men altogether unletter'd men called from mending nets to preach the Gospell If this were so That God according to his good pleasure without any consideration of study or height of parts chose simple unlearned unstudied men to be Prophets and Apostles and Teachers then why should any thinke he hath so confined or entailed his free Spirit or vocation of men upon great parts and studies that he may not if he please call the like unstudied simple men from the Plough or Fisher-boat or Stall or Shop-board to be Ministers of his Gospel and Teachers of his people now My Brethren you see I have not prevaricated or diminished ought of the strength of the Argument which is urged in favour of Lay-mens preaching In answer to which laying aside all partiality to my selfe and prejudice against them I shall with the same spirit of meekness and Candour with which Saint Paul here in this Text bespoke his Corinthians beseech you who heare me this day to observe and weigh and consider well this which I shall say for a Reply First Far far be it from me so to flatter the place of my Education or so to biass my beleef by any false ovevarluing of humane Industry or great parts that I should pinion as it were or put limits to the power of the Almighty Or should be so irreligiously bold as to gain-say that piece of his Gospell which compares his holy Spirit to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth If they who thus pretend to a private Inspiration doe meane that whatever God did in the times heretofore he is able to doe now I shall easily grant it And here in the presence of you all confesse my selfe to be of their opinion Nor shall I make any doubt or scruple at all to say that if we looke upon what God is able to doe by the same power by which he was able to raise up Children to Abraham out of stones or to speake yet more neerly to the Argument in hand by the same power that hee was able to make a Herd-man a Prophet or a Fisher-man an Apostle he is able in our times also if he please to make the meanest Tradesman one of the greatest Luminaries of his Church Since to an Omnipotent Agent whose gifts are meerly Arbitrary and depend wholly upon the pleasure of his owne will the greatest endowments of men and the least are alike easie But though he be able to doe this and in the ancient times of the Scripture have imparted his Gifts without respect of Persons yet whether he now will or whether in our times hee doth still thus extraordinarily raise up Teachers to himselfe is extreamly to be doubted For here with all the Christian gentleness and reason which may possibly conduce to the clearing of this doubt were I to argue this Controversie with one of those men who invade our function and from gathering of Sycamore fruit step up into the Pulpit I would onely aske him this question What Commission he hath thus to usurp upon our Office Or who signed him his patent Since the Apostle tells us in the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes at the fourth Verse A place well worth your marking my Brethren That no man taketh this honour of a Priest to himselfe But he who is called of God as was Aaron I know his common answer will bee that God hath called him to this Office by the secret Instinct and Motion of his Holy Spirit But then he must not take it ill if I yet farther aske him by what signes or markes or testimonies or tokens he can either maâ—… it reasonably appeare to himselfe or others that God hath dealt with him as he dealt with some of the Prophets or Apostles called him from his Trade by such a motion of his Spirit Elisha we know made Iron swim and knew mens Closet-discourses in a farre Countrey which was a sure and certaine signe that God had called him to be a Prophet The Apostles also we know wrought many of Christs miracles which was a most infallible signe that God had chosen them to be Apostles If any of these men who derive their warrant from the same sacred spring can make Iron swim or like Elisha remaining here in their owne Israel can tell us what the King of Syria saies in his Bed-chamber Or if like Saint Peter they can cure fevers and diseases by their bare shadowes passing over them Or if like the rest of the Apostles having never before knowne Letters they can of a sudden speake all Languages the Controversie is at an end It would bee a very great sinne against the Spirit of God to deny that hee is in them of a Truth But if all the proofe and signe they can give us that they have him be onely a strong perswasion of themselves Nay if by an infallible Illumination they could assure themselves that they have him yet as many as have not the like infallible Illumination to assure them so too will not be guilty of an unpardonable offence if they suspect they have him not For here I must once more repeat my former Question and aske by what effects or signes of the Spirit men shall know them to be called By what will some man say why Doe you not heare them preach expound Scripture unfold Prophecies interpret Parables nay plucke the veile and cloud from the Booke of Mysteries it selfe the very Revelation Can any of you great Schollers with all your study of Philosophers Fathers Councells Schoole-men Historians Oratours Poets either hold your Congregations longer or send them away more edified And will you yet ask Questions Or doubt of the certainty of their vocation I must not dissemble with you if I could meet with an unlearned Handicraft-man who without study can doe this to the same height and measure of Truth as those unjustly-cryed downe learned and well-studied men doe I should begin to alter my opinion And should reckon him as hee deserves in the number of the inspired But alas my Brethren as I am not come hither to disparage the guifts of the Holy Ghost in what person soever I finde them or to perswade that Scripture rightly expounded is not one and the same from the mouth of a Priest or an inspired Lay-man so this I must freely say to you That as many of those strange Teachers as I have heard have expounded Scripture indeed and have ventured upon some of the hardest places of the Prophets But then if all my studies of the Bible assisted with all those holy uncorrupted learned helps which might enable mee to understand it aright have not deceived me their expositions and Sermons how passionately delivered or how long soever are evident proofes to mee that they have not the Spirit If they had they would never certainely expound Scripture so directly contrary to his meaning Or make the writings of the Prophets or Apostles weare only that present shape not which the holy Ghost hath
Chapter of his first Epistle at the first verse where as if he had prophecyed of our times he sayes Beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world In which words you have two of the best Rules assigned you to go by that can possibly be prescribed for the settlement of minds First be not too credulous Doe not presently beleeve every man that sayes he hath the Spirit nor suffer your selves to be tost and carried about with every wind of doctrine For that is not the way to be all of one but of as many severall minds as the art or cunning of severall Teachers shall please to work upon you I am perswaded this easinesse of belief this credulity or as the Apostle calls it this admiration this overvaluing of some mens persons hath been one of the great parents of our present dissentions whilst some weak but yet well-minded people building their judgment meerly upon the outward appearances of men have mistaken the zeal and strict life of their Preacher for his sufficiency And taking their Logicke from the precisenesse of his behaviour have framed these charitable but false conclusions to themselves He is a man of a composed countenance of a reserved speech of a grave carriage and of a devout elocution therefore surely he is a holy man And because he is a holy man therefore whatever hee saies shall be to us Oracle as coming from the mouth of one so much in the favour of God that it is impossible he should deceive us or speak that which is not right My Brethren I have no designe or purpose to bring Holinesse into contempt nor can I bee so injurious to piety or a good life where ever I find it as to expose it to the scorne of the licentious by not giving it its due I am so farre also from lending encouragement to the lives of vitious Teachers Teachers who are the shame of their Mother and the scandall of their Flock that I could wish that every Congregation in England were furnished with such an exemplary Minister that his life as well as preaching might be Sermon to the people Nay give me leave I beseech you to extend my charity yet one degree farther I am so farre from disliking holinesse either in Preacher or people that I wish we all made but one united Kingdome of Priests Or if you will have me expresse my selfe in the words of one of the holiest and meekest men of the earth I could wish that all the Lords People were Prophets But then you must give me leave to say too That holinesse and strictnesse and austerity of life are no infallible signes that the Preacher may not erre Nor hath God so annext the understanding of his Word to the unstudied unlearned piety or sober carriage of the Expounder that he that is most zealous shall still bee most in the right As long as that saying of S. Paul remaines upon record That we hold this treasure this knowledge of Gods Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in earthen vessells As long as the Preacher how holy soever he be is so much one of the people as to dwell in a fraile weake Tabernacle of clay Lastly as long as men are men they will bee liable to mens infirmities And as the learned scandalous Preacher may be sometimes in the right so it is possible that the ignorant zealous holy Preacher may be often in the wrong How to know this and how to distinguish them therefore you are to make use of the next Rule prescribed to you by Saint Iohn that is when you heare an Exposition or a Sermon or a new Doctrine preached to you not rashly without distinction or choice to consent to it till you have past the impartiall sentence of a cleare judgement on it compared and weighed Sermon with Sermon and Preacher with Preacher called every Doctrine every Proofe every confident Assertion to the touch-stone and measured it by some plaine evident place of Scripture and examined whether the Holy Ghost or his owne vaine popular ambition have for that time inspired the speaker or whether his Sermon have had some dissembled secular end or Gods glory for its marke And this Saint Iohn calls â—…ying of the spirits which is then done when as I said before you reduce what you heare spoken by the Preacher to the infallible Rule of Truth the Word of God and make that well considered the scales to weigh his Doctrine in Does hee preach charity and banish strife from his Pulpit Does he not flatter Vice though he find it clothed in Purple nor speak neglectfully of Vertue though he finde it clothed in rags Does he strive to plant the feare and love of God in his Auditory the forgivenesse of their enemies and pity towards the poore Dares he arraigne a publique sinne though never so fortunate or speak in defence of afflicted Innocence though over-borne by oppression Dares he maintaine his Christian courage in Tyrannicall doubtfull times And dares he call prosperous Sedition but a more successefull mischiefe Lastly does he preach such Christian Truths for which some holy men have died and to which he himselfe would not be affraid to fall a sacrifice This this man is to be hearkned to this man is fit to bee obeyed And this man speaking the same things which God himselfe doth in the Scripture whatever his gifts of pleasing or not pleasing sick fastidious delicate fancies be is thus at least to be thought of That though he speake not by the Spirit as a thing entailed upon him yet for that time the Spirit speaks by him which ought to be all one to you On the contrary does the Preachers Sanctity and Religion consist meerly in the devout composure of his looks and carriage Does he strive to preach downe Learning or does he call Study a humane folly Does he choose his Text out of the Bible and make the Sermon out of his Fancy Does he reprove Adultery but preach up discord Is he passionate against Superstition but milde and calme towards Sacriledge Does hee inveigh and raile at Popery and at the same time imitate the worst of Papists Jesuits urge Texts for the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince and quote Scripture for the deposing and Butchery of Kings Does hee startle at a dumb picture in a Church-window and at the same time preach all good order and right Discipline out of the Church Does an Oath provoke his zeale yet does he count lying in the godly no sin Lastly does hee preach separation upon weake untemper'd grounds Or does labour to divide the minds which hee should strive to reconcile Let him bring what demurenesse or composure of countenance he please into the Pulpit Let him if he please joyne sanctity of deportment to earnestnesse of zeale Let him never so devoutly bewaile the calamities of his Country which
he hath helpt to make miserable Or let him weepe never so passionately over the Congregation which he hath broken into factions In short how seemingly holy how precise how unprophane soever his behaviour bee though the Scripture doe so continually over-flow in his mouth that hee will neither eat nor drinke nor speake nor scarce sleep but in that phrase yet as long as he thus forgets his Charity thus Preaches strife thus Division I shall so farre mistrust whether he have the Spirit that I shall not doubt to reckon him in the number of those false Prophets which S. Iohn sayes are gone out into the world The Conclusion then of this Sermon shall be this Men and brethren I have with all the sincerity and plainnesse which might benefit your soules preacht Truth and Concord and mutuall Charity to you I have also for some yeeres not been so sleepy an Observer but that I have perceived some of you who have thought your selves more Religious then the rest to be guilty of the I might say Crime but I will rather say of the mis-guided Zeale of these Corinthians here in my Text. There have been certaine Divisions and I know not what separations among you I have farther observed that certaine false causlesse prejudices and aspersions have been raised upon our University which to the grief of this famous Nursery of Gods Church at home and the reproach of it abroad are still kept waking against us by some of you as if Conscience and Religion as well as Learning and Gifts had so far forsaken us that all the Schools of the Prophets cannot afford you a set of able vertuous men fit to be the Lecturers to this soule-famisht Parish How we should deserve to be thus mistaken by you or why you should under-value those able Teachers which you have already or refuse to take your supply from so many Colledges which here stand present and ready to afford you choyce or why you should supplicate to the great Councell of this Kingdome in pitty to your soules to send you Godly Teachers which perhaps is but a well-meaning Petition from you but certainly 't is agreat scandall and Libell against us I know not But whatever the mysterious cause be I am confident that unlesse they will sleep over their infamy and reproach it will alwayes be in the power of our despised University-Divines to make it appeare even to those whom you intend to petition That this is but a zealous errour in you And that they are as able to edifie you certainly as he whose occupation it was to repaire the old shooes of the Prophets I should shame some of you too much who were the Disciples of that Apostle if I should discribe him to you by a larger character Instead therefore of a farther vindication of the reproach throwne upon us that which I shall say of more neere concernment to you is this If I have in the progresse of this Sermon ript open any wounds among you it hath not been with a purpose to enlarge or make them bleed but to powre wine and Oyle into them and to heale and close them up Next If I have cleared any of your sights or inabled you at length to discerne that the reason why the mote in your brothers eye seemed so big was because an over-scrupulous zeale had placed a beame in your owne and that in contributing to the ruine of one of the purest Religions in the world the reason why you have swallowed so many monstrous Camels hath been because at first you made scruple and strained at gnats I have what I intended Which was to let you see that to divide and separate your selves from the communion of our Church if it had been guilty of a mole or two is as unreasonable as if you should quarrell the Moon out of her Orb or think her unworthy of the skies because she wears a spot or two writ on a glorious ball of light Lastly if I have said any thing in the reproof of discord or the praise of charity which may re-unite your minds and make you all men of the same heart and beliefe as well as of the same Citie and Corporation I shall thinke I have done the work and businesse of a just Divider of the Word of God towards you and of a faithfull Servant and Steward towards my heavenly Master Whose blessing of peace be upon you all together with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost To which glorious Trinity be ascribed all Honor Praise Dominion and Power for ever AMEN FINIS A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS PREACHED In St. MARIES CHVRCH In OXFORD shortly after the Surrender of that Garrison By IASPER MAINE D. D. and one of the Students of Christ-Church OXON IER 23. 16. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Hearken not unto the words of the Prophets that prophesie unto you They make you vaine they speak a vision of their owne heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Printed in the Yeare M D C XLVII A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS EZEK 22. 28. Her Prophets have daubed them with untempered Morter seeing vanity and divining lyes unto them saying Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken THE PREFACE THat which the best Orator said of Oratorie put to the worst use Nihil est tam horridum tam incultum quod non splendesent oratione That there is nothing so deformed or rude which may not be made amiable by Speech hath alwayes been verified of Religion too No one thing hath in all Ages been more abused to paint and disguise foule actions It hath been made the Art to cozen people with their owne Devotions and to make them in the meane time think sacredly of their seducers Conspiracies and Insurrections drest in these colours have been called holy Associations and Leagues And the Ambitious to worke the more securely on the credulity of the simple have not onely presented evill to them growing on the Tree of Good but have proceeded thus much farther in the fallacy that they have still made forbidden fruits seem pleasant to the eye And the false colours under which they have seemed pleasant have alwayes been taken from Religion Thus in these Heathen States where they first made their owne gods and then worshipt them never plot was hatcht to disturbe the Common-wealth but the writings of some Sybill or other were entitled to that plot And never any designe was laid to destroy the Roman Empire but some Augur or Priest was taken in whose part 't was to make the Entrailes and Liver of his sacrifice give credit to the ambition of the designe And thus among the Iewes some ambitious men the better to gild over their proceedings still entitled God to them Who as if he had been one of those Tutelar changeable Deities which used to be enticed and called over from one side to another they still entertained the people that they who
us from Beasts and which renders us like the Angels who discourse by the meere Acts and Revelation of their wills transparent and Chrystall to one another But then Speech mis-imployed and put to a deceitfull use may turne Chrystall into Iet And put into a Lye may raise a shade and cloud of Discourse and Obscurity there where there should be onely a Translucency and clearenesse In short some men like the Fish which blacks the streame in which it swims and casts an Inke from its bowels to hide it selfe from being seen make Words which were ordained to reveale their Thoughts disguise them And so like the Father of lies deale with their hearers as he dealt with our first Parents appeare to them not in their owne but in a false and borrowed Shape And thereby make them imbrace an Imposture and Falshood in the figure and Apparence of a Reality and Truth An offence so fit to be banisht out of the World that after I have said that two thus talking and deceitfully mingling Speech are some thing more then Absent to one another After I have said that the lyar is injurious to things as well as persons Which carry the same proportion to our mindes as Colours doe to our eyes And have a naturall aptnesse in them to bee understood as they are but are for that time not understood because not rightly represented I must say too that there is injustice done to humane society Since in every untruth that is told and beleeved one mans Lye becomes another mans Error whereby a piece of his naturall Right is taken from him which Right is by the Casuists call'd Iudicandi libertas Hee is disabled to make a Right judgement of what he heares His beleefe betraies him And the Speaker thus fallaciously conversing with him is not for that time his companion but his deceiver But when Religion shall be joyned â—…o a lye and when a Palsehood shall be attit'd and cloathed with Holinesse When they whose profession 't is to convey Embassies and Messages and voices from Heaven shall convey onely cheats and delusions and impostures from thence though I cannot much blame the credulity of the Simple who suffer themselves to be thus religiously abused and like men who see Iuglers thinke their money best spent where they are best cosened yet certainly the deceivers themselves doe adde this over and above to the sinne of Lying that whereas others hold onely the Truth of things these men hold the Truth of God in unrighteousnesse And such it seems were these Prophets here in the Text. Who the better to comply with the Publique sinnes of their times did put untruths and falshoods to the same holy use that others did sacred Inspirations and Dreames Fictions the bastard creatures of their owne corrupt fancies were delivered as Prophecies infused into them from Heaven and he who fained most and could lye with the most religious Art was thought to have the greatest measure of the Spirit Prosperous successes were foretold to wicked undertakings and the Prophets dealt with the people as some bold Almanack-makers deale with us coyn'd soule or faire weather as they pleased to set the times and then referred it to casualty and chance to come to passe And can I passe over this part of the Text and not say that there have been such Prophets among us in our times Unlesse things should come about againe that the devill should the second time get a Commission to become a lying Spirit in the mouth of the Prophets with a promise from the Almighty that hee should prevaile too were it possible that so much cosenage should so long passe for so much Truth Have we not seene the Prophet Micah's propheticall curse fulfilled upon this Kingdome 'T is in â—…his 2. Chap. at the 11. ver where he sayes that if a man walking in the Spirit and falshood doe lye he shall be the Prophet of this people Certainly my Brethren when I consider how much Romance how much Gazette how much Legend hath for some yeares past for Sermon When I consider even with teares in my eyes the many false aspersions stuck upon our defamed wronged Vniversity by some who even against the light of their eyes as well as Consciences have charged the Breasts that gave them suck with infected poyson'd milke And have belyed their spotlesse Mother as if she were turned Strumpet or as if 't were grown a place from whence pietie and gifts and true Religion have long since taken slight a place which needs Conversion and which affords nothing but dangerous education of which crime I confesse I know not whether â—…he be guilty unlesse it be for bringing forth such abortive lying Sonnes who thus make it part of their Religion to revile Her when I farther consider that they have not spared Majesty it selfe though cloathed and armed by God with all the sacred Guards which should protect it from the venome of such disloyall slanderous mouthes when I yet farther consider the seeming sanctity of the persons that do this with what Holy passion what inspired zeale what composure of face what contention of voice what earnest Rhetorick of hand What Language of Saints they doe this Lastly when I consider how many there are who driving a gainfull Trade in fictions fictions as strange as his who wrote of Virgins transformed to Bay-trees use to lye as devoutly from such holy ground as this as others use to pray And when withall I doe observe that there is sprung up a certaine Sect of Hearers among us who as zealously lend attention to lyes as their Preachers utter them I cannot but take the Philosophers liberty to my selfe and pronounce of such Congregations as he did of Markets that they are places where people meet to deceive and be deceived And as in Shops and Markets Religion is sometimes put to helpe out faulty Ware and the name of God is cited to make up measure and weight and part of the false light by which the Buyer is over-reacht is the seeming sanctity of the Seller So 't is here A certaine religious holy sacramentall cozenage passeth between Preacher and People And that they may the more solemnly bee cozened these Prophets deale with their Fictions as the Devill dealt with his temptations when hee would have perswaded our Saviour Christ to cast himselfe downe from a Pinacle cloath them with Scripture saying Thus it is written and thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken which brings me to the third and last abuse of their Profession and Ministeriall Function Which is to entitle God to their vanities and lyes To which I shall onely adde somebriefe Application of some things in this Sermon to our selves and so commend you to God Lucian I remember in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or false Prophet tells us of a certaine Mountebanke Cheater who the more artificially to deceive the People did set up an Oracle of his owne Fancying and contrivance in
who most belyes God to his Glorie To what unweighed aery scruples and vanities is he entitled How is his Scripture for want of learning to understand it aright abused and made the bellowes to blow a fire fit rather to be quencht by the repentance and teares of the Incendiaries and feeders of it How many are there who daily urge text for Bloud-shed and undertake to prove the slaughter of their Brethren I had almost said of their lawfull Prince and Soveraigne too warrantable by the VVord of God What bold Libell or Pamphlet hath not for some yeares railed in a holy style And what Sermons have not been spiced with a a holy sedition Hath it not even to the ruine of one of the most flourishing Kingdomes of the world beene made a piece of Religion to divide it against it self to divorce a King from his People and his people from their peace Have not men been taught that they cannot give God his due if they give Caesar his And that the onely way left to preserve in themselves the grace and favour of the one is quite to deface and blot out the image and superscription of the other And have not the Teachers of these strange unchristian Doctrines delivered them to the people in the holy stole of Prophets Have they not called a most unnaturall civill VVar the burden of the Lord Have they not quite inverted the injunction of the Apostle and turning his affirmative into their negative have they not directly contrary to his word said Thus saith the Lord honour not the King My brethren let me speake freely to you as in the presence of God who knowes that I hate the sinne of these Prophets here in the Text too much to flatter Or if I would be so irreligiously servile you your selves know that the present condition of things is at too low an â—…bbe for me or any man else to hope to thrive by such a false Engine If there be such a thing as a VVaking providence over the actions of men wich I confesse an unresolved man in such irregular times as these might be tempted to question or if there bee such a thing in nature as Truth with a promise annext to it by the God of Truth that first or last it shall prevaile unlesse by a timely and seasonable repentance of their abuse of the Name of God and of their many bold reproaches throwne upon his Annoynted they divert their punishment Something me thinks whispers to me I dare not be so confident of my owne infallible sanctity as to call it the Spirit of God but something whispers to me and bids mee in the Prophet Ezechiels words in another place Prophecie against these Prophets and say * VVoe to the foolish Prophets who have followed their owne spirit and have seen nothing Because with lies they have made the heart of the Righteous sad whom the Lord hath not made sad and have strengthned the hands of the wicked that he should not returne from his evill way Or if this will not awake them but that they will still be guilty of the sinne of these Prophets here in the Text they must not take it ill if not I but the holy Ghost which they so much boast of by whom they so confidently pretend to speake passe this sad sentence on them and their complyers by the mouth of two other Prophets 1. As for their complyers if any such there have been who have said to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophecie not unto us right things but speake to us smooth things Prophecie deceit let them heare with trembling what the Prophet Esay sayes in his 30. Chapter at the 12. and 13. Verses Because sayes he ye despise my word and trust in oppression and perversenesse and stay thereon Therefore thus saith the holy one of Israel This iniquity shall bee to you as a breach ready to fall swelling â—…ut in a high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant The meaning of which propheticall judgement will be easily understood of any who shall consideringly marke the beginning and progresse of the Chapter to the context where 't is uttered and denounced Next as for the Prophets themselves who for poore low earthly interests and respects have suffered themselves to be mis-led let them with confusion of face heare what the Prophet Ieremy sayes in the 23 Chapter at the 32. verse A place no lesse remarkable then the former As for those sayes he who doe prophecie false dâ—…eames and do tell them and cause my people to erre by their lyes and by their lightnesse yet I sent them not nor commanded them behold I am against them saith the Lord and they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord God The conclusion then of this Sermon shall be this Fathers and brethren of this University I presume it could not but seem strange to you to heare your Manners and Religion as well as Studies and Learning not long since publiquely reproved and preacht against out of this Pulpit by men who professe themselves indeed to be Prophets but discovering to you so little as they did of the abilities of Prophets sonnes could not but seem to you very unfit Reformers or instructers of this place I presume also that with a serious griefe of heart you cannot but resent that there should bee thought to be such a dearth and scarcity of able vertuous men among us that the Great Councell of this Kingdome in pitty to our wants should think it needfull to send us men better gifted to teach us how to preach What the negligence or sâ—…oth or want of industrie in this place hath been which should deserve this great exprobration of our Studies from them or how one of the most famous Springs of Learning which of late Europe knew should by the mis-representation of any false reporting men among us fall so low in the esteem of that great Assembly as to be thought to need a Tutor I know not Nor will I here over-curiously enquire into the ungiftednesse of the persons who have drawne this reproofe upon us or say that some of us perhaps might have made better use of our time and of the bounty of our Founders then by wrapping up our Talent in a Napkin to draw the same reproach upon our Colledges which once passed upon Monasteries which grew at length to be a Proverbe of Idlenesse But that which I would say to you is this Solomon in one of his Proverbs sends the sluggish man to the Spider to learne diligence Take it not ill I beseech you if I send some of you for this is a piece of exhortation which doth concerne very few who have been lesse industrious to these vaine but active Prophets which I have al this while preacht against Mistake me not I doe not send you to them to learne knowledge of them For you know 't is a received axiom among most of them that
any unlearned unstudied man assisted with the Spirit and his English Bible is sufficiently gifted for a Preacher Nor doe I send you to them to be taught their bad Arts or that you should learn of them to dawbe the publique sinnes of your times or comply with the insatiable itching Eares of those whom St. Paul describes in the fourth Chapter of his second Epistle to Timothy at the third verse where he sayes that the time should come when men should not endure sound Doctrin but after their owne lusts should heap to themselves teachers A prophecie which I wish were not too truely come to passe among us where Studies and learning and all those other excellent helpes which tend to the right understanding of the Scripture and thereby to the preaching of sound Doctrine are thought so unnecessary by some Mechanicke vulgar men that no Teachers suit with their sicke queasie Palats who preach not that stuffe for which all good Schâ—…llers deservedly count them mad I do not I say send you to them for any of these reasons But certainly something there is which you may learne of them which St. Paul himself commends to you in the second verse of the fore-mentioned Chapter If you desire to know what it is 't is an unwearied frequent sedulous diligence of Preaching the Word of God if need be as they doe In season out of season with reproofe of sin where ever you finde it and with exhortation to goodnesse where ever you find it too and this to be done at all times though not in all places For certainly as long as there are Churches to be had I cannot thinke the next heap of Turfes or the next pile of Stones to be a very decent Pulpit or the next Rabble of People who will finde eares to such a Pulpit to be a very seemly Congregation For let me tell you my brethren that the power of these mens industries never defatigated hath been so great that I cannot thinke the milde Conquerour whose Captives we now are and to whose praise for his civill usage of this afflicted University I as the unworthiest member of it cannot but apply that Epithet owes more to the Sword and courage of all his other Souldiers for the obtaining of this or any other Garrison then to the Sweats and active Tongues of these doubly armed Prophets who have never failed to hold a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other There remaine then but one way for us to take off the present reproach and imputation throwne upon us Which is to confute all flie sinister clancular reports and to out-doe these active men hereafter in their owne industrious way To preach Truth and Peace and sound Doctrine to the People with the same sedulity and care as they preach Discord Variance and Strife If this course be taken and be with fidelity pursued it will not onely bee in our power to dis-inchant the People who of late by what Spell or Charme I know not have unawares begun to entertaine a piece of Popery amongst them and to think ignorance the onely Mother of Devotion But it will be no hard matter for us towards the effecting of so charitable a worke as the undeceiving of so many well-minded but mis-guided Soules to make our true Arts deale with their false as the Rod of Moses dealt with the Magicians Serpents first shew them to be onely so much fantasticall Forme and Aire then consume and eate them up in the presence of their Beleevers To which for a conclusion of all I shall onely adde this That if this course bee taken and bee reduced to practice assisted with those great advantages which are to most of them unknown of Study Learning Tongues the use of Libraries and Books besides those other helpes of opportunity time and leisure to render our selves able which they too immaturely ingaged to a Family or Fortune cannot haue we shall not onely comply with the ends and intentions of those Founders who built us Colledges which they certainly intended should be Schools of vertue not Nurseries of slâ—…th but our despised Mother the University shall reap more honour by us our Countrey more service and God more glory To whom with his Son and the Holy Spirit of truth be ascribed all honour and praise Amen FINIS A late Printed SERMON AGAINST False Prophets Vindicated by LETTER From the causeless Aspersions of Mr. FRANCIS CHEYNELL By Iasper Mayne D. D. the mis-understood Author of it LUKE 21. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Printed in the Yeare M DC XLVII A late printed SERMON against FALSE PROPHETS Vindicated by Letter from the causelesse Aspersions of Mr. FRANCIS CHEYNELL AS often as I have for some yeares considered the sad Distractions of this Kingdome methinkes thus divided against it selfe it hath verified upon it selfe the Fable of the People sowne of Serpents Tâ—…eth where without any knowne Cause of a Quarrell Brother started up suddenly armed against Brother and making the place of their Nativity the Field and Scene of their Conflicts every one fell by the Speare of the next upon the turfe and furrow which hatcht and brought him forth 'T is true indeed some have preacht and others have printed that the Superstitions of our Church were growne so high that they could not possibly be purged but by a Civill Warre But finding upon my most sober and impartiall Inquiries that these Superstitions were onely the misconceipts of some mens sicke Fancies who called certaine sleight harmlesse peeces of Church Ceremony Superstition I thought it a peece of Charity to them and the deluded people to let them no longer remaine in the Case of the distracted Midianites in the Booke of Iudges where upon a Dreame told by a man to his Neighbour and upon the sight of such inconsiderable things as lamps and broken pitchers every mans sword was against his fellow and a well-order'd Host of freinds struck with an imaginary feare became a confused and disorder'd heape and rout of enemies This desire to rectifie mistakes and withall to shew upon what slender threds of vanity their Sermons hang whose accidentall misguided Arguments under certaine false colours have strived to prove things indifferent to be unlawfull and then that thus by them pronounced unlawfull they are to be extirpated by the Sword caused me at first to preach a Sermon against False Prophets which hath since past the Travell of a more publique Birth wherein what a cold Advocate I am in my pleadings for Superstition will appeare to any who with an unclouded understanding shall read it yet M. Cheynell one of the Preachers sent downe by the Parliament to Oxford in a morning Sermon of his preacht at S. Maries Jan. 17. upon Esay 40. 27. Having directed the Doctrinall part of it against one M. Yerbury an Independent who publikely in a Dispute with him held that the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Saints bodily in the same measure that it did in Christ