that the longer we Catechize the more we lose them And 't is worthy to be observ'd how they wrest and misapply the Word of Life to their Destruction For If we ask how they know they have a Testimony within them from God the Holy Ghost We know it say they by This that God hath given us of his Spirit If we ask how they know that He hath given them of his Spirit We know it they say by This that we cannot sin If we ask how they know that they cannot sin their Answer is We are born of God If we ask how they know This We know it they will answer because we have a new Name given us which no man knows but He that hath it If we ask how they know of a new Name given them they will answer We know it by that Spirit which dwelleth in us If we ask how they know the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit of Errour their Answer is still at hand and still out of the Scriptures He that knoweth God heareth us and he that is not of God heareth not us If we ask them for a Witness whereby to prove it The Spirit their Answer is beareth witness with our Spirits If we bid them produce their Witness He that believeth they will say hath the witness in himself If we call for any Witness of men they tell us The Witness of God is greater Thus they argue by their Circular and Identical way of discourse They have the Holy Spirit of God because they are forsooth assured and assured of it they are because of the Spirit which dwelleth in them So strongly does the Spirit of Perverseness shew it self in such as are delivered up to believe a Lie For that is sometimes the case 2 Thess 2. 11. The other Enemies of Religion who are withall by much the worst in a derision and contempt of supernatural Revelation will have no better Test of true and false Prophets or of right and wrong Doctrins than the Warranty and Allowance of the Sovereign Powers in every Kingdom and Commonwealth of whatsoever Denomination throughout the world Which Position of the Leviathan fetcht as 't is from Japonia and there from the Sect of the Jenxuani is so prodigiously absurd that it either makes no difference 'twixt Right and Wrong and infers True and False to be a couple of empty words which signifie nothing or the same thing the Will and Pleasure of the Prince or else infers this Contradiction that the same Things and Persons are in severall Times and Places both True and False So that according to This Position the Christian Religion was a false one under all the Heathen Emperours who did publickly prohibit the Teaching of it yet a most true one under Constantine surnam'd the Great and under all the following Emperours who strictly commanded it to be Taught Jesus Christ with Mr. Hobbs must have been a false Prophet as not approved of by Herod and the Then-Emperour of Rome whilst Mahomed must be a true one because allow'd by the great Sultan supreme Governour of the Turks The Will and Pleasure of the Prince being set up by That Monster as the sole Touchstone or Criterion whereby a Prophet or a Doctrin or a Religion is to be try'd None says He but a Sovereign in a Christian Commonwealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God A greater power than is ascribed by the Jesuites themselves either to the Bishop or Church of Rome a power to abrogate the old and as often as he will to make a new Canon of Scripture or none at all § 5. Had such Seducers of the people appear'd in publick among the Jews a present Death without Mercy had been inflicted as the wages of Their Iniquity Deut. 13. 5. and ch 18. v. 20. The Setters forth of new Doctrins in that Mosaical Dispensation could not escape their publick Trials in the Great Parliament of Israel they call'd The Sanedrim and were condemn'd as false Teachers either to be strangl'd or ston'd to death Yea though they had shewn Signs and Wonders and though their Signs came to pass too yet could it not exempt them from suffering Death in case they tended to seduce the silly Admirers of their Wonders to worship Idols or any other way to enervate the Law of Moses which none could be allow'd to doe and yet be thought a True Prophet unless he could doe as real Miracles as Moses and give as cogent Demonstrations as Moses had given of his having been inspired and sent by God Therefore None but the Messias who out-did Moses and that as well in point of Miracle as in Holiness of Life and in illustrating or compleating the whole Moral Law could lawfully abolish the Ceremonial Yea even Those Divine Prophets or Men of God as they were call'd who still asserted the Law of Moses and disswaded men with vehemence from Idolatry and Schism were fain to prove they were of God by unfeigned Miracles By such a Real Miracle of the anonymous Prophet at Bethel Jeroboam's Hand was dry'd up and restored to him By such a Miracle of Elijah the Fire of the Lord fell down from Heaven and consum'd the Burnt-sacrifice together with the Altar on which it lay Whereby the People were incens'd against the false Prophets of Baal and presently slew them all as Cheats by the River Kishon By such a Miracle of Elisha even Naaman an Idolater was suddenly cleansed from his Leprosie and convinced of Jehovah's being the onely true God By the like unfeigned Miracles Moses baffled all the lying ones of the Sorcerers in Aegypt And if the Prophets Then had need of shewing many and great Miracles to prove the Truth of That Religion which the Israelites were then in Possession of How much a greater need of Miracles should our Seducers stand in whereby to make us leave our Old and wherewith to draw us on to their New Beliefs That Doctrin for example of Jesus Christ and his Apostles that we must obey them who have the Rule over us and that we must submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake was confirmed by greater Miracles if any greater can be then Moses and the Prophets confirm'd theirs by And by Consequence if our Pretenders to supernatural Illumination will have us adhere to their New Doctrin that we must not submit to every Ordinance of man but rebell against them nor obey but resist such as have the Rule over us nor do any thing in Religion with any Decency or Order but all as rudely and as confusedly as we can they must perswade us by greater Miracles than those of Christ and his Apostles whom we believe At least they must be able to convince us of Errour in Life and Doctrin as Moses did Corah and all his Separatist-Relations by commanding the Earth to open and to swallow us up quick
the whole Herd of Notorious Sinners to be paradigmatiz'd as disorderly Walkers from whom we are most to withdraw ourselves I shall endeavour their Satisfaction by these 4 Reasons First because of all Sinners They seem to be the most destitute of Christian Meekness and Humility Next because of all Sinners they are the most void of Christian Charity as That is Superiour to Faith and Hope Thirdly because of all Sinners they are the greatest Vnderminers of Society and Government the greatest Adversaries to God as the God of Order the greatest Disturbers and the most dangerous of private Propriety and publick Peace Lastly because of all Sinners our Schismaticks here in England are the most barbarously ingratefull and most deplorably unexcusable of any other I am very much mistaken if I have not great reason for these 4 Reasons But whether so or not so I leave to the Judgment of my Superiours and content my self with This that without any passion I speak mine own § 11. To the first of my 4 Reasons I premise S. Paul's Character touching Schismaticks in general to wit that they consent not to wholsome words and the Doctrin which is according to Godliness but are proud knowing nothing doat about Questions and Strifes of words whereof cometh Envy Strife Railings evil Surmises perverse Disputings of men of corrupt Minds and destitute of the Truth From such says he to Timothy withdraw thy self S. Peter adds They are presumptuous selfwill'd despise Government have forsaken the right Path and are gone astray Now from Scripture thus speaking let us reason the case a little and then apply it Can any be farther from Humility than They who know nothing and yet are proud of their Knowledge Can any Pride be more prodigious than that by which the very basest and the most despicable of Subjects do not onely abhor but despise their Governours nor onely the Persons who are but Men but even Government it self which is avowedly Divine in its Institution The Apostle's Expression is rich and elegant as well as true For to despise or contemn to depretiate and scorn and as it were to look down upon Those above us does not savour of a vulgar or of a middle-siz'd Pride but of Pride in its Exaltation Can any Pride be more monstrous than for vile Dust and Ashes even to Deifie It self yet the Schismatick seems to doe it in Three respects For first he arrogates to himself God's Incommunicable Attribute whilst he founds his grossest Errours upon an Infallibility which he does not onely ascribe as others do with more modesty and shew of Reason although 't is no more than a shew of Reason to the whole either diffusive or representative Church but to his own individual Person acted forsooth and over-acted by That which he calls speaking out of his own Heart the infallible Spirit of God In any Controversie arising touching the sense of any Scripture He does not appeal to the Original or Context to Fathers or Councils or Commentators all riff-raff in his Esteem but to Illumination and Revelation and The Testimony within him Nor can I imagin what should keep him from returning into the Church he has turned from unless it be the worst Effect of the greatest Pride a shamefulness to confess he has ever err'd Next he Deifies himself by not enduring God's Yoke or indeed that God should reign over him For if the Powers that are on Earth are ordain'd by God as S. Paul affirms it is evident that we live under a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God by Them does reign over us and they that resist shall receive Damnation because they will not be under God This is certainly at the Bottom both of S. Jude's and S. Paul's and S. Peter's reasonings when they infer eternal Torments as they every-where do from Disobedience to the Authorities and the lawfull Commands of Men. Besides the Schismatick seems to Deifie himself by seating himself on the Throne of God and undertaking to be the Judge of Quick and Dead by opening the Seals of the Book of life and expounding God's Decrees of Particular mens States from all Eternity He takes upon him before the Harvest to sever the Wheat from the Tares and the Sheep from the Goats He forsooth and his Party and none besides are the Elect whilst all from whom they All separate are Vessels of Wrath and Reprobation Again how far is That Professor from Christian Meekness who says as the Schismaticks did of old in the Prophet Esa Stand farther off come not near me for I am holier than Thou thanking God that he is not as other men are neither a Sabbath-breaker nor Swearer nor even as this or that Publican no Conformist no Royalist nor even as this or that Excize-man gathering Tribute-money for Caesar and proudly taking to his Party the name of Saints at every turn which he denies to the Apostles in all Discourse he makes of them on all occasions Briefly for a Person of very low Parts and little Learning of contemptible Education and small Improvements to separate from a Great and Admired Church The Church of England and from the Devotions of the same in her Publick Liturgy All contrived by the Wisedom directed by the Learning embraced by the Piety established by the Authority of such a Nation confirmed by at least 33 Acts of Parliament and by as many Convocations or Representatives of the Clergy sign'd and seal'd by the Sufferings of many Confessors and Martyrs lastly asserted and defended against the Wit and the Malice of all Opponents I say for a person grosly ignorant and knowing nothing in comparison to scorn or pity all his Teachers as Fools and Blind for him to think he sees more or better than the two Vniversities put together commonly call'd the two Eyes of this National Body which is as if the silliest Sheep that ever leap'd out of a Fold should take upon them both to guide and to feed their Shepherd This does argue such an Arrogance Self-conceitedness and Pride as no Rhetorick can express no Charity excuse no Humility not censure Although Novatus was made a Schismatick by a proud opinion of his own Purity and by his carnal Ambition to head a Party as Simon Magus did the Gnosticks in the Apostles own Times on the same account yet now the Copy and Translation has so outdone its Original that our Schismaticks have accus'd the Laws and Canons for Vniformity of being Such They could approve of most things in case they were not impos'd by Law The very Reason why they ought is the Reason they will not serve God in order They dare not doe what they know they may lawfully for fear they should seem to think an human Law binding The onely fault of our Liturgy is its having been compos'd Authoriz'd and made use of by the wisest and the Best of our English World especially by the Governours in Church and State They will have Parliaments and Synods
Regenerate are not Elect. The former may and do often the later cannot fall finally from Grace Concerning the former and Them alone all the Scriptures I have urged and argued from must be understood For the later are onely They who do indure unto the End Onely They that overcome and so are said to have a right to the Tree of life The Elect are onely They that can finally never fall for if they could they could not have been elected to life eternal And yet even of These I am to say in the second place that they fall totally and for a Time many of them and of the Best too Not onely Solomon and Aaron and David himself in the Old Testament but all the Apostles in the New and S. Peter above them all are uncontrouble Examples of This sad Truth if Idolatry and Adultery and wilfull Murther if Lying and Cursing and wilfull Perjury and a repeated abjuration of Jesus Christ are Sins inconsistent with saving Grace and the inhabitation of God the Holy Ghost 'T is true indeed that The Elect who fall away for a time into Deadly Sins and so by consequence whilst impenitent into a State of Damnation cannot possibly die 'till they have repented because they have This Seal upon them The Lord knoweth them that are His. But This which is offer'd as an Answer to what I say is an irrefragable Argument to evince the Truth of it For if David for example could not die till he repented it is for this reason onely that he could not be sav'd without Repentance and that before he repented he was in a State of Condemnation Saving Grace and Impenitence cannot simul semel be in one and the same Man 'T is the Condition of the great and precious promises in the Gospel and in effect the whole Covenant 'twixt God and Man that all shall be saved with repentance and None without it Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin said The Spirit of God by Azariah The Lord is with you whilst ye be with Him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you So again by The Prophet Ezekiel When the righteous turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquity he shall even die thereby and if the wicked walk in the Statutes of life he shall surely live Promises and Threats are both alike conditional not onely under the Law but as expresly under the Gospel It is the saying of Christ himself Whosoever shall confess me before men Him shall the Son of man also confess before the Angels of God But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God 'T is S. Paul 's to the Christians who were at Rome in his days that God will render to every man according to his works To them who seek for Glory by continuance in well-doing aeternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth Indignation and Wrath. And again 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 And yet more plainly to our purpose in his Epistle to the Colossians You who were Enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he reconcil'd if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard And in like manner to the Corinthians Ye are saved by the Gospel if ye hold fast or keep in memory what I preached unto you unless ye have believ'd in vain The Epistle to the Hebrews is very full to this purpose We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the end Whose House we are if we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the End Now the Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Plainly intimating in This what is taken for granted in the very next verse that from the same kind of Faith by which it is said the Just shall live there were some in the best of Times who drew back unto Perdition Heb. 10. 39. § 11. What now is the Advantage we are to make of all This and what the Lesson which all these Scriptures are apt to teach us Truly the lesson is plainly This That if the End of our Prayers if the End of our Hopes the End of all our Endeavours is but Conditional and All the Promises of the Gospel are made unto us with an If we do so and so we must not now boast of our being Christians as the Hebrews once did of their being Israelities We must not glory in our being the younger Brethren or Members of Jesus Christ as They in their being the Seed of Abraham We must not pride it in the Church as They did commonly in the Temple Nor insult over the Jews as They did foolishly over the Gentiles For if God spared not Them who were the natural Branches We must also take heed lest he also spare not us If They were broken off for their unbelief and we by Faith are grafted in the proper use we are to make of the observation is that we boast not against the Branches that we be not high-minded but rather fear for we bear not the Root but the Root us We must consider both the Goodness and Severity of God and the Grounds of Both on them that fell Severity but towards us Goodness with an If we continue in his Goodness Otherwise we shall be broken off too and They shall be grafted in again if they do not still abide in their unbelief We cannot reasonably desire a clearer State of this matter than in That whole Passage of the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans And therefore seeing it is imploy'd by our blessed Lord that even The Salt of the Earth may lose its Savour and become good for nothing but to be utterly cast out and trodden under foot that a Branch of the true Vine may lose its Verdure and become good for nothing but to be cast into the Fire I thought it good as S. Peter speaks to put you in mind of these things although ye know them already and are established in the Truth And still I think it good with the same S. Peter to press the giving all diligence for the making of our calling and election sure I think it good with S. Peter to say Beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness If God was so provoked by the Children of Israel to whom the Conditional Promise was made that he swore in his Wrath they should not enter into his Rest because they fail'd of the Condition on which the promise was made Then I may
properly then a Man who is so destitute of Reason as wholly to be void of Religion too And for any one to Teach as the Monster of Malmesbury has been permitted to doe in Print that there is no Spirit at all or that there is no incorporeal Substance two Expressions of the same Thing what is it but to pluck up all Religion by the Root 'T is publickly to set up a School of Atheism For God if any thing is a Spirit not for This reason onely because our Apostle S. John affirms it whom the Hobbists will not believe but for this other reason also which even our Hobbists cannot but yield to that supposing a God there is or that 't is but possible for him to be He must be Infinite and Indivisible and yet we know He can be neither if He is any way Corporeal For All Corporeal things have Parts and so by consequence are divisible and so by consequence are finite And for God to be finite or divisible is for God not to be God the worst and grossest of Contradictions From whence it follows unavoidably that for any one to teach and to teach in publick not publickly from the Pulpit but much more publickly from the Press that an Incorporeal Substance is in it self a Contradiction the Positive Doctrine of the Leviathan is publickly to open a School of Atheism It being publickly to teach There is no Spirit and by a Consequence unavoidable There is no God For every thing that is is either an Accident or a Substance What is neither is not And every Substance a nobler sort of Being then any Accident can be is either Corporeal or Incorporeal That denominates a Body and This a Spirit To say that God is the former implies the horridest Contradiction as hath been shewn and so He must be the latter by undeniable Consecution To say He is not a Spirit or not an Immaterial Substance is neither better nor worse then to say He is not It is to say There is no such Thing § 2. Against the dangerous Contagion of the premised two Extremes S. John in this Text has timely given us Two Caveats one express'd and another imply'd First 't is express'd in plain terms that seeing many false Prophets or false Pretenders to the Spirit are gone out into the World we are bound for that Reason not to believe Every Spirit Next 't is as evidently imply'd as if it were expressed in words at length that though Many Prophets are False we must not thence reckon that None are True as though many Lines are crooked we must not thence argue that none are strait seeing every crooked Line must needs presuppose and imply a strait one Nor may we sottishly disbelieve the Spirit of Holiness and Truth for fear of believing with too much ease a Spirit of Errour and Vncleanness But as my Text is in the middle between an important Dehortation Believe not every Spirit and as important a Reason of it for many false Prophets are gone out into the World so our Course is to be steer'd in a middle way betwixt the Scylla of Credulity and the Charybdis of Vnbelief We must examin all Pretenders and try of what sort they are We must get a Lapis Lydius whereby to learn the true difference betwixt the two sorts of Spirits in the sixt Verse of this Chapter the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour or to express it without the Metonymie which our Apostle here useth betwixt a True and False Prophet betwixt a man of God and a Dreamer of Dreams betwixt a Theopneust and a Daemoniack betwixt a reall Possessor of Divine Revelations and a phantastick Pretender to them For as there were Prophets in the Old Testament both True and False so are there also in the New As there were Spirits under the Law too many to be good so there are also under the Gospel There was in That a familiar Spirit Lev. 20. 27. a lying Spirit 1 King 22. 22. and a Spirit of Perverseness Isa 19. 14. There is in This a foul Spirit a deaf and dumb Spirit Mar. 9. 25. a Spirit of Errour and of Delusion 2 Thess 2. 11. 1 Joh. 4. 6. a Spirit of Slumber Rom. 11. 8. Still the more and the worse the unclean Spirits are the greater need we have to Try them And though there are also as many Good Spirits as there are Angels who never fell yet all their Goodness is but derivative from the one Spirit of God who is God the Spirit To Him are ascribed the famous Gifts 1 Cor. 12. 4. And amongst all the severall Gifts wrought by one and the same Spirit the Discerning of Spirits is worthily reckon'd to be a chief v. 10. Which Gift of Discerning 'twixt good and bad Spirits as all the rest The Spirit of God divides to every man severally as He will v. 11. to some in a greater and to some in a lesser measure And in this Gift S. Peter did very mnch excell S. Philip. For so 't is obvious to collect from the 8 th of the Acts by comparing the 13 th with the 23 th verse § 3. Now whatever can be meant by the Subjects of Triall we are to make whether Churches or Church-men whether Prophecies or Prophets whether Doctrins or Doctors whether Inspirations or men Inspir'd or every one of these equally however different they may be or inconsistent with one another 't is plain they All pretend alike unto the same Spirit of God And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Try and prove them says our Apostle whether they are what they pretend whether really they are Gold or do but eminently glister whether they speak by Commission and as the Oracles of God or onely run ere they are sent inspir'd by Avarice and Ambition and by the Impulse of the Devil whether they teach the sound Doctrins of Christ's Apostles and of his Church whose Faith and Doctrins we are to follow or are but some of the foolish Prophets in the 13 th of Ezekiel who follow their own Spirit and prophesie out of their own Hearts are like the Foxes in the Desarts have spoken Vanity and seen Lies saying The Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them In any case we must try them of what sort they are § 4. Nor must we onely try Them but we must also try the Rule by which they All are to be tried For severall Tests and Rules of Triall who are true or false Teachers and which Doctrins are right or wrong have been lately set up to the hurt of Souls by the Two sorts of Enemies whereof I spake in the beginning to wit the Pretenders to Enthusiasm and the Disciples of the Leviathan The first of these will allow of no other Test than the Sturdiness and Strength of their own Perswasion which it is their will and pleasure to call The Testimony within them And by running in a Circle they grow so giddy
Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well
to approach unto Christ himself with a Depart from me O Lord for I am a Sinfull man They would not separate from us Then like those Idolaters in Isaiah with a Stand farther off come not near to us for we are holier than you But rather like the Lepers under the Law of Leprosie would cover their faces with Confusion and stand aloof from God's House accusing themselves of their Vncleanness or like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Primitive Times of Discipline falling down flat upon their faces not in the Church but the Churchyard at an humble Distance would beg the Charity of Their Prayers whom they saw entring into God's House at the Times of Prayer Were they such Separatists as These and from such a Principle as This from the excesses onely of Meekness and not of Pride we should receive them with the Embraces of Arms and Hearts we should readily afford them even the Right hand of Fellowship we should conclude the Holy Ghost had so descended upon their Souls as once he did upon the Heads of the 12 Apostles or rather upon the Hearts of thâ—se 3000 who at S. Peter's one Sermon were added to them Though not in the Edifying Gifts which were bestowed upon the former yet in the Sanctifying Graces which were infused into the latter § 12. But having spoken enough already of Trying the Spirits in other men I think it fit to say something of Trying them also in our selves For considering the words of the Prophet Jeremy The Heart of man is deceitfull above all things and that 't is given to very few few I mean in comparison to know what Spirits they are of I guess it concerns us all in general and every one of us in particular to resume the whole Text and bring it home unto our selves to search and try our own Hearts and to examin our own Spirits whether or no they are of God 'T was the Precept of Pythagoras to every man of his Sect that he should bring himself to the Test or call himself to an Accompt every Evening of his whole Life with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he had done in That Day which he ought to have omitted and what good thing he had omitted which 't was his Duty to have done Nor was he to suffer himself to sleep till he had made up this Reckoning three several Times So 't was the Precept of S. Paul in his 2 d Epistle to the Corinthians Examin your selves whether ye be in the Faith meaning That Faith which does work by Love all manner of Obedience to the Law of Christ's Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove or try your own selves whether ye have not yet received the True Faith of Christ or whether having once received ye still retain it Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So S. Paul reason'd with his Corinthians and so must we with or within our selves Know we not that Christ is in us by the Presence of his Spirit and by the Power of his Word and by the evident effects of His Operation Such as our Sorrow for our sins past our hatred of our selves in Remembrance of them and our stedfast Resolutions of better life Know we not that Christ is in us by such Evidences as These If we do Then let us treat him in such a manner as may become so Divine a Guest But if we do not we have some reason to fear lest we have sinn'd-away our Saviour as arrant Reprobates and Castaways as men unworthy to be call'd Christians as men who either are not at all Regenerate or else are fallen from That State of Regeneration which we were in or to express it with S. Paul as men who have received the Grace of God in vain And as it concerns us on all occasions to try the Spirit which is in us whether 't is a good or an evil Spirit so most especially does it concern us at such a Time as This is when we Tread in God's Courts to offer up the Gospel-sacrifice of Supplication and Thanksgiving to hear His Word to partake of his Sacraments Duties equally belonging to the first Sunday of the month For the Bread of God's Children must not be cast unto the Dogs and the Food which is Spiritual belongs to Them onely who can spiritually discern it and who live not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I do not mean after every Spirit for there are many more than good as I shew'd before but after The Spirit that is of God The Spirit of Holiness and Truth The Spirit of Vnity and Love The Spirit of Meekness and of Order The Spirit of Singleness and Sincerity The Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding The Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength The Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and lastly The Spirit of God's Holy Fear as the divine Prophet Isaiah expresseth him resting upon Christ of whom the good King Hezekiah was but a Type in That place Unto all which if I should add The Spirit of Promise with S. Paul and The Spirit of Prophecy with S. John The Spirit of Grace with holy Zachary and The Spirit of Glory with S. Peter I should but say The same Spirit in the vindicating of whom from the many False Spirits which in this last Age especially have been debauching the Christian World I have imploy'd the little Time which is allow'd for this Part of our Morning Service To Him therefore with The Father in their Unity with The Son Sing we Hosannahs and Hallelujahs Blessing Glory Honour and Power To Him that liveth for evermore OF The exceeding Sinfulness OF SCHISM In how many GREAT REGARDS It is worse than HAERESIE AND Why more damning than other Crimes 2 THESS 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly § 1. A TEXT exciting us to a Duty which does equally invite and command Attention For the Duty is introduced with as important an Obtestation as is any-where us'd in S. Paul's Epistles and it must certainly be a matter of exceeding great moment which could extort from our Apostle so great and signal an Obtestation He calls us Brethren for we are now in the place of the Thessalonians to win our Love and to shew his own But withall he commands us as God's Embassador that he may make as good impression upon our Fear too We may take his whole Meaning in This plain Paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We charge you and that by virtue of our Commission or in the power of our Apostleship in the name and the behalf by the Bowells and the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ as ye will answer it at the great and terrible Day of Discrimination the Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
sure without Praesumption draw the very same Vse from That tremendous matter of Fact which the Inspired Writer makes in the very next Verse Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd To Day lest any of you be hardened through the deceiptfulness of Sin And again Let us fear saith the same Apostle lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come behind it I may sure without arrogance exhort the Best of my Hearers much more my self and all other Christians of my low Class that They and We receive not the Grace of God in vain That They and We do look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God or lest any fall from it as it is in the Margin and is sufficiently imported by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 12. The Sum and Upshot of all is This There is in many a Seed of Grace which does never bring forth the fruit of Glory For as The Spirit of Truth makes none Infallible upon Earth so The Spirit of Holiness makes none impeccable none incapable of falling into any Deadly Sin or a Sin unto Death The reason is because the workings of The Spirit are onely congruous and sufficient upon voluntary Agents never compulsive and irresistible From whence it follows that The Degrees of Grace and Truth in several persons are not at all from God's Omnipotence as it is such or from his over-ruling Providence as over-ruling for Then there could not be possibly such a variety of Degrees All persons Then must have been equally good and onely good in perfection But partly from the different Dispositions and Behaviours and Negotiations of the Subjects with the Talents of Grace committed to them which some are for imploying and some for wrapping in a Nepkin as our Lord in his Parable was pleas'd to make it plain to us and partly from the Measures of The Spirit 's Communication which to some is much more to others less to none irresistable to all sufficient How very many there are that fall from that Faith and Patience which in Job were two Rocks which nothing was strong enough to shake much less to shatter and yet the Grace of God in Him was never cogent but being well rooted and very well cultivated besides by daily exercises of Piety and all good Works grew up exceedingly in his Soul and did not wither I say how many there are that fall from their several Graces that idly waste and mispend or wilfull squander away their Talents I have hazarded your patience in making it plainer than there was need by which excess if I have err'd I am the rather to be forgiven because it has proceeded from the sincerity of my Desire to beget in such as stand a taking great heed that they do not fall And that our Adversary The Devil may never find Vs as the Messengers of the Danites found Them of Laish dwelling careless and secure after the manner of the Zidonians and void of Business Let it be our prime Business from this day forewards and for ever not onely to watch and pray lest we enter into Temptation but to reflect on the chief Ends and the chief Objects of the Caution commended to us The chiefest Ends of it are the Glory of God and our own Salvation It s chiefest Objects are the Evils of Sin and Punishment the Work itself and the Wages of it But in calling these The Chief I do imply there are many more Even as many as there are Dangers wherewith we are every day beset and whereof in this Text we are advised to take heed § 13. We have but one way to stand But to fall a Thousand Fall we may by our Enemies which without and within us are not easily to be numbred Those within us in our Bosom are still the worst because the nearest and least suspected and then most hurtfull when most Belov'd The worst without us are our Advancements to Wealth and Honour because they are apter than any other first to lift up our heads then to trip up our heeles and to throw us down Many stand when at the lowest stout and stedfast in the Faith as S. Peter speaks who being drunk with Prosperity do quickly stagger And then how easily do they fall Even at every little thrust of Applause or Plenty Yea we may fall without a Thrust by the bare Treachery of the Ground upon which we stand Some Parts of it being too slippery and some too high and very dangerous are the blocks which are laid in others Now 't is plain the more slippery the places are we stand in by so much the apter we are to fall And 't is as evident that the higher our Stations are by so much the greater our fall will be But what the stumbling-blocks are which are laid in our way by some false Teachers besides those few already mention'd and at which if we stumble 't will be impossible not to fall deserves a larger Examination than can be made at this Time and perhaps a more Polemical than can belong to this Place In the mean time 't is certain that in proportion to the dangers there are of falling the general Caveat of my Text does extend it self Take we heed lest we fall for want of any of those things which are conducible to our Station and state of Grace Either for want of that Knowledge of things Essential to Religion which is requir'd or for want of that Zeal which is according unto Knowledge or for want of that Consideration we ought to have of what we know well enough does concern us neerly or for want of that Distrust in our selves and others to which the wise Epicharmus does well excite us Take we heed we do not fall for want of carrying still about us a fear of falling A fear both of our Natural and of our adventitious Frailty A fear of Him who alone holds us up and when he will can throw us down A fear of God as he is just but above all as he is mercifull Because there is mercy with thee O Lord Therefore saith David shalt thou be feared For the abusing of his mercy does more than any other baseness incense his Justice A Fear of falling from his grace and by consequence out of his favour and by consequence into his wrath and his sore displeasure § 14. Amidst our several ways of falling we have but one to stand firm however diversly expressed in holy Writ I mean the congruous Assistance of God's free Grace and our own working together with it All the use S. Peter makes of his Apostasie from Christ for a little time is to put in a Caveat for Himself and Us too not to fall from our