AN ADVICE Against LIBERTINISM Shewing the great Danger thereof and exhorting all to Zeal of the TRUTH Written by Edward Reynell Esq Ye have been called unto Liberty only use not Liberty for an occasion to the flesh Gal. 5.13 LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street over against Saint Dunstons Church 1659. AN ADVICE Against LIBERTINISM IT is not the least of miseries in these erroneous and licentious times to see the thoughts and studies of men taken up for the most part in needless questions tening onely to strife and contention and not to that unum necessarium viz. the knowledge of Christ and the cementing of his seamless coat which was never so much and is still more then other divided through dissenting I might say distracted opinions the most part also bending like reeds with every wind of giddiness and self-interest a Religious stedfastness to sound and fixed principles being rara avis in these times of change and backsliding And with how much tenderness and grief of heart must it needs be resented to see Christ persecuted in the name of Christ his Word Ordinances and Ministers to be so much reviled and wounded in the house of his seeming friends and that our own swords should thus devour our Prophets Jer. 2.30 And truly great reason have all those who have found God under a constant and painful Ministry to be sad thereat seeing they thus prophesie in sack-cloth under a general unflexibleness and the great contempt and scorn of their calling A sad principle is taken up amongst us that we must have liberty of conscience to attend on what Teachers or Ordinance we please under which some take liberty for their lusts to attend on none O how soon having once with Hymeneus and Alexander made shipwrack of faith and the means to attain it shall we make shipwrack of a good conscience with it We need not with that famous Orator Marcus Antonius who to move compassion with the people brought Caesars Robes all bloody amongst them much endeavor to manifest the truth hereof and what further may we expect from such as thus go headlong on with a prejudicate opinion and resolving to admit neither debate nor gain-saying rashly adventure the precipice of their own fancy and endless Chimera's so often as the tide of novelties and giddiness shall ebb and flow in their unsetled thoughts obstinacy also being like dead flesh which soon makes the green wound of an error fester into the sore of an Heresie Never was there such a general defection of Religion as now it seems most pretended and held forth such general vitiousness growth of Schismes falseness in profession yea such indifferency therein without any true warmth or holy fire of zeal and godliness If any new doctrine be but commenced the Author thereof must be thought Religious And so backward are we to follow the Sun of Righteousness as that if in a dark night an Ignis fatuus do but precede us or the mists of error and ignorance come athwart us how do their glaring flames amaze our eyes as if those false lights were design'd on purpose to be our pathes whereas their Rayes lead us onely into into Rivers and precipices And doth not almost every hours experience shew how apt we are to embrace their discourses whose doctrine creeps and corrodes like a Cancer and hath justly driven themselves from the communion of the Church who steal into the affections of the ignorant with small humble and modest beginnings catch with flattery binde gently and at last kill privily their out-side of devotion though oftentimes outshinning a sincere Christian being but an ill bait to entice us into the nets of holiness and good discipline Since the more we appear for God the worse we are if we be not that indeed which we appear to be There is more danger of the Wolfe in the Lambs skin then in his own when once we begin to nauseate at old Truths and like flies about a candle to play about new lights it s a thousand to one but we singe our wings if we burn not our selves Those that observe the story of the Eastern Churches do alledge this as the great provocation of Gods wrath to bring upon them the blasphemous doctrine of Mahomet because they rejected the wholesom Truths of the Gospel But what need we go further to prove the sad experience hereof then Germany and God grant it appear not amongst our selves the same flames of evil Doctrine having unhappily broken out amongst us by those who as if they had been the spaun of those Gnosticks in the Apostles time account no sin of power enough to defile them because they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature spiritual Some there are who leading silly women captive serve their ends upon the impotency of the Sex mixing scandal with their heresie Others there are who having surprised their will and possest their understanding with fair pretences of their false doctrine our nature being too apte to believe what we have a minde to presently conclude it Orthodox because spreading like icterical eyes transmitting the species to the soul with colours of their own making and we find the most pleasing doctrine to be ever the most taking it being the weakness of the Organ which thus makes us blear-eyed and carries us headlong into the Precipice of our corrupt humors wherein every man is so subject to hug his own opinion to hold his hand between the Sun and his face and yet stand staring upon every meteor and inflamed Comet And are there not some who having their zeal kindled at the wrong end and like nothing so well as that which goeth cross to the grain of Authority when they are looked on will seem to act vertue with much pompousness and outward bravery but when the Theatre is empty will put off their upper garment and retire into their primitive vileness Are there not some sad Christians benighted in the dark interest of coveteousness and ambition which too often heighren and serue up an external zeal by the wooden pins of worldly espects and make no more account of Religion then the profit or conveniency it brings with it Thus any thing seems lawful enough to some men that serves the ends of their ambition who yet are scrupulous enough in cases of conscience when nothing of interest doth intervene so sadly do evil men in these dayes make Religion the servant of interest their designs being therefore the fouler by how much the more they need to put on a fair out-side But herein it being bad sinning in a Religious habit we ought not to frame our devotions to their pattern how specious so ever they may seem to be according to the model of their own fancies these being but the colours of Religion with which the world is too often deceived by those who cover their Religion with a remote design least it should appear unhandsome in its own dress Our understandings being
marchings of those Jehu's who at first made way to their ambitious expectations by all designs either violent or fradulent and whose best lustures have since proved but a foil to Religion that piety languisheth Religion fainteth that charity is accounted scandalous and superstitious that blasphemy assumes the uncontroled liberty of venting and that the beauty of Churches is so disgraced and sullied by sacrilegious hands Faelices nimium bona si sua norint How happy had we been had we learn't rather to live than to dispute had the waters of strife and the floods of contention been dried up how soon had that Dove with silver wings appeared amongst us Had that charity which is onely infused into us by the spirit of God but suffocated those super-seminated Tares of contentions how soon would it have cut off the occasions of those inhumane strivings neither would that black spirit of the Abysse have drawn men even from the Altar to run to the sword which they indifferently thrust into the bosom of the nearest Relations after which followed so many cryes and lamentations with such images of death still flying before our eyes as were able to wound the heart with compassion yea to move the most unnatural rage Hence it is that the godly evaporate into sighs and the convulsed world seems to mourn with the sad sence and apprehension of approaching judgement And surely he that now revels it in greatnesse he that sits idle amidst the complaints and mourning of the Church must needs be infuscated with the sooty vapors of an insensible heart Yea hard are those ears which bow not to the sad relation of our long bleeding miseries and hirder those eyes which can behold them without the moist testimonies of sorrow The Land grieveth for many horrid sins and may we not justly feat least Providence so often provoked by our renewed trespasses will cast us out as a prey to our enemies or that the Sun of righteousness may go down in our dayes It were to enter into a vast Labyrinth of discourses and reasons to represent at this time those various blasts of pernicious doctrine exagitated by factious whirlewinds since we may behold on the stage of the Church such a horrible sphere of Monsters and Tempests bloody Cornets and Arms of fire as the mali genii of seducing spirits cherishing so formidable a growth to abate our hopes and undermine our happinesse The highest superspection and vigilancy being therefore now more then ever requisite to preserve that truth which God hath espoused to himself and which we find the devil in all Ages to have raised instruments to disparage discountenance and oppose yea if possbly to over-throw in the rooting out of the Ministry and Professors thereof as being a spiritual Engine to batter down his Kingdom Neither do the present contrivances of those who I fear have long deceived the world with a laborious Hypocrisie since under the veil of Religion are concealed such flagitious and dangerous Tenents seem to happen by humane designment but as Cockatrise eggs long since hatching by that old serpent whose kingdom drawing to an end and having but a short time to reign there 's hopes these spirits and Emissaries who resemble the wooden Dove of Archytas the Philosopher which flew by engines whilst they had their operation and soared in the air but so soon as they ceased it trailed the wing on the earth will not long infest the air with their fulliginous breath And that God who draweth light out of the bosom of darkness and oftentimes suffereth not things violent to be long lastin will after we have profited by the experience of our evils disperse those amazing tumults and prevent the growth of that Atheism which everywhere abounds and threatneth ruine to his wayes as if some hidden poison had envaded the land All humane affairs are then only seated in the best station of felicity when they rejoyce in concord piety and unity of Religion it being an ill kind of solace for one man to compute his happinesse by the encrease of anothers grief And most miserable are they of all men who cannot be happy but by the miseries of another To what purpose is it to hold flowers to the nostrils when the body is parched and wasted with a violent feaver Heat in the opinion of some doth more hurt then the North-wind and stony spirits are not alwayes the most efficacious And who sees not that our Protestant dissentions have ever been the cause of our adversaries rejoycings As the sweetest influences are those which cause the sweetest effects in total nature and not sparkling Flames but invisible heats usually melt hard metal so who seeth not that silence and peace which are the two mansions of a good conscience are of much more worth then all the questions which enkindle divisions the best doctrine being that which best knoweth how to cement up concord But it hath been our unhappinesse of late that in the great vicissitude of things evil minds have too often intervened which vitiated the Councels retarded the endeavors and diverted the intentions of such who had a righter aim towards the advancement of the truth then such as were hurried into arms by a blind violence of spirit not so much for love of justice as greediness of revenge and under the vail of Religion labored to hide flagitious and damnable excessus Caesari in Dialog Caesarius a Geeek Author saith that Mill-stones having no corn to grind strike fire one on another And hath not the want of employment with particular reflections on gain profit and preferment interpos'd dissentions not onely among the neerest friends but often times among the Religious Against the unnaturalness whereof we find an eminent example in the magnanimity of David who could scarce be induced to a just resistance of his son Absolom though forcing his way unto his Fathers Throne through blood and rapine untill Joab had dissipated that languidnesse of his gentle minde And so detestable an undertaking was it held in those who were brethren by the bonds of Nature and Religion to sorfeit all civil respects to the rage of war as that if we take a review of the old Testament we shall find though there were many and bitter discords many tumults many wars yet they were ever against those who had collapsed into foul and apparent idolatry and the worship of the Gentiles Saint Peter 1 Pet. 3.8 in whose heart God had locked up the Maximes of the best Policy in the world invires us to be all of one mind to love as brethren to be pitiful and courteous And we find our Saviour in the Prophet Isaiah Isa 11.1 to be called a Rod and a Branch to correct some and to comfort others but is never termed a sword to kill and destroy Oh that the thoughts hereof would cut off all further occasions of inhumane strivings did our Saviour after he had triumphed over death salute his disciples with the sweet and amiable name
kin under any root or opinion which hath the least shadow of probability such an ignorant zeal being too blind to go right and too active to stand still and like rasae tabulae or unsealed wax ready to take any impression And however some may possibly pretend holiness towards God for the setting up of their Ensings as signs in the midst of Gods Sanctuary and for the breaking down at once the carved work thereof with axes and hammers Psal 74.4 6. and at last root up all that they may take the Houses of God into their own possession and like brutish doegs fall upon Gods Priests that they may have the greatest share in the plundering of their means yet surely this their pretended goodness seems but as the morning cloud and as the early dew will passe a-away Hos 6.4 seeing the staves of Beauty are hereby broken in pieces and the entire bands of Christian Truth Order and Peace quite cut asunder even to the making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience and the extream hazard of our immortal souls O let us not thus be flattered into a security of our excesses since the whole head is sick the whole heart is heavy and nothing is safe nothing is pleasant among such calamities where the worst of evils is the rejoycing and where the eyes of Truth have been of late put out by the dust and rubbish which hath been made through the fall of so great and ancient a Fabrick And who ere they be that strive against the peaceable wishes of the Church by railing at reviling and undermining the pillars thereof by reproaching their persons decrying their office by abating and exclaiming against their maintenance by supporting and countenancing Errors and heresies before their wholesomer Doctrine and whereby to ruin them and their Religion by making a wide gap for blasphemy Atheism and prophaneness let them also take heed least some grievous hand fall upon them from heaven and that meeting with unhappy events in all their undertakings their life becomes not troublesome and their death not doubtful If we consult with history how various are the examples on either hand we shall not onely find a busie Achitophel paid the just wages of his Traiterous Counsels with an infamous halter We shall not onely finde Alexander who thrust his souldiers into Battels beyond the progresse of the Sunne and the limits of the Sea to perish by poison from his own Domesticks neither Hannibal alone who so long weaved the inextricable web of war to shorten the date of his contempts with voluntary poyson but surely all those who thus think to please themselves in an ill-rectified devotion and formal profession will prove no other than barren Trees which make a great noise and never beare Fruit. And how sad will their account be who thus prick their fingers whilest they are gathering of Roses How sad will it be with us when we shall for thus betraying the most holy things curse the womb that bare us and the breasts that gave us suck the Church that Christened us and the Minister that Catechized us and when we shall beshrew the day that ever we heard a good Sermon Alas that our misery should be heightned from our means of being once happy That we should bewail our very knowledge and repent us even of our Grace O how will they then blush when that Jer. 23.24 God who fills heaven and earth shall have a Candle in every mans bosom even their own consciences who strive to make their sins look vertuously by making them well-favoured who embrace schism under the notion of Truth and too often take complexion for Religion will it not be easier for the Gentiles which know not God than such as thus worship him O strange delusion to take the greatest vice for the greatest vertue all the out-side of our godlinesse this way rendring us but the worse before God! Heresie the key of Atheism may for a time indeed make arrows of any wood to hit the marks of their interest and like a fawning servant be ever ready to observe his Masters will in such ill offices wherein his own advantage concurreth Though all at last will be consumed like Abortives in their birth and no otherwise stead them than as Woods and Forests shelter Theeves only to cover their crimes Since he that this way thinks to pacifie Divine Majesty insenseth it He that with Saul offers up the golden mountains of impiety and injustice doth but offer to God the Sacrifices of disobedience which defile rather then adorn the Altats of God seeing they onely garnish the ambition of man But as peaceable dispositions sometimes surfet of rest because the natural inclination to change makes felicity it self to become tedious so troublesome heads alwayes account quietnesse their greatest enemy no way considering that our approach to God ought to be a fixed a purposed and setled Action to which our heart should be ever so solemnly adjoyned neither ought he to be commixed with any of our Actions but with an awfull reverence and attention full of horror and respect And though there are many Endyminions to be found who embrace the Moon whose hearts are ever and anon wheeling about in endlesse Labyrinths surchaged with changeable fancies and whose spirits are perpetually attended with turbulencies and gnawn with the itch of novelty yet let all our ends and endeavors be recollected in God as beams in the Sun It is the nature of Quick-silver to tremble up and down and never leaveth untill it hath found gold wherewith to mingle so the heart of man boundeth and leapeth here and there in all its troubles and disturbances there being nothing but ebbs and floods untill such time as it is united to its Creatour the Temple of all repose And let all such know who seem to catch the world with a hook who rejoyce in their own crime as if it were a vertue and make Sacrifices with the instruments of mischief who judge of happiness by the multitude of Preys and acknowledge no other God but their good fortune that however they think to prosper in their own imaginations and worldly affairs being yet inwardly disunited from the eternal wisdom of God they are no other than Icarusses who seek to counterfeit Birds with waxen wings the least ray proceeding from the throne of heaven being able to burn them and make their heigth serve to no other use than to render their fall the more remarkable or like the golden precipices of Heliogabalus which were not devised but to make his ruine the more memorable It is said the very seathers of the Eagle are so imperious that they will not mix with the Plumage of other Birds without consuming them and shall we think to mingle God who is an incomprehensible wisdom a riches inexhaustible and a purity infinite with our feeble pretension which have frenzy for beginnins misery for inheritance and impurity for ornament If we are not to appropriate to our selves