case If there be the darknesse of misapprehension by errour it is in a worse case But when that misguiding errour befals the leading faculty of all the soul and this errour fals point-blank against a truth necessary unto the mans salvation and moreover this errour is stifly adhered unto by that leading judgement it doth mislead and it will mislead Oh now in what a desperate condition is the whole soule hereby If it doth not recover of this error it dies for it and it can never be recovered til the judgment be altered And when will that judgement be altered which perversly affronts and rejects the light of truth which onely can carry it off The third is the most active faculty of the soul they doe defile and corrupt the conscience Now this is amazedly dangerous A wicked errrour is blinding whiles in the judgement onely but it is binding when it slips to the conscience also It is a wrangling Sophister in that but it is a working Iesuite in this Diseases falling amongst the vitall spirits are most quick and most dangerous Errours are never more pernicious then when they drop into the conscience for whatsoever engageth conscience the same engageth all and the utmost of our all If the conscience of man be made a party against the truth now all that a man hath and all that a man can doe will be made out against the truth too Now the person will with Paul grow mad and desperate against Christ for Paul being engaged by an erroneous conscience consents to the death of Stephen yea could he in that condition have met with Jesus Christ himself he would have done the like against him The fourth is The conversations of men Heresie is seldom or never divided from Impiety Hymeneus who 1 Tim. 1. 19. made shipwrack of faith made shipwrack also of a good conscience Those whom Paul called dogs he also cals evill workers And in another place speaking of Phil. 3. 2. Tit. 1. 15 16. some whose mindes were defiled he adds and reprobate to every good work Our Saviour speaking of false Prophets saith you may know them by their fruits The lives of men are consonant to the judgements of men Truth and goodnesse are reciprocal and so are falshood and wickednesse The doctrine of faith is a doctrine of holinesse too And the doctrine of lies is the doctrine of prophanenesse too He who fals from truth to falshood will quickly fall from piety to wickednesse Truth is of a reforming vertue as well as of an informing nature It salts and seasons heart and life both but that errour which putrifies the heart will putrifie the life also the plague will at length rise and break out into blaâ—es and botches They who write the story of the Anabaptists begin Sleid. c. it with errour in their judgements but end it vvith wickednesse in their practises And Cyprian writing long since of Novatus that pestilent Heretique saith Epist 49. ad Cornelium thus of him That he was rerum novarum cupidus one who itched after new notions avaritiae inexplebili rapacitate furibundus and beyond measure covetous arrogantia stupore superbi tumoris inflatus intolerably proud curiosus semper ut prodat no man so prying no man so treacherous ad hoc adulator ut fallat he would commend you before your face but cut your throat behind your back nunquam fidelis ut diligat as false a person as lived Fax ignis ad conflanda seditionis incendia turbo tempestas ad fidei facienda naufragia hostis quietis tranquillitatis adversarius pacis inimicus a very fire-brand cared not what became of truth or peace turned the world upside down so that he might carry on his opinion The Apostle speaking of Antichrist who is the Antesignanus of all Heretiques cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man of sin no such sinner as he Lyranus expounds it one totally given up to sin and Theophylact the ringleader of sin And truly it is most just with God to give them up to corrupt lives who rejecting his truth have given up themselves to corrupt errors and lies 2. Heresies are a drowning and overwhelming floud a floud you know is such a collection such an heightning confluence of waters as swels the rivers above their bounds and lays all under water Now there are three things which heresies doe overwhelm See 2 Pet. 2. 2. One is the glory of all glories the glorious Name of God the glorious Name of Christ the glorious Name of the holy Spirit the glorious name of divine truths Heresie turns the glory into a lye It gives God the lye and Christ the lye and the holy Ghost the lye For it gives truth the lye the Scriptures the lye which are the glory of God and Christ and the holy Spirit He who makes the Word of God a lyer makes God himself a lyer O sirs what is God without truth and what is all the goodnesse of the Gospel without truth and what is all the fabrick of mans salvation without truth Truth is as it were the pin the clasp the knot that ties all pull out that untie and break that the excellencies of God the glories of Christ the sweetnesse of promises the souls of men the salvation of mens souls all are dashed are broken are gone And such work doth heresie make it doth dissolve the bond of all glory yea it doth resolve God into worse then nothing No God is better then a false god there is an open or secret blasphemy in all heresies No man can contemn the truth of God but in that he must likewise condemn the God of truth The second is the glory of Religion Religion is clipt and darkned It grows low and beggerly when it is patched with errour It is a debasing of the gold to marry it with any metall of a courser birth All Religion is by so much the more excellent by how much the more of truth it hath but when once it is adulterated when once it is tainted and leavened with damnable errours now the silver is become drosse the glory is departed from it when a Religion is like the feet of Nebuchadnezzars image which were part of clay and part of iron now it becomes low and contemptible If the mixture of humane inventions abates of its glory what an impairing is the mixture of corrupt and poisonous faith-subverting doctrines The third is not onely the dignity but also the very vitall entity of a Church Truth is the soul of that body and falshood is death unto it Schismes do it much hurt but nothing like vile doctrines Schismes doe only rent the coat but Heterodoxies do rent the heart those pluck up the fence but these pull down the building those doe tear away the childrens lace but these doe bereave the children of their bread those are a turbulent sea these are a dead sea those doe scratch but these doe kill Men talk
accrew unto the Church of Christ by every one of them you may abundantly read in Eusebius Socrates Euagrius Sozomen Theodoret and others So that now we are come in some good measure to perceive what this floud cast out of the mouth of the Serpent is namely erroneous false wicked hereticall doctrines cast out of the mouths of corrupt and corrupting seducers opposing the truth and endangering the very esse or beeing of the Church of Christ Concerning which favour me with your patience whiles I shew unto you First the nature of heresies and erroneous doctrines which the Serpent doth cast out of his mouth Secondly the danger of them to the Church of Christ that they are perillous and hazardous Thirdly the greatnesse of that danger it is the chiefest and worst Fourthly some pertinent usefull applications of all this to our selves for our present humbling and reforming 1. Of the Nature of heresie To find this out you may be pleased to know that the word heresie admits of a threefold signification and use 1. Sometimes it is taken for any new and select opinion contrary to the common and usually received opinions of other men in which respect the word heresie may sometimes bear a good construction For after that way Acts 24. 14. which the Iews called heresie did Paul worship the God of his Fathers 2. Sometimes for any false opinion whatsoever wherein a person recedes from any divine truth and thereby foments divisions sects contentions in which respect dihaereticon with Isidore is all one with divisivum 3. But strictly amongst Divines it is taken for some notorious false and perverse opinion opposing and subverting the faith once delivered to the Saints as Iude speaks or overthrowing the forme of wholesome words as Paul speaks and it may be thus described Heresie is an erroneous or false opinion repugnant unto Heresie what and subverting of the doctrine of faith revealed in the Word as necessary unto salvation And obstinately maintained and pertinaciously adhered unto by a professed Christian 1. Heresie is an erroneous opinion falsasententia or falsum dogma there is a difference 'twixt malum opus and haresim an evill work is one thing heresie is another thing In the work which a man doth there may be sin very much sin but properly there is not heresie Erratum it may be but error it is not unlesse it resides in the understanding The works of hypocrisie and of prophanenesse as murder injustice adultery theft c. have much wickednesse in them but unlesse these become the objects of opinion as well as of practise they are not heresies Indeed if beside the morall practise of them any one riseth to an intellectuall opinion that the practise of them is lawfull and not repugnant to the Word of God now such an opinion erroneous opinion of them may come to an heresie yea let me add a little more though many practicall works be acted conscientia repugnante as Alfonsus à Castro in this case speaks yet the works simply considered as works are not to be reputed heresies For then every sin against knowledge should be heresie no it is not light shining and working against an action or work which raiseth it to be an heresie but it must be light in the Word shining against an opinion which must denominate it to be heresie 2. Heresie is an erroneous opinion concerning matters of faith There are quaestiones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quaestiones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one well distinguisheth every erroneous Greg. Nazianz. Oral 14. opinion is not heresie If the error be of matters praeter fidem it is not heresie let the error be what it will to make the erroneous opinion amount to heresie two things must concurre One that the errour be circa fidem although a man doth erre in his own opinion within the proportion of objectum scibile as against the rules and principles of severall Sciences as Geometry Astronomy Naturall Philosophy yet this errour is not heresie For heresie is an erroneous opinion not circa scibile but circa credibile not about matters of humane Science but about matters of divine faith But if the errour be about the matters of faith revealed in the Word as that Christ is not God or is not Man here now the errour will rise to heresie for here is dogma fidei Another is that the errour be contra fidem against the faith as well as about the faith If it be an opinion contrary to sound doctrine overthrowing the foundation this will make the errour to be heresie An opinion may be contrary not onely to the Church of Rome and many particular Traditions but also to the judgement of some godly men yet is it not therefore an heresie but then is it heresie when the opinion is contra fidem Traditam contrary to the faith to the doctrine of faith in the Scriptures Neverthelesse here we must carefully consider that an opinion may be said to be contrary to the Faith in a double respect 1. One is when it is not concordant to every truth whatsoever which is revealed in the Scriptures I dare not say that every error in this respect is heresie there may be many mistakes many incauti errores as one speaks perhaps dissonant to the true Chronology to the exact and full history of some places yet these presently are not heresies 2. The other is when it is repugnant to that truth or any truth which is necessary to salvation and here questionlesse the errour contra fidem will prove to be heresie Heresie is opinio perversa adversa there may be opinions diverse yet none of them bee heresies In the Interpretation of the Scriptures there is frequently a variety of opinions but as long as like the lines of a circumference they doe meet in the Center as long as every one of them unites and harbours within the analogy of faith here is no heresie though some variety But then it is heresie when the opinion is adverse is contrary to is subversive of the faith revealed as necessary unto salvation which the opinion may be either Explicitely As when the errour is manifestly fundamentall it doth expresly pluck up the foundation It is not a problematicall canvasing of a truth but a plain Gunpowder-plot an error which blows up a fundamentall truth It doth not blow off the tiles of the house but blows up the bottomes and supports of the house As when a person denies the Godhead of Christ redemption by Christ salvation by Christ Or Reductively As when the errour overthrows that which being denied and overthrown the foundation thereupon and thereby is by an inevitable necessity also denyed and overthrown or maintains that which being maintained a fundamentall truth must necessarily and unavoidably be subverted As if any person should maintain humane satisfactions to be sufficient to merit and procure salvation this error would necessarily subvert mans salvation founded upon the merits of Jesus
Christ onely 3. If the erroneous opinion be against any one particular doctrinall necessary truth even that particular errour will amount to heresie Indeed number if I may so speak is requisite to apostasie but any particular necessity of a truth to our salvation if opposed is sufficient for heresie The Apostate turns his back from the whole truth the Heretique grapples vvith some truth but denies other truth And therefore though a person still retaines an assent consonant to many truths nay to most truths nay to all except one necessary truth yet if his erroneous opinion be subversive of that one his errour will come to heresie 4. To make the erroneous opinion to be hereticall it is necessary as to the person who holds it that he be a professed Christian one who is vinculo fidei obstrictus as some doe word it It is a question put by Schoolmen and others whether Infidels Pagans and Jews who hold opinions contrary unto and subversive of the faith are to be reputed Heretiques Unto which it is answered that one may be styled hereticall either 1. Materially as when his opinion for the matter and substance of it is contrary to the faith and subverting of the foundation 2. Or else formally as when not only the substance of the opinion is hereticall and opposite to the Christian faith but also it is maintained by one who hath formerly engaged himself to the profession and maintenance of the faith In the former consideration Infidels and Jews may bee reputed Heretiques but in this latter consideration onely he is so to be reputed who was reckoned amongst the number of Christians professing the faith If the Infidel and Jew deny Jesus Christ to be a Saviour of sinners though this be a great sin yet it is not strictly considered an heresie because neither the one nor the other ever embraced or professed the Gospel But if a Christian professing the Gospel doth this in him it is heresie 5. But lastly to make up heresie there must be obstinacy or pertinacy joyned with that erroneous opinion which is contrary to the faith He who is an Heretique must adhere or inhere he must obstinately adhere or cleave unto his erroneous opinion I confesse that it is a very quick case Whether pertinacy be so essentiall to heresie that the opinion cannot at all be reputed hereticall unlesse the professing Christian who holds it appear obstinate Concerning which case I will onely deliver my opinion submitting it to better judgements that where the erroneous opinion doth ex natura opinionis appear grosly and notoriously exitious to the rasing of the foundation it is hereticall A denying of Jesus Christ to bee the Son of God or a denying of salvation by him such an opinion in the very nature of it is pernicious ruinous and damnable yet ad plurimum and in the ordinary way of discovery and processe with Heretiques I humbly conceive that pertinacy must be an ingredient to constitute the person to be heretically erroneous And therefore in this point of Heresie and Heretiques Divines doe distinguish inter Infidelem and dubium in fide and Haeretico credentem Haereticum There is Infidelis one who never entertained or professed the faith yet is obstinately and most violently carried against it This man may be a persecutor but he is not an Heretique notwithstanding his opinion and notwithstanding his obstinacy Again there is dubius in fide one who is doubtfull in the faith one who is wavering and reeling anceps fluctuans his anchor doth not fasten he is not quite on nor quite off but staggers and totters the equall apprehensions of truth and falshood doe so poise and ballance the one against the other that he comes not up fully and determinately any way Now although some doe affirm that even dubius in fide is Haereticus yet I dare not to assert it Thomas the Apostle did dubitare in fide he was Incredulus yet surely not Haereticus Indeed as Austine speaks he who doth dubitare doth errare for the man doth erre who approves falshood for truth or disallows truth for falshood or takes uncertain things for certain truths or certain truths for uncertain conjectures errour here is but not heresie There is also Haeretico-credens one who is rowled up wrigled in packt up into a dangerous errour misled seduced follows his leader holds that which really is contrary to the faith and destructive yet not out of obstinacy of minde but upon an imagination of truth not out of deliberation but by surreption he is utterly deceived by taking upon trust his erroneous opinion is not fortified with pertinacy but only crept into him by his simplicity And therefore being candidly dealt with and being admonished he contends not but yeelds and wheels about to the truth as the bow when the string is taken off returns to its own posture again so upon admonition the seduced person quits his errour and submits to the faith But then there is Haereticus the very Heretique and he is one who doth not only malè sentire erre in his opinion but also doth fortiter tenere obstinately maintain that errour he doth not onely hold fidei oppositum that which is contrary to the faith but also he doth hold the same animo opponendi with a pertinacious spirit There is in him definiendi temeritas tuendi perversitas too But here now fals in that difficult and knotty question namely when a person is to be reputed obstinate or pertinacious in holding an errour contrary to the faith The Apostle I think resolves us in this where he saith An Heretique after the first and second admonition reject So then when Titus 3. 10. there is a due proposall of the truth manifestly revealed in the Scriptures and yet the erroneous person adheres unto his errour our of a very pravity of mind and will not suffer his understanding to be captivated unto the truth this person is pertinacious in holding of his erroneous opinion and is manifestly an Heretique Beloved when an erroneous person maintains his opinion contrary to clear light so that he must necessarily deny the truth of God or revoke his error or when he cannot maintain his wicked errour but he must necessarily overthrow some other article of faith which yet he would not doe or when the person cares not to trample down another truth to uphold his error against a former truth makes one article a footstool to pull down another or when the person steps from one errour to a more grosse one cares not what errour he plungeth himself into so that he may maintain his errour or when all solid reason is silenced nay if reason and conscience might speak they doe concurring with the truth against his errour secretly condemn him and having nothing to reply hee fals unto proud scorns bitter virulencies miserable shifts surely such an erroneous person is obstinate and pertinacious in his corrupt opinion And thus briefly for the
much of un-churching and of Antichrist and limbes of Antichrist but a Church is never more near to give up the ghost then when it is most near to give up the truth It is never nearer to be un-churched and to be essentially Antichristed then when the truth fails and when abominable heresies and corrupt doctrines swarm in it Mark seriously that place in 1 Iohn 4. 3. Every spirit that confesseth not that Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist I this is that spirit of Antichrist The spirit of errour and false doctrine this is that spirit of Antichrist 3. Heresies are a suddenly rising floud A floud is no sober or quiescent puddle no grave or slow-paced river but it is a quick and extemporary collection and inundation And truly herein lies the greatnesse of the danger unto a people and Church by heresies that they are quickly conceived and quickly brought forth quickly born and quickly thriving though truth gets on very slowly by reason of that incapacity of the judgement for supernaturals and by reason of that naturall opposition in man to the things of God and by reason of the subtill interposition of the Prince of darknesse who blinds the minds of men lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine unto them yet erroneous and false opinions do break out with ease and spread swiftly they are like the plague which is a flying arrow there needs no preparation of the ground for nettles if the seeds doe but drop down you may soon have a full crop yet the ground must be prepared again and again to receive good seed the hearts of men are naturally disposed to suck in errours as they are to send out wickednesses the tinder is so prepared to catch the fire that it is but the striking of the flint and the work is done The Scriptures doe compare false doctrines to leaven O how fast doth a little leaven sowre the lump Paul wondred that the Galatians were so soon removed to another Gospel Gal. 1. 6. The good man slept but one night and the field was sowen all over with tares by the wicked and envious man How quickly did the world turn Arian How suddenly did the Anabaptists endanger Germany The Vines which have been some months in growing are in very few howres torn down and destroyed by Foxes and wilde Boars Now if erroneous doctrines be in themselves so highly pernicious and in their operation so speedily diffusive then certainly they are of all other things the most dangerous to the Church of Christ A plague which suddenly infects many families is therefore the more dangerous and heresies vvhich can suddenly infect many souls are therefore the more dangerous evils 4. Heresies are an increasing and swelling floud A floud at first makes the river onely to look big and to run a little thicker and faster but after a while it causeth the river to be unruly to break in pieces to superabound the waters contribute on every side and at every corner to raise and mount it so that there is no passing False doctrines at first seem to be modest they will be but scruples and quaere's and then they come to be probabilities and then they come to be Like the spreading Leprosie tolerable conclusions and then they rise to be unquestionable tenets and then fit to be made publique articles and then necessary to be held and then the contrary not to be maintained or spoken for nay to be disdained and reproached But this is not all neither For as false opinions rise thus and encrease in their direct line of particular magnitudes by way of intention so doe they likewise enlarge themselves in divers breadths by way of extension They are like circles in a pond one circle begets another so doth one heresie beget another a lesser begets a greater As one morall sin is but a staire to step down lower so this intellectuall sinne of heresie it is but a staire to help up to higher and worse errors If you will consult Historicall Antiquity it is wonderfull to behold the great flames bred out of small sparks what monstrous opinions have been built upon errours which seemed but little at the first how one errour hath hatched a greater they who write of them can distinctly tell us where the man was first planet-struck what his first errour was but after a while they are non-plussed in the account the number of errours have doubled trebled such a maze and labyrinth is errour It is like a whirle-pool which first Dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur sucks in one part and then another and never defists untill it draws in and plungeth the whole body Besides ancient examples wee may see this swelling growth of erroneous opinions in the Church of Rome where one errour still advanced to more errours and those again to higher errours and these still running on until a general corruption ensued from all the particulars compare the first defections and corruptions with their last and present how little then how totall now how particular then how universall now and you will easily acknowledge what encreasing flouds erroneous opinions are The points at first were rather about private interests of precedency but they have been so encreased unto all doctrinals that they are scarce sound in any Their errours about the Scriptures and Traditions and the offices of Christ and humane satisfactions and merits and invocation and adoration of Saints and of justification and faith and good works and free-will and Sacraments c. are evident to all the world I could give unto you an instance also in the Anabaptists in Germany whose first Author there saith David Chytraeus in his Dedicatory Epistle to Ericus King of the Swedes was Nicolaus Pelargus Cygneus about the year 1523. his erroneous doctrines though bad enough for they were laid in the contempt of the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments and rejection of the Civill Magistrate and in nova ac coelesti luce immediate accensain corde as my Author expresly relates yet were not formerly so numerous but when these opinions descended unto Thomas Munzerus and Andreas Carolostadius now they began to swell both in the quantity of the opinions and in the vast number of disciples too Lambertus Danaeus in his Annotations and Explications of Saint Augustines Book De haeresibus quod vult deum addes to that account the many derivations and enlarging propagations of heresies from age to age shewing exactly the severall heresies flowing from some one capitall and originall heresie as from Simon See his Arborem Haerescón as himself styles it Magus's heresie and from that of Valentinus and that of Cardo and that of Artemon and that of Novatus and that of Arius c. In which elaborate work of his you may read of such a strange growth of heresies that they never left multiplying and breeding untill they had as much as in
will mourn most when God is dishonoured most and can God be more dishonoured then by blasphemies and damnable heresies Put all these together and then consider whether these sins of heresies and blasphemies should not wound our soules with grief which have wounded our God with so much dishonour But I passe from this Use of Humiliation unto a Vse 2 second Use which shall be for Exhortation and it is this Since there is such a floud cast out of the mouth of the Serpent to carry away the woman let us carefully improve the following words in the Text And the earth helped the woman and opened her mouth to swallow up the floud Before I distribute my Exhortation let me premise a distinction or two There is a twofold opening of the mouth concerning this floud One is to speak for damnable errours and opinions and such as vent and maintain them O that the mouth of any Christian should ever open it selfe in the behalfe of those who dare open their mouths in blasphemy against their God and Christ Should the welfare of a corrupt and poisonous seducer be dearer to thee then the glory of thy God then the truth of thy Saviour But there is another opening of the mouth and that is against damnable errours and blasphemies we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth saith Paul Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints saith Iude Hold fast the faithful Word for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses c. So the Apostle in Tit. 1. 9 10 11. Again there is a twofold swallowing up of this floud one by way of impression and furtherance of imitation and countenance as when the fish doth swallow the bait too many swallow up the floud in this sense The Prophets prophesie falsly and my people love to have it so Jer. 5. 31. There shall be false teachers who privily shall bring in damnable heresies and many shall follow their pernicious ways 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. Another is by way of hinderance and repression so as to make the danger of this floud to sink and cease O bring in your help bring it in fully bring it in speedily thus to swallow up the floud Beleeve it if you doe not carefully swallow up this floud this floud will ere long swallow you up and the Kingdome too Now there are two sorts of men especially who may help and who ought to help to swallow up and suppresse the present floud of heresies and blasphemies 1. You Right Honourable and the rest who are Christian Magistrates It was but the scornfull speech of Tiberius that the gods alone must remedy the injuries offered unto them O no! you are custodes utriusque tabulae you are designed to be Nursing Fathers you have received the sword to be a terrour to the evill Pious and learned Amesius speaking to that question Whether Heretiques are to be punished by the Civil Magistrate Answers thus Magistratus locus officiū postulat ut reprimat improbos turbatores In cas consc l. 4. c. 4 q. 6. gladio vel potestate publica externa si opus fuerit It is his place and duty to represse them and restrain them if they be noxious and turbulent yea and hee addes more then every one will be patient to hear namely that if also they be manifestly blasphemous and pertinacious they may be cut off supplicio capitali according to that in Levit. 24. 15 16. But I will not fall upon the discussion of that at this time all that I would humbly suggest unto you is this That you may help against this dangerous floud 9. ways 1. By a peremptory abhorring and crushing of that floud-begetting maxime viz. a Catholique liberty and toleration of all opinions There was a Religion as one once spake before you omnium Deorum of all Gods amongst the old Romans and there is a Religion omnium Sanctorū of all Saints now amongst the Papists and if the Serpent could but wriggle in a Religion omnium opinionum of all opinions amongst the English he needs to desire no more If men can step from one Religion to all they will soon fall from all Religion to none 2. By a publique declaration against all heresies and blasphemies known to be spoken and printed When Ostorodius and Vaidovius started out their Socinian Heterodoxies in the Low-Countries the States Generall packt away those seducers with exile and publickly condemned and committed their pestiferous bookes to the fire 3. By making some standing Laws against such opinions which can be proved to be hereticall and blasphemous Serviunt reges terrae Christo saith one etiam leges ferendo pro Christo 3. By setting up your Church-Discipline with full power that so it may reach these heresies and blasphemies which if any sins then they doe plainly fall within the Verge of it If the discipline were fully and generally established you should not have an heresie or blasphemy or any erroneous opinion creeping out in any part of the Kingdome but there would be a timely discovery of it and likewise a spirituall remedy to recovererring persons and to prevent their further spreading 5. By encouraging and heartning the godly orthodoxe painfull Ministers of the Gospel in their assertings and vindicatings of the truths of Christ and in their oppugning of wicked dangerous and damnable opinions Not suffering therefore to be snibbed abused reviled scorned slandered disturbed hazarded because they doe oppose the adversaries of truth and those Serpents which doe cast out flouds amongst us why should the Shepherd be discouraged because he keeps off Wolves from the sheep or any man bee checked because he would quench the flying fire 6. By using your prudent Authority in a timely causing to be sent forth faithfull and able Ministers such as are throughly tryed and well approved to be sound in the faith and skilfull to convince gain-sayers and seducers The more you help truth and the servants of truth the more help doe you therein contribute against errours and the enemies of truth No better help against darknesse then light 7. By a tender and watchfull eye unto the Vniversities one of which is lately fallen into your possession take care it may not fall into the possession of any seducers you have heard I doubt not of a late Disputation in Oxford where some body undertook to maintain besides in private divers strange and dangerous opinions in publique I humbly intreat you to take care that the Serpent gets not in his body before there be any planted to bruise his head Truth by right is the first-born and should first inherit doe not put the truth to play an after game with errour Other Garrisons if lost may easily be reduced but that which is surprized fast by errour is not so easily recovered 8. By injoyning a solemn day of Humiliation through all the Land for the dishonours redounding to God
and Christ and the Truth by the present errors heresies blasphemies You did so lately for the flouds of rain which endangered the Com O that it might seem good unto you so to doe for the floud of errours which endanger souls This humble request I presume to leave with your pious zeal and prudence 9. By using you Coercive power with such methods and propertions 〈◊〉 the reall safety of truth and souls doth require and the repression of dangerous errors doth need So managing the distributions thereof that under the notion of restraining heresie you by no means injure reall sanctity nor yet under the pretence of sanctity you doe not favour the growth of heresie O what an happy people are they amongst whom errours are losing and truths are graining where piety thrives and wickednesse blasts where all who are good can joyn against all that is evill and in lesser things whereas yet they cannot through weaknesse clasp opinions yet for the truth and peace's sake can clasp hearts and hands to promote Gods glory and the common salvation of souls 2. I have a word also to say unto you who are Ministers of the Gospel of Christ Come you forth from your long silences neglects and reserves and help the Church of Christ in swallowing up the floud which the Serpent hath cast out of his mouth when Jesus Christ is blasphemed it is not a time to fear but to cry out so spake Luther to Staupitius Men will say that you are moderate and discreet but what will Christ say to you if at such a time you be silent in his Cause O my brethren you are the husbandmen take heed that none sow tares in the field whiles you sleep you are the builders O bee sure to preserve the foundation safe you are the Shepherds of the Flock O beware of the Wolves lest they break in and destroy the sheep You are the Vine-dressers and keepers of the Vineyard O have an eye to the Foxes which else will spoil the tender Grapes You are the Stewards of Christ O be vigilant on what provision the houshold doth feed You are the Watchmen O look out lest the enemy slip in and surprise the City You are the Fathers bee sure that your children have not a stone given to them in stead of bread or a Serpent in stead of a Fish You must help with your most fervent prayers as Alexander once did and prevailed against Arius You must help with your counsels with your watchings with your preachings You must bona docere mala dedocere as Austine speaks You must be defensores and debellatores stand for truth and withstand errours You are in a singular manner intrusted with truth and souls O watch O pray O preach O doe all that faithfull Ministers should doe when a floud breaks in You read of Eliahs zeal against the false Prophets and of Pauls zeal against false Apostles You have read of the zeal of Athanasius against the Arians and of the zeal of Cyprian against the Novatians and of the zeal of Austine against the Donatists against the Manichees against the Pelagians You have read of the zeal of Hierome of Chrysostome of Nazianzen and many others in ancient times You have read of the zeal of Luther and Calvin and others in later times You have shewed your zeal to the Kingdome in our dangerous times I say no more remember your first works remember your engagements and be zealous If you who are the Angels of Christ the Ministers of Christ the Stewards of Christ if you be drowzie if you be silent if you stop your own mouths when mouths are opened against your Christ whose mouth can we expect should open it self to swallow up the floud It was a brave answer which Cyrill gave to Theodosius that in our private and personall injuries we should hold our peace but when the truth or faith is endangered to be corrupted we ought to speak else we must give an account to God of our unseasonable silence I have but one use more Hath the Serpent cast out such a floud of errours and false doctrines amongst us then 1. Let every one take heed lest he be caried away with any part of this floud I say take heed For erroneous times are trying times and proving times as well as bloudy and persecuting times God hath tryed your fidelity to this Kingdome of late by a floud of bloud and God is now trying your fidelity to the Kingdom of his dear Son by a floud of errours Take heed lest you be carried away by this floud There are seven things which are very apt to bee carried away by a floud 1. Light things 2. Loose things 3. Weak things 4. Low things 5. Rotten things 6. Tottering things 7. Venturous things O take heed 1. That you be not light or proud Christians errours are most apt to breed in a proud brain and a gracelesse heart and no man is more likely to bee overturned by errour then he who hath overturned himself by pride the proud and blasphemers are joyned together 2 Tim. 3. 2. The proud man is exposed to most temptations to most fals and to most errors 'T is the proud man who consents not to wholesome words of Christ but dotes about questions 1 Tim. 6. 3 4. 2. That you be not loose Christians If ungodlines be in the heart it will not be hard for errour to get into the head A loose heart can best comply with loose principles Truth is searching and reforming but errour is more quiet and gratifying 't is grace which settles the minde and stablisheth the heart 3. That you be not weak Christians weake stomachs are most longing A Christian whose faith is implicit and leaning on man doth often trust out his judgement and soul The weaker light you have of truth the more easily may you be cheated with errours in stead of truth 4. That you bee not low Christians a worldly heart is a very low heart It is of all other the cheapest it will be bought and sold upon every turn to serve its own turn The truth can never be sure in that chest which any errour with a little golden key can pick. If thou be the servant of truth for gain thou wilt be a slave to errour for more gain 5. That you be not rotten or hypocriticall Christians they were given up to beleeve lies who did not receive the truth in the love of it How just is it with God that he should fall into reall errour whose heart did never love reall truth that the deceitfull heart should at length be a deceived heart Is it difficult to set him against the faith who never had a sound faith 6. Take heed that you be not tottering and unstable Christians when the judgement is not ballanced and solidly fixed upon the truths of Christ but reeling and wavering and like them in Eliahs time halting between two opinions it is usually in danger to bee poised with errour He whose mind is but indifferent about a truth is more then half on his way to errour 7. That you be not venturous and soul-tempting Christians Julian sipt in his Apostasie by going to hear Libanius The Devill is ready enough to tempt you be not you found to tempt him Eve lost all by hearing one Sermon from the mouth of the Serpent If you will be trading amongst cheaters it is no wonder if you be cheated we are sure to goe by the worst when we venture upon our own strength the man who will expose himself to hear new truths doth oft times come back with old errours newly dressed 2. Let every one strengthen his soul that he may stand and withstand and not be carried away c. The house built upon the Rock stood when the floud came Take all in a word a judgement solidly principled an heart sincerely renued a faith truly bottomed Truth and love of it cordially matched profession and practise well joyned a fear of our selves and dependance on God still maintained Gods Ordinances and the society of humble and growing Christians still frequented watchfulnesse and prayer still continued are the best directives that I can deliver to keep us in the truth and the best preservatives that I doe know to keep us from errours FINIS