dictates of the holy Spirit So that hereby preaching is not only turned into foolishness indeed but into sinfulness also and that holy ordinance intended by God for the conversion and confirmation of souls in Truth is become through the abuse of unskilful and illiterate Zealots one of the Devils engins whereby he entraps the unsteady souls of men into errors and deceits And that which further hath added to increase this infection and plague of the holy and true Religion is a crying Reformation and Liberty of conscience which are necessary if righly understood and kept within their due limits under which specious pretences many necessary and useful Truths are decryed and licentiousness of opinion hath got footing every one taking liberty to believe and disbelieve what he list to be of this of that and of every opinion but what is orthodox and true and under the cloke of Religion wounding and even stabbing to the heart that sacred body through its own bleeding sides using the sharp and severe instrument of Reformation not only to pare the nails but cut off the hands and many the most principal parts and Members of the body spiritual crying down publique Prayers confessions of Sin Catechisms Creeds the Commandements Sacraments and preaching down even Preaching it self and the preachers also there being not a few who with the same breath dare both presumptuously blaspheme and sacrilegiously invade the high and holy calling of the Priesthood calling learning a mark of the Beast and lawful ordination to the Ministery a badge of Antichrist Decency and order in Gods service the painting of the strumpet and deckings of the whore of Babylon reading of holy Scriptures singing of Psalmes and all discreet forms of devotion and methods of divine service beggerly elements pieces of wil-worship and carnal Gospelling and the Scriptures themselves a dead letter and uselesse to them who understand the Mysteries of godliness by immediate Revelation It would be endless to rake into the puddle of those manifold pollutions wherewith many thousands of people in these broken and distracted times have both polluted themselves and endevoured also to profane and unhallow what ever is most sacred and dear to all discreetly pious and knowingly conscientious Christians whilest the authors of all such confusions with those grand Heretiques the spawn of Simon Magus in the daies of Irenaeus are called by themselves The elect the perfect the seed of God having an unction from the holy One being taught from above c. Whereupon their hearts are so uplifted within them that they deny all respect to their superiours speak evil of dignities despise their Mother the Church smite their brethren and fellow servants with reproaches and injurious revilings calling them the wicked of the world the seed of the Serpent the Reprobate for whom is reserved blackness of darkness c. Nor may we here justifie our selves though perhaps free from the infection of such wilde opinions and bold heaven-daring presumptions as if therefore we did contribute nothing there unto But rather in all humility and godly sorrow we must confess that both our national and personal sins have provoked the most just God to give up our holy orthodox Church to be torn and mangled by such confusions and disorders and our holy Religion to be eaten up by such vermin as our own corrupt manners have bred and nourished For when men see such as professe the Truth to be guilty of all kinde of disorderly and licentious living the truth it self becomes hereby scandalized and that Religion which such wicked persons professe is called in question and doubted whether it be of God or no. That therefore which S. Paul said unto the Jewes Rom. 2.23,24 is too much appliable to many Orthodox Christians amongst us who professe the Law of Truth and declaim much against Heresies and Schisms in Religion and yet through their lewd and exorbitant lives breaking those very Lawes of Truth which they do professe the Name of God is thereby dishonoured and that Truth whereof God is the Author is blasphemed and evil spoken of by the Heretical gainsayers and opposers thereof There are but two waies for the suppression of those Heretiques who stop their eares and harden their hearts against the Doctrine and instruction of the Church 1. A well established Ecclesiastical Government by whose coercive Lawes the people may be kept within the limits of the true faith as to the outward profession thereof in themselves and debarred the seduction of others 2. An Exemplary piety in the professors of the Truth that others may be won by their good conversation to the acknowledgement of the truth And now that the former of these viz. The arm of Ecclesiastical Government is broken and the hedge of Gods inclosed Garden thrown down which should have kept out the Foxes from eating up the Vines there is no way left us to put to silence gain-saying and seduced persons but to adorn our profession with holiness of conversation and carefully to avoid all those disorderly and licentious manners which scandalize our Religion and unhallow the blessed name of Christ which is called upon us Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles and such as oppose the truth that whereas they speak against you as evil doers that they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2.12 This is required of all persons whatsoever but most especially of persons of rank and quality after whose example even without command not only most of their Dependants but even of their inferior neighbours do frame their conversations Such therefore are obliged to remember that the main end why God hath plac'd them in degree above others is That as their superiority of place is a stamp of the divine Supremacy over all so their sutable demeanor should be a leading star of holy and divine perfections unto all Being followers of God in all piety and purity of life and action that therein their people and dependants may be followers of them Nor is it the least reason why God hath suffered this late upstart generation of Heretiques to deny that respect and honour which by the Lawes both of God and man is due to their superiors because superiors have not given unto God that honour which is due unto him by being as Images of his superiority so ensamples of his perfections in all holiness justice charity purity and integrity of conversation Since it is the desire therefore of all good Christians that all Heresies should be rooted out and holy Truth restored together with a respective obedience to all our superiors according to the several relations and conditions without which we must never hope either for Truth or Peace to flourish amongst us there is assuredly no readier way now left us hereunto but that every one in his place and calling make conscience of his waies or in the words of the holy Spirit himself That every one who nameth
knowledge and unlearning in the sound and sincere Exposition of holy Scripture and instruction of his people 5. The necessity and honour of humane learning as to the reception and right understanding of divine Revelations doth appear from the antiquity for those first Patriarchs of the world who honoured with immediat Revelation and invested with the sacred office of the Priesthood were all of them learned men either so found or so made by the God of wisdome and knowledge when he spake unto them Adam as the first man so the first to whom God revealed himself and first Priest or Prophet of the Lord was not a novice in Philosophy nor ignorant of any part of what we call humane learning he knew undoubtedly the nature properties vertues effects and workings of all creatures and therefore God permitted him to give them names according to their natures Gen. 2.19.20 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof and Adam gave names to all cattell and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse was much given to the study of arts and sciences Jos adiiq l. 1. c. 4. both he and his sons And 't is one reason remembred by Josephus why God blessed him and those firster Fathers of the world with so long a life that they might bring to some perfection their studies of moral vertues and invention of profitable sciences as Astronomy Geography c. Abraham the father of the faithful Idem cap. 8. was a wise man and very eloquent and of a piercing Judgement saith the same Author of him He both learned himself and preached to others the knowledge of the true God which he learned by study and contemplation of Gods works by observing the sea and the land the sun the moon and the stars Whereupon the Caldeans conspiring against him being warned of God he came into the land of Canaan Philo cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Abr. A man much skil'd in natural Philosophy Moses Deut. 31.10 who of all persons is said to have the nearest and most immediate converse with God and was honoured as Gods instrument for the publication of his own Lawes was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians Act. 7.22 And Philo brings him in exhorting all men to the study of Philosophy who desire to enrich their mindes with true knowledge and wisdome Phi de septerario fest Daniel who was greatly beloved of God and honoured with manifold visions and revelations Dan. 1.4.17.20 was bred up and well skil'd in the Learning and Tongue of the Chaldeans And generally all the Prophets of the Lord both ordinary and extraordinary some few excepted were bred up in the Schooles of the Prophets The Hebrewes themselves say that where the holy Scripture addes to the name of a Prophet the name of his father that such a one was alwaies the son of a Prophet as Isaiah the son of Amos Hosea the son of Buri c. but withall confesse that when the Prophet is named and not his father that such a one was a Prophet but not the son of a Prophet When Samuel had anointed Saul King over Israel and the Lord gave him another heart 1 Sam. 10.9 so that he prophesied according to the word of Samuel amongst the rest of the Prophets vers 10. The people were astonished hereat as a thing unusual and extraordinary that any one should prophesie who was not the son of a Prophet therefore one demanding of another but who is their father vers 12. which being not known it grew into a proverb Is Saul also amongst the Prophets 6. The great necessity of learning and learned men will appear if we will consider how in all ages they have been what Cyril of Alexandria styles them Sanctos mystagagos pulchritudine intelligentiae resplendescentes tanquam propugnacula c. Such as stand against Sects like Bulwarks and are the Rescuers of Truth from the captivity of Hereticks and the bold intrusions of their fallacies and deceits The multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world saith the wisest of men Wisd 6.24 Both Religion and the true use of Reason both Church and Common-wealth Law and Gospel all societies both Civil and Ecclesiastick are upheld and maintained in peace and prosperity by the hands and heads of learned men and power of learning And the more any people or nation are estranged from the knowledge of liberal arts and sciences the further they are off from that dignity whereby men do excell beasts and irrational creatures The end of learning being no other but the rectifying of depraved Reason the strengthning of the weakned judgement and the clearing of that eye of the soul the understanding whereby man is stampt to the image of the most understanding and all knowing God And when the natural light of the soul is thus cleared by learning the lives and manners of men are thereby raised to the perfection of vertue and civility of conversation beyond the rudeness of salvages and beasts Didicisse fidelitèr artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros Ex quo intelliâ—imus quando doctrina non fucrit in Ecclesiâ—s perire pudicitiam castitatem mori omnes abire virtutes Hier. in loc The Prophet Amos threatning a famine of the Word ch 8.11 adds vers 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst meaning not a corporal but a spiritual thirst The Hebrews saith Hier. interpret the fair virgins to be their Synagogues and Schooles of learning and the young men to be the choice Doctors and Masters of Israel for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both And when these shall faint and fail and learned teaching cease in the Church then chastity purity and integrity shall perish and all vertues shall decay amongst men CHAP. IX Some vulgar Objections against Vniversities and humane learning considered LEarning and knowledge knowes no other enemies but the ignorant and unlearned And 't is ever the nature of Pride and an essential property of Hereticks to decry and seemingly to contemn those gifts whereof themselves are destitute they are thus characterized by S. Jude vers 10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not and for no other reason but to exalt themselves above those who have that knowledge which they want upon this very ground many now a daies cry down Vniversities and humane learning and why only that they may lift up themselves above their brethren upon the fancied wings of counterfeit Revelations who so much flag and fall below them in the gifts of knowledge understanding and wisdome And to support this destructive principle of pride they want not some seemingly probable
is there is the Spirit of life and sanctification 7. Heretiques Extra ecclesiam consistens contra pacem dilectionem Christi saciens inter adversaros computetur Cyp. ep 76. and Schismaticks have been ever accounted the great adversaries of Christs Church and people whose intestine broyles and homebred divisions have done more mischief to the truth and doctrine of Christ then all the external persecutions of bloudy tyrants and Heathens hence the sharp command of the Apostle against such Tit. 3.10,11 A man that is an heretique after the first or second admonition reject knowing that he that is such subverteth and sinneth because condemn'd of himself such a one is self-condemned having 1. passed sentence upon himself by professing against the doctrine and dividing from the communion of the Church And 2. he hath done execution upon himself also for he hath excommunicated himself in going out from the Church Quomodo te à tot gregibus scidisti exscidisti teipsum Firmil ad Cyp. Ep. 75. He that is such a one reject have no company with him 2 Thess 3.14 S. John going to wash himself in a Bath and there espying Cerinthus an Heretique leapt hastily out of the Bath again saying that he feared the fabrick of the Bath would fall upon them all that were there since Cerinthus the enemy of truth is in it Iren. advers Haer. l. 3. c. 3. And Polycarpus who was S. Johns disciple and heard these words from the Apostle meeting with Marcion another Heretique who saying unto him Cognosce nos acknowledge us for the true Disciples of Christ answered I know thee to be the first born of Satan So great fear saith Irenaeus had the Apostles and their Disciples of having any communication with persons that had depraved and corrupted the Truth Id. l 4. c. 62. according to Tit. 3.10 For nulla ab iis tanta potest esse corruptio quanta est schismatis pernicies saith the same Father Athanasius and Epiphanius deny Heretiques nisi homonymωs to be called Christians and Optatus tels us Apparet Antichristos omnes esse quos constat à charitate atque ab unitate ecclesiae r ecessisse Opt. l. â— that Schismatiques are the Antichrists spoken of by S. John 1 Joh. 2.18 for so they are described vers 19. They went out from us but they were not of us c. Which is the way of Schism and the description of Schismatiques and he instances in Novatian qui extra ecclesiam consistens inter Antichristos computetur The Samaritans who were Schismatiques Cyprian Addendo autem civitatem Samaritano um deâ—ere omitti ubi crant schismatici ostendit schismaticos Gemilibus adaequari Cyp. Ep. 76. from the Jewish Church the Jewes therefore had no conversation with them Joh. 4.9 And they are reckoned by our Saviour with the Gentiles Mat. 10.5 8. The sad condition of all Heretiques and Schismatiques lying under the guilt of grievous sin and being obnoxious thereby to the judgements of God is frequently also remembred by the Fathers How are they without all hope saith Cyprian Id. ibid. and incur Gods heavy indignation to their own ruine who make a Schism the holy Scripture doth declare in the book of the Kings where the ten tribes making a breach and Schism in the Church and departing from Judah and Benjamin the Lord is said to be wroth with the whole seed of Israel And by the example of Corah D. than and Abiram is manifested and proved saith the same Father in the same place Aug. ep 164. that they are not only guilty of great sin but liable to grievous punishment who rashly joyn themselves with Schismatiques Illud scelus ad exemplum devitandi God for the present so grievously punished the sin of Corah and his complices giving us thereby an example saith S. Aug. to avoid the same and shewing that when he spares to punish such persons in this life the greater punishment he reserves for them in the life to come which is affirmed 2 Pet. 2.9 For God will judge such persons saith Irenaeus who make Schisms and divisions minding more their own utility then the Churches unity Qui propter modicas quaslibet causas magnum gloriosum corpus Christi censeindunt 〈…〉 who for every light cause and unnecessary scruples rend the great and glorious body of Christ and as much as in them lies destroy the same speaking of peace and charity but making war and division straining at a gnat and swallowing the camel Gods service is the way of mans salvation and that nation or kingdome which will not serve the Lord shall perish Isa 6.12 The ground and foundation of Gods service is faith for without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Now-the true holy and orthodox faith is but one Eph 4.5 therefore termed the unity of faith vers 13. Now he that pleaseth not God by the mean of a true faith doth displease and fight against him by the opposition of a false faith according to our Saviours own rule Mat. 12.30 He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad And undoubtedly he that is against Christ he that is his adversary makes himself immediately liable to eternal condemnation which is effected by every one that holds not the unity of the true faith for he that beleeveth not in me is condemned already Joh. 3.18 In a word as the true faith believed and obeyed is the way of life so a false faith embrac't and followed is the high way of death and ruine as the word of truth is the key of the kingdome of heaven so the word of untruth and error is the key that opens the gates of hell as the first is that true and sacred light which discovers and clears the way that leads to light and life everlasting so the latter is the ignis fatuus the false fire that misguides the wandring souls of men to the confines of that kingdome where dwelleth blackness of darkness for evermore Of all seducers and maintainers of Heresies the Apostle S. Peter affirms that they bring upon themselves swift destruction that their judgement of a long time lingreth not and their damnation slumbreth not 2 Pet. 2.1,2,3 CHAP. VIII Rules and directions for the avoiding of Errors in Religion THat we might be the better armed against the assaults of Heretiques and heretical opinions in Religion our Lord and Master hath not only foretold us that false teachers should in all ages of the Church arise and errors spring up with the truth Mat. 24.23 7.15 Mar. 13.21 Luk. 17.23 as tares amidst the wheat but also hath strictly charged us to beware of them not to follow after them nor believe them whose pretences shall be so plausible their outward appearances of holiness so specious and taking and their words and works by the secret and invisible assistance of Satan so extraordinary as that if it were possible
Prayer the which is not only commanded by our Lord to be used when we pray Luk. 11.2 but by the which also we do communicate in our prayers with all holy orthodox Christians there being no time when ever we do use this prayer but many thousands of pious persons are at the same time powring forth their souls unto God in the words of the same prayer To neglect therefore much more to despise the use of this prayer if it be not a piece of disobedience to the plain and positive command of Christ and so a branch of Hecesie yet 't is a depriving our selves of the greatest benefit of the Communions of Saints and so a branch of Schism 7. As to the Sacraments that we reject what ever doth either obstruct the use or deny the efficacy either of Baptism Mat. 26 26 27 28.19 Job 6.51,53 Act. 2.38 or the Supper of the Lord The use thereof being positively commanded and the efficacy thereof as positively asserted by Christ himself These being also the seales of the covenant of grace Baptism the seale of our admission and the Eucharist of our confirmation in the most holy faith whatsover opinion therefore either opposeth the practise or disanuls the vertuous influence of these holy Christian performances makes void the commandements of Christ infringeth the seales of the new Covenant obstructs the blessed means of grace and must therefore necessarily be false erroneous and destructive to the Truth 2. Id teneamus quod semper quodubique quod ab emnibus Vinc. Lir. c. 3. A second general rule for the avoiding of errors is That in these and in all things that relate to Religion we suspect every opinion that is new and strange to be false and erroneous for 't is a certain and infallible rule That what is most ancient and generally received is most true For God who is the fountain of Truth is immutable Jam. 1.17 with him is no variableness nor shadow of turning And holy Truth being a celestial ray displayed from his sacred Majesty must needs be like unto him ever constant to it self and not liable to alteration That we may be guided in the waies of Truth hear what counsel the holy Ghost in this respect gives unto us Deut. 4.32 Aske now of the daies that are past which were before thee from the day that God created man upon earth c. and Job 8.8,9,10 For inquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers For we are of yesterday and know nothing Shall not they teach thee and tell thee And Jer. 6.6 Thus saith the Lord stand ye in the waies and see and for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls But they said 't is the saying of all Heretiques and Schismatiques we will not walk therein we are for new waies new lights and new revelations we have itching ears and these must be scratcht with new doctrines till the scab of Heresie arise upon the soul your old Doctrines are out of date they are nauseous and offensive 2 Tim. 4.3,4 their age and antiquity makes them tedious to our souls thus sound doctrine will not be endured because men have itching ears and therefore they shall be tutned away from the truth and shall be turned unto fables and lies But Catholicorum hoc fere proprium c. Vinc. lirin It is the prophesie of all holy Catholick good Christians to hold fast the Doctrines deposited and committed by the Apostles first to the ancient fathers of the Church and by them transmitted to all posterity O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain bablings profane and vain because new and strange Quae à me non audisti saith S. Hierome Hier. in loc 1 Tim. 6.20 Cum Galatae falsis Prophetis auditis nausea quadam veritatis adsecti catholicae doctrinae manna revementes haereticae novitatis sordibus oblectarentur it a se Apostolica exercuit authorit as ut summa cwn veritate decernâ—ret Licet nos aut angelus de coelo c. Vinc. c. 12. Doctrines which the Apostles delivered not Nay if they should deliver any doctrine strange and new or if an Angel from heaven should do it the Apostle hath said it and said it again Though we or an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospel then that you have received let him be accursed Gal. 1.9 Let that therfore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning remain in you then shall ye also continue in the Son and in the Father 1 Joh. 2.24 And this same rule is again prescribed 2 Joh. 6. and the reason is given vers 7. Because many deceivers are entred into the world q. d. the way not to be deceived is to hold fast what you heard from the beginning and to walk in it Thus the Nicene Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold fast the old doctrines and usages of the Church And this was ever the cry of the Church Mos antiquus obtineat let antiquity be the judge what is true and what false He therefore that will not headlong himself into Heresie must not be new fangled in his Religion not affecting novelty but stick close to antiquity receiving nothing for truth but what was first received by our ancestors and delivered from one generation to another by continued succession from the times of the Apostles For we must not follow Religion saith the Father Nil novandum msi quod traditum est Nos religionem non quâ vellemus ducere sed quâ illa duceret sequi oportet Vinc. adv Haer. c. 9. which way we would lead it but what way Religion leads us 3. To avoid errors in Religion we must beware of extremity in opposing errors 'T is an ordinary piece of cunning in the devil as Luther hath observed Discamus hoc esse proprium diaboli artificium si non potest nocere persequendo destruendo hoc sacit corrigendo aedificando Luc. de refut Haer. that whom he cannot hurt by persecution and affliction he hath ruin'd in the way of correction aedification and reformation Thus by sad experience we have seen almost an extirpation of Religion under the notion of Reformation a blinde zeal of reforming errors hath deformed the truth it self and in stead of paring the nails hath cut off both the hands and feet of Christs spouse the Church Thus in opposition to Prelacy we have run into Anarchy and in crying out Popery popery we have cryed down many necessary Truths and banisht all decency and order in divine worship together with all Ecclesiastical Discipline and government from amongst us Thus also a pretended purity to separate from sinners hath caused many to separate from people more righteous then themselves and whilest they have presumptuously thought to leave the wicked
sway with the vulgar very much but when these Sermons discourses and books come to the scanning of judicious ears and such who have the gift of discerning spirits all their preachments prove but unprofitable prattle if not profanations of Gods holy word Their discourses of Religion unreasonable and endlesse brabbles and their books fraught with impertinencies railings and lies For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips they shall be taken in their pride for why their preaching is of cursing and lies Ps 59.12 objection 3 But do not we hear many good things come from them and many sweet truths to the great contentment and edification of the hearers answer There are many sentences and sayings in holy Scripture and other good English books which are so plain and convincing that they cannot be wrested or perverted but when these come to be formed into a Sermon or into a continued discourse by rude and illiterate persons they are generally so disorderly and confusedly delivered so maim'd and obscur'd by insignificant impertinent and erroneous expressions which like dirt or poyson intermixt with wholsome food doth choak and kill rather then nourish and edifie the souls of the hearers The word of God which is the sword of the Spirit in the mouth of an ignorant blinde zelot is like a sword in a mad mans hand wherewith he wounds both himself and others for want of judgement to use it aright or as an unskilful Physitian though he have very good books of Physick and excellent physical receits if yet he do not fully understand these books and the nature and working of these receits and the several tempers withal to whom severally they are appliable he shall more often kill then cure his Patients Even so it is with the unskilful Physitians of the soul when they understand not the holy Word of God aright nor yet how where when and to whom the several divine receits therein are appliable they convert the soul-saving Physick thereof to a soul-killing poyson And the Word which is in it self the fountain of holy truths becomes through the misunderstanding and misapplication of ignorant interpreters and deceitful workers the nursery of Haeresies and errors And as in natural things corruptio optimi est pessima The best things corrupted are of all corruptions the worst so in supernatural and divine mysteries when the word of Truth it self is corrupted and deceitfully handled by ignorant and misguided persons there is nothing more baneful to the truth of Religion nor to the souls of men whereof true Religion is the Physitian and Guide objection 4 But hath not God expresly and plainly told us in his holy Word that he makes choice of such whom you call ignorant and illiterate persons to be the instruments of his grace and salvation unto men as Mat. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes and 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh c. answer 1. With all thankfulness and devotion of soul we acknowledge Gods infinite goodness and wisdome in the choice of Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel Non sapientes c Ne traduxisse prudentia ne redemisse divitiis ne potentiae nobilitatÃsque authoritate traxisse aliquos videretur Ambr. in Luc. 6. 1. Not many wise lest any might seem to have been inveigled and seduc't to Christianity by the inticing words of mans wisdome 2. Not many Rich lest our redemption might seem to be purchased with gold or silver or that worldly gain should become the motive to godliness 3. Not many Noble lest the authority of earthly powers and dignities rather then the authority of Christ and the convincing power of his truth might seem the allurement of our conversion therefore God hath chosen the foolish even Fishermen to confound the Philosophers Publicans and sinners to reprove the most rigid Stoicks and morally vertuous poor weak and unarmed men to make conquest of all nations to dissolve the armed powers of the world and without any carnall weapons to be mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 that so all the world might acknowledge the work of grace and salvation in Christ to be his Revelation not mans invention and that no flesh might glory in his presence presuming to ascribe to his own power wisdome wealth dignity c. what is the sole work of Gods grace and goodnesse But 2. It doth not hence follow that all vulgar and unlearned persons may understand and expound the Scriptures as well as the wise and learned for the reasons already alledged in answer to the first objection And because further under the notion of babes little ones foolish and weak things of the world Quid est parvos c. elegit i.e. non superbos elatos sed humiles mites Aug. is not meant so much the ignorant and unlearned as the meek lowly humble whom no spirit of pride and self-conceited knowledge and holiness had puffed up For it is not ignorance and want of learning but humility and self-dejection that enfits the soul for the impressions of Grace and Truth So that those unlearned persons who have so good an esteem of themselves as to prefer their own sense and judgement in spiritual things before that of the learned and of their Teachers cannot be of the number of those babes and little ones to whom the mysteries of Christ are revealed but rather to be rankt amongst those wise men after the flesh who are rejected objection 5 But against humane learning we are admonisht to take heed of it as dangerous Col. 2.8 Let no man spoyle you through Philosophy answer The best things may be and too commonly are corrupted and abused the holy Scriptures themselves which are given by divine inspiration for our guidance to eternal happiness have been and daily are by Hereticks and Schismaticks wrested to their own condemnation And so it fares with Philosophy and all the parts of humane learning 'T is confessed that many Philosophers opposed holy Christian Religion at the first as contradictory to some of their false erroneous positions and many Hereticks arose in the Church being seduced and seducing others with principles taken out of the heathenish Pythagorean Philosophy from the knowledge whereof they were called Gnosticks But true Philosophy is not therefore to be condemned because Heathen Philosophers held many false tenents no more then true Religion is to be condemned because some seduced professors thereof hold many Heretical and false opinions therein And herein the necessary use of Philosophy is apparent in that though many Heresies sprung from Philosophers Erasm in praefat ad Irenae yet by Philosophers they have been supprest and the truth maintained witness Moses skil'd in all the learning of the Egyptians against Jannes and Jambres with the rest of the Egyptian Magicians and
brought even upon the sacred function it self that great contempt and reproach under which it now lies oppressed there being nothing so frequent in the mouthes of the people as the sins of their ministers the Perjury time-serving and wavering inconstancy of some the faction and sedition of others the pride the covetousness the drunkenness of others Etenim non solum doctiesse volumus sed docti boai qualis ommno est qut recte quidem verbis sed multo rectius moribus vita philoso phantur Sabel orat 7. have made even the profession contemptible and our labours in the word and doctine ineffectual and vain fervent prayers and holy living being those spiritual engines whereby those holy truths delivered in sermons have their influence upon the hearts and lives of the hearers and where an exemplary purity of life is wanting 't is no mervail that God who is the fountain of purity deny his blessings upon our labours and turn our preaching into foolishness And herein the Enthusiasts of the age have found so great a flaw in the Ministery as that they absolutely decry the calling or if not so yet the best terms they can afford the most upright and conscientious amongst us is false Prophets and deceivers of the people But yet that the error of this opinion and sinfulness of the railing accusations though against some persons they have too much of truth may appear 't is necessary to take notice of these following considerations 1. That 't is the sins of the people that provokes God to give them ignorant and sinful shepheards And there shall be like people like Priests saith the Lord and I will punish them for their waies and reward them their doings Hos 4.9 and again The daies of visitation are come the daies of recompence are come Israel shal know it The Prophet is a fool the spiritual man is mad and what 's the reason for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred Hos 9.7 Non est à plebe aut vulgaribus hominibus arguendus out accusandus episcopus licet sit inordinatus quia pro meritis subdâ—… rum disponitur a Deo vita dectorum Evar. ep fratribus Aegypt And therefore saith Evaristus A Bishop and Pastor of souls is not to be reviled by the people though be disorderly because God disposeth of the lives of the Teachers according to the deserts and qualities of the hearers And so of Princes as well as of Priests wicked Princes God gives in his wrath Hos 13.11 viz. when he is angry with a people for their sins And even the errors of the best kings are ascribed to the sins of their subjects As Davids sin in numbring the people was caused by the anger of the Lord against Israel 2 Sam. 24.1 For the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turneth it whither soever he will Prov. 21.1 either for a blessing or curse upon their subjects Anacleti epist tertia Sic pro meritis plebis saepe pastores depravantur ecclesiae ut procliviùs corruant qui sequuntur 'T is even so with the Pastors of the Church who are deprav'd and diorderly in their lives because the people by their sins have deserv'd to have such leaders whose directions shall sooner tend to the ruine then to the health of their souls 2. 'T is the duty of all Christian people rather to cover and veil then to disclose and publish the enormities of their Pastors For they are their spiritual Fathers 1 Cor. 4.15 And the nakedness of Fathers must not be discovered by the children that the curse of Cham fall not upon them Gen. 9.22.25 If the Pastors neglect their duty towards God the people must not therefore neglect their duty to their Pastors but wisely distinguish betwixt their example and doctrine obeying the truths they deliver but avoiding the sinfull practises they follow which is positively commanded by our Lord Mat. 23.2,3 The Scribes and Pharises sit in Moses chair All therefore whatsoever they bid observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Etiam si quisquam traditor subrepsisset c. saith Aug. Though some traytor or wicked person creep into the chair of Moses Aug. Epis 165. it should nothing hurt the Church or innocent Christians for whom Christ hath provided saying of evil prelats what they say do ye 3. The knowledge of the Truth may be obtained in the use of outward means and the ministerial office thereupon conferred upon such persons as want the internal qualification of true piety which is clear from the examples of Balaam who loved the wages of righteousness and yet had the gift of prophesie of Judas who was sent out by the Lord himself to preach the Gospel and yet had a Devil and Nicholas chosen by the Apostles one of the Deacons and yet was the father of the Nicholaitan Haeresie so much detested by God Rev. 2.6 Shall we therefore accuse and rail upon the Prophets of the Lord for the sin of Balaam or disparage the Apostles of Christ for the sin of Judas or impute to the rest of the holy Deacons the error of Nicholas or shall we not hear and obey the truth because it comes from the mouthes of some wicked as well as good Ministers It is rather our duty to admire the wisdome and magnifie the goodness of God who to give the greater testimony to the Truth and to make it more illustrious and evident is pleased to deliver it unto us by his Ministers of both sorts good and bad both by the holy and by the profane And 't is the Spirit of God undoubtedly that works in and by all persons that deliver the truth though not in all alike but in men of divers qualifications after a different manner in good men as ingredient and insident in bad men as urgent and impellent by good men more frequently and effectually he works the conversion of his people and by bad men sometimes also though more rarely that the working of his grace may appear in all and the glory thereof may to him as the supreme cause and not to his instruments be ascribed 4. That the gifts of Gods holy Spirit are not limited to those that receive his graces is further clear Mat. 7.22,23 Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have not we prephesied in thy name Here were great gifts bestowed and that upon wicked and unsanctified persons for it followes immediately Then will I professe unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity so also 1 Cor. 13.2 Though I have the gift of prophesie and understand all mysteries and though I have all faith so as to remove mountains viz. of seeming impossibilities and have not charity I am nothing From whence two things are plainly and clearly observable 1. That the understanding of holy Scriptures and of the mysteries of godliness or prophetical and
good instructions thence derived the one being as the body and the other the soul of Religion and when these two meet together viz. the unction without and the anointing within or when the spiritual gifts of the Ministery and graces of the people concur or when then the outward effusions of the Spirit in the word fall upon hearts infused and seasoned with Grace and Obedience then are these several promises accomplished then are a people truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The taught of God indeed or which is all one then are they the true Disciples of Christ The next memorable place misapplyed to patronize extraordinary and immediate Revelations is that prophesie of Joel 2.28 remembred to be accomplisht Act. 2.16 c. Jocl 2.28 Act. 2.16 c. It shall come to passe in the last daies saith God I will powre out of my Spirit upon all flesh And your sons and your daughters shall prophesie c. This text must be understood with several limitations otherwise many dangerous and false consequences will ensue and such as are contrary to what in other places of Scripture is affirmed I will pour out of my Spirit not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not my Spirit himself for no flesh Ad dive sa dona respicit non ad minutionem substantiae Gloss ordin in Loc. not all flesh can contain the Spirit of God who filleth all the world and containeth all things Wisd 1. But of my Spirit i. e. of his gifts and graces even as beams from the light as heat from the fire or as streams from this fountain of Truth 2. I will pour out Denoting indeed the liberal donation of spiritual gifts under the Gospel but yet with restriction to certain times and certain persons for not at all times neither upon all persons is the Spirit of God plentifully poured out when the holy Ghost visibly and miraculously descended upon the Apostles there was a plentiful pouring out so that they were filled with the Spirit vers 4. The gift of Tongues the gift of Prophesie to understand and open all mysteries the gift of healing all diseases the gift of miracles c. these and many other gifts were at this time after such a plentiful manner poured forth that there were some reliques some drops of this full measure remaining in the Church for 400 years after Thus it was then and 't was then necessary because the first publication and planting of the Gospel required extraordinary and more ample gifts and abilities for the effecting thereof But we must not look to see those daies of such extraordinary effusions to return again which is intimated in that they are called the last daies in the text as being the last time we must expect any such miraculous and immediate effusions or Revelations till the last day of all even that great and notable day of the Lord come vers 20. Although therefore this prophesie may in some general respects be extended to all the people of God yet particularly and after an especiall manner 't was fulfilled in the persons of the Apostles themselves and by S. Peter 't is here applyed unto them vers 15 16. And undoubtedly 't is high presumption in any man or sect of men to apply to themselves what was peculiar and proper to the divinely inspired Apostles and their hopes must needs be vain who wait for extraordinary inspirations upon misapplied promises and prophesies long since accomplisht Vpon all flesh Which 1. is not to be understood of all men promiscuously but of all such men of all nations and conditions as give up their names to become my sons and daughters to be called by and to call upon the name of the Lord to the hope of salvation for so the prophesie concludes Whoseever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved and so S. Peter concludes his Sermon upon this prophesie Repent and be baptized vers 38. Not all flesh but such only as are capable of the effusions of the Spirit and this limitation cuts off all Turks Jews Infidels Heretiques and Hypoerites for no such flesh have the Spirit of truth and holiness powred on them but are led by the spirit of error and wickednesse 2. All flesh cannot be meant of all Gods people neither as to the gift of prophesie and full understanding of the mysteries of godliness For so all good Christians men and women whether be they young or old children or servants must turn Prophets And all flesh as the reverend Andrewes must be cut out into Tongues which is a monstrous thing to imagine For if all the body of Christ were a Tongue where were the ears c. If all were Preachers where were the Hearers Such were not an orderly Church but a Babylon of confusion where the one heard not another therefore though it be said all flesh 't is not said all your sons and daughters shall prophesie but some shall do it for all some sons and some servants too i. e. some Jewes and some Gentiles some of all nations God gave some Apostles some Prophets c. And these must be of the male not of the female sex they are prohibited 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your women keep silence in the Churches If you demand how is the Spirit then upon all flesh 'T is upon all holy and good Christians but not upon all to prophesie all Gods people have in some measure the Spirit of grace and truth but that does not authorise them presently to turn speakers and teachers of others But doth not the Apostle say ye may all prophesie one by one 1 Cor. 14.31 1 Cor. 14.31 Ye all that is as many as be Prophets but to think that all are so the Apostle holds it very absurd demanding with indignation Are all Apostles are all Prophets 1 Cor. 12.29 not so surely the gift must first be had and then letters of Administration taken before the operation or work of Prophesie be lawfully performed 'T is further alledg'd to the same purpose 1 Cor. 12.7 1 Cor. 12.7 To every man is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withall whence 't is infer'd that both liberty of prophesying for the profit of our brethren and immediate Revelations or manifestations of the Spirit to that end are given to every man answer By every man is not meant every particular person but every man that hath those gifts mentioned in the next words viz. The gifts of wisdome knowledge faith tongues c. hath them for this end given that he may profit and edifie the Church and people of God thereby And they are called The manifestations of the Spirit 1. Because they flow from the Spirit either extraordinarily or immediately as in the firster and primitive times of the Church or ordinarily and in the use of means in all ages since 2. Because by the help of these gifts we are enabled to manifest and clear the truth and true meaning of
Therefore the Apostle styles the Church The pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 2.15 The pillar In Gloss ordin In se bene sustinent veritatem ne corruat licet tribuletur Upholding the Truth that it fall not though daily distressed by the gates or powers of hell whose instruments are Wolves without or Foxes within the one by open persecutions assailing the other by secret infectious opinions undermining the Truth but the Church like a pillar supports it and like the ground which God hath made to stand continually both upholds and holds forth the true faith and like a rock against the raging billowes of the sea stands it out against all the gusts of persecutions heresies and schismes which are as 't were that spiritual ammunition wherewith all the gates of hell are furnisht to fight against the Church of Christ and the most holy faith thereof But whilest we stand with the Church we shall not need to fear either the crafts or assaults of these ghostly enemies For upon a Rock Christ hath grounded his Church and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it Mat. 16.18 When any particular person then opposes his private spirit and judgement against the publique judgement and spirit of that Church whereof he is a member or when any particular Church opposes the judgement of the Catholick or universal Church in point of holy faith this necessarily makes one ingredient in the sin of Heresie for so he or they do not stand upon the rock whereupon holy faith is grounded nor rest on that pillar which upholds the Truth Haec est vitae introitus omnes a. reliliqui fures sunt latrenes St quis tam obstinatè in suo errore persistat ut umversam Christi ecclesiam audire nolit talis juxta Christi mandatum pro ethnico publicano nobis babendus est Irenaeus This saith Irenaeus is the way of life meaning the way of the Church and all the rest are theeves and robbers Whosoever he be that will obstinately persist in his own erroneous opinion and refuse to hear the Church let him be unto thee according to the command of Christ as a Heathen or Publican As in the natural body he is accounted a monster rather then a perfect man who hath any exuberant member that is disproportionate and not agreeable with the rest of the members of the body so in the mystical body of Christ he is an Heretique Sicut mensura est unius cujusque partis ita totius corporis quod omnibus suis partibus constat Aug. no orthodox Christian whose particular faith is exuberant and agrees not with the whole body of the Church according to that undeniable axiome Turpis est pars omnis toti non congrua That part is disorderly and sinful which agrees not with the whole whereof it is a part As there is but one faith Ephes 4.5 which is therefore called The unity of the faith vers 13. and though there be several articles or parts of holy Truth which constitute this one body of faith yet saith the Father August Veritas est veritati congrua one truth bears such a proportion with another as is agreeable to the whole so that the whole body of the true faith is like it self in all the parts or particular points thereof Vna fides non numero sed genere qua similis in omnibus even so there is but one body Eph. 4.4 i. e. one Church professing this one faith and though there be many members of this one body yet each true member is so proportionate to the whole as that all makes up but one orderly mystical body of Christ which ought to be as without spot or stain of sn so without the exuberant disorder of error 'T is the end and office of the Ministery to bring all Christians to this pitch of perfection even to be all incorporate as members of one mystical body of Christ by the unanimous acknowledgement of one faith Ephes 4.11 c. He gave some Apostles for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love 4. The 4. ingredient of Heresie is to hold and maintain an error in faith with frowardness and opposition to lawful determinations For though all Christians cannot perhaps in their judgements submit to all lawful determinations of controversies in Religion yet however these are thereby obliged to a passive obedience to possesse their souls in patience not to oppose the authority and disturb the peace of the Church Remembring 1. That the unity peace and authority of the Church in general is more to be valued then any particular mans satisfaction And 2. That the publique resolution of the Church is to be preferred before any private mans perswasion to the contrary That opinion of S. Cyprians concerning Rebaptization was in him but an error because the Church had not determined any thing for or against it but after the Church had defin'd it and adjudged Rebaptization unlawful Euseb eccl hist lib. 7. c. 2. 't was in all persons that maintained it not an error only but an Heresie To sum up all in few words A man becomes guilty of Heresie 1. By disheleeving any fundamental Article of Faith or neressary part of saving Truth in that sense as it was evermore received by the universal Church of Christ 2. By beleeving any superstitious Errors or Additions which do vertually and by necessary and evident consequence subvert any article of holy faith or overthrow a fundamental Truth 3. By beleeving and maintaining these or lesser errors then these with perversenesse and obstinacy after sufficient conviction 4. By beleeving and obstinately opposing private opinions in points of faith against the publique lawful Determinations of the Church to the contrary CHAP. IV. Of Schisme the nature and kindes thereof 1. SChism is so called from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide or rent the word is used 1 Cor. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there be no Schisms or divisions amongst you And because Schism and contention are inseparable twins what therefore in this verse are called Schisms in the next vers 11. are cal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there are contentions
endevours in the use of means so God gives his blessing thereupon That promise Jer. 31.34 they shall teach no more every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord for all men shall know me from the least to the greatest is expressed indeed to be fulfilled under the Gospel because the means of knowing God under the Gospel are more plentiful and effectual then under the Law Heb. 8.4,10 to wit through the reeelation of Jesus Christ and the miraculous inspiration of his Apostles immediately from heaven And whereas 't is promised Isa 54.13 thy children shall be taught of the Lord this promise is fulfilled in that we have the teaching the doctrine of the Lord Jesus even his holy Gospel who came down from heaven on purpose to teach us Tit. 2.11,12 Tit. 2.11,12 The grace of God which brings down salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying c. thus we are taught by the Lord Jesus outwardly in the doctrine of his Gospel and inwardly by the motions and dictates of his holy Spirit And yet for all this the best and most knowing of men arrive not to such a perfection of knowledge in his gifts as not to need teaching because whilest 1 Cor. 13.9,10 11,12 we are in this life we know but in part and prophesie but in part but when that which is perfect c. question 14 Whether they be not Antichrists and disobey Christ that have the chiefest places in Assemblies stand praying in the Synagogues which Christ did forbid his Disciples to act such things and cryed woe against those that did act them answer They that vain-gloriously affect the chiefest places in the Assemblies to offer up their private prayers standing in publique places that they may be seen and they that love to be called of men Master are hypocrites and sinners and lyable to the wo denounced by Christ against such But it is one thing to occupy the chief place in any meeting for some one must have it and another thing out of pride and vain-glory to affect it and so of being called Master 'T is one thing to stand praying in the publique Assemblies that the people may both see and hear and joyn with us and another thing to stand praying privately in publique meetings only to be seen and thought religious And whereas you seem to apply these mistaken and misunderstood sayings of Christ to all Ministers and most uncharitably demand whether such be not Antichrists to this I shall only say the Lord forgive you the hardness of your heart and unjust censures of your Christian brethren Is it a mark of Antichrist to preach and pray with the people of God in publique and at such times to stand in an higher and more convenient place that the people may hear and joyn with us examples of which practise I have already given you out of Scripture If we do these things in the pride of our hearts the Lord only knowes it and will avenge it 'T is not for you to censure and condemn us herein for in so doing you discover more pride of heart and look more like Antichrist then those you uncharitably taxe and term so question 15 Whether they be not Antichrists and of the Devill and no Ministers of Christ which doth not abide in the Doctrine of Christ answer They that swerve from the Doctrine of Christ are of the spirit of Antichrist 1 Joh. 4.6 And they that oppose the dictates and commands of the Spirit of truth speaking in the word are led by the spirit of error which is the Devil who was a lyer from the beginning and afterward coloured his lies and errors with the words of truth perverted Isa 8.44 Mat. 4.4.6 quoting and misapplying the Scriptures the better to insinuate his falshoods which things I could wish were not too appliable to you and your sect I am sure that your malice and hatred to Ministers because they oppose your errors your bitter envyings railings and revilings both of them and other your Christian brethren whom you call carnal the wicked and the people of the world your false and uncharitable applications of the woes and curses of the Scriptures to all such who are wiser then to be brought under your delusions and in a word your justifying your selves and condemning others are all of them undeniable signs that you are not led by the spirit of Truth which is the spirit of meekness and humility of unity love and charity Gal. 6.1 Col. 3.12,13 1 Joh. 4.6,7 Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error 1 Joh. 4.6 Even by love and charity therefore it followes Beloved let us love one another for love comes of God and every one that loves is born of God and knoweth God and he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love question 16 Whether they be not seducers that draw people from the anointing which is in them and tell them that they must be taught of man whereas the anointing teacheth them they need no man teach them but as the anointing teacheth them and the promise is to him that doth abide in it eternally answer By the anointing within 1 Joh. 2.27 is meant that measure and proportion of spiritual wisdome and understanding in the things of God whereby according to command we are enabled to try the spirits whether they be of God or no because many false Prophets are gone forth 1 Joh. 4.1 which the foregoing words doth imply c. 26. These things have I written unto you concerning them that deceive you Now this spiritual unction or knowledge of the truth which is from the Spirit whosoever hath received need not be taught of man if he abide in the truth which he hath received and do not give heed to seducing spirits And I would to God that all who are called the Lords people had their hearts sprinkled with this spiritual ointment and their eyes anointed with this eye-salve Rom. 3.38 that they might see to discern betwixt light and darknesse betwixt true Prophets and such as deceive the simple lest suffering themselves being blinde to be led by the blinde they both fall into the ditch Mar. 15.14 question 17 Whether they do not bewitch the people who withdraw them from the spirit within to observe the ordinances of the world and traditions of men without as the Galatians were bewitched Gal. 3.1 answer I must tell you that there is not only a holy and good spirit within and that 's but in too few but there 's also an evill and seducing spirit within and that 's in too many even the spirit that doth bewitch men and draw them aside from the doctrines and commands of the Spirit of truth and to strive by all means to draw the people off from giving heed to seducing spirits is not to observe the ordinances of the world and traditions of men as you pervert the text but to obey the commands of Gods true Spirit who foretelling of false
Prophets and false Spirits often in the Word commands exhorts admonisheth to beware of such not to give heed to such and not to beleeve every spirit but to try them 1 Tim. 4.12 Mat. 7.15 1 Joh. 4.1 question 18 Whether they be not seducers which tell people these are the ordinances of God which God never commanded as sprinkling Infants telling people of a Sacrament which there is no Scripture for and draw them from the spirit within to follow your in aginations and inventions answer They who are guilty of calling humane inventions Gods ordinances are seducers we confesse But for the sprinkling Infants as you scornfully call Baptism which is Gods ordinance for he hath ordained and commanded it to be observed I have already given you the grounds of it out of the Scriptures and we call it a Sacrament as being a terme best expressing the nature of it which you would confesse if you understood it And for the spirit within I have already told you out of Scripture that we are not blindfolded to follow the dictates thereof but to try them by the Spirit speaking in the Word And thus to draw men from the spirit within is not to follow our own imaginations since God by his holy Spirit commands the same question 19 Whether you have the same spirit which was in Christ the Apostles acd Prophets which gave forth the Scriptures seeing you act contrary to the Scriptures and follow your own inventions and tradition and so erre from them answer They that doe believe or act any thing contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles are not led by the same spirit but in saying that we do this herein I must tell you that you doe falsly and flatly belie us since both we can and you see we do prove our Ministerial actions to be agreeable to the Scriptures question 20 Whether ever Christ and his Apostles did first Baptize and then preach faith and repentance twenty or thirty years afterwards answer Christ himself was Baptized being a person not capable of faith and repentance for he was above both Heb. 12.2 of faith he was the author and finisher the person in whom we are to beleeve and of repentance he was not capable who knew no sin and the Baptism of Christ sure it is to be our pattern and grand example Joh. 3.16 1 Pet. 2.22 The Apostles also baptized many persons who had not true Faith and Repentance but were Hypocrites as Simon Magus Alexander the Coppersmith Demas Diotrephes And Simon Magus had repentance preached unto him after he was baptized many daies as the Text clearly expresseth Act 8.13,22 From all which Examples it is manifest that Faith and Repentance are not necessarily required of all persons as to the reception of Baptism but to the blessed effects and fruits thereof pardon of sin c. 2. Neither are children also absolutely and altogether destitute of Faith and Repentance they have these Graces in the power though not in the act In the seed though not in the fruit In the promise for and in their behalf though not in the present actual performance Therefore called the servants of God believers little ones that believe in me Lev. 25 41,42 Mat. 18.3,4,5,6,7 Act. 16.33 18 8. And under the general notion of families and housholds they are rankt amongst persons baptized converted and serving the Lord. question 21 Whether ever Christ and his Apostles received 160 or 200 pounds a year for preaching the Gospel answer Christ himself when he preached the Gospel was maintained by the gifts and benevolence of his Auditors who ministred unto him of their substance And the Apostles for preaching the Gospel had more I believe then 100 l. or 200 l. a year Mar. 15.41 for many of their Converts sold all their estates and brought it and laid it down at the Apostles feet For saith the Apostle If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things Act. 4.34,37 Rom. 15.27 1 Cor. 9.11 question 22 What Scripture is there to limit God to a place calling it a Church when as the Church is in God 1 Thes 1.1 answer We do not limit God to a place who is every where and filleth the World but yet after a special manner Jer. 23.23 Mat. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in his Name to worship him and call upon his Name there is he in the midst of them And this place of Assembly we call a Church because the Church or People of God do there assemble to his Service and 't is a Scripture term too though you know it not for as there is a Church in God and in Christ Jesus 1 Thess 1.1 1 Thess 1.1 that is persons devoted to Gods service in and through Jesus Christ So there is a Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 1 Cor. 11.22 The place namely where such persons do assemble and joyn in Divine Worship But since you cry down all distinctions as savouring of humane Learning whereby the naked truth of things might be clearly and distinctly seen as they are in themselves without conjunction with other things it is no marvel you are so blinde as not to distinguish men from houses persons from places the servants of God from the places of his service question 23 What Scripture is there to have a Clark to say Amen and to have groats a piece of the world for his trade answer 'T is the duty of all good people to say Amen to every good Prayer or what is spoken tending either to Gods glory or their own good and this you shall finde both commanded and practised in the Scriptures Psal 106 46. Neb. 8 6. 2 Pet. 3. ult Rev. 22.20 if you do but consult the Marginal Texts I may therefore rather demand of you why do not rather all the people say Amen then you ask of me why one man doth so And for the Groat he receives yearly of some persons in the world who are not all of the world as you uncharitably censure them I conceive it is not to be so much for saying Amen as for many other Offices wherein he is usefull both to Pastor and People question 24,25,26 What Scripture is there for taking money for burying the dead or to have ten or twelve shillings for Preaching a Funeral Sermon or to take money for marrying man or woman answer For our pains in labouring in the Word and Doctrine the Apostle gives this general rule 2 Tim. 5.17,18 The Labourer is worthy of his wages and what their wages is for their particular pains and labours in this or that Ministerial Function whether more or lesse is not of our choosing but partly the liberality of Founders and Benefactors partly custome amongst all people in all Christian Countries hath setled it question 27 When did any that was sent of Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel sue men at the Law answer We confesse that to be contentious and
and semblance of Revelations and Infusions and Qualifications of the Spirit of truth and this by sad experience we daily see to be too true and hath appeared in your several Questions Now God Almighty deliver you and all Christian people from under the power of such delusions 'T is the daily Prayer of your Christian brother R. S. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes 2 Tim. 2.23 A DISCOURSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT His Workings and Impressions ON THE SOVLS of MEN. With large Additionals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectum est Index sui obliqui London Printed by E. Cotes for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane 1656. To the truly vertuous The Lady Rebecca Bindlosse Madam THis following Discourse of the Holy Ghost his impressions and workings on the soul of man was first intended only for private satisfaction to your Ladiships pious desires That being well grounded in the Orthodox Doctrine and having a right understanding of the true Spirit of God it might be as an impregnable bulwark against so many suggestions and temptations of the false and deceitful spirit For the minde of man being either devoid of the Spirit of Grace and Holinesse or else of a right understanding of the things of Gods Spirit who is the Fountain both of Grace and Truth is too apt and prone to close with the suggestions of the evil spirit who is the author and promoter of sinfulnesse and error Never Age produc't so many spiritual Monsters as this wherein we live And I think few parts of England be so much infected with them as these Northern parts be They were very impudent and daring when they adventured to tempt your vertuous minde and by inticing words to allure your good opinion os them as full well knowing if they could but have effected thus much to have made you not an enemy to their proceedings though you did not close with them it would have given much lustre and credit to their erroneous Sect But God be praised that you are better grounded then to be proselyted by such Ignoramo's better resolved then to be taken with such shallow delusions which a good Christian with half an eye unprejudic'd may easily see through It is your goodnesse for Bonum quo melius eo communius to desire the publique communication of this short Discourse of the Spirit as a Doctrine both seasonable in respect of the many spreading infectious Errors so much prevailing amongst us and also necessary as an antidote against that contagion which issuing out of the mouth of Hell presumes most impudently and impiously to hide its venome under the name and title of the Holy Spirit I could wish the Doctrine were for this end more fully and satisfactorily cleared to the mindes of men by the Pen of some more Judicious Writer This mean Tract the Author in all humility acknowledges to be guilty of many defects and impertinencies and himself one of the meanest of the faithful and obedient sons of the Church The small acceptance it shall finde in the world will be derived from your white Name and Vertue in which Sanctuary it may escape the black-mouth'd Detractions of the Censorious and rest secure of the good acceptance if not benefit of others May you be every day more happy in the increase of all Christian vertues growing up in the knowledge of God and persevering in the constant Profession of his holy Truth and conscientious practise of the same till you arrive at the Haven of true Happinesse This Madam shall be the constant endevour and is the daily prayer Of your most faithful and affectionate Servant in Christ R. Sherlock ERRATA'S Pag. Lin. Read 1 9 what 7 9 substance 21 20 pastionis 58 9 conservation 74 5 a voice  9 the winde  10 His wil into their hearts 88 2 15 ch 91 17 to be offered 95 13 unlawful 96 17 to become 98 31 world 101 3 when 102 25 reciteth 104 5 our 106 4 unlearned  8 learning  14 who were honoured 107 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 124 14 watchings 124 35 onmity 127 18 acts 128 11 conscious 145 8 Maximilla 148 5 no need of teaching 156 11 these 158 3  171 9 I  8 Levit. 173 22 not necessary 179 19 thus 193 1 to be contentious  30 sick 201 32 Photinus 212 13 by out  18 our 213 5 even 225 34 these 231 15 from 234 18 your The Introduction and general Heads of the ensuing Discourse NO Age hath ever brought forth more pretenders to the Spirit of God then this wherein we live And amongst this Generation there be many so ignorant that they know not what they mean by that Spirit whereunto they so much pretend but blindfolded suffer themselves to be led by they know not whom and with the hoodwinckt Samaritans they worship they know not whom Joh. 4.32 Whose ignorance accompanied with excessive pride of heart which makes their ignorance the greater that through pride they will not know or acknowledge it upon this ground the Devill hath sown his crop and reapt his Harvest even the cursed tares of many and strong delusions for that subtil Serpent full well knows how both easily and powerfully to infinuate his Lyes and Errors into mindes unsetled and not grounded in the knowledge of the Truth So that most truly is that complaint of the Lord by his Prophet Hosea verified of this people Hos 4.6 Hos 4 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge even for lack of what they so much boast of That grand Enemy the Prince of Lyes hath taken them in the very Net themselves have made even in the snare of self-conceited knowledge and holiness whilest supposing themselves wise they became fools Rom. 1.22 And pretending to the Spirit of God whom they rightly know not they are intrapt by the Spirit of Error and miserably seduced to the ruine of their souls Hence it is chiefly though not only hence through ignorance intermixt with pride that the Devill hath made so great a harvest of tares overgrowing and choaking the pure wheat of Truth Mat. 13.25 No Age of the Church having ever been so fruitful in Heresies and Errors whilest the ever blessed Name of the Spirit of God is abused by persons most impudently pretending to him that yet remain ignorant of him for had they known this Lord of life it had not been possible the spirit of Delusion could have prevailed so far with them as to infix so many Lyes Impostures and Blasphemies upon his score as therefore Saint Paul directed the Athenians to the knowledge of the true God Act. 17.23 whom they ignorantly worshipped and so their pious intentions through ignorance degenerated into grosse Idolatries so it cannot but be an office both seasonable and charitable as also of great benefit and present necessity plainly to set down and deliver the true Orthodoxal Doctrine of the Holy Ghost his
admit at any hand of other spirit then their own of other truth then the vision of their own heads or of other directions then the motions of their own hearts rejecting renouncing and crying down all but what themselves call holy with the Donatists of old Quod volumus sanctum est that they will have to be holy right and true shall be so and nothing else 't is the very ground whereupon this last upstart crew of Quakers build all their resolutions and strange fanatick opinions and heresies even that which they call the light within us This say they is the only Judge we must follow the Pilot we must steer by the voice whereunto we must give ear the only Sanctuary to which we must flie for resolution never remembring how this sanctuary is profan'd by continual acts of spiritual fornication or idolatry therein committed whilest in stead and even in opposition to God and Spirit of all truth they enshrine and idolize their own fond vain and lying imaginations which the Lord by his Prophet cals the vanity and deceitfulnesse of their own heart Jer. 14.14 Jer. 14.4 The Lord said unto me The Prophets prophesie lies in my Name I have not sent them neither did I command them neither spake I unto them but they prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and vanity and the deceitfulnesse of their own heart 'T is undoubtedly necessary for every man to be perswaded in his own conscience both of the truth of what he believes and of the justice and equity of what he undertakes but yet this perswasion of the conscience or the following the light within us or the dictates of our own spirit is not the first ground and prime rule either of our faith or of our works For the conscience it self must be regulated or else it will often prove a false witness and most especially in the things of God for as conscience is is set betwixt God and us so it must speak from God unto us And our spirit or the light within us must be guided by the light of Gods Spirit shining in his word S. Paul thought verily he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus This perswasion arose from the light within him Act. 26.9,11 and hereupon he made havock of the Church which no man that is not infatuate will say was either fit or lawful to be done 'T was first in the heart of Judas to betray his Master Joh. 13.2 Such was the light within him and according to this light he walked till at last he hanged himself And this delusion of mans own spirit following the deceitfull dictates of his own heart is seldome mentioned in holy Scripture without heavie threats denounced both against such deluders and all that suffer themselves to be deluded by them Ezek. 13.3 as you may read Jer. 14.15,16 And again Ezek. 13.3 Wo unto the foolish Prophets which follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Nothing but what their own foolish spirit dictates to them Such are noted by the Apostle also Gol. 2.18 Col. 2.18 Who intrude into those things which they have net seen or which they understand not being vainly puft up by their fleshly minde Gloss Sensualitatis non rationis following the dictates of sense rather then of right reason and in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is remarkable for even by that 't is easie to distinguish betwixt the dictates of a mans own carnal and sensual spirit and the impressions of Gods holy Spirit for the guidance of the minde The dictate of the fleshly spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflatio a puffing up but the impression of the holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflatio an inspiration indeed but without inflation or puffing up The heavenly winde of Gods Spirit may fill but it never puffs up or swels the heart but rather humbles and abaseth the Spirit of man which is most conformable to the Spirit of Christ according to his own command Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 the minde that is either puft up with pride vain-glory and false conceited excellency in it self or that swels with malice hatred or envie towards others is not inspired with the celestial Breath or Spirit of the holy Jesus but follows its own carnal and corrupt dictates and conceits being thereunto raised and moved by that grand Impostor the spirit of Delusion Besides mans own carnal spirit there is also A spirit of the World opposing and poysoning the truths of Gods Spirit The Apostle distinguisheth and opposeth these each to other 1 Cor. 2.12 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have not received the spirit which is of the world but the Spirit which is of God which spirit of the world he cals a little before the wisdome of the world and of the Princes thereof vers 6. and opposeth the same to the wisdome of God vers 7. And what else can be this wisdome of the world but those humane policies so frequent in the world whereby men steer their actions to their worldly ends and interests with this spirit of the world are all such possest who having set up and enshrined the world in their hearts do thereupon ground their Religion and thence deduce all their reasons arguments and religious conclusions so that they can finde in their hearts to be thus far religious and to close with this or that sect society and opinion in Religion as it stands with their worldly profit pleasure credit preferment or the like It was from the dictates of this spirit that Jeroboam the Son of Nebat made Israel to sin pulling down the holy and true Religion established amongst the people by the Lawes of God and erecting two golden Calves at Dan and Bethel which became a snare unto the people who were thereby inveigled into idolatry the cause of their utter ruine and extirpation in the end 1 King 12.28,29 And what other Spirit was it that moved this wicked Usurper thereunto but that of his own worldly respects and interests there was no other way as this worldly spirit dictated to him to uphold his present estate and new gotten Monarchy so we read 1 King 12.26 1 King 12.26 c. And Jeroboam said in his heart Now shall the kingdome return to the house of David c. Rather then the people should return to their obedience to their liege Lord and Soveraign religion must down and the true worship of God be laid in the dust to make way for superstition and idolatry to be set up the Priests of the Lord shall be discarded and the lowest of the people exaltted to that dignity and to make the office more contemptible every one that list may take up the trade and consecrate himself to be a Priest of the high places 1 King 13.33 1 King 13.33 It was this very spirit also that stirred up the
High-priests and Pharisees to take counsell against our Saviour to put him to death for say they If we let him alone all men will believe on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Romans will come and take away our place and Nation Joh. 11.48 It was this spirit also that stirred up Demetrius the Silver-smith with the rest of the Crafts-men of the like occupation against St. Paul and his companions and the holy Christian Religion preached by them his Pretence was Religion such a kinde Religion as it was viz. Lest the Temple of the great goddesse Dianu should be nothing esteemed and her magnificence whom Asia and all the world worshipt should be destroyed but this Religion was blown by the winde of his own worldly ends his profit his gain which he got by making silver shrines for Diana was in danger to be lost and therefore it was now time for to stir not so much for the maintenance of her honour as his own profit Act. 19.27 Act. 19.27 And 't is this spirit of the world that possesses the greatest part of the world generally and for the most part men measure and square out their Religion by the rule of their profit or pleasure or preferment or credit and esteem amongst men or indeed at the best by the rule of self-preservation so far perhaps they will sail by the winde of Gods Spirit as the Sea of this world is calm peaceable pleasant and the navigation gainful or at least not chargeable but if any tempest arise any gusts of trouble or opposition against the truth blow in the face of its professors if any dammages or dangers pursue them in their course they presently tack about and will sail no longer by the heavenly winde of God but by the earthly winde of their own worldly ends and interests not by the winde which blows from heaven but by that which ariseth out of the caves and hollows of an earthly minde Jam. 1.6 2 Sam. 24.24 suffering themselves by this wind to be tossed to and fro and driven to be of this or that or any Religion that shall cost them nothing nothing of charge trouble or danger ebbing and flowing in this worlds vast sea as the tide either of prosperity or adversity danger or security makes for or against them But this surely is such a spirit as blows quite crosse and contrary to the spirit which guided and directed the Apostles for they finished their course over the troublous sea of this world to the celestial Canaan by sayling in all weathers encountring all oppositions and passing through all storms that met and opposed them In afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings c. 1 Cor. 6.4,5,6 1 Cor. 6,4,5,6 And yet in all these difficulties still faith the father Aug. The yoke of Christ is easie and his burthen light nay there is ease peace and comfort to the soul in the midst of all the troubles dangers wants or necessities that can in this life encounter us whilest the holy Ghost secretly by his comforts both cheers our spirits and fils the sails of our desires with the hopes of arriving safe in the end at the harbour of eternal peace and felicity CHAP. IX Of the Tryal of Spirits general 3 SInce then that grand malignant Spirit the enemy of our salvation working by these two Familiars mans own deceivable spirit and the spirit of the world doth thus many waies counterfeit poyson pervert and consequently obstruct impede and overthrow the workings of the Spirit of grace as an Antidote against this poyson of the serpent and that his countermines prevail not to the subversion of our souls we must make use of that friendly admonition of the Apostle never so necessary to be observed and practised as now 1 Joh. 4.1 Dearly beloved beleeve not every Spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God or no for many false Prophets are gone out into the world The admonition is twofold First negative Beleeve not every spirit Secondly positive Try the spirits and there is one general reason given for both because many false prophets are gone out into the world He then that shall be so credulous as to give heed to every one that pretends to the Spirit of truth and under that pretence treats of holy and spiritual things and shall not first by the rule of truth examine and try such things and persons shall be sure to have lies and errors obtruded upon him under the dresse and attire of Truth because there ever was and ever shall be by Gods permission and the Devils suggestion false Prophets or false Teachers in the world and yet as fair and great pretenders to the truth as the very true patrons and promoters thereof such there were ever in the Church of God both under the Law of old 2 Pet. 2.1 and under the Gospel anew 2 Pet. 2.1 But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you which privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and shall bring upon themselves swift destruction And 't were well if the poyson spread no further so that others were not infected therewith also but so nauseous is Truth to the mindes of men for its age and antiquity and so acceptable are Lies and Errors for their novelty that these false Teachers never fail of many disciples and followers so it followes vers 2. 2 Pet. 2 1. And many shall follow their destructions by whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of First then beleeve them not follow them not be not cousen'd by their fair pretences so as to be infected with their false doctrines 'T is our Saviours own command Mat. 24.23 Mat. 24.23 If any man shall say unto you Loe here is Christ or Loe there beleeve it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect But that being forewarn'd ye may be arm'd against their delusions Behold I have told you before Wherefore if they shall say unto you Behold he is in the desert go not forth Behold he is in the secret places beleeve it not The same care and caution was commanded by God to his people under the Law Deut. 13 1. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and give thee a sign or a wonder Vers 2. and the sign and the wonder which he hath told thee come to passe saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them 3. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of the Prophet or unto that Dreamer of dreams For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul From whence
four properties 1. 'T was Sudden 2. Vehement 3. From heaven 4. It filled the place where they were sitting All these are the properties of Gods Spirit whose motions and inspirations are First sudden and unexpected neither admitting of any delayes nor put-offs Ambr. For nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia Secondly vehement for the conversion and quite turning over of the soul he blowes upon 2 Cor. 10.4 casting down of strong holds the fortifications of sin and Satan and bringing into subjection every thought that exalts it self Thirdly from heaven as being the Spirit of God who dwelleth in the heavens and to heaven-ward wings and raises the soul which he inspires Fourthly it filled the house where they were sitting ever tends to the good of the Church 1 Pet. 2.5 which is the houshold of faith This heavenly winde never blowes but for the good of Gods houshold therefore are his people called a spiritual house By the two first of these qualities 't will be a hard matter to distinguish a false spirit from the Spirit of truth For as it is ordinary and common to every winde to be both sudden and vehement so 't is common to every spirit also both true and false nay commonly false and faigned spirits are more violent and vehement and make a greater noise and stir in the world then the true Spirit doth and there is good reason for it for the false spirit wanting the native strength and genuine efficacy of the truth to support it flies therefore to force and violence earnest zeal and forwardness to bear up in the mindes and good opinions of the world For the tryal of spirits then according to this rule we must look upon the two other properties of this divine winde which are not ordinary and common and not natural to that winde which blowes in the air First it came from heaven Windes do not naturally come from heaven but out of the caves and hollowes of the earth or out of the middle region of the air neither do they blow desursum downwards as this winde did but laterally from one coast or climate to another but this winde came directly downwards and de coelo from heaven it self Secondly it filled the house where they were sitting and no house but that The winde naturally blowes upon all places alike within its circuit but this winde blew electively as it were and by discretion making choice of one place only to blow upon and no other so that in both these respects it is manifest it was a winde extraordinary and supernatural And by these two properties we may try and examine both the truth of our own and of the spirits of others If first those desires opinions and actions which relate to Religion be from above if the ground thereof be fetcht de coelo from heaven so that they tend to make us heavenly minded to wean our hearts from the world to elevate and raise up our affections to things above to form and frame our conversations towards heaven Col. 3.2 If secondly they keep us within the pale and limits of the Church if they tend to the general benefit edification profit and good of the houshold of faith and to the conversation of peace and love and unity amongst Christians we may then be confident it is the heavenly winde the divine breath of the Almighty the holy Spirit of God that inspires them But if otherwise these motions and opinions that seem religious be either first grounded upon earthly and worldly respects have their private aims and intentions either of ambition vain-glory and popular applause as in some or of worldly profit benefit and preferment as in others or of hatred malice revenge as in a third sort of men or if secondly they tend to divisions schisme separation debate variance malice hatred envie c. If either they smell rank of the world or taste of any fruits of the flesh recorded Gal. 5.19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication c. Then this winde comes surely not from heaven there is nothing in it but what is either natural or worse suggested by the spirit of error 'T is either a revelation of flesh and bloud arising out of the caves and hollowes of an earthly minde or else it is inspired and blown from those regions of the air which are the habitation of unclean spirits 'T is not defluxus coeli a divine breath inspired from heaven but either exhalatio terrae a terrene exhalation drawn from the hollows of a corrupt heart or a blast from the spiritual powers of the air a suggestion of Satan And by this rule also every man may try himself whether he be truly sanctified by the Spirit of God or not He that shall find his soul possest with motions and desires weaned from all the pomps and vanities profits pleasures and cares of the world hungring and thirsting and breathing after heaven whose soul dwels more in heaven then on earth whose affections are set on things above and not on things below may be well assured of the Spirit of God dwelling in him For all such motions and desires are but sparks of that heavenly fire the flame whereof is mindful of its own original ever mounts the soul aloft works towards its own center and tends to the place from whence it comes To denote which ascending quality of the Spirit of Grace is one reason more why the holy Ghost is represented by fire Mat. 3.11 Because 't is the property of fire both flame and smoke to mount upward so 't is the property of every heavenly inspired soul to ascend both in contemplation and desires neither the more pure nor yet the more drossie part of the soul cleaves unto the dust and continually dwels below that is endued with power from above or with the Spirit of God And for the same reason amongst others also the holy Ghost is represented by water Joh. 7.38,39 because as 't is the property of water even against its own nature to ascend as high as is the place from whence it descends so even against the stream of natural corruption the soul is mounted to heaven by the influence of Gods spirit who cometh down from heaven And the wings which the holy Spirit hath for this ascension and flight are devout and fervent prayers divine and celestial meditations and desires CHAP. X. Of the means to obtain the true Spirit of God general 4 THE holy Spirit of God which in the shape of a dove the embleme of the Spirit of love descended upon Christ our Lord Mat. 3.16 and which afterward both visibly and publickly also came down from heaven Act. 2. and filled the Apostles of Christ extraordinarily and miraculously with his heavenly gifts and graces doth daily descend still upon the members of Christs mystical body though not in such a plentiful measure nor yet after such a visible miraculous manner
not so sublime and piercing as by its own innate force and vertue to be raised up and enrapt with celestial knowledge Wisd 9 15. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the minde that museth upon many things and hardly do we ghesse aright at things that are upon earth and with labour do we finde the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out and thy counsel who hath known except thou give wisdome and send thy holy Spirit from above For so the waies of them that lived upon earth were reformed and men were taught the things that are pleasing unto thee and were saved through wisdome 3. The first and fundamental act of faith then which is to believe this or that Article of holy Religion to be a divine truth and the subject matter of our obedience depends upon Divine Revelation and command from God He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 What thing so ever I command thee observe to do it Holy Religion is not of an earthly but of a heavenly descent It is a beam displayed from that light of truth which is eternal and immutable her dwelling is in the holy heavens Wisd 9 10. where she waits upon the throne of glory And to earth she descends not by any natural investigation but by supernatural revelation Mirand de fid oâ—d cred Omnis religio supernis revelationibus nititur aut niti praesumitur All religion depends upon revelation from above Flesh and bloud hath not revealed it but my Father which is in heaven Mat. 16.17 4. That there is a general knowledge of God and some notions of that religious worship we owe unto him imprinted in the hearts of all men by nature and is legible in the book of the creatures the Apostle affirms Rom. 1.20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead But this sight of God being not clear enough to bring us to the beatifical vision and fruition of God which is that perfection and felicity whereunto by being enstampt after the image of God he hath created c. therefore it hath pleased him more clearly to reveal himself and the waies of his religious worship to his Church and people in all ages And this either 1. extrardinarily and immediately or 2. ordinarily and in the use of means 5. The first revelation of divine truth was immediate i. e. without the mediation or ministry of man intervening But yet so as that 1. All those holy persons to whom God immediately revealed himself by certain infallible signs did themselves know and make known to others that the revelations they recelyed were no delusions but from God himself the fountain of truth proceeding God never speaks so extraordinarily but by the same act he both makes known the things spoken and himself to be the speaker 2. That all immediate revelation was generally confirmed by miracle therefore the Jews required signs of Christ as the means to confirm every new and immediate revelation Joh. 2.18 6.30 1 Cor. 1.22 3. That not all nay nor all holy persons but only some few choice select vessels had the honour of this immediate revelation the main body of the people still received the knowledge of God by mediation i. e. from their hands in whom the office of Priesthood was in all ages enstated For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they i. e. the people should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts Mal. 2.7 6. The truth whereof as also what we are to beleeve concerning divine revelation will appear if we do impartially consider and weigh 1. To what persons and after what manner God revealed himself from Adam unto Christ 2. That by Christ and his Apostles the whole minde of God is so fully revealed that we must not now look for the revelation of any new truths 3. That the right understanding of what is already revealed depends not upon Gods immediate inspiration or revelation from heaven but is to be acquired by Gods blessing in the use of means And that in order hereunto the knowledge of tongues and sciences is both useful and necessary 4. That to depend upon immediate revelation is not only dangerous but destructive to the truth already revealed 5. That all those texts of holy Scripture commonly alledg'd for the proof of immediate revelation are misunderstood and wrested OF DIVINE REVELATION Mediate and Immediate CHAP. I. Of divine Revelation from Adam unto Christ 1. MAn being created after the Image of God was undoubtedly at the first endued with such a perfect knowledge of divine truth as was necessary to the attainment of that felicity whereunto God created him viz. the beatifical vision and fruition of his Creator for ever For as Philosophers do affirm If it were possible that the invisible and all spiritual God could be represented under any visible or compounded shape and being His body then must needs be composed of Light and his soul of Truth So essential to the very being of God is knowledge and truth and so consequently to the being of man after the image of God 2. But this light of divine knowledge was by mans disobedience too soon eclipst and his soul involv'd in the darknesse of sinfulness ignorance and error our first parents out of a sawcy ambitious affectation to know what they ought not engulft themselves and all their posterity into a natural blindness and ignorance of what they ought to know so that ever since hoc tantum scimus quòd nihil scimus the most knowing man knowes best his own ignorance and want of knowledge For if any man think he knows any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 3. But since without the knowledge of God and of his most holy will that perfection of our being whereunto God hath created us cannot be attained Joh. 17.3 therefore it pleased God to restore our first faln parents in some measure to the knowledge of himself and of his will in the waies of his worship and this he did either immediately by himself or by the mediation of intervening Angels by the voice from heaven convey'd upon the wings of the winde for so we read Gen. 3.8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool or in the winde of the day Junins in loc winde conveying his voice into their ears and thereby his into their hearts 4. By vertue of this divine Revelation or some others not recorded in holy Writ Adam received from God both the knowledge of that religious service and obedience which God then required from man and therewithall the honour of the Priesthood also being as the first man so the first Priest in the world 5.
and the punishment of the wicked and withall prescrib'd him such rules of holy living whereby he might please God The authority of this revelation I shall not put to question but thus much out of holy Writ we are assur'd that God immediately revealed himself to Abraham calling and commanding him out of the land of Chaldea into the land of Canaan promising to him and his posterity this land as a type of Paradise or celestial Canaan entayling upon him and his posterity the priviledges and peculiar interests of Gods people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysost God making himself who is common to all to be Abrahams and his seed by peculiar interest and appropriation I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee Gen. 17.7 and withall revealing unto him that out of his loyns should come the promised Messias the defire of all nations and blessed Saviour of the world Gen. 22.18 In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed 16. These and what other revelations soever Abraham received immediately from God were upon this condition delivered to him that he should instruct his family who not immediately by revelation or inspiration from God but by the mediation and ministerial instruction of Abraham were to be taught the knowledge of God and of his holy Lawes upon this very ground God himself affirms himself to have revealed his will unto him Gen. 18.17 c. And God said Shall I hide from Abraham the things that I do c. For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. 17. From Abraham Isaac and Jacob the knowledge of God was by tradition transmitted from Patriarch to Patriarch and the Church or people of God now confin'd to the seed of Israel was by the several heads of their respective families instructed in the service of God till turning away after the Idols of Egypt God gave them up to a cruel bondage and slavery under the tyranny of Pharaoh In which great affliction when they besought the Lord he sent redemption to his people by the hands of Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen Psal 105.25,26 18. Moses the seventh from Abraham was selected and immediately call'd by God as to be the leader and deliverer of his people so his Law-giver also who receiving the minde of God by immediate revelation made it known unto the people The sum whereof was engraven in tables of stone and commanded to be kept as the standing rule of Gods worship and mans obedience to all posterity and the people were herein so far from depending upon immediate revelation that they petition'd to receive the minde of God by the mediation and ministry of Moses Exod. 20.19 Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die 19. The Law of God thus published and standing upon record there was now lesse need of immediate revelation then before the people of God had now a more sure word of prophesie then what formerly 1. By revelation from heaven 2. By tradition from Patriarch to Patriarch was delivered To these sacred writings therefore they were commanded to have recourse by them to be guided and directed and not to swerve from what was contained therein either to the right hand or to the left Josh 1.7 To the Law to the testimony if they speak not according to this word 't is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 Where all pretence to new lights is cut off and that pronounc't to be no true light which is not grounded on the Lawes of God 20. For the preservation of this law pure and inviolate a ministery or priesthood was ordained and by Gods special command transferr'd from the first born of every Tribe upon the Tribe of Levi. To them belonged the interpretation of the Law and the performance of all the sacred rites therein contained neither were the people either presumptuously to depend upon immediate revelation in respect of the one or sacrilegiously entermeddle with any part of the sacerdotal function in the other respect But as to the first 't was ordain'd that the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they i. e. the people should seek the Law at his mouth Mal. 2.7 And as to the second that no stranger that is not of the house of Aaron come neer to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Corah and his company Numb 16.40 21. But because there is nothing amongst men so well established but through the Devils suggestion and mans corruption 't is liable to depravation and abuse God was pleased the better to restrain both his Priests and people from the violation of his written Law to stir up in every age some choice and select persons whom he enabled more immediately and extraordinarily some to understand and clear the Truth and true meaning of his divine Law when 't was corrupted or obscur'd by mis-interpretations and false glosses others to foretell and pronounce both judgements to come upon the transgressors and mercies upon such as observ'd and kept his commandements whose inspired writings both by way of History and Prophesie Doctrine and Example Praying and Preaching are as so many commentaries of the Divine Law and compleat the Canon of the Old Testament which is reduc't by our Lord himself to these two general heads the Law and the Prophets Mat. 22.40 22. Thus from Adam unto Christ there is no pretence or colour for a people to depend upon immediate revelation the will of God being made known to his people generally and ordinarily by the mediation and ministery of man and but seldome and by a few choice persons and upon extraordinary occasions by immediate revelation The truth whereof will further appear and the weak grounds whereupon immediate revelation depends will be discovered in the succeeding chapters CHAP. II. Of the several manners of extraordinary and more immediate Revelation 1. GOD at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past to our fathers Heb. 1. The divers manners of Gods extraordinary revelation of himself to his people of old are reducible to six heads 1. By the ministery of Angels who frequently appeared in humane shape and revealed the minde of God to some of his choice extraordinary servants as Gen. 32.1,2 Zach. 1.9 Mat. 28.2.5 Act. 23.9 and many of those Texts wherein 't is said the Lord appeared unto such and such are to be understood of the appearance of Angels Ob honorem sc mittentis ut plena sit ejus authoritas hoc dr isti qui missus est quod est illi qui misit ut saepius factum est de Angelis Clem. Rec. lib. 2. see for this Exod. 3.2 compar'd with Act. 7.30 where in one place 't is said the Lord appeared unto Moses in the other an Angel of the Lord and Exod. 29.20 ch compar'd with Act. 7.53 and Exod. 23.20,21
Not that any Angel presumed to be called by the name of the Lord or to be worshipped as God but to adde the greater weight and authority to the message he brought from the Lord the messenger was called by the name of the Lord that sent him 2. By Dreams as Numb 12.6 Is there a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream and Job 33.24 c. For God speaketh in a dream in the vision of the night then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction Quia anima clausis sonsibus exteriortbus ad recipiendam revelationem magis est apta quia tunc non est per occupationem sensuum exteriorum impedita Lyr. in Mat. 1. And the reason hereof is because when the outward senses are shut the inward soul is more apt to receive the impression of divine revelation being no way then hindred by the working of the exterior senses upon outward sensible objects Thus the Lord revealed himself to Jacob Gen. 28.12 To Daniel Chap. 7.1 To Joseph Mat. 2.13,19 3. By external representations and appearances when awake as Jer. 1.11,12,13 Ezek. 1.4 c. and this was accompanied sometime with the extasie and entrancing of the person who received such visions as Dan. 10.8,9 St. Paul was in an extasie when he was caught up into the third heaven so that he knew not for that time whether his soul was cloathed with humane flesh or separated from it 2 Cor. 12.2 4. By internal inspiration of the holy Ghost without any such extasie or abolition of sense as Job David and many others were inspired and yet we read not that they were extasied or entranced as 2 Pet. 1.21 Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost There is an ordinary moving by the holy Ghost for every good motion every spark of celestial fire whether for illumination or sanctification is from him And there is an extraordinary motion of the Spirit in the Prophets of the Old and Apostles of the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were acted or carried by the holy Ghost and spake as they were thus incited by God And those under the New Testament were also honoured with this extraordinary manner of divine revelation upon whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Ghost fell Act. 10.44 and they spake with tongues and of whom 't is said by imposition of the Apostles hands they received the holy Ghost Act. 8.17 5. By Vrim and Thummim the one signifying light and the other perfection they were two ornaments in the High-priests breast-plate but how and after what manner they gave their answer is diversly delivered The learned Jewes say that the names of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs with this addition All these are the Tribes of Israel In which names and words all the letters of the Alphabet are contained And by the prominency and shining of those letters the answers were received and communicated to the people 6. By a voice from heaven called by the Hebrews Bath-col the daughter of a voice or the production of thunder and this was usually conveighed into the ears of the persons that heard it upon the wings of the winde as before is remembred to Adam Gen. 3.8 So also to Elias 1 King 19.11,12 To Christ Mat. 3.17 And his Apostles received the holy Ghost in a mighty rushing winde Act. 2. These were the divers waies of more immediate revelation of old which were not ordinary and common but at sundry times and upon special and extraordinary occasions either upon some great work of Judgement or mercy from God to his people or of repentance and new obedience from the people unto God All which waies of divine revelation are long since ceased in the Church of Christ as being furnished with sufficient means of instruction in righteousness and saving knowledge without any such manners of extraordinary revelation Ecc. polit l. 1. sect 14. for as the judicious Hocker observes Since God himself hath therefore revealed his will because men could not otherwise have known so much as is necessary his surceasing to speak unto the world since the publishing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the delivery of the same in writing is to us a manifest token that the way of salvation is now sufficiently opened and that we need no other means for our full instruction then God hath already furnished us withal There are 3. Reasons amongst others why God was pleased in such divers manners to reveal himself of old but in these last daies to surcease the use of any such revelations 1. Because the people of God had either 1. No Scripture at all as from Adam to Moses Or 2. The written Law only as from Moses to Samuel Or 3. The Lawes and the Prophets only as from Samuel to Christ but we have both Law and Gospel Prophets and Apostles the revelations of God both new and old sully and sufficiently delivering the will of God unto us 2. Gods people of old looked unto Christ for to come and waited for that light which was yet to be revealed but we believe in Christ already come and are made partakers of that true light which displayed from Christ the Sun of righteousness does fully discover unto us the waies of Gods service and of our own salvation so that it is as needless for us now to depend upon new revelations or set up new lights as to hold candles to the sun when it shines in its fulness of splendour 3. The Jewes being curious of knowing things to come and withall prone to Idolatry that therefore they might not have recourse to soothsayers and sorcerers nor run a whoring after Idols God frequently sent them Prophets extraordinary and then they had most such Prophets sent when they were most Idolatrous But now all idol-temples are broken down and their Oracles long since ceased so that there is no such danger among Christians of other Idolatry or Image-worship as that Idolatry which is too usual and common to worship the imaginations of their own hearts whereunto those of all others are most prone who most depend upon new revelations CHAP. III. Of an extasie natural and supernatural and the difference between Divine Extasies of old and Diabolical Entrancings and Inspirations 1. AS God is the fountain of Truth which is derived unto us by revelation from him so the Devil is the father of Falshood and lies which deduce their original from his secret and subtil inspirations And herein the Devil is Gods Ape cunningly following the same waies of seduction and deceit observed by God for the conveyance of his saving Truth So that where God has his Church the Devil hath his Chappel and where God has his true Prophets the Devil hath his false Prophets also And the several waies of Divine Revelation observed by the one are imitated by the other viz. by
he fometh again and bruising him hardly departeth from him 2. The Lords Prophets when abstracted from the use of sense in their extasies were so far from losing the use of their Reason and Vnderstanding that the very end why they were deprived of the use of their senses for the time was that their understanding being more intense might more clearly because more immediately receive the Truths revealed But false Prophets when entranced by the evil spirit were depriv'd of their understanding as well as of their senses so that oftentimes themselves understood not their own Prophesies and pretended Revelations as Chrys out of Plato alledges Ibid. They say many things and good but they know not themselves what they say And this is ordinary with most Enthusiasticks confusedly to talk much of holy things and to heap together Scripture phrases so much without order and right application to the clearing of any truth they would seem to affirm that as they themselves know not well what they say nor whereof they affirm so is it very unlikely that any man else should rightly understand their meanings 3. The Prophets of the Lord had never any motions from the good Spirit but what tended unto good and not to the least harm either of themselves or others But such as were entrarced by the evill spirit had motions to do harm and mischief both to themselves and to others also As Saul would have killed David in his Prophet-like trances 1 Sam. 18.11 And Prisca and Maximilla two heretical Prophetesses and great pretenders to immediate revelation hanged themselves in one of their counterfeit Revelation Extasies which will further appear in the 16. chapter of this Discourse 4. All that was delivered unto or uttered by the true Prophets of God in any of their Extasies were for the good and edification of the Church and people of God But all the revelations of false Prophets are at the best unprofitable useless and vain if not destructive to the Truth The lies errors and deceits the blasphemies and devilish doctrines which these counterfet extasies and revelations have brought forth are both manifold and notoriously manifest also But that ever any saving truth either not known before or not understood hath in these last daies been by immediate revelation discovered cannot I believe by the greatest Enthusiast of the Age be made to appear Chrys in Mat. c. 7. Hom. 19. S. Chrysost gives us two rules whereby to know true Miracles and consequently true Revelations also from such as are false and counterfeit 1. If necessary as to the time and occasion of them 2. If usefull and profitable as to the issue and fruits thereof but if neither of these concur in a Miracle or Revelation they are false and illusive and to be ascribed rather to the cunning of Satan then to the power of God 5. The Visions and Prophesyings of the Lords Prophets were at all times and altogether true having not the least mixture of error or falshood therein But those of the false Prophets are sometimes true and sometimes false and sometimes neither true nor false but of such a dubious nature as to be seemingly true not only in several but even in contrary senses Et est evidentis judicii c. 'T is evident enough that those things are not from the true God wherein there is the least mixture of falshood or of a lye in any particular Et in his qui mentiuntur Iren. proem advers Haer. saith Irenaeus Even in lying vanities and doctrines of Devils there is ever some truths entermixed that under the covert thereof the falshood and deceit may unperceivably pass and be entertain'd Thus though the Diabolical spirit appear in the likeness of holy Samuel and the Extasies and entrancings of false Prophets be like unto those of the Lords Prophets yet 1. By their wilde exotique gestures and vexatious agitations 2. By their loss of the use of their reason and understanding for the time 3. By their harmful motions and mischievous incitements 4. By the uselesnesse and unprofitableness of their revelations And 5. though they may speak much truth yet by the least intermixture of falshood and of a lie therewith they may easily be distinguisht the one from the other But to leave these extraordinary means of divine Revelation so long ceased in the Church of God and not of late pretended unto but by Impostors and seduced persons which will appear yet further by considering in the next place the ordinary means of divine Revelation before Christ and their Schools of the Prophets CHAP. IV. Of the ordinary waies of Divine Revelation before Christ 1. THE ordinary means whereby God revealed and made known his will unto his people were in the firster ages the Tradition or delivery of divine Truths from Patriarch to Patriarch together with the Catechetical instructions of the first born and heads of families in whom the several offices of King Priest and Prophet were pro tempore enstated These divine truths were not at the first committed to writing because the years of the first Patriarchs were so many Hook eccl pol. l. 1. ser 13. that their memories might well serve them in stead of books the imperfections and defects whereof God mercifully relieved by often putting them in minde of what was most necessary to be remembred by them In which respect it is easie to observe how many times one thing hath been iterated even to sundry of the best and wisest amongst them And thus it continued in the Church of God which was governed and instructed by a traditionary and unwritten Law from Adam to Moses 2. When the lives of men upon earth were shortned The written Law of God as a surer and more durable means of divine Revelation was commanded to be the Rule of their actions But yet not so as that 't was permitted to each man to give his own sense and make his own interpretation of this divine Law at will and pleasure but 't was to be expounded to them by the consecrated Priests and lawfully called Prophets of God in all ages Neh. 8.4,5 c. Mal. 1.7 Luk. 4.17 Act. 8.30.37 3. And this way of revealing the will of God in the exposition of his holy Lawes did differ much in the time of the first and of the second Temple For under the second Temple Prophesie by extraordinary Revelation generally ceased and hereupon came in a multitude of other Expositors Scribes and Pharisees Wisemen and Disputers 1 Cor. 1.20 to all whom the people were commanded to give ear and to seek the Law at their mouth Mat. 23.2,3 The Scribes and Pharisees saith our Lord sit in Moses chair whatsoever they say unto you observe and do it 4. God ordinarily revealed himself as by his Word and the interpretations thereof so by his Works in several instances of his providence and acts of his service commanded E. G. The delivery of his people out of Aegypt was a revelation of Christs
ubique ab omnibus at all times in all places by all persons Councels and Fathers and is by the merciful providence of God in spite of all opposition from Infidels Heretiques and Schismatiques brought down unto us Prov. 3.5 This Faith must be the rule according to which we must steer our interpretations of holy Scriptures not leaning to our own understanding or abounding in our own sense but ever submitting our private judgement to the publique judgement of the Church which in the Apostles own times was commanded when the gift of prophesie or interpretation of Scripture was by more immediate and extraordinary inspiration communicated yet even then the judgement of the Church was to be allowed in the interpretation of Scripture 1 Cor. 14.29 Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge objection But 't is here objected Numb 16.14 Wilt thou put out the eyes of these people must we not see with our own eyes but only with those of the Church Shall we pin our faith upon any mens sleeves What need we the authority of men when we have Gods own authority for our direction and men are but men i. e. frail and liable to error so that all they affirm is not to be taken for Gospel In answer whereunto consider answer 1. That there is a great deal of difference betwixt an implicite faith and blinde obedience to the dictates of the Church and a submission to the publique judgement thereof The first deprives the people of their reason and judgement the second renders them more meek humble submissive and obedient and thereby more capable to receive the impression of the knowledge of celestial mysteries 2. Nihil carum rerum scire quae antè nascereris sacta sum hoc est semper esse puerum Cic. That we assert not the ancient and learned Fathers of the Church ut dominos sed ut duces fidei Not as Lords over our faith but as guides in the true belief And he that knows nothing of the Religion of the Fathers for his guidance and direction is most likely still to continue a childe in his religion Nor 3. Quicquid omnes vel plures uno eodemque sensu manifestè frequenter perseveranter velut quod am sibi consentiente concilio accipiendo tenendo tradendo firmaverint id pro indubitato certo ratoque habeatur Quicquid vero quamvis ille doctus sanctus quamvis Episcopus praeter omnes aut etiam contra omnes senserit id inter proprias privatas opiniunculas à communis publicae generalis sententiae authoritate secretum sit Vinc. Lyr. are we to receive for Oracle all that the ancient reverend Fathers of the Church did affirm being very few amongst them but had their particular errors and mistakes and in many particulars also 't is confessed they did contradict each other 'T is not therefore the affirmations and private opinions of particular persons we must look upon as the Doctrine of true Religion and true meaning of the Scriptures but the general and universal consent of all for that all should erre and fall from the truth is contrary to what our Lord hath promised who will undoubtedly be as good as his word Mat. 16.18 Vpon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it and Mat. 28.20 I am with you alway even to the end of the world In a word in the interpretation of Scriptures and for the confirmation of holy truths thence deduced the authority of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church is to be consulted and known for these reasons 1. Because they are certain and undeniable witnesses of what the Church and the people of Christ did in their respective times believe and hold for orthodox Doctrine If the same doctrine St. Augustine taught in Africk was also taught by St. Chrysostome in Greece by St. Ambrose in Italy by St. Hierome in Palestine and so in other places by holy and reverend Bishops and Pastors of the Church then this undoubtedly was the doctrine of the Church and thus were the holy Scriptures understood in those ages of the Church Ita intellexit Ambrosius ita Cyprianus c. Thus Ambrose thus Cyprian understood such or such a place of Scripture this had some weight in St. August time and St. Aug. opinion and there is no reason but that it should be of the same force still amongst us 'T is no way probable but that persons so eminent in learning and in piety so frequent in holy prayers and meditations in fastings and wailings so indefatigable in their studies and labours in the Word and Doctrine and who laid down their lives and fortunes for the doctrine they preached should more truly understand the Scriptures and the truth of Christian Religion then we who if there be any thing of Modesty and Humility in our hearts must confesse our selves far inferiour to them in the said gifts and graces of the holy Spirit Vsque adeo promiscuit imis summa longus dies c. Aug. Hath time so confounded all things is light so changed into darkness and darkness become light ut videant Pelagius c. that Haeretiques now are the only seers Et caeci sunt Hilarius Cyprianus Ambrosiùs And the learned pious Fathers of the Church become blinde The words are too much appliable to the Heretiques of the times 3. The judgement of the Fathers being so far remote from these times wherein we live must needs be impartial as to the controversies amongst us touching the interpretation of any texts of Scripture or doctrines therein delivered as being altogether disinterested and knowing nothing of our disputes and contestations thereabouts Nullas nobiscum vel vobiscum amicitias attenderunt c. Aug. contra Julian Pelag. They were neither in friendship nor in community with us or with them who in this age are of a contrary opinion to us they were neither angry with us nor them neither did they pity either of us but what they found professed in the Church they faithfully preserved what they learned they taught and what they received from their fathers they delivered unto us their children and undoubtedly Survey of the pretended discipline as a learned man of our Church observes they that contemn the learned Fathers that went before them do but open a gap to their own discredit making way thereby to be contemned themselves by all those that shall come after 4. We cannot but reasonably imagine that those holy and learned persons who lived nearer the Apostles times should proportionably know better the Apostles meaning in their writings and the doctrine they preached then any of us who live so many hundred years since Therefore saith Irenaeus Iren. l. 3. ch 4. who was the Disciple of Polycarpus the Disciple of St. John Where any question ariseth and the holy Scripture as 't is too common Vinc. Ler. is so perverted as
to be made speak for both sides whither shall we have recourse for satisfaction but to the ancient Churches of Christ in which the Apostles converst from thence to hear what the truth is viz. Quid Apostoli quid primi fideles quid corum successores c. what the Apostles what their Disciples and successors what the primitive Saints and Martyrs Councels and Fathers have received taught and delivered unto others For what came the word of God out from you or came it unto you only 1 Cor. 14.36 Since the Word of God comes not first to us but by and from the Church it is delivered it followes that the sense and meaning of Gods word must not spring from our own heads but to be by and from the Church delivered together with the word The learned Doctor Whittaker in his disputes against the authority of the Church Whit. de sac Q. 3. con 1. c. 2. Dupl advers Staplet as it is by some Romanists preferred before the authority of holy Scriptures doth yet acknowledge these four offices in the Church in order to the Scriptures 1. That the Church is the Register and conserver of the Scriptures 2. The Judge both to discern and define what Scriptures are Canonical and what Apocryphal 3. To be the promulgator or publisher of them to all its members the people of God where ever dispersed over the face of the earth And 4. To be the interpreter and expounder of them and in these respects to contemn or neglect the Ministry and Testimony of the Church is the way to erre from the faith saith he to rush into certain destruction And in these cases I may very well adde the words of our Lord He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen or a Publican Mat. 18.17 CHAP. XII Three inferences hence appliable to the general subject of the whole discourse ANd now if we lay all these together The knowledge of Tongues and Languages of History and Antiquity of Arts and Sciences as Rhetorick Logick natural and moral Philosophy of the Analogie of the true Faith and of the Doctrine of the Church Councels and Fathers all which do appear necessary to the right understanding of holy Scriptures we may very well hence infer 1. That the work of the Ministry in the interpretation of the Scriptures is not so slight and easie a business as too many persons now a daies make of it And they who can so easily run from the plough to the pulpit and from the meanest trades and employments of the world to intermeddle with the most sublime and celestial mysteries of godliness who pretending to the Spirit and yet have not these gifts of the Spirit and to divine Revelation being altogether devoid and destitute of the means thereof do thereby become vain in their imaginations liable to strong delusions giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils and that for want of learning 1 Tim. 4.1 which they do therefore despise only because they want it they do pervert and wrest the Scriptures to their destruction And 2. That 't is not immediate Revelation we must depend upon for the right understanding of holy Scriptures since these several parts of what is called humane learning hath appeared necessary thereunto for otherwise 't was in vain that 1. The Apostles of Christ which at the first were illiterate should be extraordinarily and miraculously endued with the gifts of learning 2. That such persons should be called both ordinarily and extraordinarily to the Prophetical office as were eminent for learning and knowledge not immediately infused but by their studies and industry and Gods blessing thereupon acquired 3. That it were also in vain we should be commanded to hear read study meditate seek search and dive for knowledge 4. That in vain also hath God of his great mercy afforded us the writings directions and instructions of holy and learned men in all ages 'T is an undeniable truth that Deus natura nihil faciunt frustra There are no arts of the divine Providence useless and unprofitable But as God of his great mercy is never wanting to give what is needful so of his great wisdome he is never lavish in giving more then is needfull Vnumquodque propter operationem suam God hath made all things for their uses every book and every writing of the learned orthodox and holy and every tongue and every science in every such book is for the manifestation of some truth and the profit of some soul That I am sure is the end of Gods Spirit thereby what ever may be the end of mans For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 3. And thirdly we may very well hence infer also that 't is an over bold rash and saucy presumption in any persons of what quality or breeding soever to assume the office of Priesthood and start up preachers of the Gospel being not first well studied and endowed with the several qualifications of learning and knowledge requisite thereunto Adde hereunto the dignity of those precious jewels committed to their charge viz. The immortal souls of men which are of so great value before God as neither gold silver nor any corruptible thing could redeem them 1 Pet. 1.18 but the bloud of Christ the eternal Son of God as a lamb without blemish now that which cost our Redeemer so dear and is designed either to eternal happiness or eternal misery according as 't is more or lesse wisely and carefully ordered requires surely such a guide and pastor as is not only wise learned and discreet but also vigilant careful and conscientious Under the Law how unwilling was Moses to be sent on the Lords message though he was a learned man Exod. 3. and so was Jeremy also I am a childe and cannot speak Jer. 1.6 And many others cautious of their own weaknesse and of the great abilities required to the execution of so great a function have more safely declined then arrogantly assumed the same Greg. de cura past l. 2. c. 7. Hinc quique praecipites colligant c. from hence all forward novices may observe how great a guilt of sinful presumption they contract who set up themselves to be teachers of others whilest they have yet need to be taught themselves since that yet holy men of God were afraid to undertake so weighty a calling even when God himself called and commanded them thereunto Under the Gospel Christ himself who is the word of God and the wisdome of the Father would not preach till he was 30. years old Vt vim saluberrimi timoris Greg. ibid. c. That he might infuse the vertue and efficacy of wholsome fear and caution into the hearts of the over forward since he who could not erre in his preachings would not yet preach the waies of perfection and felicity till he was of perfect age The Apostles of Christ
notwithstanding that they were conversant with Christ all the while he continued preaching the Gospel upon earth daily heard his heavenly Doctrine as it distilled from his own mouth and saw the miracles he did for the confirmation thereof and though they were endued in some measure with the gifts and graces of the Spirit before his ascension For he breathed on them c. Luk. 24.45 He opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures yet all this was not thought sufficient to preach and open the mysteries of the Gospel to the world but they were forbidden to do it till they received additional gifts of learning and knowledge from above Luk. 24.49 Tarry you at Hierusalem till you be endued with power from on high Gloss ordin in Loc. Vt exemplum sequentibus daretur c. Giving example to all posterity that no weak and illiterate persons wanting the gifts of Tongues Arts c. presume to intermeddle with preaching or unfolding the mysteries of the Gospel 'T is recorded of the great St. Basil and Nazianzen Ruffin Lib. 2. cap. 9. that after their long studies in saecular learning they continued for the space of thirteen yeers together in a monastery giving themselves to the study of holy Scriptures the sense and meaning whereof they fetcht not out of their own heads but out of the writings and authority of the ancients to whom by succession from the Apostles the rule of right understanding the Scriptures was apparently known The order of divine wisdome and providence in the dispensation of holy truths to the world is worth our observation out of 1 Cor. 12.4,5,6 There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit there are diversities of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but the same God that worketh all in all From hence it is easie to observe that there must be gifts before administrations i. e. 1. A man must be qualified with gifts fit for every calling before he receive administration or be ordained to that calling 2. There must be administration before operation i. e. A man must be lawfully ordained to a calling before he work or labour therein So in the great calling of the Ministry the gifts of the Spirit must precede or go before before Letters of administration be taken And 2. a lawful ordination must be taken before operation or working therein And he that either 1. assumes this high and sacred function Bish Ands. serm in 1 Cor. 12.14 c. being not qualified with gifts contemns the Spirit from whom they come Or 2. He that labours in the word and Doctrine though he be gifted being not also lawfully ordained contemns the Lord from whom all administrations come and who hath instituted and commanded ordination thereunto Or 3. He that being both gifted and lawfully ordained is not industrious in this calling contemns God the Father of all operations who worketh all in all He that thinks any of these superfluous may as well question whether some one Person of the Trinity be not superfluous also even that Person from whom comes that part of the division which he slights and contemns As it is therefore in the order of the Trinity as the Father begets the Son and from the Father and the Son proceeds the holy Ghost So in this Division the gifts of the Spirit beget the Lords Administration or calling to the Ministry and both together produce the operation or labour therein which is the work of God and as no man comes to Christ but by the holy Ghost so no man comes lawfully to the calling but by the gifts and as no man comes to the Father but by the Son so no man comes to the work but by the calling CHAP. XIII The internal and divine qualifications of the soul as to the understanding of holy Scriptures 1. T Is confessed that all the external parts of humane learning already remembred though they be the gifts and blessings of Gods Spirit and necessary helps to the opening of the Letter and right understanding of the literal and genuine sense of Gods word yet are not in themselves alone sufficient to attain a true and throughly saving knowledge thereof except our souls be enricht as with the outward gifts so with inward graces of the holy Spirit also Truth and Holiness are the two inseparable constituent parts of spiritual wisdome and to understand the truth or true meaning of the Spirit of Truth in the word the Spirit of holiness must necessarily concur And this is most eloquently expressed Job 28. where after a most high and magnificent expression of the praises great price and value of true wisdome a view is taken of all the parts of the world where it might be found gold and silver iron and brasse all useful metals and precious stones have their places though secret designed them but where shall this rich pearl where shall wisdome be found and what is the place of understandings Vers 12. It is not found in the land of the living the depth saith It is not in me and the sea saith It is not in me Vers 14. It is hid from the eyes of all living and kept close from the fowls of the air vers 21. The most Eagly sighted Philosophers and wisemen of the world who have viewed the natures properties and causes of all things not in the earth alone but in the heavens also even the courses influences and operations of the Sun Moon and Stars have not yet attained true wisdome how then shall we finde it out it followes God knoweth the place thereof and he understandeth the way thereof vers 23. And he hath said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from evil is understanding briefly describing both the place of wisdome and the way thereunto even the way of piety and obedience And of that piety which is necessarily requisite to the understanding of holy Truth there are several species or particular parts which from the example of holy Bernard may be thus reckoned up Qui ut legeret intelligendi fecit cupiditas ut intelligeret oratio impetravit ut impetraret quid nisi vitae sanctitas promeruit His earnest desire of knowledge made him studious and industrious in reading his fervent prayers obtained the understanding of what he read and his holy life made his prayers effectual for the enlightning of his understanding and thus he must desire thus study thus pray and thus live who will attain that knowledge which shall make him wise to salvation 1. The first divine qualification of the soul requisite unto knowledge is the desire thereof The beginning of wisdome is the desire of instruction Wisd 6.17 Come unto me all ye that be desirous of me and fill your selves with my fruits Ecclesiasticus 24.19 and what is more authentick If thou seekest wisdome as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and
ministerial gifts may be obtained in the use of outward means without the internal sanctification of soul which consists in charity or love which is the fulfilling of the Law 2. But then secondly The gift of prophesie with all the wisdome and knowledge of holy things though they may be and often are useful for the edification of others yet are they altogether fruitless and ineffectual to the person that hath them if not animated by the grace of charity or obedience to the Lawes of God for so they are not much unlike a candle in a dark lanthorn which casteth its light abroad upon others leaving the person that holds it in darknesse CHAP. XV. The dangerous and destructive consequences of and depending upon immediate Revelation HEe that pretends unto or depends upon any further Revelations from heaven then God in his great mercy hath already afforded unto his Church and people viz. 1. His written Word 2. Those several means and helps forementioned both divine and humane outward and inward for the right understanding of his Word by the blessing of God and the secret influence of his holy Spirit upon our studies and meditations therein laies himself open to manifold temptations and dangerous seductions of the spirit of error and delusion and as much as in him lies subverts the very foundation of the holy Christian Faith for hereupon these destructive inconveniencies must needs ensue 1. The canon of holy Scripture is transgrest and dissolv'd by the superaddition of new Revelations and the authority of Gods Word is made null and void that must passe for a dead letter when the fictitions dreams and delusions of every idle enthusiastical brain under the mask of Revelations shall be mistaken and miscalled too The quickning Spirit And he that sets up any thing of Religion to the dishonour of holy Scriptures Optal 1.3 1. saith the Father he doth aedificium de ruina construere erect a building upon the ruines of Gods truth and such a building can be no better but an heap of errors and deceits For what will not he dare to affirm and hold who holds any thing besides or above or but equal to the Word of God for the Rule of Faith Hereupon the Resurrection hath been denied and the last judgement and the necessity of all holy just and good works the necessary consequences of these points of our faith for he that believes not the Resurrection and last judgement Quid boni aut veri what holy Truth will he care to believe or what good action will he make conscience to practise 2. He opposes himself to the doctrine of the universal Church of Christ for 1600 years together who with one unanimous and common consent have received the holy Scriptures as the very canon of Faith without addition or diminution without ever hoping or waiting for any new Revelations to be superadded thereunto and very good reason sure if that dismal curse wherewith the canon of holy Scripture is concluded have any influence upon the mindes of men Rev. 22.18.19 If any man adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book c. 3. And more particularly he makes void all those commandements of God to search the Scriptures to hear read meditate and study and delight our selves in the Lawes of God For all immediate Revelation of Gods will presupposes the knowledge of the truth without any search study c. The contempt or neglect of which duty hath sad and heavie judgements threatned thereunto as Jer. 9.13 c. And the Lord saith Because they have forsaken my Law which I set before them And have walked after the imagination of their own heart I will feed them with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink I will scatter them among the heathen c. with manifold texts to the same purpose both in the old and new Testament as Prov. 13.13 28.9 Psal 81.11,12 Zach. 7.12.13 Joh. 5.45,46 12.48 4. He makes void and unnecessary the sacred function of the Priesthood or Ministery which God hath in all ages ordained and setled in his Church as to mediate with God for the people so to instruct the people from God And this sacred office God hath both confirmed by miracles and by testimony of his blessings ordinary and extraordinary and guarded the same by many direful threatnings denounced and many heavie judgements inflicted upon such as have or shal sacrilegiously violate infringe or usurp this office or neglect refuse or contemn to hear the word of God in the mouthes of his Prophets and faithful Ministers See amongst many other places Jer. 5.12 c. Because the people belied the Lord and said It is not he when he spake by his Prophet And because they said moreover The Prophets shall become winde and the word is not in them Therefore thus saith the Lord Because ye speak this word I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood and it shall devour them And to the same purpose Jer. 6.10,11,12 Mat. 10.14,15 Luk. 10.11,12 5. All pretence to immediate Revelation lords it over the faith of our Christian brethren For an immediate Revelation commands an immediate belief and blinde obedience without any further search or trial at all contrary to those expresse commands 1 Joh 4.1 Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits 1 Thess 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good or agreeable to the word of God but reject that which is not so and hold for accursed the publishers and promoters thereof Gal. 1.8 Though we or an Angel from heaven should preach unto you another Gospel besides what ye have received let him be accursed 6. The faith of the Enthusiast if it may be called a faith and not rather an illusion of his fancy is not built upon the same grounds with the faith of Christs Church which is the pillar and ground of truth the Church is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone Eph. 2.20 i. e. what the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New have revealed to be the doctrine of salvation in Christ is the foundation which the faith of all true Christians is built upon But the Enthusiasts faith is not built upon old but upon new Revelations not upon what is revealed already through the mediation of the Prophets and Apostles and communicated by their successors but upon what shall be immediately revealed from heaven and this groundless ground of faith is opposed to that which is the true ground of faith indeed and made of equal authority therewith so that upon this ground every private mans sayings and affirmations are of as great authority and as much to be regarded as the divinely inspired sayings of the Prophets and Apostles and this must needs be so were there any truth in mens pretended Revelations for undoubtedly we owe as much
faith reverence and obedience to every Revelation from heaven how mean soever the person be that receives it as we do to any part of Gods Word already revealed though by the greatest Patriarch or Prophet that ever lived upon earth 7. All dependence upon new Revelations laies a secret stain of dishonour upon God and this in two respects 1. That God notwithstanding his several methods of divine Revelation by the Patriarchs and Prophets of old by his own Son Jesus Christ and his Apostles in these last daies should yet be defective in making known to his people the waies of his service and of their own salvation 2. All pretence to new lights and Revelations makes God the Father of Lights with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change to vary and change his minde as oft as the fickle and deceitful mindes of men do alter Nay thus God is made to speak things quite opposite and contrary to himself whilest the several conceits secret suggestions and whispers of mens hearts which are as numerous as the sand and contrarious as light and darkness are yet all under pretence of immediate Revelation fixed upon God who changeth not 8. It doth extremely much derogate and detract from the honour of holy Christian Religion to have no better ground and foundation then either the divinity of the Heathens of old or that of the Mahometans which of later times hath so far overspread and swallowed up so many Christian Kingdomes and flourishing Common-wealths in the world and both the one and the other of these not only derive their original but also their progresse successe and present continuance doth depend upon immediate Revelations which no good Christian surely doth doubt to be any other then Diabolical Delusions The Divinity of the Heathens was such as the Priests of their respective Temples and Oracles delivered to the people in their prophetick trances for celestial Responses and divine inspirations And the more subtil and sublime of the heathen Philosophers recommend unto us an Ecstatical contemplation even to the abolition of the understanding and Reason as the highest and most perfect way of divine knowledge Mahomet began with Raptures and extasies and supposed Revelations of Angels He therefore that shall seriously consider the monstrous Idolatries of the one and the horrid Blasphemies of the other will be careful surely how he trusts unto or depends upon immediate Revelations 9. This doctrine of immediate Revelation should it be granted is not safe for sober and peaceable-minded Christians to embrace or depend upon it but is fittest rather for such persons whose destructive plots and designs under the mask of Religion are to dethrone and murder Christian Princes ruine well establisht government and governors both Ecclesiastick and Civil massacre their Christian brethren rob ruine and destroy whatever opposes their designs and private perswasions in point of faith and manners how sacred and useful soever it be such mischiefs and barbarous cruelties when open force is wanting to effect may be and too often have been effected by pretended Revelations and men of ecstatical and seduced fancies who have thought they have greatly merited thereby and done God good service by destroying the enemies of his Truth and abolishing Haeresie Superstition c. when as indeed they have made havock of a people more righteous then themselves destroy'd the truth and true worship of God open'd the way to disorder and confusion and this through perjury sacriledge murder rebellion and the breach of all the lawes of piety justice and charity 10. The neglect of the means of saving knowledge viz. learning divine and humane and to depend upon Revelation without the use of such means is the way to advance Lady Ignorance again as the mother of devotion Espencaeus to drown the world in Barbarism to reduce the Church of Christ to that sad condition wherin it was in the ninth age which was called The unlearned and the unhappy age of the Church wherein he that studied Philosophy and the Mathematicks was counted a Magician he that knew the Greek tongue was shrewdly suspected but if he understood Hebrew also he was no better then an Haeretique 'T is observed by the learned both Historians and Divines that all the ten bloudy persecutions of the Church by the Heathen Emperors did not so damage holy Christian Religion as did the subtil underminings of Julian the Apostate Euseb eccl hist l. 10. c. 32. Soz. l. 5. c. 5. Theod. l. 3. c. 7. who fought not against Christian Religion as did the rest of the persecuting Emperors with fire and faggot but by taking from them all offices of dignity and places of preferment all Ecclesiastical promotions and Church priviledges and more especially by putting down and forbidding all Schools of learning for the training up their youth in the knowledge of tongues and sciences that so the light of holy Religion might be lost in the dark of ignorance and decay of arts For Arts and Tongues are the handmaids to holy Religion these as 't were hold the candle whilest the sacred light of Truth is display'd for our direction in the waies of light and life everlasting 11. He tempts the good Spirit of God who expects to receive the knowledge of Truth by immediate Revelation and miracle which by ordinary common Dominum tentare est novo miraculo velle perficere quod aliis rationibus fieri potest and known means is attainable so the Devil tempted our Lord to feed himself with the bread of a miracle when Gods ordinary and common providence yeelded bread enough Mat. 4.3 and to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple when the way to come down by steps was plain and easie without any such praecipitation That dependence upon immediate Revelation is unnecessary and consequently uselesse and unprofitable is manifest from what hath been already said from the sufficiency of Gods revealed Truth and is yet further manifest from the vain and bootlesse issue of all such dependence For what sacred Mysteries of holy Religion have been either made known or more plainly unfolded by immediate Revelation in these last daies since the time of Christ and his Apostles many Impostures and lies many Haeresies and errors many Schismes and divisions have fancied Revelations brought forth but that any sound soul-saving truth hath been of later times immediately revealed I could yet never hear or read of by any authentick witnesses and it is most just with God to give men up to the vanity of their minde and to the delusions of their own hearts who thus tempt his holy Spirit by leaving the known and beaten paths of Truth revealed to depend upon what is unnecessary useless and vain and not only so but also 12. Dependence upon immediate Revelations laies us open to the delusions of Satan 2 Cor. 11.14 who transforming himself into an angel of light insinuates his suggestions and diabolical doctrines under the shew and vizard of
influence upon their hearts then the Laws of the old covenant for that consisted of many beggerly elements many types and figures rites and ceremonies which considered in themselves had no such efficacy to work upon the soul to obey them as the Lawes of the Gospel have therefore the one are call'd carnal ordinances and the other spiritual 2. There was more need of frequent instructions and teachings of the people to keep them up to the observance of those carnal ordinances under the old Law then there is under the new because the doctrines of the Gospel are more plain clear and convincing so that persons of the meanest capacity may understand the knowledge of God which is the meaning of vers 11. They shall not teach every man his neighbour c. Not that there should be no teaching at all under the Gospel but that lesse teaching should serve the turn 3. The sacrifices under the Law were weak and insufficient as to the taking away of sins but the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all is a sufficient sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 and that 's the scope of vers 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesse and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more And for the further clearing of these words Cognitio viae cognitio patriae Lyr. in Loc. They shall not teach c. There is a twofold knowledge of God 1. In this life 2. In the life to come And to both of these the words in their literal sense do relate 1. That in this life the knowledge of God under the Gospel was not at the first taught by man but by the blessed Son of God himself by him the Apostles were instructed at the first and not one of another And to him this prophesie is by himself applied they shall be all taught of God Joh. 6.45 2. That in the life to come all the blessed Saints of God from the least to the greatest shall truly know God without the mediation of humane Teaching For then shall we see God as he is when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.9,10 But that in this life the people shall have no need of Pastors to teach them the knowledge of God is a false collection from the words For as under the Law Moses taught Gods will unto the people and afterwards they that sate in Moses chair so under the Gospel 1. Christ himself revealed and taught Gods will to his Church and afterwards his Apostles and their successors in all ages since this being one of the promises and priviledges of the Gospel thine eyes shall see thy teachers Isa 30.20 And of the gifts of the Spirit He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints c. Eph. 4.11,12 For as the same Apostle demands How shall they i. e. any people believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher Rom. 10.14 where preaching and hearing are affirmed to be the necessary mediums of receiving the Gospel and believing in Christ Another place to the same purpose is alledged 1 Joh. 2.20 1 Joh. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things And vers 27. 27. The anointing which ye have received from him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as he hath taught you remain in him still This Vnction from the holy one teaching and whereby these Disciples were taught all necessary Truths is the holy Spirit sent down from Christ the holy one upon his Apostles who being replenisht with his coelestial gifts were not only themselves led into all Truth but did also teach their disciples the same And the same anointing abideth in you i. e. The same spiritual gifts viz. of prophesie of miracles of tongues c. did still as yet abide in their Churches for the confirmation of those Truths which they had been taught and hereby even by those sacred persons which had these gifts they were held up to the Truth and kept free from the seducements of Heretiques And ye need not that any man teach you So far as they were already taught and knew all things already that were necessary to be known they had no need of any man to teach them namely as ignorant and seduced persons have need of Teachers the ignorant must be taught that they may learn what they knew not before and the seduced and erroneous must be taught that they may return to that faith from which they are faln but these faithful persons to whom the Apostle here writes were it seems neither ignorant nor yet seduced and in neither of these respects had need of teaching But yet in other Respects both these disciples and all others that do both know and persevere also in the Truth have need of Teachers still by whose assistance and direction they may 1. Be confirmed and strengthned to persist in the Truth already received 2. Grow up and increase daily in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ 3. Be armed against the fair words and cunning speeches of such as lie in wait to deceive The like place 1 Thess 4.9 which may help also to the further clearing of this is 1 Thess 4.9 Touching brotherly love ye have no need that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another Taught of God but how not by immediate Revelation but by the Gospel of Christ the Son of God who doth so often inculcate this lesson of brotherly love Joh. 13.34,35 15.17 And the like is to be said of all other Gospel Truths all of them we are taught of God From him they descend originally he is the fountain of Truth and Christ is the Conduit through whom the waters of life do flow from God to Christ from Christ to his Apostles from them to their Successors and Disciples Pastors and people in all ages But withal 't is confessed and with all thankfulness of soul to be acknowledged That there is an inward teaching of God as well as an outward viz. the dictate of the Spirit within as well as the doctrine of the Word without These two God hath joyned together and we must not presume to part them by depending upon the one without the other for as all study and meditation reading and hearing the Word are ineffectual if the inward influence of Gods Spirit does not open the wndowes of the soul to receive the light displayed thence so the inward influence and working of Gods Spirit is ordinarily and for the most part silent and stirreth not but by reading hearing meditating of the word and of
presumptuously arrogate to themselves an un-erring judgement in all spiritual and divine things vilifying all other persons besides themselves be they never so learned or pious as blinde and ignorant under the notion of matural men whose presumption in the wresting of this text and the true meaning thereof will appear by considering 1. What is meant by the natural and spiritual man 2. And what by the things of the Spirit of God For the first the natural man is such a one whose understanding and affections soar no higher then outward sensible objects So that there are two kindes of natural men 1. One who is meerly natural in respect of the understanding of his minde And 2. Another who is natural in respect of the manner of his life Of the 1. sort were the heathen Philosophers of old who received not the things of the Spirit of God but accounted them as foolish idle and ridiculous because they did seemingly contradict the dictates of their natural reason Of the 2. sort are all vicious sinful persons who are so wedded either to their carnal delights or to their worldly ends and interests that holiness humbleness self-denial taking up the crosse and the rest of such commands in the Gospel are altogether disrelished they are foolishnesse unto them For the 2. The things of the Spirit of God are reducible to two heads 1. Pia dogmata 2. Bona opera i. e. either 1. Holy doctrines to be believed Or 2. Good works to be performed The first are contradictory and seemingly foolish to the natural mans reason and judgement and the 2d. to the natural mans affections and conversation And the reason is given because they are spiritually discerned For 1. The holy doctrines of Christiany many of them are above the reach of natural reason and only by the eye of faith which is a gift of the Spirit to be discerned 2. The good works by Christ in his Gospel enjoyned many of them are cross to the natural mans inclinations It must be a higher principle even the quickning grace of the Spirit that does open our eyes to discern them to be the way of blessednesse and so incline our hearts to yeeld obedience thereunto So that the truth delivered in the first part of this text consists of two branches or The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God two waies 1. In that the mysteries of the holy Christian faith are not discernible by the eye of natural reason 2. In that the Christian duties or good works of the Gospel are not relished nor obeyed by men of meer natural affections and inclinations But he that is Spiritual judgeth all things The spiritual man is such a one 1. Whose understanding is enriched with the Gists 2. Whose affections are rectified by the Graces of the Spirit Or 1. Whose natural reason looks into the things of the Spirit viz. the doctrines duties of Christianity with the eye of faith 2. Whose affections and desires are inclined hereunto by love and obedience He judgeth all things viz. All those things of Gods Spirit which natural men judge to be foolish and contrarious to their reason and to their felicity he rightly judges to be most wise and most conducible to the attainment of that perfection and blessedness whereunto being after the image of God he is created Yet he himself is judged of no man As being above and out of the reach of the censures and judgements of natural men All whose censures and censorious detractions of him he values not as knowing them to be both rash and idle foolish and false 2 Cor. 4.3 But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Whence 't is alledged that the Gospel of Christ is clear and intelligible enough to the children of Gods election and heirs of the promise without the help or assistance of any humane learning answer But the Apostle treats not in this place of the understanding but of the preaching of the Gospel affirming only that the word of God was not deceitfully handled but the truth thereof was made so manifest by the sincere preaching of the Apostles vers 2. that it remained dark and obscure to none but such as were in a lost condition men of an obstinate obdurate reprobate sense In whom as it followes vers 4. the God of this world hath blinded the mindes of them that beleeve not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them And the Gospel is hid to them that are lost two waies 1. When they receive it not being plainly preached to them or approved to their conscience in the sight of God as in vers 2. Or else 2. When they do hear and receive it but not aright And men do not rightly receive the Gospel 1. When they do not acquiesce and rest in it as the undoubted way of life 2. When they do not readily obey and put in practise what the Gospel enjoyns and commands 3. When they persevere not are not constant in this faith and obedience To this text many more are urg'd wherein the priviledge of the Saints and servants of God as to the understanding of his will both mediately and immediately is affirmed Psal 25.14 Mat. 5.8 Joh. 10.4 c. Ps 25.14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his covenant Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God Christs sheep do know his voice and follow him but a stranger will they not follow neither do they know the voice of strangers Joh. 10.4,5 with the places before remembred Mat. 11.25 2 Cor. 1.26,27 From which and many other places both of the old and new Testament 't is alledged that the elect the Saints holy and humble men and such as fear God have a secret teaching from God whereby they understand his Word and will without the help of humane learning they are that new Hierusalem which hath no need of the light of Sun Moon or candle but the Lord God is the light thereof Rev. 21. They are the Saints that know all things and need not that any should teach them And though they be illiterate yet do they know more of God then the Learned and great ones of the world whom the god of this world hath blinded that they cannot see Christ through the thicket of profane learning and unprofitable speculations To clear all which Texts from the false glosses which unlearned and unstable men have put upon them to patronize their own want of learning and inconstancy in the way of truth T is confessed 1. That only the pure and holy only such who are sanctified by the Spirit of Grace have the true and saving knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ But withall we must remember that there is a twofold knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ 1. The one doctrinal and speculative which is not ordinarily
that by the guidance of this twofold light thy Word without and thy Spirit within both our outward and inward man may be directed in the waies of thy service and of our own salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen A DISCOURSE OF ERROR HERESIE SCHISM The Nature Kindes Causes c. With Directions for avoiding thereof For there must be Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you 1 Cor. 11.19 Ecce habes ecclesiam per totum mundum noli sequi falsos justificatores sed veros praecipitatores Aug. in Joh. Tract London Printed 1656. The Ground and general Heads of the ensuing Discourse 1. THere were never any times wherein that admonition of S. Peter was more necessary to be observed by all careful and conscientious Christians Be sober and vigilant for your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 2. There are two waies whereby the Devil working upon mens frailties and upon their extravagant lusts and passions doth devour or destroy their souls 1. By blinding their understandings whereby they become apt to be seduced to the entertainment of errors and belief of lies 2. By poysoning their affections with the false paint of worldly vanities whereby they are ininveigled into sinfulnesse and vice 3. And so nearly and entermixedly are the acts of the understanding enterwoven with those of the will and affections that the corruption of the one doth ever corrupt and vitiate the other So that as sinfulness on the one hand clouds the judgement and is ever productive of errors in the understanding so an erroneous Judgement on the other hand is ever fruitful is the production of sinful acts and habits 4. Hence it comes to passe by necessary consequence the just judgement of God concurring that the great and crying sins of our Nation have produced so many great and dangerous overspreading errors amongst us For the broaching and belief of lies as 't is in it self a sin and the fruitfull dam of many sins so 't is also by the just judgement of God a punishment for sin which is affirmed 2 Thess 2.10,11 Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie 5. The love of the Truth is not received so as to be effectual unto salvation three waies 1. When we do not acquiesce and rest in it but fondly doat upon new Lights and new Revelations as if the truth of Christ revealed were imperfect and defective 2. When we do not practise and live according to the truth having a form of godlinesse in the doctrinal knowledge and discourse of the truth only but no power in the conscientious practise thereof 3. When we do not persevere either in the profession of the true Faith or practicall obedience thereof 6. When any of these waies the love of the truth is rejected the guilt of so great a crime most justly provokes the Almighty to permit holy Truth to be poysoned with lies and doctrines of Devils And in this respect God himself affirms him self to be the author not actively but permissively of all delusions as Ezek. 14.9 If the Prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing If the Lord have deceived that Prophet which God doth most justly for the sinful disobedience of the people for this is no other saith Hierome Hier. in loc but what is agreeable to that threat Luk. 26.27,28 If you will not hearken unto me but walk contrary unto me then will I walk contrary unto you in fury c. There being nothing that God inflicts more contrary to the happinesse of a people then the infatuation of their Priests and Prophets But Haeretici veris catholicis membris Christi malo suo prosunt dum Deus utitur malis bene diligentibus ewn omnia cooperantur in bonum Rom. 8. as all things work together for good to them that love God so do Heresies and errors also The which as they are for evil by the infatuation of the wicked so they are for good also in the further illumination and sanctification of the Righteous Nor would the supreme goodnesse ever suffer the evill of Heresie or any other evill to be but that he full well knows how to bring good out of evill 8. That we may then attain those good ends for the which God permits Heresies amongst us and avoid the evil of infection and infatuation thereby or according to the same Father Aug. Ut quisque sic carpet botrum ut caveat spinas ex luto aurum colligat That every one may so pluck the fruits as to avoid the thornes and gather the gold of sound doctrine out of the mire of filthy Dreams and delusions 't will be necessary seriously to weigh and consider 1. The nature of Error Heresie and Schism with the general heads hereof 2. The danger of being infected thereby 3. The ends for which God permits them 4. To observe such rules and receive such directions as may by divine assistance keep him free from infection by them OF ERROR HERESIE and SCHISM CHAP. I. Of Error in general 1. EVery man by nature is as prone to Error as to sin the understanding being as well clouded as the will and affections corrupted by the fall of Adam Our first parents out of a sawcy presumption affecting to know what they ought not involv'd themselves and all their posterity in blindness and ignorance of what they ought to know The body of man being subjected to natural corruption and mortality subjects the soul whilest 't is imprisoned therein to a spiritual corruption also through ignorance and error For the corruptible body saith the wise man presseth down the foul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the minde that museth upon many things and hardly do we guesse aright at things that are upon earth In nallo errore non humanitatis sed Deitatis solum est Aug. serm ad frat in erem and with labour do we finde the things that are before us and the things that are in heaven who hath searched out Wisd 9.15,16 So that not to be ignorant and not erre in the points and particulars of heavenly truth is not humane saith the Father but the sole prerogative of the divine nature 2. There is a threefold ignorance wherewith all the minds of men are naturally clouded 1. To be ignorant of what is necessary to be known 2. Not to know what is necessary and expedient for us agreeable to our persons callings breeding and the times wherein we live 3. When through a corrupt and depraved disposition of minde we mistake falshood for truth and darkness for light and this whether in bare opinion or else of set purpose and setled determination The last of these is the most sinful ignorance and that which properly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called Error
whereunto that woe belongeth Isa 5.20 Wo unto them that call evill good c. 3. In many things we offend all Jam. 3.2 And this not only by iniquity in life and action but also by error in judgement opinion But as God of his great mercy through the merits of Christ imputes not unto us those sins which through natural frailty and meer infirmity daily and hourly invade the innocence of the soul i. e. if with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart we confesse them and unfeignedly beleeve in Christ for the pardon of them so neither doth he impute those errors of our judgements which are of smaller consequence whilest they infect not the will and affections so as obstinately and perversely to persevere therein A bare and naked error in the understanding only is rather an infelicity then a crime 't is the obstinacy of the will the animosity and perverseness of the affections in cleaving to the mistaken conception of the understanding that renders the mistake a sinful and diabolical error for saith the Father Aug. de verbis Apost serm 22. Whilest we do but erre we are but like our selves frail mortal men whose thoughts are miserable and whose devices are but uncertain but when through animosity and perversness we persist in our errors we are then of our father the Devil who as he was a lyar from the beginning and abode not in the truth so doth he obstinately abide for ever in the destructive and damnable errors of his waies Joh. 8.44 Both this infelicity and also this sinfulness of error will more fully appear by considering and rightly understanding the nature of Heresie and Schism the two general heads whereunto all sinful error is reducible CHAP. II. Heresie the nature and ingredients thereof HEresie hath its denomination from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to chuse or follow by way of division and separation the which being continued and increased by perversness and obstinacy therein gives unto Heresie its perfection and compleatment The former is an error of the understanding the latter an exorbitancy of the will And thus both the Sententiarist and the Schoolman define an Heretique He is an Heretique who both erres in the Articles of holy faith through defect in his understanding and withal pertinaciously cleaves to such errors through the perverseness of his will From this general description of an Heretique and the nature of Heresle the particular ingredients whereof the cup of Heretical poyson is compounded will appear to be these 1. To be an Heretique is to erre in matters of faith not of Fact and in points of Doctrine not of Discipline the former distinguishes Heresie from sinfulness of life The latter opposes Heresie to Schism These points of faith are either 1. Fundamental such as are the grounds pillars and constituent parts of holy Christian Religion Or 2. Superstructive such clear and evident truthes as are built upon and by necessary consequence do flow from those grounds An error in the former is primarily and principally and in the latter secondarily and consequentially Heresie 2. He that in either of these respects erres in the most holy faith through ignorance misunderstanding or misinformation is not presently to be adjudged an Heretique untill this error in his understanding hath so infected his will and affection that he cleaves to this his private erroneous opinion even against the judgement of holy Catholick Church and the doctrine of Christ sufficiently made known unto him so the Father Aug. de civit dâ—… l. 18. c. 51. Qui in ecclesia Christi morbidum aliquid pravúmque sapiunt si correpti ut sanum rectumque sapiant resistunt contumaciter c. They who in the Church of Christ do believe any pernicious doctrines and being instructed and admonisht to receive the sound and saving truth do yet pertinaciously persist in their errors and continue to defend them still without conversion and amendment are hereby become Heretiques of whom S. John They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 Joh. 2.19 viz. In the society of holy or thodox Christians And being gone out through the obstinate maintaining the delusions of their own heads they become saith the Father of the number of those enemies whom God-permits for the trial of our faith and exercise of our charity And this particular ingredient of Heresie the same Father in one of his Epistles more fully cleareth thus Qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam nulla pertinaet animositate defendit praeserâ—…m quam non dudacia suae praesumptionis peperit sed à seductis in errorem lapsis parentibus accepit Quaerit autem cautâ solioit udine veritatem corrigi paratus cum invenerit nequaquam est inter hareticos deputandus Aug. Epist 162. He that defends his opinion though it be false with no perversness and animosity especially if it arise not from his own bold and sawcy presumption of minde but from his erroneous and seduced guides and pastors or parents he hath received it if with all carefulness and diligence he seek to know the Truth being of a ready and prepared heart to imbrace it when he shall finde it such a person though he does erre in the most holy faith is not to be accounted an Heretique 3. The third ingredient then of Heretical poyson is the obstinate cleaving to an erroneous opinion or tenent in Religion contrary to the judgement of the universal Church So Isidore defines Heretiques to be such persons Isid de verbo Haeres who of their own heads depart from the judgement of the Church hammering out of their own brains false and perverse doctrines whereas saith he it is not lawful for us orthodox Christians to bring in any thing of our own heads nor yet to receive and believe what any others of their own heads have brought into the Church We have the Apostles of Christ for our Authors for even they brought in nothing of their own minde but the doctrine they received from Christ they faithfully published and preached to the world And though we saith the Apostle or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel besides c. Gal. 1.18 From the Apostles the sound and saving Truth is received by the Church so that saith Irenaeus Non oportet adhuc quarere apud alios veritatem quam facile est ab ecclesia sumere cum Apostoli quasi in depositorium dives plenissimè in ea contulerint omnia quae sunt veritatis ut omnis quicunque velit sumat ex ea potum vitae Irenae l. 3. c. 4. We ought not else where to seek the truth which in the Church may be easily found since the the Apostles have most fully treasur'd up therein as in a rich store-house all things that are of Truth so that whosoever list may thence take out the waters of life
amongst you And the better to conceive what is meant by these schisms and contentions 't is exemplified vers 12. One saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollo another I am of Cephas and another will not depend upon any acknowledging neither Paul nor any mortal man to be his Tutor and instructer and he saith I am of Christ Thus the immaculate body of Christ is divided into parties and sects the partakers and followers of which several sects are therefore called Sectarists and Separatists viz. Such as cleave not to the whole body but follow some one part that is broken off and divided from the whole 2. Heresie and Schism in the mystical body of Christ do differ as an inward sicknesse and outward wound in the natural body of man but yet so that there are several internal aswel as external parts and branches of Schism for by how many waies and means communion is maintain'd amongst Christians by so many waies it may be broken and dissolv'd And every breach of communion is a Schism 3. Now the Communion to be maintained amongst Christians is either Internal External The internal communion hath several branches viz. 1. To beleeve and assent to all those saving truths revealed to us by Christ and his Apostles and in all ages of the Church maintained 1 Cor. 13.7 2. To be with all obedience prepared in heart to assent to the Dictates of the Church whether universal or particular that are agreeable to such revealed Truths Mat. 18.17 3. To judge charitably each of other accounting all such for our Christian brethren who profess this same Christian faith and are of this Christian minde and spirit Col. 2.16 4. To sympathize in each others affections which includes several particulars as 1. To sorrow for the sins and errors of others 2. To condole in the sufferings of others or to weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 As also to congratulate the prosperities of others or to rejoyce with them that rejoyce which enjoynes also 3. To rejoyce as do the Angels of heaven at the conversion of a sinner or any misguided soul from the errors of his waies Luk. 15.7 5. To pray for the growth and perseverance of all holy and orthodox persons in faith and obedience and for the conversion of all profane schismatical and heretical persons and for the reunion of all such to the Church as are divided from it 1 Sam. 12.23 Psal 122.6 1 Tim. 2.1 6. To hold communion in our desires and affections with all such as are divided from us in perswasion and judgement and by all means to endevour an external communion with them according to our several powers and in our several places and offices Gal. 6.1 The external communion consists also of several branches As 1. In the oral confession of the same Creeds or Symbols of Christian Faith Rom. 10.9,10 2 Tim. 1.13 2. In the participation of the same Sacraments 1 Cor. 10.16 3. In the admission of and submission unto the same Apostolical discipline and government Heb. 13.17 4. In the use of the same Liturgies or publique forms of external divine worship 1 Cor. 1.10 Rom. 15.6 4. Hence by the rule of contraries 't wil appear plainly who is a Schismatique or in what respects the guilt of Schism is contracted 1. He is guilty of Schism who withdrawes his assent from the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles either as 't is by the Church universal professed or else as 't is exprest by the doctrine and establisht by the Lawes of that particular Church whereof he is a member whilest this particular Church opposes not the doctrine of the Church Catholique for when any particular person shall in any point of faith oppose his private opinion against the publique judgement of the Church this is not only Schism in him but such a branch of Schism also as coincident with Heresie whereof before 2. He who shall limit the Church of Christ to his own particular sect or fraternity Recepimus pro missiones de universalitate ecclesiae tote mundo diffusae si ergo angelus de coelo tibi has premissiones tenenti diceret Dimitte Christianitatem totius orbis tene partem Donati anathema esse deberet quia tea tote pracicidere in partem contrudere conaretur alienare à promissis Dei Aug. Epist 165. saying we are the Church we are the elect and people of God and all who joyn not in communion with us are cast-awaies and out of the State of salvation he is guilty of Schism in that he cuts off the main body of Christian people or rather cuts off himself and his own fraternity from the main body of Christs holy Catholick Church So the Donatists of old limited the Church of Christ to their own sect and the confines thereof to that part of Africk where they inhabited contrary to the promises of God who hath given unto Christ the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 Gen. 22. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed whereupon the Father infers since we have the promises of God concerning the universality of the Church to be diffused and spread over the face of the earth if therefore an Angel from heaven should say unto thee Forgo thy relation to the Catholick Church and be of this or that particular Church or sect which saith we and we only are the Church and people of God he ought to be accursed because he hath endevoured to cut thee off from the whole and to limit thee to a part and thereby to alienate thee from the promises of God in Christ Jesus A third branch of Schiâ—m necessarily depends upon and flowes from the second And this is rashly to judge and uncharitably to condemn the Churches or societies of our Christian brethren so the Montanists perswaded their followers to speak evil of the universal Church where ever spread over the face of the earth Euseb eccl hist l. 5. c. 16. and not only to deny thereunto all reverence and esteem but also in no wise to joyn with them of this kinde of Schism are all such guilty who refuse to joyn with their Christian brethren in the publique service of God under pretence of separating from the wicked of the world who with the proud Pharisee in the Gospel presumptuously justifie themselves and their own Church and faction and unjustly condemn all others Verè existimemus posse aliquid esse occultum in alio quo vobis superior sit etiam si bonum nostrum quo illo videmur superiores esse non sit occulium Aug. de verbis Apo. ser 21. Luk. 18.9 who are so pure in their own eyes as to say to others Stand by thy self come not neer to me I am holier then thou Isa 65.5 little esteeming the exhortation of the Apostle Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of minde
of Religion if he win ground in the ceremonies and make a Schism there he will not be long from the Sacraments and produce Heresies in them Thus 't was amongst the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. From their neglect of Ceremonies sitting covered at prayer they grew as irreverent and homely with the Sacrament eating Bishop Andr. serm upon 1 Cor. 11.16 and drinking as if they had been at home so that the Apostle is fain to tell them vers 22. That they had homes to be homely at The Church the house of God was no place for such irreverent demeanor And the like is obvious to each mans observation amongst us how the decent ceremonies and publique orders of Prayer and of the Sacraments being struck at the substance of both hath not long continued free from that impetuous violence of factious and schismatical spirits 3. This will yet further appear if we consider the nature of contention which is so unruly that it knows no bounds and limits but like waters overflowing the banks which run endwise ever without return so Prov. 17.14 The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water therefore leave off contention before it be medled with To contend for the true faith is commendable and commanded also Jude 3. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contention is one thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be contentious is another To contend for the Truth is the duty of all good Christians but to contentious about harmless ceremonies and things indifferent is not the custome of Gods Church and people If any man list to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 From the cohaerence of which Text the danger of contentiousness is also observable For 1. all the contention was about ceremonies about wearing long or short hair praying covered or bare vers 13 14 15. vers 4 5 6. And being contentious about these things presently there followed Schisms or divisions amongst them vers 18. and shortly after down-right Heresies vers 19. Thus Pruritus disputandi becomes Scabies Ecclesiae the itch of contention breeds the scab of Schism and Heresie in the Church Hear from a person interested in such contentions the truth hereof confessed Baxter Saints Rest 3. Part ch 13. Publique wars and private quarrels which do usually pretend to the reformation of the Church the vindicating of the truth and the welfare of souls do usually prove in the issue the greatest means to overthrow all it is as natural for wars and contentious to produce Errors Schisms contempt of Magistracy Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead carrion to breed worms and vermine beleeve it from one who hath too many years experience of it both in armies and Garrisons It is as hard a thing to maintain in a people a sound understanding tender conscience a lively gracious heavenly frame of spirit and upright life in a way of war and contention as to keep a candle lighted in a storm or under the waters 4. When a Schism is once made and the communion of the Church deserted the separatists like travellers out of the beaten road finde no path to walk in and so become circular and endless in their waies or like such folks which continually toss and turn themselves upon their bed seeking that rest and repose which cannot be found till the humours of the body recover their due temper and be confin'd to their proper limits Hence it comes to pass that new doctrines and new opinions in religion are commonly broacht and set a foot by Schismaticks and this in opposition still to those ancient Truths which are the doctrines of the Church from which they have separated themselves It being the essential property of a Schismatick like Proteus to change his minde into every opinion represented to his fancy as plausible Hereunto agrees that ancient authentick father of the Church Irenaeus Alienati vero à veritate digni in emni volutantur errore fluctuati abeo aliter atque aliter per tempora de iisdem sentientes nunquam scientiam slabilem habentes Iren. l. 3. c. 4. adv Haer. When men are once alienated from the truth they deservedly wallow themselves in the mire of all kinde of errors being tossed to and fro thereby Sometime of one opinion and sometime of another even in the same things having no certain fixt and setled knowledge at all And the reason hereof why Schismatiques must need become Heretiques is rendred by S. Hierome Nullum Schisma non sibi aliquam fingit Haeresim ut rectè ab ecclesia recessisse videatur Hier. ad Tit. c. 3. No Schism saith he but will beget an Heresie that thereby the Schismatique may the better maintain his unlawful separation from the Church CHAP. V. Of the causes of Heresie and Schism and the manners of Heretiques HE that will convert an Heretique Eum qui Haereticum vult convertere oportet scire regulas sive argumenta eorum Nec n. est possibile alioui curare quosdam malè habentes qui ignorat passionem eorum qui malè valent Iren. part in lib. 4. advers Haer. saith Ireneus he must know as the arguments which they use so the Rules whereby they proceed It being not possible for any to work a cure upon another that is diseased if he know not the causes of his disease and the waies of its progresse in the infection of the humors spirits or more solid parts of the body so that to heal the distempers of Heresie and Schism 't is necessary to search out the causes and take notice of those evil waies and corrupt customes of seduced spirits 1. The first original cause of all Heresies and Schisms is pride and ambition which was the original sin both in men and Devils saith Syracides Ecclus. 10.13 Therefore he admonisheth Extoll not thy self in the counsel of thine own heart that thy soul be not torn in pieces as a wilde bull straying alone chap. 6.2 Thus Simon Magus the first Heretique in the Church of Christ bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one Act. 8.9 Thus Montanus as Eusebius records Eccles Hi l. lib. 5. cap. 16. being inflamed with the greedy desire of primacy and superiority yeelded to the Actings of contrary or evil spirits in himself by whom being sodainly extasied and entransed he began to utter strange and new doctrines contrary to such as were generally received in the Church pretending to the gift of prophesie by immediate Revelation Theodor. l. 1. hist eccl c. 24. Thus Arrius and Novatus being defeated of their ambitious desires of being Bishops the one of Alexandria the other of Rome became the heads and pestilent Authors of most pernicious Heresies Si n. radix elationis abscinditur rami pravae assertionis arefiunt Greg. that they might lift up themselves to be the heads and leaders of Heretiques since they could not be so of
smaller parcels Denique penitus inspecta omnes haereses in multis cum autoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur Tert. de prae cont Haer. c. 42. The Anabaptists amongst us are subdivided into Antinomians Brownists Seekers Ranters Quakers Familists c. And finally saith the Father look into all Heresies and you may easily finde them in many things dissenting even from their own authors and Founders And seldome shall you see Heretiques agree in any one point except it be to oppose and cry down the Truth as Herod and Pilat against Christ 6. From the same dark Abysse of Ignorance Neque nâ—… natae sunt haereses quaedam dogmata illaqueantia animos in profundum praecipitantia nisi dum scripturae bonae intelligerentur malè quod in iis non bene imelligitur etiam temerè audacter asseritur Aug. in Joh. Tract 18. under the semblance of self-conceited wisdome hath sprung that which is of all others the greatest cause of Heresies viz. The misinterpretation and mis-application of the holy Scriptures For saith the Father Heresie had never sprung up nor false doctrines bewitching and destroying the souls of men had never been broacht had not the good word of God been ill understood and that also which is but ill and weakly understood been rashly and presumptuously affirmed 'T is ever the custome of Heretiques to alledge holy Scriptures in a wrested and perverted sense making those sacred writings like a nose of wax turning and writhing them to this and to that and to every sense that best agrees with their own vain imaginations Aliter Photius aliter Novatianus c. One Heretique understands it this way and another diversly from him and a third distinct from both and all put another sense upon the words of God then ever his holy Spirit intended therein Pro voluntatis suae sensu Hilar. Vinc. Lir. adversus Haer. c. 2. The sense of their own minde and spirit not of Gods Spirit Hil de trinitate l. 2. they put upon the Scriptures which occasion'd that complaint of S. Hierome Sola scripturarum ars est quam sibi passim omnes vendicant Hanc garrula avus hanc delirus senex hanc so phista verbosus hanc universi presumunt lacerant docent ante quam discant Hier. ad Pel. l. 1. c. 6. 'T is only the Art of understanding Scriptures which all persons challenge to themselves This the pratling old wife and the doting old man and the wrangler full of words this all men presume unto and upon presumption of their interest therein they tear and wrest and abuse it at their pleasure presuming to teach the doctrine thereof before they have half learned it As in the natural creation of children too many are the issue of lust and wantonness nor is it considered when they are begotten how they shall be kept even so 't is in the spiritual brood of Heresies pride covetousness and ignorance begets them before the authors know how to maintain them but as children when they are once gotten must be kept though they pinch upon their neighbours so this heretical crew rather then the opinions which are the issue of their pride and vanity should die they will steal the sineere milk of the word to nourish them or in language of another strain rather then they will submit their vain imaginations to the truth and true meaning of Gods word the truth of that must submit to their imaginations Videtis id vos agere ut omnis scripturarum de medio auferatur authoritas suus cuique animus author sit quid in quaque scriptura probet quid improbet id est non ut authoritati subjiciatur scripturarum ad fidem sed ut sibi scripturas ipse subjiciat non ut illi ideo placeat aliquid quia hoc in sublimi authoritate scriptum legitur sed ideo rectè scriptum videatur quia hoc illi placuit Aug. cont Faust And this saith the Father is the way to rob the Scripture of its authority whilest every mans own imagination must tell him what it allowes and what it disallowes this is not to be subject to the authority of the Scriptures but to make the Scriptures subject to our imaginations so that therefore this or that is not acceptable unto them because 't is written in the word of God but therefore 't is well said or written there because 't is acceptable unto them The great danger they incur who put another sense upon the holy Scriptures then Gods holy Spirit ever intended therein is represented to us by the strange fire which that rebellious crew under the conduct of Corah Dathan and Abiram offered up unto the Lord there came out a fire from the Lord and devoured the presumptuous sacrificers Numb 16.18,35 So those unlearned and unstable souts which wrest the Scriptures do it to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 As a remedy to prevent so great mischief Lat. conc secundum sess 11. the ancient Fathers thought it meet to provide saith the reverend Andrewes that they who took upon them to interpret the Scriptures should put in sureties that the sense they gave of them should be no other then what the Church in former times acknowledged So Vinc. Lirin also Propter tantos tam varii erroris anfractus necesse est ut propheticae Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum ecclesiastici catholici sensus normam dirig aâ—… Vinc. Lir. advers Haer. c. 2. By reason of the manifold windings and turnings of the Scriptures for the maintenance of several errors 't is necessary to direct the line of prophetical and Apostolical interpretation according to the rule of an Ecclesiastical sense and meaning for Quis unquam Haereses c. saith the same Author Who ever brought in an Haeresie but first he disagreed from the consent of antiquity and of the ancient Catholique Church Et in laqueum sit verbum Dei saith Estius the holy Word of God becomes a snare and a stumbling block to all those who contemning the authority of the Church presume to impose their own private sense upon it And he that obtrudes his private sense of Scripture upon his hearers not only lords it over their faith Estius in Rom. 11.9 but over the faith of the universal Church of Christ nay he makes null and void the authority of holy Scriptures for Scripture is no more Scripture if not rightly interpreted 7. Another general cause of erroneous opinions in Religion is Hypocrisie when men are cold and lukewarm and too negligent in the practise which is the life of Christianity when they receive not the love of the Truth so as readily to obey and practise it then it is just with God to give them up to strong delusions Nay hereby men lay themselves open to the delusions of Heretiques because the excellency of holy Christian truths are not cannot be known but by the practise and experience thereof
therefore said our Saviour If ye do his will ye shall know of my doctrine whether it be of God or no Joh. 7.17 So that undoubtedly what ever piety or purity Heretiques may pretend unto yet generally 't is but a meer formal outside a show and shadow of truth but no substantial solid piety or charity having a form of godliness but denying the power 2 Tim. 3.5 For to such who by obedience practise and experience do know and believe the excellency of Truth it is not possible to be seduced and drawn aside therefrom Quamdiu bona opera saâ—imus ipsum lumen jusitiae ante oculos nostâ—… adaperit veritatem Câ—rvâ— in Mat. 7. Hom. 19. therefore our Lord cals all false Prophets Woolves in sheeps cloathing Mat. 7.15 that is Nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies meer nominal outside Christians no men so seemingly austere and strict and yet all is but empty appearance of holiness no men assume to themselves more holy titles the Saints the Elect the People of God If they be simple and illiterate persons then they apply to themselves God hath chosen the simple 1 Cor. 1.27 and those that confute them in discourse do it by carnal Reason and the wisdome of the flesh if they be subtil and acute in argumentation and put to silence some weak adversary then 't is the wisdome of the spirit in them which the wisdome of the flesh cannot resist Tell them of their folly and madness they say Christs own Apostle was accounted mad if they suffer according to law for their enormities then they say they suffer for righteousness sake nay their sins and delinquencies they would make appear to be pieties so subtil are all Hypocrites in the outward and nominal part of Religion that if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect and many thousands are deceived by their appearances of holiness and strictness of life but 't is such only who are somewhat infected with Hypocrisie as well as themselves therefore they are styl'd Wels without water clouds that are carried with a tempest 2 Pet. 2.17 For as empty clouds are most tossed by the winde so men that are religious only in religious names and religious talk and outward shew of Religion being not ballast with sincere devotion towards God and charity towards man such are they that are most apt to be tossed with every winde of doctrine 8. All errors and seditions in the most holy faith are generally thrown upon the grand impostor and father of lies the Devil who no question hath a great iufluence therein therefore cal'd The doctrines of devils and he and his Angels seducing spirits 1 Tim. 4.1 and all that are seduced the children of the wicked one Mat. 13.38 but yet withall we must know that if the voluntary sins of pride covetousnesse presumption c. did not first infect the minde his tares of Heresie and Schism could never take rooting there 't is of the corruptions of the mindes and manners of men that all Heresies are engendred and like the creatures of putresaction to which heat and moisture gives a natural being so the filthy moisture or corruption of mens hearts quickned by the incessant operation of the evil spirit gives unto all Heresies their spiritual being and growth in the minde For wickedness saith the wise man doth alter the understanding and the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest Wisd 4.11 Sin saith Chrys doth so blinde the senses of sinners that seeing not the waies of falshood and error they headlong themselves therein nor could ever any errors prevail over man if sin had not made the way for first a man is blinded by his sins and then drawn away by the devil and seduced For error saith he begetteth not sins but sins beget and bring forth error Chrys in Mat. 7. Hom. 19. CHAP. VI. The ends why God permits Heresies and Schismes ALmighty God as by his powerful word of nothing he hath made all things so doth he still not only uphold all things by the word of his power but most wisely govern order and dispose of all being the Master-wheel of all motions and the original cause of all actions and events whether they be good or evil of the good by his active and of the evil by his permissive providence as Amos 3.6 Shal there be any evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it And as it is in the greater world Terra salutiferas herbas eademque nocentes Nutrit urticae proxima saepe rosa est all good and useful things have their contrary evils there are fruitful showres and the fatning dew of heaven and there are also harmful storms of hail and corrupt and infectious vapours There are trees of wholsome fruit and herbs for the use and nourishment both of man and beast and there are also both trees and herbs that are unwholsome and poysonous there are living creatures also both tame and wilde both such as are serviceable unto man and such also as are destructive fierce cruel and mischievous so in the lesser world also there is in the field of Gods Church both wheat and tares corn and chaffe both true and false Prophets the one the pillars of sound celestial soul-saving Truth the other the deceitful workers and Patrons of errors heresies and schisms Truth stands ever firm upon its own proper base and being supported by no other but it s own native excellency and vertue ever appears like it self in its own plain simple naked colours But Error being in it self crooked and deformed puts on the shape and ever appears in the likeness of holy truth following her steps to trip up her heels and take possession of her throne The very Philosophy of the Heathens was followed and undermin'd by false Philosophers and amongst the Jewes their circumcision and some other rites and ceremonies were imitated by the Arabians and other nations and yet the one were the worshippers of the true God herein and the others worshipped Idols And in the worship of the true God to that which is sound and sincere is opposed false counterfeit and hypocritical worship to the true and lawful Baptism is opposed unlawful and extraregular dipping to the commandements of God the traditions of men to the Apostles and faithful Ministers of Christ false Apostles and deceitful workers and in a word there is nothing of the most holy fath but by the cunning of the Devil working upon the corruptions of mens hearts something is forged in opposition thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. de resur No article of the Christian faith escaping the invasion of Heretiques and the corruption thereof by heretical and false positions the which will easily appear to every man that list to consult Philastrius Epiphanius Augustine Joh. Damscene who out of Ecclesiastical records have given the several catalogues of Heresies and Heretiques The Reasons why God is pleased to permit it should be
so may be reduc'd to two general heads viz. 1. In respect of the faith it self 2. In respect of the professors thereof 1. In respect of the faith of Christ 1. The excellency thereof doth appear from the manifold assaults and machinations of the devil thereagainst for were not the stedfast profession of the Christian faith and the conscientious practise thereof the way both of Gods acceptable service and of mans salvation the devil would never be so busie to corrupt and adulterate the same whose inveterate enmity both to God and man incites provokes him perpetually to deprave and falsifie the pure worship of the one and hinder the salvation of the other 2. The holy faith of Christ appears more pure sincere and illustrious by the test and opposition of heretical positions we read Numb 16.36 that the Lord commanded Moses to take the censers of those proud rebels which rose up against Moses and Aaron wherein they offered strange fire before the Lord and to make broad plates for a covering of the Altar for they offered them before the Lord therefore are they hallowed sc sanctificata in mortibus peccatorum Through the death of the offenders they were sanctified to be a memorial to the children of Israel to beware of the like schism insurrection and sacriledge These censers saith the Father are a figure of the holy Scriptures wherein Heretiques offer strange fire by imposing a strange sense and distinct from the minde of Gods Spirit therein which is so abominable unto God that 't is commonly the ruine of the Authors and abettors thereof But yet if we bring these brazen censers to the golden Altar of God and compare the strange fire therein with the true fire from heaven the lustre of the one will appear more clear and eminent through the false and counterfeit glosse of the other for as that maxime is true in general Contraria inter se opposita magis elucescunt All contraries by their mutual opposition do more clearly shew themselves so this in particular also is as true veritas falsorum comparatione magis fulgebit Truth when compared and opposed to falshood appears like gold from the dross when tryed in the fire more illustrious and shining 'T is one reason therefore why holy catholick doctrine is so much besieged and impugned by heretical gainsayers and tares of erroneous opinions are intermixt with the pure grain of sincerity and truth viz. That the holy faith might not loose its gloss and lustre but appearing like it self clear and perspicuous might more effectually conduce to the illumination of our souls 3. The holy faith by the opposition of Heresie is elevated and raised to a higher pitch of perfection and the mysteries thereof become thereby to be more acutely handled more narrowly sifted and throughly considered whereas otherwise like children we should ever be content with milk and neglect the more solid and substantial food Haereticos permisit Deus ne semper lacte nutriamur in bruta infantia remaneamus Aug. Tract 36. in Joh. resting in generals and not descending to the discussion and right understanding of particular truths So saith the Father God therefore suffers Heretiques amongst us that we might not alway be nourished with milk and continue for ever in the more brutish estate of infancy 4. The holy faith by the opposition of Heresie is the more confirmed and strengthned even as trees shaken with the winde take the faster hold and are thereby more firmly enrooted in the earth so the more the foundation of our faith is assaulted and shaken by the gusts of heretical opinions the faster hold is taken and more firmly the principles of holy truth are enrooted in our hearts Nor is this the weakest argument to perswade us of and confirm us in the truth of all the Articles of the Christian faith that notwithstanding the several oppositions of Heresies in all ages many whereof have for the time so prospered and prevailed as to infect the greater and more eminent sort of Christian professors yet the true faith hath ever in the end triumphed over them they have dasht themselves in pieces like waves against a rock have broken into a foam and vanisht in to smoke for magna est veritas praevalebit As for truth it endureth and is alwaies strong it liveth and conquereth for evermore Esd 4.38 The second general end why God permits Heresies is in respect of the professors of the holy faith And these being of two sorts good and bad either such as are sound grain or else such as are empty chaffe therefore he suffers the fan of temptation to passe over all by the assaults of erroneous opinions that the one might be distinguisht from the other that the corn might be winnowed from the chaffe the wheat separate from the tares and soundorthodox Christians might be known from the unsound hollow-hearted Chrys Hom. 19. in Mat. 7. hypocritical professors of the faith That the evil may not be crowned with the good therefore God sends temptations saith the Father and that the good may not perish with the evil therefore he commands us to beware of false Prophets 2. The reason why the unsound and sinful professors are tempted and by temptation overcome by the assaults of erroneous opinions in Religion is by the just judgement of God permitted for a punishment upon them for as it is in the way of sinfulness one sin is commonly the punishment of another God most justly withdrawing the assistance of his divine grace from such as wilfully transgress his most holy Lawes Peccatum quod non per poenitentiā diluitur mox suo pondere ad aliud trahitur Greg. So that when sin saith the Father is not washed away with the tears of repentance the weight thereof sinks the soul into the puddle of following sins His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins Prov. 5.22 So it is in the way of Error they who receive not the truth in the love and life thereof which is sound and sincere obedience thereunto For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.10,11,12 So Saul for his disobedience 1 Sam. 15.22,23 The Spirit of the Lord departed from him and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him 1 Sam. 16.14 So Ahab for his many abominations refused to ear hthe voice of the true Prophet Micaiah and listned to false Prophets to his own ruine and destruction 2 Chron. 18. And so Judas whose faith in Christ was never sound but his Religion lay in his purse not in his heart was therefore suffered to be tempted and eternally ruined by that temptation to betray his Master 3. In respect of the sound and sincere professors of Christianity God permits Heresies for many useful and profitable reasons 1. That
those smaller errors and mistakes wherewithall through ignorance or misperswasion the understandings of many good men are infected might by the opposition of Heresies be cleared and done away and the chaffe by the fan of temptation be winnowed and sifted from the purer grain so saith an ancient Father of the Church Datam scimus Sa anae potestatom ut servos Christi â—…ibâ—…ret ut quod de triâ—… invenâ—… pâ—ssiâ—â—…rreis Jung retur quâ—d de his aed igâ—…um alimenta transiret Anacleti epist We know that power is given to the Devil to winnow and sift the servants of God that what is found to be sound and good wheat might be gathered into the barn and carefully treasured up in the stedfast belief thereof and what proves but chaffe and fit for the fire might be shaken off The inundation of herefies being one of those fiery trials whereby every mans work shall appear whether it be geld silver and precious stones to be continued or whether no better then wood hay and stubble which too often is built upon the same foundation with the other and to be consumed 1 Cor. 3.11,12,13 2. Heresies are permitted to scoure off the rust of idleness sloth negligence and carelesness in matters of faith they render all careful and conscientious Christians more diligent in sifting and searching out the truth and more careful also of what they hear and of what they receive for truth according to those several commands given Beware of false Prophets Mat. 7.15 Take heed how ye hear Luk. 8.18 And take heed what ye hear Mark 4.24 Try all things and held fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 And beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God or no 1. Joh. 4.1 Therefore many false Prophets and false spirits there are and heretical assertions are interwoven with the Articles of the true faith that we might not grow dull and stupid and negligent and idle but be industrious vigilant and wary having our senses exercised to discern both good and evil and our understandings polished through the many exercitations and oppositions of untruths Because God would not have his servants without judgement saith Chrys Hâ—… 19. in Mat. 7. not to be able to discern betwixt light and darkness therefore he sends them temptations and because he would not have them to perish through ignorance and negligence therefore he commands them to beware 3. For the exercise and trial as of our sincerity so of our courage and spiritual sortitude in the opposition and resistance we make against the assaults of Heresies is another end why God permits us to be assaulted by them there is no greater sign of our sincerity in the love and service of God then by being stedfast in his covenant Psal 78.37 one chief and principal part of which covenant is stedfastly to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith from the which there is no man that loves the Lord with all his heart can be induced to swerve or go astray nor can all the machinations of the Devil or any sinful lusts of the world or of the flesh in this respect prevail against him For he that is verè pius est verè fortis True and sound piety never wants courage to defend the Truth and true courage through divine assistance is ever accompanied with constancy and victory over all temptations This is commanded Deut. 13.1 If there arise a false Prophet thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet And the reason is rendred why such should arise and why thou should not hearken unto them vers 3. For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart c. q. d. If you truly love the Lord it will appear by the opposition to whatsoever does corrupt or deprave the waies of his worship God sends not temptations that we should hearken and yeeld unto them but that our love to him might appear by our resistance and vanquishment of them And our weapons in this spiritual warfare are fervent importunate prayes arising from a true sincere and sound piety and devotion of soul The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them Psal 145.28,29 He will save them out of the windings and subtil waies of error and deceit who truly love and fear him and in the sincerity of their souls call upon him For God is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will even give the issue with the temptation that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 Vel cadere non sinit vel à casu erigit Gloss in loc either God suffers not the righteous to be moved Psal 55.22 Or if he fall yet shall he rise again for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Qui tentanti dat licentiam tentato dat misericordiam The same God who suffers the tempter supports the tempted also and against the temptations of false Prophets upholds the true faithful soul that loves the Lord his God with all his heart with all his might 4. As our love to God so our love to our neighbour also is exercised and tryed by the permission of Heresies amongst us And this 1. By our readiness to instruct the ignorant and strengthen the weak that they be not seduced and ensnared by them Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the saith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations 2. Before endevours in the use of all possible means to bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived proving whether God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth that they may escape the snare of the Devil of whom they are taken captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.25,26 3. By your prayers for them that God would open their eyes to understand the truth and relinquish their errors that they may be converted and be healed Jam. 5.16 Praying one for another that ye may be healed 5. For the exercise of our patience and meekness For all Heretiques and Schismatiques whatsoever do generally and for the most part assume to themselves to be the only Church and people of God and all others besides themselves to be reprobates and castawaies whom therefore where they have power they constantly persecute and afflict and where outward power is wanting they shew their inward malice by bitter railings revilings and uncharitable censures and condemnations of them All which God permits for the exercise of our patience meekness and Christian moderation that being reviled we revile not again not rendring evill for evill nor railing for railing but contraniwise blessing and earnestly praying for their conversion who as earnestly wish for our confusion and this both according to the command and example of our blessed
Lord and Master Mat. 5.44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you CHAP. VII Of the danger of Heresie and Shism THE most holy God as he is infinite in mercy so in justice for as well wrath as mercy cometh from him and his indignation resteth upon sinners 't is of his mercy that all things work together for good to them that love him Etiam peccata saith the Father ever their sins whilest truly repented do work to their greater Humiliation and more careful conscienciousness of their waies and so their errors also do work both for their trial of and confirmation in the most holy faith 'T is of his justice that evill doth haunt the wicked person to his ruine both the evil of sin and the evil of error leaves not the wicked person till he be ceased with the evill of punishment either temporal or eternal hence it comes to pass that Heresie is both profitable and dangerous as S. Chrys observes Chry. Hom. 19. in Mat. 7. 't is useful and profitable in that thereby the truly faithfull are sifted tryed and known from the light giddy and counterfeit number of professors and 't is dangerous in that many are thereby seduced and perish The great danger of Heresie and Schism will appear if we consider 1. The infectious nature of them how easily this spiritual plague doth sease and how fast it cleaveth to the depraved soul of man There is no question but if holy truth could be difcerned by mortal eyes in its native beauty and lustre there is nothing that would so much attract and ravish the soul whether we respect the cause thereof as being a beam displaid from the divine light of heaven or its effect being the perfection and joy of the highest faculty in man the understanding in both respects there 's nothing so illustrious and lovely in it self as holy Truth that therefore which makes errors and lies so plausible and infectious is not their own natural stamp and quality which is deformed and hateful but the counterfeit dress of seeming Truth wherewithall the Devil doth gild and paint and cover their deformities nor could the devil ever obtrude his lies and errors but that they are gilded over with holy and religious expressions and intermixt also with many wholsome and profitable truths and thus doth this Prince of darkness transform himself into an Angel of light that he may at once both amuse and betray the deceived souls of men through a spiritual to an eternal darkness But as sin is the more sinful and dangerous Ibi vitiorum illecebrae sunt ubi tegmen putabatur virtutum Hier. in Eccl. the more 't is palliated and clothed with the name and attire of vertue because saith Hierome In those veils and covers of vertue the snares of sinfulness and vice do secretly lurk So errors in Religion are the more deceivable and destructive by being arayed in the garments of truth and integrity for thus they appear to the outward view of the unskilful more true saith Irenaeus then truth it self even as a counterfeit jewel Si quis aquae mixtum gypsum dans pro lacte seducat per similitudinem coloris sic de omnibus qui quolibet modo depravant quae sunt Dei adulterant veritatem Dei. Lacte gypsum malè miscetur Irenae l. 3. c. 19. made bright and sparkling by Art so deceives the eyes of the unskilful Lapidary that he prefers it before the true and genuine Diamond or as poyson secretly mixt with wholsome food passes for good nourishment Sunt quidam vaniloqui mentis seductores non Christiani sed Christum mercantes cauponantes verbum Evangelii qui venenum erroris commiscentes dulci blandimento sicut oenomeli ut qui biberit illius potus gustabilem sensum dulcedine captus in observanter morti abdicatur Ignat. ep ad Trall or as well mixed whitelime by the likeness of its colour passes for milk so the untempered mortar of false Prophets Ezek. 22.28 for the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 To this destructive quality of error the holy professions and strict austere outward actions of Heretiques do much conduce no man so pure in their own eyes none so seemingly pure and holy to the outward view of other mens eyes none more zealous in their way none so full of religious phrases and Scripture expressions their crossed armes down-cast eyes neglected gestures garb and attire seemingly bespeak them men altogether weaned from the world and whose conversation is in heaven Sed latet anguis in herba when under all these fair and goodly appearances there lies secretly the serpentine poyson of error falshood and lying vanity of minde they do not only hereby deceive themselves but mightily seduce and deceive others also For there is nothing saith Chrysostome Chry. Hom. 19. in Mat. 7. does so much destroy Truth and Holinoss as counterfeit truth and feigned holiness for the evil which is manifest is shun'd and avoided as evil but evil covered under the shew of Good is not therefore avoided because not known to be evil but is received as good and holy and doth therefore destroy that which is good by being intermixt therewith And thus saith he the servants of the Devil do most wickedly corrupt and deprave the holy Christian Religion whilest they pretend to be themselves good Christians of whom our Lord therefore commands us to beware saying Beware of false Prophets which come unto you in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravening woolves Mat. 7.15 2. The great danger of Heresie and Schism will further appear if we consider that they are ever productive and fruitful in all licentiousness and sinfulness of heart and life for Heresies being begotten by the Devil of the sinful corruptions of men hearts as is already noted cannot therefore have any other issue but of the same mold and temper whereof they are themselves begotten What ever therefore may be the external garbe and appearance of holiness which Heretiques generally do put on and how ever pure they may seem in their own eyes yet are such who are not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30.12 and however they may justifie themselves with the Pharisee yet are they not therefore just before God but rather the further off from justification Some of them you shall hear to brag much and boast of the Spirit and yet very fruitful in the lusts of the flesh For saith the Apostle whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 To talk much against the vanities of the world and to be themselves worldly minded for so faith S. John of false Prophets They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 1 Joh. 4.5 To profess and make a great shew of humility and obedience
they would deceive the very elect The Apostles of Christ treading in the same steps with their Lord and even in their own daies seeing his words fulfilled Gal. 1.7 1 Tim. 5.12 2 Tim. 3.6,7 4.3,4 2 Pet. 2.1,2,3 Jude 8. Eph. 4 14. Rom. 16.17,18 1 Joh. 4.1 and false Prophets arising not only severely inveigh against them but also impose upon us the same strict care and caution not to be seduced by them or like children to be tossed to and fro and carryed about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive To yeeld obedience to these several injunctions and to stand fast in the true faith rooted and built up therein against the assaults of false and deceitful workers these following directions will be useful 1. To be well and throughly instructed in the grounds and principles of holy Religion For as no firm and durable building can be raised without a good foundation laid so no man can be built up in the most holy faith and firmly setled in the truth except the foundation and ground-work be first well and surely laid in the right understanding and firm adherence to the principles of holy Religion Now the general ground and foundation of all holy and saving Truth is the word of God or the divinely inspired writings of Moses and the Prophets in the old and of Christ and his Apostles in the new Testament Ye are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone Eph. 2.20 But although all things contained in the holy Scriptures be infallibly true and in some respect or other usefull and edifying yet all are not therefore fundamentall Truths Those principles of holy truth contained in the Scriptures which are fundamental are according to the doctrine of the Church reduced to five Heads 1. Repentance 2. Faith Ch. catec 3. Obedience 4. Prayer 5. Sacraments If any winde of doctrine move us from off any of the grounds our souls must needs suffer the shipwrack of holy Truth and be split upon the rocks of false erroneous opinions As to these principles therefore these particular rules must be observed for the avoiding of errors 1. And first for Repentance which is termed the foundation of Christian Doctrine Heb. 6.1 He that will not build but upon what is the foundation of truth must not admit of any opinion whatsoever that shall take him off from the constant confession of his sins with all humility and godly sorrow remembring that there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7.20 And the only means left us to recover our selves out of the snares of sin is by Repentance to wash our hearts with the tears of godly sorrow for sin to empty our souls of them by confession and make them clean by more stedfast purposes and strong resistance against all temptations unto sin And this is the first part of that Baptismal vow or of that covenant we made with God when any of us by holy and lawful Baptism were admitted into the bosome of his Church even to forsake the devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh or manfully to fight under the banner of Christ against the devil the world and the flesh which is no other but to adhere to the doctrine and to continue in the practise of true Repentance 2. As to Faith which is joyned with Repentance as another essential part of the same foundation of Truth Heb. 6.1 't is necessary for the avoiding of Errors to admit of no opinion relating to Religion that is not agreeable to those Articles of the Christian faith summarily exprest in the Apostles Creed which is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or form of sound words in faith Symbolum Apreslolorum est regula sidei vestrae brevis grandis brevis numero verborum grandis pondere sententiarum Aug. de Temp. we are commanded to hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 That modell of faith once given to Saints we are commanded earnestly to contend for Jud. 3. The Apostles Creed saith S. Aug. is the rule of your faith which is though short yet weighty short in the number of words but weighty in sentences or the several articles thereof The Gospel of Christ is indeed the grand Rule of faith whereof this lesser Rule the Apostles Creed is the sum and Epitome And he that goes besides and not according to the Rule of faith goes not forward in the way but backward from the way of Truth 3. As to Obedience To entertain no opinion that agrees not with that all-perfect rule of Righteousness the Decalogue or ten Commandements of the moral Law for whatsoever shall oppose thwart make void or any way take off our obedience to any of Gods Commandements is to be rejected as false and erroneous Whosoever saith our Lord shall break one of these least Commandements and teach men so to do he shall be called least in the Kingdome of heaven that is saith the Glosse the most despised in the Church of Christ Minimus in regno h. c. despectissimu in ecclesia quia decidit à fide Lir. in loc and the reason is given because he is faln from the faith he is lapst into error which is expresly asserted by S. John Hereby we are sure we know God if we keep his commandements he that saith he knowes God and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.3,4 And in order to this Rule 't is necessary also to admit of no opinion that tends to the breach of either of those general Rules of Charity which is the fulfilling of the Law viz. To love God above all and thy neighbour as thy self for on these two hang all the Law and the Prophets Mat. 22.37 c. Whatsoever therefore doth not tend either 1. to the inflaming of our souls with the sacred fire of divine love to the advancement of Gods glory and the promoting of his service both inward and outward As also whatsoever 2. tends not to the maintenance of love and unity justice and charity innocence and beneficence towards our neighbors is not to be entertained as a beam shining from the light of holy Truth but as a flash of illusion suggested by the spirit of Error Hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if ye love one another Joh. 13.35 Aug. He omits saith the Father the gift of Miracles Tongues Prophesies Knowledge to understand all mysteries Faith to remove mountains by none of those but by your charity you shall be known to be my disciples 6 As to the doctrine of Prayer That we admit of no opinion that shall take us off either from the frequent and fervent use of holy Prayers in general or more particularly from the use of the Lords
to strictness and austerity of life then others have and there is a natural quickness and volubility of language and a natural ardour and fervency of minde wherewith some men are endowed more then others which are not therefore infallible tokens that all opinions such persons maintain are orthodox and true Scultetus tels of an arch-heretique in Germany cal'd Swenchfield Abrab Scult annual eccles a great Sect-master who amongst other extravagancies held many blasphemous opinions touching the Scriptures and yet this man did ardentes ad Deum preces creberrimè fundere was both very fervent and very frequent in his prayers unto God Hacket who was executed for blasphemy in the daies of Queen Elizabeth is reported to have excelled so much in the gift of extempore prayer that his disciples did believe him to be altogether inflamed with the Spirit of God and that his expressions were immediately from the Spirit and that there was nothing he might not obtain from God by his prayers Basilides the great Duke of Muscovy was very much exercised both in Prayer and Fasting and very severe towards others under his command that did not conform to his example He had his feigned Visions Paulus Odor bornius in vita quat l. 2. and Revelations also and yet a greater Tyrant and a more bloudy villain Christendome hath not seen The Scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish Church and the Novatians and Donatists of the Christian were far greater pretenders to piety and strictness of life then the truly orthodox of either Church and yet very great and notorious Schismatiques Not to be cousened therefore with fair and goodly pretences of any party or sect of men how seemingly holy and zealous soever and pretending that they have Christ that they have the Spirit that they only are in the right when they are deeply involv'd in an abysse of errors our Lord hath fore-arm'd us with sound and saving counsell Mat. 24.23 c. Then if any shall say unto you Lo here is Christ or lo there believe it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets Wherefore if they shall say Behold he is in the desert goe not forth behold he is in the secret chambers believe it not for as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth unto the West so shall the comming of the Son of man be Two rules for the avoiding infection by false Prophets under specious pretences are hence observable 1. Habet unaquacunque Haeresis vel certas mundi partes unde 〈◊〉 ecce hic ecce illic Every Heresie saith the Glosse is limited to some particular parts of the world and the infection is not universally diffused therefore 't is said Lo here or lo there If any man then shall limit Christ to his particular Church much lesse to his particular sect or fraternity believe it not for such are false Christs and false Prophets Ne credatur schismaticis nomine autem orientis occidentis torum orbem designat Gloss ordin For the Truth displaid from Christ the Sun of righteousnesse like the light of the heaven is diffused from East to West or spread over the face of the whole earth which renders the Church i. e. all sound and sincere professors of the Truth as well Catholique as Holy 2. Vel in occultis aut obscuris conventiculis curiositatem hominum decipit haeresis Id. Heresie and Schism seek out obscure and retired places and begin in conventicles and private meetings therefore 't is said Behold he is in the desert behold he is in the secret chambers So the Apostle of deceivers also they creep into houses and lead captive silly women c. 2 Tim. 3.6 But Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth seeketh no lurking holes is not ashamed to appear in publique being like the light that shineth from East to West open free and manifest to all except forc't to retirement by persecution and violence 9. For the avoiding of errors 't will be necessary to observe further that a Truth is not to be disbelieved or rejected because 't is profest by lewd and licentious persons or maintained by a Church and people that are in other respects erroneous and misguided For Truth is Truth by what mouth soever it bee spoken and 't is the more confirmed to be Truth because 't is even by the enemies of Truth attested to be so The unwary neglect of this rule hath not been the least inlet to manifold errors for 't is too usual with many to object both against orthodox truths and ecclesiastical orders on the one hand that this or that the Papists hold and against a strict careful conscientious life on the other that thus and thus the Puritans profess Hence many truths have been rejected for errors and many decent useful orders customes ceremonies and necessary acts of discipline have been cryed down as superstitious idolatrous and antichristian and the sacred body of religion it self is almost wholly turned out of the Church under the style of Popery Nor hath that piety and integrity of life which is required of particular persons escap'd better but under the notion of Puritanism hath been too much banisht from the lives and manners of men for fear of being branded with the guilt of Schism faction and separation 10 He that will not unawares headlong himself into the gulph of error must not presume upon any extraordinary infusion of Gifts and Graces from above but in all humility wait upon God in the use of means and the careful improvement of what gifts and graces he hath already received It is the manner of Heretiques and Hypocrites saith a learned man Joh. Câ—st ever to pretend to high lights of the Spirit and to finde new and unheard of waies of walking with God slighting all that is common though never so commendable and catching at all that is curious though never so dangerous and thus they lose themselves in their chymerical conceptions and pretending to refine ancient piety and truth are puft up with secret pride and presumption and grasp nothing but froth and vanity That there are such things as Extasies and more then ordinary ravishments of spirit and infusions of divine gifts and qualifications is not doubted but such supereminences only superexcellent souls are capable of neither yet are they afforded to all pious devout and heavenly minded persons that so none may presume to depend upon them but that every man should keep his station and walk humbly with his God not relying upon extraordinary inspirations in the neglect of ordinary means which is in many respects destructive and dangerous as in the former Treatise And although it be most true that the conversion of every man to the truth being a work of the Spirit is therefore sudden and at one instant or moment of time begotten and wrought in the soul yet notwithstanding our progress towards perfection and bliss in the waies of Truth and Holiness goes on step by step
meritorious death and sufferings of our dearest Lord and Saviour who by his death hath overcome him who had the power of death the Devil and all the spirits and powers of darkness all whose black and mischievous designs and secret insinuations of error and deceit are annihilate and deaded and from them all we have redemption through faith in the bloud of Christ Blessed Lord who hast built thy Church upon a rock and promised that the gates of hell should never prevail against it Behold O Lord how that infernal spirit of error and delusion hath prospered and prevailed amongst us O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled and made thy Church an heap of confusions and disorder We are become an open shame unto our enemies a very scorn and derision to them that are round about us Lord how long wilt thou be angry shall thy jealousie burn like fire for ever O remember not our old sins but have mercy upon us and that soon for we are come to great misery Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of thy name O deliver us and be merciful to our sins for thy Names sake O be gracious to thine inheritance and let not thine enemies any longer devour and tear thy Church into erroneous sects and factions Remove not good Lord thy candlestick the light of thy truth from amongst us but let us ever enjoy the freedome of thy Gospel the food of thy Word and sweet refreshing of thy Sacraments with all the benefits of the communion of Saints So we that be thy people and the sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever and will shew forth thy praise to all generations And to this end vouchsafe holy Father to give us a right understanding and firm practical belief of all the points of holy Christian Doctrine with an humble conscientious obedience to all thy most holy Lawes inflame our hearts with the most sacred fire of Charity that we persevering in the love and service of thy sacred Majesty and in mutual love and brotherly kindness each to other thy mercy may in the end receive us from amidst the tumultuous waves of temptations to sins and errors in this life to the haven of eternal security and peaceful felicity in the life to come through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen THE END A Catalogue of some Books printed for Rich. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane London and some formerly Printed at OXFORD Books written by H. Hammond D.D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Test by H. Hammond D.D. in fol. 2. The Practical Catechism with all other English Treatises of H. Hammond D.D. in two volumes in 4. 3. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur contra sententiam D. Blondelli altorum Authore Henrico Hammond in 4 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Queries in 12. 5. Of Schism A defence of the Church of England against the Exceptions of the Romanists in 12. 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice by H. Hammond D.D. in 12. 7. Six books of late Controversie in defence of the Church of England in two volumes in 4. newly published The names of several Treatises and Sermons written by Jer. Taylor D.D. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Course of Sermons for all the Sundays in the year together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. 2. Episcopacy asserted in 4. 3. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ 2. Edit in fol. 4. The Liberty of Prophesying in 4. 5. An Apologie for authorised and Set-formes of Liturgie in 4. 6. A discourse of Baptism its institution efficacy upon all Beleevers in 4. 7. The Rule and Exercises of holy living in 12. 8. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying in 12. 9. A short Catechism for institution of young persons in the Christian Religion in 12. 10. A short institution of Grammar composed for young Scholars in 8. 11. The Real Presence and spiritual of CHRIST in the Blessed Sacrament proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in 8. 12 The Golden Grove or A Manual of daily Prayers fitted to the daies of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness 13. The Doctrine and practise of repentance rescued from Popular Errors in a large 8. Newly published Certamen Religiosum or a Conference between the late King of Engl. and the late Lord Marquesse of Worcest concerning Religion at Ragland Castle together with a Vindication of the Protestant Cause by Chr. Cartwright in 4. The Psalter of David with Titles and Collects according to the matter of each Psalm by the Right honorable Chr. Hatton in 12. the fifth Edition with additionals Boanerges and Barnabas or Judgement and Mercy for wounded and afflicted souls in several Soliloquies by Francis Quarles in 12. The life of Faith in dead Times by Chr. Hudson Preacher at Putney in 12. The Guide unto true Blessednesse or a Body of the Doctrine of the Scriptures directing a man to the saving knowledg of God by Sam. Crook in 12. Six excellent Sermons upon several occasions preached by Edw. Willan Vicar of Hoxne in 40. The Dipper Dipp'd or the Anabaptist duck'd and plung'd over head and ears by Daniel Featly D.D. in 4. Hermes Theologus or a Divine Mercury new Descants upon old Records by Theoph. Wodnote in 12. Philosophical Elements concerning Government and civil Society by Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury in 12. An Essay upon Statius or the five first Books of Pub. Papinius Statius his Thebais by Tho. Stephens Schoolmaster in Saint Edmundsbury in 8. Nomenclatura Brevis Anglo-Latino-Graeca inusum Scholae Westmonasteriensis per F. Gregory in 8. Etymologicum Parvum in usum Scholae publicae Westmonasteriensis opera studio Francisci Gregorii in 8. Grammatices Graecae Enchiridion in usum Scholae Collegialis Wigorniae in 8. A discourse of Holy Love by Sir Geo. Strode Knight in 12. The Saints Honey-comb full of Divine Truths by R. Gove Preacher of Henton S. George in Somerset-shire in 8. The Communicants Guide directing the younger sort which have never yet received and the elder and ignorant sort which have hitherto received unworthily how they may receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper with comfort by R. Gove in 8. A Contemplation of Heaven with an Exercise of Love and a Descant on the Prayer in the Garden by a Catholick Gent. in 12. A Full Answer to a Declaration of the House of Commons concerning no more addresses to the King printed at Oxford 1648. in 4. The Royalists Defence printed at Oxford 1648. 4. Mercurius Rusticus or the Countreymans Complaint printed at Oxford 1648 in 8. A Relation of the Conference between W. Laud Lord Archb. of Canterbury and Mr. Fisher the Jesuite by command of K James fol. Church Lands not to be sold 1647. in 8. The