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A31442
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A late great shipwrack of faith occasioned by a fearful wrack of conscience discovered in a sermon preached at Pauls the first day of July, 1655 / by Dan. Cawdrey.
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Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.
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1655
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Wing C1632; ESTC R23918
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31,017
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42
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Church There must be heresies that these that are approved may be known The men that shall be discovered are largely described 2 Tim. 3.1 Lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud c. lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Yet vers 5. Having a form or figure of godliness but denying the power thereof There are many already faln away to believe lies and strong delusions upon those corrupt practises and assure your selves you that are such will not be long after them if God put not a stop to the seducers of the times Let no man say Am I a dogge that I should fall to such gross opinions such horrid blasphemies such Ranting practises Assure thy self thy corrupt heart will easily corrupt thy head If men be openly vitious or secretly hypocritical and withhold the truth in unrighteousness it is not more ordinary 2 Thess 2.11 12. then just with God to give them up to believe a lie that all they may be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness And they that cannot endure sound doctrine the old wholesome truths because it suites not with their lusts 2 Tim. 4.3 4. it is just with God that as they turn their ears from the truth so they shall be given unto fables That any secret or open hypocrites are not yet seduced they may thank the providence of God that hath preserved them from the opportunities of Temptations Heb. 3.12 and not their own strength An evil heart of unbelief will cause men to depart from the living God Look to it Christians that you be sincere and keep a good conscience if not these are winnowing and discovering times you will ere long I dare be your Prophet you will ere long make shipwrack of the faith Avolent quantum volent paleae istae levis fidei c. I le say no more of this but in Tertullians words Let the chaff flye away as much as it will the wheat will be the more in the floor of God and we shall be the fitter for a Reformation Use 4. A caution to people whom they trust in matters of Religion Mat. 7.16 4. This may serve for Caution a fair warning to people to take heed whom they trust in matters of Faith and Religion Beloved sayes Saint John 1 Joh. 4.1 believe not every spirit but try the spirits whither they are of God for many false spirits are gone out into the world How shall we try them By their fruits you shall know them Take heed of crediting too much those men those Teachers whom you see loose and corrupt in their lives and given over to Liberty or rather licentiousness It s twenty to one they are or will be unsound in their Judgements who are unsound in their practise at least in that particular wherein they allow themselves Will any man ask the advice or rest upon the Judgement of a Covetous man concerning Vsury Or of a voluptuous man concerning Temperance and chastity Or of a Libertine concerning strictness of conversation c. Nay it is just with God when Teachers are corrupted in their lives in any one of those or the like lusts to give them up to errors in judgement to blind their own eyes and so let them be blind leaders of the blind It s true indeed sometimes false Prophets come in sheeps clothing the greatest seducers and Hereticks have been men visible of very strict lives that its hard for people to discover them without very serious observation Yet a diligent watchful eye may do much The Scribes and Pharisees had a very devout and Saint-like profession But yet our Saviour both discerned and discovered them by a more spiritual sin if I may so call it that is by their pride They prayed fasted gave alms devoutly frequently charitably but all to be seen of men pride and popularity was their lust and corruption And this was very visible in the Ancient Hereticks very proud and scornful Thus they say Augustine the Monke that was sent over into England was discovered by the advice of an holy Hermite not to be a man of God And this vice is visible to half an eye in many of our new Teachers and many of their followers they are a proud and scornful generation undervaluing and trampling upon the reputation of the most not onely learned but pious and Godly Ministers of the former and present times I say no more By their fruits you shall know them Take heed whom you trust 5. The last Use shall be for Exhortation to all Use 5. Exhortation to all both Ministers and people To be careful to hearken to the Apostles charge to Timothy To hold Faith and a good Conscience together and as we desire or intend not to make shipwrack of the Faith so to see that we keep a good Conscience As you tender the preservation of the Jewel look well to the Cabinet the better heart the better head For the more profitable pressing home of this Doctrine give me leave to enlarge my self a little First by a more particular d scovery of some special corruptiâ—ns which experimentally Shipwrack the Faith Secondly by urging some special motives to people and Ministers Thirdly by prescribing some directions to preserve from Apostacy 1. The special corruptions By discovering some special corruptions as 1. Covetousness that most endanger the Faith to corrupt our Judgements are these 1. Covetousness nothing worse to corrupt the Faith then an heart exercised with covetousness as the Apostle Peter speaks and notes it for one of the vices of false Teachers 2 Pet. 2.1 3. Through covetousness shall they with fained words make merchandize of you with 14 15. Which forsaking the right way have gone astray following the way of Balaam which loved the wages of unrighteousness So Saint Paul expresly The love of money is the root of all evil which while some have lusted after they have erred concerning the Faith 1 Tâ—m 6.10 So he describes those Cretian seducers Tit. 1.10 11. There are many disobedient and vain talkers and deceivers which subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake And therefore he prescribed this as one necessary qualification both of his Bishop or Presbyter for both are one vers 5. with 7. and also of his Deacon that they be not given to filthy lucre not covetous 1 Tim. 2.3 to this end that he may hold fast the faithful word Tit. 1.9 Implying that if he be such he would soon corrupt the Faith The holding of the Faith may cost him the loss of all his estate Will a covetous heart suffer that The Prophet Jeremy saw the experience of this in his time Jer. 6.13 14. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness and from the Prophet to the Priest every one dealeth falsly Wherein In the Faith so it follows They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
That a corrupt heart makes a corrupt head An unsound heart makes an unsound judgement Let us now proceed to the Application 5. Application Use 1. To shew the Depravation of our Nature 1. Take notice of the miserable and lamentable Depravation of our nature since our first Father affected too much knowledge to be like God knowing good and evil We are now our own worst enemies and our corruptions begins at our selves It is a question yet no great question Whither Adams understanding or his affections were first corrupted This is certain that both wayes now we are subject to corruption Sometimes the head corrupts the heart A corrupt judgement corrupts the affections Without sound knowledge the minde is not good Prov. 19.2 Sometimes the heart affections or conscience corrupt the judgement As it is in nature there is a mutual influx or influence of the head upon the stomack by distillations of ill humors and of the stomack upon the head by ascension of ill somes or vapors and both wayes the health of the body is endangered So is it in the soul a corrupt head or an ill principled judgement corrupts the heart and life evil doctrines as evil words corrupt good manners like Gangrens that eat and fret away the vitals of Religion and the power of Godliness The Apostle was speaking of some that were infected with this cursed principle That there should be no resurrection What influence would this doctrine have upon the heart and life See vers 32. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye and there an end of us and all Be not deceived sayes he evil communications evil doctrinal principles corrupt good manners 1 Cor. 15.33 The judgement thus corrupted corrupts the heart and life And contrarily a corrupt heart or life corrupts the head some evil practises sophisticate the judgement and both wayes the health and salvation of the soul is hazarded Use 2. To manifest the Reason of the prevalence of of errors at all times 2. We may cease to wonder for we see the reason why seducers prevail so much upon people and why the Church in all times hath been pestered with so much error and false opinions The hearts and lives of men corrupt their heads and judgements Not to look too far back into the Primitive times see it of latter dayes in the prevalence of Popery upon the world The Apostle foretold it should come to pass in the last dayes 1 Tim. 4.1 The spirit speaketh evidently that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith and shall give heed no errors and doctrines of divels which speak lies through hypocrisie What 's the occasion of it Having their consciences seared with an hote iron Their consciences were scorched and seared with grose sins and then they corrupted the faith to heal them whole again So 2 Thess 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth therefore God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lye vers 12. They believed not the truth Why because they had pleasure in unrighteousness We wondered of late times to see so many not simple people onely but learned Clerks and Rabbies to turn Pâ—pists Arminians Cosin-germanes of Papists we needed not if we had considered that their hearts were gone to Rome before and now their heads followed after Were they well examined many of them it would be found they first put away a good conscience before they made shipwrack of the Faith their hearts betrayed their heads Many of them were it s known they were covetous ambitious voluptuous and Popery hath baits of all sorts to catch them that great Harlot and mother of fornications hath a golden cup full of preferments profits pleasures and this made mens heads drunk and giddy to embrace the grossest errors obsurdities for truths Look upon these present times and see what defection from the Faith there is and what sad Apostacy from the old received Truths is to be found amongst us and that not of the common ignorant multitude though they are a daily prâ—y to seducers but of old professors who had not onely knowledge in the word as they thought but also a form of godliness in the worst times Our Church of England I mean the professing party in it seemed to me not long ago as a fair great looking glass wherein was represented one onely Image a sweet unanimity and uniformity in judgement and affections But now Oh pitty it s like the same glass broken into many pieces and every one presenting a several Image in so many sects and factions almost as men What may be the matter Truely I think mens hearts have betrayed their heads They had a form and but a form of Godliness denying the power thereof allowing themselves in some open or secret corruption and now justly delivered over to self-pleasing and self-deceiving errors Have you not seen in Summer time upon a tree an Apple or a Pear red and yellow-ripe afore all its fellows Come next morning and you find it on the ground What was the matter Why there was a worm as opening you find at the Core which sucking up all the moysture hastaned the outward ripening and drew away that very sap that should have preserved it on the tree So is it with many professors that in outward shews outrun many times sincere and honest hearted Coristians making a more glorious shew of knowledge and practise then other of their neighbors the stony ground brought forth fruit immediately the good ground with patience but there 's a worme of some lust within that eats out the heart of Religion hypocrisie hastening on to ripeness of profession and then they fall off from the Faith to error It were easie to instance in almost all the present errors and heterodoxe opinions of the times they are oftentimes entertained upon this very ground because they comply with and favor some open or secret lust The Apostle speaking of some novel opinions of those Primitive times so early they began calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane as well as vain bablings 2 Tim. 2.16 and sayes they grow to more ungodliness Mark it they suppose and finde profane and ungodly hearts and make them more profane and ungodly hearts that intertain them Do we not see the open looseness of many formerly professing hypocrites as the event discovers Do we not wonder at such and such zealous professors turned not onely erroneous in their judgements but loose and far more licentious in their lives since they fell to these new opinions Take but some few instances of taking opinions which in their very nature are suitable to some mens corruptions I told you heretofore of Hymeneus and Philetus who fell into a gross error Saying that the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. 2.17 18. And the doctrine took exceedingly Whose words fretted like a Gangrene and overturned and subverted the faith of some And have not we the same errors revived now of