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
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
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
us a larger Discovery of his Mind doth dispence with our neglect to search the Scriptures Can those who are against the Lay-Peoples reading of the Scripture find any Command of Christ requiring them not to read the Scripture Can they produce any Condemnation or Censure from the Prophets from Christ or from his Apostles against those who shall read the Word of God Or can they make it appear that any of these did ever commend People for their neglecting to read the Scripture If they cannot do any of all this let their Pretences and Self-vindications touching this matter be never so plausible we may rest assured there is nothing solid and substantial in what they say for there cannot be any Reason against God. The more subtle and cunning their Pretences are the worse Men they manifest themselves to be because they abuse those Abilities which should have been applied another way and might had they been used aright have been very serviceable to promote the Interest of Truth and Holiness The most plausible Pretence they do produce for their prohibiting People the common use of the Scripture is That the ordinary sort of People would be very apt to abuse and wrest the Scriptures to their own Destruction should they be permitted to have free recourse unto them But allowing that People may wrest the Scripture and make some other use of it than they ought this is not an Inconvenience which will make null and discharge Men from God's Command of reading and searching the Scripture You may with as much reason oblige Men to forbear the use of wholesome Food Meat and Drink and starve themselves to death because some by their Intemperance and Excess do abuse wholesome Food and make it an occasion of dangerous Distempers and Diseases yea and Death it self You may as lawfully deprive People of their Corporal as of their Spiritual Food Besides this very particular hath been foreseen and taken notice of by the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture if we interpret 2 Pet. 3. 16. according to the usual acceptation of that place by those who do alledge it for their purpose as to this matter And yet there is not one word there to oblige People on that account to desist from the reading of the Scriptures The People may and ought to be warned to take heed how they read the Scriptures and that they avoid Errours and pervert not the Word of God. But the Scriptures are not therefore to be detained from them God hath not thought fit to provide such a Remedy against peoples abusing his Word as this is of keeping it intirely from them Yea this very Apostle doth as it were in the next verses perswade them to the due and right study and improvement of the Scriptures that they may avoid the Errours others do fall into by abusing them and may increase in the knowledge of Christ It is undeniably evident that this same Apostle doth in this same Epistle commend peoples reading of the Scriptures and attending unto them We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark place until the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your Hearts 2 Pet. 1. 19. And however it is common to attribute the Rise of Errours to the common sort of peoples having the free use of the Scriptures yet upon due examination it will be found that the worst and most fatal Errous have sprung from and been advanced by them who pretending to more Knowledge and Learning and Abilities than the rest of Mankind have presumed to appropriate to themselves the intire Custody or Interpretation of the Scriptures Nay it is truly observed by one who appears to have consulted Antiquity with much care and diligence That The Laity so well understood their Faith that many times they by their sagacity discerned the sly Insinuations of Errour in the Sermons of their Unsound and Heretical Bishops and so occasioned them to be condemned by Synodical Sentences and through the radicated sense of Faith would never be brought to any of the Alterations made by any corrupt Councils nor would ever rest under their Prevarications till the Primitive Faith recovered and vacated all those Synodical Prevarications as may be seen in all the Arian History and particularly the relation given of the vulgar Sagacity and Zeal to detect and repress that Heresy in St. Hierom against the Luciferians If this Notion of keeping the Scriptures from the people or of obliging the People to understand the Scriptures no otherwise than those would interpret them who were arrogant enough to claim and assume to themselves this priviledge had intirely prevail'd when our Blessed Saviour was on Earth God only knows how much our Saviour's Reputation might have suffered even in succeeding Generations For as these presumptuous Persons did pretend that the Key of the Scripture did hang only at their Girdle so they refused to acknowledge Christ was the Messiah the Son of God and they both accused him as an Impostor a Deceiver an Ill Man and charged and censured the People as ignorant Persons who did not understand the Law little better than Hereticks a cursed Generation and all this was because they did listen unto Christ follow Him and Believe in Him that is did undertake to judge of Matters by the Scripture and to determine this was the Saviour the Messiah c. prophesied of and promised in the Scriptures The Chief Priests the Scribes the Pharisees they were all against Christ and would fain have perswaded the People to have taken their Interpretation of the Scriptures and to have pinn'd their Faith on their Sleeves and not undertake to judge for themselves in so high and mysterious a Point as this concerning the Messiah was They would have perswaded them that this Jesus was a very Cheat and that all the things he did which won their admiration were wrought by the Intimacy he had with and the Power he borrowed from the Prince of the Devils and that the Messiah must be quite of another Make from this same Jesus Now what work would have been in the World if none must have read and understood the Scriptures in any other sense but what the Topping-Men and Chief Leaders of the Jewish Church had assigned What contempt do these Monopolizers of Knowledge express against the People who would not submit to their Determinations How angry were they when any dared to declare how they respected and admired Christ Then came the Officers to the Chief Priests and Pharisees and they said unto them Why have ye not brought him The Officers answered never Man spake like this Man Then answered them the Pharisees Are ye also deceived Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him But this People who knoweth not the Law are Cursed John 7. 45. to the 50th If People mean fairly and honestly why do they desire to have Folks bred up in Ignorance Indeed
And have you such numerous examples and presidents take heart then and go on as they did joyfully in the strengrh of you God. How many have ventured all and sustained all both in former Ages and in this present Age in a neighbouring Countrey with astonishing Joy for this self same Religion But Oh! what will you loose and what must you suffer if you wickedly depart from your God and renounce his Truth Would you be in Judas his despair or sustain the horrour Spira was filled with for Worldly Favour and Preferment Would you be willing for ease and pleasure here to be the object of God's heaviest displeasure for ever To be shut out of Heaven to be continually followed with God's Curse To be a perpetual Companion of Devils and the worst Sinners To lie roaring and howling to all Eternity in unquenable flames In a word consider how the Faith you profess is the Faith which God Almighty hath taught and appointed which the Lord Jesus hath born witness unto and sealed with his Blood which the Apostles preached to the World and suffered for the Faith which has been justified and confirmed by multitudes of most real and undeniable Miracles a Faith that is pure and peaceable and tends most intirely to propagate and increase all that is truely excellent and praise-worthy amongst Men a Faith which God hath taken care of in all Ages of the Christian World and which assures its sincere Professors of things incomprehensibly great and glorious hereafter and fills them with unspeakable peace and comfort at present amidst all the Suffering they can be exposed to on its account a Faith God hath wonderfully freed from the Corruptions which were formerly mixed with it in these Nations and for which He hath often and even miraculously appeared in discovering and blasting the projects the designs and the attempts of its most subtle and unreconcileable Enemies a Faith your Ancestors after mature consideration priz'd above all their worldly Interests and Lives a Faith they took a great deal of care and pains to have transmitted to you pure and undefiled a Faith which brought with it multitudes of outward Blessings and which occasioned these Nations to be eas'd of a Yoke which all the Inhabitants who had ingenious sense complained often of and groaned under a Faith you cannot part with but in all probability you will again involve your selves in Calamities and Miseries like to those out of which your Predecessors strove with all their might to extricate themselves Have you an ambition now to expose your selves and your Posterity to all the mischief and evil which people of the adverse perswasion have been known industrious and unwearied to bring upon those they look upon as Hereticks Are you resolved to pull down with your own hands upon your selves all the sad and direful Plagues which are reserved to be inflicted in the next World on them who perfidiously betray the Faith of the Gospel and wickedly Apostatize from the True Religion If not then take care and look well to your selves and see that you be fixed and confirmed in the Protestant Religion And therefore 1. Be sure you be built upon the true Foundation Take heed you profess not the True Faith meerly because it is owned by any Society of some particular extrinsical denomination any particular Church may fall There is a Body of Men now in the World who assume to themselves a very glorious Title and yet when a just enquiry is made and the largest allowances Charity can prompt to are yielded them that Society can only pass for a very corrupt part of the Christian Church and yet the antient Inhabitants of that place where the Head of this Society hath fixed his See were a people in St. Paul's time so hearty in and true to the Doctrines of Christ their Faith was spoken of throughout all the World. Rom. 1. 8. Where are any tracts and footsteps now of those Churches you read of in the Revelations And yet God never forsaketh any till they first forsake him There has been I fear there is still altogether a fault amongst us that we are immoderately concerned for the credit and outward grandure of particular Parties and Christians are respected not for their being Christians but for their espousing some distinguishing Notions and Characters of Man's devising I am perswaded God will utterly overthrow at least mightily abase Men's affections to and zeal for all Party-making Notions amongst Christians before he will raise his Church to that prosperous flourishing State prophesied of and promised in the Scriptures There must be more Love and Charity and Unanimity amongst Christians Christianity will endure to the End of the World but as for all the Modes and Fashions of Man's devising wherewith any do dress up the Profession of Christianity these may all fall to the Earth as the Inventers of them have fall'n or will fall Mat. 16. 18. Gal. 6. 15. The True Foundation you should be built upon is that of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Corner-Stone Eph. 2. 20. Therefore 2. Embrace nothing as an Article of Faith or part of Religion but what the Holy Scriptures are express or very clear concerning You have in these Scriptures all that is necessary to any Man's Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Joh. 20. 13. Believe no Man nor no Society of Men in these Cases further than the Scriptures do warrant what they teach Act. 17. 11. Isai 8. 20. 3. Be not extreamly hot and zealous about any thing but what the purity of Faith and power of Godliness are really concerned in Good Men and Orthodox Christians may have different apprehensions about Matters of small moment without much prejudice to their own Souls or the common Faith provided these Differences be managed without uncharitableness and unchristian violence But too much heat and violence about things diverts from the weighty matters of God's Laws and Religion soon sensibly decays Phil. 3. 16. Gal. 6. 16. Tit. 3. 9. 4. Expect and prepare for Tryals Christ hath dealt plainly and openly with us In the World ye shall have Troubles See Mat. 16. 24. Learn to resign up your selves and live in expectation of Sufferings Read 1 Pet. 4. 12 13. 5. Be earnest in Prayer that your Hearts and Souls may have an inward real spiritual affectionate sense of the Truth and Importance of the Doctrines of Christianity 1 Cor. 2. 12 13 14. 6. Study the Holy Scriptures diligently and make them your dayly delight Psal 1. 2. Psal 119. 97 98. 7. Make a good Improvement of the plain faithful Ministry of the Word whil'st you can injoy it you know not what Times may come 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. 8. Take heed of Self-confidence and depend wholly on thy Saviour 9. Learn to be expert in using every part of the Christian Armour Eph. 6. 13. c. 10. Watch your selves carefully and your Enemies too 2 Pet. 3. 17. 11. Take a due care that your Faith may effectually influence you to all Holiness of Life and Conversation That Man is in a great preparation to renounce his Faith that hath prostituted his Conscience and is regardless how he lives 1 Tim. 1. 19. Read consider and improve what is offered unto you and the God of all Grace who hath called us to his Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after that we have suffered a while make you Perfect c. 1 Pet. 5. 10. FINIS Per lustra popinas quotidie sine pudore in aleae lusum ususque turplssuhos potestatem extratendi animas functoâ—um ex igne expiatorio profundebant In Aug. Thuam Hist l. p. 13. vide Mezenrah Ann. 1517. Sleid. Com. lib. 1. An. 15. Qnicunque non innititur doctrinae Romanae Ecclesie ac Romani Pontificis tam quam regulae fidei infallibili aqua etiam sacra Scriptura â—obur trabit authoritatem est Haeriticus Mouns Clauddef of the Reformation part 3d. M. Clauddes of the Reform part 3d. pag 51. c. Vnde Protestantium nomen quod ad omnes postea qui eorum quae perperum in religionem invecta sunt emendationem amplecti se professi sunt obitque ab Ecclesia Romana defecere dimanavit Thuan Hist lib. 1. p. 26. Nomen per contemptum ab adversariis ob protestationem Spirae impositum D. Prideaux Lect. 9. de visibil Eccles Chilling worth 's Safe way to Salvation pag. 375. Catholick Ballance pag. 19.
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