the Truth that they might be saved God shall send them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2 10. The forementioned particulars do of themselves lead to the most dangerous errours how much more then must they needs so do when they are backed on with the Divine Vengeance But if honesty and an Obedient temper of Soul will secure from the other causes of errour and seduction it will in so doing secure from this last So that it is manifest that a sincere desire of Righteousness and true Holiness will not fail to help men to a thorow-belief and sufficient understanding of that Book which is onely designed to indue them with it And that nothing can occasion the contrary but a wilful adhering to some one or other immorality and that this hath a very great aptness so to do So that it is not the least matter of wonder to see men of excellent wits and brave accomplishments either fall into gross errours or even into a flat disbelief of the Christian Religion As strange as this may seem to some it appears from our past Discourse that there is not any real cause of admiration in it For other endowments of as excellent use as they may be when accompanied with that of an obedient temper must needs do more hurt than good to the Souls that are adorned and graced with them when separated from it and occasion those vices that may well make way for Heresies And it is certain that an acute wit when it hath not a purified sense going along with it is so far from being a sufficient praerequisite to the right understanding of Evangelical truths that it is as notable an Engine as the Grand Deceiver can desire to make use of in order to the bringing about his mischievous designs upon the person that is Master of it So that indeed it is on the contrary rather matter of wonder that any man that hath a naughty Will should have a good Iudgement in Gospel-truths though both his natural and acquired parts should be ne'r so great And again we may without the least breach of Charity presume that whosoever to whom Christianity is sufficiently made known doth either disbelieve it or any of the Fundamentals of it his Heart is much more in fault than is his Head and that he hath darkened his Discerning faculty and greatly dimmed the Eye of his Soul by entertaining some filthy lust that sends up a thick sog and mist of vapours to it If any man teach otherwise saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 3. and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness he is proud c. not he is weak and cannot but he is wicked and will not understand the Truth And by the way this Discourse may conduce to the no small encouragement of the weaker sort Let such be but heartily solicitous about doing God's Will and having the Design of the Gospel effected in them and they need fear that their weakness will betray them into the wrong way to Blessedness CHAP. XXVII The Last Inference That we are taught by the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth Instances of what kind of things it doth not consist in For what Ends the several Exercises of Piety and Devotion are injoyned How God is Glorified by men and by what means Whom it is our duty to esteem and carry our selves towards as true Christians That by following the Example of Christ and making his Life our Pattern we shall assure our selves that the Design of Christianity is effected in us and that we are indued with the Power of it LAstly We learn from the Doctrine of the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth viz. In a good state and habit of mind in a holy frame and temper of Soul whereby it esteemeth God as the Chiefest good preferreth him and his Son Jesus before all the world and prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections such as Iustice and Righteousness universal Charity Goodness Mercy and Patience and all kinds of Purity From whence doth naturally proceed a hearty complyance with all the Holy Precepts of the Gospel and sincere endeavours to perform all those actions which are agreeable to them are necessary expressions of those and the like vertues and means for the obtaining and encrease of them and to avoid the Contrary The Kingdom of God or Christianity is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost as Saint Paul tells us Rom. 14. 17. That is it doth not consist in any merely external matters or bodily exercises which elsewhere he saith do profit but little And as not in such as he there meaneth viz. things of a perfectly indifferent nature and neither good nor evil so neither in such as are very good and laudable for the matter of them It is onely their flowing from an inward Principle of Holiness that denominateth any whatsoever Christian actions But such as are onely occasioned by certain external inducements and motives and proceed not from any good temper and disposition of Soul be they never so commendable in themselves bespeak not him that performeth them to be a true and sincere Christian. He is not a Iew saith the same Apostle that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. That is he onely is a true child of Abraham who in the purity of the heart obeyeth those substantial Laws that are imposed by God upon him And if no one that doth not thus might properly be called a Iew or child of Abraham much less can the name of a Christian and a Disciple of the Holy Iesus be due to him He it is evident is onely so in whom the Design of Christianity is in some measure accomplish'd And it appears from what hath been said that its Design is Primarily and immediately upon the Nature which being rectified and renewed will certainly discover it self so to be throughout the whole life For a good tree will not bring forth corrupt fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit as our Saviour hath said Were it possible as it is not that we should forbear all outward acts of sin and yet our Souls cleave to it we could not but be destitute of the Life and Power of Christianity And should we abound never so much in the exercise of good duties if our design in so doing be to gratifie any lust and serve some carnal interest they will be so far from Christian actions that they may
but will only examine what is so that he may not entertain an erroneous perswasion He will bring his mind to the Gospel and not wrest the Gospel to his mind But vice and sin being allowed and predominant in the soul must needs warp the judgement and clap a heavy byass on it that will draw it to favour as much as may be their interest in all matters it is concerned in And therefore a man of wicked and depraved Affections cannot but be exceeding unapt to study a Book whose Design is such as the Gospel's is But the obediently-disposed will bring free ingenuous and candid spirits to this work and therefore are very fitly prepared to do it with good success Secondly This honest and sincere temper of mind will help a man to evidence for his satisfaction concerning the main Doctrines of the Gospel far excelling any that can arise from mere speculation â—… namely that of sense and Experience The man that is indued with it shall know of the Doctrine that it is of God he shall not onely believe it according to the strict notion of that Phrase There is an inward sweetness in Holy Truths that a Good soul will relish and savour but the vitiated palates of those that are in love with any lust cannot taste it How sweet said David are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey unto my mouth Now naked demonstrations give but very poor and slight satisfaction in comparison of that knowledge that ariseth from sense and Experience and this latter alone will remove from us all doubt and uncertainty Therefore that was so far from being a weak and foolish that it was a most worthy and laudable speech of the honest Martyr Though I cannot dispute I can die for Christ No one that hath tasted honey can at all doubt of its sweetness though he may want cunning enough to answer the Arguments whereby a Sophister may attempt to prove it bitter We say seeing is believing And the great evidence that our Saviour proved himself to be the Messias by was that of sense By this was Thomas his incredulity as very strong as it was immediately overcome And the Bodily senses are not more infallible than is the purified sense of the Soul Thirdly The aforesaid temper of mind will secure those in whom it is from the causes of errour in those Points of the Gospel that are of weightiest importance It is undoubtedly certain that mistakes about these cannot possibly arise from the obscurity of that Book it being as plain as heart can wish in all matters of absolute necessity as hath been shewn in the Free Discourse Therefore errours that are of a damnable nature must necessarily proceed from vicious causes such as 1. Gross Ignorance But 't is not possible to find this in any soul that is sincerely desirous to obey God 2. A too high opinion of our parts and Reason By which is often occasioned a rejection of whatsoever they are not able to comprehend But the honest soul can have no such conceits of his Reason he knows nothing more undoubtedly than that he is a weak and most shallow Creature He knows that the most contemptible Insect and common Weed are able to pose and put him to a non-plus and that it would therefore be the highest of Arrogances in him to believe nothing revealed to him but what is an adequate object of his understanding This man will submit his Reason to Divine Revelation and not Divine Revelation to his Reason 'T is true he cannot though he would never so fain believe that which doth manifestly contradict the Reason of his mind and the Innate sense of his soul but therefore it is certain that no such things are to be found in the Gospel nor can be a matter of Divine Revelation 3. Proud Affectation of being thought wiser than other folk This was a great thing which made the first Heretiques that the Church of Christ ever knew as appeareth by the Arrogant Title they assumed to themselves and distinguished their Sect by viz. Gnostiques But that temper of mind that makes men unfeignedly desirous of Piety and true Vertue is inconsistent with all such ambitious and aspiring thoughts 4. Liquorish curiosity and wantonness of spirit When people are glutted with those wholesome truths which they have for many years been entertained with and will be hunting after Novelties when they grow weary of their honest Teachers and will be following every Upstart that sets himself in opposition to them it can hardly otherwise be but that they must fall into dangerous errors The Apostle saith 2 Tim. 4. 3. that The time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves Teachers But how comes it to pass that they will do thus it followeth having itching Fars But the obedientlyinclined soul will be careful to keep in that good way which by experience he hath found to be so and to avoid all bye-paths Nor will he be running after Seducers but shun them all he can as being conscious of his own weakness and his aptness without the Grace of God to be misled 5. The love of and being wedded to any one lust whatsoever will certainly endanger mens falling into the worst of Heresies When men have some beloved sins or sin which they are resolved they will not part with and are as a Right Eye or Right Hand to them they are easily perswaded to entertain such Principles as will allow them to live in them and to abandon those that will not and therefore to wrest the Scriptures as those the Apostle speaks of 2 Pet. 3. 16. to their own destruction and put them upon the rack to make them speak such things as may consist with the interest of their corrupt affections Quod volumus facilè credimus that which we would have to be true we easily believe is so and what we desire should be false we are with little difficulty perswaded to disbelieve This therefore hath had such a very fearful influence on not a few as to cause them at length to throw away their BIBLES to deny the Immortality of their Souls and disbelieve as much as they can even the Being of a Deity because they are sensible that while they continue in their sins it is infinitely their Interest that the holy Scriptures should be false that there should be no other life and no God But I need not say that the Honest Obedient Person is one that is not devoted to any Lust. 6. The just judgement of God upon these and the like accounts is the last cause I shall mention of mens disbelieving the Gospel and renouncing any of the Essentials of Christianity Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge that is to acknowledge him in their practice God gave them up to a Reprobate or an adulterate corrupted mind Rom. 1. 28. Because they received not the love of
that all that have the conduct of Souls committed to them should do the like S. Paul exhorted Timothy first to take heed to himself and then to the Doctrine and the former advice was of no whit less necessity and importance than was the latter For as woful experience assureth us a Minister of a careless and loose life let his parts and ability in preaching be never so great nay though he should behave himself never so faithfully in the Pulpit and be zealous against the very vices he himself is guilty of which would be very strange if he should must needs do more hurt incomparably than he can do good And though as some of them will tell them it is the Peoples duty to do as they say and not as they do yet is there nothing more impossible than to teach them effectually that Lesson Mankind as we had before occasion to shew is mightily addicted to imitation and Examples especially those of Governors and Teachers have a greater force upon people ordinarily than have Instructions but chiefly bad Examples in regard of their natural proneness to vice than good Instructions Had not the Apostles expressed as great a care of what they did as of what they said how they lived as how they preached Christianity would without doubt have been so far from prevailing and getting ground as it hath done that it could not have long survived its Blessed Author if it had not bid adiue to the world with him Most men do what we can will judge of our Sermons by our Conversations and if they see these bad they will not think those good nor the Doctrines contained in them practicable seeing they have no better effect upon those that preach them And besides no man will be thought to be serious and in good earnest in pressing those duties upon others which he makes no conscience of performing himself Nay every man's judgement in Divine things may warrantably be suspected that is of a wicked and vicious Life And those that are conscious to themselves that they are not able to pass a judgement upon Doctrines may not be blamed if they question their Minister's Orthodoxy while they observe in him any kind of Immorality and see that he lives to the satisfaction of any one Lust. For the promise of knowing the Truth is made onely to such as continue in Christ's words that is that are obedient to his Precepts And I adde that such a one 's talks of Heaven and Hell are like to prevail very little upon his Auditors or to be at all heeded by the greatest part of them while they consider that the Preacher hath a soul to save as well as they And therefore the love that they bear to their lusts with the Devil's help will easily perswade them that either these things are but mere sictions or else that the one may be obtained and the other escaped upon far easier terms than he talks of But as for those few in whom the sense of true Vertue and Piety have made so deep an impression as that they have never the slighter opinion of the necessity thereof in regard of their Minister's wicked Example the prejudice that they cannot but conceive against him renders his discourses insipid and unaffecting to them and so they ordinarily take all opportunities to turn their backs upon him and at length quite forsake him And then if they are not as understanding as well meaning people are too easily drawn away from all other Churches when they have left their own and become a prey to some demure and fairly pretending Sectary And I am very certain from my own observation that no one thing hath so conduced to the prejudice of our Church of England and done the separating parties so much service as the scandalous lives of some that exercise the Ministerial Function in her The late Excellent Bishop of Down and Connar hath this memorable passage in a Sermon he preached to the University at Dublin If ye become burning shining Lights if ye do not detain the Truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrine will be true and that truth will prevail But if you live wickedly scandalously every little Schismalick will put you to shame draw Disciples after him and abuse your flocks and feed them with Coloâ—…ynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the chair appointed for your Religion But to hasten to the dispatch of this unpleasant Topick wicked ministers are of all other ill-livers the most scandalous for they lay the greatest stumbling block of any whatsoever before mens souls and what our Saviour said of the Scribes and Pharisees may in an especial manner be applyed to them viz. that they will neither enter into heaven themselves nor yet suffer them that are entering to go in so far are they from saving themselves and those that hear them But I would to God such would well lay to heart those sad words of our Saviour Luke 17. 1 2. It is impossible but that offences will come but woe unto him through whom they come it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the Sea c. And those words are not more effectual to scare them than are these following of a Heathen viz. Tully concerning vicious Philosophers to shame them into a better life saith he in his Tusculan Questions the second book Quotusquisque Philosophorunâ—… invenitur qui sit ita moratus c. What one of many Philosophers is there who so behaves himself and is of such a mind and life as Reason requireth which accounteth his Doctrine not a boast of Science but a law of life which obeyeth himself and is governed by his own precepts We may see some so light and vain that it would have been better for them to be wholly ignorant and never to have learn d any thing others so covetous of money thirsty of praise and honour and many such slaves to their lusts ut cum eorum vitâ mirabiliter pugnet oratio That their lives do marvellously contradict their Doctrine Quod quidem mihi videtur esse turpissimum c. Which to me seems the most filthy and abominable of all things For as he which professing himself a Grammarian speaks barbarously and who being desirous to be accounted a Musician sings scurvily is so much the more shame-worthy for his being defective in that the knowledge and skill of which he arrogates to himself so a Philosopher in ratione vitae peccans miscarrying in his manners is in this respect the baser and more wretched Creature that in the office of which he will needs be a Master he doth amiss artemque vitae professus delinquit in vitâ and prosessing the art of well-living or of teaching others to live well is faulty and miscarrieth in his own life Could this excellent Heathen thus inveigh against wicked Philosophers what Satyre can be tart and