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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61678	Deceivers deceiv'd, or, The mistakes of wickedness in sundry erroneous and deceitful principles, practised in our late fatal times, and suspected still in the reasonings of unquiet spirits delivered in a sermon at St. Paul's, October 20th 1661 before the Right Honorable Sir Richard Browne Knight and Baronet, Lord Maior of the city of London, and the aldermen his brethren : being the initial also of the Reverend Dr. John Berwick, dean of the said church, at the first celebrity of divine service with the organ and choiristers, which the Lord Maior himslef solemniz'd with his personal presence from the very beginning.	Stone, Samuel, 1602-1663.; Browne, Richard, Sir, 1602?-1669.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1661 (1661)	Wing S5735; ESTC R18742	26,609	51

part and so hath no help or conduct at all of the good Spirit Who moves no man contrary to the rule of his own word more then the Pen-man doth the hand of his Schollar contrary to his own Coppy but altogether according for else the Learner shal never write up to it And no more can any man whatsoever answer the form of Righteousnesse or Lawfulnesse in any of his actions that forsakes his coppy or rule he should be guided by That is the written word of truth which is the only tryall of every Spirit and of every motion and impulse whether of God or no. He that knoweth God heareth us saith St. John 1 Epist 4. 6. And he that is not of God heareth not us and hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error That is by their agreement or disagreement unto the words preached by St. John and the rest of the Apostles which were spoken and written for our instructions and delivered down unto us and now with the other books of Holy Oracle are called Scripture or the written Word of God The light and guidance whereof whosoever refuseth to follow the conduct of some pretended Spirit only diverse or contrary to it Instead of being led by the Spirit of God doubtlesse he is led by the Spirit of the Devill as I make no question those late wretched publick Murtherers were whom the Right Honourable the present Lord Maior had the Lot under Gods grace and providence to suppresse to his monumental honor the trophie whereof be his unto all posterity I say they were not led by the Spirit of God but by the Spirit of the Devill as indeed some said They fought like Divells Men had as good follow those spirits the Prophet Isa speaks of in the forementioned Chapter oppositely unto the Law and the Testimonie Spirits that peep and mutter that is spirits of witches and wizards with whom it may be doubted that these spirit-people are too familiar I shall superadd to this particular but one plain Similie of a blind metled horse let loose which by reason of his metall will be ever prauncing and frisking up and down till at length he getts upon the top of a steep bank or precipice and from thence for want of his sight down he tumbles and breaks his neck And such verily will be the end of all blind zealots who shut their eies against the light and direction of Gods word and right Reason to follow in the heat and metal of their zeal bare motions and impulses as pretended from some Spirit However in their conceits and imaginations divine they will certainly before they are aware fall at last upon some lewd unreasonable wicked practice or other that will break the neck of all their reputation both in Christianity and Civility and without mercy upon their repentance throw them down headlong the precipice of Hell St. Paul therefore shall conclude Let no man hereafter deceive you neither by Word nor Letter nor Spirit 2 Thes 2. 2. Which two words of the Apostle Letter and Spirit minde me of the Appendix mentioned in the Dedication Letter and Spirit having in the terms a very fair connection with the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture whereby notwithstanding what hath been said against the blinde motion and impulse of a Spirit some Mistakers conceiving themselves wiser and more defensible than the former do warrant themselves in their wicked actions not only in Politicks but Morals also from the sense and spiritual meaning of the Word of God itself as if upon conviction by the former Reasoning what they may not do by a bare impulse or motion they may nevertheless do in their thoughts by a spiritual meaning of the written Word the rule whereof they seem not to refuse But this also Beloved is a very fallacious imagination which I shall desire to Discourse by way of reduciblenesse as an Appendix unto the great deceit of Conduct by the Spirit last confuted and to that purpose do observe that a spiritual Meaning or sense of Scripture opposite unto or diverse from the sense of the Letter is very destructive and deceptive of foolish sinners such as St. Peter calls unstable and unlearned such as are apt to wrest the Scriptures not only to their own but others destruction also even whole Churches Nations and Kingdoms as well Kings as their People may whereof there are who taking upon them a boldness through this perswasion to wave the sense of the Letter of the written Word where the Commands of God agree not to their humours engagements and inclinations they adventure to sense the text only to their own thoughts and purposes though never so contrary to the most righteous laws both of God and Man and in a policy of avoiding discovery herein it sounding harsh unto the most ingenuous sort of Christians that the plain meaning of the World should be slighted and baffled they boast most of all in their Spiritual Light of an easie and clear understanding and thereafter expound it of the most mysterious hidden and intricate places of the whole book of God as the Revelation and other the dark Prophetical passages which neither Time nor Learning hath yet sufficiently unridled or unclasped and in these they ostentate a familiar though wonderful Knowledge because they would be the readyer believed by foolish admirers in their abusings and wrestings of the plainer letter of other Scriptures Now beloved this fallacious Reasoning grounds upon a mistaken understanding of some texts of Scripture where you shall read an opposition betwixt the Letter and the Spirit As First 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us able Ministers not of the Letter only but also of the Spirit Therefore say they There is a Litteral and a Spiritual sense of the New Testament But how false that consequence is may appear by observing that the word Sense or Meaning is not in the text read nor in the whole context but only Letter and Spirit in the Ministry or Ministration of the New Testament or Gospel there is the Letter or bare Word spoken and the Spirit of Grace that quickneth or giveth life unto the Letter or Word spoken or written making it fruitfull and effectual opening the minde to receive it and working the heart and affections to submit unto it which puts the great difference betwixt the Gospel and the Law the Law being only a bare or dead Letter engraven in stony tables without any assistance of the Spirit of Grace to quicken it and so the ministration thereof is of death and condemnation unto all mankind that hear it there being no promise or concurrence of spirit with it to work it upon the heart unto obedience man under the Covenant of the Law being left to his own self and strength which was become utter weaknesse through the corruption of the flesh and unable to perform whereas the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel hath the promise or assistance of the Holy Spirit

allowance afterward to any thing that shall appear necessary for the maintenance or carrying on of the former as a Thief assaulting a Traveller for his Purse in case of being stoutly resisted even to the hazard of captivation or life will think it lawful because necessary rather to kill the Defendant if he can than to be kill'd himself or taken Prisoner which necessity was only of his own making So the Patriarchs having sold their Brother Joseph into Egypt brought upon themselves a necessity of concealing their wickedness from Jacob with the shift of a lye the like did Gehezi to his Master Elisha so when the conspiracy of Achitophel and Absolom had broken out into open rebellion their counsel found it no less than necessary to make short work on 't and murder good King David and not long afterwards Jeroboam to make good the defection of the ten Tribes of Juda saw a necessity of changing the true Worship of God into Idolatry setting up a new mode of Worship and Priesthood at Bethel for the Peoples resort thereunto lest holding the same uniformity of Religion they might return again to the same unity of Government and affection at their anniversary meetings in their Royal City Jerusalem Such was that Doctrine of Devils taught by our English Regicides who conscious to themselves of that inexpiable wrong they had done unto their good King and that his displeasure therefore might be implacable dispairing also least every one of his friends where they met them should fall upon and kill them concluded to make a short work of it with the Mode necesse to cut off his head and for their better security in this dismal wickedness they found it further necessary to destroy the very foundations of the Righteous turning all things topsie turvie and trampling under foot all Laws both of God and Man and changeing the whole Fabrick of Government both Ecclesiastick and Civil But now what a pitiful and wretched deception is this as if there were any necessity of sinning belike then according to the Modal Aequipollence in Logick Quod necesse est esse impossibile est non esse If it be necessary to sin by consequence 't is impossible not to sin and so God should command his creatures impossibilities in commanding them to abstain from sin which grossly imposeth upon his infinite Wisdom Justice and Holiness for we all know and are well assured of a necessity of repentance in case of sin committed Go thy wayes sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee was the counsel of Christ himself and David's likewise God shall wound the hairy scalp of such as go on still in their wickedness as he hath wounded the hairy scalp of many of them to your knowledge already and mounted them aloft to be spectacles ofhis indignation to the world notwithstanding their pretended necessities for what they so impiously acted and therefore whosoever hereafter being warn'd by such examples shall embolden themselves under the same conceit or confidence of necessitate-lawfulness in their wicked proceedings I shall leave them under the Apostles curse 2 Tim. 3. 13. They shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived from one degree of vileness they shall grow to another sin being of a progressive and propagating nature till at last they come to induration and occaecation their hearts will be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. and so after their hardness and impenitency of hearts treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. And therefore again Let not the man of violence that hath oppressed and taken away a house which he builded not Job 20. 19. deceive his soul with a pretence of lawfulness under conceited necessity of keeping what he hath extortingly gotten for his necessary maintenance for in such a case Non minus est vitium quám quaerere parta tueri he sins as much in keeping as in getting unjustly or rather more Zachaeus his practice would better become him to restore four-fold or else for his covetousness he may gain Gehezi's advantage to boot a Leprosie both upon Body and Soul and what a sad cozenage and deceit doth he therein put upon himself in gaining the World to lose his Soul A Sixth deceitful principle or erroneous reasoning and vain imagination of wicked men is a perswasion grounded only upon a conceipt of being led forth and forward in their actions by the Spirit which they phansy betwixt a good meaning perhaps and a pang ofblind zeal and an abhorrence also of some external vices and a shew of outward austerity and a devotion of their own way that looks much like holinesse it self and whereby they conceit themselves to be the only beloved accepted and acquainted with God and consequently all the stirrings and imaginations of their vain deceitfull hearts to be the very motions and impulses of Gods holy Spirit himself the conduct whereof they do and will follow not only without the warrant but contrary unto the expresse letter of Scripture and so commit the greatest enormities in the World Murder Treason Perjury Sacriledg Persecution of the Lords anointed his Princes and Nobles his Priests and Prophets and the most wise and righteous of his people and justifie themselves therein as doing God service and furthering his Glory by seeonding the secret movings and impulses of his Spirit Counting it also their Calling extraordinary as the wretched Murderers reasoned for their fearfull execution of our late Lord and King deceiving their perverse minds by not distinguishing the motive and directive part of every morall and humane action There is the directive part of the actions of man aswell as the motive and impulsive otherwise meer motion and impulse might serve the turn but not as direction is also required Now for the direction of a man in any action of his life to be accounted for there is no other Rule but the Word of God Psal 119. 195. Thy Word is as a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathes and verse 130. The entrance of thy Word giveth light and Psal 19. 8. The Commandements of the Lord are pure enlightening the eies and by them is thy Servant warned verse 11. So Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them no light no direction no instruction no warrant measure or rule for what they do or speak if done or said contrary to this written Word which is the abstract or summary of the whole Law of God both naturall and reveald and necessary for direction in all cases of action morall both naturall and supernatural either in terms analogie or inference and therefore for any man to pretend an impulse or motion from some spirit only however fancied or conceited to be of God himself yet without allowance of this his word he acts but by half a principle to wit without the guiding and directive

Divine Truths hath been and may be still much in hazzard And let us conceive of Gods meaning in his Word speaking to us as we speak to one another according to the use of sensing the words in the practice of Nations without which we can never be supposed to understand him and if we cannot yet teach the mystery of every letter let us be content till God in the seasons of his Grace and Wisdom shall afford us helps of a further discovery by his blessing upon the labours of Pious and Learned men whom God hath set forth hitherto and doubtless will hereafter during the being of his Church upon Earth as lights in his Candlestick for the further manifestation of the hidden Truths of his Word every day and let us beware of our own Phanatical conceipts of Spiritual meanings through Revelation and Infusion which will vary the rule and standard of Truth and make Gods own Word no better than a Leaden Rule and a Nose of Wax A Seventh deceitful Principle is That of a mere Moral man in the Church of Christ and allowed indeed by the profound mistakes of wise and learned Christians of many ages and professions especially of late but of a dangerous and destructive use in the practice thereof by the weaker sort of deceivable and factious people who acting the Annimal part of Religion more than the Rational Passion Zeal and Humor more than Reason and mistaking Pharisaical niceness for Godliness and for Purity Singularity and preciseness and for hatred of Evill avoidance only of Indifferences both Civil and Religious and true pious heavenly Affection for Phansie and Affectation they presume themselves in their erroneous and proud conceits to be the only true sraelites of God the only holy and separate from the rest of men in the love of Gods Election the only pecultar regenerate and spiritual above all others though of the same Church in Faith Baptism and Worship accompting the rest only mere Moral men of no more interest in Christ and his Graces than the mere civil Pagans Greeks and Barbarians that denyed him as a point of foolishness whereupon follows a proud contempt of all but those of their own Society and consequently Separations Schisms and Divisions in the Church and thereafter Seditions and Commotions in the State civil even Rebellions against Kings and Princes all Persons whatsoever in comparison with the Sect being slighted and undervalued as mere Moral men like empty Chaff or fruitless trees fit fuel for the fire of unruly furious Zeal though in impartial and right understanding the despised prove in plain terms no other than the most wise and regular and righteous of a whole Church and Nation This Divinity hath been a long time Oracular both in Press and Pulpit though so pernicious in the use of it as an occasion of so much evill but yet most false and deceitful For either the person supposed for a mere Moral man in the Church professeth Christ in Communion of Faith and Worship with the rest of the Church or not if not then he is no Christian and no member of a Church for no Church allows any such as profess not Christ and so no subject of the question which was of a mere Moral man in the Church If he doth profess Christ with belief and duty he goes beyond a mere Moral man for a mere Moral man that practiseth nothing but civil Virtue as the wise Grecians that disputed St. Paul against Christ he goes not so far as to acknowledge him but denyeth him and so is of no Church he 's no Christian no subject of the question The enquiry would rather be Whether the man professing Christ doth it really inwardly from his heart or not if not he is in right speaking a mere Formallist a Hypocrite in his proper and distinctive denomination not a mere Moral man properly he 's a Hypocrite I say whom God only can discover and pronounce absolutely not we who see no further than by fruits and effects which are Moral and Civil Virtues duties only of the Second Table those of the First Table being implyed by the supposition of the persons profession of Christ whereupon the question will further be Whether the supposed mere Moral man professing Christ doth practise these Vertues or not if he doth practise them either he doth practise them in such a degree as becomes a perfect sound Christian and so he is no Moral man nor subject of the question or else not so perfectly but with often recidivations and backslidings failings and weaknesses but not quite relinquishing his Profession and so he is not yet a mere Moral man but only a weak Christian needing Church Discipline to restore and strengthen him and so yet no subject of the question Or if he doth not practise the said Virtues or Duties of the Second Table at all but lives altogether lewdly wickedly and incorrigibly so he 's not so good as a Moral man nor therefore a mere one but a scandal a leaven of Wickedness to be purged out and not to be suffered in the Church and so still no subject of the question but a repugnance in the Adjection Whereupon I conclude that there is no mere Moral man in Christian Society but a gross fallacy tending only to deceive you of your Peace Order Unity and Charity and to encourage distances and distinctions of some men who conceit themselves in their Spirituals more excellent than their Brethren and thereupon proud oppositions and contentions in assertion of each Parties respective Excellencies above others and consequent'y Factions and Divisions Tumults and Seditions and lastly Rebellion it self Thus we have reasoned so many fallacious Principles of sin whereby it deceiveth the foolish and ignorant into their wicked mistakes Let us now come to one word of Application and so to an end If Sin and Deceit be so intrinsecal and complicate one with the other we should all then seriously consider and examine the great passages and chief moments of all the Actions of our lives and by a true reflection and inquiry if possible make a discovery unto our selves whether we have not in many things been very much deceived and thereupon suspect and jealous our selves lest we we have very much sinned also and consequently to prepare for sound Repentance That the greatest part of our Israel have been pityfully deceived and erred in the wayes of their own Inventions may easily appear by observing the sad Passages of our late troublesome Times Men looked for Judgement but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Oecumenius 'T is the very proper and genuine quality of deceit that men looking for one thing should find another They looked for Judgement but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry They looked for a blessed Reformation but behold an ugly Deformation they looked for a glorious King but behold up stept a monstrous Tyrant they looked for a free priviledg'd Parliament but

behold a pack of insolent Theives and Murderers who turned the Sons of Justice out of her Temple and shut her Gates against them they looked for a pure Religion and undefiled but behold the Widows and Fatherless devoured the Levite despised the Temples profaned demollished some in part some whole Unity Charity Verity exiled the Sacraments by some suspended by others neglected and by the generallity quite slighted the Word of God wrested and baffled the holy Law trampled Order Dec ney Maintenance Government and every other property of a Regular Church quite outed and instead thereof crept in Schism Heresie Perjury Blasphemy Sacriledge Ataxy and every other quality of Disformity in a word our whole Church and Nation were so strangely disfigured and metamorphos'd as we became both a shame to our selves and an obloquie to the world And thus have we found Deceit enough and in all likelyhood as much Sin What remains then but that every man gulity as aforesaid should betake himself to Repentance and in Repentance to confess there being no one act in the work of Repentance doth so much glorifie God as Confession in regard that the Creature in assuming shame to himself transfers all the glory to his Creator accordingly St. John speaks in 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and this was the counsel of Joshua to Achan Confess my son and give glory to God and this was the practice of the Penitentiaries in Ezra's time who confest publickly the very particular sin they were Nationally guilty of their strange wives and St. Paul also comes to particulars confessing 1 Tim. 1. 13. I was a Persecutor a Blasphemer and Injurious and so indeed should all the offending and deceived Party in England confess their sins one unto another and say Oh my beloved Brother or Brethren it hath pleased God to give you his Grace of conduct in the wayes of Truth and Peace and Loyalty ●ut we have sadly erred and been deceived Oh favour us with your Christian Indulgence But how long shall I endeavour to perswade this and obtain nothing Disloalty as they say being impudent and brazen fac'd as ever and like the Whore in the Prophet Jeremy refuseth to be ashamed Instance not only in the case of the first and last executed who instead of satisfying Justice by their bloud for so much Innocent and Pretious Bloud shed by them seem'd rather to justifie themselves in what they had done as if they would have sealed to it with their bloud and dyed Martyrs for wickedness but also the survivers of that Confederacy who are still chewing upon the Leeks and Garlick of Egypt and their breath stinks so much thereof as the very words they speak smell strong of a Captain to conduct them thither again and not only those but some of another Interest who led the Van of the late armed wickedness and yet instead of Confessions Deprecations and Submissions they seem to justifie themselves in what they have done by insisting their Covenant that Engine of Wickedness and so wipe their mouths as if they had neither done nor spoke any thing amiss and fall to Expostulations and Complainings and would fain insimulate as if very much wrong were done them whilest they detain other mens rights whom I speak of with a reserve nevertheless of Christian respect unto those of that Denomination in general who we hope are better thew'd for their own particular as considerable worth hath manifested them by some contrary actions which they defend and assert with much eagerness and mordacity though they are no other than the wages of unrighteousness given them by the late Rebellious Power as a reward of their faithfulness to the Good Old Gause for which they might as well have perished in the gainsaying of Corah as those that did Beloved This is not the way to obtain Peace with God or Men I could wish rather that I might hear them and all others of their Engagement say with Saul to David Behold I have play'd the Fool and erred exceedingly but blessed be then my Son David Behold my good Brother or Brethren we have play'd the Fools and erred exceedingly against our King Church and Laws whereas you by the grace of God have been led in Peace and Loyal Righteousness blessed be you therein and impact the comfort thereof unto us also by favouring us with your Christian compassion or that I might hear them say with David himself I have gone astray like a sheep O seek thy servant for I do not forget thy Commandements then should we receive them into the Armes of our Christian and Brotherly embraces and pray for them in the Language of our holy Letany That it may please thee O Lord to bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived FINIS If through haste any faults have happened in letters or syllables of words the Readers favour is desired in excusing them as this one particular World pag. 29. line the last for Word A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane 〈◊〉 on the Major Prophers in folio The History of Portugal Cases of Conscience in the late Reb●llion by Mr. Lyford Mr. Grenfields Loyal Sermon before the Parliament Dr. Browns Sepulchal Urns and Garden of Cyrus in 8. The Royal Exchange a Comedy in 4. by R. Brome Poems by the Wits of both Universities in 8. A Treatise of Moderation by Mr. Gaule in 8. St. Bonaventure's Soliloquies in 24. Mr. Baxters Treatise of Conversion in 4. The Common Law Epiromiz'd with Directions how to prosecute and defend persenal actions very usefull for all Gentlemen to which is ann●xed the nature of a Writ of Errour and the Generall proceedings there upon in 8. Golden Remaines in the most Learned R. Stuart D. D. Dean of Westminster and Clerk of the Closet to King Charles the first being the last and best Monuments that are likely to made publick in 12. Mr. Sprat's Plague of Athens in 4. Jews in America by Mr. Thorowgood in 4 The Royal Buckler or a Lecture for Traytors in 8. The Pourtracture of his sacred Majesty King Charles the Second from his Birth 1630. till this present year 1661. being the whole story 〈◊〉 escape at Worcester his trauels and troubles The Covenant discharged by John Russell in 4. The Comple●t Art of Water-drawing in 4. Mr. Boys his translation of the Sixth Book of Virgil in 4. Mr. Walwin's Sermon on the happy return of King Charles the Second A perfect Discovery of Witchcraft very profitable to be read of all 〈◊〉 of people especially Judges of Assize before they passe sentence on condemned persons for Witches in 4. A short view of the lives of the Illustrious Princes Henry Duke of Gl●●cester and Mary Princes of Orange deceased by T. M. Esq in 8. Aeneas his Voyage from Troy to Italy an Essay upon the third Book 〈◊〉 Virgil by J. Boys Esq in 8. The alliance of Divine Offices exhibiting all the Litergies of the Churc● of Engl. since the Reformation by Hamon L'estrange Esq in fol. Books written by R. L'estrange Esq A view of some late Remarkable Transactions leading to the happy Government under our gracious Soveraign King Charles II. in 4. The Holy Cheat proving from the undeniable practises of the Presby●●rians that the whole design of that party is to enslave both King 〈◊〉 People under the colour of Religion A Caveat to the Cavaliers A Modest Plea both for the Author and Caveat Cook