commonly the Deepest most lasting and indelible And hence it is that Men are generally very apt to stick to their first Principles be they true or false and for want of due enquiry how they came by them to take them for Divine Impressions and Eternal Truths And thus an Erroneous Conscience Usurps the Authority of a Guide the ordinary effect of which is a zealous Opposition against all that standin its way or presume to Check and disturb the Dictates of it For what ever ought to be it is plain that Mens present Thoughts and Principles are and will be the Rule of their Actions and that the worse any Principles are and the Earlier they are Instilled into them under the Notion of Divine Truths the more strongly they Impregnate their Minds and excite them to pursue the Tendencies of them And therefore we need not much wonder at those who are bred up in a Religion contrary to the Truth as it is in Jesus and to his Commandments of Love Peace and Unity Who are taught from their Cradles to call us Hereticks and to speak the bitterest things against us to Break their Faith with us and to mark us out for Destruction if in process of time they grow expert in all the Arts of Confusion and with undaunted Courage Undertake the Boldest Crimes which their Party and Principles do Countenance the Practice of 'T is true the Prejudices of Education are not invincible if Men would take a right course to overcome them But this is a rare case and there are but few in Comparison of those that choose to enjoy their Errors that are willing to make a Tryal of it And indeed when our green and tender Minds are once warpt by false and Pernicious Principles it is no easy matter to bring them streight and to put them into a right Posture again It requires a great deal of Consideration and Impartial inquiry into the Reason and bottom of things which some Men want abilities of mind others Leisure Humility Patience and Integrity to carry them through And the want of any of these is enough to answer for their obstinate persisting in their First Errours and unreasonable Opposition to the Truth 2. Affected Ignorance of the Truth naturally hardens Men in their Evil Principles and disposes them to approve of any Rugged and violent Course to keep up the Reputation of them The Jews in our Saviour's time had the greatest Advantages that ever Men enjoyed of being delivered from the Chains and Fetters of an ill Education I Pet. 1.18 or as St. Peter calls it From their vain Conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers They had the Brightest Revelations of the Divine Nature and Will that ever came from Heaven And those delivered to them by their own Messiah whom they had long expected In whom all the Promises concerning that Infinite Blessing to Mankind were exactly fulfilled Who wrought the greatest and most Astonishing Miracles that ever the World beheld Who gave them a Perfect Comment on the Law which had been miserably Corrupted by the Glosses of their Scribes and Doctors and layed open their Hypocrisies to themselves and all the People and yet so Blind and Sottish were they as to reject all his Admonitions with Spight and Scorn to Love Darkness rather than Light to Admire their Deluders and to Crucify their Guide to Eternal Bliss and Happiness Our Saviour himself Testifies of them in the height of their Rage and Malice against him Luke 23.34 that they knew not what they did They had been Taught their Messiah should be a Glorious King and Conquerour and such an One they must have or none They had been long wonted to a Pompous and Ceremonious service And therefore could not bear the thoughts of having the Stately Fabrick of their Religion Erected by God himself and supported by Moses and the Prophets taken down by the Carpenters Son as they stiled our Lord. These were the Fatal Chains that held them fast in that Dungeon of Darkness and Ignorance which Paradise it self could not Tempt them nor the Son of God could not redeem them from And is not the same wilfull and Affected Ignorance still to be found amongst the Adversaries of our Religion Some think there ought to be an Infallible and Universal Head of the Church on Earth and such an one they will have what ever it costs them Others that are strongly perswaded of Christs Personal Reign upon Earth think they ought to Fight for King Jesus against all Opposers And why is Ignorance so much Cherisht and Applauded in the Church of Rome but that it gives the Guides of that Church a mighty advantage to Mis-lead the People and Embolden them to act any illthing they are pleased to Impose upon them And this is the very use they make of it they Teach them to call Evil Good and Good Evil to Invert the Nature of things and to Fix the Crossest Names they can devise upon them and then Prosecute them directly contrary to their intrinsick merit Just as the Heathens Cloth'd the Christians in Beasts Skins and then exposed them to be Worried by Wild Beasts to Death They first teach them to call our Religion on Heresie which naturally creates an Implacable Hatred of it And having gone thus far they easily perswade them they cannot be too Zealous to suppress it the next step to which Persuasion is to think any thing to be lawful that will do it or if that will not do it shall be Meritorious And then to destroy Hereticks follows of course to be a Glorious Work But surely St. Paul did not think so when he confest the contrariety of it to the Name of Jesus Nor did our Saviour think so when he reproved the Rash and Destructive zeal of his Disciples who would have consumed the Samaritans by Fire from Heaven telling them that they knew not what manner of Spirits they were of And after this Luke 9.55 should I presume to say that the Controversies between us and the Church of Rome have been managed with invincible strength and demonstration of the Truth on our side Or should I say that no cause since the sealing of the Scriptures unless that of our common Christianity was ever better Defended than our departure from that Church I should not be ashamed of this confidence of boasting 3. Secular Interests have great Power to distort the Judgments of men and to inflame their Passions against those that differ from them in matters of Religion What ever it is they place their chief satisfaction in whether they are bound for the Port of Gain or Honour or Liberty we commonly find they make all the Sail that ever they can to come speedily to it If the way to attain their ends be to appear stoutly for this or that Party or Persuasion they will readily do it and serve the cause to the Utmost if they happen to thrive by it Men of corrupt Minds and destitute
Greater Light we may be sure to make Streight Paths for our Feet till we come to the Perfect Fruition of them Nor are we commanded only to search the Scriptures but to prove all things by them to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Thes 5.21 1 Job 1.4 Luk. 12.57 and to judge of our selves what is Right That is we must use our own Reason and Judgment in comparing matters in Controversie with the Infallible Rule of Scripture For some Rule we must have to Prove and Try and Judge by And it is plain the Scripture takes no notice of any other Rule but it self and that of Modern and Unwritten Tradition as Opposite to it And this is security enough against any Dangerous Error considering that the Gospel is as much a standing Revelation to the Christian Church as the Law and the Prophets were to the Jews 5. We find the happy Effect of this Course so far that persons of ordinary capacity after a competent Trial of it do rightly believe and understand all that is necessary to their Eternal Salvation The necessary Articles of Religion are so visible in the Scriptures that it is the hardest thing that can be for an Ingenious Reader to overlook them That there is but One God that He only ought to be Worshipped that he sent his Only Begotten to Die for us that he Died and Rose again that as many as Repent of their Sins Believe and Obey the Gospel shall be Saved These and other Principles of Religion are so clearly and fully exprest in Scripture that there is no need of an Infallible Interpreter to certifie for them A common Understanding with the ordinary Means of Knowledge can reach the Discovery I mean without the help of a Roman Telescope or standing upon the Shoulders of St. Peters's pretended Successor This we know the Certainty of we feel it in our selves and we see the Demonstration of it in ten thousand Instances and do not think the worse of our Faith for being Protestant i. e. immediately Grounded upon the Evidence and Authority of Scripture We look upon it as our Inviolable Birth right to judge of Plain Truths when we see them And for this we have the general Sense of Mankind on our side and cannot think it reasonable to put it to any man to judge for us whether or no there is a God a Christ or a Heaven That all necessary Truths are plain is allowed by all Christians but those that make Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation which are so far from being plain that there is not the least mention of them in the whole Gospel And if all things that are Necessary are Plain then I hope a plain man may judge of them and without asking leave of any other man may believe them and so doing he certainly is in a state of Salvation And then the Church that declares he is not cannot be Infallible unless a Church can Err and be Infallible at the same instant 6. It is far easier for men who implore the Direction of God and use the Helps which he affords them to find their way to Heaven in the Scriptures than to find an Infallible Guide on Earth to lead them to it It must be granted that there are Obscure as well as Plain Passages in Scripture Some Places so very Dark and Intricate that they even Pose the most skilful and judicious Guides But thn our Happiness is that our Way does not lie Thorough them and that there is Light enough in innumerable other places to direct our Steps and to bring us in a Streight Line to Everlasting Bliss and Perfection I do not say that every thing tht concerns our Salvation is so clearly revealed that no man can be ignorant of it But that we may know as much as is needful for us if we apply our minds to it and laying aside all prejudice against the Truth beg of God to Preserve us from Error all which we have great encouragement to do since he has promised us the assistance of his Spirit in the search of Truth The Church of Rome indeed offers to put us into a shorter and easier Method of finding out Truth and to bring us to a Guide that will Infallibly shew us every step of our way So that we need not be at the Pains of any Tedious Inquiries nor any longer in danger of missing our Aim in them through the weakness of our own Fallible Judgments And who would not gladly embrace so Free and kind an Offer as this provided there be no Trick or Fallacy it it The Tryal of which will appear if the Proposes of this way of certainty be able to satisfy us in a few reasonable Cases without which as great as the Courtesy seems to be we cnnot prudently Accept of their Offer If a man should freely proffer me the Indies I must say it is a very Noble Gift if he can make it good and when he has convinced me that he can I will thankfully accept it from him but before he can give me Satisfaction about it I find ther must be a few words exchanged between us and therefore if he Pleases I desire him to tell me how he came to be the Owner of so vast a Treasure which is or lately was in the possession of so many Great and Potent Princes And which way he will put me into Possession of it c. If he cannot Answer these Queries as I believe he cannot I am sure he can never conveigh the Indies to me and therefor I will never trouble my Head more about them And thus I fear it will fall out in the case of an Infallible Guide to all Christians who were there such a Church or Person as they boast of at Rome that could infallibly solve all Doubts and put an end to all Controversies in Religion were richly worth both the Indies together But before I accept of the Conduct of this Guide I must desire to be satisfied in a few things in reference to him As 1. How I may be certain that there is such a Guide or Judg of Controversies For I find there is a great Controversy in the Church about it And if I can never be assured that there is such an one till he has ended all Controversies which is the great blessing the Church of Rome Promises from him 't is in vain in this Age of Controversies to enquire any farther after him But suppose it were not may I or any other Protestant determine this Controversy by the use of our own Fallible Judgments If we may then it seems a Fallible Judgment may do more sometimes than an Infallible Judg. However a Fallible Judgment is all the Judgment that we have and if by it we may be certain of an Infallible Guide which at Rome goes for a leading Article of Faith I see no Reason why we may not by the same means be certain of all the Rest and if we may
Sect in his Childhood and lived till he became a Christian exactly according to them as he tells King Agrippa in the hearing of the Jews at the fifth Verse of this Chapter And therefore what he charges himself with we are not to look upon as his own private perswasion only but rather as an instance of the general sentiment of the Men of his way and indeed as the Natural brood and Issue of Pharisaical Superstition By Superstition I mean a groundless Apprehension of pleasing God by doing things which he never commanded or forbearing those which he hath no where Forbidden And this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great and leading Error of the Pharisees They added to the written Word of God and made more Duties and sins than ever the Law had made Their Traditions which had nothing to recommend them but the Custom of their Fathers they esteemed equal at least to the Divine Commandments Nay our Saviour expresly tells us They made the Commandments of God of no effect by their Traditions as if they thought to please him better in their own way than in His And Reckon'd they advanc'd themselves above others by what they did over and above their Duty as much in his asthey did in their own Opinion And hence Conformity to their Traditional Rites was their measure of Improvement and Perfection in Religion as appears by St. Pauls Character of himself Gal. 1.14 I profited in the Jews Religion above many of my Equals in my own Nation being more exceedingly Zealous of the Tradition of my Fathers Which words if we observe their connexion with those immediately before them seem to come in as the Reason why beyond measure as he there tells us he Persecuted the Church of God and wasted it i.e. His mighty Zeal for the Unscriptural Doctrines of the Pharisees was the true ground of his Bitter and furious Zeal against the Professors of the True Religion And this is the rather to be noted because it shews us the Spirit and Genius of that Sect that had the chief hand in bringing our Saviour to his Cross and first conspired the ruine of Christianity From the Words thus explained the matter I would crave leave to Propose to your serious considerations is this That the Consciences of Men may be so far mis-guided by Erroneous Principles and an Affectation of things in which Religion does not consist as to encourage them to the fiercest opposition to the express Revelations of God and the truths of Jesus Or more briefly thus That Christianity is liable to the sharpest Opposition from Men under the highest Pretence of Zeal and Conscience towards God and Religion In speaking to this Subject my Design is 1. To confirm the truth of this Observation 2. To shew whence it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and transported with this Extravagant and Destructive Zeal 3. To make some Inferences that may be Useful to our felves 1. For the confirmation of this Truth That the Consciences of Men may be thus Misguided and their Spirits Inflamed by Erroneous Principles against the Truth may appear from our Saviours Character of his and his Churches Enemies and from many plain and undeniable Instances Parallel to this of the Confessor in the Text. 1. From our Saviours Character of His and his Churches Enemies Our Blessed Lord fore-seeing what a zealous Opposition his Church and Doctrine would assuredly meet withal after his decease takes occasion a little before his Passion to fore-warn his Disciples of it He had often told them in the general That they must look for Troulbe and Persecution from Men. Now the time of Tryal drawing on to prevent the damp of a Surprisal he Describes the temper and Spirit of their Enemies and shews them what hard measure they and their Followers must expect from them They shall put you out of the Synagogues i.e. excommunicate and curse you for Hereticks yea the time cometh That whosoever Killeth you will think that he doth God service John 16.2 It seems to kill a Disciple for his Religion was in the judgment of these Men like the Worshiping of God by Sacrifice They shall think by it saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perform a grateful Service or Sacrisice to God As if they knew no better way of pleasing him than by takeing a Lamb out of his own Flock and making it an Oblation to him Now this is certainly a very strange way of servig God and such as men would never have thought of if they had not Deify'd something more than him and changed the Glory of the Holy and Merciful God into a direful Image of their own Temper and Complexion whom they Worship instead of him And as I doubt not but the Jews were primarily intended in this Prophecy so to the Infinite Scandal of Christianity there is unanswerable Reason to think that many that shelter themselves under the Sacred Profession of it are very deeply concerned in it sure I am that all the Marks of this Prophecy the same Religious zeal exprest by the same rage rancour and cruelty are very fresh and easie to be seen upon them 2. By many plain and Undeniable Instances Parallel to that we meet with in the Text. The Apostles Confession was indeed a sinular thing But for the Crimes which he taxeth himself with he might as justly have charged his Nation with them the main Body of the Jewish Church especially the governing part of it being strangely Leavened with this Sowre and Destructive zeal They had a zeal for God as St. Paul himself Testifies of them but not according to knowledge for they knew not his Immence Goodness and Benignity to Mankind nor his only begotten Son when he was amongst them They had a zeal for the Law but so they presumed to call what ever they had made Law by their Glosses and Traditions and directed it against those that had a zeal against them And a very fierce and fatal zeal it was A zeal that Crucifyed the Lord of Life That threw the Apostles into Prisons That cleared the Synagogues of them and their Disciples That Crampt and Loaded them with Chains and Fetters and for a good work gave forty Stripes save one A zeal that suborned Witnesses and breathed out Threatnings and slaughter against Men of whom the World was not worthy a zeal that listed Men into Conspiracies and bound them under an Oath to Kill an Innocent Person An outragious zeal it was that made Men exceedingly Mad as one that had too much experience of it tells us v. 11th of this Chapter so mad as to think they ought to d many things contrary to the clearest Revelations of God and the Name of Jesus Nor is this kind of Zeal Peculiar to the temper of the Jewish Nation There are those in the World that would be thought the only Good Christians who roundly Excommunicate all other Churches for not complying with their
of the Truth do not use to be Bashful in asserting their Principles when they find their Interests in them 1 Tim. 6.5 But fupposing Gain to be Godliness as the Apostle observes of them are generally very forward to shew their good Affection to it and like Demetrius to put the World into an uproar out of zeal to the Magnificence of their Great Diana and their Profits from her Shrines and Altars Conscience 't is true at the first has the least share in the Actions of these Men whose Interests choose choose their Principle for them But what they strongly Affect and desire should be true in time they strongly believe and having willfully Rejected the Truth are given up by the Just Judgment of God to their own Delusions to Believe and defend the Lye 4. Some Principles are so bad in themselves as to inspire men with a furious and Unchristian Zeal and without the help of Worldly Interest to instigate and push them on to violent and Unnatural Actions Such are these which Warrant the Killing of men for Christs sake and the Gospels and promise them Heaven for the Vilest Pnactices in the World For Assassinating their Natural Prince Betraying their Country and putting it under a Foreign and insupportable Yoke Such are all those that make Unlawful and indifferent things absolutely Necessary to Salvation and eneourage Men to think the better of themselves for their Zeal against such as pretend to nothing but the plain Rules of Christianity and a Decent Way of serving of God in Spirit and in Truth These Principles do naturally produce an Envious and Ill-natur'd Zeal 'T is the property of those that are under the POwer and Guidance of them to allow no Man a Name for Religion but themselves to be angry with every one that do's not Espouse their Follies to Glory in their Marks of Distinction and take themselves to be the Holier and better men for differing from all Christians upon Earth And this is too often the effect of that odd and Peevish Principle that Innocent and indifferent things cease to be Lawful when they are once Commanded No Man knows the malignity of such an Errour as this should it once get the Ascendant which is the Aim and Tendency of it over that Authority which God hath placed in the Rulers of his Church Do we not already find the Insluence of it upon some of the straintest Sect of our Religion who yet have reserved themselves a sufficient Latitude in Scorning and Deriding their Brethren and are extreamly lavish in their Censures of Persons of the highest Chaeacter and Reverence in the Church of God Nay many there are that prize and commend themselves upon these very Accounts and look upon it as a mark of Sanctity to Break and blemish the Communion of that Church which they pretend no other Quarrel with than only for interposing her Authority in some indifferent things i.e. making use of the Power which Christ himself hath given to every Church for the benefit and Edification of it And what is this but to Consecrate a Schism into a state of Perfection and to do that for Religions sake which directly tends to the undoing and subversion of it 5. Enthusiasm or a false pretence to Divine Inspiration is a Fatal cause of this Extravagant Zeal When men have the Considence to ascribe their Errors to the immediate Dictates of the Spirit When they take themselves to be the peculiar Favourites of God in whose Breasts he hath lodg'd his choicest Secrets whom he hath chosen and authorized to bring his most glorious Designs to pass 't is not to be expected they should long content themselves with the Pleasure of these Delusions srons That Evil Spirit that hath blinded their Eyes and taught them to Belye the Holy Ghost had a farther Design upon them And as the Philiftines dealt with Sampson when they had put out his Eyes will surely Employ them in his Drudgeries and put them upon the most destructive Attempts 'T is hardly to be imagined what desperate Projects men will freely contribute their Service to when they are once possest with a Spirit of Delusion and struck Blind with an Opinion that whatever they strongly Fancy is Infallibly so That 't is impossible for them to Err having Private Instructions from God himself hitherto hid from Ages and Generations to Advance the Kingdom of Christ and exalt it to a more glorious Height To which purpose an Eminent Divine of this Church who had a peculiar Sagacity in Tracing and detecting the Errours of his time hath left us this memorable passage * Mr. Hook Pref. to Eccl. Pol. When Men are once Erroneously persuaded that 't is the Will of God to have those things done which they Fancy then Opinions are as Thorns in their sides never suffering them to take rest till they have brought their Skpeculations into Practice The Impediments of which Practice their restless desire and study to remove leadeth them every Day into more dangerour Opinions sometimes quite and clean contrary to their first pretended meanings So that what will grow out of such Errours as go mask'd under the Cloak of Divine Authority impoffible it is that ever the Wit of Man should imagine till time has brought forth the Fruits of them I Proceed now in the third and last place 3. To make some Inferences brieefly from this Discourse From whence it will follow 1. That we have no Reason when we see the Effects of this Distructive and Unchristian Zeal to be stagger'd in our Religion or to suspect our Faith That the best Religion should meet with the sharpest Opposition from Men that the worst sctions should pretend to serve it and receive Authority and Encouragement from it that Men of Learning and Knowledge and of High and Extraordinary Zeal should Combine against it are no new things in the World The Church from her Infancy had been acquainted with them and our Saviour and his Apostles have expresly foretold them on purpose that we should not be Offended when we see and feel them 2. Hence we learn that an Erroneous Conscience is a very unsafe and dangerous Guide And it must needs be so because it is supposed to Dictate the mind of God and by his Authority to guide our Practice And accordingly the greatest Troubles and Persecutions which have befallen the Church are manifestly Owing to the Delusions which have past under the Name of Conscience in several Ages which should mightily awaken us to look well to our Principles and to keep our Minds Pure and untainted with Errour If the Light saith Christ that is in thee he Darkness Mat. 6.23 how great is that Darkness A little speck in the Eye fed by an Invincible Humour often Deftroys the most Useful and Noble Sense 'T is sad to observe from what small beginnings the greatest Errours both in Judgment and Practice have in a short time spred and diffused themselves to the infinite Prejudice
of Christianity and the unspeakable Trouble and dishonour of the Church To give you one Remarkable Instance of this In the beginning of the Reformation in Germany Sleid. com lib. 10. They who first scrupled only the Doctrine of Infant Baptism by degrees so Intangled themselves in New and greater Errours that in a few Years they grew the highest Enthusiasts vented the Rankest Blasphemies and the most Fulsome Opinions And after the fairest shew of sanctity and self-denial threw off all Humanity Indulging themselves in the most Beastial and Impudent vices in fine They Renounc't all Allegiance to their Lawful Superiours set up a Pupper King of their own Dignified him with the Title of Universal Monarch and to Compleat the Tragedy Baptiz'd one another with their own Blood 3. That the greatest Zeal is no Evidence of the goodness of any Cause or Principles While some contend as earnestly against as others do for the Truth their Zeal can Determine nothing on either side 'T is the goodness of Principles and the Merit of a Cause that can only Justify our Zeal for them If they be wanting Zeal is no better than Rage and Frenzy Therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 4.18 It is Good to be Zealously affected always in a good thing which Implies that when our Zeal is not thus Qualified it is good for nothing Or if it rises above the Goodness of its Object it so far over-shoots it self and Degenerates into Vice and Folly And this is the Fault of those that lay the Weight of Religion upon slender things that can find nothing to spend their Zeal upon but an Innocent Phrase or Ceremony that Dispise Communion with a Church that does not hit their Phancy in every Punctilio and seem almost contented the Protestant Religion should fink rather than the best support of it should stand I mean the Union of Protestants in our Establish't National Religion These are Humours that Charity it self can hardly Excuse in them or look upon as any other than the excesses of a mistaken and Intemperate Zeal In short Zeal is either the best Friend or the keenest Enemy to Religion for which reason we ought to look narrowly to the Grounds and Tendencies of it 4. We see what reason we have to be aware of those Persons who Teach and Promote such Principles as are contrary to the True Spirit and Interest of Christianity I know not what can be said worse of any Religion than that it inspires Men with Rage and Cruelty Quenches the Spirit of Love and Meekmess and Represents God as the Author of Confusion a Humourous and Discontented Being that is never Pleased long with his own Prescriptions and therefore must be sooth'd and flatter'd with something that is New and Fanciful that looks like an Excess or Transport of Devotion that is Owing to the Good-Will or III-Nature of Men such Religion as this can never reconcile it self to the Doctrine of Christianity but will be supplanting it where-ever it comes And the Zeal it infuses into Men will if not effectually restrained Act over all those Dismal Tragedies again of which the Christian Church has been almost the Constant Scene ever since the Foundation of it We should therefore be jealous of it in all shapes Whether it Pleads for Unity as the Church of Rome do's who takes her self to be the Only Church and therefore Reprobates all that will not be United to her Or whether it declares for Free-Grace i.e. a Gospel without a Sanction as the German Antinomians and Ranters did who turn'd the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and liv'd as if it taught them to deny themselves no Ungodliness or Worldly Lusts whether it pretends to Visions and Revelations of the Lord contrary to the Doctrines Received and delivered by his Apostles from him Or whether it sets up for Purity of Worship in mistaken or doubtful Instances against the Peace of the Church and contrary to the Wisdom that is from above which is first Pure then Peaceable Jam. 3.17 Gentle and Easy to be intreated Not Peevish or implacable not apt to Quarrel with Shadows and much less to put three Kingdoms into a Flame for the sake of three harmless Ceremonies 5. Lastly Since Christianity is liable to and has endured so much Opposition from Men we should learn to adore Gods Infinite Widsom and Goodness in Preserving his Truth and Protecting his Church against the Zealous Endeavours of their Enemies to stifle and destroy them And certainly We of this Nation have seen as extraordinary Evidences of this kind as ever any Christian Nation did Our deliverances have had so many visible marks of a Divine and Peculiar Providence upon them that one would think they should at once clear the Nation of all Atheistical Dotage Open the Eyes of its Divided Inhabitants and Discourage its most zealous Adversaries from Daring any longer that All-seeing Eye that hath so often discovered from strugling any more with that Omnipotent hand that hath so seasonably baffled their Closet and most perfidious Designs and Practices And doubtless were we as sensible as we ought to be of God's singular goodness towards us in casting us into the Bosom of a Church where we have all advantages for Eternal Salvation and in lengthening out our Peace and Tranquility in despight of our Enemies we should think it out Interest to leave our selves still in his hands I do not mean by sitting still and neglecting our Guards but by a patient continuance in Well-doing by attempting nothing that is Unworthy of our excellent Religion By a clear and genuine Zeal for the Honour of God our Saviour by our Unfeigned thankfulness to him for his Wonderful Mercies by confiding in his Goodness and Protection by the Fervency of our Prayers and Intercessions with him and by mutual Exchanges of kindness and condescention to one another in any thing that may truly promote our Common Interest In a word by adhering to the Old Principles of Christianity and avoiding the two dangerous Rocks of Superstition and Enthusiasm and what ever else is contrary to the Name of Jesus Grant O Lord we beseech thee that the course of this World may be so Peaceably Ordered by thy Governance that thy Church may Joyfully serve thee in all Godly quietness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sermon III. Of the Different Dispensations of Grace and of Impenitency under the best means of Salvation Matthew 11.21 22. Wo unto thee Chorazin Wo unto thee Bethsaida For if the Mighty Works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have Repented long ago in Sack-cloth and Ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for you Chorazin and Bethsaida were Cities of Galilee situate on the Sea-Shore not very far from the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon They profest the Jewish Religion and had the Priviledge of hearing our Saviours Doctrine and beholding his Miracles But
can be returned to those that should Object against the Author of it that either our Sactification was not the thing he really design'd or if it was that he has taken effectual care considering our natural averseness to it and the fierce and rampant inclinations to Vice of those that stand in greatest need of it to disappoint himself of his end that he has left us all the gains and delights of Sin and himself the honour only of Pardoning our ungodly and malitious Lives that we may dabble and bemire our selves in all the Pollutions of the Flesh and of the World and wash off all with a few Penitential Tears when we die that we may be extreamly wicked with good management to the last and tho we never glorified God in our Lives be sure to receive a Crown of Glory from him at our Death 2. That the Gospel gives no such encouragement is certain because it expresly requires Holiness and Obedience to the Precepts of it as a necessary condition of future Happiness As it designs the Professors of it should be excellent men holy in all manner of Conversation so it excludes them out of Heaven who frustrate its design by wicked and unworthy Practices and expose its Blessed Author to Open Shame Meb 12.14 Without Holiness saith the Apostle i. e. purity of Heart and Life no man shall see the Lord. Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into Life saith our Saviour keep the Commandments Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 2.7 8 9. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render Eternal Life But to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteusness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth evil These and many other Texts which we must own have nothing of the shade or dimness of a Parable in them do undeniably prove the indispensable necessity of a Holy Life to fit and qualifie us for Eternal Bliss and Happiness And then to apply the Promises of Heaven to men that have lived a wicked and are past living a godly Life is plainly to expound the Gospel into a direct contradiction to it self For can a man that is dying be said to have lived holily only because he is sadly troubled for a very sinful Life Or hath he kept the Commandments that has lived in a constant violation of them and of his own Covenant to keep them and only promises over again to keep them when it is too late Can we can him a Mortifiect Man that after he has gorg'd himself with the pleasures of Sin and sinned away the power of Lust resolves yet to be very chaste and temperate upon his Death-bed Or can we say that he seeks for Glory and Immortality by his Patience and Constancy in Well-doing who at the end of his Natural is to begin the whole Christian Life and has always been a perfect Stranger to the Conversation of Heaven 'T is true those that have made it their business to please God have lived soberly and kept a Good Conscience towards Men need not doubt the pardon of their Offences upon their Repentance for them because their Repentance is ever accompanied with actual Holiness and where Holiness is the Fruit of Repentance the End will be Everlasting Life But the case is vastly different in those that have left themselves no time to reform their lives and are forc'd to spend that little they have left in fruitless Vows and Wishes Because these men have neglected the main condition of the Covenant the great End of the Gospel and of their Lives I mean the Glorification of God by the Purity and Holiness of them A thing in its own nature necessary to their Happiness without which no man can see the Lord. But perhaps you will say tho those pangs of Sorrow and Devotion which men that have lived wretched and profligate Lives discover on their Death-beds cannot be called a Holy Life yet they are good signs of Repentance and Faith in Christ and are they not sufficient to intitle them to Pardon and Eternal Life To this I Answer 8. 'T is certain that no true Penitent and Believer in Christ shall finally perish But then the Question is whether the Gospel will allow that to be true saving Faith or Repentance which is destitute of the Fruits of Rigteousness after a fair season and opportunity for them And here it is but fair the Gospel should speak for it self Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Mat. 3.7 8. and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Luk. 3.9 Every Tree which bringeth not forth Good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Mat. 16.2 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works What doth it profit Jam. 2.14 my Brethren tho a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works If a fruitless Faith and Repentance cannot profit I am sure they cannot save us Vers 17. If Faith without Works as St. James tells us is dead how sad is the condemnation of a dying Sinner whose Faith is dead before him and whose time of working is over tho' he seek it with Tears If sorrow for Sin may be without amendment of Life and then will not pass for true Repentance it can be no certain sign of it And if Christ will render to every man according to his works how sorrowful is the case of that man who has worn out his whole Life in Sin and hardly left himself the least remnant of time to amend it 2. No man can plead any Title to the Mercy or Favour of God but by virtue of his Covenant with him in Baptism 'T is by Baptism that we are made Parties in the Covenant which includes all the Promises God hath made to us in his Son and therefore ought to be the Standard of our expectations from him And whereas there are Conditions on our part and we vow Obedience to Christi's Commands as well as Faith and Repentance from Dead Works if we fail in any of these Conditions we bar our Title to the Promises which depend upon them We cut our selves off by our own Act and Deed from the Hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life For where a Promise is made upon more Conditions than one the keeping of all but one will not inable us to claim the Promise And why should we think that God will abate us the Righteousness of Faith as the Apostle styles Obedience to the Gospel or that he will
be so it is plain there is no need of the Guide we are seeking for and then I doubt after all our searching we shall never be able to find him But there is one Argument above all that there is no such Guide viz. That Christ never Promised There should be one always in his Church And without a Promise from him we can never be certain that there is We know what is pretended in this matter and what Texts are produce for it but after the strictest and most deliberate Enquiry into the meaning of them we can find no evidence of any such Promise nor discern the least shadow or Footstep of a visible Infallible Guide We own indeed that God has Promised the Guidance of his Spirit to all that desire the Knowledg of his Ways but we the rather think that he has not promised any other Infallible Guide than this For what need is there of the Inward Direction of the Spirit in the Search of Truth when we have a Guide at hand that can lead us Infallibly into it and save us the labour of searching after it But did not our Saviour Promise to send his Spirit upon the Apostles and were not they Infallible Guides True but did he Promise to make their Successors in all Ages Infallible too If he did every Successor has an equal Claim And then how comes the Church of Rome to talk of but one Infallible Guidfe since the Death of the Apostles and to Appropriate that extraordinary favour to here self If he did not she must shew us a particular Charter or Promise that Infallibility should never depart from the See of Rome and when she does that we may allow her to be Infallible But supposing that Christ had promised an Infallible Guide it may be convenient to know 2. Whether or no he has given him Authourity to suspend the Judgment of all Christians in matters of Religion This we must say is a distinct Power from Infallibility unless we can imagin that our Saviour and his Apostles tho they were infallible did not know the extent of their Power For 't is plain they did not affect any such Authority or treat their Disciples in this manner but both required them to prove the Truths which they heard Act. 17.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and commended their Ingenuity in proving them by the Scriptures Besides a Guide whose Directions we must blindly follow without examinig the Grounds and Tendency of them seems to be a very improper means of bringing men to Heaven For surely God did design that in the exercise of our Religion we should act like men and not lay aside our Reasonand Judgment as things that are dangerous to our salvation 'T is true not to Judge at all is a certain way not to err but it is a very blind and unlikely way to bring men to the knowledge of the Truth without which their Obedience can never be a Reasonable Service And theresore if any Church or Person under colour of Infallibility shall assume an absolute Authority over the Consciences of men before I resign up my Judgment to them I must desire to be informed not only how they come to be infallible but what Commission they have to oblige me to believe as they please and to strangle my own Sense and Reason if they offer to oppose any Doctrine of theirs tho never so absurd or contradictory to them But suppose still there were Reasons to convince me that there is an infallible Judge and that there ought to be no Judge besides him yet because he cannot be useful to me till I know who he is there is another great Question to be resolved before I can prudently commit my self to him viz. How I may certainly know where to find him And here I meet with one vast Discouragement at the very entrance into this enquiry Namely that the same Church which alone pretends to this Infallible Guide is very uncer tain who he is Some chain Infallibility to St. Peter's Chair and place it in the Person of the Pope But this is the most Interessed Party as depending entirely upon the Pleasure of him whom they call Infallible Others send us to General Councils some of whcih have condemn'd the Pope for an Heretick and contradicted the Decrees of former Councils But then what think we of Oral Tradition Or the Doctrine of the Universal Churcvh conveighed by Father to Son from the Apostles Time down to the Present Age The General consent I confess of the Christian Church so far as it reaches is an excellent means to find out the sense of Scripture But we are not speaking now of Tradition or the Church as a Witness of Truth but of the Authority of any Church or Guide to prescribe a Rule of Faith and Practice by Vertue of an Insallible Assistance This is the thing we are enquiring after and where the Seat of this Authority is and all we can certainly learn hitherto is this That seeing there are so many controversies in the Church of Rome about it it will be a very hard thing to find it there And that in the Judgment of a considerable part of that Church a man may tire himself and be in quest of his Infallible guide all his Days and never come within sight of him at last For suppose he takes the Pope to be the infallible Oracle he is thought to be mistaken by all those that stand for a General council and if he go to a General council he is lost in the opinion of all that declare for single infallibility And the men for Oral tradition think they are all deceived that look for infallibility in any one Person or Party in the Church What must we do now that have so much choice of infallible guides and nothing to determine our choice Many we pick and choose at a venture But that cannot be safe because they have occasion sometimes to lead contrary to one another and therefore cannot be all infakubke and none of them speaks of more infallible guides than one Must we then weigh their Reasons and the Scriptures they produce for their several claims These we have often heard and considered and cannot but admire the confidence of men who pretend to sound the infallibility and other Prerogatives of the Bishop and Church of Rome upon Texts that speak not the least Syllable of them Whereas matters of this importance ought to be exprest in the easiest and plainnest Words that he that runs may read them If not only the Peace and Unity of the Church but every man's salvation depends as our Adversaries must say upon the Right understanding of there Texts we have that confidence in the Goodness of our Saviour that we certainly believe he would not expect we should find out a meaning in therm that by no good Rule of Interpretation can be collected from them And for this Reason we cannot think our selves obliged when any thing is said
any Gratitude in us any Ingenious Sense of the Infinite Debt that lyes upon us will strongly engage us to make the best Returns and Acknowledgments we are able knowing that when we have done all Luk. 17.10 we are but Vnprositable Servants And then the Danger of Forfeiting the Grace of God by our Wilful Negligence and of Driving away his Grieved Spirit from us and so Clouding and Shortning our Day of Grace How should this Quicken our Diligence and Inflame our Endeavours after Grace to serve God in a more Lively and Acceptable manner with Reverence and Godly Fear But there will be an occasion of enlarging upon this Argument in the Next Particular which is this 5. The stronger we Grow in Grace the better we shall be able to hold out unto the End without which all our Pains and Diligence in Religion will be thrown away A constant Proficiency in Virtue and Goodness is the best Security against Apostacy While we go on and Persevere in Well-doing there is no Danger of our Falling away All the danger is while we are at a stand and are strongly Tempted to Return to our former Courses of Sin and Folly By pressing forward to the Mark for the prize of our high Calling we are continually getting ground for our Spiritual Enemies And the more we keep before them the less Danger we are in of being Surpriz'd and Overtaken by them A State of Sin and Perfection being the two opposite Terms of our Christian Course so far as we advance towards the latter we leave the former behind us and by Consequence are at so much the greater Distance from Apostacy So that if we would secure our Perseverance it concerns us to get as Forward in Religion as we can and not Rest in any mean Attainments as if we thought our selves at any time good enough for Heaven and were sure of our Crown so soon as ever we had begun our Race We know not what Tryals we may be Exercised with or what degrees of Fortitude and Patience we shall need to support and carry us through them But certainly 't is a great Advantage to be well Prepared before hand And it therefore becomes us to be constantly Training and Exercising our Graces and Daily Reinforcing our Resolutions to break through all the Difficulties that obstruct our passage to Glory and Happiness If we Faint in the day of Tryal we shall very hardly recover our selves And if we fall away we shall loose all the Fruit of our former Labours and our latter End will be far Worse than our beginning I know there are those that take sanctuary at the supposed Impossibility of falling from Grace I will not dispute the Truth of this Doctrine I will only remind those who are too Flush and Confident of it for surely it is too much for Man to venture his salvation upon it that tho it should be true it may do them no service And that for this plain reason that many that have taken themselves to be in a State of Grace and had the Character of Good Men amongst those that were truly so have at last yeilded to the Charms of this Tempting World and Neglecting to Work out their Salvation with Fear have Outlived all the Evidences of their Good Estate and the Fair Opinion of the most Candid and Charitable persons And for this Reason we should be extreamly Cautious of Presuming too far upon the Grace of God and Dashing against the Rocks which many that have had the Steerage of a Religious Education and seemd to set out with all Advantages for Heaven have Fatally struck upon for want of that Diligence and Circumspection which is Requisite in so weighty an affair as that of our Eternal salvation There is no doubt but that Good Men may Grieve and Resist the Holy Spirit of God And that every Degree of Resistance is a New Provocation to him to withdraw his Grace from them And that the oftener he is Repulsed the more Danger there is of his Forsaking those that withstand his blessed motitions And whether this may or may not proceed to an utter Dereliction I am sure we have all the Reason Imaginable to be Cautious of it Considering the Dreadful End of some very Hopeful Beginners Who if once they were not Really Good were Deceived in themselves Nay were so Extreamly like those that are Good that they Deceived the best Judges of Sincerity and Goodness Let him therefore that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he Fall And let us all Endeavour by a sensible and constant Improvement in Grace and Piety to Grow Stedfast and Vnmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord And then we may be assured our Labour will not be in Vain in the Lord. 6. The Difficulty in Religion will Daily lessen and the Pleasures of it Increase the farther we proceed in the Practice of it The true Reason why any of God's Commandments appear Harsh and Grievous is because we are not used to obey it For use and diligence make any thing Easy and all Excellent things Delightful And hence we find by Experience that the seldomer we do any good the unwillinger we are to come to it again And the more faintly we set about it the less satisfaction we have in the performance of it But now let us but inure our selves to any part of our Duty and take care to do it but as well as we can and we shall quickly perceive that we are pleased with what we have done and that it is indeed but the same thing to Please God and our selves A Good Man is never Weary of Doing Good And it were strange if he should for it is the Nature of Goodness to give satisfaction to all that deal in it which I doubt not is the meaning of that saying of the Wise-Man A Good Man shall be satisfied from himself When he Prays Pro. 14.14 or Meditates on Heavenly things with due Attention and Devotion he is as it were in Heaven the while And never Enjoy's himself more than when he does any thing well which God requires of him He that is hardly persuaded to an Act of Charity and at last does it but with half a Consent is fain to struggle with himself before he proceeds so far and so loses all the Pleasantness of it Whereas he that gives freely and chearfully has no trouble in himself about it but is highly pleased with what he has done and finds it a more blessed thing to Give than to Receive And thus could I run through all the parts of Christian Practice I should not doubt to gain this Conclusion that every thing in Religion would be Easie and Pleasant if it were but done as it it should be And consequently the more we improve and the better we discharge our Duty the faster we overcome the Difficulties of a holy Life and make our progress the more easie and delightful to the End This is no Romantick Fancy
but to treat of that which all the World are agreed is the meaning of it And the rather because the World has had time and it seems has been no ill husband of it to wear off some of the very deepest Impressions of this Ancient Commandment The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed run the people into many gross mistakes and concealed the best part of their Duty from them by their false and frigid Interpretations of the great Commandments of God But to do them right they were much better expounders of this Law than many of our Modern Christians who with Pens of Steel and in Letters of Bloud are ready to justify that Killing for Honour is no Murther And that it is rather an Act of Mercy and Prudence than of Cruelty and Disobedience when we are opprest with the Miseries of this Life to find the shortest Way we can into the next and to put an end to our Own Lives when they are less desirable than Death it self These are the Sentiments of Men of very different Complexion The former are generally Men of Flame and Spirit of a hot sanguine Temper which is seldom reckon'd the best Freind to a solid Judgment The latter for the most part are of a Melancholy Constitution and while their Understandings are clouded with that dark Humour must needs stand but in an Ill light to discern the Truth But what ever their Judgments are in other matters they seem to have clean forgot the Primary and most obvious meaning of what was said of Old time Thou shalt not Kill Which Precept being exprest in very few Words will require the larger Explication and the rather because it is undoubtedly lawful insome cases to Kill and these must be known before we can certainly Determine wherein thenature of the hainous Sin of Murther consists which all men agree to be forbidden in this Law For these Reasons in speaking to these Words I shall shew 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden is this law 2. What the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is 3. Wherein the Hainousness of this Sin consists And then I shall consider 4. Whether it be lawful or not to Kill a Rival in a Quarrel of Honour or to Kill our selves when we are grown weary of our lives 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden in this Law Life is the gift of God which he bestows upon us as a thing sacred to be preserved for his Use and not dispos'd of without his leave and pleasure Gen. 2.7 It is he that Breatheth into Man the breath of Life and being absolute Lord of it there is no Question but he may resume it when and by what Instruments he pleases And that there are Crimes worthy of Death both the Scriptures and Natural Reasons do assure us Yea such Crimes their are as were they not sometimes punisht with Death would suddenly dash all human Society in pieces and bring the World into such confusion that there would be no living amongst men And therefore it may be reasoanbly presumed that Killing is not prohibited in all cases For instance When a Magistrate puts an Offendor to Death that is worthy of it in a regular courses of Justice he is not to be charged with the Breach of this Law He has his Authority from God the Spreme Judge and Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He Acts as his Minister by express Commission from him and therefore is Innocent of all the Bloud that is shed by the Sword of Justice and hence St. Paul calls the Magistrate a Terrour to Evil Workers Rom. 13.3 4. because he beareth not the Sword in vain being the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Nor hath God only given a General Commission to Seize the forfeited Lives of great and haynous Offenders but in some cases as in that of the Murtherer himself He particularly Commands the Use of this severity as a standing Rule of of Equity and Justice Gen. 9.6 For who so shedeth mans Bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed And for the same reason Killing in the Wars when the cause is Just and the War necessary for the Preservation of the Publick is no part of the meaning of this Law For it is not to be supposed that God who sets up Kings and Governments for the Defence of the common Safety should restrain them from Drawing the Sword of War when there is no other means to preserve it The Swords of Princes are the greatest Instruments of Providence in the World and the best and Noblest Use of them is the Protection of their Subjects from Oppression and Violence in the Enjoyment of all the Blessings of this and the Advantages for a better Life which the Bounty of Heaven hath inricht them with And therefore our Saviour never went about to tye the hands of Sovereign Princes or States from the use of this sharp and last Remedy in a Just and Necessary Cause nor was the Gospel ever accused for being an Enemy to the Throne upon this account There being no Tribunal upon Earth high enough to decide the Quarrels between Independent Governments and Nations it is a natural and strong Presumption when all amicable ways of Peace and Reconciliation fail that God approves of the injured Party's Appealing to him in the Field of War as the supreme Judge and Guardian of Right and Innocence And by consequence a Souldier that serves in a lawful War is not forbid to Kill the Enemy of his Princes and Country he is in this Cases a Minister of Divine Justice being invested with Authority from him to whom vengeance belongeth These are Publick cases in which the Authority of God over the Life of Man is manifestly derived immediately to the Sovereign and by him to inferior Magistrates and dispensers of Justice Besides which It may be reasonably presumed that when a private Person is desperately Assaulted and in the necessary Defence of his own Life takes away the Invaders he hath done nothing against the Intent of this Law Every man hath a natural Right to defend the Life which God hath given him against him that shall attempt by unjust or Illegal Violence to wrest it from him This also as well as Life it self is the gift of God It is a Debt we owe to the Lord and giver of Life to keep it for his service till he is pleased to call for it which he never do's by the hand of a Murtherer And therefore when we are reduced to that Extremity that we can neither Fly to the Protection Protection of the Magistrate nor escape with our Lives with out taking away the Life of him that Assails us if he Perish in his wicked Enterprise his Bloud will not be Required at our hands 't is better for the Publick to lose a Bad than a Good and useful Member and when the case is such