyes and that of babes and simple ones obj. 3. But thirdly they object When you have done all every private Christian will be fallible in his judgement why then do ye refuse the Fathers Councels and the Church upon that account Answ. 1. I am speaking of an infallible Rule not an infallible Judge if the Faculty be fallible the Rule at least had need be infallible It is true an house that is built on a rock may fall if it be weakly built but that which is built upon the sand cannot possibly stand he that walks upon firm ground may stumble and fall and rise again but he that walks upon a quake mire must needs sink and that irrecoverably when the ground it self sinks under him 2. But thus much I say for the believer's infallibility 1. That while he keeps to the infallible rule he cannot erre 2. The spirit of God will infallibly guide every believer so as that he shall not swerve from the rule in any thing necessary to salvation 3. Nor in any point whereof it works in him a divine faith which is as good security as is needfull and a thousand times better than the Papists can give to any by believing in the Church So that these few rubs being removed out of the way we may safely proceed to the practise of what the Apostle here exhorts us to to prove all things Age verò nè semper forum But we must not be alwayes trying triall is in order to holding fast and that not of all things but of that which upon triall we find to be good So
the Apostle proceeds hold fast that which is good Which is the second part of the text containing in it the second duty incumbent upon every Christian viz. holding fast of that which is good Which I shall speak unto first relatively and then absolutely First relatively as it hath reference and regard unto the former duty And so we may look upon these later words either 1. as a caution or 2. as a means or 3. as the end of the foregoing duty of proving doctrines First let us consider them as a caution and then they intimate thus much unto us That we must so try and prove all things as i' th' mean while not to let go that which is good They that fish with a golden hook had need hold fast the line and look to the ground they stand upon We must have a firm basis and centre to trust unto or else the motion can neither be sure nor regular If once we loose our anchor no wonder if we be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} carried about by every blast of temptation from without and if we cast our ballast over-board we must needs be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} tost up and down by the wave of every doubt and so become the sport and scorn of every wind and wave And I could heartily wish that some of late had not sailed so farre upon new discoveries till they have lost their compasse and so made shipwrack of faith and conscience both together But if we desire to be successefull in our enterprize of trying and proving doctrirnes we must be sure to hold fast all tried and approved principles and 1. Such as are unquestionable or out of question we must not go to call them into question this were for us to be alwayes laying the foundation so should we never build to be alwayes learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth weak and unstable souls When truths are once tried and approved we must then study arguments for them answer difficulties brought against them and contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 2. We may examine an article of faith without doubring of the truth of it But suppose it should be called into question by others yea and doubted of also by our selves yet must we not presently for every doubt let go our faith nor quit it for every argument that 's brought against it though we cannot answer it A man may have strong demonstrations for a truth yet not be able to vindicate it from all objections whence scruples will arise but they may and must be overcome by believing and attending to the demonstrations and evidence for the truth though we be not able to acquit our selves of those difficulties which the devil's sophistry and our own infidelity may suggest We must not disclaim a truth because it is by some called in question much lesse ingenuously do they deal by truth who therefore disclaim it that so they may call it into question themselves We may not disbelieve a truth and scrape it out of our souls that so the soul may become rasa tabula unbiassed and perfectly indifferent either to receive a truth or to reject it as our new methodists would have us do That there is a God is an article of faith and a first notion ingraved upon the heart of man by nature Should I now go and not onely forbeare my assent unto it but also imagine the contrary to counter-poise the soul's naturall {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and inclination blot out that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to try if I can write it better What were this else but to lay faith to stake and throw the die for it to part with principles that we may try conclusions to deny the truth that we may recover it again by syllogismes to cast a jewell into the sea to see whether we can dive and fetch it up again with the Mountebank to wound for experiment and become Atheists that we may convert our selves by reason to tempt God to leave us and to tempt the devil to destroy us For my part I professe I see not how this can be put in practise withot being guilty of sinne and blasphemy Let us therefore hold fast the truth by a stedfast faith while we are examining doctrines and by holinesse of life also for the devil's great gains these late times have been that while men are taken up with disputes about truths in question they have too much neglected the practise of those that were indubitable Secondly we may look upon this latter duty as a means to help to the better performance of the former if we hold fast the truth which we already have we shall the more successefully prove the doctrines and find out the truth he that 's faithfull in a little ha's the promise of being ruler over much he that yields obedience unto truth shall know more of it if any man will do the will of God he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God or no John 7. 17. whereas on the contrary a corrupt heart will breed a corrupt judgement and either hinder the entertainment of truth at the first or else procure the ejectment of it afterwards out of the soul but more of this hereafter Thirdly we might also look upon these later words as the end of the foregoing duty let this be your aim and designe in proving all things to wit that you may hold fast that which is good Have recourse unto the Scriptures that you may know what is good have recourse unto Scriptures that you may believe it for haec scripta sunt ut credatis the ensuring of our faith was the end of the writing of the Scriptures This then condemns Scepticisme and the Academicks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Again prove all things that you may practise that which is good not that you may entertain your selves with jejune and idle speculations the end and fruit and perfection of knowledge is practise knowledge is a precious talent which is given unto us not to be hidden in a napkin but that we should {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} trade or work with it Unlesse the fruits of good living do grow upon the tree of knowledge it will never become to us a tree of life I shall leave others to dispute where Paradise was situate but our Saviour ha's placed happinesse between those two the tree of life and the tree of knowledge John 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them The more we know God the more we love him and the more we love him still the more do we desire to know of him so is it here the end of the knowledge of truth is that we may practise it and practise is a means of knowing more as the water comes from the ocean to the
ashamed to professe it if we be Christ will be ashamed of us another day Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels And whosoever shall deny him before men him will he also deny before his Father which is in heaven Matth. 10.33 Christ will have his truth owned by his followers The devil indeed will allow men to professe truth while they harbour errour in their hearts but Christ will not allow of such discord between heart and tongue Corde creditur adjustitiam With the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 10. 10 11. for the Scripture saith He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed Profession is the badge of truth and a fealty due to the God of truth By constant profession of and bearing witnesse to the truth the truth it self is propagated and God's glory is advanced and other Professours of truth are much encouraged And when was there ever greater need of bearing witnesse to the truth than at this day when errour does on every side so much abound When the unclean spirits like froggs bred of the slime of the earth come out of the mouth of the dragon then blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garment Rev. 16. 15. Wherefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Let us hold fast the profession of our faith unmoved without wavering Heb. 10. 23. for beloved we count them happy which endure James 5. 11. and our Saviour assures us more than once that they that endure to the end shall be saved Matth. 24. 13. Mark 13. 13. Nay himself encourages us from heaven Rev. 2. 10. Bethou faithfull unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life again Hold that thou hast let no man take thy crown Rev. 3. 11. That 's a fifth way of holding fast that which is good by the constant profession of it Sixthly the sixth and last way that I shall name is by contending for it earnestly Indeed so long as a man can enjoy his house by an undisturbed possession he need not contend about it but when thieves shall attempt to break it open when a robber shall set upon him for his purse striving by violence to take it from him then he must resolve to contend for it if he mean to keep it Now such is the condition of truth in this world it 's in a state militant continually surrounded and beset with enemies whose ring-leader is Satan the father of lies who layes continuall siege to truth not that he desires to have it himself but that he may dispossesse others of it and slight it when he ha's done 'T was but needfull then that the Apostle should exhort us to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Judo 3. They were betrusted with it as with a fort or castle and it would be treachery or cowardise not to defend it to the last And Paul's exhortation may be of singular use to us for our encouragement 1 Cor. 16. 13. Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit your selves like men and be strong A gallant speech of a tried souldier who had fought a good fight himself and was now ready to receive his crown Now though it be the duty of every Christian to contend for truth and that earnestly yet every one in his own rank and order for a man is not crowned except he strive lawfully Private Christians they must strive by earnest prayer to God that his truth may have a free passage and be victorious while others whom God hath given commission and abilities must also contend for it by preaching disputing and writing in defence of it all by suffering for it yea and dying in witnesse to it if God in his providence should call them forth to it Beloved ye have not yet resisted unto bloud but ye know not what times may come the clouds gather apace and some begin to fear a storm it concerns us in wisdome however to provide for the worst to be well-settled in the faith to buckle on our harnesse and to fortifie our selves in holy resolutions to stand to our arms having our loyns girt about with truth and we had need have truth girt close about us else we may chance to have a lap of it cut off and we never the wiser as Saul's skirt was by David while he slept and perceived it not Or else in time of persecution we may deal with it as the young man in the Gospel did by his linen cloth when souldiers laid hold of him he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked Mark 14. 51 52. Some it may be may think it but a nicety that some of the Primitive Christians sthood upon when they chose to sacrifice their own lives rather than sprinkle a little frankincense upon an idol's censer Some may imagine perhaps that the Martyrs of later years were too straight-laced many of them suffering upon the article of Transubstantiation but died Abner as a fool did those Worthyes foolishly and needlesly cast away their lives No surely they understood well enough that to deny the truth was to deny Christ and worshipping the bread was no lesse than grosse idolatry both grievous sinns had they been lesse they might not they durst not have committed them though to save their lives But as people and Ministers must contend for the truth so Magistrates are not excused from it What an abatement was it in the coats of divers of the Kings of Judah and those good Kings otherwaies that idol-worship was tolerated and winkt at in the high-places and not utterly rooted out O beloved God is a jealous God he will not endure his worship to be corrupted and do we think he will suffer his truth to be adulterated Will he not suffer the worship of devils but will he permit doctrines of devils Is not his truth precious to him and is he not jealous over that God will not endure those that worship another God besides him nor those who tempt others to it reade over Deut. 13. especially 6 7 8 9 verses and is Christ contented that they should be tolerated who openly declaim against his Godhead No certainly Our blessed Saviour blames the Church in Thyatira for suffering Jezabel to seduce his servants Rev. 2.20 and he professes that he hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and layes it heavily to the charge of the Church in Pergamos that she suffered those that taught it Rev. 2. 14 15. Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate Repent or I will come quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth The Church it self was for the genetall and the Governours of it orthodox