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
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
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
Controversies But would it not seem odd for a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant to defend Christianiry or the particular Doctrines of Christianity against Jews or Heathens purely as a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant For what have their particular differences to do in matters wherein they all agreed and in maintaining of that for which both sides are equally concerned The main of the Controversy betwixt us and those of the Romish Communion is either whether the Holy Scriptures be the Only Rule in all Matters of Religion Or whether those particular Doctrines wherein they and we do differ have warrant from the Scriptures And what need we intreating on these points to interest any discriminating notions amongst our selves As far as we do agree let us walk by the same Rule Besides by concerning our selves for Protestantism and Protestant Doctrines even in opposition to our Adversaries in common as fixing the Scriptures to be the Only Rule and that our particular Doctrine have plain warrant from the Scripture and those we oppose are either contrary to the Scriptures or have no warrant at all from thence we are excused from any obligation to trouble our selves with defending any unwary or less proper expressions which may have slipt from particular Parties or particular Persons in declaring their sense of particular Doctrines for whether they exprest themselves properly or no or whether their opinion were right or no is not at all material to the Controversy betwixt those of the Church of Rome and us For if any Parties or single Persons have declared their sense and opinions concerning any Doctrine or matter of Practice either that their opinion doth accord with Scripture or it doth not if it do it is the Protestant Doctrine if it do not it is not a Protestant Doctrine and so it doth not at all affect us since we own that persons professing themselves Protestants may mistake as well as we do declare our assurance that those who have been named Infallible in another Communion have erred most grieviously But this we affirm that so far as any do keep strictly and closely to the Holy Scriptures they cannot mistake And Protestants have no real concern to vindicate any Party or Person any further than they do keep unto the Scripture But now to return from these digressions unto what was said before viz. That Protestants have such evidence as doth create certain assurance that the Holy Scriptures are fully perfect to instruct and direct Believers in all matters of Religion and do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of necessary and perpetual use unto his Church I need not relate the whole evidence that might be produced on this occasion I will therefore content my self with these two particulars relating to this matter which certainly must sway powerfully with them who are under an influence which is truly Religious The first is this 1. That the Holy Spirit of God hath expresly declared that the Holy Scriptures are compleat and perfect to all the ends and purposes of Divine Revelations Hear how large and particular the Holy Spirit of God is in declaring the Fullness and Perfection of the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be Perfect throughly furnished unto all Good Works 2. The same Holy Spirit hath solemnly devoted to the most dreadful Curse of Almighty God whomsoever shall be so arrogant and presumptuous as to offer any other Doctrine besides what the Holy Scriptures do teach as a Divine Revelation Gal. 1. 8. But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Now if people will pretend to produce other Divine Revelations which God hath appointed to be of perpetual use to his Church either those must invalidate these Holy Scriptures or else these Holy Scriptures must invalidate them they cannot consist well together If we will own and stick to the Holy Scriptures we must reject whatever additional Discoveries shall be produced because the Spirit hath in these Scriptures excluded them What hath been discoursed concerning the evidence Protestants have for their great and main Principle may justly promt to take notice of two things 1. That they who would hinder and discourage people from reading and studying the Holy Scriptures do give them just occasion to suspect that they have none of the honestest and most commendable designs to manage We are very certain the Holy Prophets of God the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles were Persons beloved of God and Persons who were greatly concerned for Peoples Spiritual Welfare and we are as certain that these were very much and in good earnest in pressing exciting and perswading the common sort of People to read and study the Scriptures they command them in the Name of God to read and learn the Scriptures and those Revelations of the Mind of God which were communicated unto them read Deut. 31. 11 12 13. Deut. 6. 6 7 8 9. John 5. 39. Col. 3. 16. Nay does not the design and end for which God hath made his Will known and caus'd it to be committed to Writing manifest and prove our Duty evidently enough For what end hath God given the Holy Scriptures unto his Church and People Are we not assured that the Scriptures were written for our Learning for our Instruction for our Admonition c. And must we not read them then How will they answer these ends if we must not consult them Were not the Scriptures written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope Read and consider Rom. 15. 4. Have we not then too much ground to suspect that those who would take or keep our Bibles from us are Enemies to our Faith Patience Comfort Hope and Happiness Is not the Word of God that Sword of the Spirit with which we are to defend our selves and worst our Spiritual Enemies Ephes 6. 17. And now what reason have we to take them for our Friends who would lay us open and expose us Naked to the Assaults of Sathan and his Instruments The Holy Penmen of the Scriptures did by the direction of the Blessed Spirit commend People for applying themselves to the Holy Scriptures and endeavouring to improve in the knowledge of them See Psal 1. 2. Act. 17. 11. Act. 18. 24. 2 Tim. 3. 15. And it is certain that the People of God of every rank and condition under the Old Testament Dispensation were obliged by Especial Appointment from God to take care to read and labour after a continual Increase in the knowledge of the Scriptures Now can we imagine that God having given
Faith hath outward Honours Preferment Carnal Pleasures and Ease accompanying it it will not want Followers and Attendants but when Storms and Persecutions do arise and it is separated from these external Allurements they will soon shake hands with Religion and court whatsoever shall be drest up in its former Robes Such as espouse the True Religion not for its native Excellency but for its gorgeous Attire and great Dowry in this World will in all probability when Persecutions arise part with their Faith rather than their Pleasures Wealth and Ease they will sooner throw away their Bibles rather than their Bottles 1 Joh. 2. 19. Mat. 13. 20 21. Now if there be such danger of people's Apostatizing from the True Faith after they have made a profession of it it must certainly very importantly concern all who profess the Protestant Religion that is True Christianity as taught and delivered in the Holy Scriptures and as purged and reformed by the guidance and direction of this Divine Rule from all those Errours and Corruptions which have either through people's heedlessness crept into the profession of Christianity or through design have been slily ushered into it or by imperiousness have been forc't upon it I say it very highly concerns them to take care that their Minds and Hearts be so fixed and settled in the Faith of the Gospel that they may never be removed from their Constancy that they may not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of Men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. It should therefore be our care to get our Minds furnished with clear distinct Notions of those Truths in which the Scriptures do instruct people It is not enough that we can talk over in a general way the Doctrines of Religion we ought to labour for an explicite knowledge of Divine Revelations so that we may be able to prove and confirm every part of our Profession by express and clear Scriptures 1 Pet. 3. 15. The Ignorant Man will be always wavering Yea we should strive to get the Truths we profese and understand very strongly indeared unto our Hearts so as to prefer them above all Worldly and Carnal Interests and to have our Affections yea our whole Souls brought under their Power and Influence their Government and Soveraignty our Souls should so cleave unto them they should be so precious and dear unto us that neither Frowns nor Smiles Promises nor Threats may make any unhappy impression on us but the more blustering any Storms may be which can arise the deeper root we may take and grow the more firm and stable Phil. 1. 27 28. For 1. We must expect to meet with Tryals and Sufferings for the Faith of the Gospel which will overwhelm and ruine us if we be not well provided against them Our Passage to Glory is through many Tribulations We have many and various Enemies who will mischief us and obstruct us all they can who will do their utmost to prevail with us both by fair and foul means to make shipwrack both of Faith and a good Conscience We are not only exposed to the malice rage and spite of absurd and unreasonable Men but to the craft and fury too of those infernal Fiends who prompt and excite their carnal and earthly Tools and Instruments to vent and vomit forth their rancour and spleen against the True Faith and its Professors See Eph. 6. 12 13. 1 Pet. 5. 8 9. Rev. 2. 10. If you be not well fixed in the Truth how can you expect to hold out when temptations and sufferings shall come When you shall be in danger of loosing Estate Liberty all that is dear to you in the World yea Life it self for your Religion Did not the House built upon the Sand fall when the Rain descended and the Winds blew and beat upon it Mat. 7. 26 27. 2. Apostacy from the True Faith is a very hainous provoking sin is not this to offer God the utmost affront we can and in effect to say all manner of evil of him Do we not hereby charge him with being the greatest Impostor that ever was Is not this to throw the foulest dirt that is possible upon Religion yea openly to avow that Sathan and his drudgery are much better more ligible than Christ and his most Holy Faith That God is not to be trusted and that his Religion is not what he represents it O what abominable what innumerable what monstrous wickednesses are bred in the womb of Apostacy And what direful consequences and fruits may those expect who thus affront and incense the Almighty God against themselves He will not have a gracious regard for such He will cast off and punish severely all those that cast him off and deal treacherously with Him. The Just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10. 38. The Lord Jesus Christ will reject them and be ashamed of them when he shall appear in all his Glory Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Mark 8. 38. Though you set no value on Christ's Love at present and care for no more but that you may have the Countenance of great Persons and injoy the Pleasures and Wealth of the World yet remember that it will not be long before ye shall have other apprehensions of things than now you have It will not be long before you shall perceive all these things you prefer before the Faith of the Gospel to be very empty and void of all satisfaction and full of torment and horrour when Christ shall appear in Glory with his Holy Angels all these things will fail you and how you will howl and roar and complain then What tears will you then shed How will you curse your Apostacy and all that helpt it forward And now when your Case is thus helpless thus dreadful and all your Comforters are gone the Lord Jesus and his Mercy will fail you too he will send you to them whose favour you prefer'd before his who will tremble and quake as much as you and to your Wealth which will then disappear and to your beloved Pleasures which will then be bitterer than Gall and Wormwood you must only expect to behold his frowns and to feel the terrible discoveries of his insupportable displeasure you can expect no favour at his Hands See Prov. 1. 24. to the end 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9. Nay you have no good ground to hope you shall prosper in any of those designs you intend to drive forward by or under your Apostacy God doth very often notably blast such projects He causeth some remarkable and very fatal Curse to accompany those who relinquish his Cause and Truth What was Judas
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