act Conciliariter as they call it that is so as to render their Decrees perpetually and universally obliging that though we were resolved to build our Faith upon the Authority of this Church yet if we will use that Caution in believing that we ought to do in a Matter of so great Moment we should find our selves involved in greater Uncertainties concerning these Things than we are concerning the Sense even of the most difficult Places of Scripture But then Thirdly When we are pass'd over all these Difficulties we are still at as great a Loss to understand what is the Sense of the Church to be believe by us as what is the Sense of Scripture For the Church hath no other way to deliver her Sense to us but either by Oral Tradition that is by Word of Mouth or by Writing If She deliver her Sense to me by Oral Tradition how can I know what that is who never heard Her speak either in its diffused Body or in a General Council or in any other Representative unless it be that of my own Parish-Priest perhaps who for all I know may be Ignorant or Heretical and so either not understand himself the Church's Oral Tradition or whilfully pervert it to a contrary Meaning And if the Church deliver here Sense to me by Writing as She hath done in the written Decreesof her General Councils must I read over all her Decrees How should I do that who understand not so much as the Languages in which they are written Or suppose they were Translated how shall I know that they are faithfully render'd any more than I do that the Scripture is so But suppose I were certain of this and should thereupon proceed to read them alass I find in them a great many difficult and dubious Expressions yea and at least seeming Contradictions to each other how then can I be more certain of the true Sense of these Writings than of the Sense of the Writings of Scripture But you will say the Church hath digested her Sense of all her Articles of Faith into a plain Creed and Catechism viz. that of the Council of Trent whereby the plainest Reader may without any laborious Enquiries be ready instructed what he ought to believe This I confess is something but as for those Articles of Faith wherein We and the Church of Rome are agreed we find them as plainly express'd in Scripture as in that Creed and Catechism and therefore we have Reason to believe that if those Articles wherein we disagree had ever been intended for Articles of Faith they would have been as plainly express'd there as these but 't is no wonder we should not find them plainly express'd there when we cannot find them express'd there at all But do we not find that the Scriptures even in the plainest Expressions of Articles of Faith have yet been perverted by Hereticks into a contrary Meaning And what then Are not the Words of Councils as liable to be perverted into a contray Meaning as the Words of Scripture For do not the Roman Doctors differ as much about the Sense of their Councils as we do about the Sense of our Scriptures Yea and have we not a notorious Instance of it at this very Day For what can be more contrary than Belarmine's Exposition of the Trent Faith and the Bishop of Condom's And yet both allowed by the Pope who by the Authority of that Council is made sole Arbitrator of the Sense of it But then Fourthly and lastly As to the Sense of Scripture our Reliance on the Authority of that Church leaves us at as great an Uncertainty as it found us For where the Scripture designs to speak plainly as it doth in all Things necessary to Salvation the Church cannot speak plainer and therefore there we may understand the Scripture as well without the Church as with it but where it doth not speak plainly the Church of Rome hath left us not infallible Commentary whereby to understand it so that where the Scripture is plain She hath not made it plainer and where it is obscure She hath left it as obscure as ever So that after all the Noise that is made of Infallibility her Doctors are fain to apply themselves to the same Methods of Understanding Scripture that is to consult the Sense of Antiquity and compare Text with Text and the like that we fallible Protestants do and when they have done all are as lyable to be mistaken as we Nay they themselves confess that even General Councils themselves may be mistaken in their Applications of Scripture that is that they may misapply them to wrong Purposes which they cannot do without mistaking the Sense of them of which there are a great many notorious Instances in the second Council of Nice which to prove it the Duty of Christians to worship Images urges God's taking Clay and making Man after his own Image and likewise that of Esay There shall be a Sign and Testimony to the Lord in the Land of Egypt and also those Passages of David Confession and Beauty is before him Lord I have loved the Beauty of thy House O Lord my Face hath sought for thee O Lord I will seek after thy Countenance O Lord the light of thy Countenance is sealed over us And from that Passage As we have seen so have we heard they argue that there must be Images to look on and because it is said God is marvellous in his Saints they conclude that the Church must be deck'd with Pictures And from No man lighteth a Candle and putteth it under a bushel they wisely infer that Images must be set upon the Altar all which are as remote from their Sense as the first Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis What greater Certainty have they with their Infallibility than we without it We can know as well the Sense of plain Texts of Scripture as of plain Texts of Councils or Creeds or Catechisms and we can as easily pervert the Sense of the one as of the other And as for those that are not plain even Genreal Councils you see for all their Infallibility may be mistaken about them as well as we So that when all comes to all by forsaking the infallible Authority of Scripture to rely upon the infallible Authority of that Church we are so far from ariving at a greater Certainty of Faith that we are involved in greater Uncertainties than ever But then 4. And lastly in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of the Church of Rome supposing it were as sure a Ground of Faith as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it It is pretended though falsly you see that that Church's Authority is so sure a Ground of Faith that while a Man depends upon it he cannot be mistaken in any necessary Article
it seems the Scripture is plain enough for a well-disposed Child to know the Sense of it so far forth at least as it is necessary to be known and this is as much as we desire If therefore God requires us to read the Scripture as Timothy did the End that we may know and understand it as he did then either we may understand the Sense of it by reading it or else God requires us to read it in vain 4. And lastly From the Obligation we lie under upon pain of Damnation to believe and receive those Necessaries to Salvation contained in Scripture it is also evident that as to all those Necessaries it is plain and clear That we are obliged to believe under pain of Damnation all that the Scriture proposes as necessary to our Salvation is agreed on all hands but how can Men be justly obliged to believe such Things as are obscure and doubtful and uncertain and of which they can have no certain Knowledge Either the Necessaries to Salvation must be plainly and clearly express'd in Scripture or we have not sufficient Reason to believe them and to say God will damn us for not believing those Things which he hath not given us sufficient Reason to believe is to charge him with the most outragious Oppression and Injustice But we are told that though God hath not clearly revealed to us in Scripture those Things which he hath obliged us to believe upon Pain of Damnation yet he hath left us sufficient Reason to believe them for he hath left us to the Conduct of an Infallible Church that is to say of the present Church of Rome in all Ages whom he hath authorized to explain and define to us all Things that are necessary to be believed which we are to receive upon her Authority and not upon the Scriptures so that if we firmly believe what She defines and proposes to us we are sure to believe all Things that are necessary to be believed Now in Answer to this Objection which indeed is the great Foundation that the Faith of those of the present Church of Rome relies on I desire these Things may be seriously considered 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of the present Church of Rome in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of that Church are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith 3. That after all these Things upon our relying on that Church's Authority we are left to the same or greater Uncertainties than upon our relying upon the Authority of Scripture 4. That in relying upon the Authority of the Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainities than just what is necessary to render our Faith virtuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of that Church supposing it to be a certain Ground as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of that Church in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture As for Instance we must in the first Place believe that there is a Church or Society of Christians separated from the World or incorporated by a peculiar Divine Charter Now whether there be such a Church or no is a Question that must be resolved by the Scripture and not by the Church because to believe that there is a Church because the Church saith there is a Church is to take that for granted which is the Thing in Question Secondly We must believe that this Church hath Authority to define and propose to us the Articles of our Faith which must also for the same Reasons be believed on the Authority of the Scripture and not of the Church For to believe that there is a Church that hath Authority to propose to us the Articles of our Faith is to believe that there is a Church which we are obliged to believe and how can I believe this upon the Church's Authority unless I can believe it before I do believe it Thirdly Before we can rely upon this Church's Authority in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe that this Church is infallible for if she be not Infallible how is it consistent with the Truth of God to oblige us to believe Her seeing in so doing he must oblige us whensoever She errs to believe her Errors but that she is infallible is not to be believed upon her own Authority for then her infallible Authority must be the Reason of our Belief that She is Infallible that is we must believe her infallible because we believe her infallible Seeing then we cannot believe it on her own Authority if we believe it at all it must be upon the Authority of Scripture Fourthly Before we can rely upon the Church of Rome's Authority to define to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe the Church of Rome to be this infallible Church But seeing this is no self-evident Principle we must have some other Evidence besides her self to induce us to believe it and what else can that be but Scripture We are told indeed by some of her greatest Divines that there are certain Marks and Notes of a true Church peculiar to the Church of Rome by which we are obliged to believe Her the true Church such as Antiquity Vniversality Holiness of Doctrine c. But seeing no Doctrine can be holy that is not true we must be satisfied that that Church is true before we can know that it is holy so that before we can reasonably submit to her Authority we must be very well assured that her Doctrine is true and this we cannot be assured of by her Authority because that as yet is the Matter in Question and therefore we can be no otherwise assured of it but only by the Authority of Scripture and when we are assured beforehand by the Authority of Scripture that her Doctrines are true her Authority comes too late to assure us Seeing therefore it is evident that there are some if not all the Articles of the Roman Faith that must be known and believe by us upon the Authority of Scripture before we can safely rely upon her Authority to define them to us how can we be obliged to settle our Faith upon her Authority when as before we can reasonably admit her Authority we must believe several of the Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of Scripture For I would fain know are these Articles of Faith or no That there is a Church that this Church hath Authority to define the Articles of our Faith and that in so defining this Church is infallible and that
this infallible Church is the Church of Rome If they be as they themselves own they are then there are some Articles it seems that must be believed without the Church's Authority upon the single Authority of Scripture and if some why not all why should not the Scripture be as sufficient to authorize us to believe the Rest as these since its Authority is as great in one Text as in another Especially considering 2. That these things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of the Church of Rome are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith The great Reason urged by the Romanists against our Relyance upon the Scripture for our Faith is the Obscurity of it and if this be a good Reason it proves a great deal more then they would have it viz. that we ought not to rely upon Scripture even for those Articles without believing of which we can have no sufficient Ground to rely upon the Authority of their Church For I would fain know is it clear and plain from Scripture that the present Catholick Church of every Age hath Authority to define the Articles of Faith and that in all its Definitions it is infallbile and that the present Church of Rome is this Catholick Church If so how come those Texts upon which those Articles are founded to be understood in a quite different Sense not only by us but by the greatest part of the Primitive Fathers as hath been abundantly proved by Protestant Writers Supposing that we should be so blinded by our Partiality to our own Tenets as to misapprehend plain and clear Expressions of Scripture it is very strange methinks that the Fathers who were never engaged in the Controversy and so could not be biass'd either one way or t'other should yet misapprehend them too What is this but to say that let Men be never so indifferent yet they may be easily mistaken in the Sense of very plain and clear Expressions and if so what signifies either Speaking or Writing But to proceed to some Instances will any modest Man in the World affirm that the Church of Rome's infallibility in defining Articles of Faith to all succeeding Generations is more plainly exprest in those Words of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church than the Divinity of our Saviour is in the Beginning of the first Chapter of St. John's Gospel where it is expresly affirmed that he is God whereas in the other there is not the least mention either of the Church of Rome or of Infallibility or defining Articles of Faith Why may we not then as well depend upon the one Text for the Article of our Saviour's Divinity as upon the other for that of the Church of Rome's Infallibility Again are there not innumerable Texts of Scripture wherein the Articles of Remission of Sin the Resurrection of the Dead the last Judgment and the World to come are at least as plainly exprest as the present Church fo Rome's Infallibility is in any of those Texts that are urged in the Defence of it and therefore if we believe the later upon the Authority of Scripture notwithstanding the pretended Obscurity of it why may we not as well upon the same Authority believe all the former since the former are at least as plainly exprest as the later Either therefore the Scripture is plain enough to be relyed upon as to this Article of the Church of Rome's Infallibility or it is not if it be not we have no Ground for our Dependance upon the Authority of her Definitions and Proposals if it be it 's plain enough to be relyed upon in all other necessary Articles of Faith since these are all as plainly at least express'd in Scripture as that For if we may not rely upon Scripture because it is not plain then where it is equally plain it is equally to be relyed on 3. That when we come to rely upon this Church's Authority we are exposed to far greater Uncertainties than while we relied upon the Authority of Scripture For in the first place we are of all sides agreed that the Scripture is Infallible and that such and such Writing are Parts of Scripture and therefore are absolutely secure that if we follow the true Sense of it it cannot mislead us But the much greater Part of Christians deny that the Church of Rome is Infallible even the Church of Rome it self owns the Authority we rely on to be infallible but all Christians all the World over besides those of her own Communion disallow hers to be so and to forsake our Dependence upon an Infallibility which all own to rely upon an Infallibility which but few in Comparison admit is certainly a very dangerous Venture And then Secondly As for the Infallibility of Scripture we are certain where to find it viz in every Text and in every Proposition therein contained which being all the World of God must be all infallbile But as for the Infallibility of the Roman Church as they have handled the Matter it is almost as difficult to find as to prove it some cry lo it is here and some lo it is there some place it in the Pope only others in the Pope and his College of Cardinals some in the Pope presiding in a General Council others in a General Council whether the Pope preside in it or no. So that in this Church it seems there is Infallibility somewhere but what are we the better for it if we know not where to find it If we go to the Pope for it there have been two or three Popes at once that have decreed against one another and therefore one or t'other of them to be sure were mistaken How then shall we know which is the true infallible one And when I have found the true Pope others tell me I am not yet arrived at the Seat of Infallibility until I have found him in his College of Cardinals and when I have found him here I am still to seek seeing I find the same Pope Eugenius the Fourth for Instance decreeing one Thing in his College of Cardinals and the quite contrary in a general Council and therefore I am sure he could not be infallible in both Therefore otehrs send me to the Pope in a General Council but when I come thither I find my self at a Loss again because I meet with several Instances of one Pope's defining one Thing in one General Council and another Pope the quite contrary in another and therefore in one or t'other Council I am sure the one or t'other Pope was mistaken And as for General Councils themselves there are sundry of them which are owned by some and rejected by others of the principal Doctors of the Roman Communion And even when Councils are legally assembled there are so many nice Disputes among them what it is that makes them General and when it is that they
Religion that would permit you to Sin in quiet or at least prove more indulgent to your Lusts For if this be your Temper you are in very great Danger of being betrayed by it into any false and corrupt Religion that shall be tender'd you in exchange for your own For if this other Religion offer but any fair Terms to your vicious Affections or propose but any Expedient how to accomodate the vexatious Quarrel between them and your Consciences if it doth but any way reconcile your Hope of Heaven to your vicious Manners by directing you to some easier Terms of Salvation than that of forsaking all Unrighteousness and worldly Lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World if it will but admit of any Commutation of that unsufferable Penance of Godliness for bodily Exercise of inward Mortification for a long Fast or a sound Whipping of putting off the old Man for putting on a Hair Shirt of running the Race of a holy Life for a santring Pilgrimage or the like this is a Religion for your Tooth with which your naughty Heart will be ready enough to fall in love upon the first Interview and when once it hath gained our Heart and Affections if we do not take the greater Heed they will quickly gain our Faith and Judgment For when a Man is angry with his own Religion because it sits uneasy on his Conscience if a more easy Religion presents it self to him he can hardly forbear wishing it were true though as yet he hath no Evidence that it is so and then a very slender Evidence will suffice to induce a Belief of the Reality of any Thing which a Man earnestly wishes and desires If in this ill Temper of Mind therefore you should be tempted to change your Religion it concerns you as much as your Souls are worth to look about you for you have a Seducer in your Breast a prevalent insinuating Seducer viz. some vile and sinful Affection who if you listen to his charming Persuasions will certainly betray you into a most damnable Apostacy Wherefore before you proceeed to examine the Merits of the Cause consider seriously with your selves that that Disturbance which your present Religion gives to your vicious Affections for which you are so angry with it is so far from being a just Ground to suspect it that it is a real Evidence of the Truth of it because it is a sensible Demonstration of its Holiness which is an inseperable Concomitant of Truth and therefore for you to desert it upon this Motive is in Effect to pronounce it a false Religion because it gives you a sensible Experiment of its Truth and Reality 3. When you fall under any Temptation to change your Religion consider whether that which gave you the first Inclination to change was not some temporal Interest whether before ever you admitted any Thought of a Change you did not perceive another Religion appear upon the Stage attended with all the fair Hopes and Advantages of this World and whether this Prospect did not first suggest to you a great Inclination to enter into its Retinue I do not deny but that even worldly Considerations may so far influence honest Minds as to put them upon a more severe and impartial Scrutiny of their present Persuasions in Religion and unless it be in Case of palpable Truth or Falshood it is but honest Prudence when a Man 's temporal Interest lies at stake to take Care that he is sure of his Hand that he doth not throw it away upon a false Persuasion in a Fit of blind Humour or Obstinacy and sacrifice that to an erroneus Judgment which he ows to no other Altar but Truth 's And indeed before I throw my self upon any Suffering whether it be Loss or Pain I am bound in Conscience diligently to enquire whether it be for Truth or Righteousness sake lest instead of receiving the Crown of Martyrdom I am sent away to seek my Reward in the Paradise of Fools But if meerly upon the Consideration of any present Loss or Advantage I find my self strongly inclined to change my Religion before ever I enter into the Merits of the Cause to examine the Reasons pro and con it is a certain sign that that Loss or Advantage that inclines me hath a more powerful Influence upon me than my Religion that I love the World better than God and do prefer my earthly Expectations before all my Hopes of everlasting Happiness And if in this ill Temper of Mind I should be tempted to a present Change it concerns me as much as my Soul is worth to be very careful what I do For I stand upon the Brink of a Precipice the foul and fatal Precipice of Apostacy into which if I fall I am ruined for ever For if in changing my Religion it be found that I followed this my wicked Inclination more than any sincere Conviction I must expect to be treated by God as an Apostate and Renegado as a wilful Deserter of his Cause and Betrayer of his sacred Truth But if I change while I stand thus inclined it is fearfully hazardous but this will be found to be the Truth of the Case for in all Probability my wicked Inclination will cast a Mist before my Understanding and so darken its Prospect that it will hardly be able to distinguish the grossest Sophistry from the clearest Reason So that now those Arguings which before I saw through with half an Eye and look'd upon as most aburd and ridiculous will appear to my abused and byass'd Mind in the Colours of clear Evidence and plain Demonstration and I shall be ready to surrender up my Faith to those trifling Pretences of Reason and Authority which before I laughed at and despised Now Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church will seem a very pregnant Proof that all the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter are ordained the Supreme Heads of the Church and the Fountains of all Ecclesiastical Authority though they are not so much as mentioned in it no nor from any Thing that appears so much as thought of Now This is my Body looks like a substantial Evidence of the Truth of Transubstantiation and of all those wild Absurdities it contains though those Forms of Speech I am the true Vine and I am the Door do as substantially prove that Christ bears Grapes and turns upon Hinges Now every Thing will appear to me in a quite different Guize from what it did before and I shall fancy that I spy Demonstration where before I could only discern Probability for a good Sum of Money or a rich Preferment is a strange Clearer of some Mens Eyesight Thus when a Man begins to think of changing his Religion under the powerful Influence of his worldly Interest that is usually the only effectual Reason that leads and persuades him As for other Reasons they only serve for Form-sake to disguise the foul Apostacy into some
Rebels who live and persist in an open Defiance to our Saviour's Authority tells us that they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thes 1.8 9. But before we dismiss this Argument it will be requisite more particularly to explain what those wilful Courses of Sin are by which they thus renounce him all which may be reduced to these three Heads First We renounce the Authority of his Laws when we sin against him out of wilful Ignorance of them Secondly When we sin on against him out of wilful Inconsideration of our Obligation to them Thirdly When we persist in our sin against Knowledge and Consideration 1. We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour when we sin on against him out of wilful Ignorance of his Laws For the Laws of our Saviour in which the great Lines of our Duty are described are so plain and legible that no Man can be long excusably ignorant of them But if our Ignorance proceed either first from a profane and profligate Mind that is altogether regardless of God and hath utterly worn off its natural sense of Religion and so neither heeds it nor concerns it self about it but is become quite deaf to all the Means of Instruction or if it proceed Secondly from the vicious Prejudice of our Wills and we Industriously set our selves for the sake of some darling Lust to exclude from our Minds all the Means of Conviction and either studiously to avoid all thoughts of Religion that we may sin on without disturbance which is the way of those that are openly Profane and Irreligious or to use all possible Arts to wheedle our Understandings into the Belief of such Principles as are most indulgent to our Lusts which is the way of Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion If I say our Ignorance of Christ's Laws proceeds from either of these Causes it will no more excuse our falling into sin than the want of Light will a Man's falling into a Ditch that shuts his Eyes at Noon and winks on purpose lest he should see and escape the Danger that is before him But then 2ly We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour when we sin on against him out of a wilful Inconsideration of our Obligations to obey him For we being reasonable Creatures are bound by the very Constitution of our Natures to act considerately especially in matters of Religion which are of the greatest Moment and Importance to us so that if we miscarry herein through wilful Inconsideration we are every whit as inexcusable as if we had considerately betrayed our selves Now wilful Inconsideration is either actual or habitual Actual is either first when notwithstandin we have been sufficiently warned by precedent Surprizes we take no care for the future for though it cannot be expected we should always keep so strict a Guard upon our selves as never to be surprized by an Enemy yet when we have been overtaken there is all the Reason in the World we should take warning by it and grow more wary and vigilant for the future that we should awaken in our Minds such Considerations as are necessary to prevent our being surprized again which if we do not our next Surprize will be inexcusable And if the sense of the Lapse which was perhaps but an innocent Error or at most but a Sin of Infirmity doth not make us more careful of our selves for the future the next will be a wilful Fall Or else in the second Place this actual wilful Inconsideration is when upon the presenting of any beloved Temptation we either quench the good Motions of our Minds and refuse to consider the Evil and Danger of the Sin we are tempted to lest we should be thereby deterred from committing it or purposely contrive to basfle our own Consideration by opposing it either with some ungrounded Hope of Impunity or some fallacious Promise of future Amendment and if to make way for our sin we do either of these ways wilfully drive all good thoughts from our Minds lest they should disturb and interupt us in the Injoyment of it our Inconsideration is to be resolved into the Wickedness of our Wills and not into the Weakness and Infirmity of our Natures And he that will not consider because he will sin and afterwards extenuate his sin by his Inconsideration urges one sin in excuse for another and makes that which is his Fault his Apology Whensoever therefore we sin out of any actual and wilful Inconsideration we sin wilfully and consequently do thereby vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour the final Event of which without our Repentance will be our everlasting Ruin and Perdition But then besides this actual there is also an habitual Inconsideration which is wilful and that is when by often stifling the Convictions of our Consciences we have seared them into a deep Insensibility of Good and Evil so as that now we sin on without any Remorse or Reluctancy and return to our Lusts with the same indifferency as we do to our Beds or our Tables without either considering what we are doing or reflecting on what we have done And this is so far from palliating our sin that it is one of the highest Aggravations of it For as it is no excuse that we sin out of an evil Habit which we voluntarily contracted by frequent Acts of sin so neither will it at all excuse us that we sin out of an habitual Inconsideration which we wilfully contracted by often refusing to consider But as vicious Habits have a proper Evil and Guiltiness in them distinct from those vicious Acts that produced them so habitual Inconsideration hath in it a peculiar Venom of its own beyond what was in those actual Inconsiderations whereby it was acquired And accordingly it is described in the Scripture as the worst the most desperate and incurable state of a Sinner It is called a reprobate-Mind Rom. 1.28 29. a scared Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 a hard and unrelenting heart that treasureth us wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 So that if we go on in sin without considering with a Mind habitually regardless and insensible we are hardned and inveterate Rebels that have not only renounced the Authority of our Saviour but have also forfeited our Selves and that almost irreparably against all his Methods of conquering and subduing us But then 3ly And Lastly We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour when we persist in our sin against Knowledge and Consideration For to sin on obstinately against Knowledge and Consideration argues an invincible Malice of Will for tho' the Condition of the ignorant and inconsiderate Sinner be very sad and deplorable yet there is much more Hope of him because he hath never yet had the Force and Efficacy of Knowledge and Consideration which perhaps if ever he be brought to experience may prove a successful Means of his Cure and Reformation But the knowing and considerate Sinner hath tryed and
Soveraign Being of the World hath an unalienable Right to impose Laws upon all other Beings 2dly That having this Right he may justly inforce those Laws with whatsoever Penalties he sees necessary or convenient 3dly That when those Laws he imposes are for the good of his Subjects it is not only Justice but Goodness in him to inforce them with the severest Penalty 4thly That the Penalty of eternal Bondage under Misery is the severest and most effectual Way to inforce those beneficial Laws and oblige us to the Observance of them 5thly That if God think good to inforce his Laws with this Penalty he hath as much Right to exact it when we disobey as he had to threaten and impose it 6thly That his actual exacting of it can no more impeach his Goodness than his threatning and denouncing it 1. that God being the Sovereign Being of the World hath an unalienable Right to impose Laws upon all other Beings For he being the greatest and most powerful Being can himself be subject to no other Law but only that of his own Nature and his Power being infinite and unconfined as well as his Wisdom Justice and Goodness doth sufficiently warrant him to do whatsoever is consistent with them For to be sure a Being of infinite Power and Greatness can have no Superiour but must be necessarily exalted above all other Authorities by this incommunicable Prerogative of his Nature and being raised above all Authorities he must have Authority above all and his essential Dominion having no other Law to bound it but only that of his own Nature he must necessarily have a Right to command whatsoever is consistent with his Wisdom Justice and Goodness His Will therefore being by the infinite Pre-eminence of his Power and Greatness supreme all other Wills are obliged to bow before and prostrate themselves to its Sovereign Authority and there is no Law whatsoever but he may justly impose upon them provided it be not repugnant to that supreme Law that is founded in his own Nature This therefore being premised that God hath a Right as he is the Sovereign Being to give Laws to all other Beings it hence follows 2dly That he may justly inforce those Laws with whatsoever Penalties he sees necessary or convenient For Laws without penalties are rather Petitions than Commands and unless they carry force enough with them to over-aw the subject and make themselves obeyed they want the formal Sanction and Obligation of a Law To have a Power therefore of imposing Penalties must necessarily be inseparable from the Power of making Laws because they are the Penalties that make the Laws to oblige that give them Power to command and inforce them with an awful Authority And as the Power of giving Laws supposes the Power of imposing Penalties so it supposes a Power of imposing such Penalties as may be sufficient to incline and aw the Subject into Obedience against all Reasons to the contrary For unless the Penalty be great enough to outweigh all other Considerations the Law which it inforces will be extreamly defective in Point of Obligation and leave the Subject as much reason to disobey as to obey God therefore being by his own natural Right the Supreme Lawgiver of the World must be supposed to have an equal Right of inforcing his Laws with such Penalties as in his own infinite Wisdom he shall think necessary to oblige his Greatures to obey him and there is no Penalty can be too rigorous or severe which is necessary to inable his Laws to oblige and command us Wherefore according as he sees his Subjects more or less tempted or inclined to disobey him so will he need greater or less Penalties to oblige us to Obedience and therefore foreseeing what a strong Propensity to Evil there would be in our Nature and with what importunate Temptations this would be excited and wrought upon he could not but foresee that the severest Penalties would be necessary to back and inforce his Laws and being necessary for that end he must needs have a Right to impose them how severe soever they might be nor is this severity less good than it is just considering 3dly That when those Laws he imposes are for the good of his Subjects it is not only an Act of Justice in him to impose them with the severest Penalties but of Goodness And this is really the Case as to those Laws which God hath imposed upon us for the Matter of them all is something tending to our good something or other that is perfective of our Natures and conducive to our Happiness and being so the greater the Penalty is which they are backt and inforced with the greater Demonstration it is of God's Care and Zeal for our Happiness For the End of Penalty is to oblige us to Obedience and when all Obedience is for our good the more strictly he obliges us to it the more he befriends us When a distracted Man is endeavouring to mischief and destroy himself it is Kingness to bind him though it be with Chains of Iron When therefore God found us so prone to injure our selves by wicked and mischievous Actions it was Mercy to bind our Hands with his Threatnings of Punishment and the stronger his Bands are the more they express his Kindness because the more they oblige us to be kind to our selves and true to our own Interest And certainly for God to lay us under the strongest Obligations to be happy is so far from being a Blemish to his Goodness that it is a most glorious Expression of it but if we will be so obstinate as to run into the mouth of those Threatnings which he hath levelled against us to scare us into Happiness it is just with him to discharge them upon us and make us feel the Essects of our Folly and Madness Since therefore the Reason of the Penalty wherewith God hath inforced his Laws is to oblige us to be happy and since the greater it is the more force it must have to oblige us it hence necessarily follows that though it be not only a great but an eternal one yet it is not at all inconsistent with his Goodness especially if we consider 4thly That the Penalty of eternal Misery as it is the severest so it is the most effectual to inforce those beneficial Laws which God hath imposed on us and to oblige us to the Observance of them For to deter us from Sin who are so vehemently prone to it it was very requisite that the Penalty denounced against it should not only be great as to the Degree but endless also as to the Duration of it that so it might cut us off from all pretence of Presumption and leave us no ground of Incouragement to be wicked For we are exceeding apt to slight and undervalue those Evils which are proposed to deter us from the Goods which we vehemently desire especially when these Goods are present and sensible and those Evils future and invisible For
Recompences which he hath so plainly and clearly promised to his Subjects For this he also obscurely typified to the Jews for as I have already hinted by that Canaan which he bestowed upon them after their tedious Travel through the Wilderness he did darkly represent to them that Canaan above flowing with infinite Delights which he hath promised to bestow upon his faithful Servants after they have pass'd through the Wilderness of this World So also by their Sabbaoths and especially their Year of Jubilee wherein they were to rest from all their Labours and keep a perpetual Festivity He did obscurely decypher to them that Sabbaoth of Rest and Jubilee of endless Pleasure which vertuous Souls shall enjoy in Heaven after they have finished their Labours here on Earth as you may see at large Heb. 4. Now by these and such like Shadows of their Law which possibly the Prophets by Divine Inspiration might expound to them those who were wise and good among them it is very probable were instructed in the Article of eternal Life Hence it may be might arise that famous Controversy among the Jews concerning the Written and Oral Law which they call the Cabala or the Law by Tradition not that this traditional contained any thing that was not in the written Law but because those things which were obscurely contained in the Types of the written Law were explained and interpreted in this their Traditional Law But it is apparent that the Types of eternal Life were not fully explained in this traditional Law till after the Babylonish Captivity after which the Prophet Daniel and after him Ezekiel began to speak more plainly of the Resurrection of the Dead and from that Time forwards the Doctrine of the Resurrection and eternal Life began to be more openly taught among the Common People till about the Time of the Maccabees when it was brought forth into the Light from under those Types in which it was so obscurely represented and became a Principle even of the Popular Religion and an Article of the Jewish Faith as plainly appears from the Records of those Times particularly 2 Macc. 7.23 26. compared with Heb. 11.35 And indeed it was very necessary that then this Article should be more clearly revealed to fortify the Jews against those many Persecutions whereunto they were exposed for the sake of their Religion that they might not be terrified to apostatize from it by those cruel Martyrdoms which in the Time of the Maccabees they many of them endured and besides now the Time of the Gospel was approaching and consequently its Mysteries like the Light of the rising Sun began to break forth clearer and clearer from under that Cloud of Types wherein it was wrapt and involved till at last the Sun of Righteousness himself arose and dispersed those Clouds and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel But as for the Sadducees who give no heed to the Cabala or Traditional Law in which this Doctrine was first discovered and adhered only to the written Law of Moses they still continued Infidels in this Point and believed neither Angels nor Spirits nor the Life to come So very obscurely was it represented in the Types and Shadows of the Written Law But when once the Eternal Word came to tabernacle in our Flesh he revealed this great Article so plainly and clearly to the World that 't is impossible for any one not to believe it that believes him to be the Messias or Incarnate Word And thus you see by all these Instances what a vast Difference there was in respect of Truth between Christ's tabernacling in our Nature and in the Tabernacle of Moses And now I shall conclude this Argument with two or three practical Inferences 1st He dwelt or tabernacled among us From hence I infer the high Authority of Christ and that holy Religion which he hath revealed to us For to tabernacle among us as I have already shewed you signifies to dwell in the midst of as the Shechinah Presence or Representative of the most High God as one that acted in his Father's Person and was vested with his Authority and consequently as one who hath as great a Right to exact our Obedience as the Eternal Father himself should he have come down from Heaven in his own Person to give Laws to Mankind For so when the Eternal Word went before the Camp of Israel as the Shechinah or Angel of God's Presence God requires them that they should obey him as himself Beware of him and obey his Voice saith God provoke him not for he will not pardon your Transgression for my Name is in him Exod. 23.21 and v. 22. To obey the Voice of this Angel is interpreted to be the same thing as to obey the Voice of the most High God himself But if thou shalt indeed obey his Voice saith God and do all that I speak then I will be an Enemy to thy Enemies c. So that for the Israelites to disobey this Angel who as I have proved to you was the Eternal Word or Representative of the most High God to them was to all Intents and Purposes the same Thing as if they had disobeyed the most High himself And accordingly our Saviour tells the Jews He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on the Father that sent me that is he doth not meerly believe on me but on the Father too whose Authority I have and whose Person I reprefent for so he explains himself in the following Verse He that seeth me seeth him that sent me that is I being my Father 's Shechinah or Representative Joh. 12.44 45. And therefore as every Contempt of the Deputy or Vice-Governor is an Affront to the Sovereign Prince whose Person he bears and by whose Authority he acts so every Rebellion against Christ is an open Defiance to the Sovereign God whose Person he represents and by whose Authority he reigns Hence our Saviour tells the Jews Job 5. 23. that He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him which plainly intimates that God the Father resents those Indignities which we offer to Christ and his Laws as if they were done to his own Person and that if himself should speak to us from the Battlements of Heaven or proclaim his Law to us in a Voice of Thunder he would not be more displeased to hear us openly declarethat we will not obey him than he is to see us trample upon the Laws of his Son which he hath stamp'd with his own Sovereign Authority So that if we were not infinitely fool-hardy methinks we should never dare to violate our Religion in which the Authority of the most High God is so immediately concerned For whatsoever our Religion requires of us it requires in his Name who hath an undoubted Right and Authority to command us for from all Eternity he was invested with an absolute and unlimited Power of doing any thing that is not unbecoming his Divine Perfections
excellent and divine Doctrine which he taught was such as became the only begotten Son For certainly if we consider the excellent Frame and Contrivance of the Christian Religion we cannot but confess it to be most Divine and Godlike most worthy of that infinite Wisdom and Goodness from whence it was derived For Religion in general is the means of advancing Rational Beings to that Perfection and Happiness for which the great Creator hath designed and intended them and certainly never was there any Religion in the World more adapted to advance this noble Design of God than that which our Saviour hath taught For as for its Agenda what it requires to be done ' they all consist in acting reasonably and according to the Dignity of our Nature in thinking speaking and practising in loving and hating disiring and delighting hoping and fearing as becomes Reasonable Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances and do require nothing of us but that we should regulate our Practice by the Rules of Right Reason and direct all our Faculties and Affections to their proper Ends and Objects and when we come to this Pitch always to think that which is most reasonable and always to practise what we think so then we are advanced to the topmost Round of our Perfection in which is founded the utmost Happiness we are capable of So that in all the Course of our Christian Practice we are in a direct Progression and Tendency towards our Perfection and Happiness And as for the Credenda of Christianity the Doctrines it requires us to believe they are all of them pregnant with the most strong and vehement Motives to engage us to the Practice of what it enjoins Motives that have such a Potent I had almost said Omnipotent Force in them that 't is impossible for any Man heartily to believe and throughly to weigh and consider them and not be effectually perswaded by them Since therefore it was so highly convenient that the Son of God in Person should come down from Heaven among us that so the Dignity of his Person might give Authority to that Religion by which the World was to be governed and since he did come down upon this honourable Errand it was impossible for him to have taught any Doctrine that could more effectually have promoted the great End of Religion or more fully expressed his infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Zeal for the Welfare of the Souls of Men htan that which is contained in the Christian Religion which is every way so adapted to make Men good and happy so accommodated to the Nature and Condition of Mankind that there is nothing could better become the only begotten Son to teach in the World or that could be more worthy of all those infinite Perfections that are lodged in his Nature and do speak him to be the most genuine Offspring of the most High For so excellent was his Doctrine that his very Enemies were astonished at the Wisdom that was given him Mark 6.2 3. and wondred at the gracious Words that proceeded out of his Mouth Luke 4.22 Well therefore might he say of himself I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Joh. 8.12 4thly And lastly The incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life was such as very well became the only begotten Son For as it was highly convenient that he should come down into the World and in his own Person teach us that Religion by which he intended to govern us that thereby he might stamp it with a more awful Authority so to render it more fuccessful it was no less convenient that he should come down in our Natures that therein he might be capable of practising what he taught us and setting us an Example of what he would have us to do that so we might see that he enjoined nothing upon us but what was practicable and what did become the most glorious Person that ever did assume our Natures that thereby we might be encouraged to our Duty and animated with a noble Emulation of treading in his blessed Footsteps Since therefore all this was so highly convenient and the Son of God in Compliance with this Convenience did actually assume our Nature it was impossible for him to lead a Life that better comported with this Design of his Incarnation or better became the Dignity and Excellency of his Person than he did For now that he was become a Man he was obliged to act suitably to his Nature and should he have done any thing that was unsuitable to the State and Circumstances of his Nature he would not have acted becoming himself So that it was highly convenient that he should become a Man and being a Man it was indispensably necessary that he should live like a wise and a good Man in the Condition and Relations wherein he was placed and nothing could be more worthy of or becoming him then so to do though he was still the only begotten Son of the Father For it is the Glory of God himself that he always acts most reasonably according to the State and Relations of a God and therefore when God becomes Man by assuming our Nature to his own it is his Glory to act most reasonably in the State and Relations of a Man And thus did the blessed Jesus do in the whole Course of his Conversation upon Earth for his Life was a most exact Pattern of all humane Virtues in which all that is ornamental to humane Nature was represented in its fairest Colours There you may see a fair Example of the most ardent Love to and constant Dependance upon God of the most profound Humility and perfect Resignation to his Heavenly Will There you may behold the Moderation of Humane Passions and Appetites set forth to the Life and fairly delineated in its most exquisite Perfections in a word there you will find Loyalty and Submission to Superiors Fidelity and Justice to Equals Courtesy and Candor and Condescention to Inferiors universal Love and an unbounded Charity to all practised to the Height and Exactness and which way soever you turn your Eyes on this fair Monument of Virtues you can discover nothing but what is lovely and adorable and infinitely becoming the only begotten Son of the Father Having thus explained and demonstrated the Proposition to you I shall conclude with these four Inferences from this four-fold Glory of the Word which they saw 1. They saw the glorious Splendor which invested his Person at his Baptison and Transfiguration From whence I infer his Deputation from the most High God and Father of all Things to be his Representative and Vice-Roy in the Christian Church For this visible Glory with which he was invested was always the peculiar Character of the immediate Representative of God and therefore by way of Appropriation it is called the Glory of God and the Glory of the Lord and wheresover God as Supream Monarch
together by a Triumvirate of Arians Jews and Pagans who were all of them known Impostors in the Ages wherein they lived So that to confront Christianity with any of these is to light up a Rush Candle and resolve to outface the Sun with it For as for Christianity 't is a Religion made up of the most divine and Godlike Institutions its Precepts being such as are most worthy of God enjoining nothing but what is either true Godliness and most generous Morality or what are the most efficacious Means and Instruments of promoting them And as for its Doctrine it partly consists of those Principles of Natural Religion which all wise Men of whatsoever Nation or Religion have owned and acknowledged such as the Existence Vnity and Providence of the Godhead the Imortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments of Another Life together with the great Day of Accounts wherein Men shall receive according to what they have done in the Flesh And even the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is the profoundest Mystery of all our Religion hath been owned and professed by the greatest and most famous Philosophers that ever were And as for those Doctrines that are purely Christian such as the Birth and Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour together with his Sitting on the Right-hand of God and coming at the last Day to judge the World they are all of them so excellently contrived to serve the great Ends of Religion so wonderfully pregnant with Motives and Arguments to engage Men to the greatest Purity and Goodness that by their own native Beauty and excellent Contrivance they manifest themselves to be the Products of a divine Wisdom So that there can be no reasonable Pretence to contemn Christianity either because it is a Revealed Religion or because it contains any thing in it that is any ways unworthy of the Revealer And that there wants not sufficient Evidence to demonstrate it to be the Revelation of God I have already proved in the former Inference So that after all the lewd Talk of these confident Men it 's apparent there is not the least Colour of Reason for their impious Censures of Christianity But alas it's evident that the Foundation of their Quarrel against it lies not so much in their Reason as their Lusts Christianity lays them under severe Restraints and will not permit them to be wicked in quiet which provokes them to arm their Wit and the little Reason that they have against it that so having baffled or rather laughed themselves out of their Religion they may be left at liberty to play the Fools and Mad-men without Controul or Disturbance And I make no doubt but if instead of that strict Piety and Virtue which Christianity enjoins it had but indulged to them the Liberties of the Heathen Religion so that they could have but acted all their Wickedness with Devotion sacrificed to the Gods in drunken Bowls and worshiped in the Arms of a Strumpet there are no Men in the World would have been more zealous Christians than they But let no Man be so foolish as to imagine that he can alter the Nature of Things by laughing at them or that Christianity will cease to be true in Compliance with our wicked Interest and Desires no no Things will be as they are in despite of us and howsever we will please to fancy them And if after all our rude Contempts of Religion it be found to be true as I doubt not but it will we shall be sensible when it is too late that it had been more for our Safety to have play'd before the Mouth of a Cannon while it is spitting Fire or to have catch'd hold of a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds than to have plaid with Religion and made it the Subject of our impious Scorns and Buffooneries 4. And lastly They saw the Glory of his immaculate Holiness and Purity From whence I infer that Holiness and true Goodness is the greates Glory and Honour to humane Nature For this was the Glory of the Son of God himself when he assumed our Nature and dwelt among us and there is nothing more glorious in Christ than his Goodness and notwithstanding those excellent Doctrines that he preached those stupendous Miracles that he wrought and that visible Splendor in which he was inrobed he had not deserved the Name of a great and glorious Man if he had not been just and charitable temperate and humble and Heavenly-minded and eminent in all those divine and humane Virtues which are the proper Glory and Ornament of humane Nature For that which makes a Man more honourable then a meer Animal and advances us into the next Degree of Beings to Angels is our Reason by which alone we border upon the Divinity and do claim Kindred with the Angelical Natures That therefore which is truly our Honour and Glory consists in living according to that Reason by which we are advanced above all sublunary Natures that is in governing our Passions and Appetites Words and Actions according to those Eternal Rules of Righteousness which Right Reason dictates to us and if instead of doing thus we wholly resign up our selves to the Dominion of our brutish and unreasonable Inclinations we thereby render our selves more despicable and infamous than the most beastly Brutes in all the Creation and even those Goats and Wolves and Swine and Tygers whom we resemble in our beastly Manners could they see our Shame would doubtlesly hiss at us and reproach us for Greater Beasts than themselves for they all live up to the best of their Natures and regularly pursue the highest End for which they were created whereas we who are Allyed to the noblest of Beings and are created and designed for the most glorious Ends do by our base and unreasonable Condescentions shamefully under-value our selves in pursuing no Ends but what are extremely unworthy of us So that it had been much more for our Honour and Reputation to have assumed the Shape and Nature of Brutes when we assumed their Manners and Customs for then our Actions would have very well become us and neither God nor Men could have justly upbraided us for them But to lead the Lives of Brutes in the Shape and Nature of Men is monstrous 't is to advance the Beast above the Man to place our Heels where Nature hath placed our Head and become our own Reverse and Antipodes OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scripture JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life BY the Scriptures here must be meant the Old Testament for as yet the greatest Part of the New was unrevealed and the whole of it unwritten They were those very Scriptures was now preaching owned and acknowledged to be the Word of God for in them says our Saviour ye think ye have eternal life which it's certain they did not think of any other Scriptures but only those
would not be worth our while to receive and peruse the Contents of those Sacred Epistles which by the Hands of his Holy Penmen he hath vouchsafed to direct to us Nor is it a sufficient Excuse for our Contempt to say that in Consideration of our own Proneness to Err and Mistake we ought to content our selves with this that our Spiritual Guides should Read God's Writings for us and deliver the Sense and Contents of them to us For to be sure had God intended that the Priests only should read them he would have directed them only to the Priests and ordered them only to deliver the Sense of them to the the People and therefore since he hath directed them to both this necessarily implies that it was his Intention that both should read them For if God had not directed them to Men neither Priests nor People were obliged to read them and therefore seeing the great Reason why any Men ought to Read them is because they are directed to Men this Reason obliges all Men to Read them because they are directed to all Men. For not to be highly concerned to know and understand what it is that God writes to us is an Argument that we have a very mean Regard both of his Majesty and his Mind and Will But to be sure whosoever is highly concerned to know what such a Writing contains will if he can be very curious to peruse it with his own Eyes at least supposing that it is not unlawful for him so to do because there is nothing gives that Satisfaction to a Man's Mind as the Information of his own Sense So that for Men wilfully to neglect reading the Scripture which God hath so expresly directed to them and thereby not only licensed but obliged them to read it argues a very prophane Disregard both of the Author of it and of the Matter it contains and for any Man or Society of Men to forbid the People to read what God hath written and directed to them is not only to deprive them of a Right which God hath given them but also to acquit them of a Duty which he hath laid upon them For St. Paul in those Epistles which he wrote to the Christian People in general of such and such Churches still takes it for granted that they would read them as being not only warranted but obliged thereunto by his writing them for so Ephes 3.3 4. speaking of that great Mystery of the calling the Gentiles which God had revealed to him concerning which saith he I wrote afore in few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ So also 2 Cor. 1.13 We write no other things unto you than what you read that is than what you may at least and are obliged to read by vertue of our writing them to you And as for his Epistle to the Thessalonians which he wrote to that whole Church he gives charge that it should be read to all the Holy Brethren 1 Thes 5.27 So also for that of the Colossians When this Epistle is or hath been read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea Where you see he all along either supposes or requires that what he wrote to all should be read by all and to all If therefore this Authority of St. Paul be sufficient to over rule the Authority of any pretended Successor of St. Peter then it 's certain that reading the Scripture is still the Duty of Lay-men notwithstanding any Papal Prohibition to the contrary 5. From the great Concernment the People have in the Matters contained in Scripture it is also evident that they are obliged if they are able to read it and acquaint themselves with it For as for the Matters which the Scriptures contain they are such as are of everlasting Moment to the People as well as to the Clergy The Articles of Faith which the Scripture proposes are as necessary to be believed by the People as by the Clergy The Precepts of Life which the Scripture prescribes are as necessary to be practised by the People as by the Clergy The Promises and Threats with which the Scripture inforces those Precepts are as necessary to be considered by the People as by the Clergy And seeing both are equally concerned in the great Matters which the Scriptures contain what Reason can be assigned why both should not be obliged to acquaint themselves with them I know 't is pretended that it is the proper Office of the Clergy to study the Scriptures for the People as well as for themselves and that therefore the People are obliged to receive the Sense of the Scriptures upon Trust from their Teachers without making any farther Enquiry But I beseech you are you sure that your Teachers are infallible That they are not so is most certain it being notorious that most of the prevailing Heresies of Christendom were first set on broach by the Teachers of the Church and it is impossible they should be infallible who have so often actually erred even in Matters of the highest Moment Suppose then what is fairly supposable that your Teachers should mislead you and not only into dangerous but damnable Errors are you sure that they shall be damned for you and that you shall escape If so then Heresy in the Laity can never be damnable if they receive it upon Trust from their Teachers and consequently their Souls are as safe under the Conduct of false Teachers as true provided always that right or wrong they believe what is taught them But if your selves must give an Account to God as well for your Faith as for your Manners and are liable in your own Persons to eternal Damnation as most certainly you are as well for Heresy as Immorality then it is the most unreasonable Thing in the World that you should in all Things be obliged to believe your Teachers upon Trust for at this rate a Man may be eternally damned meerly for believing what he is obliged to believe If it be said that the People are not bound to believe what their particular Pastor teaches but what the Church teaches them and the Church cannot err though their particular Pastor may I would fain know how shall the People be otherwise informed what the Church teaches them than by the Expositions of their particular Pastors they being at least as incapable of informing themselves what the Doctrine of the Church is as what the Doctrine of the Scripture is and therefore if their Pastor should err damnably in expounding to them what the Church teaches as it is supposable he may if he be not infallible there is no Remedy but they must err damnably in believing whatsoever their Pastor teaches But we are farther told that it is sufficient for the People that they believe in the gross that whatsoever the Church teaches is true and that as for the particulars there
Resemblance of a sincere Conversion for till his Interest struck in with them they signified nothing with him made not the least Impression on his Mind but being back'd with that all on a suddain they are wondrous cogent and persuasive from whence it is evident that they received their Strength and Force from his Interest without the Air of which they are not able to operate and consequently that the Change of his Faith is owing to the over-ruling Interest of his Covetousness and Ambition and not at all to the Prevalence of Reason and sincere Conviction For 't was that Interest that strongly inclined him to change before ever he knew any Reason for it and then 't was that Inclination that made his Reasons and created his Convictions and let him talk what he pleases of Reason Scripture and Authority if he was strongly inclined to change before he was moved to it by Reason and Evidence it is plain that the prevailing Motive of his Conversion was either the Fear of losing some good warm Place or the Hope of gaining some important Station or Preferment And if this be found the Truth of his Case when he comes to appear before the Tribunal of God it had been a thousand times better for him that he had never been born for then he will be found a base Deserter of his God a treacherous Judas to his Saviour and a perfidious Renegado from his Religion and according to the Quality of his Sin and Guilt receive his Portion of Damnation 4. Consider whether before you entertained any Intention to change you were fully resolved impartially to consult both sides of the Question I doubt there are too many among us that first resolve to change their Religion and then begin to enquire after Reasons and Arguments against it and that their Resolution to change is so far from being the Effect of sincere Conviction that their Conviction is the Effect of their Resolution First Some vile Affection or some temporal Interest recommends another Religion to them that either gives them leave to be wicked without Remorse or Disturbance or promises them Gain and Advancement upon which they resolve right or wrong to entertain and embrace it and then to excuse themselves to their own Consciences or to vindicate their Reputation to the World from the Scandal of being down-right Apostates they fall a hunting after Reasons and Arguments to convince themselves of the Truth of it or at least to make the World believe that it was not their Interest but their Conviction that turned them And when Men thus resolve first and enquire afterwards to be sure their Enquiry will be very partial for being fully resolved to change their Religion upon some vicious or secular Motive it is become their Interest to pick Holes in it and to reason or cavil themselves out of the Belief of it And this makes them shy of bringing the Matter under a fair and impartial Examination lest while they are seeking Reasons to overthrow their Faith they should find Reasons to establish and confirm it So that they begin their Enquiry with these secret Intentions We will listen only to one side of the Cause and leave the other to shift for it self and seek for as many Arguments as we can against our Religion but none for it We will read the Books and consult the Teachers of one side only viz. the opposite side to our present Belief and Persuasion and if among them we can but find Arguments enough to render the contrary Persuasion any way probable we will submit our Faith to it without any farther Enquiry and not trouble our selves to examine the Evidence on the other side for Fear we should be convinc'd in spight of our Teeth that the Truth lies there and then our Conscience will never let us be quiet but be perpetually clamouring against us for base and impious Apostates That this is the foul and hypocritical Intention of too many among us is notorious enough by their Practice they leap from Church to Church and from one Communion to another without any Pause or Consideration they are with us to Day and gone from us to Morrow and are such Mushroom extemporary Converts that before ever we hear they doubted of their own they are confirmed in a contrary Religion In short they steal out of their Religion so softly and with so little Noise that they are commonly gone before ever we hear they are going as if they were afraid we should stop and detain them by better Reasons and fuller Convictions Whereas had these Men any Conscience or Honesty in them they would consider that Religion is a Thing too sacred and serious to be thus dallied and trifled with and that to change ones Religion is a matter of such vast Importance as requires a long and through Consideration and a very clear and full Conviction of Mind that there is too much depends upon it to part with it upon slight Pretences and that it concerns them as much as an Eternity of Bliss amounts to not to desert it upon any other Inducement but that of a through well-weighed Persuasion of Conscience And if they had had any such honest Thoughts about them while they were under the Temptation to change they would never have admitted any Doubt of their Religion but upon great and palpable Evidence and then they would have doubted long before they would have concluded against it and not have precipiated their Judgment hand over head into a contrary Persuasion till they had first applied themselves for Resolution again and again to their old Guides and Pastors and with all due Deference to their Authority had strictly examined all their Reasons and Answers till they had throughly inspected their Arguments pro and con and equally heard both sides of the Cause till they had read advised and consulted on both sides and weighed the whole Matter over and over with the greatest Care and Exactness But when Men run away from their Religion in an Instant without ever observing this regular Process of sincere Enquiries it is a plain Case that their Wills were resolved before their Understandings and that they were converted before ever they were convinced and consequently that it was not Reason and Conviction that turned them but Lust or Interest For though when they are turned they may perhaps be very diligent to seek Conviction yet this is only an After-game which they are fain to play to save their Conscience or their Reputation 5. Consider before you entertain any Intention to change Whether it be your unfained Intention whatever shall happen to you to adhere to that side which shall appear most reasonable Perhaps you are not yet arrived to that Height of Impiety as to resolve right or wrong to change your Religion whether you find it true or false upon a just and fair Examination for this is such an horrible defiance of God such an express and absolute Renunciation of all that is