that trespass against us How few depend upon God only for their dayly bread viz. the good things of this life as upon the only giver of them so as neither to get nor keep any of them by any means which they know or fear to be offensive unto God How few desire in earnest to avoid temptation Nay who almost is there that takes not the Devils Office out of his hand and is not himself a tempter both to himself and others Lastly who almost is there that desires heartily and above all things so much as the thing deserves to be delivered from the greatest evill Sin I mean and the Anger of God Now beloved this is certain he that imployes not requisite industry to obtain what he pretends to desire does not desire indeed but only pretends to do so He that desires not what he prayes for prayes with tongue only and not with his heart indeed does not pray to God but play and dally with him And yet this is all which men generally do and therefore herein also accomplish this prophecy Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof And this were ill enough were it in private but we abuse God Almighty also with our publick and solemn formalities we make the Church a Stage whereon to act our parts and play our Pageants there we make a profession every day of confessing our sins with humble lowly and obedient hearts and yet when we have talked after this manner 20 30 40 years together our hearts for the most part continue as proud as impenitent as disobedient as they were in the beginning We make great Protestations when we assemble and meet together to render thanks to God Almighty for the benefits received at his hands and if this were to be performed with words with Hosanna's and Hallelujahs and Gloria Patri's and Psalms and Hymns and such like outward matters peradventure we should do it very sufficiently but in the mean time with our lives and actions we provoke the Almighty and that to his face with all variety of grievous and bitter provocations we do dayly and hourly such things as we know and he hath assured us to be odious unto him and contrary to his nature as any thing in the world is to the nature of any man in the world and all this upon poor trifling trivial no temptations If a man whom you had dealt well with should deal so with you one whom ye had redeemed from the Turkish slavery and instated in some indifferent good inheritance should make you fine Speeches entertain you with Panegyricks and have your prayses alwayes in your mouth but all this while do nothing that pleases you but upon all occasions put all affronts and indignities upon you Would you say this were a thankful man Nay would you not make heaven and earth ring of his unthankfulness and detest him almost as much for his fair speeches as his foul actions Beloved such is our unthankfulness to our God and Creatour to our Lord and Saviour our tongues ingeminate and cry aloud Hosanna Hosanna but the lowder voice of our lives and actions is Crucifie him Crucifie him We Court God Almighty and complement with him and profess to esteem his service perfect freedome but if any thing be to be done much more if any thing be to be suffered for him here we leave him We bow the knee before him and put a reed in his hand and a Crown upon his head and cry Hail King of the Jews But then with our customary sins we give him gall to eat and vinegar to drink we thrust a spear in his side nail him to the Cross and crucifie to our selves the Lord of Glory This is not the office of a friend to bewail a dead friend with vain lamentation Sed quae voluerit meminisse quae mandaverit exequi to remember what he desires and execute what he commands so said a dying Roman to his friend and so say I to you To be thankful to God is not to say God be praysed or God be thanked but to remember what he desires and execute what he commands To be thankful to God is certainly to love him and to love him is to keep his Commandements so saith our Saviour Joh. 19. If ye love me keep my Commandements If we do so we may justly pretend to thankfulness which believe me is not a word nor to be performed with words But if we do not so as general y we do not our talk of thankfulness is nothing else but meer talk and we accomplish Saint Pauls prophesie herein also Having a form of thankfulness but not the reality not the power of it If I should reckon up unto you how many direct lies every wicked man tels to God Almighty as often as he sayes Amen to this form of godliness which our Church hath prescribed If I should present unto you all our acting of Piety and playing of Humiliation and personating of devotion in the Psalms the Letanies the Collects and generally in the whole Service I should be infinite And therefore I have thought good to draw a vail over a great part of our Hypocrisie and to restrain the remainder of our discourse to the contrariety between our profession and performance only in two things I mean Faith and Repentance And first for Faith We profess and indeed generally because it is not safe to do otherwise that we believe the Scripture to be true and that it contains the plain and only way to infinite and eternal happiness But if we did generally believe what we do profess if this were the language of our hearts as well as our tongues How comes it to pass that the Study of it is so generally neglected Let a book that treats of the Philosophers stone promise never so many mountains of gold and even the restoring of the golden age again yet were it not marvail if few should study it and the reason is because few would believe it But if there were a book extant and ordinary to be had as the Bible is which men did generally believe to contain a plain and easie way for all men to become rich and to live in health and pleasure and this worlds happiness can any man imagine that this book would be unstudied by any man and why then should I not believe That if the Scriture were firmly and heartily believed the certain and only way to happiness which is perfect and eternal it would be studied by all men with all diligence Seeing therefore most Christians are so cold and negligent in the study of it preferr all other business all other pleasures before it is there not great reason to fear that many who pretend to believe firmly believe it not at all or very weakly and faintly If the General of an Army or an Embassadour to some Prince or State were assured by the King his Master that the transgressing any point of his Commission should cost him his
obedience and as our Saviour said of some so the Scripture could it speak I believe would say to you Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not that which I command you Cast away the vain and arrogant pretence of infallibility which makes your errors incurable Leave picturing God and worshipping him by pictures Teach not for Doctrin the commandements of men Debarr not the Laity of the Testament of Christ's Blood Let your publique Prayers and Psalms and Hymns be in such language as is for the edification of the Assistents Take not from the Clergy that liberty of Marriage which Christ hath left them Do not impose upon men that Humility of worshipping Angels which S. Paul condemns Teach no more proper sacrifices of Christ but one Acknowledg them that die in Christ to be blessed and to rest from their labours Acknowledge the Sacrament after Consecration to be Bread and Wine as well as Christs body and bloud Acknowledg the gift of continency without Marriage not to be given to all Let not the weapons of your warfare be carnal such as Massacres Treasons Persecutions and in a word all means either violent or fraudulent These and other things which the Scripture commands you do and then we shall willingly give you such Testimony as you deserve but till you do so to talk of estimation respect and reverence to the Scripture is nothing else but talk 2. For neither is that true which you pretend That we possess the Scripture from you or take it upon the integrity of your Custody but upon Universal Tradition of which you are but a little part Neither if it were true that Protestants acknowledged The integrity of it to have been guarded by your alone Custody were this any argument of your reverence towards them For first you might preserve them entire not for want of Will but of Power to corrupt them as it is a hard thing to poyson the Sea And then having prevailed so farr with men as either not to look at all into them or but only through such spectacles as you should please to make for them and to see nothing in them though as cleer as the sun if it any way made against you you might keep them entire without any thought or care to conform your doctrin to them or reform it by them which were indeed to reverence the Scriptures but out of a perswasion that you could qualify them well enough with your glosses and interpretations and make them sufficiently conformable to your present Doctrin at least in their judgement who were prepossessed with this perswasion that your Church was to Judge of the sense of Scripture not to be judged by it 3. For whereas you say No cause imaginable could avert your will for giving the function of supreme and sole Judge to holy Writ but that the thing is impossible and that by this means controversies are increased and not ended you mean perhaps That you can or will imagine no other cause but these But sure there is little reason you should measure other mens imaginations by your own who perhaps may be so clouded and vailed with prejudice that you cannot or will not see that which is most manifest For what indifferent and unprejudicate man may not easily conceive another cause which I do not say does but certainly may pervert your wills and avert your understandings from submitting your Religion and Church to a tryall by Scripture I mean the great and apparent and unavoidable danger which by this means you would fall into of losing the Opinion which men have of your Infallibility and consequently your power and authority over mens consciences and all that depends upon it So that though Diana of the Ephesians be cryed up yet it may be feared that with a great many among you though I censure or judge no man the other cause which wrought upon Demetrius and the Craftsmen may have with you also the more effectual though more secret influence and that is that by this craft we have our living by this craft I mean of keeping your Proselytes from an indifferent tryal of your Religion by Scripture and making them yield up and captivate their judgement unto yours Yet had you only said de facto that no other cause did avert your own will from this but only these which you pretend out of Charity I should have believed you But seeing you speak not of your self but of all of your Side whose hearts you cannot know and profess not only That there is no other cause but that No other is imaginable I could not let this passe without a censure As for the impossibility of Scriptures being the sole Judge of Controversies that is the sole Rule for men to judge them by for we mean nothing else you only affirm it without proof as if the thing were evident of it self And therefore I conceiving the contrary to be more evident might well content my self to deny it without refutation Yet I cannot but desire you to tell me If Scripture cannot be the Judge of any Controversie how shall that touching the Church and the Notes of it be determined And if it be the sole Judge of this one why may it not of others Why not of All Those only excepted wherein the Scripture it self is the subject of the Question which cannot be determined but by natural reason the only principle beside Scripture which is common to Christians 4. Then for the Imputation of increasing contentions and not ending them Scripture is innocent of it as also this opinion That controversies are to be decided by Scripture For if men did really and sincerely submit their judgements to Scripture and that only and would require no more of any man but to do so it were impossible but that all Controversies touching things necessary and very profitable should be ended and if others were continued or increased it were no matter 5. In the next words we have direct Boyes-play a thing given with one hand and taken away with the other an acknowledgment made in one line and retracted in the next We acknowledg say you Scripture to be a perfect rule for as much as a Writing can be a Rule only we deny that it excludes unwritten Tradition As if you should have said We acknowledg it to be as perfect a Rule as a Writing can be only we deny it to be as perfect a Rule as a writing may be Either therefore you must revoke your acknowledgment or retract your retractation of it for both cannot possibly stand together For if you will stand to what you have granted That Scripture is as perfect a Rule of Faith as a writing can be you must then grant it both so Compleat that it needs no addition and so evident that it needs no interpretation For both these properties are requisite to a perfect Rule and a writing is capable of both these properties 6. That both these properties are requisite to a perfect Rule
Zwinglius first came unto the knowledge and preaching of the Gospel Perkins saith We say that (d) In his Exposâ—t on upon the Creed Pag. 400. bâ—fore the dayes of Luther for the space of many hundâ—ed years an Universal Apostacy overspread the whole face of the earth and that our Protestant Church was not then visible to the world Napper upon the Revelations teacheth that from the year of (e) Propos 37. Pag 68. Christ three hundred and sixteen the Antichristian and Papistical raign hath begun raigning universally and without any debatable contradiction one thousand two hundred sixty years that is till Luther's time And that from the year of (f) Ibid. cap. 12. Pag. 161. col 3. Christ three hundred and sixteen God hath withdrawn his Visible Church from open Assemblies to the hearts of particular godly men c. during the space of one thousand two hundred threescore years And that the (g) Ibid. in cap. 11. Pag. 145. Pope and Clergy have possessed the outward Visible Church of Christians even one thousand two hundred threescore years And that the (h) Ibid. Pag. 191. true Church abode latent and invisible And Brocard (i) Fol. 110. 123. upon the Revelations professeth to joyn in opinion with Napper Fulk affirmeth that in the (k) Answer to a counterfeit Catholique Pag. 16. time of Boniface the third which was the year six hundred and seven the Church was invisible and fled into the wilderness there to remain a long season Luther saith Primò solus eram At the first (l) In praef at operum suorum I was alone Jacob Hailbronerus one of the Disputants for the Protestant Patty in the conference at Ratisbon affirmeth (m) In suo Acatholico vol. à . 15. cap. 9. p. 479 that the true Church was interrupted by Apostasie from the true Faith Calvin saith It is absurd in the very (n) Epist 141. beginning to break one from another after we have been forced to make a separation from the whole world It were over-long to alledge the words of Joannes Regius Daniel Chamierus Beza Ochimus Castalio and others to the same purpose The reason which cast them upon this wicked Doctrin was a desperate voluntary necessity because they being resolved not to acknowledge the Roman Church to be Christ's true Church and yet being convinced by all manner of evidence that for divers Ages before Luther there was no other Congregation of Christians which could be the Church of Christ there was no remedy but to affirm that upon earth Christ had no visible Church which they would never have avouched if they had known how to avoid the foresaid inconvenience as they apprehended it of submitting themselves to the Roman Church 10. Against these exterminating spirits D. Potter and other more moderate Protestants profess that Christ always had and always will have upon earth a Visible Church otherwise saith he our Lord's (o) Pag. 154. promise of her stable (p) Mat. 16.18 edification should be of no value And in another place having affirmed that Protestants have not left the Church of Rome but her corruptions and acknowledging her still to be a member of Christ's body he seeketh to clear himself and others from Schism because saith he the property (q) Pag. 76. of Schism is witness the Donatists and Lucitâ—rians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates And if any Zâ—lots amongst us have proceeded to heavier censures their zeal may be excused but their charity and wisdom cannot be justified And elsewhere he acknowledgeth that the Roman Church hath those main and (r) Pag. 83. essential truths which give her the name and essence of a Church 11. It being therefore granted by D. Potter and the chiefest and best learned English Protestants that Christ's Visible Church cannot perish it will be needless for me in this occasion to prove it S. Augustine doubted not to say The Prophets (s) In Psal 30. Com. 2. spoke more obscurely of Christ then of the Church because as I think they did forsee in spirit that men were to make parties against the Church and that they were not to have so great strife concerning Christ therefore that was more plainly foretold and more openly prophesied about which greater contentions were to rise that it might turn to the condemnation of them who have seen it and yet gone forth And in another place he saith How do we confide (t) Epist 48. to have received manifestly Christ himself from holy Scriptures if we have not also manifestly received the Church from them And indeed to what Congregation shall a man have recourse for the affairs of his soul if upon earth there be no Visible Church of Christ Beside to imagine a company of men believing one thing in their heart and with their mouth professing the contrary as they must be supposed to do for if they had professed what they believed they would have become Visible is to dream of a damned crew of dissembling Sycophants but not to conceive a right notion of the Church of Christ our Lord. And therefore S. Augustine saith We cannot be saved unless labouring also for the (u) S. Aug. de Fide Symbolâ— c. 1. Salvation of others we profess with our mouths the same Faith which we bear in our hearts And if any man hold it lawful to dissemble and deny matters of Faith we cannot be assured but that they actually dissemble and hide Anabaptism Arianism yea Turcism and even Atheism or any other false belief under the outward profession of Calvinism Do not Protestants teach that preaching of the World and administration of Sacraments which cannot but make a Church Visible are inseparable notes of the true Church And therefore they must either grant a Visible Church or none at all No wonder then if S. Austin account this Heresie so gross that he saith against those who in his time defended the like error But this Church which (w) In Psal 101. hath been of all Nations is no more she hath perished so say they that are in not in her O impudent speech And afterward This voice so abominable so detestable so full of presumption and falshood which is sustained with no truth inlightned with no wisdom seasoned with no salt vain rash heady pernitious the holy Ghost foresaw c. And peradventure some (x) De ovib c. â— one may say there are other sheep I know not where with which I am not acquainted yet God hath care of them But he is too absurd in humane sense that can imagine such things And these men do not consider that while then deny the perpetuity of a Visible Church they destroy their own present Church according to the argument which S. Augustine urged against the Donatists in these words (y) De Bapt. cont Donat. If the Church were lost in Cyprian's we may say in Gregory's
most certain and infallible wherein it surpasseth humane Opinion it must relie upon some motive and ground which may be able to give it certainly and yet not release it from Obscurity For if this motive ground or formal Object of Faith were any thing evidently presented to our understanding and if also we did evidently know that it had a necessary connection with the Articles which we believe our assent to such Articles could not be obscure but evident which as we said is against the nature of our faith If likewise the motive and ground of our faith were obscurely propounded to us but were not in it self infallible it would leave our assent in obscurity but could not endue it with certainty We must therefore for the ground of our faith find out a motive obscure to us but most certain in it self that the act of faith may remain both obscure and certain Such a motive as this can be no other but the divine authority of Almighty God revealing or speaking those truths which our faith believes For it is manifest that God's infallible testimony may transfâ—â—â— Certainty to our faith and yet not draw it out of obscurity because no humane discourse or demonstration can evince that God revealeth any supernatural truth since God hath been no less perfect than he is although hâ—â—â—â— never revealed any of those objects which we now believe 4 Nevertheless because Almighty God out of his infinite wisdom and sweetness doth conour with his Creatures in such sort as may befit the temper and exigence of their natures and because Man is a Creature endued with reason God doth not exact of his Will or Understanding any other then as the Apostle faith rationabile (f) Rom. 12.1 obsequium an Obedience sweetned with good reason which could not so appear if our Understanding were summoned to believe with certainty things no way represented as infallible and certain And therefore Almighty God obliging us under pain of eternal camnation to believe with greatest certainty divers verities not known by the light of natural reason cannot fail to furnish our Understanding with such inducements motives and arguments as may sufficiently perswade any mind which is not partial or passionate that the objects which we believe proceed from an Authority so Wise that it cannot be deceived so Good that it cannot deceive according to the words of David Thy Testimonies are made (g) Psal 92. credible exceedingly These inducements are by Divines called argumenta credibilitatis arguments of credibility which though they cannot make us evidently see what we believe yet they evidently convince that in one wisdom and prudence the objects of faith deserve credit and ought to be accepted as things revealed by God For without such reasons and inducements our judgment of faith could not be conceived prudent holy Scripture telling us that be who soon (h) Eccles 19. â— believes is light of heart By these arguments and inducements our Understanding is both satisfied with evidence of credibility and the objects of faith retain their obsenrity because it is a different thing to be evidently credible and evidently true as those who were present at the Miracles wrought by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles did not evidently see their doctrin to be true for then it had not been Faith but Science and all had been necessitated to believe which we see fell out otherwise but they were evidently convinced that the things confirmed by such Miracles were most credible and worthy to be imbraced as truth revealed by God 5 These evident arguments of Credibility are in great abundance found in the Visible Church of Christ perpetually existing on earth For that there hath been a company of men professing such and such doctrines we have from our next Predecessors and these from theirs upward till we come to the Apostles and our Blessed Saviour which gradation is known by evidence of sense by reading books or hearing what one man delivers to another And it is evident that there was neither cause nor possibility that men so distant in place so different in temper so repugnant in private ends did or could agree to tell one and the self same thing if it had been but a fiction invented by themselves as ancient Tertullian well saith How is it likely that so many (i) Praescript c. 28. and so great Churches should err in one saith Among many events there is not one issue the error of the Churches must needs have varied But that which among many is sound to be One is not mistaken but delivered Dare then any body say that they erred who delivered it With this never-interrupted existence of the Church are joyned the many and great miracles wrought by mâ—n of that Congregation or Church the sanctity of the persons the renowned victories over so many persecutions both of all sorts of men and of the infernal spirits and lastly the perpetual existence of so holy a Church being brought up to the Apostles themselves she comes to partake of the same assurance of truth which They by so many powerful ways did communicate to their Doctrin to the Church of their times together with the divine Certainty which they received from our blessed Saviour himself revealing to Mankind what he heard from his Father and so we conclude with Tertullian We receive it from the Churches the Churches (k) Praese c. 21. 37. from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from his Father And if we once interrupt this line of succession most certainly made known by means of holy Tradition we cannot conjoyn the present Church and doctrin with the Church and doctrin of the Apostles buâ— must invent some new means and arguments sufficient of themselves to find out and prove a true Church and faith independently of the preaching and writing of the Apostles neither of which can be known but by Tradition as is truly observed by Tertullian saying I will prescribe that (l) Praesc c. 22. there is no means to prove what the Apostles preached but by the same Church which they sounded 6 Thus then we are to proceed By evidence of manifest and incorrupt Tradition I know that there hath always been a never interrupted Succession of men from the Apostles time believing professing and practising such and such doctrines By evident arguments of credibility as Miracles Sanctity Unity c. and by all those ways whereby the Apostles and our Blessed Saviour himself confirmed their doctrin we are assured that what the said never-interrupted Church proposeth doth deserve to be accepted and acknowledged as a divine truth By evidence of Sense we see that the same Church proposeth such and such doctrins as divine truths that is as revealed and testified by Almighty God By this divine Testimony we are infallibly assured of what we believe and so the last period ground motive and formal object of our Faith is the infallible testimony of that supreme Verity which
adhere For you abuse the world and them if you pretend that they hold the first of your two principles That these particular Books are the word of God for so I think you mean either to be in it selfe evidently certain or of it self and being devested of the motives of credibility evidently credible For they are not so fond as to conceive nor so vain as to pretend that all men do assent to it which they would if it were evidently certain nor so ridiculous as to imagine that if an Indian that never heard of Christ or Scripture should by chance find a Bible in his owne Language and were able to read it that upon the reading it he would certainly without a miracle believe it to be the word of God which he could not chuse if it were evidently credible What then do they affirm of it Certainly no more than this that whatsoever man that is not of a perverse minde shall weigh with serious and mature deliberation those great moments of reason which may incline him to believe the Divine authority of Scripture and compare them with the leight objections that in prudence can be made against it he shall not chuse but finde sufficient nay abundant inducements to yeeld unto it firm faith and sincere obedience Let that learned man Hugo Grotius speak for all the rest in his Book of the truth of Christian Religion which Book whosoever attentively peruses shall find that a man may have great reason to be a Christian without dependance upon your Church for any part of it and that your Religion is no foundation of but rather a scandal and an objection against Christianity He then in the last Chapter of his second Book hath these excellent words If any be not satisfied with these arguments above-said but desires more forcible reasons for confirmation of the excellency of Christian Religion let such know that as there are variety of things which be true so are there divers wayes of proving or manifesting the truth Thus is there one way in Mathematicks another in Physicks a third in Ethicks and lastly another kind when a matter of fact is in question wherein verily we must rest content with such testimonies as are free from all suspicion of untruth otherwise down goes all the frame and use of history and a great part of the Art of Physick together with all dutifulness that ought to be between parents and children for matters of practice can no way else be known but by such testimonies Now it is the pleasure of Almighty God that those things which he would have us to believe so that the very belief thereof may be imputed to us for obedience should not so evidently appear as those things which are apprehended by sense and plain demonstration but only be so farre forth revealed as may beget faith and a perswasion thereof in the hearts and minds of such as are not obstinate That so the Gospel may be as a touch-stone for triall of mens judgements whether they be sound or unsound For seeing these arguments whereof we have spoken have induced so many honest godly and wise men to approve of this Religion it is thereby plain enough that the fault of other mens infidelity is not for want of sufficient testimony but because they would not have that to be had and embraced for truth which is contrary to their wilful desires it being a hard matter for them to relinquish their honors and set at naught other commodities which thing they know they ought to do if they admit of Christ's doctrin and obey what he hath commanded And this is the rather to be noted of them for that many other historical narrations are approved by them to be true which notwithstanding are only manifest by authority and not by any such strong proofs and perswasions or tokens as do declare the history of Christ to be true 52. And now you see I hope that Protestants neither do need nor protend to any such evidence in the doctrin they believe as cannot well consist both with the essence and the obedience of faith Let us come now to the last Nullity which you impute to the faith of Protestants and that is want of Prudence Touching which point as I have already demonstrated that wisdome is not essential to faith but that a man may truly believe truth though upon insufficient motives So I doubt not but I shall make good that if prudence were necessary to faith we have better title to it than you and that if a wiser then Solomon were here he should have better reason to believe the Religion of Protestants than Papists the Bible rather than the Councel of Trent But let us hear what you can say 53. Ad § 31. You demand then first of all What wisdome was it to forsake a Church confessedly very ancient and besides which there could be demonstrated no other Visible Church of Christ upon earth I answer Against God and truth there lies no Prescription and therefore certainly it might be great wisdome to forsake ancient errors for more ancient Truths One God is rather to be follow'd then innumerable worlds of men And therefore it might be great wisdome either for the whole Visible Church nay for all the men in the world having wandred from the way of Truth to return unto it or for a part of it nay for one man to do so although all the world besides were madly resolute to do the contrary It might be great wisdome to forsake the errors though of the only Visible Church much more of the Roman which in conceiving her self the whole Visible Church does somwhat like the Frog in the Fable which thought the ditch he liv'd in to be all the world 54. You demand again What wisdome was it to forsake a Church acknowledg'd to want nothing necessary to Salvation indued with Succession of Bishops c. usque ad Election or Choice I answer Yet might it be great wisdome to forsake a Church not acknowledged to want nothing necessary to salvation but accused and convicted of Many damnable errors certainly damnable to them who were convicted of them had they still persisted in them after their conviction though perhaps pardonable which is all that is acknowledg'd to such as ignorantly continued in them A Church vainly arrogating without possibility of proof a perpetual Succession of Bishops holding alwaies the same doctrin and with a ridiculous impudence pretending perpetual possession of all the world whereas the world knowes that a little before Luther's arising your Church was confined to a part of a part of it Lastly a Church vainly glorying in the dependance of other Churches upon her which yet she supports no more than those crouching Anticks which seem in great buildings to labour under the weight they bear do indeed support the Fabrick For a corrupted and salfe Church may give authority to preach the truth and consequently against her own falshoods and corruptions Besides a
and art afraid of the faces of men thou abhorrest the light And yet darest out-face him whose Eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun Thou wouldest not have the confidence to commit filthiness if thy friend were in company And yet what injury is done to him by it what Commandement of his doest thou transgress in it Or if thou didst What power or authority has he over thee to punish thee Thou wouldest be ashamed to commit such a sin if thy Servant were by one whom thou art so farr from being afraid of that himself his words almost his very thoughts are in thy power Nay if a child were in company thou wouldst not have the face to do it 16. Thou canst not deny but respect to a friend to a servant even to a child will with-hold thee from such practises and yet withall confessest that Almighty God whom thou professest to serve to fear and to love that he all the while looks upon thee and observes thee his Eyes are never removed from thee and which is worse though thou mayest endeavour to forget and blot such actions out of thy remembrance yet it is impossible he should ever forget them He keeps a Register of all thy sins which no time shall ever be able to deface And what will it then profit thee to live a close conceal'd sinner from the world or to gain amongst men the reputation of a devout religious Christian when in the mean time thine own Heart and Conscience shall condemn thee Nay when Almighty God who is greater then thy Heart and knoweth all things when he shall be able to object unto thee all thy close ungodly projects all thy bosome private lusts yea when that conceit wherein thou didst so much please thy self of being able to delude and blind the observation of the World shall nothing avail thee but whatsoever mischiefs thou hast contrived in thy Closet whatsoever abominations thou hast practised in thy Bed all these with each aggravating Circumstance shall be discovered in the presence of all men and Angels and Devils when Satan whom before thou madest an Instrument and Bawd unto thy lusts to whose counsels and suggestions thou before would'st only hearken shall be the most forward and eager to appeach thee 17. When thou art brought to such an exigent as this which without a timely unfeigned repentance as sure as there is a God in Heaven thou shalt at last be brought to what will then they orthodox opinions do thee good what will it then profit thee to say Thou never didst maintain any impious dishonourable Tenents concerning God or any of his glorious Attributes Yea how happy hadst thou been if worse than the most ignorant heathenish Atheist no thought or consideration of God had entred into thy heart For this professing thy self a Christian rightly instructed in the knowledge of God will prove heavier to thee than a thousand milstones hanged about thy neck to sink thee into the bottome of that comfortless Lake of fire and brimstone For for example What a strange plea would it be for a Murderer to say I confess I have committed such or such a murder but all the excuse which I can alledge for my self is that I was well studied in the Laws which forbad murder and I knew that my Judge who tyed me to the observance of this Law upon pain of death was present and observ'd me when I commited the Fact Surely it would be more tolerable for him to say I never heard of any such Law or Judge or if I have been told of such things I gave but little heed to the report I did not at all believe it For though this plea will be very insufficient to acquit the malefactor yet it will be much more advantageous than the former for what were that but to flour the Judge to his face and to pretend a respectful worthy opinion of him for this end that his contempt and negligence in performing his Commandements may be more extream and inexcusable and by consequence without all hope or expectation of pardon I need make no application of the example the Similitude doth sufficiently apply it self 18. Therefore it I were to advise any man who is resolved by his practice to contradict that opinion which he saith he hath of God or that is not resolved to live with that reverence and awfulness due to the Majesty of Almighty God in whose presence he alwaies is I would counsel him not to believe himself when he professes the Omnipresence or Omniscience of God For without all contradiction though by living in a Nation where every one with whom he converses professeth so much he may have learned to say There is a God and that this God is every where present and takes particular notice of whatsoever is done in heaven and earth yet if this Notion were firmly rooted in his soul as a matter of Religion as a business upon which depends the everlasting welfare of his soul and body it is altogether impossible for him to continue in an habitual practice of such things as are evidently repugnant and destructive to such a conceit For tell me Would any man in his right senses when he shall see another drink down a poyson which he knows will suddenly prove mortal unto him I say will any man be so mad as to believe such a one though he should with all the most earnest protestations that can be imagined profess that he is not weary of his life but intends to prolong it as long as God and Nature will give him leave 19. The Case is altogether in each point and circumstance the same For he which saith He believeth or assenteth to any doctrine as a fundamental point of his Religion intends thus much by it that he has bound himself in certain bonds unto Almighty God for so the very name of Religion doth import to expect no benefit at all from him but upon condition of believing such divine Truths as it shall please him to reveal unto him namely as means and helps of a devout religious life and worship of him For God reveals nothing of himself to any man for this end to satisfie his curiosity or to afford him matter of discourse or news but to instruct him how he may behave himself here in this life that he may attain those promises which shall be fulfilled to those who sincerely and devoutly serve and obey him 20. Therefore he that shall say I believe such a Truth revealed by God and yet lives as if he had never heard of such a thing yea as if he had been perswaded of the contrary is as much to be believed as if he should say I will drink a deadly poyson to quench my thirst or will stab my self to the heart for physick to let out superfluous bloud So that that man who is not resolved to break off his wicked courses by repentance and conversion unto God that lives as if the
Christ as well from being a Judge to condemn the wicked For with as much reason and as great ease he might have given him a Writ of Ease a discharge from that Office as well as the other 55. And now I could wish I had said nothing all this while and likely enough so could you But it grieves me that the portion of time allowed me will not suffer me in any reasonable proportion to contemplate the wonderful mercy and goodness of God who to do us good has given such power to our Nature in Christ to make a new Heaven and a new Earth to restore a new Generation of creatures ten times more glorious and perfect than the first Only now tell me Did not S. Paul with good reason speaking of the Resurrection of Christ give it an advantage and pre-eminence even above his death Is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text the Yea rather verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of great moment and weight Since the Resurrection of Christ actuates and ripens the fruit of Christs Death which without it would have withered and been of no help to us Is not the Doctrine of Christs Resurrection and exaltation with as good reason made an Article of our Creed and as necessarily if not rather to be lean'd upon as any of the rest Nay hath not S. Paul epitomized the whole Creed into that one Article saying in Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt believe in thine heart Rom. 10.9 that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead thou shalt be saved 56. And now 't is time to consider who are the persons whom the Death yea rather the Resurrection of Christ will protect and warrant from condemnation In my Text as we find none to condemn so likewise we cannot light upon any to be condemned In the verse immediately before these words the Elect of God are those which are Justified and therefore must not be condemned And to say the truth though we dispute till the worlds end the event will shew that the Elect of God and only they shall reap the harvest of Christ's sufferings and bring their sheaves with them As for the wicked and Reprobates it shall not be so with them but why it shall not be so with them whether because they have wilfully excluded themselves or because God had no mind they should be any thing the better for these things I will not tell you 57. In the verses on both sides of my Text we find that We are those that must not be condemn'd We which we why Paul and the Romans Jews and Gentiles What all Jews and all Gentiles I told you I will not tell Only thus much let me tell you we may boldly maintain S. Paul's phrase nay it is unsafe and dangerous to alter it Why it is all the comfort we have to live by it is our glory and crown of rejoycing that we are those whose salvation Christ did so earnestly and unfeignedly desire and thirst after that to obtain power and authority to bestow it on us he suffered such torments and blasphemies that Never sorrow was like unto his sorrow which was done unto him wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce wrath 58. Wherefore I beseech you Beloved Brethren even by the bowels of this Jesus Christ that you would give me leave to advise you if there be any here fit to be advised by me if there be any in this company as weak and ignorant as my self And though my heart be deceitful above all things yet as far as I understand mine own heart If I speak these words out of partiality or faction let me be excluded from having my part in those merits I say let me desire you or rather let our holy Mother the Church perswade you in the 17. Article to receive Gods promises in such wise as they are generally set forth unto us in holy Scriptures 59. For consider impartially with your selves what an unreasonable horrible thing is it seeing there are so many several frequent expressions of Gods general love and gracious favour unto Mankind inforc'd and strengthned with such protestations and solemn oaths that the cunning'st Linguist of you all cannot with your whole lives study conceive or frame expressions more full and satisfactory I say then Is it not desperate madness for a man to shew such hatred and abomination at these comfortable and gracious professions of God that he can be content to spend almost his whole age in contriving and hunting after Interpretations utterly contradicting and destroying the plain apparent sense of those Scriptures and will be glad and heartily comforted to hear tidings of a New-found-out Gloss to pervert and rack and torment Gods holy word 60. On the other side Far be it from us to think that it is in our power when we list or have a mind to it to put our selves in the number of Gods elect faithful servants Or to imagine that we have God so sure chain'd and fettered to us by his Promises that we may dispense now then for the commission of a delightful gainful crime Or that when we have business for a sin to advantage us in our fortunes we need not be too scrupulous about it seeing God is bound upon our sorrow and contrition to receive us again into favour Thou wretched Fool Darest thou make an advantage of Gods goodness to assist and patronize thy security 'T is true God has promised Remission of sins to a repentant contrite sinner but has he assur'd thee that he will give thee Repentance whensoever thou pleasest to allow thy self leisure to seek it No Know that there is a time and presuming Security like sleep doth hasten and add wings to that time when there will be found no way for Repentance though thou seekest it with tears And thus more than I meant for the persons 61. And now what remains but that we try an experiment That we may know in what a comfortable state Christ hath set us let us consider and look about us to see if we can find any enemies that are likely to do us any harm For which purpose we shall not meet with a more acurate Spy and Intelligencer than S. Paul who in the remainder of his Chapter after my Text hath mustered them together in one Roll. But first there is one if he were our adversary he would be in stead of a thousand enemies unto us and that is GOD. But him we are sure of in the verse before my Text For it is he that Justifies therefore surely he will not condemn Therefore what say you to Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or the Sword Why these are not worthy the naming for over all these we are more than conquerours More than conquerours what is that Why they are not only overcome and disarm'd but they are brought over to our faction they war on our side 62. Well in the next
whosoever persist in Division from the Communion and Faith of the Roman Church are guilty of Schism and Heresie That in regard of the Precept of Charity towards one's self Protestants are in state of sin while they remain divided from the Roman Church To all these Assertions I will content my self for the present to oppose this one That not one of them all is true Only I may not omit to tell you that if the first of them were as true as the Pope himself desires it should be yet the Corollary which you deduce from it would be utterly inconsequent That Whosoever denies any Point proposed by the Church is injurious to God's Divine Majesty as if He could deceive or be deceived For though your Church were indeed as Infallible a Propounder of Divine Truths as it pretends to be yet if it appeared not to me to be so I might very well believe God most true and your Church most false As though the Gospel of S. Matthew be the Word of God yet if I neither knew it to be so nor believed it I might believe in God and yet think that Gospel a Fable Hereafter therefore I must entreat you to remember that our being guilty of this impiety depends not only upon your being but upon our knowing that you are so Neither must you argue thus The Church of Rome is the Infallible Propounder of Divine Verities therefore he that opposeth Her calls God's Truth in Question But thus rather The Church of Rome is so and Protestants know it to be so therefore in opposing her they impute to God that either he deceives them or is deceived himself For as I may deny something which you upon your knowledge have affirmed and yet never disparage your honesty if I never knew that you affirmed it So I may be undoubtedly certain of God's Omniscience and Veracity and yet doubt of something which he hath revealed provided I do not know nor believe that he hath revealed it So that though your Church be the appointed witness of God's Revelations yet until you know that we know she is so you cannot without foul calumny impute to us That we charge God blasphemously with deceiving or being deceived You will say perhaps That this is directly consequent from our Doctrine That the Church may err which is directed by God in all her Proposals True if we knew it to be directed by him otherwise not much less if we believe and know the contrary But then if it were consequent from our Opinion have you so little Charity as to say that men are justly chargeable with all the consequences of their Opinions Such Consequences I mean as they do not own but disclaim and if there were a necessity of doing either would much rather forsake their Opinion than imbrace those Consequences What opinion is there that draws after it such a train of portentous blasphemies as that of the Dominicans by the judgement of the best Writers of your own Order And will you say now that the Dominicans are justly chargeable with all those Blasphemies If not seeing our case take it at the worst is but the same why should not your judgment of us be the same I appeal to all those Protestants that have gone over to your Side whether when they were most averse from it they did ever deny or doubt of God's Omniscience or Veracity whether they did ever believe or were taught that God did deceive them or was deceived himself Nay I provoke to you your self and desire you to deal truly and to tell Us whether you do in your heart believe that we do indeed not believe the eternal Veracity of the eternal Verity And if you judge so strangely of us having no better ground for it than you have or can have we shall not need any farther proof of your uncharitableness towards us this being the extremity of true uncharitableness If not then I hope having no other ground but this which sure is none at all to pronounce us damnable Heretiques you will cease to do so and hereafter as if your ground be true you may do with more Truth and Charity collect thus They only err damnably who oppose what they know God hath testified But Protestants sure do not oppose what they know God hath testified at least we cannot with Charity say they do Therefore they either do not err damnably or with Charity we cannot say they do so 13. Ad. § 17. Protestants you say according to their own grounds must hold that of persons contrary in whatsoever Point of Belief one part only can be saved therefore it is strangely done of them to charge Papists with want of Charity for holding the same The Consequence I acknowledge but wonder much what it should be that lays upon Protestants any necessity to do so You tell us it is their holding Scripture the sole Rule of Faith For this you say obligeth them to pronounce them damned that oppose any least Point delivered in Scripture This I grant If they oppose it after sufficient declaration so that either they know it to be contained in Scripture or have no just probable Reason and which may move an honest man to doubt Whether or no it be there contained For to oppose in the first case in a man that believes the Scripture to be the Word of God is to give God the lye To oppose in the second is to be obstinate against Reason and therefore a sin though not so great as the former But then this is nothing to the purpose of the necessity of damning all those that are of contrary belief and that for these Reasons First because the contrary belief may be touching a Point not at all mentioned in Scripture and such Points though indeed they be not matters of Faith yet by men in variance are often over-valued and esteemed to be so So that though it were damnable to oppose any Point contained in Scripture yet Persons of a contrary belief as Victor and Polycrates S. Cyprian and Stephen might both be saved because their contrary belief was not touching any Point contained in Scripture Secondly because the contrary belief may be about the sense of some place of Scripture which is ambiguous and with probability capable of divers senses and in such cases it is no marvel and sure no sin if several men go several ways Thirdly because the contrary belief may be concerning Points wherein Scripture may with so great probability be alledged on both sides which is a sure note of a Point not-necessary that men of honest and upright hearts true lovers of God and of Truth such as desire above all things to know God's will and to do it may without any fault at all some go one way and some another and some and those as good men as either of the former suspend their judgments and expect some Elias to solve doubts and reconcile repugnancies Now in all such Questions one side or other which
the Jewish Church endued with an absolutely infallible direction in case of moment as all Points belonging to divine Faith are Now the Church of Christ our Lord was before the Scriptures of the New Testament which were not written instantly nor all at one time but successively upon several occasions and some after the decease of most of the Apostles and after they were written they were not presently known to all Churches and of some there was doubt in the Church for some Ages after our Saviour Shall we then say that according as the Church by little and little received holy Scripture she was by the like degrees devested of her possessed Infallibility and power to decide Controversies in Religion That sometime Churches had one Judge of Controversies and others another That with moneths or years as new Canonical Scripture grew to be published the Church altered her whole Rule of Faith or Judge of Controversies After the Apostles time and after the writing of Scriptures Heresies would be sure to rise requiring in God's Church for their discovery and condemnation Infallibility either to write new Canonical Scripture as was done in the Apostles time by occasion of emergent Heresies or Infallibility to interpret Scriptures already written or without Scripture by divine unwritten Traditions and assistance of the holy Ghost to determine all Controversies as Tertullian saith The soul is h De test aniâ— cap. 5. before the letter and speech before Books and sense before style Certainly such addition of Scripture with derogation or substraction from the former power and infallibility of the Church would have brought to the world division in matters of faith and the Church had rather lost than gained by holy Scripture which ought to be farr from our tongues and thoughts it being manifest that for decision of Controversies Infallibility setled in a living Judge is incomparably more useful and fit than if it were conceived as inherent in some inanimate writing Is there such repugnance betwixt Infallibility of the Church and Existence of Scripture that the production of the one must be the destruction of the other Must the Church wax dry by giving to her Children the milk of sacred Writ No No. Her Infallibility was and is derived from an inexhausted Fountain If Protestants will have the Scripture alone for their Judge let them first produce some Scripture affirming that by the entring thereof Infallibility went out of the Church D. Potter may remember what himself teacheth That the Church is still endued with Infallibility in Points Fundamental and consequently that Infallibility in the Church doth well agree with the truth the sanctity yea with the sufficiency of Scripture for all matters necessary to Salvation I would therefore gladly know out of what Text he imagineth that the Church by the coming of Scripture was deprived of Infallibility in some Points and not in others He affirmeth that the Jewish Synagogue retained infallibility in herself notwithstanding the writing of the Old Testament and will he so unworthily and unjustly deprive the Church of Christ of Infallibility by reason of the New Testament Especially if we consider that in the Old Testament Laws Ceremonies Rites Punishments Judgements Sacraments Sacrifices c. were more particularly and minutely delivered to the Jews than in the New Testament is done our Saviour leaving the determination or declaration of particulars to his Spouse the Church which therefore stands in need of Infallibility more than the Jewish Synagogue D. Potter i Pag. 24. against this argument drawn from the power and infallibility of the Synagogue objects That we might as well inserr that Christians must have one Soveraign Prince over all because the Jews had one chief Judge But the disparity is very clear The Synagogue was a type and figure of the Church of Christ not so their civil Government of Christian Common-wealths or Kingdoms The Church succeeded to the Synagogue but not Christian Princes to Jewish Magistrates And the Church is compared to a house or k Heb. 13. family to an l Cant. 2. Army to a m 1 Cor. 10. Ephes 4. body to a n Mat. 12. kingdom c. all which require one Master one General one head one Magistrate one spiritual King as our blessed Saviour with fict Unum ovile o Joan. c. 10. joyned Unus Pastor One Sheepsold One Pastour But all distinct Kingdoms or Common-wealths are not one Army Family c. And finally it is necessary to Salvation that all have recourse to one Church but for temporal weale there is no need that all submit or depend upon one temporal Prince Kingdom or Common-wealth and therefore our Saviour hath left to his whole Church as being One one Law one Scripture the same Sacraments c. Whereas Kingdoms have their several Laws different governments diversity of Powers Magistracy c. And so this objection returneth upon D. Potter For as in the One Community of the Jews there was one Power and Judge to end debates and resolve difficulties so in the Church of Christ which is One there must be some one Authority to decide all Controversies in Religion 24. This Discourse is excellently proved by ancient S. Irenaeus p Lib. 5. c. 4. in these words What if the Apostles had not lest Scriptures ought we not to have followed the order of Tradition which they delivered to those to whom they committed the Churches to which order many Nations yield assent who believe in Christ having Salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit of God without letters or lake and diligent keeping ancient Tradition It is easie to receive the truth from God's Church seeing the Apostles have most fully deposited in her as in a rich store-house all things belonging to truth For what if there should arise any contention of some small question ought we not to have recourse to the most ancient Churches and from them to receive what is certain and clear concerning the present question 25. Besides all this the doctrine of Protestants is destructive of it self For either they have certain and infallible means not to err in interpreting Scripture or they have not If not then the Scripâ—ure to them cannot be a sufficient ground for infallible Faith nor a meet Judge of Controversies If they have certain infallible means and so cannot err in their interpretations of Scriptures then they are able with infallibility to hear examine and determine all Controversies of Faith and so they may be and are Judges of Controversies although they use the Scripture as a Rule And thus against their own doctrin they constitute another Judge of Controversies besides Scripture alone 26. Lastly I ask D. Potter Whether â—his Assertion Scripture alone is Judge of all Controversies in Faith be a fundamental Point of Faith or no He must be well advised before he say that it is a Fundamental Point For he will have against him as many Protestants as teach that by Scripture alone it
to whom you write though they verily think they are Christians and believe the Gospel because they assent to the truth of it and would willingly die for it yet indeed are Infidels and believe nothing The Scripture tels us The heart of man knoweth no man but the spirit of man which is in him And Who are you to take upon you to make us believe that we do not believe what we know we do But if I may think verily that I believe the Scripture and yet not believe it how know you that you believe the Roman Church I am as verily and as strongly perswaded that I believe the Scripture as you are that you believe the Church And if I may be deceived why may not you Again what more ridiculous and against sense and experience than to affirm That there are not millions amongst you and us that believe upon no other reason than their education and the authority of their Parents and Teachers and the opinion they have of them The tenderness of the subject and aptness to receive impressions supplying the defect and imperfection of the Agent And will you proscribe from heaven all those believers of your own Creed who do indeed lay the foundation of their Faith for I cannot call it by any other name no deeper than upon the authority of their Father or Master or Parish-Priest Certainly if these have no true faith your Church is very full of Infidels Suppose Xaverius by the holiness of his life had converted some Indians to Christianity who could for so I will suppose have no knowledge of your Church but from him and therefore must last of all build their faith of the Church upon their opinion of Xaverius Do these remain as very Pagans after their conversion as they were before Are they brought to assent in their souls and obey in their lives the Gospel of Christ only to be Tantaliz'd and not saved and not benefited but deluded by it because forsooth it is a man and not the Church that begets faith in them What if their motive to believe be not in reason sufficient Do they therefore not believe what they do believe because they do it upon insufficient motives They choose the Faith imprudently perhaps but yet they do choose it Unless you will have us believe that that which is done is not done because it is not done upon good reason which is to say that never any man living ever did a foolish action But yet I know not why the Authority of one holy man which apparently hath no ends upon me joyn'd with the goodness of the Christian faith might not be a far greater and more rational motive to me to imbrace Christianity than any I can have to continue in Paganism And therefore for shame if not for love of Truth you must recant this fancy when you write again and suffer true faith to be many times where your Churches infallibility hath no hand in the begetting of it And be content to tell us hereafter that we believe not enough and not go about to perswade us we believe nothing for fear with telling us what we know to be manifestly false you should gain only this Not to be believed when you speak truth Some pretty sophisms you may haply bring us to make us believe we believe nothing but wise men know that Reason against Experience is alwaies Sophistical And therefore as he that could not answer Zeno's subtilties against the existence of Motion could yet confute them by doing that which he pretended could not be done So if you should give me a hundred Arguments to perswade me because I do not believe Transubstantiation I do not believe in God and the Knots of them I could not unty yet I should cut them in pieces with doing that and knowing that I do so which you pretend I cannot do 50. In the thirteenth Division we have again much ado about nothing A great deal of stir you keep in confuting some that pretend to know Canonical Scripture to be such by the Titles of the Books But these men you do not name which makes me suspect you cannot Yet it is possible there may be some such men in the world for Gusmen de Alfarache hath taught us that The Fools hospital is a large place 51. In the fourteenth § we have very artificial jugling D. Potter had said That the Scripture he desires to be understood of those books wherein all Christians agree is a principle and needs not be proved among Christians His reason was because that needs no farther proof which is believed already Now by this you say he means either that the Scripture is one of these first Principles and most known in all Sciences which cannot be proved which is to suppose it cannot be proved by the Church and that is to suppose the Question Or he means That it is not the most known in Christianity and then it may be proved Where we see plainly That two most different things Most known in all Sciences and Most known in Christianity are captiously confounded As if the Scripture might not be the first and most known Principle in Christianity and yet not the most known in all Sciences Or as if to be a First Principle in Christianity and in all Sciences were all one That Scripture is a Principle among Christians that is so received by all that it need not be proved in any emergent Controversie to any Christian but may be taken for granted I think few will deny You your selves are of this a sufficient Testimony for urging against us many texts of Scripture you offer no proof of the truth of them presuming we will not question it Yet this is not to deny that Tradition is a Principle more known than Scripture But to say It is a Principle not in Christianity but in Reason nor proper to Christians but common to all men 52. But It is repugnant to our practice to hold Scripture a Principle because we are wont to affirm that one part of Scripture may be known to be Canonical and may be interpreted by another Where the former device is again put in practice For to be known to be Canonical and to be interpreted is not all one That Scripture may be interpreted by Scripture that Protestants grant and Papists do not deny neither does that any way hinder but that this assertion Scripture is the word of God may be among Christians a common Principle But the first That one part of Scripture may prove another part Canonical and need no proof of its own being so for that you have produced divers Protestants that deny it but who they are that affirm it nondum constat 53. It is superfluous for you to prove out of S. Athanasius and S. Austine that we must receive the sacred Canon upon the credit of Gods Church Understanding by Church as here you explain your self The credit of Tradition And that not the Tradition of the Present
of Irenaeus alledged here by you is utterly and plainly impertinent Or whether by this discourse you mean as I think you do not your Discourse but your Conclusion which you discourse on that is that Your Church is the Infallible Judge in Controversies For neither hath Irenaeus one syllable to this purpose neither can it be deduced out of what he says with any colour of consequence For first in saying What if the Apostles had not left Scripture ought we not to have followed the order of Tradition And in saying That to this order many Nations yield assent who believe in Christ having Salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit of GOD without Letters or Ink and diligently keeping ancient Tradition Doth he not plainly shew that the Tradition he speaks of is nothing else but the very same that is written nothing but to believe in Christ To which whether Scripture alone to them that believe it be not a sufficient guide I leave it to you to judge And are not his words just as if a man should say If God had not given us the light of the Sun we must have made use of Candles and Torches If we had no eyes we must have felt out our way If we had no legs we must have used crutches And doth not this in effect import that while we have the Sun we need no Candles While we have our eyes we need not feel out our way While we enjoy our legs we need not crutches And by like reason Irenaeus in saying If we had no Scripture we must have followed Tradition and they that have none do well to do so Doth he not plainly import that to them that have Scripture and believe it Tradition is unnecessary Which could not be if the Scripture did not contain evidently the whole Tradition Which whether Irenaeus believed or no these words of his may inform you Non enim per alios c. we have received the disposition of our Salvation from no others but from them by whom the Gospel came unto us Which Gospel truly the Apostles first preached and afterwards by the will of God delivered in writing to us to be the Pillar and Foundation of our Faith Upon which place Bellarmine's two Observations and his acknowledgment ensuing upon them are very considerable and as I conceive as home to my purpose as I would wish them His first Notandum is That in the Christian Doctrin some things are simply necessary for the Salvation of all men as the knowledge of the Articles of the Apostle's Creed and besides the knowledge of the ten Commandments and some of the Sacraments Other things are not so necessary but that a man may be saved without the explicit knowledge and belief and profession of them His second Note is That those things which were simply necessary the Apostles were wont to preach to all men But of other things not all to all but some things to all to wit those things which were profitable for all other things only to Prelates and Priests These things premised he acknowledgeth That all those things were written by the Apostles which are necessary for all and which they were wont openly to preach to all But that other things were not all written And therefore when Irenaeus says that the Apostles wrote what they preached in the World it is true saith he and not against Traditions because they preached not to the People all things but only those things which were necessary or profitable for them 145. So that at the most you can infer from hence but only a suppositive necessity of having an infallible Guide and that grounded upon a false supposition in case we had no Scripture but an absolute necessity hereof and to them who have and believe the Scripture which is your Assumption cannot with any colour from hence be concluded but rather the contrary 146. Neither because as He says it was then easie to receive the Truth from God's Church then in the Age next after the Apostles Then when all the Ancient and Apostolique Churches were at an agreement about the Fundamentals of Faith Will it therefore follow that now 1600 years after when the ancient Churches are divided almost into as many Religions as they are Churches every one being the Church to it self and Heretical to all other that it is as easie but extreamly difficult or rather impossible to find the Church first independently of the true Doctrin and then to find the truth by the Church 147. As for the last clause of the sentence it will not any whit advantage but rather prejudice your Assertion Neither wil I seek to avoid the pressure of it by saying that he speaks of small Questions and therefore not of Questions touching things necessary to Salvation which can hardly be called small Questions But I will favour you so far as to suppose that saying this of small Questions it is probable he would have said it much more of the Great but I will answer that which is most certain and evident and which I am confident you your self were you as impudent as I believe you modest would not deny That the Ancient Apostolique Churches are not now as they were in Irenaeus his time then they were all at Unity about matters of Faith which Unity was a good assurance that what they so agreed in came from some one common Fountain and that no other than of Apostolique Preaching And this is the very ground of Tertullian's so often mistaken Prescription against Heretiques Variâsse debuerat Errer Ecclesiarum quod autem apud multos unum est non est erratum sed traditum If the Churches had erred they could not but have varied but that which is one among so many came not by Error but Tradition But now the case is altered and the mischief is that these ancient Churches are divided among themselves and if we have recourse to them one of them will say This is the way to heaven another that So that now in place of receiving from them certain and clear truths we must expect nothing but certain and clear contradictions 148. Neither will the Apostle's depositing with the Church all things belonging to truth be any proof that the Church shall certainly keep this depositum entire and sincere without adding to it or taking from it for this whole depositum was committed to every particular Church nay to every particular man which the Apostles converted And yet no man I think will say that there was any certainty that it should be kept whole and inviolate by every man and every Church It is apparent out of Scripture it was committed to Timothy and by him consigned to other faithful men and yet S. Paul thought it not superfluous earnestly to exhort him to the careful keeping of it which exhortation you must grant had been vain and superfluous if the not keeping of it had been impossible And therefore though Irenaeus says The Apostles fully deposited
Gods will For so it is in the 4. and 5. v. Call for Simon whose sirname is Peter he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do and at the 33. v. We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God So that though even in his Gentilism he was accepted in his present state yet if he had continued in it refused to believe in Christ after the sufficient revelation of the Gospel to him and God's will to have him believe it he that was accepted before would not have continued accepted still for then that condemnation had come upon him That light was come unto him and he loved darkness more than light So that to proceed a step farther to whom Faith in Christ is sufficiently propounded as necessary to Salvation to them it is simply necessary and fundamental to believe in Christ that is to expect remission of sins and Salvation from him upon the performance of the conditions he requires among which conditions one is that we believe what he hath revealed when it is sufficiently declared to have been revealed by him For by doing so we set to our seal that God is true and that Christ was sent by him Now that may be sufficiently declared to one all things considered which all things considered to another is not sufficiently declared and consequently that may be fundamental and necessary to one which to another is not so Which variety of Circumstances makes it impossible to set down an exact Catalogue of Fundamentals and proves your request as reasonable as if you should desire us according to the Fable to make a coat to fit the Moon in all her changes or to give you a garment that will fit all statures or to make you a Dial to serve all Meridians or to design particularly what provision will serve an Army for a year whereas there may be an Army of ten thousand there may be of one hundred thousand And therefore without setting down a Catalogue of Fundamentals in particular because none that can be given can universally serve for all men God requiring more of them to whom he gives more and less of them to whom he gives less we must content our selves by a general description to tell you what is Fundamental And to warrant us in doing so we have your own example § 19. where being engaged to give us a Catalogue of Fundamentals instead thereof you tell us only in general That all is Fundamental and not to be disbelieved under pain of damnation which the Church hath defined As you therefore think it enough to say in general That all is fundamental which the Church hath defined without setting down in particular a compleat Catalogue of all things which in any Age the Church hath defined which I believe you will not undertake to do and if you do it will be contradicted by your Fellows So in reason you might think it enough for us also to say in general That it is sufficient for any mans salvation to believe that the Scripture is true and contains all things necessary for salvation and to do his best endeavour to find and believe the true sense of it without delivering any particular Catalogue of the Fundamentals of Faith 14. Neither doth the want of such a Catalogue leave us in such a perplexed uncertainty as you pretend For though perhaps we cannot exactly distinguish in the Scripture what is revealed because it is necessary from what is necessary consequently and accidentally meerly because it is revealed yet we are sure enough that all that is necessary any way is there and therefore in believing all that is there we are sure to believe all that is necessary And if we err from the true intended sense of some nay of many obscure and ambiguous Texts of Scripture yet we may be sure enough that we err not damnably because if we do indeed desire and endeavour to find the Truth we may be sure we do so and as sure that it cannot consist with the revealed goodness of God to damn him for error that desires and indeavours to find the Truth 15. Ad § 2. The effect of this Paragraph for as much as concerns us is this That for any man to deny belief to any one thing be it great or small known by him to be revealed by Almighty God for a Truth is in effect to charge God with falshood for it is to say that God affirms that to be Truth which he either knows to be not a Truth or which he doth not know to be a Truth and therefore without all controversie this is a damnable sin To this I subscribe with hand and heart adding withall that not only he which knows but he which believes nay though it be erroneously any thing to be revealed by God and yet will not believe it nor assent unto it is in the same case and commits the same sin of derogation from Gods most perfect and pure Veracity 16. Ad § 3. I said purposely known by himself and believes himself For as without any disparagement of a mans honesty I may believe something to be false which he affirms of his certain knowledge to be true provided I neither know nor believe that he hath so affirmed So without any the least dishonour to Gods eternal never-failing veracity I may doubt of or deny some Truth revealed by him if I neither know nor believe it to be revealed by him 17. Seeing therefore the crime of calling Gods Veracity into question and consequently according to your grounds of erring Fundamentally is chargeable upon those only that believe the contrary of any one point known not by others but themselves to be testified by God I cannot but fear though I hope otherwise that your heart condemned you of a great calumny and egregious sophistry in imputing Fundamental and damnable Errors to disagreeing Protestants Because forfooth some of them disbelieve and directly wittingly and willingly oppose what others do believe to be testified by the Word of God The sophistry of your Discourse will be apparent if it be contrived into a Syllogism Thus therefore in effect you argue Whosoever disbelieves any thing known by himself to be revealed by God imputes falshood to God and therefore errs fundamentally But some Protestants disbelieve those things which Others believe to be testified by God Therefore they impute falshood to God and err Fundamentally Neither can you with any colour pretend that in these words known to be testified by God you meant not by himself but by any other Seeing he only in fact affirms that God doth deceive or is deceived who denyes some things which himself knows or believes to be revealed by God as before I have demonstrated For otherwise if I should deny belief to some things which God had revealed secretly to such a man as I had never heard of I should be guilty of calling Gods Veracity into Question which is evidently false
though I deny that it is required of us to be certain in the highest degree infallibly certain of the truth of the things which we believe for this were to know and not believe neither is it possible unless our evidence of it be it natural or supernatural were of the highest degree yet I deny not but we ought to be and may be infallibly certain that we are to believe the Religion of Christ For first this is most certain that we are in all things to do according to wisdom and reason rather than against it Secondly this is as certain That wisdom and Reason require that we should believe those things which are by many degrees more credible and probable than the contrary Thirdly this is as certain that to every man who considers impartially what great things may be said for the truth of Christianity and what poor things they are which may be said against it either for any other Religion or for none at all it cannot but appear by many degrees more credible that Christian Religion is true than the contrary And from all these premisses this conclusion evidently follows that it is infallibly certain that we are firmly to believe the truth of Christian Religion 9 Your discourse therefore touching the fourth requisite to faith which is Prudence I admit so far as to grant 1. That if we were required to believe with certainty I mean a Moral certainty things no way represented as infallible and certain I mean morally an unreasonable obedience were required of us And so likewise were it were we required to believe as absolutely certain that which is no way represented to us as absolutely certain 2. That whom God obligeth to believe any thing he will not fail to furnish their understandings with such inducements as are sufficient if they be not negligent or perverse to perswade them to believe 3. That there is an abundance of Arguments exceedingly credible inducing men to believe the Truth of Christianity I say so credible that though they cannot make us evidently see what we believe yet they evidently convince that in true wisdom and prudence the Articles of it deserve credit and ought to be accepted as things revealed by God 4. That without such reasons and inducements our choice even of the true faith is not to be commended as prudent but to be condemned of rashness and levity 10 But then for your making Prudence not only a commendation of a believer and a justification of his faith but also essential to it and part of the definition of it in that questionless you were mistaken and have done as if being to say what a man is you should define him A Reasonable creature that hath skill in Astronomy For as all Astronomers are men but all men are not Astronomers and therefore Astronomy ought not to be put into the definition of Men where nothing should have place but what agrees to all men So though all that are truly wise that is wise for eternity will believe aright yet many may believe aright which are not wise I could wish with all my heart as Moses did that all the Lords people could Prophesie That all that believe the true Religion were able according to S. Peter's injunction to give a reason of the hope that is in them a reason why they hope for eternal happiness by this way rather than any other neither do I think it any great difficulty that men of ordinary capacities if they would give their mind to it might quickly be enabled to do so But should I affirm that all true believers can do so I suppose it would be as much against experience and modesty as it is against Truth and Charity to say as you do that they which cannot do so either are not at all or to no purpose true believers And thus we see that the foundations you build upon are ruinous and deceitful and so unfit to support your Fabrick that they destroy one another I come now to shew that your Arguments to prove Protestants Heretiques are all of the same quality with your former grounds which I will do by opposing clear and satisfying Answers in order to them 11 Ad § 13. To the first then delivered by you § 13. That Protestants must be Heretiques because they opposed divers Truths propounded for divine by the Visible Church I answer It is not heresie to oppose any truth propounded by the Church but only such a Truth as is an essential part of the Gospel of Christ 2. The Doctrins which Protestants opposed were not Truths but plain and impious falshoods Neither thirdly were they propounded as Truths by the Visible Church but only by a Part of it and that a corrupted Part. 12 Ad § 14. The next Argument in the next Particle tell us That every error against any doctrin revealed by God is damnable Heresie Now either Protestants or the Roman Church must err against the word of God But the Roman Church we grant perforce doth not err damnably neither can she because she is the Catholique Church which we you say confess cannot err damnably Therefore Protestants must err against God's word and consequently are guilty of formal Heresie Whereunto I answer plainly that there be in this argument almost as many falshoods as assertions For neither is every error against any Doctrin revealed by God a damnable Heresie unless it be revealed publiquely and plainly with a command that a I should believe it 2. D. Potter no where grants that the Errors of the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable though he hopes by accident they may not actually damn some men amongst you and this you your self confess in divers places of your Book where you tell us that he allows no hope of Salvation to those amongst you whom ignorance cannot exouse 3. You beg the Question twice in taking for granted First That the Roman Church is the truly Catholique Church which without much favour can hardly pass for a part of it And again that the Catholique Church cannot fall into any error of it self damnable for it may do so and still be the Catholique Church if it retain those Truths which may be an antidote against the malignity of this error to those that held it out of a simple un-affected ignorance Lastly though the thing be true yet I might well require some proof of it from you that either Protestants or the Roman Church must err against God's word For if their contradiction be your only reason then also you or the Dominicans must be Heretiques because you contradict one another as much as Protestants and Papists 13 Ad § 15. The third Argument pretends that you have shewed already that the Visible Church is Judge of Controversies and therefore infallible from whence you suppose that it follows that to oppose her is to oppose God To which I answer that you have said only and not shewed that the Visible Church is Judg of Controversies
another age Traditive interpretations of Scripture are pretended but there are few or none to be found No Tradition but only of Scripture can derive it self from the Fountain but may be plainly prov'd either to have been brought in in such an age after Christ or that in such an age it was not in In a word there is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only for any considering man to build upon This therefore and this only I have reason to believe This I will profess according to this I will live and for this if there be occasion I will not only willingly but even gladly lose my life though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me Propose me any thing out of this Book and require whether I believe or no and seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason I will subscribe it with hand and heart as knowing no Demonstration can bee stronger than this God hath said so therefore it is true In other things I will take no mans Liberty of judgement from him neither shall any man take mine from me I will think no man the worse man nor the worse Christian I will love no man the less for differing in opinion from me And what measure I mete to others I expect from them again I am fully assured that God does not and therefore that men ought not to require any more of any man than this To believe the Scripture to be God's word to endeavour to find the true sense of it and to live according to it 57. This is the Religion which I have chosen after a long deliberation and I am verily perswaded that I have chosen wisely much more wisely than if I had guided my self according to your Churches authority For the Scripture being all true I am secur'd by believing nothing else that I shall believe no falshood as matter of faith And if I mistake the sense of Scripture and so fall into error yet am I secure from any danger thereby if but your grounds be true because endeavouring to finde the true sense of Scripture I cannot but hold my error without pertinacy and be ready to forsake it when a more true and a more probable sense shall appear unto me And then all necessary truth being as I have prov'd plainly set down in Scripture I am certain by believing Scripture to believe all necessary Truth And he that does so if his life be answerable to his faith how is it possible he should said of Salvation 58. Besides whatsoever may be pretended to gain to your Church the credit of a Guide all that and much more may be said for the Scripture Hath your Church been ancient The Scripture is more ancient Is your Church a means to keep men at unity So is the Scripture to keep those that believe it and will obey it in unity of belief in matters necessary or very profitable and in unity of Charity in points unnecessary Is your Church universal for time or place Certainly the Scripture is more universal For all the Christians in the world those I mean that in truth deserve this name do now and alwayes have believed the Scripture to be the word of God so much of it at least as contains all things necessary whereas only you say that you only are the Church of God and all Christians besides you deny it 59. Thirdly following the Scripture I follow that whereby you prove your Churches infallibility whereof were it not for Scripture what pretence could you have or what notion could we have and by so doing tacitely confess that your selves are surer of the truth of the Scripture than of your Churches authority For we must be surer of the proof than of the thing proved otherwise it is no proof 60 Fourthly following the Scripture I follow that which must be true if your Church be true for your Church gives attestation to it Whereas if I follow your Church I must follow that which though Scripture be true may be false nay which if Scripture be true must be false because the Scripture testifies against it 61. Fifthly to follow the Scripture I have God's express warrant and command and no colour of any prohibition But to believe your Church infallible I have no command at all much less an express command Nay I have reason to fear that I am prohibited to do so in these words Call no man Master on earth They fell by infidelity Thou standest by faith Be not high minded but fear The spirit of truth the world cannot receive 62. Following your Church I must hold many things not only above reason but against it if any thing be against it whereas following the Scripture I shall believe many mysteries but no impossibilities many things above reason but nothing against it many things which had they not been reveal'd reason could never have discover'd but nothing which by true reason may be confuted many things which reason cannot comprehend how they can be but nothing which reason can comprehend that it cannot be Nay I shall believe nothing which reason will not convince that I ought to believe it For reason will convince any man unless he be of a perverse mind that the Scripture is the word of God And then no reason can be greater than this God sayes so therefore it is true 63. Following your Church I must hold many things which to any mans judgement that will give himself the liberty of judgement will seem much more plainly contradicted by Scripture than the infalliblity of your Church appears to be confirm'd by it and consequently must be so foolish as to believe your Church exempted from error upon less evidence rather than subject to the common condition of mankind upon greater evidence Now if I take the Scripture only for my Guide I shall not need to do any thing so unreasonable 64. If I will follow your Church I must believe impossibilities and that with an absolute certainty upon motives which are confess'd to be but only Prudential and probable That is with a weak foundation I must firmly support a heavy a monstrous heavy building Now following the Scripture I shall have no necessity to undergoe any such difficulties 65. Following your Church I must be servant of Christ and a subject of the King but only ad placitum Papae I must be prepar'd in mind to renounce my allegiance to the King when the Pope shall declare him an Heretique and command me not to obey him and I must be prepar'd in mind to esteem Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue if the Pope shall so determine Indeed you say it is impossible he should do the later but that you know is a great question neither is it fit my obedience to God and the King should depend upon a questionable foundation And howsoever you must grant that if by an impossible supposition the Pope's commands should be contrary to the law of Christ that they of your Religion
well of the arguments but very ill of him that makes them as affirming so often without shame and conscience what he cannot but know to be plainly false and his reason is because he is so far from confessing or giving you any ground to pretend he does confess that your Religion is safe for all that are of it from whence only it will follow that all may safely embrace it that in this very place from which you take these words he professeth plainly that it is extreamly dangerous if not certainly damnable to all such as profess it when either they do or if their hearts were upright and not perversly obstinate might believe the contrary and that for us who are convinc'd in conscience that she the Roman Church errs in many things it lies upon us even under pain of damnation to forsake her in those errors And though here you take upon you a shew of great rigour and will seem to hold that in our way there is no hope of Salvation yet formerly you have been more liberal of your Charity towards us and will needs vye and contend with Doctor Potter Which of the two shall be more Charitable assuring us that you allow Protestants as much Charity as D. Potter spares you for whom he makes Ignorance the best hope of Salvation And now I appeal to any indifferâ—â—â— reader whether our disavowing to confess you free from damnable error were not as I pretend a full confutation of all that you say in these five foregoing Paragraphs And as for you I wonder what answer what evasion what shift you can devise to cleer your self from dishonesty for imputing to him almost a hundred times this acknowledgement which he never makes but very often and that so plainly that you take notice of it professeth the contrary 29. The best defence that possibly can be made for you I conceive is this that you were led into this error by mistaking a supposition of a confession for a confession a Rhetorical concession of the Doctors for a positive assertion He saies indeed of your errors Though of themselves they be not damnable to them which believe as they profess yet for us to profess what we believe not were without question damnable But to say Though your errors be not damnable we may not profess them is not to say your errors are not damnable but only though they be not As if you should say though the Church erre in points not fundamental yet you may not separate from it Or though we do erre in believing Christ really present yet our error frees us from Idolatry Or as if a Protestant should say Though you do not commit Idolatry in adoring the Host yet being uncertain of the Priests Intention to consecrate at least you expose your self to the danger of it I presume you would not think it fairly done if any man should interpret either this last speech as an acknowledgement that you do not commit Idolatry or the former as confessions that you do erre in points not fundamental that you do erre in believing the real presence And therefore you ought not so to have mistaken D. Potter's words as if he had confessed the errors of your Church not damnable when he saies no more but this though they be so or suppose or put the case they be so yet being errors we that know them may not profess them to be divine truths Yet this mistake might have been pardonable had not Doctor Potter in many places of his book by declaring his judgement touching the quality and malignity of your errors taken away from you all occasion of error But now that he saies plainly That your Church hath many wayes played the Harlot and in that regard deserv'd a Bill of divorce from Christ and the detestation of Christians page 11. That for that Mass of errors and abuses in judgement and practice which is proper to her and wherein she differs from us we judge a reconciliation impossible and to us who are convicted in conscience of her corruptions damnable page 20. That popery is the contagion or plague of the Church page 60. That we cannot we dare not communicate with her in her publique Liturgy which is manifestly polluted with gross Superstition page 68. That they who in former ages dyed in the Church of Rome dyed in many sinfull errors page 78. That they that have understanding and means to discover their errors and neglect to use them he dares not flatter them with so easie a censure as to give them hope of salvation page 79. That the way of the Roman Religion is not safe but very dangerous if not certainly damnable to such as profess it when they believe or if their hearts were upright and not perversely obstinate might believe the contrary p. 79. That your Church is but in some sense a true Church and your errors only to some men not damnable and that we who are convinc'd in conscience that she errs in many things are under pain of damnation to forsake her in those errors Seeing I say he sâ—â—â— all this so plainly and so frequently certainly your charging him falsely with this acknowledgement and building a great part not only of your discourse in this Chapter but of your whole book upon it possibly it may be palliated with some excuse but it can no way be defended with any lust apologie Especially seeing you your self more than once or twice take notice of these his severer censures of your Church and the errors of it and make your advantage of them In the first number of your first Chapter you set down three of the former places and from thence inferre That as you affirm Protestancy unrepented destroyes Salvation so D. Potter pronounces the like heavy doom against Roman Catholiques And again § 4. of the same chapter We allow Protestants as much charity as D. Potter spares us for whom he makes ignorance the best hope of salvation And c. 5. § 41. you have these words It is very strange that you judge us extreamly uncharitable in saying Protestants cannot be saved while your self avouch the same of all Learned Catholiques whom Ignorance cannot excuse Thus out of the same mouth you blow hot and cold and one while when it is for your purpose you profess D. Potter censures your errors as heavily as you do ours which is very true for he gives hope of Salvation to none among you but to those whose ignorance was the cause of their error and no sin cause of their ignorance and presently after when another project comes in your head you make his words softer than oile towards you you pretend he does and must confess That your doctrin contains no damnable error that your Church is certainly a true Church that your way to heaven is a safe way and all these acknowledgments you set down simple and absolute without any restriction or limitation whereas in the Doctor they are all so qualified that no
knowing Papist can promise himself any security or comfort from them We confess saith he the Church of Rome to be in some sense a true Church and her errors to some men not damnable we believe her Religion safe that is by Gods great mercy not damnable to some such as believe what they profess But we believe it not safe but very dangerous if not certainly damnable to such as profess it when they believe or if their hearts were upright and not perversly obstinate might believe the contrary Observe I pray you these restraining terms which formerly you have dissembled A true Church in some sense not damnable to some men a safe way that is by Gods great mercy not damnable to some And then seeing you have pretended these Confessions to be absolute which are thus plainly limited how can you avoid the imputation of an egregious Sophister You quarrel with the Doctor in the end of your Preface for using in his Book such ambiguous terms as these in some sort in some sense in some degree and desire him if he make any reply either to forbear them or to tell you roundly in what sort in what sense in what degree he understands these and the like mincing phrases But the truth is he hath not left them so ambiguous and undetermin'd as you pretend but told you plainly in what sense your Church may pass for a true Church viz. in regard we may hope that she retains those truths which are simply absolutely and indispensably necessary to Salvation which may suffice to bring those good souls to heaven who wanted means of discovering their errors this is the charitable construction in which you may pass for a Church And to what men your Religion may be safe and your errors not damnable viz. to such whom Ignorance may excuse and therefore he hath more cause to complain of you for quoting his words without those qualifications than you to find fault with him for using of them 30. That your Discourse in the 12 § presseth you as forcibly as Protestants I have shewed above I add here 1. Whereas you say that faith according to your rigid Calvinists is either so strong that once had it can never he lost or so more than weak and so much nothing that it can never be gotten That these are words without sense Never any Calvinist affirmed that faith was so weak and so much nothing that it can never be gotâ—en but it seems you wanted matter to make up your Antithesis and therefore were resolved to speak empty words rather than lose your figure Crimina rasis Librat in antithetis doctas posuisse Figuras Laudatur 2. That there is no Calvinist that will deny the Truth of this Proposition Christ died for all nor to subscribe to that sense of it which your Dominicans put upon it neither can you with coherence to the received Doctrin of your own Society deny that they as well as the Calvinists take away the distinction of sufficient and effectual grace and indeed hold none to be sufficient but only that which is effectual 3. Whereas you say They cannot make their calling certain by good works who do certainly believe that before any good works they are justified and justified by faith alone and by that faith whereby they certainly believe they are justified I answ There is no Protestant but believes that Faith Repentance and universal Obedience are necessary to the obtaining of Gods favour and eternal happiness This being granted the rest is but a speculative Controversie a Question about words which would quickly vanish but that men affect not to understand one another As if a company of Physitians were in consultation and should all agree that three medicines and no more were necessary for the recovery of the Patients health this were sufficient for his direction towards the recovery of his health though concerning the proper and specifical effects of these three medicines there should be amongst them as many differences as men So likewise being generally at accord that these three things Faith Hope and Charity are necessary to salvation so that whosoever wants any of them cannot obtain it and he which hath them all cannot fail of it is it not very evident that they are sufficiently agreed for mens directions to eternal Salvation And seeing Charity is a full comprehension of all good workes they requiring Charity as a necessary qualification in him that will be saved what sense is there in saying they cannot make their calling certain by good works They know what salvation is as well as you and have as much reason to desire it They believe it as heartily as you that there is no good work but shall have its proper reward and that there is no possibility of obtaining the eternal reward without good works and why then may not this Doctrin be a sufficient incitement and provocation unto good works 31. You say that they certainly believe that before any good works they are justified But this is a calumny There is no Protestant but requires to Justification Remission of sins and to Remission of sins they all require Repentance and Repentance I presume may not be denyed the name of a good work being indeed if it be rightly understood and according to the sense of the word in Scripture an effectual conversion from all sin to all holiness But though it be taken for meer Sorrow for sins past and a bare Purpose of amendment yet even this is a good work and therefore Protestants requiring this to Remission of sins and Remission of sins to Justification cannot with candor be pretended to believe that they are justified before any good work 32. You say They believe themselves justified by faith alone and that by that faith whereby they believe themselves justified Some peradventure do so but withal they believe that that faith which is alone and unaccompanied with sincere and universal obedience is to be esteem'd not faith but presumption and is at no hand sufficient to justification that though Charity be not imputed unto justification yet is it required as a necessary disposition in the person to be justified and that though in regard of the imperfection of it no man can be justified by it yet that on the other side no man can be justified without it So that upon the whole matter a man may truly and safely say that the Doctrin of these Protestants taken altogether is not a Doctrin of Liberty not a Doctrin that turns hope into presumtion and carnal security though it may justly be feared that many licentious persons taking it by halfes have made this wicked use of it For my part I do heartily wish that by publique Authority it were so ordered that no man should ever preach or print this Doctrin that Faith alone justifies unless he joyns this together with it that Universal Obedience is necessary to salvation And besides that those Chapters of Saint Paul which intreat of
God he should not rest in quiet he should soon perceive we were not of his faction 2. We that are able to tell David an Article or two of faith more then ever he was acquainted with Nay more Can we with any imaginable ground of reason be supposed liable to any suspition of Atheism that are able to read to David a Lecture out of his own Psalms and explain the meaning of his own Prophecies much clearer then himself which held the pen to the holy Spirit of God Though we cannot deny but that in other things there may be found some spice of folly and imperfection in us But it cannot be imagined that we who are almost cloyed with the heavenly Manna of God's Word that can instruct our Teachers and are able to maintain Opinions and Tenents the scruples whereof not both the Universities of this Land nor the whole Clergy are able to resolve that it should be possible for us ever to come to that perfection and excellency of Folly and Madness as to entertain a thought that there is no God Nay we are not so uncharitable as to charge a Turk or an Infidel with such an horrible imputation as this 3. Beloved Christians be not wise in your own conceipts If you will seriously examine the 3 d. of the Romans which I mentioned before you shall find that St. Paul out of this Psalm and the like words of Isaiah doth conclude the whole posterity of Adam Christ only excepted under sin and the curse of God which inference of his were weak and inconcluding unless every man of his own nature were such a one as the Prophet here describes and the same Apostle in another place expresses Even altogether without God in the world i. e. not maintaining it as an opinion which they would undertake by force of argument to confirm That there is no God For we read not of above 3 or 4 among the Heathens that were of any fashion which went thus farr But such as though in their discourse and serious thoughts they do not question a Deity but would abhor any man that would not liberally allow unto God all his glorious Attributes yet in their hearts and affections they deny him they live as if there was no God having no respect at all to him in all their projects and therefore indeed and in God's esteem become formally and in strict propriety of speech very Atheists 4. That this is most true and that therefore many who because they are Orthodox in opinion have thereupon a great conceit of their faith towards God yet being strictly examâ—ned shall be found to have built such glorious buildings in shew upon Sand or which is worse to have made hay and stubble matter fit only for the fire foundations of many golden hopes and glorious presumptions must be shewed at large hereafter 5. The words now read are a secret confession which the Fool whispers to his own heart He neither can nor dare profess this openly and when he cals his reason to counsel about this business the question is farr otherwise stated The words do not run thus The Fool being convinced by evidence of reason and demonstration hath concluded There is no God no this is no Heathenish Philosophical fool he is quite of another temper This is a worldly proud malitious projecting wise fool a fool that knows it is for his advantage to put God out of his thoughts and therefore doth forcibly captivate and wilfully hoodwink his understanding and thinks he hath obtained a great victory if he can contrive any course to bring himself to that pass that no cold melancholy thoughts of God or Hell may interrupt or restrain him from freely wallowing in the lusts and uncleanness of his heart without any remôrse without any reluctance or griping within him It is for his Heart's sake the love that he bears to the lusts thereof that makes him an Atheist If it could stand with that course and trade of life that he is resolved upon to entertain contrary thoughts he would as soon work his judgment and thoughts another way And therefore in his open profession it sometimes fals out that even when he wishes there were no God yet he is a very forward zealous acknowledger in general of God and his glorious Attributes So that the same desire of a quiet and uninterrupted enjoying the scope and freedom of the lusts and affections of his heart makes him both a resolute secret Atheist and withal wise enough to keep his folly to himself and to make none else acquainted with his curious art and method of such woful self-deceiving but his dearly beloved Heart The Fool c. 6. The discussion of these words does not engage me to a dividing or descanting upon the whole Psam Let it suffice that we may most probably conceive that David in this Psalm intends the description of the woful estate of that Kingdom after God had taken away his good Spirit from Saul wherein the secret Enemies of God did greedily lay hold on that occasion to vex and despite and as much as was in their power to lay waste the heritage of God 7. The Fool who is the person that through the whole Psalm works all the mischief in the Original is Nabal which hath the signification of fading dying or falling away as doth a leaf or flower Isai 40.8 And is a Title given to the foolish man as having lost the juyce and sap of wisdom reason honesty and godliness being fallen from grace ungrateful and without the life of God As a dead carkass which of this word is called Nebalah Levit. 11.40 and therefore ignoble and of vile esteem oppos'd to the Noble-man Isa 32.5 The Apostle in the Greek turneth it imprudent or without understanding Rom. 10.19 from Deut. 32.21 8. Hath said in his Heart There c. i. e. Not so much perswadeth himself in secret that there is no God But rather expresseth so in his life or in his affections which are called the Heart in the phrase of God proportionable to the same expression of David Psal 10.4 Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his crafty purposes If you would have the full sense of my Text more largely express'd Tit. 1.16 turn to Tit. 1.16 where persons of the same mould that the Prophet here complains of are thus described They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work void of judgment 9. Where are observable First the cause of this Practical Atheism in these last words of the verse They were to every good work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that was Ignorance or rather Imprudence Inconsiderance Implying not a bare want of knowledg but an abusing thereof in not reducing it to practise in hiding the light which was in them under a bushel Secondly Then we have the manner
and so 't is Courtesie It vaunteth not it self and so 't is Modesty It is not puffed up and so 't is Humility It is not easily provok'd and so 't is Lenity It thinketh no evil and so 't is Simplicity It rejoyceth in the Truth and so 't is Verity It beareth all things and so 't is Fortitude It believeth all things and so 't is Faith It hopeth all things and so 't is Confidence It endureth all things and so 't is Patience It never faileth and so 't is Perseverance 36. You see two glorious and divine Vertues namely Faith and Charity though not naturally express'd yet pretty well counterfeited by the Moralist And to make up the Analogy compleat we have the third Royal vertue which is Hope reasonably well shadow'd out in that which they call Intenâ—io Finis which is nothing else but a fore-tasting of the happiness which they propose to themselves as a sufficient reward for all their severe and melancholick endeavours 37. What shall we say my beloved Friends Shall the Heathenish Moralist meerly out of the strength of natural Reason conclude that the knowledg of what is good and fit to be done without a practise of it upon our affections and outward actions to be nothing worth nay ridiculous and contemptible And shall we who have the Oracles of God nay the whole perfect will of God fully set down in the holy Scriptures in every page almost whereof we find this urg'd and press'd upon us That to know our Masters will without performing it is fruitless unto us nay will intend the heat and add vertue and power to the lake of fire and brimstone reserved for such empty unfruitful Christians and shall we I say content our selves any longer with bare hearing and knowing of the Word and no more God forbid Rather let us utterly avoid this holy Temple of God Let us rather cast his Word behind our backs and be as ignorant of his holy Will as ever our fore-fathers were Let us contrive any course to cut off all commerce and entercourse all communion and acquaintance with our God rather then when we profess to know him and willingly to allow him all those glorious Titles and Attributes by which he hath made himself known unto us in his Word in our hearts to deny him in our lives and practises to dishonour him and use him despightfully 38. It were no hard matter I think to perswade any but resolved hardned minds that Fruit is necessary before any admission into heaven only by proposing to your considerations the form and process of that Judgment to which you every man in his own person must submit The Authors word may be taken for the truth of what I shall tell you for the story we receive from his mouth that shall be Judg of all and therefore is likely to know what course and order himself will observe 39. In the General Resurrection when sentence of absolution or condemnation shall be pass'd upon every one according to his deserts Knowledg is on no side mentioned but one because he hath cloathed the naked and fed the hungry and done such like works of Charity he is taken and the rest that have not done so much are refused Will it avail any one then to say Lord we confess we have not done these works but we have spent many an hour in hearing and talking of thy Word nay we have maintain'd to the utmost of our power and to our own great prejudice many Opinions and Tenents Alas we little thought that any spotted imperfect work of ours was requisite we were resolved that for working thou hadst done enough for us to get us to heaven Will any such excuses as these serve the turn Far be it from us to think so 40. If you will turn to Matth. 7.22 you shall find stronger and better excuses then these to no purpose Mat. 7.22 Many shall say unto me saith Christ Lord have not we prophesied in thy Name These were something more then hearers they had spent their time in preaching and converting souls unto Christ which is a work if directed to a right end of the most precious and admirable value that it is possible for a creature to perform And yet whiles they did not practise themselves what they taught others they became Cast-aways Others there were that had cast out Devils and done many miracles And yet so lov'd the unclean spirits that themselves were possess'd withal that they could not endure to part company then and now were never likely 41. But have not I all this while mistaken my Auditory Were not these Instructions fitter for the Universities Had it not been more fit and seasonable for me to have instructed and catechis'd mine hearers rather than to give them cautions and warnings lest they should abuse their knowledg No surely Instructions to make use of knowledg in our practise and conversation and not to content our selves with meer knowing and hearing and talking of the mysteries of our Salvation cannot in the most ignorant Congregation be unseasonable Even the Heathen which were utter strangers from the knowledge of Gods wayes did notwithstanding render themselves inexcusable for deteining some part of the Truth as it were naturally ingrafted in them in unrighteousness So that there is no man in the world but knows much more then he practises every man hides some part at least of his Talent in a Napkin wherefore let every man even the most ignorant that hears me this day search the most inward secret corners of his heart for this treasure of knowledg and let him take it forth and put it into the Usurers hands and trade thriftily with it that he may return his Lord his own with encrease Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make him Ruler over all his Household 42. And thus I have gone through one member of my First General namely the consideration wherein the Imprudence of the Fool in my Text doth consist In the prosecution whereof I have discovered unto you how severally Satan plants his Engins for the subversion of the Church In the Primitive times when Religion was more stirring and active and Charity in Fashion He assay'd to corrupt mens understandings with Heresies and there by the way was observ'd his order and method how distinctly beginning in those first times with the first Article he hath orderly succeeded to corrupt the next following and now in these last dayes hee 's got to even the last end of the Creed But since by the mercy and goodness of God we are delivered and stand firm in the Faith once delivered to the Saints he hath raised another Engine against us that stand and that is To work that our Orthodox Opinions do us no good which he performs by snatching the Word out of our Hearts and making it unfruitful in our Lives Now those that are thus enveagl'd and
to think knew well enough that there was a God and that all his love and service was due to him But these were melancholick thoughts and such as would hinder him in the prosecution of his design'd projects and therefore he put them farr from him So that in effect and in Gods account he was utterly ignorant of him did not at all know him Just so shall they be served Christ knows all the world better then any man knows his own heart Yet in that great day he shall prove to be a very stranger utterly ignorant of the greatest part of the world though many of them had been his acquaintance here nay though through faith in his power they had unawares by wonders and miracles brought many to Heaven and had been good helpers to destroy the Infernal Kingdom whereof before they were in Affection and now for ever must indeed be Inhabitants 55. There remains the other main General which is indeed the substance of the whole Text namely the fruit of this folly and that is Atheism not in opinion but practise In the prosecution whereof I shall mainly insist upon this to demonstrate by infallible deductions out of Gods Word that men who profess Religion and a perfect Knowledg of God yet whiles they allow him only the Brain and not what he only desires the Heart and Affections may prove in Gods account very Atheists Or to bring it neerer home I will shew how that many the ordinary courses and the most incontrouled practises of men of this age do utterly contradict and formally destroy the very Foundations and Principles of the glorious Religion which they profess But this will require a much longer time then your patience can allow me Therefore I will only add some few words of Application of what hath been spoken and so conclude 56. That Jewel which our Saviour so magnifies Matth. 13. and so commends the wisdom of the Merchant for selling all even utterly undoing himself to purchase it is the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven Which though it be of most precious and inestimable value worthy the selling of the whole world to buy it yet is every mans money every man has riches enough to adventure upon it so he will but sell all that he has so he will be content to turn bankrupt for it and upon no other terms can he have it 57. That advice which Christ gave the rich young man that had a good mind to follow him viz. that he should sell all that he had and take up his Cross was not any extraordinary unusual tryal but we have all accepted the same offer upon the very same conditions We must of necessity sell all deny and renounce the keeping and possessing of any thing besides this Pearl We must even sell our selves deny and renounce our own souls they are both become Gods own and we are but borrowers of them Now if we be not Masters of our goods nor of our selves neither then may we do our own actions we must not think our own thoughts They were such Fools as this great notorious one in my Text who in Psal 12. say Our tongues are our own we may say what we list We are all bought with a price yea all that we have is bought 58. Yet though we must sell all and deny our own selves yet we need not part with our goods or riches we need not make away our selves For example when our Saviour says He that hateth not Father and Mother and Brethren and Sisters and all the world besides for my Names sake and the Gospels is not worthy of me This speech does not bind me to hate persecute and destroy all the kindred I have no but rather to love and honor them to spend and be spent for them Yet if those persons or if it be possible for ought else to be more dear and precious then they stand in my way to hinder me from coming to Christ then it is time for me to hate them then I must trample them under my feet So that a man is no more bound to sell his Goods that is to throw them away than he is to hate his Parents Only neither of them may by any means offend us or annoy us in our journey to Christ 59. Now to bring this home to our purpose Can any face be so impudent as to profess he hath already sold all himself to boot and is ready to part with them when God shal call for them who contents himself only with knowing and hearing Stories of him and reserves his heart to his own use which is all that God requires Can he with any reason in the world be said to sell all for the Gospel of Christ that sees Christ himself every day almost hungry and does not feed him naked and does not clothe him in prison and does not visit him For in asmuch as they do not these offices of Charity to his beloved little ones they deny them to him Will he be found to be worthy of Christ that for his sake will not renounce one delightful sin which a Heathen would easily have done only for the empty reward of fame That for his sake will not forgive his Brother some small injury received nay perhaps some great kindness offered as a seasonable reproof or loving disswasion from sinning That for his sake will not undergo the least trouble in furthering his own Salvation 60. Far from us beloved Christians be so barren a Profession a Profession having only the vizzard and form of Godliness but denying the power thereof No let us with thankful hearts and tongues recount and consider what God hath done for our souls how he hath given us his Word abundantly sufficient to instruct us How he hath spoke the word and great is the multitude of Preachers Yet withal let us consider that it is in our power to turn these unvaluable Treasures of Gods favors into horrible curses Let us consider how God hath sent out his Word it will not return unto him empty it wil be effectual one way or other it will perform some great work in us God doth but expect what entertainment it finds upon earth and will proportion a reward accordingly on them which detain the truth in unrighteousness he will rain snares fire and brimstone But to such as with meek hearts due reverence receive it into good ground and express the power thereof in their lives there remaineth an exceeding eternal weight of Joy and Glory Let us therefore walk as children of the light and not content our selves with a bare empty Profession of Religion Let him that but nameth the Name of the Lord depart from Iniquity Brethren consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things To God c. The Third Sermon PSALM XIV 1. The Fool hath said in his heart There is no God I Will not be ashamed to be so farr my own Plagiary as for your sakes that
Devil only were every where and he resolved to please and delight him with his ungodly life let not such a one use himself to say I believe that God is alwaies present with me and a spectator of my actions for thereby he shall only add a lye to the rest of his sins and fewel to the lake of fire and brimstone He shall never perswade God to believe him that he was of such an opinion but that whatsoever his tongue said and his fancy now and then apprehended yet in his conscience he was alwaies a constant resolved Atheist and in his heart he said There is no God 21. In the second place thou acknowledgest that God whom thou professest obedience to is infinitely Righteous insomuch that it is impossible that he should not hate and abhorre unrighteousness in whomsoever he finds it Yea so natural and essential is his Justice unto him that he should deny himself if he should accept any mans person if he should not be avenged on sin if he should not most severely punish it Thou canst not be ignorant how many vowes and protestations he hath made almost every where through the Holy Scripture of his hatred and indignation against sin insomuch that heaven and earth may pass away but not one jot or tittle of those curses and plagues shall fall to the ground which he hath denounced against impenitent sinners 22. And shall not thy own mouth here once again condemn thee O thou wicked servant Darest thou then every hour wilfully and even contentedly do such things as must certainly procure his anger and indignation against thee for ever Wilt thou for the sinful pleasure of a few minutes put thy self in such a condition that God must of necessity be angry with thee that he must cease to be God unless he hate and abhorre thee Certainly if thou wouldest descend into thine own heart if thou wouldest give thy self leave carefully and unpartially to examine thy thoughts thou wouldest find that thy tongue has given thy soul the lye when it hath told thee that God is immutably Just and righteous and yet for all that that thou art resolved to run on in such courses as must of necessity pull down his heavy displeasure against thee 23. At least thou wilt find in thy heart earnest desires and wishes that God were not so righteous as Preachers tell thee he is Oh thinkest thou in thy heart that God were such an unrighteous person as I am Oh that he could be content to wink at me when I am about the fulfilling of my ungodly desires Alas what harm is it to him what inconvenience accrews to him by it if I enjoy the sinful pleasures of this life Or if he will needs be angry Oh that it were not in his power to revenge himself upon me Oh that his power were not so unlimited as they say it is 24. I know men will be apt to flatter themselves though they be never so vicious and to think that they are extremely wronged to have such imputations laid upon them They will be ready to answer me in the words of Hazael to the Prophet Elisha when he told him what horrible massacres he should commit among the Israelites when he should have the Crown of Syria set on his head What doest thou think us dogs that we should do such things as these We are so far from robbing God of his Justice that we would be mortal enemies to any that dare proceed to that height of impiety Nay we would be content to sacrifice our own lives rather than be brought to deny that or any other of his glorious Attributes 25. Truly I am so charitably minded as to think that there is none so wicked but would confidently make this defence for himself yea and believes he is in earnest when he speaks so But this will not serve the turn For God seeth not as man sees he judgeth not as man judgeth but he judgeth righteous judgment For instance in that great example which our Saviour gives of the fashion and course of judgment according to which he purposes to proceed in the last day He accuses the wicked and condemns them for neglect of visiting and feeding and cloathing Him The Apology which they make for themselves as having never seen him in that exigence would not be taken For though I am perswaded they there spake nothing but what they verily thought namely that if ever they had seen Christ himself in such want and necessity they would not have been so hard-hearted to him as they were to his poor servants yet Christ will not allow of that excuse but accounts of their uncharitableness to afflicted Christians as directed to himself 26. So likewise in the Case in hand Though I believe it would be hard to perswade even the most licentious professed sinner that he believes not indeed the Justice and righteousness of God yet he shall find at last and that miserably to his cost that God who knows his heart much better than himself for all his professions will yet esteem him an Atheist and will prove evidently and convincingly unto him that since that knowledge which he pretended to have of Gods Righteousness had been so fruitless and superficial that notwithstanding such a conceit he proceeded still on in his ungodly courses that therefore he did but delude himself all the while with phantastical ungrounded illusions so that whatsoever imagination swim in his brain yet in the language of his heart that is in the propension and sway of his affections he said There is no God Now what hath been said of the Omnipresence Infinite Knowledge and Justice of God may by the same reason and proportion be spoken of the rest of his glorious Attributes But the straitness of time will force me to leave the rest untouched I will proceed therefore to make the like collections from one or two Articles more of the Creed 27. Thou believest that after this life which cannot last very long it will and that shortly have an end there remain but two waies for all men of what stare and condition soever that ever were to be disposed of either into life and glory everlasting or else into pains and torments infinite and insupportable And by consequence that thy soul is an immortal substance which shall for ever continue somewhere and according to thy behaviour here during that short measure of time which thou livest upon the earth it must expect a reward proportionable thereto If thou canst perswade thy self to walk worthy of that calling whereunto thou art called in Jesus Christ If thou wilt not forswear and renounce that glorious profession which thou madest in thy Baptism If thou canst be content to submit thy self to the easie yoke of Christ propose to thy self what reward thou canst imagine give thy thoughts scope and licence to be excessive and overflowing in their desires if thou art not satisfied to the uttermost infinitely above what thou
Does he think that God has furnished him with strength and weapons for this end that thereby he might be able to make warr with himself that he might have the power to overrun and lay wast those whom God loveth as the apple of his own eye Can he imagine that God has been so beneficial and liberal to him in preferring him to a rank and degree above others not inferiour to him in the riches and treasures of God's grace and therefore as dear unto him as himself for this end that thereby he may prove a more able and fit instrument for the Devil to wreak his malice and hatred upon those whom God loves 35. Therefore if there be ere such a person in this Auditory yet I hope there is not but and if there be What shall I say unto him Let him consider what a hard task he has undertaken to warr against God Let him consider what a strange reckoning he is likely to make unto God when he shall at last as undoubtedly he will require of him an account of his Stewardship Behold Lord thou hast given me five talents and what have I done with them why lo I have made them ten talents But how by what courses Why I have unjustly and injuriously robbed and wrung from my fellow servants those few talents which thou gavest them I have gain'd thus much by my violent maintaining of a cause which thou hatedst and which my self could not deny but to be most unjust This is surely a sore evil under the sun But since I hope it little concerns any one here to have such a crime as this dissected curiously and purposely insisted upon it shall suffice me to say That they who are guilty of it are farr from knowing of what spirit they are when they say they are Christians since even a very Heathen would abhorr to countenance or entertain such a vice as this 36. In the second place How can ye believe saith Christ who seek honour one of another and not that honour which is of God If these words of Christ be true That they who too earnestly desire applause and reputation among men neglecting in the mean time seriously to endeavour the attaining to the honour which is of God that is obedience and submission to his Commands which is that wherein a Christian ought especially to place his honour and reputation If such men as these do in vain and without all ground of reason reckon themselves in the number of true believers Again if the chief badge and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby Christ would have his servants to be distinguished from the world be a willingness to suffer injuries a desire rather to have the other cheek strucken and to have the cloak go the same way with the coat than to revenge one blow with another or to go to Law for a matter of no great moment for recovering of that which a man might well enough lose without endangering his Estate 37. If these things I say be true Suppose Christ according to the vision of Ezekiel should command his Angels utterly to slay through all Jerusalem Ezek. 9.5 6. that is the Church old and young maids and little children and women excepting only those upon whom his mark and badge were to be found what destruction and desolation would there be How would the Sanctuary of God be defiled and his Courts be filled with the slain How would many who now pass both in their own and other mens opinions for good Christians enough be taken for Mahomets servants whose Religion it is by fury and murther to gain Proselytes to their abominable profession Suppose our garments should be presented to God with the same question that Jacob's Sons sent their Brother Joseph's Num haec est tunica filii tui Is this thy sons coat Would they not rather be taken for the skins of savadge Beasts so unlike are they to that garment of Humility and Patience which our Saviour wore and which he bequeathed us in his Legacy 38. We are so far from seeking that Honour which is of God from endeavouring to attain unto or so much as countenancing such virtues which God hath often professed that he will exalt and glorifie such is humility and patiently bearing of injuries that we place our honour and reputation in the contrary that is counted noble and generous in the worlds opinion which is odious and abominable in the sight of God If thy Brother offend or injure thee forgive him saith Christ if he proceed forgive him What until seven times I until seventy times seven-times But how is this Doctrine received now in the world what counsel would men and those none of the worst sort give thee in such a case How would the soberest discreetest well-bred Christians advise thee Why thus If thy Brother or thy Neighbour have offered thee an injury or an affront forgive him By no means of all things in the world take heed of that thou art utterly undone in thy reputation then if thou doest forgive him What is to be done then Why let not thy heart rest let all other business rest let all other business and employment be laid aside till thou hast his bloud what a mans bloud for an injurious passionate speech for a disdainful look Nay this is not all That thou may'st gain amongst men the reputation of a discreet well-tempered murderer be sure thou killest him not in passion when thy bloud is hot and boyling with the provocation but proceed with as much temper and setledness of reason with as much discretion and preparedness as thou wouldest to the Communion After some several dayes meditation invite him mildly and affably into some retired place and there let it be put to the tryal whether thy life or his must answer the injury 39. Oh most horrible Christianity That it should be a most sure setled way for a man to run into danger and disgrace with the world if he shall dare to perform a commandement of Christ's which is as necessarily to be observed by him if he have any hope of attaining heaven as meat and drink is for the sustaining of his life That ever it should enter into the heart of a Christian to walk so exactly and curiously contrary to the wayes of God that whereas he every day and hour sees himself contemned and despised by thee who art his servant his creature upon whom he might without any possible imputation of unrighteousness pour down the vials of his fierce wrath and indignation yet he notwithstanding is patient and long-suffering towards thee hoping that his long suffering may lead thee to repentance and earnestly desiring and soliciting thee by his Ministers to be reconciled unto him Yet that thou for all this for a blow in anger it may be for a word or less shouldest take upon thee to send his soul or thine or it may be both clogg'd and press'd with all your sins unrepented of for thou canst not
be erected many fair Mansions to raign in But it is a Kingdom that suffers violence and the violent must take it by force And it is a Building that will exact perchance all the means they have and their whole lives labour to boot Wherefore it is good for them to sit down to send for their friends to counsel to question their hearts whether they have courage and resolution and to examin their incomes whether they will bear the charges to muster Souldiers for the Conquest and Labourers for the Building 6. If they like these large offers and have means enough for the employment and are not unwilling to spare for cost Let them go on in God's Name There is no doubt to be made of an end that shall fully recompence their losses and satisfie their utmost boldest desires and fill the whole capacity of their thoughts But on the other side unless all these conditions concurr He has so much care of their credit that he would wish them not to set one foot further in the employment but to betake themselves home lest if they should fail in the business they should make themselves ridiculous to the world of Scorners to whom it would be meat and drink to see some glorious fresh ruins of a Building left to the fouls and beasts to inhabit or to see a fierce invading Army forc'd to retire them themselves ho me cool'd and content with their former want and poverty Object 7. But might not some poor low-minded sinful hearer reply upon our Saviour and enquire whence these sums must be rais'd and these forces mustred Alas what is a wretched mortal man that he should think of taking Heaven by Composition much more of forcing and invading it What is there on Earth to lay in balance against Heaven Has not the Spirit of God told us that all is vanity nay lighter then vanity through all Eccl-siastes And again that men of low condition are vanity and men of high condition to wit such as because they abound with wealth think that therefore they are in much better esteem and favour with God then their Brethen they are worse than vanity for as it is Psal 62.9 They are a Lye Psal 62.9 that is they are no such things as they take themselves for they are quite contrary to what they seem 8. The answer hereto is not very difficult For 't is true If we consider our own abilities such I mean as our fore-fathers have left us as it is impossible for us by any worth in our power to offer at the purchase of heaven as to make a new one yet such is the mercy of God in Jesus Christ that so glorious a Bargain is already made to our hands the gain whereof will redound unto us upon very reasonable conditions Namely if we can be brought to acknowledg our own beggarly starved estate and thereby evacuating our selves of all manner of worth and desert in our selves and relying only upon his mercy which is infinite submitting likewise our selves to be absolutely at his disposition without any reservation at all 9. So that the same unvaluable precious Jewel which cost the rich Merchant in the Parable all his Estate and had like to have made a young Gentleman in the Gospel turn bankrupt may becomes ours even the poorest and most despised persons amongst us if we will be content to part with our totum nihil all whatsoever we are or have If we can perswade our selves to esteem pleasure and profit as dross and dung when they come in competition with this Pearl If we can readily and affectionately hate our dearest friends and kindred even tread our Parents under our feet when they lye in our way unto Christ If we can perfectly detest even the most dearest closest lusts and affectionate sins Finally if our own souls become contemptible and vile in our own eyes in respect of that glorious Inheritance so dearly purchased for us Then are we rich to purchase this Pearl then are we able and sufficient to go through with this Building and strong enough to conquer this Kingdom 10. Now all this as must be showed in many more particulars is properly to deny our selves which is a condition that our Saviour makes so necessary and inseparable in every one that purposes to be any thing the better for Him that desires to be found in the number of those that have given up their names unto him for saith the Text Jesus said unto them all If any man will come after me let him deny himself Let him 11. These few words are not conveniently capable of a division But taking them in gross as a Precept or Law delivered by Christ and which concerns every man of what state or condtion soever that resolves to accept of him for a Lord and Saviour We will proceed according to the ordinary Method of expounding a Law Namely First we will in general consider the nature meaning and extent of this Law How farr the action here injoyn'd which is a denying or renouncing doth reach and how much is comprehended in the object thereof Our selves Secondly I will restrain this General Duty into several special Cases which may conveniently be reduced to three as namely that by vertue thereof we are bound to evacuate our selves and utterly deny 1. Our own Wisdom or Understanding 2. Our Will and Affections And lastly our own Desert and Righteousness 12. Out of this Commandement then considered in general terms only for so I shall only handle it in this hours Discourse as it is contained in these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but two such words so full and swelling with expression that our language can scarse at all or but faintly express and render the force and vigour of them in twenty I shall observe unto you this doctrinal position Doctr. namely That it is absolutely and indispensably required of every man that professes Christianity not only utterly to renounce all manner of things that thwart and oppose Gods will and command but also resolutely and without all manner of reservation to purpose and resolve upon the denial of whatsoever is in our selves or any thing else how full of pleasure profit or necessity soever though in themselves indifferent lawful or convenient when they come in competition with what Christ hath enjoyn'd us Which after I have explain'd and confirm'd by comparing this law with many other precepts of the same nature in the holy Scripture I shall apply unto your consciences by two useful inforcements One taken from the extream undeniable reasonableness of the thing here commanded The other from the wonderful love and kindness in the Law-giver that requires not so much at our hands as himself hath already voluntarily perform'd and that for our sakes For thus or to this purpose run the words If any man will come after me let him do as I have done even deny himself take up his indeed my cross daily and so follow me
down our lives for them So that we are not bound to destroy the love of our selves but only when it is a hinderance to our fulfilling of what God commands us 29. We therefore who have given up our Names unto Christ must expect to enjoy the fruits of his Obedience by treading in the same steps which he hath left unto us As shall be showed hereafter more plentifully 30. And yet it is not necessary that we should exactly and curiously apply our selves to the Rule of his Obedience For whereas he voluntarily undertook the form and fashion of a Servant and being Lord of Heaven and Earth despised and neglected the riches and glory of this world We notwithstanding are not tyed to such hard conditions but may flow and abound with wealth and honour neither need we to deny to our souls any pleasure under the Sun but liberally enjoy it as the gift of God as long as thereby we withdraw not our Obedience and Allegiance from God 31. Peccatum non est appetitus malarum rerum sed desertio meliorum saith St. Augustine quoted by Lombard 2 Sent. 42. dist i. e. Sin does not consist in desiring ' or lusting after things which in their own natures are evil and inconvenient but in preferring a low inconstant changeable good before another more worthy and of greater excellency and perfection Whilest therefore God has that estimation and value in our thoughts that he deserves whilest there is nothing in our selves or any other creature which we preferr before him whilst we conspire not with our lusts to depose him from bearing a Soveraign sway in our heats and Consciences whilst we have no other God before Him not committing Idolatry to Wealth Honour Learning and the like It shall be lawful in the second place to love our selves So that we fulfil this Commandement when we do not Deifie our selves whilst we Sacrifice not to our own wisdom nor burn incense to the pride of our hearts c. 32. Conceive then the meaning of this Law to be such as if it had been more fully inlarg'd on this wise Let every one that but hears any mention of Christ this day take into deep consideration and spend his most serious morning thoughts in pondering and weighing whether those benefits which Christ hath promised to communicate to every one that shall be joyned and marryed to him by a lively faith be worthy his acceptation Let him oppose to them all the pleasures and profits which he can promise or but fancy to himself under the Sun 33. If after a due comparing of these things together he have so much wisdom as to acknowledge that an eternal weight of joy and glory an everlasting serenity and calmness be to be preferr'd before a transitory unquiet restless unsatisfying pleasure And seeing both these are offered and set before him or rather seeing such is the extream mercy of our God that whereas the goods of this life are not allow'd nor so much as offer'd equally and universally to all For not many have ground to hope for much wealth Not many wise not many learned saith St. Paul Yet to every man whom God hath called to the acknowledgment of the Gospel these inestimable benefits are offered and presented bona fide without any impossible condition so that let the Disputers of this Age say what they will it shall be found that those who have failed and come short of these glories offered may thank themselves for it and impute it to an actual voluntary misprision and undervaluing of these riches of Gods mercies which they might have procured and not to any fatal over-ruling power that did inforce and necessitate and drive them to their destruction 34. These things considered if you are indeed convinc'd that light is to be preferr'd before darkness It is impossible but that you should likewise acknowledg that it were meer madness for a man to imagin to himself any the most vanishing faint expectation of those glorious Promises whilst he is busie and careful by all means to avoid those indeed thorny and unpleasant paths that lead unto them whilst he promiseth to himself rest and impunity though he walk in the Imagination of his own heart Surely the Lord will be avenged on such a person and will make his fierce wrath to smoak against him 35. Therefore resolve upon something If the Lord be God follow him serve him conform your selves to the form of new obedience which he hath prescribed But if Baal be God if Mammon be God if your selves be Gods follow the devices of your own hearts But by no means expect any reward at all from God for dishonouring him or preferring a base unworthy lust before his commands Lo 't is the Lord of Glory who is Salvation and the way too it is he that hath professed that there is no possible way of attaining unto him but by treading in the same steps which he hath left us A way which he found full of thorns full of difficulties but hath left it to us even strowed with Roses in comparison 36. The greatest and most terrible Enemies which we can fashion to our selves are those three which St. Paul hath mustered together and ordered them just Roman-wise the strongest in the Rear 1. Death and 2. the sting of that Sin and 3. the poyson of that sting The Law But over all these we are more then Conquerours for it follows Thanks be unto God which bath mark hath already given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ At the first indeed till the paths was worn and made smooth there were some difficulties for what could the Primitive Christians expect having all the world their Enemies but reproaches exiles deportations even horrible torments and death 37. But we blessed be our gracious God are so farr from being annoyed with such difficulties and pressures in the way that all those are to be feared and expected by them that dare deny the Profession of our glorious Religion What therefore if the Lord had commanded some great thing of us even as much as he did of his Beloved Servants the Apostles and Primitive Christians would we not have done it How much more when he says only Be not ashamed of me now when you dare not be ashamed of me now that it almost death to be ashamed of me Deny not me before this generation who would hate and persecute you to the death if you should deny me Crucifie unto you the unclean affections the incendiary lusts of your hearts which the Heathens have perform'd for the poor empty reward of fame Preferr not riches nor honours before me which is no more then many Philosophers have done for those vulgar changeable Gods which themselves have contemned 38. Having therefore beloved Christians such Promises to encourage us such as the poor Heathens never dream't of and yet for all that travelled more earnestly after an airy phantastical happiness of their own then we to our extream shame
Give not to the Rich saith our Saviour for fear they repay you Of all things in the world take heed of being paid back again in this life beware how you carry your reward along with you to your Grave But leave it to be paid in exchange in another Countrey where for using five Talents well you shall have ten Cities given you Where for the bounty of a Cup of cold water you shall receive a Prophet's reward Such a friend was offered once to the Rich-man in the Gospel God sent him one to his dores even to crave his friendship But the Rich-man was so busied with the care of his Wardrobe and his Table that he was not at leisure to hearken to so gainless an Offer Notwithstanding the time came afterwards when he miserably to his cost perceived what a blessed opportunity he had most negligently omitted and even in Hell attempted to purchase his favour and to obtain from his hand a poor Alms God knows but one drop of water but all too late the time of making friends was past and a great unfordeable Gulf had divided them from all possible society and communion for ever 31. Now consider I beseech you that it had been a very easie matter for God so to have provided for all his creatures that each particular should have had enough of his own without being beholding to another for supply But then two heavenly and divine Vertues had been quite lost For Where had been the Poor mans Patience and the Rich mans Charity The poor man therefore wants that you may have occasion to exercise your liberality and that by loosing and diminishing your wealth upon them ye may become more full of Riches hereafter So that it is Gods great bounty to you not only to give you plenty and abundance but also to suffer others to languish in penury and want It may be God has suffered himself so long to be rob'd of his own Possessions his Tithes that you might have the glory and comfort of restoring them It may be God has suffered the ancient superstitious Histrionical adorning of his Temples to be converted into the late slovenly prophaneness commonly call'd worshipping in Spirit but intended to be Worship without cost that you may find a happy occasion to restore those sacred places dedicated to his honour to that Majesty and Reverence as may become Houses wherein God delights that his Name should dwell 32. Now if it be not in my power to perswade you neither to make God nor man your debtors by your Riches Yet I beseech you make neither of them your Enemies by them Do not make your Riches Instruments of Warr to fight against God himself for example as maintaining an unjust cause by power a cause which God abhorrs Do not so requite God for his extraordinary libegality to you as to make his Riches Instruments for the Devil to wreak his malice upon those whom God loveth If I had not a care not to injure your patience too farr what might not be said upon this subject But I perceive it is fit for me to hasten to your release 33. But before I quit my self and ease you of further prosecution of this point I shall desire you all to suffer one word of Exhortation and if there be any here whom it may more neerly concern I beseech them even by the bowels of Jesus Christ that they will suffer too a word of most necessary reproof And though what I shall say doth not naturally flow from the words in hand yet they bear a reasonable resemblance and proportion with them So pertinent I am sure they are to the Auditory to whom I speak that I would chuse rather quite to lose my Text then here to leave them unsaid 34. It is about making friends too Indeed not with the Mammon of unrighteousness No that is a trifle to it It is about making friends with not revenging of injuries with patient bearing and willing forgiving of offences A duty so seriously so incessantly sometimes in plain words sometimes in Parables all manner of ways upon all occasions urg'd by our Saviour that we cannot so much as pray but we must be forc'd to acknowledg obedience to this Law Forgive us As we forgive Yea so boundlesly and without all restrictions or reservations is it enjoyn'd That when as Peter thought it fair to have it limitted to a certain number and proposed Seven as in his opinion reasonable and convenient No faith our Saviour Forgive not until seven times but until four hundred fourscore and ten times And if he could have imagined that it were possible for a man to have exceeded even this number also in injuries without question he would not have left there neither 35. But How is this Doctrin received in the world What counsel would men and those none of the worst sort give thee in such a case How would the soberest discreetest well-bred Christian advise thee Why thus If thy Brother or thy Neighbour have offered thee an injury or an affront forgive him By no means Thou art utterly undone and lost in thy reputation with the world if thou dost forgive him What is to be done then Why let not thy heart take rest let all other business and imployment be laid aside till thou hast his bloud How a mans bloud for an injurious passionate speech for a disdainful look Nay that is not all That thou may'st gain amongst men the reputation of a discreet well-tempered Murderer be sure thou killest him not in passion whey thy bloud is hot and boyling with the provocation but proceed with as great temper and settledness of reason with as much discretion and preparedness as thou wouldest to the Communion After some several days respite that it may appear it is thy Reason guides thee and not thy Passion Invite him mildly and courteously into some retired place and there let it be determined whether his bloud or thine shall satisfie the injury 36. Oh thou Holy Christian Religion Whence is it that thy children have suck'd this inhumane poysonous blood these raging fiery Spirits For if we shall enquire of the Heathen they will say They have not learned this from us or the Mahumetan they will answer We are not guilty of it Blessed God! that it should become a most sure setled course for a man to run into danger and disgrace with the world if he shall dare to perform a Commandement of Christ which is as necessary for him to do if he have any hopes of attaining Heaven as meat and drink is for the maintaining of life That ever it should enter into Christian hearts to walk so curiously and exactly contrary unto the ways of God! That whereas He sees himself every day and hour almost contemn'd and despis'd by thee who art his Servant his creature upon whom he might without all possible imputation of unrighteousness pour down all the Vials of his wrath and indignation yet He notwithstanding is
by Hope And I bless Almighty God that he has dealt so graciously with me that I should dare to hope for it and not be shamed and confounded by my hope And if there be any amongst you that will vouchsafe to content himself with such a neglected degree of comfort with only hope and no more I will not enter into comparison with those that are perfect but I dare promise him that all those troublesome pleasures which do so ravish the men of this world shall be as nothing yea as afflictions and torments in comparison of those spiritual heavenly Joyes which Hope well and legally atchieved will be able to afford us No dangers will there be of terrours or jealousies as if God would happen to grow weary or repent himself of any grace or blessing which he hath bestowed upon us 59. For tell me Do you think that Adam while he continued in his Innocency had any grudgings of suspicions or fears Was he not during that time in as great a quiet and serenity of mind as any of us dare hope for And yet the most that he could do then was to hope that he might continue in that state even to the end The event shews he could not have an infallible Faith of his perseverance If then such a contented setled mind could accompany Adam in Paradise even when he knew it was in his power with but reaching out his hand and tasting an Apple yea with a sudden wicked word or an unsanctified thought utterly and irrecoverably to degrade himself from that happy estate surely we Christians have much more reason to rejoyce in our hope since we know assuredly that as God has been so gracious to begin this good work in us so he will not be wanting to perfect it even to the end if we will but perform our parts which he has already given us more then sufficient grace to do and will never fail to supply us with more for the asking nay more which are surer grounds to build upon than ever Adam had since we know that not one nor ten nor a hundred sins shall be able so irreparably to cast us out of God's favour but that he will be willing upon our Repentance especially calling to mind his old mercies to restore us again to our lost happiness 60. Neither are we utterly excluded from all assurance for there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full assurance of Hope saith S. Paul Heb. 6.11 Ibid. 9. Heb. 6.11 This Hope we have as a sure Anchor of the soul fastned on a Rock The Rock cannot fail us the Anchor will not all the danger is in the Cable or chain of spiritual Graces whereby we are fastned to this Rock If this chain but hold no tempest no winds no flouds can endanger us And part of our Hope respects this chain for God has promis'd his willingness and readiness to strengthen it every day more and more till our state shall be so chang'd that there shall be no such things as Tempests known no tossings of waves no tumults of winds nor fear of leaking or decay in the Vessel but all calmness and security And for the attaining to this happy unchangeable estate where is it that we place our Hope Truly our Hope is even in thee O God who if thou shalt think it convenient or necessary for us wilt enlarge this our Hope into confidence and add unto that assurance and swallow up all in possession And that not for any merits of ours but only for thy free undeserved Mercies in our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ in whom alone thou art well pleased To whom with thee O Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed by us and thy whole Church the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen The Ninth Sermon 1 COR. X. 13. God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able WHatever punishments befel the disobedient Israelites who murmured and tempted God in the Wilderness Vers 6. Vers 11. They all happened unto them saith St. Paul for ensamples to us and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come This Priviledge we may have beyond our fore-fathers that we may present before our eyes a larger Series and History of God's Providence even since the foundation of the World We may take a view and prospect of his constant unaltered course of revenging himself upon sin in whatsoever persons he finds it And we ought from thence to collect that whatsoever immunities and priviledges we may conceive to ourselves whatsoever comfortable Errors we may take up upon trust yet that God will not for our sakes begin a new frame of Policy in the Administration of the World but that we also unless we break off our sins by repentance and conversion unto God We I say after the example of these murmuring Israelites as those upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell as those fourteen whose bloud Pilate mingled with the Sacrifices that we also unless we repent shall all likewise perish Nay certainly we upon whom the ends of the world are come shall be much more culpable our punishment and stripes shall be more in number and weightier if we notwithstanding that larger experience which we may have of Gods unpartial dealing with sinners shall yet promise to our selves impunity If we shall say we shall have peace though we walk in the imaginations of our hearts 2. The same collection we may proportionably make to our own benefit and advantage from Gods gracious dealing and behaviour to any of his beloved faithful servants we may appropriate to our selves all those blessings and promises which have been afforded unto them If our Consciences can assure us that we do obey Gods Commandements in the truth and sincerity of our hearts Now for warrant to this kind of collection instead of several examples in Holy Scripture I will only make use of one taken out of I think this our Apostle Heb. 13.5 where he saith Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have For God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Which words by him quoted as the margins of our Bibles will direct us are to be found Josh 1.5 Which Josh 1.5 though they be a particular Promise which God immediately made to Joshua thereby to encourage him after the death of Moses to take upon him the conducting of the Jews into the Land of Promise assuring unto him a continuation of his extraordinary assistance in the enterprise Yet notwithstanding St. Paul we see as if God had proclaim'd this Promise to the whole world applyes these words to all the Faithful among the Hebrews and by the same proportion to all Christians likewise 3. Upon which grounds I may as reasonably direct the words of this verse out of which my Text is taken to you that now hear me as the Apostle does
to the Corinthians And say There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man For certainly we will not imagine that the Church or City of Corinth had any such extraordinary Immunity or Charter granted them whereby they should be exempted from the danger of Temptations above all the Christian world besides Therefore let your memories recollect and examin the time past of your lives and tell me Did there ever any Temptation take hold of you or assault you so powerful and irresistable that there was no way left for you but to be overcome by it Take Temptation now in what sense you please either for a misfortune and Affliction or else for a Suggestion to sin Was there ever any calamity any loss any pain any sickness so violent and impetuous but that still you might perceive your selves notwithstanding though perhaps in your outward man unequally match't by it yet in your spirits and minds strong enough to conquer the malice thereof and to convert it into wholesome Physick Again Was there ever any sinful Temptation so strongly urg'd upon you but that you might by the assistance of that Grace which God had already given you or at the least for the asking would have super-added you might easily have dull'd and diverted the force thereof Did not your Consciences even after you were overcome by such a Temptation tell you that it was meer voluntary cowardize in you to suffer your selves to be overcome by it that you willingly surrendred and betray'd those forces which already God had given you 4. Now though I am perswaded this be so evidently true that there is scarce any one here but his Conscience will assure him as much Yet for all this we must not begin hereupon to fancy in our minds any extraordinary worth or dignity in our selves as though by our own power or holiness we could work such wonders No alas nothing less For take away the assistance and guard of our Auxiliary Forces God's free and undeserved Graces within us and his Divine assistance together with the Guard of his blessed Angels without us and there is no Temptation so weak and despicable which we should not suddenly yield unto Nay we should need no outward Tempters to help us to sin our own wicked hearts would save the Devil that labour For nothing is there so vile and abominable whereunto without God's restraining Grace we should not readily and impetuously hasten unto 5. Therefore let us neither defraud God nor our selves of their dues But as we have spoken of the time past so likewise of that which follows If hereafter we shall overcome any temptation as certainly by Gods help if we have but a mind to it we may Let us bless Almighty God for assisting us so farr let us give the glory and Trophies of the conquest to him But on the contrary side if we shall neglect to make use and advantage of those many helps against sin which Almighty God is ready to supply unto us If notwithstanding those many Promises of assistance so frequently set down in Holy Scripture If notwithstanding those many secret whisperings and inspirations of his Holy Spirit in our souls If notwithstanding God's Voyce which as every day's experience can witness unto us continually calls upon us saying This is the right way walk in it and ye shall find rest to your souls we will yet continue to extinguish those good motions to deafen and drown God's voyce and be ready to hearken unto and obey our own filthy lusts and vile affections Let us lay the fault where it is due even upon our own deceitful wicked Hearts or otherwise the time will come when in Hell we shall be evidently convinc'd thereof when the worm of Conscience which never dyeth shall continually torment and gnaw us Let God be true and faithful in his Promises and every man a Lyar. For as hitherto God has been so merciful to you to preserve you that no temptation should take you but such as is common to man so likewise for the time following though perhaps greater tryals may befal you than hitherto you have had experience of yet of this you may be confident that howsoever they may seem grievous yet the same God continues faithful and righteous to fulfil his Promises He will never suffer you to be tempted above that you are able 6. Temptation is 〈◊〉 thing of its own Nature indifferent and is rendred good or evil from the end and intention of the Tempter especially It is nothing else but making a tryal or experiment If good and assay whether that good which seems to be in a subject be true and firmly grounded or no So God may be said to tempt as he did Abraham c. And this he performs not to satisfie his curiosity but meerly out of a good inclination to the party both thereby to confirm his graces in him and to reward them with a greater measure of Glory If evil Temptation is an assay whether that good which seems to be in a man may not by some means or other be extinguish'd and so the person destroyed so the Devil is most properly called the Tempter And of this nature are the Temptations of my Text Now these we find in Holy Scripture to be twofold For either they are apt to draw us from good by way of Discouragement so all manner of afflictions misfortunes persecutions c. are called Temptations because by these a man is inclinable to be frighted from or at last discountenanced in a holy conversation Or else they allure us by way of invitation or sollicitation to evil so wicked pleasing suggestions are said to be Temptations because these are fit to palliate the unloveliness and deformity of sin and thereby to make it desirable unto us It would be but loss of time to heap together Examples of holy Scripture to make good this distinction since it is an Argument which you daily meet withal discours'd of in Sermons 7. But I confess I find it something difficult to determin whether of these two senses with exclusion of the other be intended by St. Paul in my Text whether when he says God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able his meaning should be God by his Wisdom and Providence will so contrive businesses for you that though you are not likely to live in a contiual uninterrupted course of happiness and security but that sometimes you shall dash your foot against a stone you shall be disquieted and molested with afflictions of several natures notwithstanding this you may be confident of that let what misfortue will come how grievous and even insupportable soever it may seem unto you it shall never be so violent and out-ragious but that God will provide a way for you to escape from it there will be a dore left open for you to avoid the furiousness and impetuousness of it either God will arm you with Patience to bear it
loving and careful to do us good And certainly as God is stronger than the Devil so likewise excessive goodness in the Angels will easily prevail against extream malice in the Devil Now it is the nature of Love to be willing to take any pains for the good of the person beloved whereupon St. Paul in that most divine description of the three Cardinal Christian Vertues 1 Thess 1.3 thus expresseth them Remembring your work of Faith and labour of Love and patience of Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ I confess it is the nature of Malice too to be very laborious and observant of all advantages against the subject Hated But this must needs be granted that Love will conquer Malice in the same degree 18. Thus you see we are reasonably well befriended and back'd by these our Auxiliary Forces of our Guardian Angels so that we need not be disheartned if we had no more But beyond all these we have Almighty God to our friend whose power is so unlimitted that without any straining of Himself without the bending of his Bow and drawing his Sword only with unclasping his hand Substractione Manutenentiae with meer letting hold go all creatures in Heaven and Earth would return to nothing Psal 84.11 He is in the language of the Psalmist a Sun and a Shield that is in the phrase of another Psalm a Light and Defence a Sun to discover unto us the secret ambushes and practises of our Enemies and a Shield to protect us from their open force and violence 19. I will some man say there is no man can make any question of God's Power Obj. But the difficulty is How we should be sure of his good will If that were but once procured the Battel were as good as at an end Why Sol. for that we must have recourse to Gods Word there it is that we must find upon what terms businesses stand between him and us And there certainly we shall find words which at the first sight to any ordinary reasonable man would seem to make much for us There are Invitations to a League with him desires and requests as passionate as I think ever Poet strain'd for There are Promises which look as if they were serious and unfeigned they are confirm'd with Vows and solemn Oaths of sincerity and all these seemingly directed to every one of us What can we desire any more especially from Almighty God who stands in no need of our favour and therefore is not likely to bespeak our good opinions of him with dissembling and lies 20. Oh Obj. but it is the easiest matter in the world for a man with a School-Subtilty by an Almighty distinction to cut off any mans right of Entail to those Promises to appropriate them only to our own friends to some two or three that he is pleased to favour Sol. I would to God that men would but consider what end what project Almighty God should have in making his poor creatures believe he means well to them when there is no such matter Would any of you saith our Saviour when his Son shall ask him bread give him a stone or instead of a fish to nourish him a serpent to destroy him If then you which are evil know how to give good gifts If you would not have the heart to mock poor children after this manner How much rather would not God For Gods sake therefore let there be but as much sincerity as much good nature in Almighty God I will not say as in your selves for it may be that would be too much for you to grant but as our Saviour confesseth that there were in the Jews that crucified him And then we all of us have right enough to his promises we shall have no reason to doubt of his good intention to help and assist us so far that unless we delight in destruction unless we will turn sugitives unless we will fight on our enemies side All the Devils in Hell shall not be able to prevail against us And thus much of the first squadrons Michael and his Angels opposed to the Devil and his Angels 21. The second enemy which we professed hostility against in our Baptism was the vain temptations of this world And so forcible and prevailing are the temptations thereof that the Devil who for his powerful managing of this weapon is called the God of this world in his Encounter with our Saviour set up his rest upon it as supposing if this would not serve his turn there were no more fighting for him All this will I give thee said he And such a value he set upon this stake that no less than the extremest degree of horrible Idolatry could serve his turn to oppose against it All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And when he saw that this proffer would not be accepted he presently quits the field despairing utterly of any success The more dangerous indeed is this enemy I may say more dangerous to us than the Devil himself because we all acknowledge the Devil in person to be our enemy and therefore not one of us will be beholding to him for any thing if he bring us the gift himself a sick man would not be healed by him nor a poor man made rich but scarce one among a thousand has that opinion of the vain pomps and sinful pleasures of the world Our enemy No certainly It is the best and most comforting friend we have in this life all our thoughts are taken up with it it possesseth us at all times we dream of it sleeping and pursue it waking And yet our Saviour saith Ye cannot serve God and Mammon And again How can ye believe who seek honour one of another And again If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him What strength then have we to oppose this enemy 22. Why surely that which would suffice but an ordinary reasonable man and might serve any of us but that we will needs be unreasonable only in things which concern our everlasting welfare And that is the consideration of those unspeakable joyes which shall attend those who can despise the unsatisfying vain pleasures of this life A Philosopher which but reading Plato's Poetical description of the serenity of that life which a vertuous soul delivered from the Prison of the body lives was so far transported with the conceit of it though for ought he knew there was no such thing indeed or if there were perhaps never intended for him that he becomes presently weary of this prison and by a violent death frees himself from it and God only knows what a change he found Whereas we have Gods word for the certainty of that glorious life which his servants shall live yea a great deal of pains he hath taken to make it desirable and amiable unto us by ransacking all the treasures of this world the most costly jewels the most precious metals to embellish
us especially if we be not utter strangers to our selves if we be not ignorant of our own weakness 28. For satisfaction therefore to this discouragement I will now endeavour to demonstrate by proofs drawn from undeniable Reason and experience That there is no sinful Temptation so strong but that an ordinary Christian may by the assistance before mentioned easily conquer it And lest my proceeding herein may lye open to any manner of exception let me choose from among you the weakest most unexperienc'd Christian I dare oppose this man against the sharpest and most furious Temptation and will make him confess that though he be de facto subdued by it yet that that came to pass meerly by his own voluntary and affected unwatchfulness and cowardise and that it was truly in very deed in his power to have resisted it I will make choice to instance in the sin of uncleanness and fornication a sin that generally finds such excuse and patronage in the world because it is supposed to be so naturally born and bred up with us that there is no shaking it off it is a sin so resolved upon to be unconquerable that few men go about to restrain it The ancient Antidotes against this sin Watching and Fasting are grown out of use with us we conclude they will do us little good against this hereditary evil and therefore the best is to give them clean over 29. Yet I say let me suppose an ordinary Christian environed with all the strongest temptations to this so natural and therefore concluded so excusable a sin let him have the most charming beauty that has the most artificial waies of sollicitation together with opportunity and all circumstances which are not fit to be supposed here yet for all this if that man should say he is not able to resist such a tempration he lies against his own soul For if at that instant a sudden message should interrupt him a threatning of Death if he did not free himself from the danger of her filthy embraces would he not do it I desire only that each one of you in his heart would answer for him Then it is clear he is able to resist this pretended irresistable temptation And why should not the consideration of the danger of eternal Torments be as perswasive against any sin as the fear of a momentany death But I will not make my advantage of so frightful an enemy to his pleasure as Death Suppose in all those circumstances before mentioned a good sum of money were but offered him upon condition he would abstain but that time from the execution of his filthy lust I doubt not at all but that upon these terms he would find strength enough to conquer this Temptation Shall Satan then be able to cast out Satan and shall not God much more do it Shall one sin be able to destroy the exercise of another and shall not Grace much rather 30. Besides if we believe that generally it is not in our power to resist any of these temptations How dare you who are Fathers suffer your Daughters after they are come to years to live unmarried How dare you expose their souls to such dangers unless you think that ordinarily any man or woman is able to resist the Temptations of the flesh How dare you who are Menchants for the hope of a llittle gain live in foreign Countreys as if you were divorc'd from your wives if you religiously think that were it not for the benefit of marrige they could not ordinarily be honest 31. Lastly you may remember that our Saviour in his descriptions of Hell seldome leaves out this phrase where the worm dieth not which worm is generall by interpreters moraliz'd into the sting of conscience i.e. a continual vexation of soul in the Reprobates caused by the consideration how it was meerly their own fault their wilful folly which brought them to that misery Now this worm would dye and be quite extinguish'd in them if they were of some mens opinions that the reason why they sinn'd was not because they would sin but because they could not choose but do it because they wanted power to resist all the temptations which were objected to them Such a conceit may serve indeed to vex them but it is in 〈◊〉 possible it should trouble their conscience For by this Reason Corah Dathan and Abiram might with as good reason be tormented in conscience for falling into Hell when the earth opened under them as for their sin of Rebellion against Moses If the Reason why they committed that sin was the subtraction of Divine Grace and assistance without which it was impossible for them not to be Rebels But indeed why should Almighty God withdraw his Grace from any man Because say some by falling Obj. they may experimentally learn their own weakness without his assistance and so be discouraged from trusting or relying upon themselves A strange Reason no doubt Sol. For as long as they have the Grace of God they will not relye upon themselves and when they are destitute of his Grace they cannot relie upon him so that it seems God takes away his Grace from a man for this end that wanting it he may sin and by that means when he has got that grace again he may perceive that when he is destitute of Gods grace he cannot choose but sin which was a thing which he knew at the first without all this adoe But there may be a better Reason given Obj. why God should take away his Grace from a man and that is because he negligently omits to make his best use of it and so deserves that punishment Sol. But this Reason will satisfie as little as the former For suppose for example a man at this instant in the state of Grace and so in the favour of God Upon these grounds it is impossible that this man should ever sin For surely God will not undeservedly take away his Grace from him till he merit that puishment by his Sin and till God take away his Grace from him he cannot sin therefore he must never sin But this discourse though it meerly concern Practise looks so like a Controversie that I am weary of it 32. We are apt enough to slander God with too much mercy sometimes as if he bore us so particular an affection that notwithstanding our never so many sins yet he will still be merciful unto us Oh that we could conceive of his mercy and goodness aright as rather willing to prevent our sins by giving us sufficient preservatives against the commiting them I would to God that in stead of making subtil-scholastical disputes of the power and efficacy of Gods Grace we would magnifie the force thereof by suffering it to exercise its sway in our lives and conversation we should then easily find that we are able do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Errata's in the Sermons PAg. 4. lin 3. for your mouth read his mouth p. 5. l. 15. f. studiply r. stupidly p. 19. l. 14. f. were r. where p. 2◠l. 12. f. you every r. you and every p. 43. l. 42. f. any r. nay p. 45. l. 43. f. counnance r. conntenance l. 45 46. f. words Christ r. words of Christ p. 49. l. 49. f. much r. must p. 58. l. 8. f. it almost r. it is almost p. 102. l. 41. f. behaviour this r. behaviour in this p. 103. l. 33. f. tha◠r. that A Table of the Texts of the foregoing SERMONS SERMON L. on 2 TIM III. 1 2 3 4 5. THis know also that in the last daies perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof Pag. 1. SERMON III. on PSAL. XIV 1 The Fool hath said in his heart There is no God P. 19 35 SERMON IV. on LUKE IX 23. Let him deny himself P. 49 SERMON V. on ROM VIII 34. Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again P. 63 SERMON VI. on LUKE XVI 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations P. 81 SERMON VII on LUKE XIX 8. And if I have defrauded any man by forged cavillation I restore unto him four fold P. 97 SERMON VIII GAL. V. 5. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith P. 112 SERMON IX on 1 COR. X. 13. God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able P. 137 FINIS