not abandoned of all good intentions so neither deprived of all moral virtues these seem to me two very faulty extremities to represent any man's life so wicked as to have nothing good in it or so holy as to have no faults For any thing I can find this man was very free from the vice of Covetousness but then it is true that some men are freed from this only on this score that it cannot thrive near or cohabit with the vice of Ambition or Vain-glory. He is reported by his friends to have bin very charitable to the poor but this also may be done tho I cannot say his was so with an eye in our charity to humane praise as well as to our neighbour's necessities So Melancthon notes of him that he exceedingly opposed taking up armes in defence or for propagation of Religion which yet might ground it self on no better foundation but only a consciousness in his time of the weakness of the Protestants power in comparison of their Adversaries and he might be averse from it more because he thought it not expedient than not just He seems likewise to have bin a man of great and indefatigable industry of a resolute and undauntable courage of which see what is said before § 47. But these are reckoned amongst good or bad things according to their effect and so far as they tend to God's service or to any others benefit men may hope for a just recompence from God in accession of glory or diminution of punishment so far as they tend to God's dishonour or anothers harm they must needs proceed from an evil root and from him they may expect their wages whose work they do and whose cause they promote § 51 If such things as these may be urged for him yet what more do they shew than some of them that he was not at his worst at first and other that he was never so bad as he might have bin but what are these to recompence or make satisfaction for that spirit of pride and contention of licentiousness and rebellion of anger and impatiency self-admiration and contempt of others of railing and blaspheming against the Catholick Church stiling it the Whore of Babylon and the Spouse of Antichrist and that for many ages before his own time and against the spiritual Fathers thereof ancient and modern Prelates and Councils pronouncing even of the first Council of Nice Se non intelligere Spiritum sanctam in hoc Concilio see before § 19. against the Grace and Spirit of God as it inhabits in his Saints and brings forth fruits in them of a most sweet smelling savour to God of which he said for his advancing of Justification by Faith alone that Opus bonum optâ—me factum was peccatum mortale secundum judicium Dei and that Aeâ—â—ocertus se non semper peccare mortaliter against Chastity and Abstinency against Solitude and Watching against Fasting and Hair-cloth against the diurnal and nocturnal Offices of the Church and the Canonical hours of Prayer against hard treatment of the Body poverty and lowness of Spirit and preferring our Superiors reason and will for the conduct of our life before our own What are some good things found in this person as none is every way bad to counterpoise those vices so opposite to the fundamental virtues of Self-abnegation Humility and Charity which do appear in this former discourse to have so fully possessed and reigned in this man pride anger contention disobedience sensuality breach of lawful and sacred vows c Who is there that will absolve a Traitor arraigned for murthering his Prince because his neighbours come in and witness that he was charitable to the poor or a good house-keeper Or who will absolve the Pharisee for blaspheming our Lord's Spirit and Doctrine because he paid Tythe mean-while of his Mint and Cummin Whereas therefore those who have bin sent by God in several ages since our Lord's departure for the reforming of Christian manners and advancing of piety and religion have appeared to be persons of extraordinary sanctity and strictness and austerity of life of great humility and meekness and punctual obedience to their Ecclesiastical Superiours and their Reformations and new Institutions still licensed by the Same so it is that this person appeared in an opposite to all the former in casting down their works and in magnifying himself as a discoverer of new truth in throwing off all obedience to his spiritual Superiours in calling Christians to more liberty not strictness and casting the work of their salvation wholly upon Christ's shoulders yet how much he magnified the works of God the Son for the faithful so much depressing and vilifying the operations of God the Holy Ghost within the faithful § 52 13. The refeâ—â— blance of Luther's change of Rel gion in several particulars to the fâ—rmeroâ— Mahomet Where feeing that there have bin since our Lord's time only two most famous Innovations made in Religion against Church-Authority that have drawn many Nations after them and divided them one from another in the worship of God the first of Mahomet the second of Luther this second Innovator may be observed to have resembled the former in several particulars 1. In his overthrowing and rejecting the Sense exposition of the Scripture received in former times This later Innovator urging That the true sense and meaning of God's word was falsified for many ages as the other did that the words and writings thereof Of which see before § 20. Quanti errores in omnium Patrum scriptis Quisest qui non saepius Scripturas torserit c. And Scire cos volo me nullius Patris authoritate cogi velle c. And Si nihil habetur quod dicatur satius est omnia negasse i. e. in Patribus quam concedere Missam c. And Eruditis gratum erat saith Melancthon quasi ex tenebris educi Christum Prophetas Apostolos c. Sec before § 5. And of these his new Doctrines and Expositions Luther saith § 24. Illum se aut suam doctrinam Episcoporum aut ullius Angeli de Coelo subjicere judicio non dignari satis nunc datum esse stultae huic humilitati See before § 16. And Si nos ruimus ruit Christus und And Zuinglius observes of him Clandestinum effugium sibi hoc modo praeparat Si seductus aut falsus sum Deus me seduxit fefellit See before § 26. Such language this as never any Doctor or Reformer used before him unless Mahomet § 53 Secondly In his coming not with the power of the Spirit and Miracles nor with the spirit of temperance meekness and patience in worldly affronts but instead of these with the spirit of fury defiance and railing as the other said that he was sent not with Miracles but a Sword Hence that observation of the Tigurine Reformed Divines concerning his writings Tanta selectissimorum convitiorum copia scatere tanta verborum immodestia foeditate
persecuting the Church of God and its former truth as the Jews in persecuting our Lord and his Doctrine thought he did God good service and therefore the Devil great disservice and that he really took God for his friend and the Devil for his enemy as they also did of whom nevertheless our Lord declared that they were the Devil's Children and he their Father and that they did the works of this their Father and spake his words Jo. 8.41 44. But neither do I apprehend this gross misperswasion of his to have excused him any more than theirs did since he wanted not sufficient testimony and evidence on every side especially from the voice of the whole Church Catholick that he was deceived and the merciful God without his own first shutting his eyes and hardening his heart would not have given him up to such a blindness and strong delusion § 47 And therefâ—re was a more dangerous instrument of his Mean-while a great advantage this is to Satan and therefore he labours it much when they that do his business do not know so much For such persons do it much more zealously resolutely and without all remorse whilst they fancy themselves Saints and Martyrs and not them but their adversaries the instruments of the Devil whereas he acts but timorously whose Conscience mean-while trembles and is continually questioning his endeavours and recalling him from his work And the Devil well sees that Hypocrites and dissemblers tho these are a higher sort of his servants yet do not do his business half so well For in some thing or other these flag at length and detect themselves at least they will hardly be Martyrs for him As therefore this evil spirit in other things emulates and strives to resemble the Good so in this that as the Holy Ghost inspires into God's Ministers a very great boldness Act. 4.29 31. and confidence and full perswasion in delivering of divine truths and undergoing any sufferings in testimony thereof even so this evil spirit instils also a strange plerophory of blindness and delusive credulity into his Ministers in the believing and teaching a lye not to be discerned from the other many times even when it comes to laying down of lives Which we may be certain of as often as we see truth being but one some dye at Smithfield by fire and others at Tiburne by suspension with an externally appearing equal resolution and courage for two contradictories one therefore dying for a lye And this is the more remarkable in that even in defence of Atheism some doubtless strongly deceived by the Devil have sacrificed their life as that desperate person Vaninus in France meerly out of love to this doctrine as a truth for he who held no God looked for no future reward of his Martyrdom nor feared any future punishment for his disavowing such Atheism and so saving of his life And this strange confidence Luther himself meeting with and admiring in some Protestant sects that opposed him readily acknowledged it in them a bewitchment of the evil spirit yet in himself he as also his followers took this confidence for a signal operation of the good § 48 To this end also the Devil is glad to maintain several virtues in his servants tho this in other respects much against his will so to make their bad wares salable and some small stock of good his instruments commonly have which he leaves undefaced and diligently mixeth with that evil which he hath planted in them so to make this the more current and all easily swallowed down together by the imprudent and credulous For all men avoid those in whom appears no good and the wolves that raven most put on sheeps-cloathing Even Satan to set off himself he is so ugly a creature is forced tho he hates such a habit partly to dress himself like a good Angel who if he should always wear horns and cloven feet he could get few or none to follow his colours Had Luther bin a much worse man than he was he had done less mischief and Satan less service and had this Fiend handled him so roughly at his death as some tell us perhaps his Reformation by the world's being frighted thereat would have bin strangled and deserted in its birth whereas now the shew of some Christian virtues lest in him his inveighing every where against Satan as his sworn enemy his protestation of all sincerity and conscientiousness in his discourses and dealing his confidence or as he calls it certainty that his doctrine came from above his justly blaming as also did the Catholick Doctors several corruptions of manners in the Church c. drew many aster him unawares into the same nets of the Tempter and propagated his errors to posterity § 49 And that there wanted not specious pretences for several things in his Reformation Very speciously therefore I grant this man began to rail at the Pharisaical humour of many Religious and perhaps some such Religious there were who relied on the purity and merits of their own works and holiness against whom he preached Christ's Merits and our Justification in remission of our sins Speciously afterward he preached and writ against Indulgences and perhaps rightly as to several abuses wherein they were by some misunderstood and practised and this perhaps done by him not out of any emulation or envy of some benefit thereof accruing to another Religious order the Dominicans but out of conscience tho this his action free from envy or avarice might be stained with some tickling of vain-glory fed by the popular applause that followed him So at the first he did not cast off all obedience to his Superiours or intended it as himself often professeth nor yet intended at the first a Reformation of the Church's doctrines in so many points as he invaded afterward but some amendment in manners rather and afterward when time and company had emboldened him to do this yet he still supported such fact with this pious intention that he did it for defending the truth and that he only disobeyed his other Superiours to obey God the Supreme Neither is it likely that he ever intended by his preaching down he Evangelical Counsels of perfection the three vows of Religion Sacramental Confession Penances c. to introduce such a licentiousness of life as he saw afterwards followed upon it nor by his throwing off the yoke of authority to lay the open for so many Sects as he saw crowded in suddenly after it besides his own Such might be the Devil's designs from the first but not Luther's and had Satan pulled off his Mask and discovered to Luther at the beginning all the evil he meant to make of him or introduce by him doubtless this man would have startled and recoiled and this subtle enemies plots are sooften spoiled and frustrated as they are fully discovered § 50 Nor some personal qualities that tender'd him acceptable to his sect And as I esteem Luther from the beginning
fruits i.e. their doctrines ye shall know the persons whether they be true or false prophets or teachers or by their doctrines ye shall know whether they teach false doctrines for so still I have no direction lest me whereby to know their doctrines to be false yet for which their false doctrines â—am warned chiefly to be aware of these false teachers But the meaning thereof in reason must be that by their fruits of an holy or bad life by the fruits of the Spirit or of the flesh which they bear which fruits the sheep do see and can judge of when they cannot so well of the doctrines by these both the good or bad Spirit of the Doctor and the truth or falsity of his doctrines may be known § 58 First the Teachers Spirit whether it be of God or of the flesh and the Devil may be discerned by these fruits For if this Spirit be of God the Apostle hath told us Gal. 5.22 that the fruits thereof are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness continency or temperance if of the flesh and Satan the works or fruits are fornication uncleanness lasciviousness drunkenness revellings hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition envyings c. Now Christians having once discerned thus by these fruits the Spirit of the Teachers where they have ground of presumption that it is a bad one have all reason to suspect his doctrine and his reasons and arguments and his expositions of God's word in confirmation thereof to be so too To be so too I say where ever the Church doth not authorize and secure such doctrine to them for the Scriptures are of no private interpretation i. e. not of every private man's interpretation out of his own brain because they are dictated by the Holy Ghost and by the Holy Ghost the meaning of the Holy Ghost in them can only be expounded By the Holy Ghost I say either in the private Expositor or the Church in which the Spirit of God for ever resides and guides it into all truth from which Church he must learn such Exposition or with which Church he will concur in it if he learn it from God's Spirit But this man's new Doctrine entered into the world neither with Miracles nor if we consider all said with the signs of a good Spirit nor yet owned or defended nay also rejected and condemned by the Church § 59 Where 1. That truth and holiness error and vice have a necessary cenrexâ—â—n 2ly By their fruits of a strict and holy or of a corrupt and dissolute life are the truth and falsity also of Doctrines discovered For first as truth and goodness so error and vice have a most intimate and natural connexion so that I may say if there be any doctrine that really and naturally tendeth to produce in us more sanctity and purity of life than the contrary that most certainly is truth and the contrary error and therefore is an orthodox faith so much laboured for because it is the foundation of a good life and therefore Satan becomes the Father of all evil in us because he is first the Father of lyes to us Tho then it be not here denied but that a teacher of something that is false may bring forth the fruits of a good life and contrary the teacher of truth the fruits of a bad yet 1. here the fruit of good life can never proceed from the false doctrine taught by the one nor the fruit of a bad life from the truth that is taught by the other But the teacher of truth brings forth bad fruit from his lusts carrying him against the truth known by him and again the teacher of some errors brings forth good fruit from the truth which he possesseth mingled indeed with error but yet predominative thereof But if he be such a Teacher of errors as that the truths he holds as none err in every thing are in the operation which they might have upon his manners mastered and seduced by them here his life also must needs be corrupt whether he be supposed to practise according to his errors as if he indulged some forbidden lusts because conceived lawful or whether he practise contrary to them for so he doth what is right indeed but against his conscience all acting against which tho when it errs becomes evil Again if he be a teacher of such errors as are expresly condemned by the Church or at Jeast as he knows to be so whatever truths he may hold or some kind of virtues practise according to those truths yet his life in general can never be stiled holy or himself good because he wants the two fundamental and cardinal virtues of Obedience and Humility Lastly neither can a good man teaching some errors be so good as if rectified in these he might have bin but that he must also be so far faulty and defective in his manners as his false opinion any way tendeth to the depraving and leavening thereof This of the natural connexion of error and vice as of truth and goodness § 60 〈◊〉 That where more corrupt doctrines â—re believed and taught there for the general are â—ound more dissolute 〈◊〉 2ly Hence it will follow That tho as hath bin said it may not be affirmed that where ever a dissolute and bad life is seen in a teacher or others there it ariseth from their false opinions or doctrines because many times our life is evil where our tenents are generally orthodox and true Catholicks are sometimes bad men from our lusts warring and carrying us headlong against our knowledge and our faith yet in any Sect wherein more erroneous and corrupt doctrines are believed and maintained especially such as give more manifest liberty to the flesh there for the general must needs be more carnal corrupt and dissolute lives seeing that there are here both the same lusts warring against the Soul which are also tempting the Catholick and Orthodox to an evil life and moreover many gross mis-perswasions and pernicious doctrines siding with and countenancing such lusts or at least not curbing them For if our lusts even against knowledge are so powerful over us how swiftly will they move us when our errors go along with them and blow these Sails This I say for the general For as to particulars I do not deny but that the life of some persons labouring under many erroneous principles yet may be very regular both by reason of other truths believed which tho this not observed by them do contradict the other false ones and may suspend the bad influences of them upon their practice as also by reason of an extraordinary good inclination of their nature and helps also of God's restraining grace for even amongst the Heathen-errors have bin some persons of an external virtuous and unreproachable conversation and therefore much more may they be so amongst any Sect of Christians who cannot but have many Catholick truths mingled with their errors and yet much more