so for another I can the more easily comply with your commands and minister something towards this great purpose because it so falls out that I shall but recollect my thoughts and transcribe with very little variation what I have delivered not long ago in my own Congregation on this subject And therefore I must beg you to accept some Sermon-Notes instead of a formal Letter and to pardon me that I address to you as one of my own People Only Sir my respects will not suffer me to thrust you into the common croud something will be added which was not then delivered and you will perceive it by being addressed only to your self PIETY The Best Rule of ORTHODOXY CHAP. I. The great need of every Christians taking heed of Error The difficulty in our present circumstances of doing so The greatness of that Charity that endeavours to assist in order thereunto The pitching upon a Rule whereby every man may do from that place of the Apostle S. John 1 John 4.6 HE that seriously considers what the condition of Religion is at this day in that part of the World that calls it self Christian how almost all the Congregations therein are divided among themselves and have considerable differences upon the account of which they separate each from other forming themselves into distinct Societies according to their different Sentiments and ways of Worship And withal considers how confident all parties are of the truth and safety of their own way with how much clamour and noise they plead for it and with how much confidence they declaim against all that is opposite to it While he is certain that some yea a great many of them are certainly mistaken it being impossible that so many and so very contrary ways should all be true He I say that seriously considers all this may very well subscribe to the reasonableness of that excellent advice of our Blessed Lord when predicting these things Take heed and beware that no man deceive you Mat. 24.4 And may very well look upon the Ingemination not only as designed to enhance his care that he be not deceived but as an intimation also how difficult it will be to avoid his being so And truly he that hath any due regard to his own Soul or any just sense of the present state of things must needs subscribe to the justness of the Ingemination upon both accounts For the welfare of the Soul in all its actings doth mightily depend upon the Principles that it chuseth to act by and these are only then safe when they are the results of a sound and right judgment which that judgment can never be that is Imposed upon by deceit and cheated by Error So that the necessity of attending unto the Caution upon that sole account is very great And yet that necessity is heightened much by the other for where there are various ways that offer themselves to us and none of these want their specious pretences but are recommended to us with all possible art and confidence there the chusing and hitting upon the right must needs be difficult and the avoiding deception not very easie The Consideration of these two things hath caused me oftentimes with some more than ordinary concern to reflect upon the Condition of a private ordinary Christian at this time and with a great deal of pity to compare his state to that of a Traveller in an unknown road full of many various and different turnings which must not only needs distract and puzle his thoughts which of them to chuse but create in him a great deal of fear lest he chuse amiss And as compassion naturally engageth to charity and pitying a mans misery prompts us to thoughts how to redress it So I have many times thought with my self that man would do a good office and a thing hugely conducive to the welfare of men that could pitch upon and prescribe a way how to remedy this great Inconvenience with ease and safety For as the erecting the Statuae Mercuriales by the Ancient Romans in all common Roads upon which were not only steps by which Travellers might mount their Beasts and go on but inscriptions also to direct them which were the right paths was then accounted and is to this day remembred as a very high instance of the kindness and candor of that great people So certainly the doing the like in this case for the poor Christian Traveller would be so much the greater instance of charity by how much his way is more perplex'd and intricate and the danger of his erring the greater and more momentous He that shall undertake to do this for him may well expect his prayers for his success and if he should erre in doing his utmost in it may as well hope for his compassion and pardon If it can be done it is really a great benefit and the design of it a great charity and if a man chance to erre in it yet an error that results from charity may well expect a gentle and candid censure How to do this hath been a thing that hath long lain upon my thoughts and a case that I have much consulted about I have been thinking what expedient to pitch upon what to substitute that might bear the stress of such an Enquiry what Oracle to erect to which men might safely commit the resolution of all difficulties of this nature and with confidence repair unto for a full and safe satisfaction in them What the issue of all these consultations and thoughts hath been I have determined this Lent to acquaint you withal And I shall take the rise of what I purpose to deliver to you of this nature from the words of the great S. John 1 John 4.6 who lived to see the actual accomplishment of his Lord 's great prediction that false Prophets should come into the world and had the honour to be the great prescriber of Antidotes against the infection of those deceivers And in that very place where he purposely undertakes this doth prescribe what I am now going to insist upon as a sure remedy a certain Criterion by which we may judge Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error CHAP. II. The Collection drawn from the preceeding Text. Piety the best Rule of Orthodoxy The sense in which the Proposition is to be understood Two Postulata's in order to the proof of it God hath provided such a Rule for men to judge by and the reasons urging a belief that he hath done so This Rule must be for the benefit and guidance of all men FOR these words of S. John I think we may safely draw this Collection Piety is the best Rule of Orthodoxy or plainer thus The Conduciveness of Doctrines unto Godliness is the best and safest Rule by which to judge the truth of them But before I enter immediately upon the larger handling of this Proposition I shall stay you a little while that I may give you the
full of what I mean when I thus speak For as the Text speaks both of the Spirit of truth and of error so I shall understand the Proposition both ways with reference to both these 1. Directly and positively The Spirit of truth enclines to holiness and every doctrine that proceeds from this Spirit doth some way or other conduce to that great end And when doctrines upon trial are found to be subservient to make men good and regularly holy then they bear the stamp and impress of truth upon them and this is a safe way by which to judge the truth of them and conclude them Orthodox 2. Oppositely or negatively Whatever Doctrine or Opinion doth tend to the contrary either teaching or encouraging sin and disobedience in all or in any one particular instance of it is certainly false and proceeds from the Spirit of Error and let men be never so zealous for it and confident in recommending and obtruding of it upon others yet this is a sufficient warrant for every private Christian to reject it and condemn it as spurious and dangerous For the Spirit of Error inclines men to disobedience and whatever doctrine doth so doth proceed from it 3. Comparatively Thus where different Doctrines and Opinions offer themselves to us it is a safe way to examine carefully which of them conduceth mostly to make men good and accordingly to make our estimate of them accepting that which is best attended with holiness and a necessity of it and rejecting that which is any way failing herein And now by this you may see my sense of the Proposition how I make obedience and holiness the Shekel of the Sanctuary by which all other measures are to be tried I make Gods Law not only the Rule of what ought to be done but I would have every thing that is to be believed brought unto it examin'd how it comports with it and is subservient to the great design of it and according either to be accepted or rejected But before I come to shew the truth and reasonableness of this Assertion and to prove this to be the safest Rule for all Christians to judge and examine Truth and Error by there are Two things which I shall lay down as Postulata's or things intimated to us from this Text and of great advantage in order to the assuring the truth of the great Proposition 1. That God hath left us some Rule to judge the truth and falshood of Opinions and Doctrines by 2. That this Rule is obvious and plain and intended for the guidance and benefit of all men 1. That God hath not left us without some sure Rule to judge the truth and falshood of Opinions and Doctrines by This is a truth which no man that hath any honourable and becoming Sentiments of the goodness and wisdom of God can in any measure doubt of He whose gracious Providence watcheth over all things certainly is regardful also of man He that hath implanted and put such an instinct into the nature of all other things as enables them to know what is beneficial and hurtful to their respective natures and according to pursue and embrace the one and avoid and arm themselves against the other hath certainly not been wanting to man in this great Instance but enabled him to discern truth from falshood as well as good from evil and to do both these in Morality as well as Nature i. e. to judge for his Soul as well as his Body And the truth is if it were otherwise man were of all things certainly the most miserable and a Religious man were the most miserable and pitiable above all other men And it would reflect great dishonour upon God to provide for the safety and conduct of man in all his little concerns but to leave him wholly unprovided for and exposed to deception in that which is the most sublime and momentous of all And such we know is his Religion it being the way in which he is to serve his God and assure his blissful love and favour and thereby secure the Everlasting welfare and happiness of his Soul I shall only desire Two things further to be considered in this case 1. That God hath plainly told us that there ever will be Errors in the world and that no age shall want Impostors and deceivers to broach them and endeavour to entrap people with them This he hath resolved for wise ends to permit still to be And can it then be supposed that God should not furnish his servants with an Antidote against them Can any think so unworthily of God as to believe that he hath exposed the beloved of his Soul and the objects of his tenderest compassions and regards naked and wholly defenceless without any thing to secure themselves against these plagues This were indeed to overact the savage cruelty of the Hircanian Tiger and transcribe the weakness of the silly Ostrich Job 39.14 which leaveth her Eggs in the Sand exposed to the foot of every Beast or Traveller to be crushed at pleasure Nothing can well be thought of that is really more injurious and reflective upon Divine Providence than this is 2. God hath not only told us of these things but cautioned us against them and strictly commanded us to beware of them as is evident to any that consults the holy Scriptures Now can it enter into the hearts of men to believe that God that commands this should not provide some way by which it might be done I could never yet though educated when such doctrines were much in vogue bring my thoughts quietly to believe that God would command utter impossibilities which were far to exceed the cruelty of the Egyptian Task-masters which himself hath condemned and so tragically declaimed against And I no way doubt but that if he have commanded us to prove all things to try the Spirits to keep our selves from being infected with the error of the wicked that he hath also furnished us with power and provided a means how we may do all these things God certainly never commands things in vain nor will he tantalize the endeavours of his people nor make himself sport to illude the hopes and endeavours of poor mortals by putting them upon Acquists whose glories though they may excite yet their impossibilities do discourage and frustrate the most vigorous endeavours And that man would have a strange notion of God that would fancy his commanding us to take heed of being deceived and yet not direct us to means by which we might do so 2. That this Rule is obvious and plain and intended for the guidance and benefit of all men Hereby know we c. And certainly he intends not hereby only himself or Apostles like himself but all those whom in verse 1. he had exhorted to try the Spirits and not presently to believe every pretence of it which is equally the interest and duty of all men It is true the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and 't
all mortal Errors as by attending to this And if the disputing men of the Age proceeded by this measure and studied as much to expose the wickedness as to display the falshood of Opinions their labour would be less and their success more Men may sooner discern good from evil than true from false A little measure of knowledge and honesty will enable men to do the first but it requires a quick judgment sometimes to do the second for falshood wears the mantle of truth and many times it is no easie thing to discover the Impostor And supposing men honest they are more effectually convinced by the wickedness of an Opinion than by any arguments of its untruth For they do not know but men may impose upon them in these but they can judge themselves in the other And I should think these two things were enough to recommend this way of determining controversies to the Scribes and the Disputers of this world Since it would reduce the controversies to a narrow compass and men would more effectually be concluded by a solid determination upon that issue and consequently by this means they would sooner be ended 1. For first there are few people so impudent and past shame as to plead openly for Baal and contend for doctrines that every one sees to be introductive of wickedness Impostors generally take another course and gild their Pills and wrap their poisons in sweet and gay appearances and let the Opinions they would promote be never so pernicious yet they are always managed with mighty pretences of zeal and piety and by this they hope to prevail more than by all their subtil Arguments and fine Disputings and indeed they do so and simple honest people are easily entrapped by them who have not time or skill or both to search into the bottom of all their doctrines So that to encounter with them upon this were to rob them of that in which their strength mostly lieth it were to suit the Antidote to the Poison and to disarm Heresie of that weapon by which it doth the most mischief it were to uncase the Wolf and shew what really he is which would more affect men with horror and hatred of him than ten thousand fine discourses about him would be able to do 2. For secondly blessed be God men especially that pretend Religion are not so far debauched but that they retain a veneration for piety and goodness and a secret abhorrence of sin and profaneness Many that live in the one yet condemn themselves in it and most men though far from being good themselves yet have a secret esteem and love for those that are And therefore when Errors are truly discovered and the impiety of them made known then the Net is spread in the sight of the Bird and men are arm'd against the fine pleas and the enchanting pretences for them and are hardly proselyted into a belief of them 3. And thirdly when the disputes are brought to this issue and the contest is upon it and nothing left to determine but which doctrine tends to make men holy and which doth not so then the judgment and the determination is more easily made For as I hinted before the lines of duty are plain and not so subject to those varieties of mistakes that other things are Almost all practical things are plain and easily understood unless it be in some rare cases And for the most part disputes and questions about them do more perplex and intangle than they do unfold and explain them About these every honest man is in a good measure able to instruct himself supposing him to have any competent knowledge and better able to judge than he is of questions that are curiously managed with great skill and art on both sides 4. And fourthly for Controversies and Disputes that no way concerned holiness or related to it men would soon perceive them to be impertinent and needless and the pursuing of them to minister only to Faction and Vanity and so would concern themselves neither one way or other about them but let them fall to the ground with as little notice taken of them as there was reason to start them 2. But the great design of these Papers and therefore the chief Inference I intend from this Subject is for the Vindication of the Church of England and of the Reformed Religion professed by it To this Rule it may most safely appeal and not fear to be tried by it And as Bishop Sanderson saith The God that answereth by Fire let him be God If amongst all competitions and contending Sects among us there be any to be found that doth exceed or equal her for conformity to this Rule they shall readily have the right hand of fellowship and due precedence yielded to them And I challenge any of them all to joyn issue with her upon this principle And certainly this is a very fair offer since all the Separations amongst us have been commenced upon this pretence They have first separated from her and then from each other upon pretences of impurity in her Communion and in quest of greater purity still If a man therefore offer to make good these two things 1. That there is no reason at all for Separation upon this account nor just cause to object unholiness and impurity against her Let her Articles and Homilies be examin'd her Liturgy as closely considered as may be and if there be any thing in either contrary to holiness then condemn her and spare not she will I am sure acknowledge her error and patiently endure a reproof for it But I defie any man living to do this provided he exercise but any measure of charity and honesty in expounding things and do not imitate the severity of that Heathen Momus who rather than find no fault in the Picture of Venus would quarrel with her slip-shooe and whose Motto in hunting for faults is Aut inveniam aut faciam 2. That all and every of those ways and forms of Religion that these men have deflected unto are much inferior to her in this matter and may clearly be detected to be false by this Rule since every one of them espouseth doctrines which either immediately or in their just consequences are introductive of wickedness and contrary to holiness in some instance or other He I say that offers to make good both these things as he will do a good service to the Church so he will do that which may justly shame and reproach the several contending Factions that have so unjustly and unreasonably separated from her Now these are truths which no man need fear undertaking to make good and perhaps a specimen of them may ere long appear In the mean time I think it mine own and intimate it as the duty of others too to bless God and give him our heartiest praise that hath caused us to be brought up in such a Church whose Faith is truly Christian and Primitive and that Faith which is according to Godliness whose Worship is truly Pious and Grave and Serious as such should be All whose Doctrines and Articles whose Offices and Ceremonies are truly adapted to promote the same amongst all her Votaries And if Salvation be to be had in Communion with any Church in the World I am sure it is in such an One. And to this to add a serious resolution to adhere stedfastly to the same and not permit our selves like fools and children to be turned to and fro with every slight of doctrine by cunning and designing men whose Interest or whose Passion and some pitiful low design oblige them to defame and destroy her and to make Factions and Rents in her as the most certain methods unto both And to conclude this Inference when we are importuned and solicited by any of these and take upon us to judge of the Doctrines offer'd to us let us not so much consider the fine pleas that subtil men make for them but bring them to this touchstone and try them honestly and carefully by it and we shall soon satisfie our selves and find enough to preserve us against the infection of them and as S. John saith Hereby know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Conclusion AND now Sir I have finished that trouble which I intend to give you at this time I am very sensible that besides the imperfections attending what I have done there are two or three things greatly wanting to complete this design and worthy of a larger consideration being but only lightly touched in these Papers 1. To Vindicate all the Articles in the Christian Faith by this Rule and shew the conduciveness of each to the great purpose of Holiness 2. Secondly To joyn issue with all Heresies and the considerable Sects and Opinions that disturb the peace of the Church at present upon this question and try if the Principles of them all be not condemnable by this Rule But Sir these are things which will take up more time than at present I can spare to them And I am willing to see how you resent this that I have done before I burthen you with more But to let you see how wholly I am at your command provided you remit me to my own time us I am sure you will I promise to do in these what you think fit to require of me Being extremely desirous in every thing so to acquit my self as may secure me the reputation and honour of being Your most humble Servant FINIS
is well when they do and in many cases mighty prudent to seek the Law at his mouth consult him often in our doubts and difficulties and not be too peremptory in our own conclusions But yet I think no man can with reason believe that God ever intended these to be the only Oracles to which every Christian should repair and content himself with the responses of I think I could urge inconveniences against this which the whole Conclave would be something puzled to solve As God hath endued every man with a Soul and that Soul with an understanding and that understanding with power of judging and discerning things that differ and commanded every man to be faithful to this Talent and diligent in improving and encreasing his stock of light that thereby he may be able to take the better heed he be not deceived So doubtless he hath substituted a way by which every man may do this and hath not intended the benefit of it to be confined only to some few particular persons It hath been long since objected and designed to reproach the holy Scriptures that they are very plain and content themselves with familiar representations of things accommodated to vulgar capacities and not fit to satisfie the enquiries and exercise the curiosity of deep speculators and subtil Philosophers And the truth of the objection hath been willingly granted as to the main and yet the honour and excellency of them for that reason vindicated and Gods goodness thereupon magnified and exalted who foreseeing that the greatest part of his followers would not be great Clerks and deep Scholars but illiterate and plain men hath mercifully consulted their weakness and complied with it and provided for it And he that considers that God values the Soul of one man equally with anothers and desires equally the Salvation of all will presently conclude that therefore he hath consulted the benefit of all men and not set up a rule to judge truth by which should be mighty obscure and intricate and very few only some learned men should be able to reap benefit from Thus much therefore we have gained from this Text both that God hath left us a way by which to know Truth from Error and that this is such a way as all men may improve and make use of to the same end CHAP. III. Two ways propounded for the proof of the Assertion Scripture and Reason This Text improved largely to this purpose and Matth. 7.16 of which a full Explication is endeavoured HAving thus prepared the way to the proof of the forenamed Assertion in the preceeding Chapter I shall now address directly to it in this And two ways I shall endeavour to give strength to the truth of it by 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason and Argument warranted by Scripture 1. I begin with the confirmation of this from holy Scripture which indeed is the chiefest way of proving this truth and before all other things fit to determine this controversie For since we have reason with all due humility and gratitude to acknowledge this to be a full sufficient and perfect revelation of the will of God to man in which all necessary directions to happiness are contained and whatever else is needful to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 as S. Paul warrants us to believe So if God have provided such a way for men to judge Truth and Error by he hath doubtless given some intimation of it in these Divine Inspirations and Records Now what these speak of this matter I shall endeavour to acquaint you And first as from this place of S. John I have taken occasion to raise 1 John 4.6 so I shall now try what there is in it to confirm the Assertion Which that I may distinctly and clearly do I must desire you to read the precedent verses and consider what the Apostle is designing in them And that you will easily find to be this an endeavour to confirm those he writes to in the true faith of Christ that they might not be drawn from it by any pretences and particularly by those great pretences to the Spirit that were then so common amongst all seducers especially the Gnosticks as indeed it hath been ordinary ever since almost amongst all Hereticks that have infested the Church This caution of not believing all these pretences he expresly mentions verse 1. and by an excellent Argument enforceth because there are many false Prophets are gone out into the world Now in order to this trial and discovery of the Spirits and the Doctrines issuing from them he layeth down these three chief rules in the following discourse The first whereof is the free confessing of Jesus Christ and faith in him in times of persecution the lawfulness and prudence of denying of whom when trouble and danger threatned a man for so doing was one of the great doctrines of the Gnosticks This he treats of verse 2 3. and then subjoyns a commendation of these Christians and congratulates with them that they had avoided the infection of these false teachers shewing withal what had assisted them to do so and why they should persist in their care against them verse 4 5. The second rule is laid down in this Text the intendment of which I shall presently acquaint you more fully with But because this is general he instanceth thirdly in a particular of Christian purity and obedience viz. true charity to our Brethren which he insists on in the following part of the Chapter I am not concern'd to insist upon either the first or third rule so as largely to explain them but chiefly upon the second for the ensuring of which there needs but only the right understanding of the word Hear He that is of God heareth us And that by this expression is intended obeying cannot seem strange to any that will remember that it is the common word by which obedience is generally expressed in the Sacred Idiom The places in which it is thus used are too many to be named and the commonness of the phrase too great to need it So that by hearing us is meant obeying our doctrine which is of God as he speaks i. e. pure and holy like its blessed Author hath nothing of worldly greatness or secular interest and design in it but only of piety and purity and self-denial and contempt of the world c. and this is an argument of its being truly Divine and a Rule by which also to judge whatever doctrine is so or the contrary That doctrine that is truly of God is all for holiness and obedience and purity while the other is for worldly advantages and suited to common Interests and hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error in all instances of doctrines i. e. all doctrines that are conducive to real holiness are of God proceed from the Spirit of Truth and every doctrine that inclines to the contrary doth certainly
proceed from the Spirit of Error Now if you think that I am injurious in referring thus the trial of Spirits and doctrines only to this one Rule while I have told you before that S. John layeth down Two more in this Chapter to the same purpose I shall readily confess the charge but without any Imputation of injustice yea shall take advantage from hence the more to strengthen this Assertion and to lay down this as the chief and principal Rule forasmuch as both the others do relate to it and are instances of it For a free undaunted confessing of Christ in times of danger and loving cordially our Brethren are both of them chief branches of Christian vertue and holiness and indeed as they are almost above all other things commanded by our Saviour so they have the choicest and most endearing encouragements annexed to them So then the Argument from this place will be very clear and concluding for in that very place where S. John enjoyns the trial of Spirits and Doctrines he layeth down this as the great Rule for that trial and though he add Two other Rules also yet they are but particulars and branches of this great one And then the whole of the Apostles directions in this case amounts to thus much Whatever doctrine doth conduce to make men truly holy especially encourageth to the right taking up the Cross of Christ and a cordial constant love to our Brethren that doctrine issueth from the Spirit of Truth and whatever doctrine is contrary either to these Two single Christian vertues or to it in general doth certainly proceed from the Spirit of Error and this I take to be the natural and true purport of S. John in this Text. But I would not have you think that he is singular in this or without good authority for what he saith we shall find he had sufficient warrant from his great Master Christ Jesus as we may clearly see if we consider that speech of Christ Mat. 7.16 20. By their fruits ye shall know them In the preceding Verses our Saviour is forewarning his Disciples of the coming of false Prophets into the world and of the very specious pretences that they should make to deceive people by Having done this and caution'd against them he layeth down in this place a Rule to know and discover them by which Rule is very positive and plain and twice repeated that we should not doubt of it or forget it By their fruits ye shall know them i. e. by the natural consequences and fruits of their doctrines by such conclusions as do naturally and by right arguing follow from them So that the trial of Prophets is to be made by trial of their doctrines and these are to be tried by the natural consequences and effects of them not by what a man can discover in the professors or venters of such doctrines for these many times are very close and subtil Hypocrites and lead their lives with very great heed and wariness wearing the Sheeps skin to conceal the Wolfs heart and always putting on the form of godliness to cover their malicious and rotten designs and no wonder for Satan can transform himself into an Angel of light but by the natural consequences and effects of the doctrines For otherwise it were almost utterly impossible to make a discovery of doctrines by this Rule since all men do not live up exactly to the consequences of their own Tenets One man may have a right faith and yet lead a wicked life and another may have a rotten false belief in some particulars and yet be tolerably well in his life And there is no doubt but many a well-meaning man may embrace an Error in simplicity without understanding rightly what the mischievous consequences of it are yea perhaps without ever practising those consequences Men may be honest and yet careless and be imposed upon and so on the contrary too but I shall say more to this hereafter In the mean time we may rest satisfied that our Saviour means by fruits such things as are the natural consequences and proper products of such doctrines and this he clears and assures the truth and reasonableness of by an excellent and well known comparison and indeed it holds true both ways men do not gather Grapes from Thorns nor Figs from Thistles nor do Vines yield the Berries of Thorns nor doth the Doune of Thistles grow upon Fig-trees For though it be possible and God knows too common too for a man to detain the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 yet the unrighteousness issues from the man not from the truth And though a Heretick may possibly be eminent in some good things yet his heart is to be praised for it not his head i. e. his goodness is not the effect of his Error nor upon any account at all ascribable to it So then if we keep us to our Saviours sense the Rule is true and will never deceive us Those doctrines that design nothing but to make men pure and holy and conscientious and strictly regardful of our Christian duty cannot but issue from the Spirit of Truth and Satan can never be contributive to a doctrine that tends so much to the overthrow of his design and great Interest in the world But whatever doctrines or broachers of them do any way infuse into men or encourage and prompt them to any Impiety any Sin let their shews be never so specious their pretences never so fair yet those Prophets are false Prophets and those doctrines fumes from Hell whose great design it is to corrupt mens manners debauch their lives and keep them from the love and practice of piety This is all that I have to offer from these Two places of the New Testament and truly I think what hath been offered enough to confirm the Collection and to gain the assent of every good Christian to the truth of it CHAP. IV. The old Testament cited also for the proof of this and two great considerations added to give more Evidence to it This the rule to try Prophets by of old and the best Criterion of a true Divine Miracle THE former Chapter having acquainted you with some proofs for this out of the New Testament I shall proceed to add some to them also out of the Old For this is no new thing nor unknown to the Jews in time of old but it was deliver'd to them also as the great Rule to judge by in this case of which I take that place of the Prophet to be clear evidence To the Law and to the Testimony Isaiah 8.20 and if they speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no light in them In the preceding Verses the Prophet is inveighing against and condemning the attending to any extraordinary pretenders to knowledge or revelations such as Wizards and Necromancers and those that consulted familiar Spirits And in this Verse he layeth down a Rule by which to try all revelations and
towards the Jewish Converts you will soon perceive how far they were from censuring any errors presently for Heresies if they maintained the necessity of holiness and a good life For you will scarcely be able to instance in a doctrine more truly contrary to Christian Faith and the whole purport of the Gospel than that of those Jewish Converts was which thought it absolutely necessary to Salvation to observe the Ancient Rites and as S. James informs S. Paul Acts 21.20 were all zealous of the Law of Moses And yet we know these were always tolerated no ill characters fixed upon them fellowship always allowed them indulged and permitted to their error which lasted among them for the time of fifteen Christian Bishops who were all Circumcised yea till the final destruction of the City and Temple and all under Adrian the Emperor and long afterwards And this was the reason we know of the Apostolick Canons in that first great Council which were all contrived in favour to them and counted necessary only in order to the avoiding scandal to them as was also the observation of the seventh day Sabbath for some Centuries of years only for the same reason From whence we may safely collect thus much that in those best and most charitable of times no man was counted an Heretick that did erre bonâ mente and retain'd a necessity of holiness and a belief of the great grounds upon which that necessity was founded And now Sir this Addition will not be impertinent to our purpose for all Heretical doctrines are some way or other contrary unto holiness and their being this is the reason of their being the other and while they are not one we ought by no means to call them the other unless we will imitate the passion of those men who can indure none no not the least dissenting in opinion from them in any thing under any kinder character than Heresie So that he that maintained the being of Antipodes was like to be branded once with that name and Galileo hardly escaped the same character for maintaining the Copernican hypothesis But Sir if you desire to see this matter of Heresie more fully discoursed I refer you to a place in Dr. Taylor 's Works where it is insisted on at large with that plainness and candor and strength of reason that is so common and usual to that most excellent man it is his Liberty of Prophesying a good Book under an ill name But truly I know not for what reason unless it were for endeavouring by much truth to asswage and mitigate the rash zeal and unjust severity of the late times against the Church of England and all that adhered unto her From whence whoever takes liberty to traduce that great man as an allower of all Opinions and any Medley in Religion will be very unjust and proclaim himself either ignorant or unobservant of his design which though it be to gain favour to some speculative Opinions yet no man reflects more severely upon all that contradict holiness and a good life and are vented to the disorder and disturbance of the Government either of the Kingdom or Church And therefore I do not well see what disservice it can do that Church which is far enough from imperiously imposing upon the Consciences of men and rigorous tying them up to exact compliance with it in all doctrines but allows as all Churches must whether they will or no a liberty to mens thoughts provided they reserve them to themselves and vent them not in order to Schism and Faction But whether it be thus or not is not my business to determine much less becoming me to undertake to reach those above me what to say or think but this I freely say I have so great an honour for the name of Dr. Taylor that I would not willingly have any ill thing to blot his memory and would do more than this were it in my power to cause it might not CHAP. VI. The Arguments from reason for the proof of the Collection Four of these propounded and Two insisted on in this Chapter The first taken from the ends of these Two Spirits in the World The second from the great design of Christian Religion AND now I am at liberty to advance to the Second way I proposed for the proof of this Assertion and that is from Reason and Arguments and there are Four of these I shall chuse to insist on not that I think them the only ones we have in this matter but so sufficient that they may supersede all need of others 1. The first shall be taken from the consideration of the different ends and designs of these two Spirits in the World 2. The second from the great end and design of Christian Religion 3. The third from the inconvenience of substituting any other Rule besides this in this case 4. From the manifest advantage of this above any other that can be so substituted These Four things will give assurance enough to this truth and make it very evident 1. I begin with the first which is taken from the consideration of the designs that these two Spirits have in the World The strength of which argument to our present purpose will discover it self in these two or three consequential notices 1. First As these are directly contrary to each other so they must needs be supposed to intend and drive on different aims and designs in the World The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God the Spirit of error is the Spirit of the Devil And when light and darkness are reconciled each to other when Christ and Belial become friends then may we suppose these Two Spirits to consent and agree together in the fame designs but not before There is no communion saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.14 nothing that 's in common nothing that 's mutually shared betwixt light and darkness But as soon as one appears the other presently flies away as when the rayes of the morning discover themselves the dark shades run away and hide themselves on the other side of this Globe And so it is with these two Spirits they are inconsistently opposite and contrary each to other and can never be any more reconciled in their designs than they are in their natures But those will still be as different as these are as we see it still to be in all other things whose natures are contrary each to other 2. Secondly all the doctrines that issue from or are suggested to men by these two Spirits must needs be supposed to be directed to these different ends and designed on purpose to promote the same To suppose otherwise were to imagine them false to their own Interests and neglectful of them or at least dull and short-sighted and unable to chuse or pitch upon proper means for the promoting of the same when no man hath any reason to imagine either of these things For the Spirit of God is both
Omniscient and Active and can never fail either to know what doctrines will best comport with its great design among men or to pursue and reveal those doctrines to men when it hath pitched on them And he that will consider how very subtil a Spirit the Devil is and how unweariedly restless in managing his own designs in the world can neither think him ignorant and unable to pitch upon such doctrines as are conducive to that design nor slow and backward to obtrude the belief of them upon men He that thinks otherwise of the Spirit of truth thinks very unbecomingly of God and as much as in him lies precludes the way to his own welfare and safety and deprives himself of that comfort which would issue from the hearty belief of the Omniscience and Providence and Watchfulness of the Spirit of truth for his good And he that thinks otherwise of the Spirit of Error and looks upon the Devil either as a dull and unactive or a silly and ignorant Spirit is imprudent and injurious to himself in undervaluing that Enemy against whose subtilty and strength his utmost endeavours will be little enough He is called a Lion for his strength and an old Serpent for his subtilty and his restlesness to execute the effects of both render him justly formidable 3. Thirdly the great ends of these two Spirits in the world are only these to make men really and truly holy and to make them really impure and vicious The first is the great design of the Spirit of Truth this latter of the Spirit of Error The first the Spirit of Truth intends as the only way to make men happy The second the Devil mainly intends as the sure way to render them Eternally miserable There needs not much be said on this branch of our Argument the Scriptures are copious in attesting the truth of it on both hands The great work of the Spirit in the O.T. was to strive with man as is intimated by Moses Gen. 6.3 i. e. to withdraw him from sin and to induce him to the love and practice of vertue And the same is the end he is sent for in the New to convince men of the evil of sin of the gain of righteousness and as a means to both to assure them of the certainty of Judgment John 16.18 and for this reason is called the Spirit of holiness often not only because he is essentially and eminently so himself but likewise because his main business is to teach and encourage men to be so too and to assist them in being faithful to those encouragements and teachings And then on the other hand as it assures us that the first sin of man owed it self to the temptation and suggestion of the Devil so it assures us that all his endeavour ever since hath been to heighten that sin and to promote the love and practice of wickedness among men For this reason he is frequently called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked one not only upon the account of his own wickedness but for his striving perpetually to propagate that wickedness by drawing men into all the sad instances of it And for the same reason he is called The Enemy and the effects of his Enmity chiefly discover themselves in this the endeavouring to make men wicked like himself and so to bring on them a portion of those torments that are reserved for himself and for all those mad Sons of men that are wicked as he is And whosoever observes his actings as they are recorded in the Scripture or will but consult the stories of his dealing with the Heathen world examine but the doctrines which he taught them and the rites and modes of Religion that he instituted among them will clearly see how all those doctrines tended to sin and how the whole body of the Heathen worship was indeed what the Apostle calls it a mystery of wickedness Now from these things the strength of the argument will discover it self For since all the design of the Spirit of truth is to make men holy to guide them into all truth that it may thereby lead them to all goodness And since the Spirit of error designs directly the contrary And since all the doctrines that issue from these are directed only to these great ends It must needs follow that whatever doctrine tends to holiness must needs issue from the Spirit of Truth And whatever tends to the contrary must needs proceed from the Spirit of Error And that this is a sure and safe way to judge whence they proceed by For these two Spirits will ever be true to their own purposes and interests and will always have an eye to the promoting of them in all the doctrines that they propose to the Faith of men 2. Another Argument may be drawn from the great end and design of Christian Religion For if we suppose the author thereof prudent and wise every doctrine therein will be so contrived as to comport with and promote the great aim of the whole otherwise he would in effect pull down with one hand what he endeavoured to build with the other Now he that will consider and examine this Religion with that seriousness and impartiality that things of this nature may justly expect and challenge from all men will soon find that it is indeed what S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3.16 a mystery of godliness The Author of it the ever blessed Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God for his spotless innocency as well as other reasons A perfect pattern of all holiness and vertue A divine person whose life was never sullied with the least of those crimes which so horribly stained the lives of the Heathen Deities Whose innocency approved it self so clearly to his very Judge as to extort from him this confession that he was a just person Mat. 27.24 Yea that most Envious and Critical observer as well as Virulent accuser of good men could find nothing whereof to accuse the blessed Jesus The Prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me And if you look into the Religion that he instituted in the world you will soon find how exactly it resembles and bears the lineaments of its holy Author in all the parts of it All its precepts and commands are so many injunctions of all the instances of holiness or prohibitions of the contrary instances of wickedness and vice All its promises are great encouragements to induce men to comply with the purpose of those commands And its threatnings are added only to deter and affright them from all neglect and contempt of the same And should we survey the Articles of its Faith and the doctrines that it proposeth to the belief of men we should soon find how mighty wisely they are all contrived to promote the same great end Even those that seem mostly speculative and irrelative to duty yet upon a closer view will be found to be excellently conducive to it For