because it may be abused to evil The Doctrine of Merit is a great encouragement to good works yet as he will not be held a skilfull Architect that shall dig up the foundation of a Town that he may have wherewithall to finish or repair the top of it So let our builder take good heed how he doth weaken and how he doth tamper with the ground-work of free Grace pretending great need and much benefit that may come thereon If men will not otherwise bless God and have good thoughts of him unless they be taught that he loveth one man as much as another we must not any whit the more be found false witnesses of God 1 Cor. 15. 15. false witnesses I mean as the Apostle meaneth not against him but for him alledging more in his behalf than will hold true because we think it makes for him and his glory Will ye accept his Person saith Job chap. 13. that is do you think that he will take it well or be beholden to you if you go about to shew him more favour than his cause will well bear in the truth of it Plainly this will fall out to be an accusation not defence Thirdly his Adversaries who hold universal Redemption though not every way as he doth do repent and bless God and think well of him and hope in him not running into despair and do love others and pray for them and help them all this they do and are called upon to do by vertue of that Doctrine which they have learned touching Gods love and Christs Death And lastly it would be weighed whether the people being taught to reason after this manner be not endangered so far to forget the charge of Moses Deut. 29. abovementioned as quite contrary to it to be careless in doing duties commanded and conforming to Gods revealed will because they are made no further acquainted with his secret intention and purpose and whether they be not hereby instructed to stand and capitulate and be upon points of certainty with God the Judge in whose debt and danger nevertheless so much they are And for his reasons this may suffice Next after these reasons shewing the necessitie of beleeving the extent of Christs righteousness to all he proceedeth thus Qu. 202. May not a man as well and surely know the remedy to be for him by his beleeving wel-walking or the like A. No surely For 1. The acts of a mans own deceitfull heart are nothing so evident and sure a foundation of beleeving a thing no nor any other pretended Revelation as the word of God is By his beleeving in the Question Beleeving is opposed to and set against the word not so well by beleeving as by the word of God whereas we cannot know any thing by the word otherwise than by beleeving the word By beleeving therefore as I suppose he meaneth the inherent grace or gift of Faith and by beleeving and wel-walking I take him to understand Faith and Obedience and when he saith in the Question or the like I think he meaneth good affections and desires and dispositions The greatest ambiguity and confusion lieth in those words the remedy to be FOR HIM for they may bear a double sense 1. He knoweth the remedy to be for him that is undoubtedly informed that God hath done graciously for all and so for him as our Authour speaketh in his Answer to Quest 200. or that knoweth that Christ died for all the world that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish Thus the remedie is for him provided that he seeketh to enjoy it and attain it 2. He knoweth the remedy to be for him to whom it is so applyed that he is assured it hath taken place on him that he hath found relief and is cured and hath obtained Peace and Pardon and Justification He that knoweth the remedie to be for him in the first sense may possibly not know it to be for him in the second So plainly they be two several matters and yet here they are made all one The Orthodox do say That a Christian by faith obedience and the testimonie of the Spirit may assuredly know that the remedie of Christs Death and the benefits of his Passion are his own and efficaciously applyed for the raising him to spiritual life and hope of inheritance incorruptible But can any man know the remedie to be for him thus by the word of God alone setting aside the consideration of faith and obedience he cannot Well may he question the truth of his faith that hath no better ground to beleeve that Christ hath done away his sins than this That he hath done away the sins of all the persons in the world How he demeaned himself in delivering the Doctrine of the Moral law we saw before here we have another smack of his Antinomian leaven whiles he denieth works or graces or faith either unless it be of his own mark and allowance to confer any thing to the consolation of a Christian He telleth his opinion with some passion in the Preface to his other work Onely whereas Their daubings that tell souls they may know that Christ loves them by their good desires and endeavours strifes and labours my soul abhorreth We have little reason to think that he remembreth the profession that he made at the beginning To follow the rule of Gods word howsoever he might leave the common-road for most certainly he hath here left both the one and the other Holy Scripture teacheth us to argue from our Sanctification to our Justification as being two things never severed in the person or their subject though they be distinguished in their nature If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and he that is renewed may be assured that he is in Christ and that Christ loves him They are the Characters which he gave Blessed are the mercifull the meek the pure in heart and they who have good desires hungring and thirsting after righteousness and he hath told us that they who do the will of God shall enter into the kingdome of heaven and that they are in the mean time to him as his brother and sister and mother I trust his sheep will never hearken to the voice of any stranger to the contrary nor much regard great words They hear the Apostle Paul say 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world And they hear the Apostle Peter say 2 Epist. 1. chap. if vertue and temperance and patience and godliness be in you you make your calling and election sure and you shall never fall and they hear the Apostle John say 1. Epist. 3. chap. in this the children of God are manifest even in doing righteousness vers. 10. and vers. 14. We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren There is great cause that that kinde of faith should be suspected
how much soever it be cried up that must assure our interest in Christ without good actions or good affections And whereas also he excludeth Revelation we oppose like wise the Apostles testimony Rom. 8. 16. the Spirit beareth witness that we are the children of God and 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God I know no other Revelation the pretended orthodox do pretend to and he sets himself against none else and his words are general not any other pretended revelation I think that under those words in the Qu. or the like may be meant also changes and alterations in mens hearts and lives from bad to good In a funeral sermon of his pag. 18 19. he plyeth this matter much disheartening those that think they beleeve and are of Gods Elect because they finde themselves changed and reformed he telleth them they ground their faith of Christs Mediation upon their works Answ Those who are taught that good works are the product and fruit of faith cannot ground their faith upon their works Neither can good Christians value such talk as this while they remember what S. James saith Shew me thy faith by thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works He that is suspected to be dead may by a stander by be certainly known to be alive if he perceive him to draw his breath and if another of of the by-standers shall argue that it is a great weakness to ground any mans life upon his breath and that it can be no true life that is so grounded he would by others be thought in this not to be reasonable but ridiculous Mans Conversion is a work of that nature that it is not always easie to be discerned neither ought men to be too scrupulous or curious in finding the time means and manner of it But where these are obscure or uncertain and when doubts and difficulties arise touching these the help hath always been from consideration of the change that is wrought in us If a man may assuredly know that he hath attained his journeys end and arrived at the desired haven he ought not too much to trouble himself about the way how he came there Let not therefore Christians be beguiled of this supply and relief but pass by if need be the circumstances of time and place and way and insist upon the substance which is the alteration that is made which they may do as well and upon as certain ground as to this work upon the soul as the blinde man did concerning the work that our Saviour wrought upon his body saying Joh. 9. One thing I know that whereas I was blinde now I see So may a true convert say I was sometimes darkness but now am I light in the Lord Eph. 5. 8. And the prodigal son had as much cause of comfort and joy as the father had upon the new return and change appearing that He who was dead is alive and he that was lost is found And whereas he told his Auditory then pag. 19. that it is Pharisaical to conceit that God loveth us because of reformations and frames begotten in us by his grace and a certain secret insensible working of power in the heart it may be answered If the work of the Spirit be secret and insensible what better way can there be to take notice of it than by the change and alteration that is made in us He that would know whether the Sun moveth or not must not look upon the Sun nor can he see the shadow move upon the Dial but if he comes an hour or two hence he may easily discern that the Sun and the shadow are removed and that therefore they did move before But the truth is our Authour holds no such internal work or power needfull to conversion for of the six helps to Quakerisme afforded by such as are counted orthodox this is by him counted the second Their speaking of faith as wrought by some immediate power as besides the word preached but so much for this I think by the like in the Question last rehearsed he may mean also Consolations and sense of heavenly joy for in a discourse of his called A Caveat to true Christians pag. 84 85. he much mislikes that men should gather comfort or assurance from sensible feeling and visits and saith that such are thence called sensual as not living by Faith but upon matters of sense thus he there But where are they called sensual who ever called them so A little before pag. 82. upon those words of the Apostle Peter They that are unlearned wrest the Scriptures he noteth thus He means not unlearned in Aits and languages But I suppose there be few among us though so far illiterate as they be not able to read his book but even by custome of our English language have learned the difference betwixt Sensual and Sensible The word sensual is twice found Jam. 3. and Jude vers. 19. in both places it stands opposed to spiritual and signifies as much as Carnal such as intend onely and are led by their part sensitive or carnal appetite or nature common to us with the bruits sensual having not the Spirit and in our common speech a sensual man is one that is given to brutish pleasures Now shall such a Christian as is visited with the consolations of God and is made sensible of heavenly light and joy that can in some sort take up the Prophets words in the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul be called Sensual It is true that the sense of divine comfort and the light of Gods countenance may denominate persons sensible namely thereof yet not absolutely sensible for such we call them that are apt to perceive and understand readily what is done or said But to say they are absolutely Sensual is so gross a mistake that I cannot but wonder it should fall from him who is skilfull in Arts and languages how soever undervaluing them in others Not living by Faith saith he but upon matters of sense Faith and Sense may be opposed and are sometimes very distant and contrary but not as sense is taken here For they who have as holy Scripture speaketh joy in beleeving or that as the Apostle Peter saith beleeving rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious do live by faith and upon sense too that is upon sensible consolations or perception of divine favour as a man may comfort and chear himself in a winters night by the heat of the fire and the light of it too But what is the reason why we may not beleeve that Christ hath dealt graciously with us in that he hath bestowed upon us the gifts of Faith and Obedience or that we may not conclude spiritual life from spiritual affections and desires It is this because a mans heart is deceitfull The Scripture saith indeed Mans heart
Universalist which is thought now well worth the owning and affecting We know who it was of old time who talked much of Grace but when it came to be explained it was nothing but Nature To hear outwardly is by nature to hear inwardly is by grace both of these are in this Answer called both alike without any difference Gods gift And as far as we may guess by his words here and in other places both of them are of like extent thus far that look where God giveth the outward hearing he giveth the inward hearing also Now though it should be granted that Grace may possibly be Universal and bestowed upon all men and yet be grace still and that it doth not consist in being a Priviledge vouchsafed to some onely yet how universal soever it be it cannot be universal Grace unless it be superadded to Nature and natural endowments Gods Grace is always beside or over and above humane nature Barely to hear is not Grace but nature so is it to live and move with inward attention to hear is not universal but belongeth to internal vocation which is the special Grace of God opening the ears and inclining the heart to hear and obey So that from the power of hearing can no way be made good Universal Grace Qu. 256. Is it possible then for a man that hath beleeved to fall from his Faith and so from Grace A. Yes surely if it be not well rooted in his heart the heart thereby kept single for God and fruitfull in good but where these things are no danger of falling He that would rightly answer this Question of falling from Faith as I think should first distinguish true justifying faith from false unsound and temporary faith and not speak of these two as if they were all one as in this Answer is spoken Such a faith as is feigned and unsound may be lost but true faith that is of a right kinde is not lost Our blessed Saviour hath learned us this difference and taught us this Doctrine Matth. 13 vers. 21 23. True faith hath rooting and is fruitfull and abideth False faith hath no rooting is unfruitfull and endureth not This therefore may well be added and inserted into his Answer Such faith from which any man doth fall was never true faith even while he did stand therein The temporary beleever had no root before he withered and the foolish virgins took no oyl with them from the first and the house that fell had no good foundation before it fell and therefore did it fall The Apostles speaking of Apostates do usually put a difference presently after betwixt them even whiles they stood and true beleevers lest true beleevers should take offence and be discouraged and suspect themselves to be in no better condition than those revolters were whiles they continued This may appear by these places following 2. Thessal 2. Having spoken of the fearfull judgements of God upon such as should be seduced and perish for want of love to the truth he addeth vers. 13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you because he hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation 2 Tim. 2. Hymeneus and Philetus fell into a heresie drew others along with them Neverthaless the foundation of God standeth sure and the Lord knoweth who are his vers. 19 Hebr. 6. having largely described the cursed estate of those that totally and finally fall away in five verses from the 4th to the 8th he addeth v 9. But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation As if he had said thus We do not onely think that you are now in better state than they are but that you will always abide so Though it might be but perswasion of charity that these were so qualified yet is it matter of certainty that true grace wheresoever it be doth accompany Salvation not onely cometh near as neighbouring or bordering upon it nor yet as contiguous onely for so it may fall short but it is so contiguous with salvation that it is withall coherent with it dependent on it not to be severed yea continuous with it in one un-interrupted piece or progress It is such kinde of Grace in which Salvation is wrapped and folded up and contained as the bird in the egg As the several ages of man infancie youth manhood do differ one from the other and do follow one the other yet withall they are the same life still continued although in differing degrees Joh. 5. 24. He that beleeveth hath everlasting life if he that beleeveth hath life and that life be everlasting then a beleever cannot fall away Hebr. 10. two last verses If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that beleeeve to the saving of the soul to beleeve and to draw back these two are contrary and inconsistent as salvation and perdition are 2 Pet. 2 22. When he had shewed the dangerous estate of some who had turned from the way of righteousness and were again entangled in the pollutions of the world after they had escaped them he concludeth But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire His meaning is though they were washed and reformed outwardly yet they still remained what they were they still retained their old unclean disposition and their nature continuing caused this return A sheep differs from a swine newly washed so differs a true convert from a false Joh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us and chap. 5. 9. after that he had mentioned the sin unto Death the worst kinde of Apostacy of all he addeth We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not still making a difference betwixt true beleevers and Apostates before their falling away Qu. 272. Thou saidst thou wert bound by thy Baptisme to keep Gods holy will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of thy life Tell me what is the will and Commandment of God concerning thee A. Gods will is that I should be saved and come to the acknowledgment of the truth Will is sometime Command thus the Princes will and command is that the Rebels lay down their arms by such a day Will is sometime Intention and purpose thus the Princes will and purpose is to pardon and receive to favour those that do lay down their arms by such a day In this case to keep the Princes command is good sense so is it not to keep the Princes intention or purpose That God doth will or intend and purpose to save all men howsoever it be understood is matter of belief not of practise therefore not of precept and therefore not to be kept or done Whereas to keep is to observe and do as to keep the commandments Matth. 19. 17.
is deceitfull but it saith not that every mans heart is at all times and in every thing actually deceived Some men have a custome lacerare Scriptur as to rend the Scripture as it were to tear a text out of the Bible which they think is for their turn though against reason against the Analogie of Faith and quite contrary to other places which should by collation help to interpret One Scripture saith Mans heart is deceitfull above all things Another saith that our heart doth gives right and true verdict concerning our estates If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things If our heart condemn us not it is so good a signe that we may have confidence towards God A faithfull Christian may rightly judge of his own condition though an hypocrite be mistaken in judging of his whose heart yet as it is heavy in the midst of his mirth and laughter may likely enough condemn him in the midst of his confidence and self-deceit I answer secondly and affirm that this rule here given or this saying of Scripture without right interpretation or due restriction That Mans heart is deceitfull and no sure foundation of beleeving a thing being applyed to other matters in like sort and why not to others as well as to this is a sure foundation or principle of Scepticisme or beleeving nothing at all which is not many removes distant from Atheisme With the heart man beleeves and if the heart be deceitfull in every thing how can he beleeve any thing And thirdly he doth not well to make opposition betwixt a beleeving mans heart and Gods word He who collecteth that God loveth him because he hath bestowed his sanctifying graces upon him doth not make his own heart but Gods word to be the foundation of his belief Nor doth he as the Text pointeth Prov. 28. Trust in his own heart but maketh use of his own heart or reason in applying the word of God to his own case and his own benefit according to the will of God Now followeth the second reason 2. Nor is such a Faith under the Gospel-Declaration a distinguishing Character of Gods Election as springs not up from the love of God and bloud of Christ shed for us as in the word of God declared to us and by the authority thereof apprehended by us as this faith that goes before and is our ground of such an apprehension This is his second reason preferring the faith of the Universalist before the faith of the pretended Orthodox The one is no character of Gods Election the other is The meaning is this as if he had said He who beleeveth that God loveth all alike and Christ died alike for all men as to the intention of benefit by his Death hath a right faith even before any grace of Sanctification wrought But he who beleeveth that the benefit of Christs Death who died for all is more intended to some than others hath no true faith nor signe of Gods Election though his faith be accompanyed with obedience good desires and changes and a pretended testimony of the Spirit An Assertion I know not whether he more boldly or more blindly uttered I shall touch now onely upon these two particulars 1. How uncharitable he is to his adversaries or the dissenting partie 2. How uncomfortable to his own partie 1. He hath no charity for that party that is not of his own way I take charity now for that effect or fruit of charity which is shewed in beleeving all things and hoping all things that is the best things that may be beleeved and that may be hoped touching others He assirmeth the faith of the Universalist to be the onely distinguishing character of Gods Election the faith of all others be they never so vertuous pious sanctified mortified to be a false and feigned faith it seems they set their soot in the wrong way at first they began amiss and now how far soever they go and how fast soever they go they still wander and go astray in a by-path What good can be expected from an ill beginning what firm building from a sandy foundation if the root be rottenness the fruit can be nothing but dust and smoke But I answer That every one may be saved in his own Religion is an Opinion Anathematized in our Church-Articles Nevertheless Christians are not wont I am sure they ought not to be peremptory in condemning one another upon matters of no greater importance But of all men an Universalist how ill doth it become to be a Monopolist How ill accordeth that charity to it self if at least that be not a false charity that overthroweth the true faith which is in so high a flow to Heathens and in so low an ebb to fellow-Christians But it must not be any great matter with us to be judged by man That person who with a true belief can say The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me and with an humble and thankfull minde can say God hath put his fear in my heart if not researching but adoring Gods secret judgements he shall forbear to think that there was as much good intended to every one as to him hath far more reason to suspect this Catechist for a seducer than himself for an hypocrite or unsound beleever For supposing it were true as we are verily perswaded it is not that God had such a love and such a gracious intention towards all persons in the world as this Authour teacheth yet is not the belief of it so necessary an ingredient to justifying faith that it should be no true justifying faith without it For as the faith of Peter and many others of the Jews was a true and saving faith even then when they were ignorant of the extent of Gods Love and Grace in the Gospel towards the Gentiles Act. 10. and 11. So we doubt not but the faith of a Christian beleever may be and is a sound faith and character of Gods Election although he be to seek in this New discovery very of Gods good will and grace extended towards all men in an equal dispensation 2. As he is uncharitable to all others so is he uncomfortable to such who do think it best to leave the beaten path of Gods Church and follow him For he doth deprive and spoil them of that assurance and testimony of Gods love which they had from sanctifying gifts and inherent graces having been heretofore rightly taught that though they might not put confidence in their works and good desires yet they might raise and gather confidence and comfort from their works and good desires testifying that their faith is true And that Apostle who said That his rejoycing was the testimony of a good conscience and good conversation adviseth every man to rejoyce in himself Gal. 6. 4. And whosoever goeth any other way to work to get a comfortable assurance than by these marks of holiness and fruits of faith will never
A REVIEW OF Mr HORN'S CATECHISME And Some few of his Questions and Answers noted by J. H. of MASSINGHAM p. Norf. Non desunt interpolatores veritatis Nè desint quoque redintegratores Polit. CAMBRIDGE Printed by JOHN FIELD Printer to the Universitie 1660. A Review of Mr HORN'S Catechisme and some few of his Questions and Answers noted by J. H. of Massingham p. Norf. WHile I trouble not my Reader with other Preface I must not omit to give him notice of thus much at the first that M Horn's Catechisme called Brief Instructions for children was brought me by a friend with this small request that I would peruse it which though I might perhaps have seen before yet as then had I not read so much as one entire page of it howsoever it had been extant for above the space of five years But for the next request he made that I would let him know what I thought of it especially some of the Answers in it it was not enough to tell him that he knew the better of the two how to judge of it and for his further desire that I would write something in brief touching what I thought therein to be unsound it might not suffice to say That to be Censor librorum or but libelli was too high and hard a task for me though it were but in a private way so that the motion with some earnestness redoubled took place with him that is of this minde that whoso with importunity sets another on work stands reasonably charged in some sort with the faults and failings In the mean time and in such a licentious season wherein every opinion dares boldly bring a voucher ready though we can do little else we cannot but complaìn that whatsoever libertie be given to other Discourses some of them too wilde and scathfull books of Christian Institution which lay down the first Principles should be no more heeded and lookt after but pass abroad without all censure and inspection That Catechismes which are the publick cisterns or receptacles made and framed the better to hold the water derived from the spring of Gods holy word for benefit of the young and ignorant should be no better preserved and guarded to the intent that nothing noxious or unwholsome be injected The law of God severely forbade his people to remove the land-marks that their forefathers had set down and fastened and the Romanes from Numa thus Qui terminum exarâssit ipsus boves sacri sunto there may be cause given oftentimes to posteritie entangled in endless contentions to curse the memorie of those who pluck up that which they never set Articles of Religion and confessions of Faith and forms of Catechisme are the sacred terms and bounds of particular churches fixed as the surest conservatours of peace as well as of the truth But as the laws are not made for the righteous whose obedience moveth from a stronger spring but for the unrighteous loose and irregular so these limits now spoken of are chiefly for the ignorant and unstable for the untaught that are in danger to be ill taught for such as make the multitude one of their marks whereby to finde out the truth of Christianitie for other Christians who are faithfull in the land and are firmly built upon that truth which they have learned of men but not of men onely they make good the want of outward order and supply the defect of humane Authoritie by their greater care and diligence that they may not be found as chaff when the floor is purged with the fan of heresie and schisme that they may save themselves and others so far as they may from an untoward and backsliding generation as Davids zeal was the more kindled because of others wickedness They have made void thy law saith he Therefore I love thy commandments No marvel is it of such persons as this authour is who dread and deprecate all national establishment of Religion as sanguinary persecution but matter of wonder is it as well as grief that any of those that worthily lament the breaking down of the hedge should be among the first of them that lay to their hands to spoil the vines and being aggrieved at the removal of that government which is indeed the best simply and as I think the best always should be with the forwardest to take advantage of no government at all whereby to spread and propagate opinions most contrariant and destructive to the doctrine of our Church when it was rightly constituted But while I speak of limit and good order it is fit to keep my self to what I am about In the title of these Brief instructions that clause as may best serve the capacitie of children might well have been omitted unless he had meant to leave out that which follows in the title concerning the great mysteries there specified and that which follows and bears a great proportion in the book concerning the Quinquarticular controversies For think you these to be fit matter of instruction for children If this be milk I wonder what he counteth strong meat Heretofore it hath been said that these things should be argued in schools among the learned and not be made the subject of our Homilies ad populum or treated of in vulgar auditories to fall upon these points there was a matter of presentment and an iniquitie to be punished and have they already found so large a room in brief Instructions for children Solomon giveth this warning in the 17 of the Proverbs Qui attollit ostium quaerit ruinam He that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction whether it be a moral caution against vain pretences and high presumptions or oeconomical advising men to beware of over-chargeable and too costly structures lest they be unable to go on and finish and for want of foresight come at last to build themselves quite out of doors The great mysteries of redemption faith works law gospel of predestination election reprobation opened appears at first approach too high a gate too lofty a frontispiece for a childrens Catechisme but I cannot beleeve that ever he thought these points so needfull to be learned at first beginning that was not the chief intent The young ones must betimes be prepossessed with a vile opinion of the present pretended Orthodox and this is the scope of many of the Answers they are to learn Hannibals father brought him along to the Altar and made him lay hold on it with his hands and there he swore him against the Romanes when he was but nine years old And the children must be brought early to know their foes and what they are against whom they must bend their forces and emptie their quivers not against the Papists nor the Anabaptists nor the Socinians no danger being feared now it seems from any of these but the pretended orthodox that walk by vote and Elders tradition Against these they must be taught to beleeve that they are of a Satanical perswasion Answ 199.
and that they hold most horrible impieties Answ 298. with other reproaches and all for beleeving Gods free and saving grace and that he doth not love all men alike And these Answers they are to get by heart and lay them up in the store-house of their memorie that so they may be ready at all times to give an account to him that asketh of the malice that is in them howbeit the Apostle faith In understanding be ye men but in malice be ye children as if malice uncharitableness and hatred of others were not to be found in them nor are they so comparatively unless it be where such instructions as these are planted But it is the surest way and that he knoweth well to train them up early in the way he would have them go that so they may not depart from it in their older age to fill them with animosities so soon as they be capable against the persons and opinions of their adversaries As there is no friendship to that which is called Praetextata amicitia according as the Scolium a kinde of song in Athenaeus makes it the fourth point of felicitie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is to have neighbourhood and acquaintance with such as have been brought up together with us from our childhood so there is no enmitie like that which children are seasoned with all at their first setting out and bred in from their green and tender years Crescent illi crescetis irae As they grow up their disaffections also increase and gather strength with them But if abrenunciations and negative positions have been thought unfit and importune to be thrust into a Confession of Faith or Articles of Religion agreed upon then doubtless such condemnation of contrary erroars as doth involve the parties also and reflect upon the persons doth much less become the delivery of the very first principles In the Preface is this profession made I do indeed about the goodness of God towards and the death of Christ for men varie from the common-road of the present pretended orthodox because they leave the Scripture-road and walk in a by-path of some Elders tradition I would have you and yours with my self not walk by vote but by rule the word of God The road is not therefore to be forsaken because it is common as multitude is the Papists mist which they would cast before our eyes so is paucity the Anabaptists but God hath given us no such rule as either and as it is unthankfulness and worse than so when God hath given Kings and worldly powers to propagate and cherish Christian Religion then to crie out Not many noble so is it also when as the nations do slie as a cloud of Doves to the windows of the Church and God fulfills his gracious promises of multiplying beleevers as the sand or the stars or the numberless drops of dew from the mornings womb then to crie out of following the multitude or walking in a common road Not by vote saith he nor by mans precept but by the word of God Answ. Vote and the rule of Gods word may be not contrary but subordinate Might not the 39 Articles for instance the Assemblies Catechisme or Confession be framed by the rule of Gods word and yet be voted too If a single Pastour write a Catechisme and frame Answers that he would have his parishioners or people over whom he is set to learn and get by heart are they not now taught by the precept and appointment of man Is there not as much lording or dominion over the faith of others in a parish or small congregation as there is in a Diocess Province or Nation Should we in earnest walk after this Tradition here plainly taught and delivered as the Jews in the Prophet Jeremy are said to multiplie their gods secundùm numerum civitatum according to the number of their cities so must we multiplie our Creeds secundùm numerum capitum so that every particular person may have a form of faith by himself which is the very spirits and heart of Anabaptisme And I do verily beleeve that not onely the more judicious sort of his charge and neighbourhood but very children that are of any capacity will think it far safer in matters of difference to follow the judgement of many pious learned men than of One though he were equally qualified with the best of them And as to the particular touching which he now enters his dissent he loveth to raise a perpetual dust wheresover he goeth about the extent and intention of benefit by Christs death and injuriously chargeth his adversaries with broad denial of Scripture sayings because they interpret one sentence by another and are unwilling to make use of the universal particle All or Every one therewithall to overthrow the contents of the Gospel and as with a helve or handle to cut down the chief trees of the forrest And whatsoever he talketh here of the Scripture-road and rule of Gods word as if this were it that did bear the sway with him and carry him on so strongly I have cause to suspect it to be but talk out of what I finde in a late work of his called Essays for pag. 24. he observeth that those words Act. 13. 48. were no part of Pauls doctrine by him then preached but onely an assertion of Luke the writer of the Apostles Acts and telleth us further that it is safer to stick to Paul than to Luke if they disagree though he thinketh here he can reconcile them But will he indeed stick to the Apostle Paul Neither for pag. 36. He telleth us that those places in Pauls Epistles which seem to clash with Gods willing all men to be saved and in particular that discourse of his Rom. 9. Are those places hard to be understood that Peter speaketh of 2 Epist. 3. 16. So that he hath bethought himself how he may easily answer all that can be brought against him out of the Apostle Paul the Champion of free grace though he be for if the argument that is brought be hard to be answered then the place whence it is taken is hard to be understood and it must be supposed not to be rightly understood so long as it shall seem to cross the Universalists And thus in stead of walking by others vote he plainly and peremptorily walketh by his own will and without regard or heed taken wresteth to his purpose that very Scripture that warneth us of the fearfull danger of wresting any I doubt not but you shall finde nothing therein but what is wholsome and may look my worst adversaries boldly in the face Answ. That is not always the best that looks the boldest Truth may be confident but falshood hath the greater faculty of out-facing and clamouring obstrepit adulter sensus and with making continued noise drowneth all that can be said against it And I think that very seldome comes forth any one piece into the light that is of such