giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils So that the particular kind of Idolatry into which some part of the Christian Church should apostatize is here pointed at That they should worship Souls departed or the Spirits of dead Men which was part of the Heathen Idolatry into which the People of Israel did frequently relapse So that the Spirit of God doth here foretel such an Apostasie in some part of the Christian Church as the People of Israel were guilty of in falling into the Heathen Idolatry They shall be Worshipers of the Dead as the Israelites also were And this is the great and dangerous Seduction which the Christians are so much cautioned against in the New Testament and charged to hold fast the profession of the Faith against the cunning Arts and Insinuations of seducing Spirits not but as I said before that we are always to have an Ear open to Reason and to be ready to hearken and to yield to That whenever it is fairly proposed But to be over-reached and rooked out of one's Religion by little Sophistical Arts and Tricks is Childish and silly After we are upon due Trial and Examination of the Grounds of our Religion settled and established in it we ought not to suffer our selves to be removed from it by the groundless Pretences of Confident People to Infallibility and to be practised upon by Cunning Men who lie at catch to make Proselytes to their Party This is to be like Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine And we ought to be the more careful of our selves because there never was any time wherein seducing Spirits were more bold and busie to pervert Men from the Truth Against These we should hold fast our Religion as a Man would do his Money in a Crowd It passeth in the World for a great Mark of Folly when a Man and his Money are soon parted But it is a sign of much greater Folly for a Man easily to quit his Religion especially to be caught by some such gross Methods as the Seducers I am speaking of commonly use and which lie so very open to Suspicion such as ill-designing Men are wont to practise upon a young Heir when they have insinuated themselves into his Company to make a Prey of him They charge him to tell no body in what Company he hath been not to ask the Counsel and Advice of his Friends concerning what they have been persuading him to because they for their own Interest will be sure to disswade him from it Just thus do these Seducers practise upon weak People They charge them not to acquaint their Minister with whom they have been nor what Discourse they have had about Religion nor what Books have been put into their Hands because then all their kind Design and Intention towards them will be defeated But above all they must be sure to read no Books on the other side because they are no competent Judges of Points of Faith and this reading on both sides will rather confound than clear their Understandings They tell them that they have stated the matter truly and would not for all the World deceive them and they may easily perceive by their earnest Application to them that nothing but Charity and a passionate desire of the Salvation of their Souls makes them take all these Pains with them But this is so gross a way of proceeding that any Man of common understanding must needs discern by this kind Treatment that these Men can have no honest Design upon them To come then to a more particular Consideration of the Arts and Methods which they use I mean particularly those of the Church of Rome in making Proselytes to their Religion As 1. In allowing them to be very competent and sufficient Judges for themselves in the Choice of their Church and Religion that is which is the True Church and Religion in which alone Salvation is to be had and yet telling them at the same time that they are utterly incapable of judging of particular Doctrines and Points of Faith and Practice but for these they must rely upon the Judgment of an Infallible Church when they are in it otherwise they will certainly run into damnable Errors and Mistakes about these things And they must of necessity allow them to be sufficient Judges for themselves in the Choice of their Religion as will be evident by considering in what Method they proceed with their intended Proselyte They propose to him to change his Church and his Religion because he is in the wrong and they will shew him a better and such a one as is the only True one and in which alone Salvation is to be had To perswade him hereto they offer him some Reasons and Arguments or give him Books to read containing Arguments to move him to make this Change to satisfie him of the Reasonableness and to convince him of the Necessity of it Now by this way of proceeding and they can take no other they do whether they will or no make the Person whom they are endeavouring to convert a Judge for himself which Church and Religion is best that which they would have him embrace and come over to or that which they would perswade him to forsake For to what end else do they offer him Reasons and Arguments to perswade him to leave our Church and to come over to theirs but that he may consider the Force and Weight of them and having considered them may judge whether they be of force sufficient to over-rule him to make this Change So that as unwilling as they are to make particular Persons judge for themselves about Points of Faith and about the Sense of Scripture confirming those Points because this is to leave every Man to his own private Spirit and Fancy and giddy Brain yet they are compelled by Necessity and against their own Principles to allow a Man in this case of chusing his Religion to be a Judge of the Reasons and Arguments which they offer to induce him thereto So that whether they will or no they must permit him to be a Judge for himself for this once but not to make a Practice of it or to pretend this Priviledge ever after For in acknowledgment of this great Favour of being permitted to judge for himself this once which they do unwillingly grant him and upon meer Necessity he is for ever after to resign up his Judgment to the Church And tho this Liberty be allowed pro hâc vice and properly to serve a turn i. e. in order to the changing of his Religion yet he is to understand that he is no fit and competent Judge of particular Points of Faith these he must all learn from the True Church when he is in it and take them upon her Authority and in so doing he shall do very prudently because She is infallible and cannot be deceived but He may But is there any Sense in all this that
a Man should be very fit and able to judge of that which they esteem the main and fundamental Point of all namely which is the True Church and Religion and of the Reasons and Arguments whereby they pretend to demonstrate it and of the true Meaning of those Texts of Scripture whereby they pretend to prove theirs to be the only True Church and yet should be wholly unable to judge of particular Points of Faith or of the True Sense of any Texts of Scripture that can be produced for the Proof of those Points Is it so very prudent in all the particular Points of Faith for a Man to rely upon the Judgment of the Church because She is infallible and not to trust his own Judgment about them because He is fallible and may be deceived And is it prudent likewise for this Man to trust his own Judgment in the main Business of all namely Which is the true Church and Religion concerning which he is as fallible in his Judgment and as liable to be deceived as in the Particular Points And if he be mistaken in the main Point they must grant his Mistake to be fatal because his Sincerity as to all the rest depends upon it This is a great Mystery and Riddle that every particular Man should have so sufficient a Judgment as to this main and fundamental Business Which is the True Church and Religion and should have no Judgment at all about particular Points fit to be trusted and relied upon As if there were a certain Judgment and Prudence quoad hoc and as if all Men's Understandings were so framed as to be very judicious and discerning in this main Point of Religion but to be weak and dangerous and blind as to all particular Points Or as if a Man might have a very good Judgment and be fit to be trusted and relyed upon before he come into their Church but from the very moment he enters into it his Judgment were quite lost and good for nothing For this in effect and by interpretation they say when they allow a Man to be very able to judge which is the true Church and Religion but so soon as he hath discovered and embraced that to have no Judgment of his own afterwards of any Point of Religion whatsoever and a very tempting Argument it is to any Man that hath Judgment to enter into that Church 2. Another Art they use with their intended Proselyte in order to his makeing a right choice of his Religion is to caution him to hear and read only the Arguments and Books which are on one side But now admitting their designed Proselyte to be just such a Judge and so far as they will allow him to be and no farther viz. Which is the true Church but to have no Fitness and Ability at all to judge of particular Points of Faith yet methinks they put a very odd Condition and untoward Restraint upon this Judge in telling him as they certainly use to do those whom they would pervert That he must have no Discourse nor read any Books but only on that side which they would gain him to because that is the way to perplex and confound him so that he shall never be able to come to a clear Judgment and Resolution in the Matter But will any Man admit this way of proceeding in a Temporal Case This is just as if in a Cause of the greatest consequence the Councel on one side should go about to persuade the Judge that it is only fit to hear what he hath to say in the Case that he will open it very plainly and state the Matter in difference of clearly and impartially and bring such strong Reasons and Proofs for what he says that he shall not need to hear any thing on the other side but may proceed to Judgment without any more ado But if when the matter is thus laid before him so plainly and is even ripe for Judgment he will trouble himself needlesly to hear the other side this will cast him back where they first began and bring the Matter to an endless wrangling and so confound and puzzle his Understanding that he shall never be able to pass any clear Judgment in the Cause What think we would a Judge say to such a bold and senseless Pleader The Case is the same and the Absurdity every whit as gross and palpable in pressing any Man to make a Judgment in a Matter which infinitely more concerns him upon hearing only the Reasons and Arguments on one side 3. Another Art which they use in makeing Proselytes is to possess them that there is but One thing that they are mainly concern'd to enquire into and that is this Since there is but one true Catholick Church of Christ upon Earth out of which there is no Salvation to be had Which that True Church is And when they have found that out that will teach them in a most Infallible way the True Faith and Religion and all things that are necessary to be believed or done by them in order to their Salvation so that they have nothing to do but to satisfie themselves in this single Enquiry Which is the True Catholick Church of Christ This is the Vnum necessarium the one thing necessary and when they have found out this and are satisfied about it they need to enquire no farther this Church will fully instruct and satisfie them in all other things And this I cannot deny to be a very Artificial way of proceeding and to serve their purpose very well for they have these two great Advantages by it 1. That it makes the work short and saves them a great deal of labour by bringing the whole Business to one single Enquiry and when they have gained this Point that this single Question is all that they need to be satisfied in then they have nothing to do but to ply and puzzle the Man with their Motives of Credibility and Marks of the true Church and to shew as well as they can how these Marks agree to Their Church and are all to be found in it and in no other and to set out to the best advantage the Glorious Priviledges of Their Church the Miraculous things that have been and are still daily done in it and the innumerable multitude of their Saints and Martyrs and if these General Things take and sink into them their work is in effect done 2. Another great Advantage they have by it is That by bringing them to this Method they divert and keep them off from the many Objects against their Church and Religion namely the Errors and Corruptions which we charge them withal For this is the thing they are afraid of and will by no means be brought to to vindicate and make good their Innovations in Faith and Practice so plainly in many things contrary to Scripture and to the Faith and Practice of the Primitive Church as the Doctrines of Transubstantiation of Purgatory the Popes Supremacy
it but having no root in themselves they endured but for a while and when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they fall off And there is likewise a partial Apostasie from Christianity when some Fundamental Article of it is denied whereby in effect and by consequence the whole Christian Faith is overthrown Of this Hymeneus and Philetus were guilty of whom the Apostle says that they erred concerning the truth saying that tbe Resurrection was past already and thereby overthrew the faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. That is they turned the Resurrection into an Allegory and did thereby really destroy a most Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion So that to make a man an Apostate it is not necessary that a man should solemnly renounce his Baptism and declare Christianity to be false there are several other ways whereby a man may bring himself under this guilt as by a silent quitting of his Religion and withdrawing himself from the Communion of all that profess it by denying an Essential Doctrine of Christianity by undermining the great End and Design of it by teaching Doctrines which directly tend to encourage Men in impenitence and a wicked course of life nay to Authorise all manner of impiety and vice in telling Men that whatever they do they cannot Sin for which the Primitive Christians did look upon the Gnosticks as no better than Apostates from Christianity and tho they retained the Name of Christians yet not to be truly and really so And there is likewise a partial Apostacy from the Christan Religion of which I shall speak under the II. Head I proposed which was to consider the several sorts and degrees of Apostacy The highest of all is the renouncing and forsaking of Christianity or of some Essential part of it which is a virtual Apostafie from it But there are several tendencies towards this which they who are guilty of are in some degree guilty of this Sin As 1. Indifferency in Religion and want of all sort of Concernment for it when a Man tho he never quitted his Religion yet is so little concerned for it that a very small Occasion or Temptation would make him do it he is contented to be reckoned in the number of those who profess it so long as it is the Fashion and he finds no great Inconvenience by it but is so indifferent in his Mind about it like Gallio who minded none of those things that he can turn himself into any other Shape when his Interest requires it so that tho he never actually deserted it yet he is 2 kind of Apostate in the preparation and disposition of his Mind And to such Persons that Title which Solomon gives to some may fitly enough be applyed they are Backsliders in Heart 2. Another tendency to this Sin and a great degree of it is withdrawing from the Publick Marks and Testimonies of the Profession of Religion by forsaking the Assemblies of Christians for the Worship and Service of God to withdraw our selves from those for fear of Danger or Suffering is a kind of Denyal of our Religion And this was the case of some in the Apostles time when Persecution grew hot and the open Profession of Christianity dangerous to avoid this Danger many appeared not in the Assemblies of Christians for fear of being observed and brought into trouble for it This the Apostle taxeth some for in this Chapter and speaketh of it as a letting go our Profession and a kind of deserting of Christianity v. 23 35. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is He doth not say they had quitted their Profession but they had but a loose hold of it and were silently stealing away from it 3. A light temper of Mind which easily receives Impressions from those who lie in wait to deceive and seduce Men from the Truth When Men are not well rooted and established in Religion they are apt to be inveigled by the crafty Insinuations of Seducers to be moved with every wind of Doctrine and to be easily shaken in Mind by every trifling piece of Sophistry that is confidently obtruded upon them for a weighty Argument Now this is a temper of Mind which disposeth Men to Apostasie and renders them an easie Prey to every one that takes a Pleasure and a Pride in making Proselytes It is true indeed a Man should always have a Mind ready to entertain Truth when it is fairly proposed to him but the main things of Religion are so plainly revealed and lie so obvious to every ordinary capacity that every Man may discern them and when he hath once entertained them ought to be stedfast and unmovable in them and not suffer himself to be whiffled out of them by any insignificant noise about the Infallibility of a Visible Church much less ought he to be moved by any Man's uncharitableness and positiveness in damning all that are not of his Mind There are some things so very plain not only in Scripture but to the common Reason of Mankind that no subtilty of Discourse no pretended Authority or even Infallibility of any Church ought to stagger us in the least about them as that we ought not or cannot believe any thing in direct contradiction to Sense and Reason that the People ought to Read and Study the Holy Scriptures and to serve God and pray to him in a Language which they understand that they ought to receive the Sacrament as our Saviour instituted and appointed it that is in both kinds that it can neither be our Duty nor Lawful to do that which God hath forbidden as he hath done the Worship of Images in the Second Commandment as plainly as words can do it Upon any one of these Points a Man would fix his foot and stand alone against the whole World 4. Another Degree of Apostasie is a departure from the Purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship in a gross and notorious manner This is a partial tho not a total Apostasie from the Christian Religion and there have been and still are some in the World who are justly Charged with this degree of Apostasie from Religion namely such as tho they retain and profess the Belief of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and Worship the only true God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ yet have greatly perverted the Christian Religion by superinducing and adding new Articles of Faith and gross Corruptions and Superstitions in Worship and imposing upon Men the Belief and Practice of these as necessary to Salvation And St. Paul is my Warrant for this Censure who chargeth those who added to the Christian Religion the Necessity of Circumcision and observing the Law of Moses and thereby perverted the Gospel of Christ as guilty in some degree of Apostasie from Christianity for he calls it preaching another Gospel Gal. 1. 7 8. There be some that trouble