covenant and vow what was our baptisme but a devoting and solemne vowing of our selves to be faithfull to Christ and to his truths wee solemnly professed that none should be our Lord but God and that we should be his faithfull servants unto our lives end yea and wee have ratified this vow many a time by comming to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Now if we doe not hold fast the truths of Christ but forsake them or any of them wee are guilty of extreame perjury not in a matter betwixt man and man but betwixt God and man thou art forsworne again and againe unto the Lord thy God and hast as much as in thee lies made voyd the covenant of grace and life for thy poore soule 4 Consider but the necessary uses of divine truths and then we will acknowledge that they are to be held fast The use of the word or divine truths respects the everlasting and happy condition of the soule from the beginning to the end thereof Everlasting and true happinesse is the end and scope that every Christian lookes at and divine truths serve him fully and effectually to this end both to discover it and to bring man unto it There are many things required to set us in the true way to bring a man to heaven v. g. 1 Conviction of his sinfull condition but the word inlightens the minde and convinceth the conscience 2 Contrition for sinne but the word pricks our hearts as Acts 2. and humbles them 3 Conversion of soule but the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule Psal 19. 7. by it comes faith into the soule Psal 19. 7. which gets Christ Rom. 10. 17. Rom. 10. 17. by it comes repentance Acts 3. 19. 4 Augmentation of grace but by the word wee are built up Acts 20. 32. and grow more and more 5 Perseverance in grace but by the word wee are kept and established to the end it is the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1. 16. Rom. 1. 16. What should I say more reade the Apostle summing up all in 2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is giuen 2 Tim. 3. 16. by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse 17 That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good workes 15 Yea they are able to make us wise unto saluation through faith â—hich is in Christ Iesus Againe there are many incouragements comforting and supporting in our way as divine consolations of the spirit of God peace in conscience joy in the holy Ghost all which are the myrrhe dropping onely from divine truths thy word hath comforted me said Dauid thy word hath quickned mee in the house of my pilgrimage they were the joyes of his heart and in the daies of his calamity they were the stay of his heart Now put all together if divine truths shew us the true happinesse if they onely put us into the true way unto that true happinesse if they onely keepe us in that way if they onely comfort and strengthen us in that way if they onely bring us to the end of our faith even the salvation of our soules will we not ought wee not to hold them fast Vse The first use of this point shall be to convince and reprove the wonderfull inconstancy of the sonnes of men that slipperinesse and unsetlednesse of spirit which is to be found amongst them Consider divine truths as they lye 1 In doctrine we may now complaine as the Apostle did of the Galathians chap. 1. verse 6. Gal. 1. 6. I maruell that ye are so soone remoued from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospell Some revolt from the Protestant doctrine to the Popish leven others fall off from the orthodoxe articles of our Church to Anabaptisticall fancies and Socinian Blasphemies and the Lord be mercifull unto us what daily unsetlednesse and giddinesse possesseth us if any novelty of doctrine though a root of bitternesse start up and be delivered with any confidence or cunning of deceiving wit how instantly we flye off from our old truths how greedily and madly wee sucke in poysonous errours and being thus driven with every winde what tempests of railing and disgraces doe wee heape upon those who crosse our ficklenesse with constant vindications and assertings of the true doctrines of faith and life It makes mee to pitty this great and famous City whiles I behold a colluvies a very rabble of all opinions and such a going and comming touchings at and saylings off from the land of uprightnesse One weeke this is a truth and almost an article the next weeke it is no such matter but some other thing is the right Simile Thus wee play many times with great truths as children doe with their Babies one while embrace them anone breake them and throw them into the dirt But are there so many waies to heaven as men will make or hast thou power to coine other articles of faith at pleasure or will the Lord beare all this resting and mocking with his truths Two things makes mee feare the Lord will punish us in the Gospell one is our generall barrennesse in life another is our great sicklenesse in matter of truths 2 In conversation many times we hold the truth in unrighteousnesse wee doe not prize the truth and love it nor live according to it with constancy but as the Prophet cryed out how is the beautifull City become an heape so may wee say of many how is their righteous walkings degenerated into an ungodly living their wine is sowred and lamp put out But I will tell you the reasons and causes of all this inconstancy The causes of constancy and apostacy v. g. 1 Men are very ignorant and therefore very inconstant ignorance is the great spunge to sucke in errours as pride is the great Bawd to vent them Chaffe may be tossed any way that which is weak is also light 2 Though their apprehensions be large yet their affections are foule they know truth but love sinne which is contrary to truth Simile now a foule stomacke ever makes an ill head and a secret love of sinne works out the strength of truth in the minde men doe the more easily grow erroneous who first grow irreligious 3 There is an itch of pride Evah and Adam would know more then was fit and therefore lost all that was good you never reade of a proud person but either his life was notoriously tainted or his judgement notably corrupted the greatest errours have fallen from those that have beene most proud and have beene tooke up by those that have beene most ignorant 4 And then also many have Athenian wits they long for novelties though the old wine be best yet their palate must be in the fashion for new there is a sore vanity in a naturall minde that it cannot long fixe on any estate or on any truth 5 A colloging
slavishnesse many give up their soules and faith to the religion of others and like waxe are still fashioned to the opinions of great persons they are afraid of their displeasures and therefore even in points of religion will dance after their pipe 6 A sordid and eminent love of the world for which Demas forsooke Christ and Iudas sold his Master and Hymeneus made shipwracke of faith the unsatisfiable slave to the world will never be a faithfull servant to truth hee who hath already pawnd his soule will with as much ease sell off the truth Spira for its sake abjured the truth but ventured the losse of it and himselfe too 7 Many men are licentious and therefore unstedfast corrupt doctrines give more scope then the true and heavenly wee are apt to beleeve that soonest which pleaseth us most erroneous points are more for pleasure and divine truths are more for strictnesse and Simile therefore as those Grecians if I forget not the story gave up their weapons to enjoy their sports so many give up the truth to enjoy their easie and loose kinde of walking Vse 2 But for you I hope better things though I thus speake hitherto you have heard the good truths and waies of God and have held them fast I have not found you as other people of so unsetled and inconstant spirits And therefore as Christ said to the Church of Thyatira the same I will presume to say unto you Revel 2. 24. 25. I will Rev. 2. 24. 25. put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already holdfast what need I urge this with many motives 1 If it be truth why should it Motives be left is errour better then truth then should darkenesse be better then light 2 Can you better your estates by leaving of truths when the divels fell from truth they fell from heaven when Adam fell from truth hee fell from Paradise 3 Will not the truth keepe you if you keepe the truth as the ship doth the Pilot who keepeth it truth will keepe thy soule and graces together thy soule and Christ together thy soule and comfort together thy soule and prosperity together therefore it is called the girdle of truth because as a girdle it holds all together Thou partest with strength with joy with safety with blessing with happinesse if thou part with truth 4 The reward is sure if thou be faithfull not a meane reward but that of life even a crowne of life Rev. 2. 10. Rev. 2. 10. Rules Now that you may for ever hold fast divine truths take these rules or directions 1 Lay a solid foundation in distinct knowledge of them confused braines cause unsetled hearts rest not in Pilates demand what is truth nor in the Israelites hovering betwixt two opinions nor in that grosse salary of religion to take up truth upon trust for any man sake whatsoever were he the sharpest Ieremiah or the learnedst Paul or the comfortablest Barnabas be not satisfied this is truth because this that man saith but as the honourable Beraeans searched the Scriptures about the things which even Saint Paul himselfe delivered so doe you prove all things saith the Apostle receive truth upon an evidence of truth if the first truth which is the word of God and the rule and compasse will not approve it it is errour and not truth Object Yea but how may wee know truths for there are many religions and many opinions obtruded to the world the truth of which cannot so or sily be discerned Sol. I answer that true doctrine may be discerned from false doctrines 1 by the unity of them unum verum convertuntur truth is one or none there is but one way saith Aristotle to hit the marke but many waies to misse it errour is manifold and divers Simile like the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw mixt of gold and clay and as Aristotle speakes of Vices that they are contrary both to vertues and themselves so erroneous doctrines are opposite to truth and to themselves Simile there is no errour but is like a lyer apt to forget and wound it selfe but truth is single like Christs garment undivided as there is but one Christ so but one faith 2 The purity of them all false doctrine like treacherous physicke gives ease Simile or like a whore much in beauty when false in honesty what it wants in verity it makes up in liberty like ill wares which therefore have the larger allowances the doctrine which is unsound generally is licentious as is evident in the Mahometan or Popish tenents But truth is holy in it selfe and to us teaching it within the heart and ordering it in the life It is an adversary to sin because all sin is an adversary unto God 3 The efficacy of them usually corrupt doctrines adde to our notions but meddle not with our corruptions they swell us but doe not edifie us they are pils which onely worke upon the braine they neither bring true grace or sound peace with them onely this Satan makes the erroneous very violent that thereby they may thinke themselves in the right But the doctrine which is true is strong it is heavenly in its nature and mighty in its operation comes from God and brings to God makes the bad good and the good better there is no such salve to heale a corrupt heart nor balme to refresh a troubled conscience as truth 4 The antiquity of them errour is but the shadow and ape of truth the saying is id demúm verissimum quod antiquissimum Truth is the first borne for God spake it before the divell spake the other errors may be old but truth saw the light before them the whole farrago of corrupt doctrines amongst the Papists for transubstantiation invocation of Saints prayers for the dead merit supremacy their originals were of yesterday though they boast antiquity yet they dare not stand to the triall of Christ and his Apostles who must decide all truths 5 The simplicity of them errours came in by the Serpent at the first and are much of its nature full of windings and turnings all corrupt doctrines are deceiveable and subtile how many arts were fained by Arrius and the Arrian Bishops to bring in their damnable errour what forging of lyes and odious accusations of Athanasius that he was dishonest with a woman and cut off a mans hand as Eusebius relates and so the Iesuites about Calvin and Luther and Melancthon and Beza c. and so for the establishing of the Councell of Trent the Popes Cloke-bags were weekely filled with devices and carriages Yea and observe the very Papists at this day how deceiveably confident they are that al◠antiquity and testimony is on their side when either it is a packe of their owne writers onely or other authors which they have forged or else antiquity miserably lanced and cut and interlaced by their Index expurgatorius yea and I pray God that many of the opinions in this City be
not bolstered up with high clamours and with artificiall lyes But truth is naked and plaine it is neither of a cruell nature like Caine nor of a subtile spirit with Absalom nor of a lying spirit with Ahabs false Prophets it flatters no man nor beguiles any being truth it is not ashamed of light or triall and it alone can maintain it self against all contrary quarrels a good cause is like a good conscience even a bulwarke to it selfe like the sunne in its light and heat against all clouds c. 5 The duration of them truth like the sunne hath runne down through all ages not that all men have embraced it but that by some it hath still beene embraced some one or more hath still beene at the barre to beare witnesse unto it New men have still risen up and sometimes out of the ashes as it were of the dead to maintaine and either by tongue or pen or bloud to defend the truth but Erroneous doctrines as they want an inward harmony so also an outward consent like a deceitfull brooke they are spent after a while or like commotions in a state Simile though strong or long yet they come to an end at length either some speciall judgements on the ringleaders or the authority of Princes as Alexander against Arius or the prayers of the Saints or the decision of lawfull counsels have still cashiered these meteors but as it is said of divine mercy that it endures for ever the same is affirmed of divine truth it runs from one generation to another till Christ make his Church triumphant the militant Church shall be the pillar of truth 6 The conformity of them to the rule or word Erroneous doctrines like unsound flesh cannot abide handling and Simile like an ill favoured woman would have all glasses broken But truth like sound gold will endure a touch-stone truth will be found truth upon search bring it to the conscience it will worke as truth bring it to the death-bed it will uphold as truth bring it to the scriptures it will hold out as truth 2 When truths upon search are found to be truths then embrace them for the truths sake not upon personall and mutable causes or ends 3 Firme refolution after tryall by which our knowledge comes to be cleare and without doubt there must be now a plain resolution and purpose of heart in cleaving to such faithfully evidenced truths thou must by an immoveable faith as it were root thy very heart in the truths of Christ as Saint Paul though bonds and afflictions though good report or evill though death it selfe abide him for Christ come what will come disputes fancies errors troubles losses I have found the truth and it will I hold for ever 3 Loyall affection then it is loyall when it is inclusive to every truth c. exclusive to nothing but truth this loyall affection will make us to first doe secondly suffer thirdly cleave love truth and then truth will be held I held him and would not let him goe said the Church then in love with Christ Cant. 3. Love is the easiest key to open the heart to Cant. 3. Christ and the strongest locke to keepe sure the truth in our hearts when thou hast experimentally felt the heavenly strength and comfort of Gods truths then wilt thou certainly sticke unto them 4 Ioyne conscience to science O when people have the truths still sounding in their eares and ungodlinesse still stirring and ruling in their lives it cannot be that they should have strong hands who have wicked hearts Hymeneus made shipwracke of faith and of conscience both together 1 Tim 1. 19. Therefore strive to obey the 1 Tim. 1. 19. truths adde to thy faith vertue be a doing Christian as well as a knowing Christian 5 Be watchfull in prayer to God with David to uphold thee with Saint Peter to establish thee still to keepe thee that thou mayest keepe his truths excellent is that speech of Bernard S. Bernard in Psal qui habitat pag. 283. Basil neque enim quae habemus ab eo servare aut tenere possumus sine eo that God by whose light alone we know the truth by his strength alone we keepe it Thus much for the text and now for the occasion and here I cannot be long neither my affections nor yours will admit of large discourse onely a word of you and a word to you Of you so regardfull have you beene to my Ministery so loving to my person so faithfull in your maintenance so cheerefully encouraging generally from you all but chiefly from the chiefest that had it pleased the Lord to have given mee health the which I have scarce enjoyed one whole yeere together since I have beene heere I should not have stirred easily from such a people for the best preferment that could be conveniently offered unto me I speake my heart freely I cannot tell on which side the unwillingnesse is most whether on your part who are left or on my part who am constrained to leave you But to say no more of your goodnesse give mee leave for the close of all to leave a few Legacies with you being all my friends and hearken to my words as the words of a dying man for the Lord knowes how short my daies may be My Legacies are these 1 Lay out more time for your soules the soule is a precious thing the soule is a corrupted thing sinnes are in it much guilt is upon it there is a Christ that it needs holinesse that it must have heaven that it would have thy body is but clay thy soule a spirit the world a vanity thy soule immortall all is well if the soule be wel nothing is well if that be evill I beseech you pray more heare more know more confer more doe more and more for your soules when you come to dye you will then finde it to be all your worke O then whiles health is in you make it thy chiefest worke to seeke the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof for your soules feed not the slave and starve the childe 2 Vpon good grounds make sure of a reconciled God live not in an unreconciled condition no enemy like an ill conscience and a good God study the right of thy sinnes and the bloud of Christ repentance from dead workes and faith in the Lord Iesus so shalt thou behold the face of God and live The waies of reconciliation with God and the setling of thy conscience about it may cost thee many prayers and teares and diligent studies but the love of God and heaven will answer and recompense all 3 Wisely improve all heavenly seasons the Lord hitherto hath continued unto you daies of peace and salvation heavenly opportunities publike and private and I beseech him for ever so to doe Now receive not the grace of God in vaine lay hold on these occasions if there be not wisedome to improve them there may be sadnesse for neglecting
sufficient to a particular word of truth for the present yet the vertue and use of that may be for the future Simile It is with truths as it is with treasuries whereinto much gold or siluer is put and kept safe a little whereof my serve for the time being but most or all of it may be brought out upon future and severall occasions Simile Or as it is with friends and garments which though wee doe not use every one of them every day yet ere we dye wee may have an usefull occasion for them all The truths which thou hast heard from the word ten yeeres agoe may serve thee twenty yeeres hence that discovery of the mercy of God of the bloud of Christ of the freenesse of grace c. these may be of great availe unto thee and of sweet and proper helpe unto thee when thou commest to old age or to a dying bed Simile It is not with truths heard and received as with our meat eaten and digested the vertue of which may bee gone in few daies but as it is with a lease for life which this yeere brings in our revenue and so it doth the next yeere c. so divine truths may yeeld unto thee present comfort and strength yea and they can being rightly embraced be the staffe in thy hand to morrow to support thee and the river in thy conscience to refresh thee that heavenly truth which was thy starre at this time may fitly upon occasions serve to bee thy guide at any time as the starre to the wise men which appeared the second time 2 Frequent remembrance of divine truths is as it were a spurre to further obedience and therefore Saint Peter joynes 2 Pet. 1. 13. putting in remembrance and stirring up as if then we should revive our services when wee did renue our memories Every truth newly and seriously thought on is as it were a second Sermon or repetition and inculcating of it upon our hearts I am sure it is like a further digestion which serves for the better health and strength of our bodies 3 It is a meanes much to strengthen our graces the Philosophers have a saying eodem nutrimur ex quo generamur that wee are nourished by that of which wee are generated the truths of God begat our graces and the same truths well remembred and perused will increase them Those promises which heretofore inclined thy heart and perswaded it to beleeve can perpetually beare and raise up thy heart to stronger degrees of beleefe as Christ when he would helpe his disciples against a particular infidelity objected unto them why doe ye not remember Mark 8. 18. intimating that a right remembring of his works would have inabled them much against unbeliefe And so doth the remembrance of the words of Christ of his truths which are as able to build us up in grace as to communicate it unto us 4 It is a revocation from sinnings as David said I considered my waies and turned my feet unto thy testimonies the same may be said of holy truths a remembring consideration of them is a recovering of an erring and falling soule Saint Peter forgate his Master and then forgate himselfe he forgate the words of a Master and then the duty of a servant but Peter recovered himselfe againe and how did he so the text saith that hee remembred the words of Iesus and when hee had thought thereon hee went out and wept bitterly 5 It is an avocation or withholdment from errours why doe men so commonly slip into new errors one maine cause is they have let slip old truths they have lost their touch-stone to try doctrine by they doe not remember what and how they have heard and received and therfore they destroy what they themselves have built Simile Like a ship which hath lost her anchor tossed with waves and windes every way so they are hurried and puffed up and downe with every winde of doctrine But he who rightly remembers the truth hath not onely thereby a touch-stone to try and discover contrary errours but likewise a buckler to secure his judgement and a sword to cut off the corrupt reasonings and fallacies of the gaine-sayer 6 Lastly it is of singular good and concernement to a distressed and deserted soule and to a debarred person The daies of famine may befall thee and then the food which Ioseph laid up may preserve thee if future meanes should faile will not former and remembred truths be of comfort and are you sure that seasons will last for ever where is Ierusalem who did not know her day of peace and where are the seven Churches of Asia or the daies of sicknesse may befall thee wherein thou art debarred of the market I meane the publike assembly of the Saints and art so weakened that reade at all thou canst not if now thy soule can remember God and remember the truths of God and can secretly confer with them they may be of blessed helpe and peace unto thee yea the daies of desertion may befall thee the Lord may not looke on thee as formerly hee may not confer at all with thee in sense and feeling and what refuge hast thou now but to flye to the truths of God through which thou didst heretofore heare him and perceive him and this may prove a support and solace to thy heart Sure I am Asaph in his desertions did so see him in Psal 77. 10. I will remember the yeeres of Psal 77. 10. the right hand of the most high I will remember the workes of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old former embraces are new encouragements Vse Thus for the explication and confirmation of the point I now come to the application of it to our selves Should received truths be remembred then 1 Hearing is not all some there are who heare not at all they are like the deafe Adders which refuse to heare the voice of the charmer Christ is pleased to speake but they are not pleased to hearken how much have these to answer for Others doe heare and that is all the word is but as a naturall sound to excite that naturall facultie of hearing but they understand not what they heare the word preached is as a book sealed up unto them they think it enough to come to Church c. Others doe heare and understand the truths delivered but then they minde them no more they leave all at the Church doore as wee doe our friends at the grave forgetting that we came to a feast to carry away and not to a grave to leave all behinde as if the word were a tale or a dreame it is instantly forgotten in comes the world out goes the word to secular businesses or sinfull acts they presently apply themselves and so is the word Simile squeized out like water out of a spunge or the characters of it glide away like the impressions of a Seale upon the slippery water Perhaps many a thousand Sermon they
thou hast heard a Sermon and art at home then call thy memory to an account how it hath played the faithfull steward for thee what truth it hath remembred by a daily striving to remember you shall daily perfect the remembrance 4 A distinct apprehension Saul was not easily found in the stuffe and confused mindes are seldome linked with exact memories the more orderly and exact that the understanding is the more easie is the remembrance of things Take heed of ignorant mindes that know not truths and of confused mindes that can mistake truths 5 Abundant conference this course Moses prescribed the Israelites to remember the lawes given unto them viz that they should often talke of them to their children conference is as the driving in of the naile one remembers that which the other forgets our memories helpe our lips and our lips doe strengthen our memories 6 Diligent practise the scholler by a daily writing after the copy doth thereby mend his hand and helpe his memory Truths are ordained for practise It cannot be but that truths should remaine faithfull in the memory which are made faithfull in our walking Truths easily take their leave of them who oppose them or do not act them Now to the second assertion viz. That acceptance of truths is Second not sufficient but there must be persistence in them and hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serva or as Beza translates it observa Saint Paul is much in this doctrine hold fast the forme of 2 Tim. 1. 13. Titus 1. 9. sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. so again to Titus 1. 9. hold fast the faithfull word and that this doctrine may not be thought proper and peculiar to the Preacher of the truth but common to all Christians hee therefore enlargeth the precept to all the Romans Rom. 12. 9. and under them to all Christians to adhere or cleave unto what is good the word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should bee glued unto it Salomon in effect delivers the same Pro. 23. 23. Buy the truth and sel it not a man may lawfully sell his house and lands as the Apostles did and followed Christ and in some sense his wife and children as Saint Ierome in epist ad Heliod would rather then hee would put off Christ yea and his owne life too as Saint Paul did not count Acts 21. 13. it deare for Christ But the truth must not bee sold it must be kept as a thing exceeding all price and bargain Now for the fuller understanding of this proposition premise with me these particulars 1 That I speake not of humane and morall truths such as are the rules in secular arts in which there may bee and is many times an infallibility but of religious and divine truths which are contained in the word of God 2 Religious truths are so either in the imagination of man or in the reality of the thing I am not bound to embrace much lesse to persist in all which every man propounds for truths or which he conjectures to be so onely I am to hold fast those truths which the word rightly and genuinely expounded teacheth and determineth to be so 3 Againe the truths which seeme to owne themselves on the word of God are either immediate and expresse or onely mediate and deduced expresse truths are to be held fast but deduced truths which are thence collected by the medium of a mans ability to judge these are to bee tried and examined by the prime and immediate truths and so far to be held as they are found upon due search to have conformity with the immediate expresse rules of truth 4 Expresse truths suppose them to be knowne and received may be considered either in the latitude of them or with restriction we may not thinke it sufficient to hold fast some particular truths either the greater or the lesser and leave the rest to shift for themselves But all knowne truths even those which are not of that maine concernement not any one of them must be forsaken or left but retained and maintained as Athanasius and others of the first Nicene Fathers would not diminish or adde one iota title about the deity of Christ or as Moses would not leave one hoofe behinde so we must not renounce or forsake any one branch of known truth seeme it never so little in the eyes of men 5 Though there be a difference of times yet there ought to bee no difference of holy truths there are times of prosperity for the Gospell as Constantines time was to the Church and there are times of calamity as Neroes time and Dioclesians and others the persecuting Emperours Truth must be held fast yea all truth at all times Simile you see that the stars doe shine in the coldest night of winter as well as in the calmest night of summer so truths must be held in the worst as well as in the best daies Iosephus reports of the Samaritanes that if any good and favour befell the Iewes then they would pretend affinity and kindred with them they came from Iacob but if any calamity then they were none of the stocke of Abraham It must not be thus with us to vary our hearty respect to truths according to the favour or discouragement that the world bestows upon them but to cleave unto them as Saint Paul did under the sword as S. Ignatius among the wilde beasts and Laurentius on the Gridiron and Daniel among the Lyons and the three children in the fiery furnace 6 Sixthly though there be a difference of persons yet wee must not differ and wave our respects to holy truths perhaps those holy truths which thou hast heard and tryed and received may bee contradicted and disputed by some bold schismaticall hereticall braines who would bleare and blur the truth that so they may bring in damnable doctrines by these they may be disgraced derided and reproched Simile these dogs may bark against the moone and its light yea or perhaps though they have forwardly courted professed the truths yet they may fall off with Hymeneus and Philetus and turne vile apostates But as Peter said of Christ that thou must say and act too of truth Though all men should forsake thee yet I will never forsake thee Against all subtilty of disputes variety of judgements schisme and malice of evill men and inconstancy of some men thou must be rightly ballanced Hold fast the truth which thou hast heard and received Quest But how must truths be held fast Sol. In foure respects 1 In the judgement and understanding 2 In the will and affection 3 In profession 4 In conversation and practise 1 In the judgement for assent and approbation there must be a firme evidence of them I confesse that there is a latitude in our credence upon more and more evidence of truth there may be a further and stronger assent unto them and approbation of them But there must be no wavering
in the judgement we must not admit of a staggering and reeling minde nor of a levity in our judgements to be driven and carried about with every winde of doctrine as the Apostle speakes Ephes 4. 14. Eph. 4. 14. Athanasius knew this well when he held his iudgement fast in the truth of the deity of Christ against the Arians so Saint Austin his iudgement fast in the doctrine of grace against the Pelagians and Cyprian against the Donatists or Novatians or Catharists It is an honour for a man to recant an errour but a perfidious shame for any Christian to suffer any truth to be supplanted by any errour 2 In the will and affection our love must hold the truth fast therefore the Apostle bids us to be glued unto it Rom. 12. 9. it is with truths Simile as with some plants which live and thrive not but in warme climates That ancient desire after truth and delight in it to take counsell from it and strength from it and comfort by it must not decay and dye within us but must remaine and abound though others hate disgrace and endeavour to make voyd the truth yet wee must cleave unto it and love it as David Psal 119. 3 In our profession hence that advice of the Apostle in Phil. 2. 16 to hold forth the word of life even in the midst of a darke and froward generation Christ would have us not onely to beleeve but to confesse him before men Remember that it was no small sinne in Peter when he pretended that he knew not the man Gregory Nazianzen reports in one of his orations against Iulian that some Christian souldiers being cunningly circumvented by him to idolatrous sacrifices perceiving the errour they all ran backe unto him and threw him his money againe and protested they were Christians and in what they did they were circumvented by him Heb. 10. Heb. 10. 23. 23. let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering the Christian must change neither his Master nor his service nor his livery 4 In our conversation wee must still practise truths and keepe our lives answerable unto them Saint Iohn cals this a walking in the truth then a man walkes in the truth when hee holds on his course of holy obedience unto it against all the encouragements and discouragements of the world as the three children in Daniel c. not with the Galathians beginning in the spirit and ending in the flesh or like those Israelites whose righteousnesse was as the morning dew But we must still runne the race set before us and keep stedfast our feet unto the pathes of righteousnesse and waies of truth Quest Why must divine truths heard and received be held fast Sol. Reasons thereof are many I will briefly point out some of them 1 Divine truth is a most precious and excellent thing therefore in Scripture it is compared to gold which of metals is the most precious nay it is more precious then gold or rubies and all the things which thou canst desire are not to be compared unto it see Pro. 3. 14. 15. Pro. 3. 14. 15. It is more excellent then the excellencies of the creatures not then some of them but then all of them and a man if hee were to imagine any excellency or if the utmost of his desires were enlarged yet could they not finde out and pitch upon such an excellency Therefore saith Saint Iohn to the Church of Philadelphia Revel 3. 11. Hold that Revel 3. 11. fast which thou hast that no man take thy crowne the crowne is the top of royalties such a thing is truth let no man take thy crowne Beloved there are two properties which assure us of the excellency of things 1 The more holy they are the Two things intimate an excellency more excellent they are all corruptions are diminutions of excellency the more mixt a thing is the more it is abased as if gold and tinne be mixed and the more pure it is as meere gold the more glorious it is Now the truths of God are holy not as persons are holy which is with mixture and imperfection but as the light at noone day is pure without darkenesse at all 2 The more that God is in any thing the more excellent it is for so much as we partake of him who is excellency it selfe so much more wee rise in our excellency But the great God is altogether seen in this word of truth there is his wisedome there is his power and greatnesse there is his love and mercifulnesse there is his Christ and faithfulnesse therefore it is most excellent and consequently to be held fast by us 2 Divine truths are as it were made over to us under termes of constancy and perpetuity I finde in Scriptures that they are termed sometimes Our heritage estates which are personall if that bee the phrase for possession may be sold as that which a childe buyes with his owne money but estates which are naturall or hereditary such I meane as come to be ours by descent these ought to be kept for posterity God forbid said Naboth that I should sell the inheritance of my fathers divine truths are an heritage to descend from us to our children and therefore wee are neither to dispossesse our selves of them nor to suffer our selves by any to bee dispossessed of them Psal 119. 111. thy testimonies Psal 119 111. have I taken as an heritage for euer Gods trust something wee commit to God something God commits to us 2 Tim. 1. 12. He is able to keepe that which I haue committed unto him we trust God with our soules and God trusts us with his truths which are therefore called that good thing committed to us for to keep 2 Tim. 1. 14. now in matters of trust wee must be faithfull for we must be responsable for the whole wherewith wee are instructed as the servants in the Gospell who had talents committed to their trust they were called to an account for them so if the Lord trust any man with graces or with his truths the man must carefully keepe and preserve them for the Lord will aske him another day for his trust as Saint Iohn did of the Bishop of Jerusalem for his depositum They observe that a trust must be first redelivered secondly wholly thirdly onely to him who committed it to us for trust 3 Not to hold fast the truths is an exceeding and fearefull injury or wrong it is injurious 1 To God for he is the Lord or God of truth truths are ours for the efficacie of them but onely this for the authority of them Simile Should a private person presume of himselfe to sell the Kings Iewels it might bee as much as his life is worth truths are Gods Iewels hee reveales them he ownes them hee hath sealed them with the bloud of Christ and therefore thou doest presumptuously wrong the Lord to put off the things which belong to him 2 To our