Calvin Com. in loc Qu. 1. How cometh it to passe that there should be such Doctrines held forth Ans. 1. By Gods providential and effectual Permission Efficax Permissio Melanct. So disposing hereof for divers ends 1. The manifestation of his own power 2. For the honour of Truth 3. For the manifesting of such as are approved Triticum non rapit ventus nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subvertit Inanes paleae tempestate jactantur invalidae arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur Cyprian do Unitate Ecclesiae Sic probantur fideles sic perfidi deteguntur sic et ante judicii diem hîc quoque jam justorum et injustorum animae dividuntur et à frumento paleae separantur Cyprian ibid. 4. The Just Condemnation of others Of false Teachers themselves Of those that hearken to them A. 2. This is Satans doing A. 3. This is mans own work Natural Corruption the Mother of false doctrines conceiving and breeding them False doctrines brought forth by 1. Hypocrisie 2. Ambition Vide Grotium Bezam ad loc 3. Covetousnesse False doctrines propagated and multiplyed through the negligence of Ministers and Magistrates Qu. 2. How Christians come to be carried about with false doctrines A. The general Resolution 1. Through Gods righteous Judgment 2. Satans subtlety 3. Mens own Corruption A more particular Resolution fetched from 3. Heads 1. From the Teachers of these doctrines In whom consider 1. Their Activity 2. Their Subtlety Whereby they deceive those that hearken to them Which they do divers wayes 1. By Fallacious Arguments taken from 1. Scripture 2. Reason 3. Custome Bishop Iewel 's Apolog. Pretended Custome a taking Argument with many 2. Pretended Revelations 3. Feigned Miracles Simon Magus deceiving the people thereby till he was arrested by Divine vengeance Antichristian Lying Wonders Other Artifices made use of by false Teachers A Glosse set upon their Doctrines 2. A Vizour put upon their own faces Scribes and Pharisees pretenders to special Sanctity Therein imitated by many false Tea chers As in the Church of Rome So among our selves Two other Qualifications promoting this Seduction 1. Learning 2. Piety From the Hearers and Receivers of these Doctrines who 1. It may be are Chaffe 1. In regard of their natural Levity 2. Or spiritual Vanity 2. They may be Children The case of many in the present Times 3. They may be Blinded 1. Through Blind Zeal 2. Fear 3. Covetousnesse By-respects promoting the embracing of Errours 3. The third Head Taken from the Doctrines themselves 1. It may be they are New and strange Novelty and strangenesse taking Arguments 2. It may be they gratifie the flesh 3. It may be they are consonant to Reason 4. It may be they have a shew of Piety Applic. A just Lamentation over the present state of the Church in this Nation Use 2. A double Caveat to Christians Caveat 1. Be not offended No Reason why Christians should be offended at this 1. This is no other then what hath been 2. No other then what is foretold shall and must be Caveat 2. Take heed of being seduced Arg. 1. For your Ministers sakes Peoples Apostasie the Ministers losse Their Grief Ministers spiritual Parents The Ministers Losse and grief reflecting upon the People Arg. 2. Christians to beware of this for their own sakes Beza Gr. Annot. Errours not all alike dangerous in themselves Yet all dangerous in the Consequence Soul-unsettlednesse in Religion an undoing thing Beza Gr. Annot Arg. 3. For the Churches sake 1. Not despising it Chrysostome Augustine Grotius ad loc Fuller in miscellan Calvin ad loc Beza Gr. Annot in 1 Cor. 11. 18. Pareus ibid. in vers 22. Camero in Praelect de Ecclesiam adversus Bellaminum et Fulleâ—â—â— fusè To despise the Church no small contempt 2. Not shaming it Divers and strange Doctrines tolerated a shame to the Church Arg. 4. For Religions sake Arg. 5. For Christ his sake Q. 1. Preservatives against this spiritual Vertigo A. Direct 1. Christians not to be Over-confident of themselves 1. Not of their own strength Christians alwayes to fear themselves Committing their soules to a Divine Custody Taking hold of their Fathers hand 2. Nor of their own Judgment Particularly in expounding of Scriptures Specially being ignorant unlearned who are apt to pervert it Strange perverting of Scripture in the present Times A Taste of it in the Sect of Quakers Gipsies in Religion See the perfect Pharisee set forth by the Ministers of New-Castle Texts perverted against Ministers Texts perverted against Magistrates Direct 2. Christians not to be over-Credulous so as to take Doctrines upon Trust. 1. Not from any one singular person Pretended infallibility not to be regarded Nor yet pretended Credentials Spirit Word or Letter Spirits to be tryed Merchandizing Spirits 2. Not from any Community or Society of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. Histor. Eccl. lib. 5. cap. 13. Direct 3. Take heed of coming in the winds way Caveat 1. Take heed of High things 1. High thoughts 2. High Speculations Cavat 2. Take heed of Eddie winds Conventicles truly so called Q. May we not try all things A. The Apostles sense expounded The itching ear a dangerous disease Specially in those that are unlearned and unstable Direct 4. Take heed of beginning to turn Object We are going up the Hill Answ. The common Plea of all Sects and Secturies 4. Particular Caveats under this generall direction Caveat 1. Take heed of turning from Jesus Christ to any thing else From Christ to Moses An unsound and dangerous Maxime To fall from Christ a desperate declension A needful Caveat in regard of the present Times See the perfect Pharisee Pos. 7 8 9 10. Caveat 2. Take heed of turning from the Church The Church a Mountain Paramount An unwarrantable and dangerous Separation Donatists and Anabaptists parallelled Maximè quod à Traditoribus Divinarum Scripturarum fuerit Ordinatus August de Haeresibus Tanquam Ecclesia Christi de toto orbe perierit ubi futura promissa est atque in Africâ et Donati parte remanserit in aliis terrarum partibus quasi contagione communionis extincta August ibid. Diu perstitit haec Haeresis etc. Posteà tamen jugulata est atque acquieverat nisi miseri et insani Anabaptistae eam ab inferis hoc nostro seculo revocâsâ—ent Danaeus in Augustin de Haeresib Cap. 69. Audent rebaptizare Cathol cos August de Haeresib Separation a Mother-Error Vide Augustin de Haeresib Danaeum cap. 69. A practice observable in the Donatists Haereticos negant ullo modo Magistratûs quanquam pii et fidelis autoritate coercendos castigandos vel comprimendos ne eorum Venenum latiùs setpat vel ut ipsi Haeretici resipiscant Error 3. Danaeus ubi suprà Obvios sibi quosque in plateis et agris homines a suis erroribus alienâ—s caedunt et jugulant furiose Danaeus ibid. Error 7. The Church the Pillar and ground of truth how The Church Gods Park
he was a man as Paul there setteth him forth full of subtilty and mischief And such in their measure ordinarily are seducers false teachers They are as Solomon describeth the Harlot Prov. 7. 10. Subtile of heart Cunning and crafty and wily And by this means they come to seduce and deceive those that will hearken to them viz. by their Subtilty This is that which the Apostle taketh notice of as a principal Engine whereby these wheeles come to be turned about as we may collect from that intimation of his to his Ephesians in that Text to which I have had so frequent recourse Eph. 4. 14. where he giveth them this Caveat that they should not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive Two words expressing for substance one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former of which is a Metaphor taken from Cheaters who by Cogging of dice and by sleight of hand cheat and cousin those whom they play with Even so do false Teachers by their sleight and cunning craftinesse deceive those which have to deal with them Which they do divers wayes Instance in some few of them First By their Sophismes fallacious Arguments These are the false Dice which these Cheaters play with Subtile and intrapping Arguments which they take out of divers boxes fetch from several Heads As 1. From Scripture which they make use of this way by wresting it Even as Davids Enemies made use of his words as he complaines Psal. 56. 5. Every day saith he they wrest my words perverting them and turning them to another sense then ever he meant when he uttered them so do false teachers being Gods Enemies make use of his Word This is that which St. Peter saith of some unlearned and unstable soules in his time they wrested some things in Paul's Epistles as they did also divers other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. This did they by mis-interpreting of them and drawing them violently from their true and genuine sense to a false one which they did to that end that they might thereby uphold their errours And truly such is the ordinary practice of Hereticks and false teachers they wrest the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detorquent depravant writhe and wring them about turning them this way or that way as may best serve for their purpose Dealing by them as Chimists sometimes do with natural bodies which they as it were torture to extract that out of them which God and nature never put into them Or as cruel Tyrants sometimes deal by innocent persons whom they set and stretch upon the Rack and so make them speak that which they never thought After the like manner do false teachers use to deal by the Scriptures wresting them to draw a sense out of them which the Spirit of God never intended A practice common to all Hereticks save onely those Antiscripturians who will not acknowledge the Divine Authority of Sacred Writ 2. And as herein they make use of Scripture so also of Reason which it may be sometimes they oppose against Scripture or else make use of to vouch that sense which they put upon it So dealt those false teachers in the Primitive times Such use they made of their Philosophy Thereupon it was that Paul gave that Caveat to his Colossians Chap. 2. v. 8. Beware faith he lest any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceit that is by such subtile and plausible Arguments as are drawn from the principles of Naturall Reason which however in it self it is useful yet when it is made the measure of spiritual mysteries this is a dangerous abuse of it Now it cometh to be no other but as he there calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vain deceit And this deceit did those false teachers in those first times make great use of by such Arguments both opposing the doctrine of the Gospel and supporting their own errours And the like use do not a few make of it at this day In speciall the Socinians who make this the measure of their faith and the Touchstone to try all Evangelical truths by viz. humane Reason not allowing any thing to be believed how clearly soever in Scripture held forth but what that may apprehend and comprehend Upon which account it is that they desperately disclaim divers Articles of the Christian faith for which Scripture is expresse and which the Church of God in all ages of it hath looked upon as truths the belief whereof was necessary to salvation And by this means it is that they pervert the faith of some who have not learned to submit their carnal Reason to divine Revelation And in the third place sometimes they plead Custome Tradition So did the Scribes and Pharisees in maintenance of their superstitions That is the Argument which they use to our Saviour blaming his Disciples and him in them for not complying with them in some of their Ceremonial observances Mat. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgresse the traditions of the Elders Not observing such Customes and usages as they had received from their Ancestors and so had been of long continuance And this Argument the false Apostles in Paul's time made great use of Thereupon it is that he giveth the like Caveat to his Colossians concerning that as he doth concerning Philosophy putting them together in that forecited Caveat Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Traditions of men This was one thing which they pleaded for their doctrines against the doctrine of the Apostles Tradition Custome Wherein they are followed by the Doctors of the Church of Rome who take up the like plea for many of their Errours pretending though most falsly as it hath been made out by divers Champions of the truth who have undertaken that cause against them Antiquity for them casting the odious imputation of Novelty upon all contrary Opinions and Practices Which is a taking Argument with many So was it with the Iewes who brought it in as an Article against Stephen that he should say that Iesus should change the Customes which Moses had delivered them Act. 6. 14. And the Disciples when Paul came to Ierusalem give him to take notice what a stumbling-blockit was in the way of the believing Jewes that he should teach those of that Nation to forsake Moses saying that they ought not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the Customes Act. 21. 21. So tenacious are many at this day of some Customes that they will prefer them even before either Scripture or Reason And these are some of those Arrowes wherewith false Teachers do oft-times pierce the hearts of men Sophistical Arguments fetched from Scripture Reason Custome To which for the further Confirmation of their Doctrines and gaining belief from the credulous multitude they sometimes adde
into others to make proselytes they thereby made them twofold more the children of Hell then themselves Matth. 23. 15. Thus do false and Heretical Teachers by their false and damnable doctrines they beget Children of Hell bringing men under the power of Satan to be taken and led Captive by him As therefore you love your selves beware of such seducers such seductions that you be not thus carried about with such divers and strange doctrines And in the third place whilest herein you have respect to your Ministers and your selves have the like also to the Church of God This is a thing which all Christians who professe themselves members of that mysticall Bodie ought to have a special regard unto so as not to despise it nor yet to shame it 1. Not to despise it This is one thing which Paul chargeth upon some of his Corinthians that by their disorderly manner of administring and receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and Celebrating their Love-feasts before or after it uncertain whether they in so doing despised the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. 22. Or despise you the Church of God Which though some and not a few learned Expositors and that not without some good shew of Reason for it interpret of the place of the Churches meeting which by a usual Metonymie vulgarly is and inoffensively may be so called Ecclesia The Church which place they might be said to have despised in that they put no difference betwixt their own private houses and that which supposing it to be set apart for Religious services ought not without necessary cause to have been imployed to other Civill much lesse Uncivil uses as it seemeth their meetings were Yet others not inferiour to them to whom I professe my self rather to subscribe understand it rather of the Mystical Church the coetus fidelium the Company of believers either in that particular Congregation or elsewhere This Church they by this disorderly carriage of theirs seemed to sleight not regarding the Custome of other Churches nor yet hearkening to the Admonition of their own possibly seconded by some others as Pareus conceiveth of it And this the Apostle there calleth a despising of the Church of God Which he chargeth upon them as a thing most blame-worthy in them Shall I praise you for this I praise you not And so is it in whomsoever shall do the like in any kind Despise the Church of God! that Church whereof they are members and others of the true Churches of Christ. Which they do without regarding the lawful and laudable usages and Customes of those Churches do without any just ground and reason differ from them in matters of concernment Paul in the Chapter last named taxing another undecency in that Church of Corinth viz. their women some of them having their heads and faces unveiled uncovered in the publick Assemblies he presumes this to be Argument sufficient to silence those who ever they were that should appear whether in defence of it or contest about it If any man list to be contentious saith he we have no such Custome nor the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11. 16. And if this be an interpretative despising of the Church not to regard the Customes thereof much more may it be so construed to recede from the doctrine thereof and to run after divers and strange doctrines such as the true Church of God hath not owned but renounceth and disclaimeth Surely this is no other but a despising of the Church of God which who so standeth guilty of let him not look for praise from God or thanks from men 2. Not to shame it This do they who professing themselves to be children of this mother yet desert her doctrine suffering themselves to be thus carried about with such divers and strange doctrines This is no small blemish in the Churches face Even as it is in a field of Corn to see such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a medly in it as sometimes we do in barren soiles such an intermixture of divers and strange weeds and flowers as Cockle and Darnel Poppies and Mayeweed c. all growing among the Wheat this variety of heterogeneous plants what ever their colour be and how pleasing soever they may be in the eyes of Children yet it is no small eye-sore to the husbandman or blemish to the field it self whose best beauty is to be all of one colour And truly so is it in the Church of God where there ought to be but one Faith as the Apostle speaketh Eph. 4. 5. to have divers and strange doctrines put up and take rooting there much more if they come to flourish and spread this is no small eye-sore unto God nor blemish to it Which have you a regard unto that you may not in this way either despise or shame the Church of God In the fourth place having an eye to the Church of God have a regard also to the Religion of God therein professed To the Truth of God which is but one Veritas unica error multiplex Errour is various and may be infinite Truth is but one and that semper eadem ever the same being constant and immutable like unto him who is the Authour of it the God of truth who saith of himself I am the Lord I change not Mat. 3. 6. Now what a dishonour then is this to have the Professours of it so unlike unto it self the children so unlike the mother such Changelings so mutable so changeable As if they were of Pilates race who when Christ spake to him concerning the Truth he replyeth not without some Passion And what is Truth Joh. 13. 38. Truly such Scepticks in Religion are some and many at this day as if they were as some call themselves Seekers not knowing what Truth no not Gospel-truth is which if they did surely they would be more constant in adhering to it and owning of it Fifthly and lastly let me beg this for the sake of your Lord and ours even for Christ his sake His Disciples and followers you professe your selves to be And are you so then hear his voice and no others This will his sheep do My sheep hear my voice Joh. 10. 27. Those that are truly given unto Christ by the Election of God the Father to be made partakers of the merit and benefit of his Redemption to be justified and saved by and through him they will hearken unto him speaking in the Gospel And thus hearing him they will follow him and onely him not so any other A stranger will they not follow saith the fifth verse of that Chapter speaking of the same sheep of Christ but will flee from him For they know not the voice of strangers False Teachers such as teach divers and strange doctrines and in that respect fitly called strangers Christs sheep know not their voyce viz. with a knowledge of Approbation so as to hearken to them to follow them And O
Thessalonians to be by those false Apostles who to insinuate into them and to gain credit and credence unto their doctrines made use of that threefold Artifice viz. Spirit Word and Letter Spirit pretending Prophetical Revelations Word Reports concerning the Apostle as if he had changed his mind recanting what before he had preached and so were of the same mind with them as Grotius I think sitly expounds the word there Letter any counterfeit writing going under the Apostles name And the very like Artifices do false Teachers frequently make use of Pretending sometimes to Spirit Revelations Inspirations Sometimes to Word Reports Traditions Sometimes to Letter forged Records All frequently made use of in the Church of Rome And some of them made use of by some false Teachers among our selves at this day Now let not Christians be shaken in mind or troubled by any of these No not by that which biddeth most for belief in this kind Spirit Pretended Revelation This was the great Argument which the false Prophets under the Old Testament made use of to gain credit to their doctrines by And the like have false Teachers done in the New As in the Primitive times so in most ages since being therein imitated by some in this Nation at this day But let not this pretence gain any Credence from us That is St. Iohn's advice 1 Ioh. 4. 1. Beloved saith he Believe not every spirit But try the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world So it was in his time there were many false Teachers who boasted of the Spirit pretended Revelation and Inspiration by which means their doctrines gained belief with over-credulous soules But St. Iohn forbids to believe them ever the more for that but to Try them So did the Church of Ephesus for which she is commended Rev. 2. 2. Thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles but are not and hast found them lyars And the like it standeth all Christians in hand to do Not lightly to believe every spirit By this means if reports be true many children have been stollen and carried away by those whom the vulgar call by the name of spirits Being over-credulous and committing themselves to them they have made Merchandize of them Take you heed of doing the like by your soules of committing them to every one that pretend to the Spirit lest they also do the like by you make merchandize of you as St. Peter foretelleth false Teachers would do 2 Pet. 2. 3. But try such spirits whether they be of God Bringing their Doctrines to the Touchstone of the Word That was the Touchstone to which God requireth his people to bring the Prophets under the Old Testament Isai. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony to the Word to the Scriptures If they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them No Morning saith the Original The daystar hath not appeared unto them the Sun is not risen upon them as they pretend they have no light of divine illumination or yet can afford any light of true Consolation And in like manner by the same means try we the like Pretenders under the New Testament Not taking doctrines in matters of faith upon trust from any Not from any one singular person 2. No nor yet in the second place from any Community any Society of men Be it a Church or be it a Synod a Councel Provinciall or National yea suppose Oecumenical General Universal True it is great respect both may and ought to be given to these specially to the last But yet none of them having a promise of infallibility it is too great an honour to yield an absolute credence unto them so as to receive their determinations for Articles of faith without any further discussion Such an implicit faith did that ancient Heretick Apelles plead for Being as Eusebius reports it of him taken in some errors and dealt with for his Conviction he alledged that it was not for him or any other to enquire into the truth of Doctrines professed but every one to abide in that faith which he had received And the very like do they of the Church of Rome Fearing the truth of their doctrines they forbid the people to try them specially if once they have the Churches stamp upon them now it is piacular so much as to question them No wonder that poor souls being over-credulous are in this way carried about whither it pleaseth their blind guides to lead them Would not you miscarry in the like way make use of this second Advice Be not over-credulous in receiving of Doctrines upon trust from others I passe to a third Would you not be thus carried about Take heed how you come in the winds way how you expose your selves to Temptations in this way Under which Head let me give you a twofold Caveat 1. Take heed of high things That is the Apostles Caveat to his Romans Rom. 12. 16. Mind not high things And let it be mine to you If you would not be thus carried about take heed of high things You may remember what I told you of Chaffe upon the Mountains Being there it is presently whirled about with every gust of wind whereas had it been in the valley or upon the floor possibly it might have lyen still and quiet Would not you in like manner be carried about with this wind of strange doctrines keep off from the top of the Mountain take heed of high things In particular of high thoughts and high speculations I shall instance onely in these two 1. Of high thoughts concerning your selves of your own wit your own wisdome your own Judgment as if you were more perspicacious more quicksighted then others This Caveat the Apostle subjoynes to the former Rom. 12. 16. Be not wise in your own conceits Such for the most part Hereticks are they have high thoughts of themselves as if they could seek further then others And with this leaven for the most part their Disciples likewise are sowred And thence is it that having once given entertainment to an opinion they are so hardly induced to part with it again Seeth thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of such a one Prov. 26. 12. would not you fall into the like condition Be not in this sense High-minded Have not over weening thoughts of your selves And secondly whilest you take heed of high thoughts take heed also of high Speculations Whilest you take heed of setting the one into your soules take heed how you let out your soules after the other that they do not reach at things above their reach So our former Translation not unfitly renders that of the Apostle Rom. 12. 8. That no man prefume to understand above that which is meet to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either above that which is meet for any man to
were in Saint Iude's time These are they that separate themselves Jude v. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word properly signifieth Separatists such as separated themselves and others from the true Church of God renouncing Communion with it so making of Sects Such were the Donatists some ages after against whom Augustine so strenuously and earnestly contended The founder of which Sect Donatus a Bishop taking an unjust and groundlesse distaste at Cecilianus Bishop of Carthage not unlike that which some among our selves at this day have taken up against the Ministers of the Church of England as also of other Churches being in this respect in the same Predicament with them viz. because he had received his Ordination from the hands of some of the Traditores or Proditores such persons as had in time of Persecution delivered the Book of holy Scriptures to be burnt even as our Ministers are said to have received theirs by or through the hands of Antichristian Romish Bishops thereupon he fell off from the unity of the Church separating himself with his party from all others as if the Catholick Church had been no where else to be found but onely in that Corner of Africk where himself dwelt and that among his Society himself and his followers Thus did that Sect then And the very like have the Anabaptists of the last age done who are not unjustly looked upon by some as revivers of the Sect of the Donatists being therein followed by their Successours among our selves in this Nation at this day who by that one Act of Rebaptization which also they learned from those Donatists of whom Augustine tells us that they did the very like Rebaptize those that were baptized before do at once unchurch all the Churches in the world in as much as they do thereby make a nullity of that Sacrament which the members of those Churches have received in their Infancy which being the Initial Seal of the Covenant and the distinguishing mark betwixt Christians and Heathens none can be looked upon as visible members of the Church without it An Errour which be you ware of It being a Mother-Errour and that a teeming a fruitful one in whose womb ordinarily many erroneous Opinions are conceived So it was to those Donatists the first founders of it who being fallen off from the Church stayed not there but were then carried about with divers and strange doctrines ran into many pestilent Opinions as inveterate Schisme for the most part turns to Heresie besides some desperate practices One of which amongst the rest is very observable viz. that whilest they at the first plead for Liberty of Conscience and an Universal Toleration that no man should be compelled to any Religion nor yet hindred from holding forth any opinion denying the Civill Magistrate though Christian as Constantine the Emperour then was under whom this Schisme had its beginning any power for the punishing or repressing of any Hereticks or Heresies or to take any Course whereby either the broachers or maintainers of them might be brought to Repentance or else the poysonous breath of their Opinions might be stopped from infecting of others which is and not without cause reckoned up as none of the least Errours they were guilty of yet in processe of time they came to that height of rage that if they met any in the field or streets who were not of their judgment they made nothing furiously to fall upon them to assassinate to murder them The like spirit whereunto modern Histories tell us was to be found among their successours in Germany in the last age And God grant England may never have experience of the one Well to draw to a conclusion of this Head take you heed of this so dangerous a defection of this turning from the Church Which being the Pillar and Ground or the Stay of Truth as the Apostle calleth it 1 Tim. 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Columna et Firmamentum or Stabilimentum as Beza hath it holding forth and in some sense bearing up the truth of God even as Pillars and Posts are wont to do the Proclamations and Orders of Magistrates which are affixed to them that so all may take notice of them No wonder that they who recede from it turning their backs upon it recede also from the truth and so become subject to this Peripherie to be thus carried about with divers and strange doctrines Even as it is with Deer I do not know a fitter comparison when once they have left the Herd and got out of the Park then though they get into Pikles yet there they are restlesse driven to and fro by every Passenger so as then they leap hedge and ditch Even such is the condition of those who have once given a farewell to the Church which is as Gods Park in the world being once got out of the Pale of it now though they fall into Pikles and severals several Companies yet it cannot be expected that they should rest there but that they will be subject to be driven to and fro by Errour after Errour till at the length they come to leap hedge and ditch to make Shipwrack of faith and a good Conscience as the Apostle saith that brace of Hereticks Hymeneus and Alexander with some others in his time had done 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. But I passe to a third Whilest you thus hold fast the Head and the Body Christ and his Church take heed of turning from the Scriptures The Scriptures they are a Christians light whereby he is to walk in this world Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path saith David Psal. 119. 105. And St. Peter speaking of Scripture-Prophecie 2 Pet. 1. 19. calleth it a more sure Word that is most sure the Comparative put for the Superlative as sometimes in Scripture it is whereunto saith he ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place c. Such is the Understanding the mind of man in regard of spiritual and heavenly mysteries it is like a dungeon a dark place untill it be enlightned by that light which the Lanthorn of the Scripture holdeth forth Which therefore all Christians are to attend unto Object True say some they are so to do but how long untill the day dawn and the day-star arise in their hearts as it there followeth that is untill their hearts be fully enlightened by the Spirit of Christ who is as the morning-star so called Rev. 2. 28. and the Sun of righteousnesse Mal. 4. 2. But when the Sun is up what need of Canales when Christ is once come into the heart of a Christian dwelling there by his Spirit what need then any more of this Candle-light of the Scriptures This is but to burn day-light A. To this it is answered that true it is the Saints upon earth are thus enlightened They who
of like nature Divers and strange Doctrines Such were those which Saint Iude speaketh of verse 4. of his Epistle Iude 4. There are certain men saith he speaking of false Teachers crept in unawares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subrepserunt subintroierunt they came in closely and covertly coming under-ground as Pioners do who sometimes enter a City by a Mine while the guard is standing upon the Walls So did they insinuate themselves into the Church coming both unlooked for and unsent Not expected or suspected by the Church nor yet sent by God but taking the Ministery upon them of their own heads as our New Annotation paraphraseth upon that word And so entring what did they why among other things they turned the grace of God into Lasciviousnesse and denyed the only Lord God and Saviour Iesus Christ. Both these they did and that as by their practice so by their Preaching Under a pretence of crying up Gospel-liberty and advancing the free grace of God in the pardoning of sin and justifying of sinners they set open a wide door to all kind of sensuality So turning Evangelical Liberty into Carnal Licentiousnesse And they denyed the onely Lord God and their Saviour Iesus Christ Such St. Peter had foretold of 2 Pet. 2. 1. But there were false Prophets among the people saith he meaning the people of Israel under the Old Testament even as there shall be false Teachers among you you Christians under the New who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them And what he foretelleth St. Iude having an eye to that Prophecy as he hath almost throughout his whole Epistle unto that second Epistle of St. Peter the one being looked upon but as a kind of abstract and summary of the other shewes how even in his time it was come to passe Such false and Heretical Teachers then there were who denyed the Lord that bought them denyed the onely Lord God and their Saviour Iesus Christ denyed Christ to be God who having paid a price in it self sufficient for them and being their Master and Saviour by an outward profession they ought to have owned him But they denyed him And that as by their deeds so by their doctrines This among others did thnt Simon of whom we read Act. 8. who was in his time and still is famous or rather Infamous for three things his Sorcery his Simonie his Heresie His Sorcery for which he was admired by the people who cryed him up for little lesse then a God This man say they is the great power of God vers 10. and was afterwards called for distinctions sake by the name of Simon Magus Simon the Magician His Simonie in offering money to purchase the Holy Ghost the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of it from the Apostles vers 18. from whence it is that that Sin for such a sin still there is what ever the present Times think of it beareth his name being called Simonie And lastly his Heresie for which he is no lesse famous in Ecclesiastical then for those two other in Sacred story He being the Father of Hereticks as he is called the first Apostate under the Gospel who broached and maintained divers Blasphemies and damnable Opinions Among other denying the Trinity and denying any other Christ but himself affirming himself to be the true God as afterwards he was accounted at Rome where through the just Judgment of God giving them up to that strong delusion that they should believe a lye they who who in the dayes of Tiberius would not acknowledge the Divinity of Christ yet soon after in the dayes of Claudius erected a Statue to this Impostor with this blasphemous Inscription Simoni Deo Sancto To Simon the Holy God Thus did he bewitch the people as by his Sorcery so by his Heresie Wherein he being the Ring-leader wanted no followers Divers there were who within a few years after when he was gone off from the Stage stept up in his room owning most of his opinions and adding to them many other no lesse monstrous and absurd Such was Menander and Ebion and Cerinthus The last of which was that Heretick with whom St. Iohn is said to have refused to enter into the same Bath and who is the reputed Father the first Authour of the Millenary opinion concerning the temporal Kingdome of Christ upon earth after the Resurrection wherein his Subjects should live in the full enjoyment of all kind of carnal and sensual pleasures and contentments These and some other Hereticks and Heresies did the first age bring forth Among whom St. Paul taketh notice of two Hymeneus and Philetus by name who among other Errours as Errour seldome goeth alone denyed the Resurrection of the Body as Simon Magus is said to have done before them saying That the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. 2. 17. acknowledging as is probable no other Resurrection but that of the Soul or of the Church in the Renovation the new state of it under the Gospel Besides these St. Iohn maketh mention of another Sect notorious in his time the Sect of the Nicolaitans so called from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons mentioned Act. 7. the reputed Father of them whether justly or no is a question This he doth once and again in that one Chapter Revel 2. First telling the Church of Ephesus to her deserved commendation that she hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans ver 6. then charging it upon the Church of Pergamus as no small blemish to her that she had them some of her Members which held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans ver 15 what that doctrine was Scripture is silent but Ecclesiastical Histories with one consent tell us it was the renouncing of a Conjugall propriety betwixt man and wife and so allowing a promiscuous community at which door brake in many other horrid enormities not fit to be named amongst Christians To them soon after succeeded that impure and infamous brood of the Gnosticks who were indeed the same Sect under a divers name calling themselves by that name Gnosticks from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth knowledge which they of that Sect pretended to above all others who had either gone before them or were contemporaries with them Such high thoughts had they of themselves as for the most part Hereticks are not wanting in that way and thereupon gave themselves that proud title Whereas in truth those other stiles were far more proper which as Augustine tells us were given them by others who called them Borboritae or Coenosi Men given over to wallow in the mire and filth of all kind of abominable uncleannesse Such was their practice and such was their Doctrine I might here yet go on and following the track of Ecclesiastical History shew you what a flood of like monstrous errours after these broke in upon the Church The Golden Age of the Apostles and Evangelists being spent then how did false Teachers croud in
amain infesting the Church and assailing the truth almost in every part of it broaching and venting divers and strange doctrines some and many of which were so strange as it cannot but amaze and astonish any Christian head or heart to hear of them A Catalogue whereof is left to posterity by Epiphanius and Augustine and some other of the Ancients But I shall not trouble you with any more of them This being enough as to our present purpose that such doctrines were then abroad some of them come upon the stage already and others pressing after them Which latter also our Apostle Saint Paul if so be that he were the Penman of this Epistle which for the present I shall yield took notice of So much he telleth the Ephesian Elders at Miletum Acts 20. 29. I know saith he that after my departure from you shall grievous Wolves enter in among you What Wolves were these Why two sorts of them First bloody Persecutors whom he calls Wolves and grievous Wolves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being like those Lupi vespertini the evening Wolves which the Prophet Ieremy speaketh of Ier. 5. 6. which should not spare the flock but make a prey of the poor Lambs of Christ sucking their blood Such Wolves there were many after Paul's departure his dissolution in that Neronian persecution and others following it But besides these there was another kind of Wolves whom Paul looked upon as no lesse dangerous if not more And those were white Wolves Wolves in sheeps cloathing So our Saviour describeth false Prophets Matth. 7. 15. Men who had fair and promising outsides specious apparances of a harmlesse innocency yea and pretenders it may be to a more then ordinary piety but inwardly saith he they are ravening wolves such whose design is to make a prey of the soules of men to destroy them by their false doctrines Now such also the Apostle took notice of that they should come after his departure So he tells them there more plainly in the verse following vers 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preaching false and heretical doctrines crosse to the truth and wrested contrary to the mind of God in the Scriptures that they may draw disciples after them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw and pluck them as members from the mystical Body so making a separation therein that they may gain a party to themselves and so be reputed singular and popular Such Paul foresaw would arise to the great indangering of the Church which as Grotius and others look upon it was made good in the forenamed Nicolaitans and Gnosticks Thus then in those first times there were such doctrines as the Apostle here speaketh of in the Text Divers and strange doctrines And in the second place these doctrines were then taking with some with divers So it seemeth was that doctrine of the false Apostles concerning the observation of the Ceremoniall Law with the Hebrews the Iewes who had been educated and brought up in it having sucked it in as it were with their mothers milk it was taking with them insomuch that they were already some of them carried away with it and others in danger of being so as the Caveat in the Text is conceived to import And not onely they but others also This was that which Paul took notice of in his Galatians charging it upon them not without a wonderment to himself Gal. 1. 6. I marvell saith he that ye are so soon removed from him that hath called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel So it was By the means of the false Apostles they were either already turned or turning Both which are looked upon as implyed in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being of the Passive voice layeth the fault primarily upon those false teachers by whose means they were perverted Ye are turned And being of the present tense it imports what was in fieri doing if not done They were turning well nigh turned And from what and to what were they thus turned Why from him who hath called you into the grace of Iesus Christ from Paul and his Doctrine who by the preaching of the Gospel to them had called them to seek for Justification and salvation onely by faith in Christ. From this doctrine they were turned to another Gospel taught and brought to seek Iustification in another way at least in part by the observation of Mosaicall rites and Ceremonies Which Paul there calleth another Gospel Not that it was so in truth Well did he know that there was no other Gospel but one No other Name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved as Peter elsewhere tells the Iews Act. 4. 12. no way or means of salvation appointed by God for lost mankind save onely through the merit and mediation of Iesus Christ. But in as much as it was a doctrine diverse from and a depravation of the true Gospel therefore he so calleth it as he explaineth himself in the verse following Which is not another Gospel but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ v. 7. Thus were they carried about And what he saw in them as done or doing he feared the like in his Corinthians So much he tells them 2 Cor. 11. 3. I fear sairh he lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. This he also speaketh in reference to the doctrines of the false Apostles who made a medly of the Gospel mixing their own Philosophical speculations or Jewish Traditions or Ceremonial observances with it By which meanes they corrupted and adulterated that pure doctrine even as pure and precious liquors are imbased and corrupted by other mixtures And concerning this Corruption Paul's jealousie was that they were ready to swallow it down and so to be carried about with those divers and strange doctrines A thing that was no newes in those first and purest times This was that which our Saviour himself foretold a little before his death Matth. 24. 24. Where shewing what should come to passe before the destruction of Ierusalem among other things he saith There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets c. Insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Intimating that many should be seduced and deceived by them And the like Prophecy we meet withall in that forecited place of St. Peter 2 Pet. 2. where having in the first verse as you have heard foretold of false Teachers that should come in the next verse he sheweth what successe they should have And many shall follow their pernicious wayes ver 2. And what he there forerelleth St. Iude sheweth us how in his time it came to passe Having in the fourth verse of his Epistle in like manner described the false Teachers of his time in the sequel of the Epistle he sets
forth their followers whom he calleth Clouds without water carried about of winds ver 11. and in the next verse Waves of the Sea and wandring stars thereby denoting Christians who were inconstant in their profession not like fixed stars which are regular in their Motion but like Planets or Comets wandring from one opinion or way to another being constant onely in inconstancy Thus were there some and not a few in those times those proto-primitive times who were thus carried about with divers and strange doctrines This is that which our Apostle saith of Hymeneus and Philetus in the place forecited 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that by their pestilent doctrine in denying of the Resurrection they overthrew the faith of some So as there was then a just cause why he should here give out such an Admonition as this Be not carried about c. A useful and a needful Caveat then And no lesse in all the ages of the Church since In every of which still there have been some such doctrines held forth So it hath been so it is at this day that I shall not need to tell you and so it will be This Calvin looketh upon as a truth not obscurely hinted by the Apostle here in the Text that The Church in all ages must account to conflict and combate with divers and strange doctrines And if there be teachers of them it is not to be imagined but that there will be some Disciples some followers Q. But how cometh it so to be How cometh this to passe first that there should be such doctrines held forth and then that so many should be carried about with them To these two queries I shall return Answer severally A. 1. For the former Know we in the first place that this cometh to passe not without a providence and a special providence Herein as in all other things God hath a hand concurring therewith not barely by his Permission but as Melancton calleth it by his Effectual Permission most justly decreeing that they should be whence it is that the Apostle saith There must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11. 19. Must as by reason of Satans malice and Mans corruption so of Gods decree who having determined that they should be most wisely ordereth and disposeth of them when they are Which he doth for divers ends As 1. For the manifestation of his own power in maintaining his Truth and that against all opposition 2. For the honour of truth it self which by these conflicts with Errour is rendred more illustrious That house which standeth out all storms and tempests of wind and weather shewoth it self to have a good foundation 3. For the Probation and tryal of such as are sound in the faith There must also be Heresies saith the Apostle in the Text last named 1 Cor. 11. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There must be also Not onely Schismes of which he had spoken in the verse foregoing divisions about matters of Order and Discipline but also Heresies Errours in doctrine and that fundamental Errours And wherefore must these be why that they which are approved may be made manifest Thus is Wheat differenced and distinguished from the Chasse Inanes paleae tempestate jactantur saith Cyprian Light empty Chaffe is whirled to and fro with the wind while the Wheat lyeth still in the floor Thus whilest empty and formal Professours who have taken up the profession of the truth either pro formâ for fashion sake or else for some by and sinister ends wanting the kernel and truth of grace are carried away those which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved unto God sincere and sound-hearted Christians they are hereby made manifest as to themselves so to others Thus doth God by this means as Cyprian in the same place noteth make a kind of a previous separation separating the Chaffe from the Wheat before the day of Judgment 4. This God permits for the just condemnation of others and that both of Masters and Scholars of such as broach and preach such doctrines and such as believe them For the former of these expresse is that of St. Iude in the Text forecited Iude v. 4. There are certain men crept in unawares saith he who were before of old ordained to this condemnation This he speaketh of seducers false teachers whom God in his most just and righteous decree did from eternity preordain so far to leave them to their own natural corruption and malice as that they should dare to corrupt and falsifie his truth and thereby justly incur the sentence of condemnation and bring upon themselves swift destruction as the Apostle St. Peter saith of them 2 Pet. 2. 1. And for the latter that of St. Paul is no lesse expresse 2 Thess. 2. 1. where speaking of Antichristian errours that should come into the Church and should be prevalent with many he assigneth this as one end of Gods dispensation in permitting and sending them God shall send them strong delusion saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Efficaciam deceptionis the Efficacy of Errour or deceit that is such errours as should be effectuall for the deceiving of them so as they should believe a lye receive and imbrace those forged and false doctrines And wherefore this Why That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse ver 12. Thus hath God not onely an eye to but also a hand in these divers and strange doctrines which come abroad not onely with his prescience and permission but also by his most wife and just Ordination 2. This is Satans doing He it is that is the father of lyes When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own saith our Saviour pro ingenio suo according to his natural disposition so it is if ever Satan speak truth as sometimes he doth he borroweth it to make some advantage of it that he may the more easily deceive by it Lyes are his proper and natural off-spring For as that Text goeth on He is a lyar and the father of it So he is of all Lyes Among which false doctrines are none of the least And therefore deservedly called by that name 2 Thess. 2. 11. 1 Tim. 4. 2. He it is that was the first Preacher of divers and strange doctrines This he did in Paradise Where when God had preached to our first Parents this Doctrine that The day that they ate of the forbidden fruit they should certainly dye the death Gen. 2. 17. he soon after preacheth to them the clean contrary The Serpent said unto the woman Ye shall not surely dye Gen. 3. 3 4. And still this is his work He that was a lying spirit in the mouthes of Ahabs Prophets 2 King 22. 22. he is still the same in the hearts and mouthes of all false Prophets He is the seedsman that soweth these tares So the Parable in the Gospel sets it forth Mat. 13. 24. The
Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field but while men slept his Enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat The Moral of the Parable is obvious The field is the true Church of God The seed is the Word the doctrine of truth The Seeds-man sowing this seed is God himself who hath caused this doctrine to be preached and published as by his Son so by his Ministers The Tares are Heresies false Doctrines which are fitly represented by tares which as they are of a different kind from the wheat so they are hurtful to it pulling it down and withal have a peculiar quality of intoxicating the brain All fitly appliable to false doctrines Now these were of the Enemies sowing the Devils work who is rightly called Satan an Adversary an Enemy being so both to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original there his Enemy and to his People your Adversary the Devil saith Peter 1 Pet. 5. 8. This is properly his work The Enemy hath done this saith the Master there to his servant enquiring of him how those tares came v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The envious man as the former Translation hath it Satan who doth this out of Malice and Envy Envy First to the Owner of the field to God himself whose professed enemy he is and so seeketh by all means to crosse him in his work and to frustrate his designs Secondly Envy to the field the Church which he cannot endure to see flourishing and prospering and therefore stirreth up against it as Persecution on the one hand so false doctrines on the other both to disquiet and hinder the growth of it And thirdly Envy to the Wheat Both to the doctrine of truth which he being a lyar hateth and so by this means seeketh to pull it down to hinder the propagation of it And also to the Professours of it true believers whose salvation he envies and so seeketh to turn them aside from the way of Truth Thus this is Satans work 3. This is mans own work the proper fruit of his Natural Corruption Even as the ground by reason of that first Curse not being tilled and cultured it bringeth forth briars and thornes and being tilled it bringeth forth Câ—ckle and darnel and such other heterogenous plants which are never sowen Even so doth the heart of man by reason of that Corruption which is in it it is apt of it self to conceive and breed such errours in doctrine divers and strange doctrines Which being thus conceived and bred there are some particular lusts which have a special Midwifery in the bringing of them forth unto an open view Of these I shall instance onely in three 1. Hypocrisie This was that which set those false Teachers those seducing spirits on work to broach and vent those doctrines of Devils as the Apostle calleth them and their Heresies 1 Tim. 4. 1. they spake those lyes in Hypocrisie as the next verse hath it pretending to a more then ordinary holinesse and strictnesse And thereupon they forbade to marry as it followeth ver 3. even as the Religious Orders in the Church of Rome upon the same account at this day do And truly without any breach of Charity this may be conceived to be either the Mother or Nurse of some of those strange doctrines which are abroad in this Nation at this day 2. Ambition vain-glory This was that which moved that notorious Impostor Theudas mentioned Acts 5. 36. to that factious undertaking who under pretence of being a Prophet moved sedition among the Jewes this he did saith the Text there Boasting himself to be some body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some Copies there have it some great one So it is noted of Simon Magus that he bewitched the people of Samaria with his Sorcery giving out that himself was some great one And this it is that setteth some false Teachers a work to invent and publish some new and strange doctrines that so they may be thought to be some body some more then ordinary persons This is that which Paul saith of those Hereticks which he foresaw should arise after his departure Act. 20. 30. They shall speak perverse things saith he preach strange and Heretical doctrines to draw away disciples after them affecting popularity And surely in all times this hath had no small influence upon such kind of persons 3. To these adde in the third place Covetousnesse This Paul washeth his own hands of appealing to God as a witnesse of his innocency therein 1 Thess. 2. 5. For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of Covetousnesse God is witnesse As he was free from vain-glory of which he speaketh in the next verse so also of Covetousnesse He had no Covetous design in his preaching So he tells his Corinthians I seek not yours but you 2 Cor. 12. 14. not their goods but their good not their estate but their salvation But so did not the false Apostles and other false Teachers of that time What ever they pretended they sought their own things more then the things of Iesus Christ as Paul speaketh of the greater part of Teachers in his time Phil 2. 21. their own things as their own honour so their own profit And such for the most part are false teachers they are self-seekers seeking rather to make a gain of others which thing Paul disclaimes both for himself and Titus 2 Cor. 12. 17 18. then to gain them to Christ. This is that which St. Peter foretelleth of the false teachers that should come in after-times among other things they should make merchandize of their followers So you have it 2 Pet. 2. 3. And through Covetousnesse shall they make merchandize of them Thus do false teachers too often witnesse those in the Church of Rome they endeavour to lay hold of the goods of others though it be with the ruine of their soules Thus do they follow the way of Balaam as the Apostle there speaketh of them v. 15. And after him St. Iude ver 11. who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse so as he cared not what he said or did so he might but gain that reward which Balack proffered him though it were to the cursing of that people which he knew to be Gods people the people of Israel had not God withheld him by causing the dumb Asse to reprove him as you have it recorded Numb 22. 7 13 37. 2 Pet. 2. 16. Even so is it with some false teachers having an heart exercised with covetous practices as St. Peter speaketh verse 14. of that Chapter they care not what they say or do for gain And thus do they make merchandize of the soules of men This is said to be part of Babylons Merchandize Rev. 18. 12 13. As Gold and silver and precious stones and divers other commodities there reckoned up so among other the soules of men Which
the flintiest heart among you And surely such is the condition of many of your Brethren and Sisters at this day in this Nation who are thus tossed to and fro with divers and strange doctrines some of which are no better then Rocks and Quicksands desperate and damnable doctrines such as who ever imbraceth living and dying in the belief of them must needs split and perish upon them Now how should the consideration hereof affect the hearts of all those who truly loving God cannot but bear an hearty affection to their brethren so as to desire their everlasting welfare and happinesse But I shall not insist upon this either the further discovering of this Malady or the bewailing of it I shall rather come to that which more nearly concerneth your selves to prosecute that which I told you was my design in taking up of this Text Which is To Warn you you of this place of this Congregation To whom let me in the Name of God here hold forth a double Caveat First Be not you offended at these Secondly Be not you seduced by them Of these two severally Begin with the former 1. Be not you offended by these by what either you see or hear of in this kind so offended as to like Christ and his Religion ever the worse for them A blessed thing not to be thus offended Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me saith our Saviour Matth. 11. 6. This unstable soules are subject unto upon divers occasions like queasie stomachs which are ready to take distaste at every thing that displeaseth them But upon none sooner then this the instability and unsettlednesse of those that professe the faith of Christ when they shall see them carried about with divers and strange doctrines So much we may learn from St. Peter 2 Ep. 2. where speaking in the first verse of false Teachers such as should broach damnable Heresies and in the second verse of their followers which should not be few but many Many shall follow their pernicious wayes He subjoynes this to both By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evill spoken of The way of truth The true Christian Religion which shewes the true and onely way to true happinesse It should by this meanes be exposed to the Reproaches and Obloquies of the Adversaries of it And surely so is it with the Protestant Religion at this day which is professed and held forth as the true Religion of God in this Nation by reason of those divers and strange doctrines which are to be found in it some of them confessedly far worse then any that the Church of Rome is charged with and the strange unsettlednesse of the Professours of it who as if they had no sure bottome to stand upon are thus carried about with every wind By this meanes this way of truth is evil spoken of by the adversaries of it And that especially by our Adversaries of Rome who as they have ever been ready to cast this in the Protestants face their divisions so now questionlesse they rejoyce in them and triumph over them from hence concluding that surely this cannot be the way of Truth which hath so many windings and turnings and Crosse waies in it This cannot be the true Religion of God the Professours whereof are so far from that which God hath promised to his Church under the Gospel viz. Cor unum via una One Heart and one way Thus are others offended hereat But let not any of you be so offended No Reason why you should be so This being no other then what 1. Hath been It is no new thing No other then what hath been in all Ages of the Church even in the first and purest times of it Then were there such divers and strange doctrines set on foot and divers carried about with them And what wonder then to see the like acted over again in these dregs of time It is no other then what hath been 2. And secondly it is no other then what hath been foretold should be must be There must be Heresies saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 19. And that as in all so specially in the latter times For which most clear and expresse is that of St. Paul who writing to Timothy informs him hereof 1 Tim. 4. 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and Doctrines of Devils c. And again 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know also saith he that in the last dayes perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of themselves Covetous boasters and so he goeth on shewing what a flood of evills should in the last times being as it were the lees and dregs the worst of times break in upon the Church spreading over the face of it and among other he reckoneth up this for one that there should be some who should creep into houses and lead captive silly women c. there should be many Seducers and many seduced by them Now wherefore is this so clearly foretold but to prevent that offence which any might be ready to take when they see these things come to passe This was our Saviours end in foretelling to his Disciples what harsh usage they should find in and from the world after his departure from them These things saith he have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended Joh. 16. 1. And again These things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them v. 4. And to the very same end he elsewhere foretelleth in like manner of false Teachers that should come and the prevalencie of their seductions Matth. 24. 24. There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. So prevalent should they be in their seducements And wherefore doth he foretell this why to prevent that offence which any might be ready to take hereat when they should see it So it followeth Behold I have told you before v. 25. given you this warning that you might not be offended or troubled at it when you shall see so many errours held forth and so many giving heed to them And of such use let these and the like predictions be unto us Now that we see what was foretold to be come to passe being thus forewarned of it be not offended at it so as to like the true Religion of God ever the worse for it Here is the former of these Caveats Passe we to the second which my eye is principally upon Not being offended take heed in the second place of being seduced Be not ye carried away with divers and strange doctrines That was the Apostles admonition to his Hebrewes and let it now be mine to you Such doctrines there are abroad and many there are who are carried about with them Now taking