very same Epistle he commends them all for taking heed to the words of Prophecy of the Old Testament in which there were some things as hard to be sure as any are in St Paul's Writings and I hope St. Peter was as wise a Man in this point as any that have come after him And now I beseech you let us not say That we are Believers already and therefore we need not trouble our selves with constant reading of the Bible Were not they so to whom St. Peter wrote Nay the Apostles were then alive to instruct them by Word as well as by Writing and moreover daily Miracles were wrought for confirmation of the Faith yet they did well in taking diligent heed to the Scriptures and shall not we do so too who can find Apostles and Miracles no where but there We believe already but have we all of us that stedfast Faith which the Gospel requires which is not grounded meerly upon Education and the Custom of our Country but upon the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Have we that Faith which will bear examination and encounter opposition If we have a very little Exhortation will serve the turn to make us persevere in reading God's Book whereby we shall be yet more strongly built up in our most holy Faith But if not our want of Faith will not be admitted at the last Day for an excuse of the badness of our Lives when we had the Scriptures laid before us the Holy Scriptures I say which if they had been diligently and honestly read by us would have furnished us with such an immovable ground of our Christian Belief as would have supported us in the Day of Temptation Nay if our Faith was grown never so strong yet the reading of the Scriptures would be necessary for us to make the Precepts and Rules of the Christian Life and the Motives and Reasons of practising them daily present in our Minds For the Temptations to sin are always present the Snares of Hell are still round about us we are ever in some danger and therefore we ought always to be strong in the Lord by having a constant sense of those Divine Truths upon our Minds which are our great defence and security And I see not how this can be if we neglect to have recourse unto that ever necessary Treasure of Divine Truth the Holy Word of God St. Chrysistom therefore doubted not to say and I wish we may all well consider that earnest saying of so wise and holy a Man as he was It cannot be says he It cannot possibly be that a Man should attain Salvation unless he be diligently conversant in Spiritual Reading Himself was so excellent and constant a Preacher that if any one Man not extraordinarily inspired could have made it needless for his Hearers to read the Scriptures at home he I should reckon was the Man and yet I observe he often complains to them that the reason why most of them gained little profit by what he said either as to improvement of Knowledge or good Practice was because they did not read the Scriptures he explained to them either before or after his Sermons And says he it is the neglect of this Reading that causeth all Heresie and corrupt Life Now I beseech you how much time do we spend in other things of little concern to us either as to our Health or Wealth or our wordly Callings And what a shame and a sin is it for us to find so little time as generally we do to furnish our selves with the knowledge of God's Truth and with pious Affections towards the doing of his Will out of God's Holy Book What a great matter were it if we borrowed some time for this purpose from our Recreations or even from our ordinary Business For what is this Life to Life Everlasting What is the Wealth and Pleasure of this World to our Salvation in the World to come And therefore the forementioned excellent Person argued with his Hearers in this manner Perhaps some may say That they are otherwise employed in their worldly Callings and others that they have not Money to spare to buy the Scriptures but says he what a ridiculous thing would it be for a Man of a Secular Employment to neglect it upon pretence that he has not time for it or that he has not wherewithal to purchase the necessary Tools of his Calling These things are seldom or never pleaded but by idle Persons And do you not all know that you are professed Christians and called to the hope of Eternal Life and that diligent reading and hearing the Holy Scriptures is as necessary to your Christian Calling as any thing can be to the successful management of your Secular Professions I shall add this one thing That besides that improvement in Knowledge and Vertue which is naturally consequent upon much conversing with God's Book they that do so have a peculiar Title to GOD's supernatural Blessing who is wont to reward a Pious and Reverend Use of Holy Things with greater Measures of his Grace In one word by other studies we may grow wise for this World but if we add this to the rest we shall yet grow wiser for this World by taking heed to those incomparable Instructions that the Holy Bible abounds with and which is something more we shall grow wise unto Salvation The Tenth Sermon 1 COR. XII 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit AFter the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles there was a continual Communication of Supernatural and extraordinary Gifts to other Believers for a long time To one was given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom To another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit To another Faith by the same Spirit To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit To another working of Miracles To another Discerning of Spirits To another Divers kinds of Tongues To another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will And this manifestation of the Spirit was given to every man to profit withal i. e. to profit the whole Body whereof himself was a Member For though that one Spirit which distributed his wonderful gifts amongst the Faithful could have given them all to the same Man so as that one and the same Person should have had the Word of Wisdom and the Gifts of Healing and the working of Miracles and a Prophetick Power and discerning of Spirits and divers kinds of Tongues yet to maintain a mutual dependance and a charitable serviceableness of the Members one amongst another he gave to one one Gift to another another dividing severally to every Man for by this means one would stand in need of another and each Member would be obliged to take care of the rest
of the Jewish State and Religion which was to be accompanied with manifest Tokens of God's Favour to the Christians and of his indignation at their Enemies And thus we are to understand that passage in St. Peter The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 Not that this was in a strict and proper sense the Coming of Christ because he did not come in Person as he will do at the last day but in some sense it might be so called because he appeared by his Power and Providence to do the same work in part which will with incomparably greater perfection be done at the last i.e. to take Vengeance of the ungodly and to save his own People for the Incorrigibleness of the Jewish Nation and their incurable hatred of the Truth and obstinate Persecution of it was dreadfully punished in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Christians had not only all escaped out of it before the Roman Army came against it but by the destruction of it they gained also a very considerable rest from Persecution for some time after And now the reason why this wonderful Providence was called the Coming of Christ seems plainly to be this That after his Ascension into Heaven he set down at the right hand of God and had all Power put into his hands and therefore because it is he that governs the World as well as the Church such remarkable Revolutions as that was for the destruction of his enemies and the saving of his Servants are called the coming of Christ God hath given him to be head over all things to the Church and therefore such Passages as that was are called his coming to signifie that they are the effects of his Providence and Government for the good of his Church no less than if he had come in Person to order them as he will do at the end of the World to order all things then And for this reason then though in the proper sense of his coming he will come but once at the end of the World yet in this improper sense of it his appearance to destroy his Enemies and to save his People that trust in him nothing hinders but that he may be said to come often before the end of the World i. e. as often as his Providence doth signally and remarkably appear for this purpose And thus we are to understand the coming of the Lord in 2 Thes 2.8 where it is said of the Man of sin that wicked one That the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming which being to be done before the personal coming of Christ to Judgment the meaning must be that his destruction shall be so remarkably the Work of a Divine Providence that all shall confess it was not the effect of worldly Policy but no less the doing of the Lord than if himself had come in Person to destroy him And whenever the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord when the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea When those magnificent Predictions are fulfilled concerning the universal prevalence of Truth and Goodness amongst Men with which the Old and New Testament are plentifully furnished and which are to be fulfilled before the coming of Christ to the last Judgment then also is it true that the Lord comes i.e. by the Power of his Spirit and Providence to renew and reform a degenerate World that was running headlong into perdition And thus much concerning the sense of these Words when the son of man cometh which I have shewn do principally signifie that great and amazing revolution when he shall come by coming in his own Person at the last day to judge the World but in a secondary sense do also signifie the remarkable Works of his Providence in punishing some and saving others even in this Life Now 2. How are we to understand that other clause will he find Faith upon the Eartb The meaning of the Question is plainly this That he will not find Faith on the Earth or very little in comparison But what is here meant by Faith I answer that is easily discerned by the Parable and the Application of it that went before The design of both which was to infer the conclusion in the foregoing verse And shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you he will avenge them speedily That is to say God would hear the Prayers of righteous Men and in a little time take their cause into his own hand and then says our Saviour Nevertheless when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth i. e. notwithstanding the Promises of God to hear the Prayers of good Men and to interpose for them that depend upon him there will be but little Faith in these Promises found up-upon the Earth even when the Son of Man comes to fulfil them The greatest part will not be found to believe any thing at all of them and so will be surprized with that day without any preparation for it or expectation of it Many will yield to the Temptations of this present World and throwing off their dependance upon God will think to secure themselves by Flattery and Hypocrisie from the Violence of wicked Men others will despair of any better state of things and very few will lay to heart the promises which God hath made to hear the Prayers of his Servants and to save them Few will strengthen themselves in God by crying to him day and night and by putting their whole trust and confidence in him and this notwithstanding the clear and strong reasons they have from his Word so to do Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth And thus we may from other places of Scripture observe that immediately before the Day of Judgment there will be a great falling away from Christian Piety and Charity nay and the World should begin once more to depart from the Purity of Faith many false Prophets shall arise and shall deceive many and because Iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold But says our Saviour he that endures to the end shall be saved thereby intimating that it would be some matter of difficulty to endure to the end Thus also St. Peter tells us that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming which is plainly meant of the Day of Judgment before which according to the Revelation of St. John Satan was to be loosed for a little time and to go out and to deceive the nations and to gather them together against the City of God And therefore it will be remarkably true at the day of Judgment that when the Son of Man cometh he will find but
little Faith in the Earth The World will be in a careless Posture as it was before that the Flood came and took them all away And for the same reason there is but little Faith in the Earth when God enters into Judgment with the World for the Violence and Iniquities of Men and asserts the Cause of Innocence and Rightousness against them for in all such Cases the Temptations to Unbelief and Apostacy are very great and likely to prevail upon many of those that believe so that this is the meaning That in such a wicked Age as calls for the coming of the Son of Man the open Enemies of God which are the greater number will be void of all regard whatsoever to his Word and to his Providence or if they take any notice of it it is that of the Scoffers mentioned by St. Peter Who will say Where is the promise of his coming Many of his professed Servants will be weary of depending upon him and give way to Temptations and depend more upon the arm of Flesh Than upon the Promise of God and the Faith of many good Men will be very much weakned and abated so that when he cometh he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And thus I perswade my self to have given you a true Illustration of these remarkable Words of our blessed Saviour and that upon the two significations of the Son of Man's Coming which seem to be both intended in this Text and indeed it is very hard to know which was principally intended the day of the general Judgment or the Destruction of Jerusalem The day of general Judgment is in it self the principal meaning of Christ's Coming and therefore ought not to be excluded but yet the Parable with the Application of it being manifestly intended to stir up that Generation to pray to God and not to faint and to give a firm Faith to the Promises of God notwithstanding the great troubles they were like to meet with from the unbelieving Jews therefore neither could the coming of the Son of Man to be avenged of these his Enemies and to deliver his Servants be excluded but was as directly intended as the other And now I proceed to observe the two main Points which the Text supposes besides those which it affirms and the considering of them will not a little contribute to a more perfect understanding of this place 1. It is supposed manifestly that after the first Coming of Christ to call the World to repentance and to be offered up for our sins there would yet be degenerate Ages sometimes and a most corrupt state of things before his second personal Coming to judge the World 2. It is also supposed that his Providence would then appear to set all things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church 1. That his first coming would not infallibly prevent the degeneracy and corruption of future Ages For notwithstanding that evidence of Truth which he taught many false prophets would arise and deceive many and notwithstanding the Power of his Doctrine iniquity would abound and the love of many would wax cold And notwithstanding both these advantages yet his own servants would sometimes be reduced to that state that it should be needful to them to cry unto God day and night which is a matter that may cause some wonder if we do not consider the reason of it That the Principles and Manners of Men were so often and so generally corrupted before the Coming of the Son of God into the World is that which might not appear strange at all to those that consider the weakness and folly of Mankind That after the Creation the Earth should so abound with luxury and violence that God swept all Mankind away with the Flood but eight Persons That after Noah's Family had peopled the Earth again Men should fall into Idolatry so universally that God called Abraham out of his own Country and entred into a particular Covenant with him for the maintaining of the true Worship in his Family and Posterity That Pharaoh should oppress the Israelites after his Country had been saved by them That the Israelites should fall to worship other Gods after that the true God had wrought so many miraculous Deliverances for them That when not without much ado they were cured of Idolatry they should fall into scandalous ways of Hypocrisie and Immorality These and the like things perhaps are not so much to be wondred at because God had not as yet used the last means to instruct Mankind and to oblige them to Piety and Vertue but that there should be Times as bad as the worst of those after Christ himself had appeared in the World to die for Sinners and to bring the Doctrine of Salvation to Mankind with the most convincing Evidence that could be desired and with the most powerful Motives that could be thought of that notwithstanding all this Oppression Violence Fraud Hypocrisie Error Superstition Idolatry and scandalous Examples should for some Ages reign no less than before the times of Christ and to that degree as to shake even the Faith of good Men and if it were possible to deceive the very best of all this seems to be an amazing Consideration and tho' the noble Examples of Christian Piety and Vertue that have appeared in the World and the assured Expectation of a larger Progress that Christianity will make in the Earth and of better Effects that it will produce may answer the Objection yet that the World that the Church should be so bad under the last means is what may raise some admiration But you are to consider That when our Lord first came into the World he came not to establish a Religion which should either by its Truth convince or by its Power reform Mankind whether they will or no but what was sufficient for both purposes if they would be wise and honest and suffer the Concernments of eternal Life to prevail with them above their worldly Interests and therefore there was as much reason to expect an universal Reformation as to expect that Men would not resist the Evidence of Truth in Matters of the greatest concern to them in the whole World but to bring them to this the Gospel was furnished with no irresistible means but left them under the natural liberty they had before with a provision of Grace that might be resisted and therefore it was in it self likely that the Truth would be opposed by some and corrupted by others and by many held in unrighteousness that several to whom it was propounded would not believe it and several that believed it would not obey it and in time that it would be mixed with Errors and Superstitions and framed to the Designs of Ambition and Covetousness nay the better and more Divine a Religion that of the Gospel is the more violently it would be opposed by some and the more certainly corrupted by others So that if we
in those Errors than it hath been and perhaps utterly impossible to maintain them amongst Christians without destroying the Bible out of the World But then by the same reason that such cautions had been necessary a thousand times as many more had been necessary too For so many Additions by way of caution must have been made as there are ways of eluding and perverting a Rule which are so many that to have provided expresly against them all would have made the Bible a more voluminous Book than any is in the World not to say the most odd and uncouth Book that ever was seen For whoever wrote or spoke in that manner as to provide against all possible ways of being mistaken or having his words perverted According to this rate a man must not expect to make an end of a sentence in an hour and when he has done all he can his explications may be perverted too And therefore we are not to wonder if God has not provided express Cautions against all possible Mistakes and Abuses of this nature but thought good to leave a Rule of Faith and Manners and Worship which would be sufficient to guide all honest Persons and lovers of Truth though not sufficient to exclude all Cavil and Abuse For this reason it was that our Saviour did not pretend that all who saw his Works and heard his Doctrines must necessarily believe in him but he required constantly a certain temper of mind consisting of Humility Sincerity love of the Truth and in a word A good and honest Heart in order to a Man's being his true Disciple Common Sense and Reason was not sufficient for this purpose but there must be also a peculiar Probity or teachable Spirit a Mind ready to believe all Truth and to do all Duty These were the Sheep that would hear his voice and the Ground that would receive his Seed and bring forth Fruit Such were the Men that would hear and understand and know of the Doctrine whether it were of God But as for others they would make a shift to reject it with some colour for so doing or to pervert it if they once admitted it This was the first things to be considered the temper and design of the Gospel which delivers Truth that does by no means gratify the Lusts of Men or please their Imaginations or serve the interest of particular persons to the disadvantage of all others and then that this Truth was delivered in that way which though it be apt to instruct and convince all honest Men yet will not infallibly bear down a spirit of Contradiction Now to this we must add 2. The consideration of the general temper of Mankind for whose sake the Gospel was made known viz. that it is very corrupt and exceedingly prone to Sin and therefore to Error impatient of true Virtue and Piety and therefore of true Doctrine Human Nature does affect a lawless Liberty and cannot well bear to be confined and it is so diseased that it doth not take it well to be healed it is therefore no wonder if the Remedy which God hath provided hath been so tampered withal by Men as to make it ineffectual for that purpose for which he hath sent it to us and Doctrines have been taught which give that liberty that Truth denies It was not to be expected but that if the Doctrine of Christianity should not effectually overcome those Lusts that reign in the World those Lusts would corrupt and pervert that Doctrine and bring in Heresies Ambition and Covetousness would bring in Heresies for the establishing of a worldly Power and Dominion in the Name of Christ Licentiousness would bring in Heresies for making void the Commandments of God Pride would bring in Heresies though for nothing else but a Man's satisfaction and glory in drawing many People into a Party and becoming the Head of it and when they were brought in the natural inconstancy and wavering of some would carry them away from the Truth the natural stiffness and inflexibility of others would detain them in Error the very desire and love of Novelty would at first help to bring in some and in process of time the pretence of Antiquity would be every day more and more able to gain others Finally the unwillingness of most Men to take pains in the search of Truth and the greater ease of depending upon the absolute Authority of others would give a farther advantage to Error which fears nothing more than an Examination and therefore discourages all Persons from giving themselves so needless a trouble since they have the word of those for their security who cannot possibly mislead them considering the diseases of Human Nature which the Doctrine of Christ doth not cure miraculously and irresistibly it could not be expected but there would be Factions and Heresies against the Truth If therefore it be thought strange that the Apostle should say there must be Heresies let us consider that this is no more than if he had said after all the care that God hath taken to restore Mankind there will be Pride and Ambition there will be Covetousness and Injustice and the Love of this World there will be Luxury and Licenciousness there will be both Inconstancy and Stiffneckedness there will be Laziness and Slothfulness and Unaptness for Instruction and therefore there must be Heresies for God hath provided no infallible Remedies against Sin and Wickedness and as certainly as the Vices of the World would break out in the Church so certainly would Errors get into it by degrees and usurp the Name and Authority of Truth 'T is true that God if he pleased could absolutely have hindred it by his over-ruling Power But in this saying it is implied that he would not do so and Experience has shewn that he has not done so and we have no reason to wonder at it since he is not pleased to make all Men good by an irresistible Grace and there was less reason to expect that he should make all Men Orthodox by an irresistible Illumination And so I come to the second point Which concerns the reason assigned why God is pleased to permit Heresies That they which are approved may be made manifest i. e. that it may most evidently appear who are sincere and honest and who are not so for opposition to the Truth and the ways that are taken to advance Error do prove what Men are at the bottom and distinguish between those that would appear all alike if the same Truth were equally professed by all The great difference that breaks out is that between the probity of some Men on the one side and the falseness and hypocrisy of others on the other side which appears in these instances 1. In a more diligent search after Truth which is the effect Heresies have upon honest and godly Men while they give occasion to Hypocrites to consider what is most for their ease their safety their advantage in this World whilst the several parties
of Christians are each of them eagerly contending for their own ways Men of honesty and sincerity find themselves obliged to examine their own persuasions more narrowly and to compare one thing with another more carefully so that if they apprehend a mistake in themselves they quit it without any more to do and come to establish themselves in the Truth upon better grounds than they had before and are better able to lead others into it 2. By this means also the constancy of sincere persons in the profession of the Truth is manifested For where there is no opposition there can be no trial of that Love to the Truth which will not suffer a Man to forsake it and this not only because a Man's stedfastness cannot be proved but by opposition and temptation but likewise because there are but few Good Men in comparison who would be at the pains of a diligent Examination of their own persuasions if contrary Doctrines were not advanced they would rely mostly upon the Consent and Authority of others instead of believing Truth upon its proper Grounds and Arguments But if as I said in the first instance the spreading of Heresies puts them upon a diligent search after the reasons of Truth their stedfastness in it afterwards is manifested to be the true Virtue of Constancy which does not consist in an obstinate resolution not to change our Opinion let what will be produced against it but in adhering to that which appears to be true after the most diligent examination of all that can be said against it And thus Heresies make Good Men more constant in the Truth by giving them an opportunity of confirming themselves in it by better Arguments and clearer Evidence and they manifest their constancy to the World inasmuch as the Adversaries of Truth are never wanting to shake the stedfastness of true Believers by all ways of temptation imaginable 3. Their Charity to others is manifested also by means of Heresies and Opposition to the Truth for here is occasion given to shew their care of one another in satisfying the doubtful in instructing the ignorant in giving caution to the confident and encouragement to the weak all which are noble instances of Christian Charity But this is not all since their care to recover others from the way of Error to reduce those that are gone aside together with their enduring contradiction their instructing in much patience their meekness towards those that oppose themselves are likewise manifested upon all such occasions 4. Their sincerity does likewise appear in another respect viz. of defending Truth with Truth only and a good Cause by Innocence and honest means without making use of Frauds of Lies of False Accusations of false Principles of unconcluding Arguments of any disingenuous Arts without making advantage of the weakness and mistakes of others which one thing makes a vast difference between those that are honest and those that are not All which instances do express the truth of that reason for which God has still suffered Heresies to be in the Church That they which are approved may be made manifest i. e. that their love of the Truth and their diligence in enquiring after it that their constancy in professing it that their charity to those that are and to those that are not misled and their sincerity and ingenuity in asserting Truth and appearing for it by none but lawful methods and just arguments may appear to the World which as it is for the praise of Good Men so there are other benefits arising from it for instance 1. That the belief of true Doctrine comes hereby to be established upon better and firmer grounds than in all likelihood had been discovered if Opposition had not obliged honest Men to dig the deeper for them and this we have noted already 2. That by the way many profitable Truths come to be discovered which had otherwise lain hid The Scriptures come to be better understood and the more obscure passages of it to be reasonably well interpreted all which is for the advantage of the Church of God Opposition whets the Industry and sets an edge upon the Wit of all Men good and bad and whilst bad Men are concerned to find out all the ways of supporting Error the good and honest are no less employed to arm themselves with all the advantages of Truth and therefore cannot fail of arriving at greater Skill in the things of God and a greater compass of understanding in Divine matters than if they had not been constrained to undermine the approaches of Error Lastly The Duty that is incumbent upon all Men of Honesty and Sincerity to maintain the Profession of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel against all Heresies whatsoever shews them also the necessity of recommending true Opinions to the World by more Orthodox lives by walking more warily and circumspectly by setting better Examples of all kinds of Virtue and Piety by shewing the force and efficacy of true Doctrine to make Men live soberly righteously and godly in this present World And when God suffers Heresies to prevail most in the Church 't is a loud call to all that are Friends of Truth and Goodness to justify his Cause by the strongest Arguments and the best Lives And now he is something to blame that will not acknowledge these two things to follow from what has been said 1. That Heresies and Schisms are no objection against the Providence of God 2. That they are no objection against the Truth and Goodness of a Church 1. That they are no objection against the Providence of God since they have their good use and consequence for which he is pleased to permit them and this especially to try the Honesty of Men and to shew what they are to the World which will in the end make extreamly for the advantage of Truth and commonly the more Heresies there are the more certainly is this Trial made In the mean while it is not to be dissembled that yet diversity of Sects and Parties hath its manifold mischiefs and miseries attending upon it it breeds scandal to the World it is the diversion of Atheists and Unbelievers it nourishes Discords and Animosities it removes the Contentious farther from the knowledge of the Truth it makes the Study of good Manners and the Practice of Holiness and Virtue to be in a great measure forgotten it lessens the Reverence of Authority it produces Fraud and Force Unfaithfulness and Cruelty and has made Men and which is worse Christians Foxes and Wolves to one another so that 't is not to be denied but Heresies are in themselves and in their consequences very great Evils but then they are such Evils as the Providence of God permits for wise and good Ends such as I have already mentioned They have their good consequences as well as their bad ones and the good that is wrought out of them is weighty enough to overbalance the Evil for the greatest mischief that is discernable in
themselves allow That there shall be a resurrection of the dead And herein do I exercise my self to have a conscience void of offence towards GOD and men St. Paul and such as he believed all things that were written in the Law and the Prophets those very Writings which the Jews themselves acknowledged to be Divine and tho' to this Faith they added the Doctrine and Practice of a good Life yet they were esteemed Hereticks because they undertook to see with their own Eyes and to judge for themselves instead of submitting to the Authority of the Council that had betrayed and murdered the Lord Jesus 2. They were accused of Sedition too as if they designed to make Stirs and Commotions and to alienate the People from theia Governours Thus when Paul and Silas had converted a multitude of Devout Greeks and not a few of the chief Women at Thessalonica the Jews who believed not moved with Envy took unto 'em certain lewd Fellows of the baser sort and drew some of the Brethren to the Rulers crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also who do contrary to the decrees of Coesar saying That there is another King one Jesus Acts 17.5 6. And yet they never made one step by Word or Deed towards deposing Princes and changing Governments Jesus indeed who had commanded them to pay Tribute unto Caesar had also forbidden them to be of the Religion which Caesar was then of and this was drawn into an accusation of Faction and Disloyalty Thus also the same St. Paul being brought before Foelix at Jerusalem the Jews complained by Tertullian their Oratour That they had found him a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes Acts 24.5 3. They concluded them under a sentence of Damnation as far as they could do it Indeed they would have it thought so impossible for a Christian to be saved that some of them after being converted to Christianity were strongly persuaded that they still ought to keep the Law of Moses and would have mingled Judaism and Christianity together as if there was no hope of Salvation out of the Synagogue Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Acts 15.1 4. As 't is usual in such Cases to damn first and then to kill they delivered the Disciples of Christ to death and pretended the service of God for it For which we may take those remarkable Words of St. Paul describing the Temper of the Jews then and what his own once was Says he I was taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers and was zealous toward God as ye are at this day And I persecuted them even unto the death binding and delivering into prisons both men and women Acts 22.3 4. And in chap. 26. v. 10 11. he declares That he persecuted them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them he persecuted them even into strange cities Such was the entertainment they had from the Jews to whom the Word of Salvation was first delivered But when it was carried amongst the Gentiles they condemned it too For 1. It was run down as if it had brought Irreligion and Atheism into the World insomuch that the ancient Apologists were fain in good earnest to set themselves against this absurd Accusation and to shew that it was not all one to serve God at all and not to serve many Gods That there might be Devotion without bowing down to Images and Religion and Worship without Idolatry and better a great deal without these things than with them It was exclaimed against as a late upstart Religion that began but yesterday and was fitter to be hissed than argued out of the World They used to ask the Christians what sort of Men they could name either Greeks or Barbarians that made their Profession and had their Rites and Worship before Jesus appeared You have forsaken say they the Customs of the Fathers that had been observed of old time in all Cities and Countries you have revolted from a Worship which has had the Tradition of all Ages and the Approbation of Kings and People Law-makers and Philosophers and by almost all the World till such as you appeared who are but of yesterday 3. They try to overwhelm it with the most gross and palpable Untruths they gave it out that the Christians were Worshippers of the Sun nay that they adored an Asses-head and sometimes a Cross They did not stick to say That in their solemn Assemblies they kill'd a Child and committed Incest They also upon no occasion in the World disarm'd them as a seditious and disloyal People and accused them of Treason tho' none ever set better Examples of Fidelity to their Governours To conclude Our Predecessors of the Primitive Church were now and then condemned to several sorts of deaths and it was often a great deal more safe to be some notorious Malefactor than to be a Christian In a word The Gospel met with that Opposition which no Religion ever did before The Gods of other Nations new Gods every day were admitted into a Temple at Rome with some formality and without trouble But when the Disciples of Jesus came to call Men to the Worship of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent Jews and Gentiles conspired to extinguish their Religion and to blot out their name for ever insomuch that the Jews at Rome could tell St. Paul As concerning this Sect we know that it is every where spoken against Those therefore whom God justifies have been and may be condemned by Men Which will not seem strange to any of us if we consider what the Causes of it are For instance 1. That hatred of truth which reigns in a great part of Mankind They cannot bear sound Doctrine nor can they therefore bear those that profess and practice it Truth is against them and therefore they will be against the Truth and all that follow it So long as Pride Lust Avarice Revenge Luxury and such things remain there will be so many Causes of condemning that which God approves To which we must add 2. The inflexibleness of true Doctrine and of those that maintain it to the designs of Worldly Men. Christianity was said to be a perfect Scheme of Religion that would suffer no additions or alterations It was stiff and would not bend to the Pleasure of Priests or of States-men as all that would which the Heathens called Religion among themselves Whilst it was kept in wise and honest hands and truly represented there was no room for Cheating no Allowances for pious Frauds no place for convenient Inventions Innovations could not be brought into the Faith of Christians or the Substance of their Worship but they would be corruptions of both without tampering with it it could not serve the ambition of a
many Ages afterwards till at length falling again into great Corruption of Doctrine and Manners she with all the other Six Churches of Asia written to by our Lord fell to be no Church at all and the Temples wherein the Name of Christ was called upon are now become Turkish Mosques and so the burden of Pergamos was fulfilled And now having given you this Account of the State of the Church of Pergamos as it was represented by our Lord himself I am much mistaken if from this Authority we may not be able to justify the Reformation of the Church of England against the most specious and popular Exceptions which they of Rome make against our Reformation And this I shall endeavour to do under these three Heads First That in this Church whilst it was in Communion with and Subjection to the Church of Rome there were notorious Abuses and Errors both in Doctrine and Worship added to the Profession of the Common Faith Secondly That upon this Supposition we might and ought to reform our selves as we have done Thirdly That the main Objections which they of the Roman Church do bring and whereby they seek to stagger those of our Communion and to fright them into their own may by this instance of the Message of Christ to the Church of Pergamos be demonstrated to be vain and fallacious and therefore by no means fit to remove us from our stedfastness First That in this Church as in all others that were in Communion with the Church of Rome there were notorious Abuses and Errors introduced into the Faith and Worship of Christians And First As in the Church of Pergamos so in these Churches there were Doctrines and Practices leading to Idolatry I wish that were all but it is not all for Idolatry it self if it be possible for us to know what it is was practised and that Practice not only connived at but encouraged and commanded and of this sort were the Practices of Adoring the Host Praying to Saints to dead Men and Women and Worshipping of Images contrary to the whole Tenor of the Scripture providing that we should worship the Lord our God and that him only we should serve And it is very observable that when we urge them with these things they defend themselves from Idolatry by the use of such distinctions as 't is impossible for the common People to save themselves by if indeed these distinctions would do the business As for Doctrines tending to licentiousness of Life and Manners what can be more evidently such than the easy terms upon which they promised forgiveness of Sins and security from Hell Confession to a Priest with Attrition being reckoned sufficient to receive a Pretorial Absolution which shall be valid in Heaven As also the Invention of Purgatory and the Power of the Church to shorten the Pains of it by Indulgences by applying the Treasure of the Churches Merits by Masses and Prayers with a great many Abuses of this nature And besides all these what shall we say to their Doctrine of Transubstantiation their Half-communion their Latin Service their Sacrifice of the Mass for which there is no President or Rule in the Scriptures or in Antiquity but plain and full consent there is both of the one and of the other against them But now to all this they make one general Reply and tell us That the Church meaning the Roman Church hath not erred in these Points because she cannot err at all for she is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and the Standard of Catholick Unity and Faith she is that One Catholick Church which cannot fail to which Christ has promised his perpetual Presence and Assistance that the gates of hell shall never prevail against her and of which St. Paul said that she is the pillar and ground of the truth In a word that whatsoever is by her defined is infallibly true and therefore that these Doctrines and Practices are neither damnable Errors and Sins nor Errors and Sins at all Now if indeed such Promises were made to that Church we should be brought into a very great strait and not very well know whether we should believe the Scripture speaking against the Doctrines and Practices imposed by that Church or the Scripture speaking to us to believe and do as that Church requires But first of all we say That whatsoever Promises were made to the Catholick Church they do not belong only to the Church of Rome which is but a part of it and that these Promises That the gates of hell should not prevail against the Church and that Christ would be with his Church to the end of the world amounted to no more than this That she should be preserved from so much Error as would utterly destroy the Being of a Church not from all Error whatsoever but that no Promise in particular was made to the Church of Rome so much as to secure her from Fundamental Errors utterly destructive of the Being of a Church especially since St. Paul writing to the Church of Rome plainly supposes that it was possible for them to be quite cut off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.21 22. where speaking of the Rejection of the Jews he hath these words For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off Which had been vain words if it had been impossible by virtue of any Privilege conferred upon the See of Peter for the Church of Rome not to continue in God's goodness or it be an infallible Truth that she shall not be cut off We do what we can to find the Infallibility of the Roman Church in the Scriptures but if we cannot find it there is much more reason to conclude that she hath erred because some of her Doctrines and Practices do seem to us apparently to contradict the Scripture than to believe she is infallible because she says so of her self But to this they say That we mis-interpret those Scriptures which seem to condemn what they profess and practise and in short that we cannot arrive to certainty of the true sense of Scripture without the Testimony of an Infallible Interpreter which the Church is Well for the present I will suppose this but then this will be the consequence of the Supposition That 't is impossible for that Church ever to convince me or any reasonable man of her own Infallibility by the Scriptures For when she tells me that Christ hath said Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and that the church is the pillar and ground of truth and Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world she supposes that the Promise of Infallibility to her self is so plainly made that
thing meant by all these Expressions is the same Now concerning Offences our Saviour affirms two things in the words I have read First That they would come nay that it must needs be that they would come i. e. that men would arise who should hinder the prevailing of Christianity as much as in them lay or pervert the Design of it to the great danger of other mens Souls who were not well established in the Truth Secondly That the consequence of these Scandals would be very sad and pernicious that is that very many would stumble at them and be turned out of the right way For this must be implied in those words Wo to the world because of offences For 1. It is no ordinary Misery or Calamity which is expressed in denouncing a Wo and this Wo must likewise refer to those that are turned aside by the Scandals and Temptations that others lay before them because if Offences were not taken as well as given it seems not easy to say why they should produce so much Sin and Misery as is implied in denouncing Wo upon their account Besides our Saviour did afterwards express the guilt and misery of those that should give Offence by it self But wo be to the man by whom the offence cometh That is to every man that by his own Wickedness layeth a Stumbling-block in his Brother's way and draws him into Sin So that in the former part of this Verse that mischief is express'd which would come of Offences because they would be taken And then 2. It is also implied that the mischief would not only be in it self great but likewise of a very large extent for it is said Wo to the World because of Offences where by the World we cannot understand less than a very great part of Mankind who should be diverted by Offences either from receiving the Gospel at all or from entertaining it in the Purity and Power thereof There are therefore these Two Heads which I am to speak to I. That Offences would certainly be given It must needs be that offences come II. That they would do very great mischief in the World Wo be to the world because of offences Which Two Points being illustrated I intend to apply them in order to farther Instruction I. That Offences would certainly be given It must needs be that Offences come By which words I do not understand that it was absolutely impossible but Offences must come for God has not necessitated any man to Sin but the meaning is this that it was in it self probable and that in the highest degree thlt Offences would come and moreover God certainly foresaw that they would arise if he did not interpose his Almighty Power to hinder them which he determined not to do And this is a sufficient ground of the Certainty of the Prediction It must needs be that offences come Now the true Notion of Offence being this That it is an occasion given whereby men are either discouraged from the Profession of the Truth or encouraged in Practices contrary to it I shall 1. Lay before you some Instances under this general Head And 2. Shew why it was not to be expected but that Offences would be given The principal Instances are such as these 1. Opposing the Gospel with outward Violence and making it the interest of men to renounce the Truth as they love their Fortunes and their Lives Of which our Saviour spake in the famous Parable of the Sower where he explained him that received the seed into thorny places to be one that heareth the word and with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself and not being fortified with deep resolution he dureth but for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Matth. 30.20 21. This was that Offence which our Saviour warned his Disciples of more than of any other He told them plainly before-hand That they should be delivered up to councils and brought before governors and be hated of all men for his name's sake But says he He that endureth to the end shall be saved and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me Matth. 10. And this is in it self so great an Offence or Stumbling-block to put men out of the right way that sometimes the general word is used to signify this particular Instance only Thus when our Saviour said Blessed is he whoever shall not be offended in me Mat. 11.6 the meaning is Blessed is he whom the Example of John the Baptist's Sufferings does not fright from being my Disciple And thus when Peter said Though all men should be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended Matth. 26.33 he explain'd his own meaning afterward by saying Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee v. 35. But then 2. Doctrines that give liberty to Lust and that give ease to guilty Minds without Reformation are a very dangerous Offence for they are framed at once to draw men off from the Truth and reconcile them to wicked Practice and therefore they who are under the strongest inclinations to sin and need the most powerful restraints are most forward to receive them i. e. they who will be sure to make the worst use of them He that offers a Key to let Sinners into Heaven without Repentance and keeping the Commandments of God is sure to meet with sufficient Numbers that will not be over-forward to examine how he came by it And this is that which makes all Doctrines of this nature Offences that they are grateful to the corrupt Inclinations of Mankind not that they carry any appearance of Truth It had been long enough ere men could have been persuaded that particular Confession of Sins to a man in secret with a bare purpose not to do the like again will at any time suffice for the effect of Absolution if the belief of it were not as much for the ease of the People as for the advantage of the Priest Or that bodily Exercise mere external Works should either be Godliness or supply the want of it These things bear so hard against what we know of God by Reason and by Scripture that nothing but carnal Interest and a desire that they should be true could make way for them and provide them Entertainment And what Wonders that can do was too evident in the beginning of Christianity when the Gnosticks seduced no small number of Disciples by giving liberty to fleshly Lusts and discharging them from all obligation to confess Christ when they were to take up his Cross 3. The mixing of Falshood with Truth is another great Offence tending to much Evil as it meets with persons disposed either to overmuch Credulity or too much Distrust By the former the false Doctrine or unlawful Practice is embraced because found in the company of Truth by the latter Truth It self suspected and perhaps thrown off because 't
is disgraced with the company of Follies and Lies Thus the Pharisees recommended their absurd Traditions to the People because in the same breath they taught them the Law of Moses Thus some of the Gentiles were ready to reject Christianity when they were made to believe it necessary for them also to observe the Mosaical Law if they would be Christians And this is one of the common Scandals of the World that Truth is so often insincerely represented and false Doctrines propounded still by the same Authority that holds forth some necessary Truths And for this reason the Gospel does not allow but command us to use a Judgment of Discretion not to reject that which is good because it comes from the same Authority that requires evil nor to admit Error because it is accompanied with Truth but to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 4. All Popular Artifices that are used to recommend either wicked Errors or Practices are also great Offences and lead many silly Souls astray of which kind the most obvious are these An external shew of Strictness and Piety without real Virtue and Godliness at the bottom of it And of this the Pharisees were the first notable Instance who placing Religion in abundance of nice Observations seemed to be the most strict and devout People in the World and therefore our Saviour knowing the wickedness of their Hearts and Lives compared them to whited sepulchres that within were full of dead mens bones and all uncleanness And this Offence would be so powerful whenever it should happen that it seemed good to the Spirit to foretell it expresly viz. That in the latter times some should depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Another Offence of this kind which was also expresly foretold is pretending the Testimony of Miracles For says our Saviour himself There shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect Behold says he I have told you before Matth. 24.24 25. And thus St. Paul foretold that when that wicked one should be revealed his coming should be after the working of Satan with power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness I shall name but one other popular Device for the supporting of Error and that is to denounce Damnation peremptory against all Gainsayers with which Artifice the Judaizers secured themselves against the Gentile Christians saying Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses ye cannot be saved Now although every man that has a Tongue may if he please lay this weight upon his Cause as to exclude all from Salvation that are not of his way and therefore the Threatning be not worthy of a wise man's thought till the Merits of the Cause be examined yet it has two notable advantages that it is framed to work upon the Passions of men more than upon their Judgment and in most men their Passion is stronger than their Reason and it may be so used as to bear the World in hand that 't is not Uncharitableness but mere Pity and Tenderness to the Souls of men that compels them to speak so harsh but so necessary a Truth And 't is a wonderful thing to observe how easy men are to be managed when on the one side there is a positive Sentence of Damnation to work upon their fears and on the other an appearance of serious Charity to win their Affections for by this Art men of contrary Parties have with strange success served contrary Opinions and Practices I cannot if I were willing reckon all the Offences of this kind that is popular and plausible ways of deceiving But that there would be such our Saviour did not only foretell in the general when he said It must needs be that offences come but in particular also when he said Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheeps cloathing Matth. 7.15 5. To this I may add what St. Paul observes 1 Tim. 6.5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness That any thing may be defended as a part of Religion which makes for worldly Interest It is no such hard matter to perplex things that are plain to find colours for denying things that are evident to hide the weakness or the strength of an Argument to divert from the Cause to the Person so artificially as if the Cause went on still to lose the matter in debate to make Truth look like Error and Error like Truth to those that are willing to be deceived if a man is resolved to bend all his Wit this way for something may be said for any thing 6. And lastly Bad Examples of men professing the true Religion are another most dangerous Offence since I doubt most men are so framed as to take up their Opinions more easily from Authority than from other Arguments and they understand more easily the difference between good and evil Manners than between strong and weak Reasons And then they will be apt to judge of the Truth or Falshood of a Way of Religion by the good or bad Fruits of Practice it brings forth in those that profess it Which doubtless our Saviour intimated in those words Let your light so shine before men that others seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven But to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness is not only a Scandal to those that are in Error confirming them that are in the wrong way but likewise to those that are in the way of Truth by encouraging them to Sin in like manner especially when Evil Examples are set by those that are particularly obliged to set none but good ones whose Place or Office Wealth or Quality makes them more conspicuous and gives others any kind of dependance upon them And because of the pernicious Influence of Bad Examples we find St. Paul often calling upon the Christians with whom he had to do to fix their observation upon those that were good Brethren says he be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ Thus I have very briefly considering the largeness of the Subject shewn what Offences were to come by laying before you the principal and most obvious Offences which we know by the Predictions of the Scripture and alas for the World by too sad experience And now I proceed to the second Point which was to consider why it must needs be that Offences should come that is why it was not to be expected but that these or such Scandals as these would be given to the World And this Enquiry is necessary to be
some awakening Reproof from men or some merciful Providence of God may make the Truth which he is already provided with the belief of effectual to his Conversion But there is little reason to hope this of a man whose very Principles are corrupted and has no fears within himself for a charitable man to take hold upon And therefore that Saying of our Saviour may be well applied to such a Person If the light that is in him be darkness how great is that darkness Moreover as there is little hope to reform that man's evil Practices whose Persuasions make him secure and easy all the while so there is no little difficulty to be met with in trying to undeceive him for men will hold comfortable Errors as long as they can find the least pretence for it And which is not the least mischief of this Offence though such Errors are not laid down without a great trouble yet they are taken up with much readiness they are apt to spread far and wide And to this I believe the experience of the world agrees viz. That although there are mistakes that lead to Trouble of Mind and over-much Restraint yet for one that is led away by such Mistakes an hundred there are that believe comfortable Lies which either wholly take off the Restraints of Religion or in such part as to render them ineffectual 3. Perverse Disputes and an obstinate maintenance of Error by all the Arts of Sophistry has this lamentable evil commonly attending it That it renders many persons utterly careless to examine on which side the Truth lies Perhaps they are but few in comparison that are framed to an inquisitive Spirit and they who are not so framed by Nature or by Education must force their Tempers to Patience and take pains with themselves which is an Employment that men soon grow weary of and commonly they break off pretending it is to no purpose to search any farther but that when there is so much to be said on both sides when there is such an appearance of Reason for and against the same thing it is time for them to give over being Judges for themselves And indeed in things that are either really disputable or of less moment this were not much to be blamed But in matters of high consequence and questions that touch the very Vitals of Religion it often happens that men grow weary of searching Truth and give up themselves wholly to be led by the Authority and Judgment of others after the Controversy is stifly maintain'd for some time on both sides And it were well in this case if it were an even Lay whether they chuse the true Guide or not But when a Guide is to be chosen and followed with an implicit Faith the false Guide hath this Advantage always that he exceeds in Confidence in lofty Pretences in swelling Titles in positive denouncing Damnation to all that are not of his way And though a modest man that speaks justly of things and claims not to be infallible deserves the most credit yet 't is great odds that the other has most Followers amongst those that understand not the Merits of the Cause 4. The same Cause has too often a yet worse Effect and that is to run some persons into Infidelity and an utter neglect of Religion as if no Certainty could be had of the Principles of Religion seeing there is so much Controversy about it And some have said That it will be then time enough for them to believe in God and to worship him when they that pretend to oblige them to it are agreed about it The truth is were it not for that secret Impression of his own Being which God hath left upon our Nature it is not improbable but the monstrous Errors that have been obtruded upon a great part of mankind under the name of Faith and the Force and the Fraud wherewith they have been maintained had let in Atheism like a Deluge upon the world especially considering that there are those in the world who are so full of Zeal for their own way that they have no tenderness for the common Principles of Faith but are rather content that all should sink together than that their own Doctrines should not stand We have been born in hand that no assurance can be had of the Truth of Christianity but from the Authority of such and such men and they that believe upon other Grounds had as good have no Faith at all That if it were possible for them to propound any thing that is false we cannot be certain of any one Article that is true That the same exceptions may be made to the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that are made against the Stories of latter Miracles And finally That by the same reason that any of their Traditions are rejected the Holy Scriptures may be rejected too and indeed we have lived to see the utmost that can be done by Wit and Learning to diminish the Authority of the Bible Now this I say is a most dreadful Offence and has done infinite mischief in the world that men who are violently engaged in a wrong way of Religion care not for the most part what they venture in the service of their own Cause for whilst they lay the same stress upon false or at least disputable Points that they do upon the most necessary and acknowledged Principles of Religion and bend all their Wit to shew that no difference ought to be made they give occasion to men that would fain be Atheists to deceive themselves into what they would be For a very little Consideration will serve to satisfy them that something is false which is propounded to them as an Object of their Faith and they know they have then leave given them to conclude that nothing is true 5. There is another great mischief of Offences that are given by Errors in Doctrine or Practice and a mischief that often happens in the world which is that of running into a contrary Extreme The Church found this by sad experience in the Fourth and Fifth Ages when men of no small Note disputing against one Heresy fell into another of an opposite nature to the no small trouble of Christendom Truth sometimes as well as Virtue lies in the Mean and they that transgress on any one side do not only this mischief to give what authority they can to the wrong side they are of but they do this mischief too of giving occasion to others to offend on the other Extreme Thus the abuse of Church Authority on the one side has bred in some men contempt of all such Authority on the other The Scandals that have been given by propagating Opinions by Force and Violence have produced in many a fond persuasion that there ought to be no restraints whatsoever in matters of Religion Superiors have required unlawful things in Divine Service and to be revenged upon that abuse it has been said that they are not to
be obeyed in matters of Prudence and Expedience Religion has been made to run out into Shews and Ceremonies and this has begotten prejudices against all appearance of Beauty and Reverence in the external Worship of God And on the other side the excesses of men in departing from one extreme are scandalous to those whom they left and do confirm them in their Errors Thus because there are some who abuse the Liberty this Church gives to all of using the Holy Scriptures and who reject the assistance of their Guides they that are concerned the People should know as little of the Bible as is possible argue from the Folly and Vanity of the former how dangerous an Instrument it is in the hands of the Laity And because 't is impossible but that a Judgment of Discretion in matters of Religion being allowed to all must be liable to be abused they that abuse it to the making of Sects and Parties and the bringing in of Innovations give a Candle to that Church to glory in her Dissention which provides that all should believe as she believes because of her Authority and that no man judges of the particulars of his Faith for himself The truth is the Instances of this mischief are so many and so undeniable that whenever any great Scandal is given by Communities or Churches that consists in one Extreme a man may without the Spirit of Prophecy foretel that if the great Mercy of God prevent it not it will in time beget the other Extreme It is the great unhappiness of Mankind that opposite Errors which look as if one would destroy the other do really strive to support one another And yet there is hardly any foolish Advice more frequent than to run from an Extreme as far as is possible as if that were the way to make an end of it But by this means woful Mischiefs have happen'd in the world Divisions have been multiplied Uncharitableness increased and men more and more hardned in their ways of Error and Sin 6. The Scandal of mixing absurd and impious Doctrines with the Truth and unjustifiable Practices with such as are to be commended has this notorious mischief still attending it that it hinders the Conversion of Infidels and is a terrible obstruction to the propagating of Christianity Averroes did not speak his own sense alone when he said Since the Christians eat their God let my Soul be with the Philosophers The Scandals that are given to Jews and Turks I need not name But to make an end of this unpleasing Argument 7. And lastly The mischief of these and all other Offences is so much the greater because when once Offence is given no man can tell where the mischief will end For instance Suppose by my Example I animate another to sin in like manner or that I do not only corrupt his Manners but his Principles too and so do him all the hurt I can Who can say that this is all the mischief I have done Is it not likely that he will infect others as I have infected him And that they may go on to propagate the mischief which had its beginning from me And that the next Age may be the worse for me And that my Guilt may be growing Ages after I am dead Apply this to all the Offences that are given in the world and consider not only the greatness of the mischief they do but the spreading nature of it and we shall find great reason in those sad words of our Lord Wo to the world because of offences But 2. Whence comes it that Offences are taken and so all this mischief done by them In general it might be sufficient to answer That for whatever Causes some men are apt to give Offence for the same others are apt to take it and therefore it would not be impertinent to call over in this place the unsuitableness of the Gospel to the Lusts and to the Vanity of mankind whether it be considered as a Rule of Faith or Manners or Worship But to this it may be added 1. That there are a great many in the world who for want of either good natural Abilities or good Education have little ability to judge for themselves and therefore the most part take their Impressions from the Authority of other mens Examples or Instructions And therefore when they fall into ill hands they fare accordingly to which our Saviour seemed to have a particular regard in the Verse before the Text Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea So that because there would be some Persons sincerely disposed who in many things could not judge for themselves but must be led by Authority our Saviour for their greater security provided this frightful Threatning to deter all men from taking the advantage of their weakness to mislead them 2. Some stumble at Offences laid before them and take up pernicious Doctrines merely from impatience of considering and taking time to lay things together He that judges rashly and hastily may by chance make a true Judgment but he shall as often judge falsly it being no difficult thing as I observed last time to lay such colours upon Error as will require some leisure to see through them And in such cases if a man be unwilling to take pains and desires to come presently and easily to the Conclusion he gives the Seducer all the advantage he could desire and is indeed just the Person he desired to meet with one easily deceived by a false appearance of Reason 3. The strange Influence which the carnal Affections of men and their worldly Interests have upon their Judgments is a fatal cause of laying them open to the mischief of Scandals We are too apt to desire Doctrines and Examples in favour of liberty to sin and therefore when they are offered we are not so apt as we should be to guard our selves against them Thus it was among the Jews as God said by Jeremy Jer. 5.31 The prophets prophesie falsly and my people love to have it so To these I might add other Causes viz. The prejudice of Education undue admiration of mens Persons prejudice against Truth arising from prejudice against Persons an Inclination to Opinions suitable to our own Temper and Complexion love of Novelty on the one side and on the other hatred to change though it be for the better all which Dispositions and Circumstances expose those that are under them to the mischief of Offences But I should be over-tedious to run into all the Particulars under this Head which may also be more profitably supplied by Directions in the Close of all And so I come to the third intention which was to reduce what has been said to matter of Exhortation And I shall leave with you these two necessary Cautions I. Be careful to give no Offence II. Be
one Body was perverted into an occasion of dividing them from one another Upon which observation St. Paul inserted this memorable saying There must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest There must be Heresies i. e. Parties that will contend for false Doctrines and unlawful Practices that will either take away from the Faith or add to the Faith that will either dispense with the Commandments of God or teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men There must be Heresies among you that is this must happen in the Church it self Men should arise from among themselves speaking perverse things And thus also St. Peter foretold There shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 But it was impossible they should do it privily or slily if they were not of the Church and had not thereby an opportunity under a pretence of Piety and care of Christian Truth to slip their Innovations into the Church by degrees Whereas it is added That they which are approved may be made manifest the meaning is that honest Men may more and more appear to be what they are So that in the words of the Text there are these Two things observable I. The unavoidableness of Heresies in the Church There must be Heresies among you II. The reason why God is pleased to permit Heresies That they who are approved may be made manifest 1. The unavoidableness of Heresies in the Church There must be Heresies among you By which we are not to understand an absolute necessity that Heresies should arise For this is inconsistent with that liberty of Human Nature which Religion and God's dealing with Mankind in giving us Laws and making us to expect a Day of Judgment do necessarily suppose But the meaning is this That all things considered it was in it self highly probable that Heresies would be brought into the Church and that God certainly foresaw that they would come in Men being left to that liberty which is capable of being abused and under that Grace that may be resisted All therefore that is needful to be considered under this head will be this What are the grounds of that probability of the coming in of Heresies which the Text supposes of Heresies I say which God saw would certainly come to pass if he interposed not his irresistible power to prevent it Now it was not to be expected but that Heresies would be if we consider on the one side the revelation of Christian Truth and on the other the Temper and Circumstances of Mankind 1. As to the Revelation of Christian Truth we are to consider the tendency and design of the Doctrine it self and the evidence we have that God hath Revealed it 1. The spirit and design of the Doctrine of Christianity which is plainly to rectify the ill Manners and the corrupt Affections of Mankind to restrain them from Liberties which most Men desire how unreasonable and hurtful soever they are and to tie them up to Rules that are not grateful to flesh and blood Moreover the Doctrine of Christianity truly represented is equally for the interest of all Mankind and is by no means framed to serve the designs of Ambition and to advance one part of the Church to the prejudice and slavery of all the rest Lastly It teaches a Worship of great simplicity that has but very few Mysteries and nothing of that Pomp and Ceremony which is so pleasing to the Senses and the Fancies of Men and will not suffer them to place the weight of Religion in any outward Shows and Performances but in loving the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbours as our selves And to such a course of life and temper of mind it obligeth us by all that it teaches concerning God and Christ and a Life to come our Creed serving no other turn but to make it necessary for us to live a sober righteous and godly life But then 2. The evidence we have for the truth of this Doctrine and that God hath revealed it is not so irresistible as to over-rule all contradiction and perverseness though it be sufficient to satisfy a wise and honest Man nor is the manner wherein these things are testified and declared to us so enlightning as to make it absolutely impossible for a Man to mistake about them or for those that wilfully pervert them to delude others with putting false colours upon them although it is so plain that we must be extraordinarily to blame if we run into any Error against sound Faith or good Life One would think the Doctrine of the Resurrection had been plainly enough delivered first by our Saviour then by his Apostles and that the Institution of the Lord's Supper and the Order which the Apostles observed in the Administration of it was also plain enough and yet in this very Church of Corinth there were divers foully mistaken as to the one and still wanted instruction as to the other One would think that those words This is my body were sufficiently plain and that there were not the least need for our Lord to have added presently after that saying But take notice that I mean This is my body by deputation or representation or in a figurative sense any more than to have so explained himself when he said I am the door I am the vine c. But yet because he did not think fit to leave an express caution against the literal sense of these words we know it has been insisted upon against plain evidence of Scripture Sense and Reason Again let a Man consider the Institution of the Holy Communion and have no prejudice upon his mind and he will never desire that it should have been more plainly expressed that the Cup be administred to all than it is especially since it is said of the Cup Drink ye All of this and they All drank of it But yet because these words were not added or the like And let no man ever presume to administer the Bread without administring the Cup to the same Person the Cup hath been taken away from the People for the greater reverence of Administration When St. Paul said that he that understands not the Language in which Prayer or giving of Thanks is made is not edified it could hardly have been thought necessary to have added this Let therefore all Forms of Publick Prayer and Administration of Sacraments in all Ages of the Church be made in the Tongue that the People understand And yet for want of some such conclusion Publick Prayers have been made in a Language that the People understand not and the Practice maintained as confidently as if the Fourth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians were it self in a Language that we could not understand There is no question but God could have added such explications and cautions in the Scripture as would have made it a great deal more difficult and troublesome to bring
them is but this that they do effectually draw forth that wickedness which otherwise would have lain more undiscovered in the Hearts of Men but then also they manifest more clearly that Integrity that Piety that Diligence and Constancy and Virtue and Charity of Good Men which otherwise had not so much appeared Bad Men do by means of Heresies grow worse and the Good grow better by them according to that saying in Daniel Chap. 12.10 The wicked shall do wickedly and shall not understand but the wise shall understand They are hardened and these are purified and the difference between Virtue and Sincerity on the one side and Hypocrisy and Vice on the other is so clearly seen that the good Examples will at last prevail against the scandal of those that are Evil and the indirect ways of supporting Error will shew the simplicity and Virtue of the Children of Truth to more advantage than it could possibly have had without the Comparison so that it will be much more easy for People of honest tempers and dispositions to discern which is the true Flock of Christ and to what Communion they are to betake themselves When our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles planted the Church things were not so ordered as to make Proselites of all sorts of Men however they were qualified but rather to gather together the Children of God that were scattered abroad that is all that were of pious and honest Dispositions and though the mighty Evidence wherewith the Gospel was preached drew in some that were none of the best yet either Persecutions or Schisms soon purged the Church of them again and Heresies seem to have been permitted ever since to carry on the same design of distinguishing between the Good and Bad and making it appear more evidently who are the faithful Followers of Christ And it can by no means be unworthy of the Providence of God to suffer those Evils to happen which he makes to work for the same good end which was designed by that manner wherein the Gospel was at first revealed 2. Neither are Schisms and Heresies any objections against the Truth and Goodness of a Church unless it were always a disparagement to be opposed and forsaken which certainly it is not for otherwise Christianity it self as it was taught by Christ and his Apostles must needs have been a false Religion and the Church which they founded a false Church for thence came the Gnosticks and Valentinians and I know not how many Heresies more and the Apostle told the Elders at Miletum Acts 20.30 That from themselves would arise men teaching perverse things that would draw disciples after them It is certainly for want of better Arguments that the Reformation is to be objected against upon the account of those Parties into which it is divided and this Church of England for the sake of those Parties that have broken off from the Communion of it For as to the latter it is either no mark of a true Church to hold fast all that were once of it or else the Church of Christ was not that true Church since many went off from it and which perhaps they that make this Objection will be more concerned to consider they from whom so many Nations have broken off cannot escape their own Censure As for the Unity of those that keep together in one Profession and Communion this is no certain mark of Truth for as men may be united in Truth so they may be united in Error And all parties have this mark common to them that so far as they do not differ they agree together and if this be an Argument of Truth those Parties equally have it that are most contrary to one another But 't is one of the most silly Objections in the World against a common Cause that is maintained by People that cannot agree in many things that therefore that Cause is naughty and erroneous this I say is intolerably vain and impertinent since this is to make the reason of Truth and Error to depend upon the uncertain Passions and the Interests of Men. For by this means 't is in the power of ill-disposed Persons that for whatever reason may bring in a new Heresy to make all that Truth which they professed before to be Truth no longer And if it be a good Argument against us it is as good an Argument against Christianity in the general in the Mouth of a Turk or a Jew Christians are so far from being agreed what is true Christianity that they are fallen into Parties that have no Religious Communion with one another and therefore Christianity is a false Religion nay it is still a stronger Argument in the Mouth of an Atheist against all Religion whatsoever since Christianity Mahometanism Judaism and Paganism are at so great a distance from one another But there needs no other Answer to this Objection than that which the Text affords by which we see that Heresies and Parties were unavoidable and so far from being an Argument against the truth of Christianity that God was pleased to permit them even for the advantage of the Truth And therefore those that are so offended at the Divisions of the Church as to take occasion from thence either to throw off the Profession of Religion till all Parties are agreed about it or to take up with that which pretends to most Unity without any farther Examination are hereby demonstrated to be insincere and vicious Persons for as Heresies are permitted by Providence that they which are approv'd so they are permitted that they which are reprobate and cannot bear a Trial may be also made manifest and it is no loss to the Truth if she be not found by those that love her not In the mean time they that are of God will hear his Word and Wisdom will be justified of her Children And that we may be found in that number we are to make it our first and principal Care to avoid the greatest Heresy of all and the cause of the rest and that is the Heresy of a wicked Life and vicious Affections Then we shall be more and more built up in our most Holy Faith and confirmed and established in the Truth as it is in Jesus For as evil Deeds make Men hate the Light so if our Deeds be good and our Consciences pure we shall love the Light and rejoice in it we shall buy the Truth and not sell it we shall buy it with being at the pains of impartial Enquiry and Consideration and we shall not sell it for either comfortable or gainful Errors To Conclude God hath in that manner Revealed the Truth which concerns our Salvation that they may easily be deceived who are willing to be deceived but that they who seek it sincerely shall be sure to find it The Ninth Sermon 2 PET. I. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
Predictions in the Old Testament concerning Christ and if we will take the pains to examine the Truth of these General Heads by more particular Enquiries we shall find that the Affairs of the Jewish Nation and the Writing of the Holy Books were so over-ruled by the Divine Spirit that when we come to look into them we cannot lightly turn our selves any way but we shall be encountred with some or other Prophetick passages concerning Christ All which was designed of God for the Confirmation of our Faith that when he should come in whom not only the plainest and most unquestionable Prophecies but all other Types and the more obscure Prefigurations of the Messias would be fulfilled we might without the least doubt believe and follow him 2. This word of Prophecy is said to be a light shining in a dark place the reason of which Expression is plain enough if we consider that the Prophecies were nothing so easy to be understood by themselves as they were afterwards made by the events which they foretold and therefore till the events made all plain the World was very much in the dark about the meaning of them as to most particulars but yet some of them were so express and full that they had raised an Expectation not only in the Jews but amongst the Gentiles also of that extraordinary Person whom God would send into the World for their relief And therefore they might very well be compared to a light shining in a dark place For such a Light though it doth not make a particular discovery of those things that lie round about it is yet apt to draw the Eyes of all towards it that are within distance and the Predictions concerning Christ were so remarkable that they awakened the Gentiles themselves to take notice of them and were therefore a light shining in a dark place to Jews and Gentiles not indeed clearly revealing the Truth to them at present but preparing them to receive it when it should be clearly revealed in the accomplishment of all that had been foretold And whereas this Light was said to shine till the day dawned and the day-star arose in their hearts The plain meaning seems to be that from the beginning of the World to the appearance of Christ the Prophecies concerning him grew still more express clear and particular as the time drew on that they were to be accomplished The whole Word of Prophecy was a light shining in a dark place but the latter Prophecies such as in Isaiah Daniel and Malachi were like the dawning of the day before the Sun of Righteousness himself appeared By such degrees did God prepare Mankind for the belief of the Gospel every Age contributing something before-hand to undermine the Prejudices of the Natural Man against it That God should send his Son into the World to be a Sacrifice for Sin was a Mystery so far above the reach of worldly Wisdom and natural Reason that considering our weakness it would hardly have born being revealed all at once and therefore God chose to let Mankind into the knowledge of it by degrees and by the growing-Light of Types and Prophecies to prepare them for that stronger Light of the plain and clear Truth which in due time was to be revealed And by this way God also provided a sure Foundation for their Faith who should afterwards believe only we must do what St. Peter commends the Christians of his time for doing we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must give heed unto and bend our Minds to consider the Word of Prophecy and we must attend to it as to a light shining in a dark place till the day dawns that is we must not content our selves to try any one single Prediction only to compare it with the History of Jesus and then if that doth not give full satisfaction to try no more But as God by every new Prediction added more Light to the Word of Prophecy so we should consider what Evidence is given to the Gospel by the Prophecies of the Old Testament taken all together from the first to the last And this was the Method which our Saviour took to instruct the two Disciples going to Emmaus They were not unacquainted with the Prophecies of the Old Testament and yet they were mightily staggered at the shameful Death of their Master We trusted say they that this had been he which should have redeemed Israel but now they know not what to think of it Then said Jesus unto them O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his Glory But what course did he take to convince them did he take some one notable Prediction by it self and lay all the stress upon that No but beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself It was this that made the day-star arise in their hearts it was this that cleared all their doubts and enlightened their Understandings so perfectly that they afterwards said one to another Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures Luke 24. 3. The Word of Prophecy is said to be sure that is 't is a plain Testimony of God to make us sure that Jesus is the Christ For 1. It is absurd to ascribe the Prediction of these Events to any Cause less than Divine Omniscience for as St. Peter saith Prophecy came not by the will of man but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and no Prophecy of the Scripture is of private interpretation i. e. Not as some would make us believe no Prophecy of Scripture is to be meditated upon and read by private Men but the Prophets did not utter their Predictions by the private Spirit but by the Spirit of God therefore if at vast distances of time from the Event it was foretold in several Ages that one in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed would come into the World of such a Nation of such a Family at such a Time and Place with several publick and notorious Characters by which he should be known Then certainly he in whom all these Predictions have been fulfilled is by the Testimony of God's Omniscience declared to be that great Prophet who was to come into the World Or shall we say that these things were the effects of Policy or Combination or Chance Could the most politick Statesman foresee the rise of Empires not yet begun how much less could they fix their periods as the Prophets did in their Predictions concerning Christ and his Kingdom And can we think that they could at the distance of many Ages with their utmost Skill foresee so many particular Events as were foretold by the Prophets and accomplished in Christ Jesus Or shall we say that there was a confederacy between Moses and Jesus
between the Prophets and Jesus so many hundreds of years after they were dead and before he was born Or are these Predictions and their Events to be imputed to Chance It is possible indeed that some one thing may be foretold and happen accordingly but that so vast a number of particulars should be foretold concerning one Person at all adventures and by strange luck come to pass afterwards is fit for them only to believe that can believe that the World was made by a casual hit of Atoms To name these things is enough to confute them 2. All that can be farther desired is to be well assured that these Prophecies were not forged by the followers of Jesus but that they were indeed contained in the ancient Writings that had been delivered down to the Jews of our Saviour's time by their Ancestors and the constant testimony of the Jews themselves who were most bitter enemies to Jesus and to his Doctrine were enough to satisfie us in this point 4ly And Lastly Whereas these Predictions are said to be a more sure word of Prophecy the meaning is this that they are a more convincing Testimony to Jesus than any other taken by its self they are indeed a more permanent Testimony and withal less liable to Cavil and Objection I cannot stand to shew this by making particular comparisons but shall only observe That Prophecy includes all other Testimonies and adds strength to every one of them It comprehends the Miracles of Jesus and of his Apostles his Resurrection and Ascension the Descent of the Holy Ghost and the excellency of his Doctrine because these were all foretold It includes all other proofs as well as the thing proved and those proofs are the more convincing because they also had been foretold by the Prophets From all this it follows That allowing the Scripture that Tradition which other good Histories have and which they have more of than any other ancient Writings in the World then the Prophecies of the Old Testament and the Accomplishment of them in the New do prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and this without the help of the Churches Authority and well is it for the Christian Religion that the Scriptures may be proved without the Authority of the Church for otherwise Christianity must never look an Infidel in the face since the Church hath no Authority at all till we are assured of the truth of the Scriptures themselves And I will make bold to add That when all those objections against the Authority of the Old Testament from the time wherein it was put into this form of Books from the light oversights of Transcribers from various readings and all the cavils upon any part of it are put together the word of Prophecy which runs through it all will bear all this reckoning and still remain an invincible argument that the first Authors were inspired that the Prophecy came not in Old time by the will of man but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Well therefore might St. Peter commend the Jewish Converts for taking heed to the word of Prophecy since this was the way to come to a well-grounded Faith indeed and to grow every day to greater assurance and stedfastness therein and for the same reason let us I beseech you be exhorted to like diligence in conversing with the Holy Scriptures that our Minds may be more enlightened with the knowledge of divine Truth and that every doubt if any there be that shakes our Faith may be removed And this Exhortation is so needful that I shall shew that there is no good reason in their Objection against it who have taken a great deal of pains to exclude all but the Clergy and those that have special License from reading the Scriptures the sum of what they say is this That the promiscuous Liberty of reading the Scriptures leads the People into Pride and Self-conceit makes them insolent and ungovernable and ready to throw off all Respect to their lawful Guides That almost all Heresies have proceeded from misinterpretation of Scripture and that there are so many obscure and difficult places in the Old and New Testament that to translate the Bible into vulgar Tongues and to encourage the People to read it is to betray them into the danger of infinite Errors which they are likely enough to fall into by mistaking the sense of the holy Text which therefore is to be kept out of the hands of the Laity as we would keep Children from medling with edged Tools and lay Swords out of mad-mens way Now if this Charge be true the Bible is a very dangerous Book if it be not true there is some other reason doubtless why they that pretend this have no kindness for the Bible I shall omit several advantages that may be taken against this Flourish because I think it may be shown very briefly that it pretends things that do by no means hang well together that it takes things for granted that are not true and that it concludes as strongly against the Scriptures being read by the Clergy as by the Laity It pretends some things that do not hang well together On the one side they tell us that the liberty of reading the Bible is apt to make the People throw off all dependance upon the Priest as to instruction on the one side that there are obscure and difficult passages in it by mistaking the true sense of which they will be led into Heresie and consequently into the way of Damnation Now indeed the Scriptures say this of themselves that there are divers things hard to be understood in them which ignorant and unstable men have wrested to their own destructien But if this be true the best way to keep the People in modest dependance upon the instruction of their Spiritual Guides is to lay the Bible before them and not to keep it from them since there cannot be a more convincing Argument of the necessity of attending to their Pastors in order to farther Instruction than the several difficulties that occur in the Scriptures and the warnings that the Scriptures themselves have given of the danger that unlearned and unstable Men are in of wresting them to their own destruction If it be said that experience shews the contrary and that neither this nor any other Argument can make people modest if they are generally permitted to have the Scriptures I add 2. That this arguing takes things for granted which are not true in point of fact all the Faithful anciently had the Scriptures but we find little complaint by the Bishops and Clergy then of the Wantonness and Insolence of the People so little in comparison of the frequent and earnest exhortations that all would deligently Read the Scriptures that it may be said to be none at all Christian People that had been trained up in the first Rudiments of the Faith were not only allowed them but required to Read the
Bible and yet they modestly attended upon their Spiritual Guides for farther Instruction out of the Bible And therefore if some Men in later Ages have grosly Misinterpreted the Scriptures and would not be set right by those that had more skill to interpret them this doth not prove that the reading of the Scriptures makes the People ungovernable for then it must always have been so which is notoriously false and whereas it is said that almost all Heresies have come of Mis-interpreting Scripture this doth not prove that Christian People must not Read the Scriptures for it cannot be denied that those Heresies which have given any considerable disturbance to the Church of God were begun not by Laicks or illeterate Persons but by such Men as the objectors do allow to have a right of reading and studying the Scriptures i. e. by Bishops or Priests Wherefore In the last place The Arguing of these Men against the common use of the Bible concludes against the Priest as strongly as against the People For if to prevent Heresie the Scriptures are to be kept from Lay-men who may bring Heresie into the Church by misinterpreting the Scriptures then for the same reason Men in Orders should not be suffered to read them since they have actually been the Founders of Heresie nay the reason is something stronger since the wresting of the holy Text by Men of Office or Learning will be of greater Authority and do more mischief than the mistakes of private and unlearned Persons But if the danger of perverting difficult places be a good reason to deprive Men of all use of the Bible this reason hath a particular force upon some Men that they should never look upon a Bible more For the best way to judge how the Scriptures are likely to be used by any sort of Men is to consider how they have constantly used them heretofore and let any indifferent Man judge of them by these following instances because God said Let us make man after our own Image therefore it is lawful to fall down before an Image of Wood or Stone Because Christ said to Peter Feed my Sheep Therefore his pretended Successors have power to depose Heretical Princes Because Peter said to Christ Lord here are two Swords therefore they have a Temporal as well as a Spiritual Jurisdiction Because Jacob in Blessing Ephraim and Manasses prayed that his Name might be named on them therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints Because it is said the Disciples met together to break Bread therefore the Laity may be depriv'd of the Cup. Because St. Paul saith of him that prayeth in a Tongue not understood by others Thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified therefore it is in it self good to appoint publick Prayers in a Language unknown to the people that is because he that understands what himself says doth well for himself because he understands therefore he doth well for others that understands not a word and are therefore not edified Because the Apostle saith we must glorifie God with one mouth therefore in all publick Offices of Liturgy there is to be but one and that the Latin Tongue in all places of Christendom Because that many Languages at Babel caused confusion therefore for God to be served in the many vulgar Tongues of Christian Nations would breed Schisms in the Church Because the Beast that touched the mountain was to die and because Christ said Give not that which is Holy to Dogs therefore ordinary People are not to have the Bible These Expositions are not invented but there are good Authorities for them and for a great many more of the like sort I know not what can farther be objected but this That if Priests and Learned Men have been so foully mistaken in the Interpretation of Scripture how much more are the Unlearned in danger of falling into Mistakes which tho' perhaps will never come to be Heresies in the Church may yet prove damnable to themselves as St. Peter plainly saith To which I answer That St. Peter's unlearned Men were such as had not yet attained to the knowledge of the necessary Doctrine of Faith and good Life as appears by his calling them unstable not yet fixt in the Perswasion of the plain Truths and great Ends of the Gospel and such as those whether they were Men of good Parts or not were likely enough to interpret the hard places of St. Paul's Epistles to a sense contrary to the plain and open Truths of the Gospel But if a Man be instructed in the necessary and plain Doctrine of Christianity and moreover furnished with Modesty and a sincere Love of the Truth and willingness to learn Qualities that ought to be common to all he shall be as far from wresting the difficult Scriptures to his own destruction as one that hath vastly greater Abilities Nay I will add one thing which if it be true there is no force at all in the Objection and that is this That the service of a Cause and espousing the Interest of a By-party doth more fatally lead to Misinterpretation of the Scripture than bear weakness of Understanding and there is this plain reason for it because Modesty and love of the Truth will secure a Man of no great Abilities from rash concluding upon the difficult Places of Scripture but Partiality and the Service of a By-cause shall engage a Man of Parts and Learning to trouble the clearest and to pervert the plainest Texts as the forementioned Instances evidently shew so that either the danger of Misinterpreting Scripture is no sufficient reason to prohibit the Laity from reading it or else it were better that no Order of Men were trusted with it at all and if that be true I think it will follow that it had better never have been written at all which no Man will say whatever he thinks But to speak to the thing the Scriptures were written for an universal good and in order thereunto for common use Here are all Divine Truths and Reasons of Christian Faith and Practice that are necessary to be known of every Man plainly exprest for the use of the meanest Capacities Here are also Difficulties and Mysteries of several sizes fit to employ the Industry of the Learned according to the several degrees of their Abilities and to exercise the Modesty the Humility and the Reverence of all But still we confess that they may be perverted and abused and if this be a sufficient Reason to interdict the general use of them then farewel at once to all the Comforts of this Life and to all the Means of Grace in order to a better with every one of which Men in their folly and wickedness may and very often have hurt themselves and others St. Peter was aware of this that some Men wrested those hard things in S. Paul's Epistles and in other Scriptures to their own destruction but did he therefore disswade the Faithful from reading them No but in the
worse but still crushed all Impostures and discountenanced all Villany and Hypocrisie at its first setting out in the World where would be the Patience and Faith of the Saints of those that believe in God and take his Word for their Rule and their Comfort and live in the Expectation of his Promises But when Iniquity grows and thrives and can plead Prescription and Authority when it hath stood long enough to have some colour for Antiquity and hath obtained interest enough to pretend to a kind of Vniversality then it will be seen who they are that love God and Truth and Goodness that are not willing to be deceived that will take pains not to be deceived that will take pains to be rightly informed that prefer Truth before glorious Names and a good Conscience before Applause and Flattery and eternal Life before the Ease and Pleasures of this World God bears long with all the Provocations of Mankind for the same reason that he permits Heresies which is that they who are approved may be made manifest For these and such like reasons as these God in his Wisdom and Goodness bears with infinite Patience those Provocations for a long time together which he could be avenged of in a moment and which he utterly abominates which was the first Observation upon the Text. 2. The second was That God is so much the more just in the final destruction of incurable and obstinate Sinners when their Iniquity is full and ripe for Vengeance For as there was the Patience of God seen for four hundred Years together while the Iniquity of the Amorites was growing from bad to worse so at the end of that Period the Justice of God was seen when their iniquity was full To grow worse for the forbearance of God is the most criminal Presumption in the World and when Men are come to that pass as quite to forget that there is a God or believing him to be to perswade themselves That he either approves or at least connives at their Impieties then the same Wisdom and Goodness which hitherto had kept off their Punishments will bring them on swiftly and suddenly for as on the one side if the degeneracy and the impudence of Sinners should not be suffered to flourish long there will be no Tryal of the Faith of honest Men so if it should be suffer'd to last always the Temptation would at length grow too hard for them God exercises his own Patience that good Men might exercise theirs at length he shews his Justice to reward their Patience The Patience of God is a forbearance guided by Wisdom and Goodness and the Justice of God is a Severity that is also guided by Wisdom and Goodness And neither the one nor the other hath any mixture of that Selfishness and Passion which is for the most part the reason why we sometimes are and sometimes are not severe with those that have offended us This is the true Justice of Punishment to respect the evil that is committed and to punish for that reason and this appears in no instances more than when God punishes after long sparing for if he had been a selfish or a passionate Being he had never suffered Men to go on so long together in the most provoking ways of wickedness because he had it in his Power to Punish them long before as he punishes them at last and therefore that he punishes them at last is an effect of his Wisdom and Goodness and a Demonstration that the common good required it And as there are several good ends to which God's Patience tends in bearing with general Impieties so long as he often doth so there are as many to which his Justice tends in taking Vengeance of them at last For 1. This is a Demonstration that his Providence was not asleep before 2. It is a clear Instruction that Men ought not to presume upon God's Favour merely because they prosper in their ways but that they should measure his Love or his Anger by what they do and not by what happens to them since they who do the same wicked things may go unpunished from one Generation to another and in this World but one Generation may suffer for them 3. That we should not forget to call our past Sins to remembrance and to humble our selves before God for them since if God punishes the sins of the Fathers upon the Children in this Life the like cause have we to fear that he will punish the Sins of our Youth and our riper Years at the latter end of our Life 4. That we should make use of the Patience and long suffering of God to our selves to prevent his Anger from flaming out against us because otherwise we treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God The truth is these are the uses we ought to make of both those Considerations that I laid before you from the Text which I shall therefore inculcate again And 1. We have no reason to question either the watchfulness of God's Providence or to be cast into perplexities and doubts whether the way of Truth and the way of Error the way of Vertue and Piety and the way of Hypocrisie and Wickedness are so different from one another as is pretended in Religion we have I say no reason to perplex our selves about these things because for many Generations God hath suffer'd deceit and violence to prevail to spread and to flourish in the world for God is not as a Man his ways are above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts when we look abroad into the World and look back upon so many past Ages wherein Religion hath been made a formal pretence for the establishing of a worldly greatness and Dominion upon gross and palpable Errors supported by Fraud and Force it is foolishly done of us to disquiet our selves with doubts whether we are in the way of the Truth or not since it pleased God for so long a time to suffer the contrary to prevail mightily in the World and for some Ages to baffle all opposition For this is to suppose God to be such a one as our selves impatient of high Indignities and great Provocations ready to kindle upon any notable affront or however unable to bear repeated and long-continued injuries No doubt if our opinion had been asked the Luxury of the old World should have been mortified by some amazing Judgments and the Flood should have been spared the Idolatry of the new Race of Mankind had been prevented or at least by some irresistable Evidence of God's Displeasure banished long before the coming of Christ and Mahomet should either have never appeared or he should have glared only like a Comet and so gone out instead of founding so vast and so long an Empire as it seems he has done But let us leave God to rule the World and be content that he should rule us we are too angry and too passionate to say
consider the Excellency of the Gospel with the Purpose of God not to overbear the World into the Faith and Obedience of it by forcing the natural Liberty of Men it had rather been much more strange if it had escaped opposition and corruption than to have been both opposed and corrupted as it hath Thus our blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles foretold that it would be Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many many false Prophets stall arise and deceive many and if any one shall say unto you Lo here is Christ and there is Christ believe it not for there shall arise false Christ's and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect Behold I have told you before Thus he foretold how Christianity should be corrupted by Impostures and Frauds Again says he They shall deliver you up to be afflicted and killed and ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another Thus he foretold the violence that should be used to extinguish the Profession of the Truth Again saith St. Paul 2 Thess 2. There shall be a falling away and the man of sin shall come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they might all be damned who believe not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Theâ—e he foretels a fearful Apostasie from the Purity and Simplicity of the Christian Profession Again says he 2 Tim. 3.1 2. This know that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God There he foretels a terrible corruption of Manners And again 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. The Spirit speaketh expresly says he that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth Now lay all these things together and here is as plain warning as can possibly be given of most corrupt and degenerate Times even after Christ's first coming and so that is expresly foretold which the Text evidently supposes For here would be glorious Pretences to deceive Violence to compel and wicked Examples to offend the Disciples of Christ And what Provision hath our Lord left to secure them from being misled where there is so much danger They are to attend to the Doctrine which he delivered us at first by his Holy Apostles to secure themselves from being deceived they must lay to Heart the Promises of the Gospel to arm themselves against the Temptations of the World and the Power of evil Examples and they are to consider that all these things were foretold by our Lord himself and his Apostles that they might not be scandalized when they should happen nor be tempted to suspect that either Christianity was not of God from the first or at least that our Lord has neglected all care of it since because it doth so little good as yet in the World because it runs out into so many Errors and because the Truth of it is so vehemently opposed for says our Saviour Behold I have told you before But still it is in their power whether they will take warning by such Predictions and whether they will guard themselves against Errors and Evil Examples and therefore a very corrupt state of Things in the Christian World will in all likelihood shake the Faith of many Believers and cause some to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them not regarding the admonitions of Christ and his Apostles before-hand And so when Christ comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And this is the Observation which in the first place is unavoidable from the Text That even after Christ there would be degenerate Ages for this is plainly supposed as the cause why there would be but little Faith found when he should come to visit the Earth for the Iniquities and Offences it abounds with The 2. Supposition is That the Providence of our Lord would then appear to set things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church For whereas it is said When the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth It is intimated manifestly that his coming is then to be expected when little Faith is to be found amongst Men and consequently when Scandals and Temptations are so strong that it is an hard matter to bear up against them I have said already that the Evidence of Christianity doth not make all Men receive it and that the Power of Christianity doth not make all that receive it wise and good Men and it is not to be denied but that amongst Christians themselves there are as monstrous Errors and leud Examples as ever there were in the World before Christianity or as there are now where Christianity is not at all professed Now at this rate should the Lord of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ let things go as they would it would in time come to pass that nothing of Christianity would remain in the World but the name of it and that for no other purpose but to do more hurt with it than could be done without it But how is it that Divine Providence will interpose or according to the expression of the Text that the Son of man will come and will make good his Promise of being with his Church to the end of the World which is never more remarkably fulfilled than when he interposes in those Circumstances which make Men think that he will not interpose and that he is not at all concerned what becomes of the State of Religion or the Affairs of the Church Because our Lord hath not made the Gospel an irresistable means of convincing Vnbelieuers and reforming wicked Men therefore it would in time be needful that in order to the keeping up of true Religion and making Christians such as they ought to be that he I say should by his Providence correct his own Disciples and reduce wretched Mankind into an unavoidable necessity of consideration that Truth and Righteousness should not utterly fall from among the Children of Men. When there is the greatest danger of losing the true Profession of Christianity our Lord will not be
wanting to maintain it When all Flesh had corrupted their ways God came and swept away Mankind with a Flood and saved Noah to be the Father of a new and better Generation When their Prosperity had corrupted their ways he called Abraham forth to preserve true Religion in him and in his Family and these and the like Providences are Pledges of the same care to interpose in behalf of Truth and Righteousness when the Faithful seem to fail from among the Children of Men. While God seems to let the World alone and to suffer all Men to go on in their own ways as if he took no notice of them nor were at all concerned at what they did he is all the while trying and proving what they are not indeed for his own Information for he knows all things but for the instruction of those that are to come after If he at every turn should interpose when we think it needful we should very seldom know who are sincere and who are Hypocrites it is very fit that it should be sometimes seen whether Men are what they pretend to be whether indeed they are concerned for that Truth for which they have once pretended a mighty Zeal whether they are governed by Conscience as they say or by mere worldly and politick Considerations for such Discoveries as these are very instructing and serve for the bringing about of much good in the World and in the Church which we may reasonably presume to be one cause why when the Son of Man comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth because while he suffers the World to go on as if he minded it not he is trying those that pretend to Faith and upon the Tryal many are discovered not to have it In short Divine Providence is so far from being regardless of the Affairs of Men that it then most of all shews it self when Men are tempted to think that it regards nothing i. e. when there is but little Faith to be found in the Earth and this will be abundantly demonstrated at the close of all things that is at the Day of Judgment which will be the most convincing Act of Providence that ever was in the World and one Forerunner of it will be that Question Where is the promise of his coming And now the use of all ought to be that which is the declared intention of our Saviour in the beginning of the Parable And he spake a Parable to them to the end that men ought always to pray and not to faint For the true Ground of Prayer is Faith in the Providence and Promises of God and if there be no time when these fail then ought Men always to pray and not to faint i.e. they ought always to depend upon God's Providence they ought always to believe his Promises they ought always to be certain that their Prayers are heard and will turn to good account for them that God is gracious to all and much more to them that love and serve him and if they do all this then they will always pray and not faint i.e. and not be discouraged And if they ought always to pray then also when they are most apt to be discouraged and when there is but little Faith to be found upon the Earth nay then most of all because when Temptations to Unbelief are greatest we should the most of all strengthen our selves by recourse to God and dependance upon him To this Instance in Prayer there are two things must go 1. A stedfast Resolution to walk in all the ways of God and not to be diverted out of them by any worldly Interest whatsoever For he can have no Faith to go to God who thinks of taking care for himself without regard to his Duty to God A Man is not in a condition to seek the Favour of God or to commend his case to him that contrives how to shift for himself without him 2. A perfect resignation of himself to the Will of God for by this also it is that a Man entitles himself to his Favour and Blessing The most effectual way to obtain the particular Blessings we pray for at any time if they are such things as may prove evil as well as good for us is to leave the matter after all to the disposal of Divine Providence for then if we obtain them we get his Blessing with them too if we do not we are sure to get his Blessing without them which is the general thing we pray for always With these Dispositions we are in a fit case to present our Prayers to God for Spiritual Blessings for our selves and for the Church of Christ which will assuredly come accompanied with Temporal ones too if it be best for us and if God sees that it is better for his Church to be prosperous than to be afflicted in this World and then it is better so to be when Men are sufficiently prepared for it by God's Correction and their own Repentance Men ought therefore always to pray and not to faint for their Prayers thus qualified will not fail of obtaining what they ask which our Saviour thought good to illustrate by an Example in the Parable delivered before the Text viz. of an unjust Judge that neither feared God nor regarded man who nevertheless upon the importunity of a Widow did what was right in her case much more shall God hear the Prayers of his faithful Servants For 1. He is the Just God and is of himself ready to right those that do at any time suffer wrong 2. He is also the merciful God that regardeth Men and when we desire things of him that are needful he is of himself ready to grant what we ask or at least that which is more needful than what we ask 3. Whereas the Judge in the Parable seem'd to contemn the Poverty and Meanness of that Person that sued to him for Justice for which reason she is represented here to be a Widow one of a destitute Condition that wanted a Patron to assert her Right God who is Just and Good to all is particularly gracious to his Servants and esteems them highly and no Circumstances of Meanness and Distress which he suffers them to fall into can alter his Favour towards them for all which Reasons if the Judge in the Parable granted the Widow's Suit merely because she lay upon him and was troublesome to him much more will God to whom we are never troublesome when we make our Requests known to him grant what we ask because he is Righteous and Gracious and loveth and pitieth us as a Father doth his Children The Fourteenth Sermon AN ASSIZE-SERMON PREACHED at St. Maries in Bury 1678. Levit. XIX xii Ye shall not swear by my name falsly THE Religious Use of an Oath depends chiefly upon the Matter and the Discharge The Matter must be worthy of that Obligation which an Oath implies in promising it must not be unlawful that we may swear in Righteousness
it must not be impossible it must not be trivial and in affirming it must be some Fact proveable by our own Testimony that we may swear in Judgment All which implies That we are not to swear indeliberately passionately or commonly The Discharge of an Oath must be answerable to the Obligation which is to Sincerity of Intention Fidelity of Performance and the giving of Testimony exactly according to Knowledge and then we swear in Truth All which Conditions of using an Oath religiously are put together by the Prophet Jeremiah c. 4. v. 2. And thou shalt swear The Lord liveth in truth in judgment and in righteousness In righteousness not profaning an Oath by making it the Bond of Iniquity in Judgment not exposing it to Contempt by using it rashly and improperly and in Truth not violating the bond of an Oath by breaking Promise or giving Testimony to a Falshood Swearing in Truth is that part of the Religion of an Oath which I shall at this time press upon you omitting the Consideration of what things an Oath may be conversant about and that the rather because I shall apply what I have to say upon the former point either to such Oaths as fasten any Duty upon us required by the Laws or to Swearing in Courts of Judicature where the end of Swearing viz. the Judicial deciding of Controversies does always make the Matter enquired into worthy of so high a Testimony Therefore have I chosen these Words of God for my Subject Ye shall not swear by my name falsly A Law which if any is written upon the very Hearts of Men and yet it pleased God that it should be written in our Bibles too I would to God there were no occasion given by the present Age to urge it in our Sermons at least in the way of Complaint and Reproof But since Perjury Perjury I say that monstrous Sin which strikes even at the Majesty of God and betrays the Throne of the King which undermines the very Foundations of Religion and Justice which does most sensibly grieve the Hearts of all good Christians and threatens the safety of every good Subject which does not only work mischief to the Innocent but also damns the Guilty almost without remedy If Perjury as 't is commonly said be grown the crying Sin of our Land and it appears that the Penalties of the Law are not terrible enough to prevail against it we are then bound in Allegiance to God in Loyalty to the King in Love to our Country in Charity to the Souls of Men to bring in all the assistance we can from Religion to expel this fatal Mischief and to remove this foul Scandal from among us by instructing plainly by reproving impartially by exhorting and perswading most vehemently In contribution to which good end I beg your Patience while I endeavour to shew First of all Wherein lies the peculiar Obligation of an Oath Secondly What are the several ways of violating this Obligation or incurring the Crime of Perjury Thirdly What are the usual Temptations and Inducements thereunto Lastly Some of the fearful Aggravations that belong to the sin That an Oath induces the utmost Obligation to speak the Truth is confessed by general Practice which has made or rather received it to be the end of Controversie For if a Man could be obliged yet more deeply than by swearing surely the final resort would not be had to an Oath if any thing could confirm a Testimony more assuredly which is in our Power this should not be the last Confirmation Therefore let it be considered that the very end of an Oath implies a peculiar obligation to discharge it truly for the greater that trust is which I cause another to repose in me the greater treachery I am guilty of if I then deceive him But if the end of an Oath obliges Men not to swear falsly much more does the nature of it With very good reason may an Oath be rested in as the highest security that Men can offer for their Honesty and Truth For the nature of an Oath consists in this That it is an appeal to God as to the Witness of Truth and the Avenger of Falshood for the confirmation of our own Testimony 1. God is appealed to as a Witness he who is the God of Truth and Knowledge the faithful and infallible Witness of every Thought and Action he whose Testimony alone needs not to be confirmed by any other since for him only it is naturally and eternally impossible to deceive or to be deceived I ought never to lye or dissemble or break my Word because I know my self always to be in the presence of God This ought to restrain me from being guilty of Falshood at any time that I am within the sight and hearing of the God of Truth But most of all am I bound to be sincere when I have appealed to him as present for the confirmation of what I say It is a grief to a good Man to hear a Lye told to his Face but if the Lyar should call him to witness his Falshood this he would take in foul scorn and with greatest indignation And what an height of impudence must it needs be to put the like affront upon God himself by appealing to his Knowledge for our Unrighteousness in Matters wherein we deal falsly What is this but to impute our own Baseness and Falshood to his most Holy Majesty and to do what is in us to make him a Lyar like unto our selves 2. God is not only called upon as the Witness of Truth when we swear but also as the Avenger of Falshood And indeed 't is the adding of this which makes an Appeal to God's Testimony by Invocation a most forcible Obligation to Truth and the utmost Security which we can offer for the same When we pretend that there is a Man present who knows that to be true which we affirm it would be superfluous to wish that he were revenged of us if it be not true because he may be called forth openly to attest the Truth or discover the Falshood of what we say Where the Witness is visible and the Testimony credible it is sufficient to appeal to his Knowledge only But when God is taken to Witness by us there is no voice or sensible Appearance by which he does either confirm or disown the Matter What is it then which makes an Appeal to God the silent and invisible Witness to be of greater force to oblige our selves and confirm others that we speak the Truth what is it but this that we do appeal to his Justice as well as his Knowledge and call the Vengeance of the Almighty down upon our Heads if he discerns any Falsehood and Deceit in our Testimony And 't is impossible that any obligation to speak the Truth or to discharge a Trust should be greater than this that if we are now guilty of lying or unfaithfulness we do not only consent but desire that the Indignation
and Curse of God may fall upon us I do not think that the invoking of Divine Vengeance if we swerve from the Truth is only consequent upon Swearing according to the Opinion of some learned Men but also that it belongs to the very Essence of an Oath for that should seem to be essential to it which if it were removed the fear of Perjury would be taken away with it But no Man doubts that appealing to God as a Judge is implied in appealing to him as a Witness Hence it is that the Septuagint sometimes useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Curse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Oath Said Abraham to his Servant Gen. 24.41 Thou shalt be free from this my Oath But the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt be free from this my Curse And this is that meaning of an Oath which is well exprest both by the Forms and Rites of Swearing used amongst us the common Form being this So help ye God to which the Party Sworn gives his Assent by laying his Hand upon the Holy Gospel and kissing it all which is as much as if he had said If I falsifie let me have no part in the Grace and Mercy of God and in the Blood of Christ may I be accursed in this World and let my name be blotted out of the Book of Life And is there not good reason then why an Oath should be as the Apostle speaks of it the end of Controversie since of all other Obligations to Truth this plainly is the strongest and if a Man's Conscience will not be held by this it will be held by nothing Thus much concerning the sacred Obligation of an Oath I proceed to shew how many ways it may be violated and the Guilt of Perjury incurr'd It is usually said That an Oath is either promissory or Assertory but I think that in strictness every Oath includes a Promise even the assertory Oath by which a Man binds himself to declare what he knows concerning some matter of Fact past or present for this Oath includes a Promise of declaring the Truth concerning it only the Promise and Performance are so close to each other that they can hardly be distinguish'd whereas the Obligation of those Oaths we call promissory continues for some considerable time to come These Oaths are mostly taken out of Courts of Judicature such as the Oaths of subordinate Magistrates to execute the Laws honestly and to administer Justice impartially of the Members of a Society or Corporation to observe the Rules and vindicate the Rights of the same of inferiour Officers such as Church-wardens and Constables to present Offenders and execute their Offices according to Law finally of Subjects to yield true Allegiance and faithful Subjection to the King Such Oaths as these are directly violated two ways First If there be not an honest Intention at the time of Swearing 2. If there be not a faithful Performance afterwards For a Promise has a double aspect both upon the present Intention and the future Performance he that makes a Promise which at the same time he intends not to perform is guilty of lying and though he intends at first yet if he willingly neglects the Performance afterwards he hath broken his Word therefore if the Promise was made under Oath he is forsworn in either case and if he was false in both he is guilty of a double act of Perjury nay though the Oath were but one yet his Perjuries may be many for so long as those Circumstances remain in which the Oath binds him every wilful omission of performing the tenour of his Promise is contrary to his Oath and consequently a new violation of it so often as he fails so often he is forsworn as truly so often as if he had every time before each guilty Failure taken the same Oath which he bound himself withal at first Thou mayest be sworn once for all the Year or for all thy Life but there is no such matter as being forsworn once for all as vain People talk for by disobeying thy Superior suppose thou hast done contrary to thy Oath yesterday that was one Perjury and shouldst thou do the like to morrow that would be another If thou art under a Promise confirmed by Oath but not under the restraint of the Fear of God thou mayest bind one Curse fast upon thy Head with another and seal them with a third and go on to treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath. In Courts of Judicature Perjury is incurr'd when false Witness is given in upon Oath i. e. either when a Man swears that to be true which he knows to be false or that he is certain of a matter whereof he is uncertain or that he declares the utmost of his Knowledge concerning a Fact when yet he conceals any part thereof In this last case the Witness is forsworn as plainly as in the two former for his Oath is to give in Evidence not only the Truth and nothing but the Truth but likewise the whole Truth to answer such Questions as the Court shall put to him therefore the Witness is not clear from Perjury meerly by saying nothing but what is true touching the matter in question if in favour to either side he conceals so much as any one Circumstance in his Answers and Depositions which he knows would alter the Case What can be plainer He that swears to declare the whole Truth is forsworn if he does it not and he surely does it not who declares it in part only Moreover a Witness may incur the guilt of Perjury by endeavouring to blind the Evidence with deceitful shuffling Answers instead of declaring what he knows in plainness and simplicity of speaking for tho' the Court by multiplying-Questions may screw out the Truth at last yet he has not discharg'd his Oath which obliged him not only to an actual and final discovery of the Truth but to an honest intention of so doing and 't is very plain that he intends not the Truth should be discovered who darkens and hides it as much as he can Much less can his Oath be discharged by the help of Equivocation and Mental Reservations which being of no force to save a Lye are much less able to excuse from Perjury The Oath of the Jury being a Promissory Oath to bring in a Verdict according to Evidence their Oath may be doubly violated as was now observed by not intending so to do and by not doing of it If any one of the Jury be prepossess'd in favour of one side intending be the Evidence what it will to use all his Interest with the rest in favour of that that man I say is perjur'd as soon as ever he is sworn he has sworn falsly tho' perhaps he be over-ruled and an honest Verdict be brought in at last Again if any of them intend honestly at first but are afterward wrought to conspire in a Verdict contrary to the Evidence they have
Ease and Comfort in this uncertain and miserable World I shall therefore in the first place illustrate the sense of this Passage and shew what is meant by receiving evil at the hand of God and then I shall propound to your consideration some of those many reasons why we should effectually perswade our selves so to do As to the first The manner of bearing Evil from the hand of God is that which is meant by receiving it at his hand Particularly 1. We are to receive Evil with the same honourable thoughts of God wherewith we are to receive Good from him We must abate nothing of our esteem of his Righteousness or of our belief of his Wisdom and Goodness The sense of misery is indeed apt to breed hard thoughts of all those by whose means it comes if they have knowingly contributed towards it and designed what we suffer But let us remember Brethren that this is a Case always to be excepted God knows and sees all the troubles that befal us nay and it is his Will that they should happen to us and yet we must not think the worse of him for it And though we take it ill of any Man that can easily help us when we are in distress and yet refuses to do it yet we ought not to be so affected towards God and whilst we complain of that grief from which 't is true he could deliver us in one moment we must at no hand complain of him nor entertain the least unworthy thought of him for seeing us in pain and suffering us to continue under it 2. We are to receive Evil with the same constancy of serving and obeying him as if we received nothing but good We are not to grow weary of Religion nor to give over praying nor to depart from Justice or Charity or any Duty incumbent on us The Truth is they must be great Strangers to the Spirit and Design of Christianity who can be tempted to count their Prayers and their Repentance and Righteousness unprofitable when they do not save them from the Calamities of this World Under the Law indeed the Promises whereof were Temporal we may observe the Temptation prevailed upon some good Men. Verily said Asaph I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning Psal 73.13 14. But then he recoverd a better Mind ver 21 22. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins so foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee It was this that Job's Wife bad him do i.e. to throw off all pretence to serve God who had thus forsaken him said she Curse God and dye scorn to serve him any longer and make an end of thy life But said he Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Nay 3. We are to receive Evil from God with thankfulness for the good things we have enjoyed for those which remain and for those which we expect and above all for the hope of eternal Life We must thank him for the care he takes of us and therefore for all his dealings with us for sending us that which he sees is most expedient for us yea for those very Tryals and Chastisements which we complain of though for the present they are grievous And thus Job received Evil The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. These I confess seem to be hard Lessons but they are such as we must learn and how hard soever they may be yet let us be assured that they are not unreasonable and that is the second point I was to shew and what I chiefly designed to insist upon at present Therefore 1. We should consider that we have not deserved the Good that we receive from the Hand of God but the Evil which we receive that we have abundantly deserved All indeed do not deserve Evil from God equally but all deserve it more or less And as for meriting good from him that no Man must pretend to how Righteous and Godly soever he be For if God should be severe to mark what is amss who could stand before him If he should enter into Judgment with his Servants no Flesh living would be justified Now if Job who was a perfect and upright Man a Man of extraordinary Piety and Virtue received Evil from God as he ought how much more should we do so that fall short of his Perfection When we suffer Affliction our Heart must justifie God in all because they condemn us in so many things Our own consciences are enough to stop our mouths or rather to make us confess that we have sinned but that God is righteous Especially since all the good that we eveâ— enjoyed and do now enjoy is from a holy and just God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity For if we who are obnoxious to his Purity and Justice have yet received innumerable benefits from him it is hard and unreasonable to complain of him though but in our thoughts that he sometimes lets us feel a little of his anger and puts us in mind of our Sins and of his own Justice and that as he is a Gracious and a Bountiful so he is withal a Holy God Which consideration should prevail the more because 2. God has absolute Authority over us and so is every way just in correcting us for our Offences not only because we have done that which deserves Punishment but because also he has a just and rightful Power to punish us for it Tho' a Man knows that he has done ill yet every body must not take upon him to give him correction A Servant will submit to his Master and a Child to his Father and the Subject to the Magistrate when they will not bear Punishment from every Hand as there is no reason that they should How much more should we submit to the Chastisement of the Almighty who is the Father of Spirits and our Sovereign Lord upon whom we absolutely depend because he made us out of nothing and sustains us every moment that we live When we were born we brought nothing with us into the World but have lived ever since upon the good things which God of his Bounty hath lent us for our use And if he for good Reasons takes them away he does us no wrong for they are not ours otherwise than by his continual Gift Which consideration disposed Job to submit when he was divested of all Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither To the Earth from whence I was taken The Lord gave c. Let us remember that no Lord has that right over his Servant nor Parent in his Child which God has in us all and that since there is no obligation like to that which we have to God that
made us nor any Authority that one can have over another equal to that which he has over us there is great reason why we should meekly submit to his Chastisements and be content to receive not only that Good which we have not deserved but that Evil also which we have deserved at his Hand But this is not all For 3. To confess the Truth when the Evils of this Life happen they are for the most part very necessary and may be always very profitable to us They make us to reflect upon our Sins and they dispose us to Repentance For a great Truth it is and we may happily know it by experience That 't is our way to do many things in our Prosperity which trouble us in our Adversity When Joseph's Brethren were brought into Distress themselves then they could say Verily we are guilty concerning our Brother and therefore is this distress come upon us Our Faults do not much trouble us when we have nothing else to give us disturbance and in this case Affliction does well to bring us to a sense of them Again We are not so apt to feel our need of dependance upon God when all things that we can desire are round about us We must confess to our shame that Piety and Prosperity are seldom found together in a great degree both of the one and the other When we are full we are apt to forget God but in our Affliction we seek him early Not but that a Man may grow more impious under the chastisement of God as Ahab did But then this was left as a mark of Infamy upon him that in his distress he waxed worse and worse This is that King Ahab We should consider also that the troubles of this Life teach us patience a quality very necessary for us in this World It is undoubtedly true that continual ease and fulness and enjoying all that we would have incline us to be soft and hard to be pleased Every little thing almost is enough to put us into a passion and if God should always let us alone we should make great Troubles to our selves out of the smallest disappointments And when Afflictions happen to us in good earnest our very impatience is an Argument that we needed them to bring us to Wisdom and a good Temper God's Trials make us able to bear what once we could not they correct the Intemperance of our Desires and give us a firmness of Mind they bring our Contentment within a narrow compass and make it more easie for us to be happy than it was before and therefore says St. Paul We glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5.3 By the same reason they disengage our Affections from worldly things more than we are well able to do it without them For 't is Indulgence that makes us fond of the Pleasures of this World but when any one of them is taken away we must learn to be content without it and by satisfying ourselves wheh we have lost one we learn to moderate our desires about the rest which is a good that recompences all the grief we endure in the way to it Especially since it leads to another good thing which is the moderating of our Love to this Life it self which when we feel to be made up of Care and Trouble as well as Mirth and Pleasure we grow more reconciled to the thoughts of Death which puts an end as well to the Troubles as to the Delights of this World All which things tend to the greatest good of all even our eternal Salvation to which we should add that whatever Duties are necessary to this great end we shall perform them most carefully For when by experience we are convinced how foolish a thing it is to think of finding a compleat Happiness in this World or indeed any thing that deserves the Name of Happiness we shall seek for a more solid and enduring substance For we must needs be more sollicitous to secure that Rest and Happiness which God hath promised in a better Life when we are satisfied that no such thing is to be obtained here We are not so deeply affected with the danger of worldly Enjoyments as with the uncertainty of them They are indeed apt to corrupt our Minds but we do not use to be jealous of them upon that account but when we lose them we are easily sensible that they are not to be trusted and that if we would be wise for our selves we must take off our minds from these perishing things and grow wise to Salvation To conclude this Point The Evils of Life do not only offer good considerations to our Minds but they are proper means to put us into a considering Temper and to make us capable of understanding the full weight of them They cure us of the Levity and Easiness of Mind which grows out of Ease and Luxury and indisposes us to dwell for any long time upon wise and profitable thoughts Finally the Patience and the Godly manner of bearing Evils and the good use we make of them worketh the encrease of our Reward especially if we endure grief suffering wrongfully and most of all if we suffer for righteousness sake This is that which St. Peter makes no doubt to say is thank-worthy and it turns so greatly to our account that instead of mentioning it as a thing fit to discourage and deject his Disciples our Saviour bid them to rejoice and to be exceeding glad for says he great is your Reward in Heaven 4. As the Evils of this Life are for our good so God means and designs them for our good too There is not any one good use which may be made of them but God intends it when he sends them and 't is our own fault if we do not grow the better for them David found by experience that it was good for him that he was afflicted and he confessed that God in very faithfulness had afflicted bim i. e. meaning all the advantage to him which he had gained For that reason it is said God does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men not meerly to make us feel Pain and Trouble but because our good requires it Physick is sometimes as necessary for us as Food and though it be bitter we do not think the worse of him that administers it because 't is administred for our Health either for the cure or for the prevention of a Disease And should we take it in ill part from God when for the health and improvement of our Souls he gives us wholesome though sharp Medicines He gives us Food Raiment Plenty Peace and Health that we might in the midst of these good things serve him with thankfulness and the greatest cause we have to rejoice in them is that they are of his sending who intended them not for Snares but for Blessings to us When therefore he takes any of them away he does it with the same good meaning
the Temptation Men of Probity and Lovers of Truth should upon diligent examination hold it faster than otherwise they would have done This is one of the great advantages to which that opposition tends which Truth has met with in the World And therefore the more lofty those Pretences are by which the other Church would bring us to an intire submission to her Authority in every point of Religion so much greater reason there is to examine every one of her particulars and if I find that she is mistaken in any of them I am very sure that she is not infallible in all And if she will not allow me to make a Judgment of the Particulars 't is just as if a Man should try to hinder me from casting up my own Accounts by going about to prove that he cannot possibly mistake in doing it he might indeed shew some Wit in working his Demonstration but I should shew a great deal more folly in trusting him To conclude We have a Rule whereby to try the Doctrine I will not only say of a Church or a Pope or a Council but even of an Angel from Heaven if an Angel should come and preach to us and that Rule is the Holy Scripture especially the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles These are by all Christians acknowledged to be the undoubted and the most ancient Records of our Holy Religion and they have had a Tradition so uncontroulable as no Books in the World ever had the like Whoever therefore is our Guide it is very reasonable that this should be our Rule And of all Churches in the World I will never trust my self to her discretion that will not trust me with the Knowledge and Study of this Rule Here we may if we please make our selves very sure that we are of those whom God will justifie for here we may discern what kind of Persons St. Paul and the Christians of whom he speaks in this place and what all the Apostles and Primitive Disciples of our Lord were For those Books which acquaint us with their Names and which were written by some of themselves do also discover to us what Faith they professed what Doctrine they taught and what Lives they led Now if we profess that very Faith and teach no other Doctrine and frame our practice by their Rules and good Examples then without all question we are such kind of Christians as they were and then altho' we should be used by the World as they were too yet the encouragement and comfort which they had will also belong to us and we too may say Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Having therefore the infallible Rule of God's Word whereby to guide our selves We beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more that while evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived ye may continue in the things which ye have learned knowing of whom ye have learned them even from the Sayings of our Lord Jesus and his holy Apostles delivered to us in the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus Let us remember that it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us not forgetting by any means that 't is a way of righteousness we have been made to know and an holy Commandment that hath been delivered to us from which therefore we may depart as damnably by an impure Conversation as by leting go our pure Profession in which case we are so far from being justified that we shall be the more condemned by our Faith We have no false Principles to save our Hearts from condemning us if we allow our selves in any way of wickedness and God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Whoever else condemns us that is more than recompence enough if God justifieth But who is he that shall justifie us if God condemns FINIS THE SUMM OF A CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the Point of TRANSUBSTANTIATION The Third Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1698. The SUM of a CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the POINT of TRANSUBSTANTIATION Introduction IT will perhaps appear to some a little strange that I do not say almost Incredible that there should have pass'd a Conference above two years since in which Mr. Gooden was concern'd and the World yet to learn the Substance of it The Vanity of that Gentleman to thrust himself upon all Occasions into Disputes with the most Learned Men of our Church first and then to boast of his own Performances in them was so great that there is scarce a Coffee-house in the Town that has not been filled with the Noise of his impertinent Vapours And if those of the other Communion have been always remarkable for an Assurance becoming the pretended Infallibility of their Church I may venture to say that next to Father P the Jesuit and his Friend Mr. M I scarce know any among them that have ever talk'd so loud or made such Heroical Defiances of the Champions and Armies of our Israel in all Places and upon all Occasions as Mr. Gooden these late Years has done among us But thus shallow Waters always run with the greatest Noise and Violence and little Sophisters who either want Capacity to see into their own Fallacies or think they have forehead enough to carry that off with Clamour and Confidence which they cannot do by Reason and Argument delight to expose themselves and their Religion to the most dangerous Tryals whilst Men of Learning and Judgment are modest and ingenuous and know it to be neither for the Honour of their Church nor their own Reputation to challenge all Mankind to answer Paradoxes and to shew that not to be Demonstration which when brought to the tryal is hardly sense See Mr. G's Pap. I hope this will not be thought too severe a Reflection on the late Pretenders of this kind among us which I speak out of a just respect to the more learned and charitable Persons of the Church of Rome who have been no less scandalized at these forward Zealots than our selves and to whom I ought to give this Testimony That during a long acquaintance with many of them I never met with any thing of the Vanity of those I have before-mentioned Our Differences in matters of Religion made no Disturbance either in our Friendship or Conversation with one another If the discourse at anytime led to a Controversie of
Authority of Interpretation as I will shew this Disputer when he pleases If nothing less than Infallibility will serve to understand or as he says to sense Words why does this Disputer put into my Hands this Paper of his which is none of the plainest neither I am sure he does not take me to be Infallible and yet I am confident he would be angry if I should say his Paper was not to be understood without an infallible Interpreter let him answer this if he can The Reason he gives why Scripture sensed by a fallible Authority cannot be the Rule of Faith is because all such Interpretations may be false That is to say because there is a bare Possibility of any fallible Man's mistaking the sense of plain Texts Which kind of Reasoning makes impossible that every Man should come to be a Believer unless himself be first Infallible And this I shall demonstrate so plainly that no Man who has any share of Understanding and Modesty shall be able to deny it There is no possible way for any sort of Christians to make known either the Articles or Reasons of Faith to those that are yet ignorant of them but by Words or Sentences written or spoken He who hears or reads the words and sentences cannot tell either what is to believe or why he should believe till he understands or in the Disputers Phrase till he senses those Words and Sentences but as yet his Authority is but fallible and Words sensed by a fallible Authority can never give a Man certainty either of the Rule or of the Reason of his Faith if this Disputer be in the Right therefore 't is impossible to make him a Believer unless you can make him Infallible first that it may not be possible for him to be mistaken in sensing the Words which he hears or reads And thus farewel to all Advantage that any Man can have by the Infallibility of Popes and Councils or Oral Tradition as well as by the Scriptures nay and to all possible means of arriving to certainty in any matter of Faith unless every body be Infallible first so that upon supposition that God would have all Men to be sav'd and therefore to believe it inavoidably follows from the wild reasoning of this Man that God has made every Man Infallible But if it be evident that Men are fallible Creatures then this Disputer has advanced a Principle the most destructive to all certainty of Faith that ever was heard of in the World But the comfort is that 't is so very absurd that no body well in his Wits can be misled by it Pap. And therefore Faith cannot be obtain'd by any such means Ans Which is as much as to say that Faith cannot be obtain'd till a Man have the Gift of Infallibility And if every Man has it before he can be taught to any purpose what need can there be of an infallible Interpreter to teach him But as I observed before 't is impossible to make Believers of those that are not Infallible unless the Disputer or his Church has a way to make known the Doctrines and Reasons of Christian Faith without Words Pap. For that which is doubtful can only create opinion which is also doubtful Ans Therefore since all Words are doubtful to him that has but a fallible Authority to sense them as no Man has more before he believes 't is impossible for the Disputers Church to create any thing more than opinion which is also doubtful in those whom she teaches unless as I have already said she can make them Infallible first and teach them afterwards And even then there would be no need of teaching them at all because they are now Infallible themselves Of all the Papers that ever I read I never met with any thing more absurd and contradictious than the reasoning of this In which the Disputer out of a vehement desire to overthrow our Faith and the Grounds of it has laid down Principles that do effectually overthrow all ways of making Men sure of any thing and in particular the use of those very Methods by which his own Church pretends to lead Men to Faith Pap. And he that doubts in Faith the Apostle saith is Infidelis and a company of Doubters are not a Church of Faithful but a society of such as the Apostle calls Infidels Ans What Apostle says this if the Disputer refers to Rom. 14.23 as I think he does he has shewn his skill in the Interpretation of Scripture to be equal to his mastery in Reasoning If in the Infallible Church they can Interpret Scripture no better than thus give me the honesty and industry of a Fallible Church before it The Conclusion AND now after all this Paper is as absurd in the design as it is in the management for the business of it is to prove That Protestants have no Faith but are Infidels and that by this Argument they are and must be Doubters Now whether I doubt or do not doubt is a Question concerning a matter of Fact that I have more reason to know the Truth of than the Disputer can possibly have and if I know that I do not doubt and he can yet prove that I do doubt he is an extraordinary Man indeed For then I am sure he can prove That Truth not only may be but is false which perhaps such a Man as he can reconcile with what he said at first That truths are impossible to be false And this alone had been a sufficient Answer to his Paper for nothing can be more frivolous than to go about to prove to a Man by fine Reasoning that he does doubt of a thing when hâ— is as sure that he does not doubt of it as he caâ— be of any thing in the World But the design of this Paper seems to be as impious as 't is absurd And that is to bring weak Persons to Infidelity first that they may afterwards be setled upon Romish Grounds I do acknowledge 't is a very proper way to bring us over to the Church of Rome to make us Infidels first But this they will not find so easie a mattter for we trust that we are not of those who draw back to Perdition but of those that believe to the saving of the soul I have omitted nothing in the whole Paper but to take notice of that little and mean Reflection in calling the Protestant a Parliamentary Protestant I have told this Disputer the Reason and Ground of our Faith If we moreover are protected in the Profession of it by the Laws of the Land I suppose 't is no more than what he would desire for the Profession of Popery and he would think never the worse of himself for being a Parliamentary Papist Thus I have answered this Paper through every Clause of it And I am confident destroy'd all that little Appearance of Reasoning that it made Let the Disputer build it up again if he can I promise him by God's Grace that I 'll pull it down again FINIS