hath his secret workings and continual countermines opposing hereunto which evil spirit working also by the frail and deceivable spirit of man doth by many subtile wayes obscure corrupt poyson and belye the sacred qualifications of the Spirit of Truth nor doth the Devil that grand enemy of mans salvation in any kinde of way so much cousen and cheat the souls of men into ruine as by putting false glosses and counterfeit vizars on vices errors and distempers that so they may be mistaken for holy vertues and divine qualifications To instance in some particulars First It is a truth by the Spirit of God both foretold promised and performed That the actings and impressions of Gods Spirit upon the mindes of men are both more strong and frequent as also more general and common under the Gospel then they were under the Law That the gift of the Ministry it self is dilated being not limited to the single Tribe of Levi but all men of what quality soever have a title thereunto meaning Genera singulorum not singula generum that is men of all sorts and kindes not all of all kindes but hereupon to make void pull down and level with the undistinguisht multitude the high and solemn order and offices of the Priest-hood instituted by God himself both under the Law and under the Gospel for a people to snatch the Divine Oracles from the lips of the Priest and presume to teach their Teachers to invade the chair of Moses and offer incense with unhallowed censors for private persons to assume the publique administration of Ministerial Offices without a lawful Call and due Ordination thereunto though they may be otherwise qualified with knowledge and piety These are false glosses imposed upon the former truths by the Spirit of lies Tares sowed by the Enemy of mankinde amidst the purer wheat And that 1. To the high dishonour of God and profanation of all that is religious and sacred 2. To involve the Church of Christ and bury it in the rubbish of confusion and disorder 3. To take away those bounds and limits distinguishing Priest from people which all Nations Jewes and Gentiles all Ages of the Church both Ancient and Modern have kept firm and inviolable 4. To pull down heavy judgements upon the heads of all such sacrilegious Usurpers and Invaders of Divine Rites 2 Sam. 6 6,7 2 Chron. 16.16 c. 2. It is an impression of Gods Spirit upon the soul of man to wait and depend upon God for spiritual wisdome knowledge Prov. 3.5 c. and not to lean to our own understanding or trust too much to our own wit judgement reading learning Prov. 2.6 or the like as knowing full well That the Lord gives wisdome and from him cometh knowledge and understanding But hereupon either to despise or neglect those waies and means and helps which God in his merciful providence hath afforded us for to attain wisdome c. as the study of Tongues and Languages Arts and Sciences the reading and distinctly weighing the Discourses of the learned and to depend upon immediate Revelation and Infusion of such gifts from Heaven as if they should drop upon our barren hearts as did the Manna in the Wildernesse upon the Tents of Israel out of the clouds and by miracle this is a false gloss which the spirit of delusion puts upon the former truth thereby to inveigle us 1. To tempt the good Spirit of God 2. To be exposed and laid open to seducing spirits 3. To enshrine Lady Ignorance again as the Mother of Devotion which all men know but who are blinded with ignorance to be the Dam of superstitions errors and confusions 3. Rightly to beleeve in the Son of God as the mean of our justification here and ground of our hope of salvation hereafter this is an impression of Gods Spirit on the soul of man and in respect hereof we are said to have the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 2 Cor. 4.13 We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I beleeved therefore have I spoken faith as it is doctrinal being a spiritual gift and reckoned amongst them 1 Cor. 12.9 And as it is practical 1 Cor. 12 9. Gal. 5.22 being a grace or fruit of the Spirit and reckoned amongst them also Gal. 5.22 But now to mingle and divide and as it were to cut asunder this true Evangelical Faith as it stands full and intire in all its integral parts both of doctrine and practice so as to be vainly puft up with a conceit of being ingraffed into Christ and thereby to be justified here and sure of heaven hereafter whether we live according to the rule of Faith and in obedience unto the Gospel of Christ or no to define and measure our Faith not by the sacred acts thereof commanded which is called the righteousnesse of Faith Rom 10.6 but by our own too too credulous fancies and apprehensions as if it were no more to be in Christ but presumptuously to pretend unto it and impudently without just ground to believe it This surely cannot be that true Evangelical Faith whereunto so many promises are annext but a false glosse which the spirit of Error hath put thereupon thereby 1. To puffe up the hearts of too too credulous men with spiritual pride and presumption and make them swell with the empty conceit and airy fancy of their own happy and eminent state and condition when there is no such matter And 2. To inveigle men to neglect the use and practice of Christian graces those fruits of the Spirit which are as it is already said the very life and soul of Christianity and consequently the way to heaven if ever we mean to arrive there 4. It is an impression of Gods Spirit on the soul of man To be zealous for the Lord of Hosts 1 King 19.14 that is to be exceedingly fervent and forward earnest and desirous by all possible waies and means to advance the religious worship and service of God but to be so factious and forward so fiery and furious as by any illegal extravagant and disorderly means to advance the truth it self much lesse to set up any private opinions in relation to Gods Service which have not been semper ubique ab omnibus Vincent the three rules of Catholick Doctrine and Worship to be generally and for the most part of the Primitive times at least of all persons at all times and in all places received and not now and then here and there by hereticks and schismaticks only introduc'd I say to be zealous for such pieces of Religion Doctrine and Worship and that per fas nefásque through just or unjust means by right or by wrong to endevour the advancement thereof this is not true zeal but a false gloss which the Devil puts thereupon even through the violence of this distempered heat 1. To divide separate and break men into sects factions and parties that they might so
ubique ab omnibus at all times in all places by all persons Councels and Fathers and is by the merciful providence of God in spite of all opposition from Infidels Heretiques and Schismatiques brought down unto us Prov. 3.5 This Faith must be the rule according to which we must steer our interpretations of holy Scriptures not leaning to our own understanding or abounding in our own sense but ever submitting our private judgement to the publique judgement of the Church which in the Apostles own times was commanded when the gift of prophesie or interpretation of Scripture was by more immediate and extraordinary inspiration communicated yet even then the judgement of the Church was to be allowed in the interpretation of Scripture 1 Cor. 14.29 Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge objection But 't is here objected Numb 16.14 Wilt thou put out the eyes of these people must we not see with our own eyes but only with those of the Church Shall we pin our faith upon any mens sleeves What need we the authority of men when we have Gods own authority for our direction and men are but men i. e. frail and liable to error so that all they affirm is not to be taken for Gospel In answer whereunto consider answer 1. That there is a great deal of difference betwixt an implicite faith and blinde obedience to the dictates of the Church and a submission to the publique judgement thereof The first deprives the people of their reason and judgement the second renders them more meek humble submissive and obedient and thereby more capable to receive the impression of the knowledge of celestial mysteries 2. Nihil carum rerum scire quae antè nascereris sacta sum hoc est semper esse puerum Cic. That we assert not the ancient and learned Fathers of the Church ut dominos sed ut duces fidei Not as Lords over our faith but as guides in the true belief And he that knows nothing of the Religion of the Fathers for his guidance and direction is most likely still to continue a childe in his religion Nor 3. Quicquid omnes vel plures uno eodemque sensu manifestè frequenter perseveranter velut quod am sibi consentiente concilio accipiendo tenendo tradendo firmaverint id pro indubitato certo ratoque habeatur Quicquid vero quamvis ille doctus sanctus quamvis Episcopus praeter omnes aut etiam contra omnes senserit id inter proprias privatas opiniunculas à communis publicae generalis sententiae authoritate secretum sit Vinc. Lyr. are we to receive for Oracle all that the ancient reverend Fathers of the Church did affirm being very few amongst them but had their particular errors and mistakes and in many particulars also 't is confessed they did contradict each other 'T is not therefore the affirmations and private opinions of particular persons we must look upon as the Doctrine of true Religion and true meaning of the Scriptures but the general and universal consent of all for that all should erre and fall from the truth is contrary to what our Lord hath promised who will undoubtedly be as good as his word Mat. 16.18 Vpon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it and Mat. 28.20 I am with you alway even to the end of the world In a word in the interpretation of Scriptures and for the confirmation of holy truths thence deduced the authority of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church is to be consulted and known for these reasons 1. Because they are certain and undeniable witnesses of what the Church and the people of Christ did in their respective times believe and hold for orthodox Doctrine If the same doctrine St. Augustine taught in Africk was also taught by St. Chrysostome in Greece by St. Ambrose in Italy by St. Hierome in Palestine and so in other places by holy and reverend Bishops and Pastors of the Church then this undoubtedly was the doctrine of the Church and thus were the holy Scriptures understood in those ages of the Church Ita intellexit Ambrosius ita Cyprianus c. Thus Ambrose thus Cyprian understood such or such a place of Scripture this had some weight in St. August time and St. Aug. opinion and there is no reason but that it should be of the same force still amongst us 'T is no way probable but that persons so eminent in learning and in piety so frequent in holy prayers and meditations in fastings and wailings so indefatigable in their studies and labours in the Word and Doctrine and who laid down their lives and fortunes for the doctrine they preached should more truly understand the Scriptures and the truth of Christian Religion then we who if there be any thing of Modesty and Humility in our hearts must confesse our selves far inferiour to them in the said gifts and graces of the holy Spirit Vsque adeo promiscuit imis summa longus dies c. Aug. Hath time so confounded all things is light so changed into darkness and darkness become light ut videant Pelagius c. that Haeretiques now are the only seers Et caeci sunt Hilarius Cyprianus Ambrosiùs And the learned pious Fathers of the Church become blinde The words are too much appliable to the Heretiques of the times 3. The judgement of the Fathers being so far remote from these times wherein we live must needs be impartial as to the controversies amongst us touching the interpretation of any texts of Scripture or doctrines therein delivered as being altogether disinterested and knowing nothing of our disputes and contestations thereabouts Nullas nobiscum vel vobiscum amicitias attenderunt c. Aug. contra Julian Pelag. They were neither in friendship nor in community with us or with them who in this age are of a contrary opinion to us they were neither angry with us nor them neither did they pity either of us but what they found professed in the Church they faithfully preserved what they learned they taught and what they received from their fathers they delivered unto us their children and undoubtedly Survey of the pretended discipline as a learned man of our Church observes they that contemn the learned Fathers that went before them do but open a gap to their own discredit making way thereby to be contemned themselves by all those that shall come after 4. We cannot but reasonably imagine that those holy and learned persons who lived nearer the Apostles times should proportionably know better the Apostles meaning in their writings and the doctrine they preached then any of us who live so many hundred years since Therefore saith Irenaeus Iren. l. 3. ch 4. who was the Disciple of Polycarpus the Disciple of St. John Where any question ariseth and the holy Scripture as 't is too common Vinc. Ler. is so perverted as
of Religion if he win ground in the ceremonies and make a Schism there he will not be long from the Sacraments and produce Heresies in them Thus 't was amongst the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. From their neglect of Ceremonies sitting covered at prayer they grew as irreverent and homely with the Sacrament eating Bishop Andr. serm upon 1 Cor. 11.16 and drinking as if they had been at home so that the Apostle is fain to tell them vers 22. That they had homes to be homely at The Church the house of God was no place for such irreverent demeanor And the like is obvious to each mans observation amongst us how the decent ceremonies and publique orders of Prayer and of the Sacraments being struck at the substance of both hath not long continued free from that impetuous violence of factious and schismatical spirits 3. This will yet further appear if we consider the nature of contention which is so unruly that it knows no bounds and limits but like waters overflowing the banks which run endwise ever without return so Prov. 17.14 The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water therefore leave off contention before it be medled with To contend for the true faith is commendable and commanded also Jude 3. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contention is one thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be contentious is another To contend for the Truth is the duty of all good Christians but to contentious about harmless ceremonies and things indifferent is not the custome of Gods Church and people If any man list to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 From the cohaerence of which Text the danger of contentiousness is also observable For 1. all the contention was about ceremonies about wearing long or short hair praying covered or bare vers 13 14 15. vers 4 5 6. And being contentious about these things presently there followed Schisms or divisions amongst them vers 18. and shortly after down-right Heresies vers 19. Thus Pruritus disputandi becomes Scabies Ecclesiae the itch of contention breeds the scab of Schism and Heresie in the Church Hear from a person interested in such contentions the truth hereof confessed Baxter Saints Rest 3. Part ch 13. Publique wars and private quarrels which do usually pretend to the reformation of the Church the vindicating of the truth and the welfare of souls do usually prove in the issue the greatest means to overthrow all it is as natural for wars and contentious to produce Errors Schisms contempt of Magistracy Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead carrion to breed worms and vermine beleeve it from one who hath too many years experience of it both in armies and Garrisons It is as hard a thing to maintain in a people a sound understanding tender conscience a lively gracious heavenly frame of spirit and upright life in a way of war and contention as to keep a candle lighted in a storm or under the waters 4. When a Schism is once made and the communion of the Church deserted the separatists like travellers out of the beaten road finde no path to walk in and so become circular and endless in their waies or like such folks which continually toss and turn themselves upon their bed seeking that rest and repose which cannot be found till the humours of the body recover their due temper and be confin'd to their proper limits Hence it comes to pass that new doctrines and new opinions in religion are commonly broacht and set a foot by Schismaticks and this in opposition still to those ancient Truths which are the doctrines of the Church from which they have separated themselves It being the essential property of a Schismatick like Proteus to change his minde into every opinion represented to his fancy as plausible Hereunto agrees that ancient authentick father of the Church Irenaeus Alienati vero à veritate digni in emni volutantur errore fluctuati abeo aliter atque aliter per tempora de iisdem sentientes nunquam scientiam slabilem habentes Iren. l. 3. c. 4. adv Haer. When men are once alienated from the truth they deservedly wallow themselves in the mire of all kinde of errors being tossed to and fro thereby Sometime of one opinion and sometime of another even in the same things having no certain fixt and setled knowledge at all And the reason hereof why Schismatiques must need become Heretiques is rendred by S. Hierome Nullum Schisma non sibi aliquam fingit Haeresim ut rectè ab ecclesia recessisse videatur Hier. ad Tit. c. 3. No Schism saith he but will beget an Heresie that thereby the Schismatique may the better maintain his unlawful separation from the Church CHAP. V. Of the causes of Heresie and Schism and the manners of Heretiques HE that will convert an Heretique Eum qui Haereticum vult convertere oportet scire regulas sive argumenta eorum Nec n. est possibile alioui curare quosdam malè habentes qui ignorat passionem eorum qui malè valent Iren. part in lib. 4. advers Haer. saith Ireneus he must know as the arguments which they use so the Rules whereby they proceed It being not possible for any to work a cure upon another that is diseased if he know not the causes of his disease and the waies of its progresse in the infection of the humors spirits or more solid parts of the body so that to heal the distempers of Heresie and Schism 't is necessary to search out the causes and take notice of those evil waies and corrupt customes of seduced spirits 1. The first original cause of all Heresies and Schisms is pride and ambition which was the original sin both in men and Devils saith Syracides Ecclus. 10.13 Therefore he admonisheth Extoll not thy self in the counsel of thine own heart that thy soul be not torn in pieces as a wilde bull straying alone chap. 6.2 Thus Simon Magus the first Heretique in the Church of Christ bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one Act. 8.9 Thus Montanus as Eusebius records Eccles Hi l. lib. 5. cap. 16. being inflamed with the greedy desire of primacy and superiority yeelded to the Actings of contrary or evil spirits in himself by whom being sodainly extasied and entransed he began to utter strange and new doctrines contrary to such as were generally received in the Church pretending to the gift of prophesie by immediate Revelation Theodor. l. 1. hist eccl c. 24. Thus Arrius and Novatus being defeated of their ambitious desires of being Bishops the one of Alexandria the other of Rome became the heads and pestilent Authors of most pernicious Heresies Si n. radix elationis abscinditur rami pravae assertionis arefiunt Greg. that they might lift up themselves to be the heads and leaders of Heretiques since they could not be so of
Prayer the which is not only commanded by our Lord to be used when we pray Luk. 11.2 but by the which also we do communicate in our prayers with all holy orthodox Christians there being no time when ever we do use this prayer but many thousands of pious persons are at the same time powring forth their souls unto God in the words of the same prayer To neglect therefore much more to despise the use of this prayer if it be not a piece of disobedience to the plain and positive command of Christ and so a branch of Hecesie yet 't is a depriving our selves of the greatest benefit of the Communions of Saints and so a branch of Schism 7. As to the Sacraments that we reject what ever doth either obstruct the use or deny the efficacy either of Baptism Mat. 26 26 27 28.19 Job 6.51,53 Act. 2.38 or the Supper of the Lord The use thereof being positively commanded and the efficacy thereof as positively asserted by Christ himself These being also the seales of the covenant of grace Baptism the seale of our admission and the Eucharist of our confirmation in the most holy faith whatsover opinion therefore either opposeth the practise or disanuls the vertuous influence of these holy Christian performances makes void the commandements of Christ infringeth the seales of the new Covenant obstructs the blessed means of grace and must therefore necessarily be false erroneous and destructive to the Truth 2. Id teneamus quod semper quodubique quod ab emnibus Vinc. Lir. c. 3. A second general rule for the avoiding of errors is That in these and in all things that relate to Religion we suspect every opinion that is new and strange to be false and erroneous for 't is a certain and infallible rule That what is most ancient and generally received is most true For God who is the fountain of Truth is immutable Jam. 1.17 with him is no variableness nor shadow of turning And holy Truth being a celestial ray displayed from his sacred Majesty must needs be like unto him ever constant to it self and not liable to alteration That we may be guided in the waies of Truth hear what counsel the holy Ghost in this respect gives unto us Deut. 4.32 Aske now of the daies that are past which were before thee from the day that God created man upon earth c. and Job 8.8,9,10 For inquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers For we are of yesterday and know nothing Shall not they teach thee and tell thee And Jer. 6.6 Thus saith the Lord stand ye in the waies and see and for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls But they said 't is the saying of all Heretiques and Schismatiques we will not walk therein we are for new waies new lights and new revelations we have itching ears and these must be scratcht with new doctrines till the scab of Heresie arise upon the soul your old Doctrines are out of date they are nauseous and offensive 2 Tim. 4.3,4 their age and antiquity makes them tedious to our souls thus sound doctrine will not be endured because men have itching ears and therefore they shall be tutned away from the truth and shall be turned unto fables and lies But Catholicorum hoc fere proprium c. Vinc. lirin It is the prophesie of all holy Catholick good Christians to hold fast the Doctrines deposited and committed by the Apostles first to the ancient fathers of the Church and by them transmitted to all posterity O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain bablings profane and vain because new and strange Quae à me non audisti saith S. Hierome Hier. in loc 1 Tim. 6.20 Cum Galatae falsis Prophetis auditis nausea quadam veritatis adsecti catholicae doctrinae manna revementes haereticae novitatis sordibus oblectarentur it a se Apostolica exercuit authorit as ut summa cwn veritate decernâ—ret Licet nos aut angelus de coelo c. Vinc. c. 12. Doctrines which the Apostles delivered not Nay if they should deliver any doctrine strange and new or if an Angel from heaven should do it the Apostle hath said it and said it again Though we or an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospel then that you have received let him be accursed Gal. 1.9 Let that therfore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning remain in you then shall ye also continue in the Son and in the Father 1 Joh. 2.24 And this same rule is again prescribed 2 Joh. 6. and the reason is given vers 7. Because many deceivers are entred into the world q. d. the way not to be deceived is to hold fast what you heard from the beginning and to walk in it Thus the Nicene Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold fast the old doctrines and usages of the Church And this was ever the cry of the Church Mos antiquus obtineat let antiquity be the judge what is true and what false He therefore that will not headlong himself into Heresie must not be new fangled in his Religion not affecting novelty but stick close to antiquity receiving nothing for truth but what was first received by our ancestors and delivered from one generation to another by continued succession from the times of the Apostles For we must not follow Religion saith the Father Nil novandum msi quod traditum est Nos religionem non quâ vellemus ducere sed quâ illa duceret sequi oportet Vinc. adv Haer. c. 9. which way we would lead it but what way Religion leads us 3. To avoid errors in Religion we must beware of extremity in opposing errors 'T is an ordinary piece of cunning in the devil as Luther hath observed Discamus hoc esse proprium diaboli artificium si non potest nocere persequendo destruendo hoc sacit corrigendo aedificando Luc. de refut Haer. that whom he cannot hurt by persecution and affliction he hath ruin'd in the way of correction aedification and reformation Thus by sad experience we have seen almost an extirpation of Religion under the notion of Reformation a blinde zeal of reforming errors hath deformed the truth it self and in stead of paring the nails hath cut off both the hands and feet of Christs spouse the Church Thus in opposition to Prelacy we have run into Anarchy and in crying out Popery popery we have cryed down many necessary Truths and banisht all decency and order in divine worship together with all Ecclesiastical Discipline and government from amongst us Thus also a pretended purity to separate from sinners hath caused many to separate from people more righteous then themselves and whilest they have presumptuously thought to leave the wicked
dictates of the holy Spirit So that hereby preaching is not only turned into foolishness indeed but into sinfulness also and that holy ordinance intended by God for the conversion and confirmation of souls in Truth is become through the abuse of unskilful and illiterate Zealots one of the Devils engins whereby he entraps the unsteady souls of men into errors and deceits And that which further hath added to increase this infection and plague of the holy and true Religion is a crying Reformation and Liberty of conscience which are necessary if righly understood and kept within their due limits under which specious pretences many necessary and useful Truths are decryed and licentiousness of opinion hath got footing every one taking liberty to believe and disbelieve what he list to be of this of that and of every opinion but what is orthodox and true and under the cloke of Religion wounding and even stabbing to the heart that sacred body through its own bleeding sides using the sharp and severe instrument of Reformation not only to pare the nails but cut off the hands and many the most principal parts and Members of the body spiritual crying down publique Prayers confessions of Sin Catechisms Creeds the Commandements Sacraments and preaching down even Preaching it self and the preachers also there being not a few who with the same breath dare both presumptuously blaspheme and sacrilegiously invade the high and holy calling of the Priesthood calling learning a mark of the Beast and lawful ordination to the Ministery a badge of Antichrist Decency and order in Gods service the painting of the strumpet and deckings of the whore of Babylon reading of holy Scriptures singing of Psalmes and all discreet forms of devotion and methods of divine service beggerly elements pieces of wil-worship and carnal Gospelling and the Scriptures themselves a dead letter and uselesse to them who understand the Mysteries of godliness by immediate Revelation It would be endless to rake into the puddle of those manifold pollutions wherewith many thousands of people in these broken and distracted times have both polluted themselves and endevoured also to profane and unhallow what ever is most sacred and dear to all discreetly pious and knowingly conscientious Christians whilest the authors of all such confusions with those grand Heretiques the spawn of Simon Magus in the daies of Irenaeus are called by themselves The elect the perfect the seed of God having an unction from the holy One being taught from above c. Whereupon their hearts are so uplifted within them that they deny all respect to their superiours speak evil of dignities despise their Mother the Church smite their brethren and fellow servants with reproaches and injurious revilings calling them the wicked of the world the seed of the Serpent the Reprobate for whom is reserved blackness of darkness c. Nor may we here justifie our selves though perhaps free from the infection of such wilde opinions and bold heaven-daring presumptions as if therefore we did contribute nothing there unto But rather in all humility and godly sorrow we must confess that both our national and personal sins have provoked the most just God to give up our holy orthodox Church to be torn and mangled by such confusions and disorders and our holy Religion to be eaten up by such vermin as our own corrupt manners have bred and nourished For when men see such as professe the Truth to be guilty of all kinde of disorderly and licentious living the truth it self becomes hereby scandalized and that Religion which such wicked persons professe is called in question and doubted whether it be of God or no. That therefore which S. Paul said unto the Jewes Rom. 2.23,24 is too much appliable to many Orthodox Christians amongst us who professe the Law of Truth and declaim much against Heresies and Schisms in Religion and yet through their lewd and exorbitant lives breaking those very Lawes of Truth which they do professe the Name of God is thereby dishonoured and that Truth whereof God is the Author is blasphemed and evil spoken of by the Heretical gainsayers and opposers thereof There are but two waies for the suppression of those Heretiques who stop their eares and harden their hearts against the Doctrine and instruction of the Church 1. A well established Ecclesiastical Government by whose coercive Lawes the people may be kept within the limits of the true faith as to the outward profession thereof in themselves and debarred the seduction of others 2. An Exemplary piety in the professors of the Truth that others may be won by their good conversation to the acknowledgement of the truth And now that the former of these viz. The arm of Ecclesiastical Government is broken and the hedge of Gods inclosed Garden thrown down which should have kept out the Foxes from eating up the Vines there is no way left us to put to silence gain-saying and seduced persons but to adorn our profession with holiness of conversation and carefully to avoid all those disorderly and licentious manners which scandalize our Religion and unhallow the blessed name of Christ which is called upon us Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles and such as oppose the truth that whereas they speak against you as evil doers that they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2.12 This is required of all persons whatsoever but most especially of persons of rank and quality after whose example even without command not only most of their Dependants but even of their inferior neighbours do frame their conversations Such therefore are obliged to remember that the main end why God hath plac'd them in degree above others is That as their superiority of place is a stamp of the divine Supremacy over all so their sutable demeanor should be a leading star of holy and divine perfections unto all Being followers of God in all piety and purity of life and action that therein their people and dependants may be followers of them Nor is it the least reason why God hath suffered this late upstart generation of Heretiques to deny that respect and honour which by the Lawes both of God and man is due to their superiors because superiors have not given unto God that honour which is due unto him by being as Images of his superiority so ensamples of his perfections in all holiness justice charity purity and integrity of conversation Since it is the desire therefore of all good Christians that all Heresies should be rooted out and holy Truth restored together with a respective obedience to all our superiors according to the several relations and conditions without which we must never hope either for Truth or Peace to flourish amongst us there is assuredly no readier way now left us hereunto but that every one in his place and calling make conscience of his waies or in the words of the holy Spirit himself That every one who nameth
admit at any hand of other spirit then their own of other truth then the vision of their own heads or of other directions then the motions of their own hearts rejecting renouncing and crying down all but what themselves call holy with the Donatists of old Quod volumus sanctum est that they will have to be holy right and true shall be so and nothing else 't is the very ground whereupon this last upstart crew of Quakers build all their resolutions and strange fanatick opinions and heresies even that which they call the light within us This say they is the only Judge we must follow the Pilot we must steer by the voice whereunto we must give ear the only Sanctuary to which we must flie for resolution never remembring how this sanctuary is profan'd by continual acts of spiritual fornication or idolatry therein committed whilest in stead and even in opposition to God and Spirit of all truth they enshrine and idolize their own fond vain and lying imaginations which the Lord by his Prophet cals the vanity and deceitfulnesse of their own heart Jer. 14.14 Jer. 14.4 The Lord said unto me The Prophets prophesie lies in my Name I have not sent them neither did I command them neither spake I unto them but they prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and vanity and the deceitfulnesse of their own heart 'T is undoubtedly necessary for every man to be perswaded in his own conscience both of the truth of what he believes and of the justice and equity of what he undertakes but yet this perswasion of the conscience or the following the light within us or the dictates of our own spirit is not the first ground and prime rule either of our faith or of our works For the conscience it self must be regulated or else it will often prove a false witness and most especially in the things of God for as conscience is is set betwixt God and us so it must speak from God unto us And our spirit or the light within us must be guided by the light of Gods Spirit shining in his word S. Paul thought verily he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus This perswasion arose from the light within him Act. 26.9,11 and hereupon he made havock of the Church which no man that is not infatuate will say was either fit or lawful to be done 'T was first in the heart of Judas to betray his Master Joh. 13.2 Such was the light within him and according to this light he walked till at last he hanged himself And this delusion of mans own spirit following the deceitfull dictates of his own heart is seldome mentioned in holy Scripture without heavie threats denounced both against such deluders and all that suffer themselves to be deluded by them Ezek. 13.3 as you may read Jer. 14.15,16 And again Ezek. 13.3 Wo unto the foolish Prophets which follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Nothing but what their own foolish spirit dictates to them Such are noted by the Apostle also Gol. 2.18 Col. 2.18 Who intrude into those things which they have net seen or which they understand not being vainly puft up by their fleshly minde Gloss Sensualitatis non rationis following the dictates of sense rather then of right reason and in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is remarkable for even by that 't is easie to distinguish betwixt the dictates of a mans own carnal and sensual spirit and the impressions of Gods holy Spirit for the guidance of the minde The dictate of the fleshly spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflatio a puffing up but the impression of the holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflatio an inspiration indeed but without inflation or puffing up The heavenly winde of Gods Spirit may fill but it never puffs up or swels the heart but rather humbles and abaseth the Spirit of man which is most conformable to the Spirit of Christ according to his own command Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 the minde that is either puft up with pride vain-glory and false conceited excellency in it self or that swels with malice hatred or envie towards others is not inspired with the celestial Breath or Spirit of the holy Jesus but follows its own carnal and corrupt dictates and conceits being thereunto raised and moved by that grand Impostor the spirit of Delusion Besides mans own carnal spirit there is also A spirit of the World opposing and poysoning the truths of Gods Spirit The Apostle distinguisheth and opposeth these each to other 1 Cor. 2.12 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have not received the spirit which is of the world but the Spirit which is of God which spirit of the world he cals a little before the wisdome of the world and of the Princes thereof vers 6. and opposeth the same to the wisdome of God vers 7. And what else can be this wisdome of the world but those humane policies so frequent in the world whereby men steer their actions to their worldly ends and interests with this spirit of the world are all such possest who having set up and enshrined the world in their hearts do thereupon ground their Religion and thence deduce all their reasons arguments and religious conclusions so that they can finde in their hearts to be thus far religious and to close with this or that sect society and opinion in Religion as it stands with their worldly profit pleasure credit preferment or the like It was from the dictates of this spirit that Jeroboam the Son of Nebat made Israel to sin pulling down the holy and true Religion established amongst the people by the Lawes of God and erecting two golden Calves at Dan and Bethel which became a snare unto the people who were thereby inveigled into idolatry the cause of their utter ruine and extirpation in the end 1 King 12.28,29 And what other Spirit was it that moved this wicked Usurper thereunto but that of his own worldly respects and interests there was no other way as this worldly spirit dictated to him to uphold his present estate and new gotten Monarchy so we read 1 King 12.26 1 King 12.26 c. And Jeroboam said in his heart Now shall the kingdome return to the house of David c. Rather then the people should return to their obedience to their liege Lord and Soveraign religion must down and the true worship of God be laid in the dust to make way for superstition and idolatry to be set up the Priests of the Lord shall be discarded and the lowest of the people exaltted to that dignity and to make the office more contemptible every one that list may take up the trade and consecrate himself to be a Priest of the high places 1 King 13.33 1 King 13.33 It was this very spirit also that stirred up the
not so sublime and piercing as by its own innate force and vertue to be raised up and enrapt with celestial knowledge Wisd 9 15. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the minde that museth upon many things and hardly do we ghesse aright at things that are upon earth and with labour do we finde the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out and thy counsel who hath known except thou give wisdome and send thy holy Spirit from above For so the waies of them that lived upon earth were reformed and men were taught the things that are pleasing unto thee and were saved through wisdome 3. The first and fundamental act of faith then which is to believe this or that Article of holy Religion to be a divine truth and the subject matter of our obedience depends upon Divine Revelation and command from God He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 What thing so ever I command thee observe to do it Holy Religion is not of an earthly but of a heavenly descent It is a beam displayed from that light of truth which is eternal and immutable her dwelling is in the holy heavens Wisd 9 10. where she waits upon the throne of glory And to earth she descends not by any natural investigation but by supernatural revelation Mirand de fid oâ—d cred Omnis religio supernis revelationibus nititur aut niti praesumitur All religion depends upon revelation from above Flesh and bloud hath not revealed it but my Father which is in heaven Mat. 16.17 4. That there is a general knowledge of God and some notions of that religious worship we owe unto him imprinted in the hearts of all men by nature and is legible in the book of the creatures the Apostle affirms Rom. 1.20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead But this sight of God being not clear enough to bring us to the beatifical vision and fruition of God which is that perfection and felicity whereunto by being enstampt after the image of God he hath created c. therefore it hath pleased him more clearly to reveal himself and the waies of his religious worship to his Church and people in all ages And this either 1. extrardinarily and immediately or 2. ordinarily and in the use of means 5. The first revelation of divine truth was immediate i. e. without the mediation or ministry of man intervening But yet so as that 1. All those holy persons to whom God immediately revealed himself by certain infallible signs did themselves know and make known to others that the revelations they recelyed were no delusions but from God himself the fountain of truth proceeding God never speaks so extraordinarily but by the same act he both makes known the things spoken and himself to be the speaker 2. That all immediate revelation was generally confirmed by miracle therefore the Jews required signs of Christ as the means to confirm every new and immediate revelation Joh. 2.18 6.30 1 Cor. 1.22 3. That not all nay nor all holy persons but only some few choice select vessels had the honour of this immediate revelation the main body of the people still received the knowledge of God by mediation i. e. from their hands in whom the office of Priesthood was in all ages enstated For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they i. e. the people should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts Mal. 2.7 6. The truth whereof as also what we are to beleeve concerning divine revelation will appear if we do impartially consider and weigh 1. To what persons and after what manner God revealed himself from Adam unto Christ 2. That by Christ and his Apostles the whole minde of God is so fully revealed that we must not now look for the revelation of any new truths 3. That the right understanding of what is already revealed depends not upon Gods immediate inspiration or revelation from heaven but is to be acquired by Gods blessing in the use of means And that in order hereunto the knowledge of tongues and sciences is both useful and necessary 4. That to depend upon immediate revelation is not only dangerous but destructive to the truth already revealed 5. That all those texts of holy Scripture commonly alledg'd for the proof of immediate revelation are misunderstood and wrested OF DIVINE REVELATION Mediate and Immediate CHAP. I. Of divine Revelation from Adam unto Christ 1. MAn being created after the Image of God was undoubtedly at the first endued with such a perfect knowledge of divine truth as was necessary to the attainment of that felicity whereunto God created him viz. the beatifical vision and fruition of his Creator for ever For as Philosophers do affirm If it were possible that the invisible and all spiritual God could be represented under any visible or compounded shape and being His body then must needs be composed of Light and his soul of Truth So essential to the very being of God is knowledge and truth and so consequently to the being of man after the image of God 2. But this light of divine knowledge was by mans disobedience too soon eclipst and his soul involv'd in the darknesse of sinfulness ignorance and error our first parents out of a sawcy ambitious affectation to know what they ought not engulft themselves and all their posterity into a natural blindness and ignorance of what they ought to know so that ever since hoc tantum scimus quòd nihil scimus the most knowing man knowes best his own ignorance and want of knowledge For if any man think he knows any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 3. But since without the knowledge of God and of his most holy will that perfection of our being whereunto God hath created us cannot be attained Joh. 17.3 therefore it pleased God to restore our first faln parents in some measure to the knowledge of himself and of his will in the waies of his worship and this he did either immediately by himself or by the mediation of intervening Angels by the voice from heaven convey'd upon the wings of the winde for so we read Gen. 3.8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool or in the winde of the day Junins in loc winde conveying his voice into their ears and thereby his into their hearts 4. By vertue of this divine Revelation or some others not recorded in holy Writ Adam received from God both the knowledge of that religious service and obedience which God then required from man and therewithall the honour of the Priesthood also being as the first man so the first Priest in the world 5.
sway with the vulgar very much but when these Sermons discourses and books come to the scanning of judicious ears and such who have the gift of discerning spirits all their preachments prove but unprofitable prattle if not profanations of Gods holy word Their discourses of Religion unreasonable and endlesse brabbles and their books fraught with impertinencies railings and lies For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips they shall be taken in their pride for why their preaching is of cursing and lies Ps 59.12 objection 3 But do not we hear many good things come from them and many sweet truths to the great contentment and edification of the hearers answer There are many sentences and sayings in holy Scripture and other good English books which are so plain and convincing that they cannot be wrested or perverted but when these come to be formed into a Sermon or into a continued discourse by rude and illiterate persons they are generally so disorderly and confusedly delivered so maim'd and obscur'd by insignificant impertinent and erroneous expressions which like dirt or poyson intermixt with wholsome food doth choak and kill rather then nourish and edifie the souls of the hearers The word of God which is the sword of the Spirit in the mouth of an ignorant blinde zelot is like a sword in a mad mans hand wherewith he wounds both himself and others for want of judgement to use it aright or as an unskilful Physitian though he have very good books of Physick and excellent physical receits if yet he do not fully understand these books and the nature and working of these receits and the several tempers withal to whom severally they are appliable he shall more often kill then cure his Patients Even so it is with the unskilful Physitians of the soul when they understand not the holy Word of God aright nor yet how where when and to whom the several divine receits therein are appliable they convert the soul-saving Physick thereof to a soul-killing poyson And the Word which is in it self the fountain of holy truths becomes through the misunderstanding and misapplication of ignorant interpreters and deceitful workers the nursery of Haeresies and errors And as in natural things corruptio optimi est pessima The best things corrupted are of all corruptions the worst so in supernatural and divine mysteries when the word of Truth it self is corrupted and deceitfully handled by ignorant and misguided persons there is nothing more baneful to the truth of Religion nor to the souls of men whereof true Religion is the Physitian and Guide objection 4 But hath not God expresly and plainly told us in his holy Word that he makes choice of such whom you call ignorant and illiterate persons to be the instruments of his grace and salvation unto men as Mat. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes and 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh c. answer 1. With all thankfulness and devotion of soul we acknowledge Gods infinite goodness and wisdome in the choice of Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel Non sapientes c Ne traduxisse prudentia ne redemisse divitiis ne potentiae nobilitatÃsque authoritate traxisse aliquos videretur Ambr. in Luc. 6. 1. Not many wise lest any might seem to have been inveigled and seduc't to Christianity by the inticing words of mans wisdome 2. Not many Rich lest our redemption might seem to be purchased with gold or silver or that worldly gain should become the motive to godliness 3. Not many Noble lest the authority of earthly powers and dignities rather then the authority of Christ and the convincing power of his truth might seem the allurement of our conversion therefore God hath chosen the foolish even Fishermen to confound the Philosophers Publicans and sinners to reprove the most rigid Stoicks and morally vertuous poor weak and unarmed men to make conquest of all nations to dissolve the armed powers of the world and without any carnall weapons to be mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 that so all the world might acknowledge the work of grace and salvation in Christ to be his Revelation not mans invention and that no flesh might glory in his presence presuming to ascribe to his own power wisdome wealth dignity c. what is the sole work of Gods grace and goodnesse But 2. It doth not hence follow that all vulgar and unlearned persons may understand and expound the Scriptures as well as the wise and learned for the reasons already alledged in answer to the first objection And because further under the notion of babes little ones foolish and weak things of the world Quid est parvos c. elegit i.e. non superbos elatos sed humiles mites Aug. is not meant so much the ignorant and unlearned as the meek lowly humble whom no spirit of pride and self-conceited knowledge and holiness had puffed up For it is not ignorance and want of learning but humility and self-dejection that enfits the soul for the impressions of Grace and Truth So that those unlearned persons who have so good an esteem of themselves as to prefer their own sense and judgement in spiritual things before that of the learned and of their Teachers cannot be of the number of those babes and little ones to whom the mysteries of Christ are revealed but rather to be rankt amongst those wise men after the flesh who are rejected objection 5 But against humane learning we are admonisht to take heed of it as dangerous Col. 2.8 Let no man spoyle you through Philosophy answer The best things may be and too commonly are corrupted and abused the holy Scriptures themselves which are given by divine inspiration for our guidance to eternal happiness have been and daily are by Hereticks and Schismaticks wrested to their own condemnation And so it fares with Philosophy and all the parts of humane learning 'T is confessed that many Philosophers opposed holy Christian Religion at the first as contradictory to some of their false erroneous positions and many Hereticks arose in the Church being seduced and seducing others with principles taken out of the heathenish Pythagorean Philosophy from the knowledge whereof they were called Gnosticks But true Philosophy is not therefore to be condemned because Heathen Philosophers held many false tenents no more then true Religion is to be condemned because some seduced professors thereof hold many Heretical and false opinions therein And herein the necessary use of Philosophy is apparent in that though many Heresies sprung from Philosophers Erasm in praefat ad Irenae yet by Philosophers they have been supprest and the truth maintained witness Moses skil'd in all the learning of the Egyptians against Jannes and Jambres with the rest of the Egyptian Magicians and
faith reverence and obedience to every Revelation from heaven how mean soever the person be that receives it as we do to any part of Gods Word already revealed though by the greatest Patriarch or Prophet that ever lived upon earth 7. All dependence upon new Revelations laies a secret stain of dishonour upon God and this in two respects 1. That God notwithstanding his several methods of divine Revelation by the Patriarchs and Prophets of old by his own Son Jesus Christ and his Apostles in these last daies should yet be defective in making known to his people the waies of his service and of their own salvation 2. All pretence to new lights and Revelations makes God the Father of Lights with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change to vary and change his minde as oft as the fickle and deceitful mindes of men do alter Nay thus God is made to speak things quite opposite and contrary to himself whilest the several conceits secret suggestions and whispers of mens hearts which are as numerous as the sand and contrarious as light and darkness are yet all under pretence of immediate Revelation fixed upon God who changeth not 8. It doth extremely much derogate and detract from the honour of holy Christian Religion to have no better ground and foundation then either the divinity of the Heathens of old or that of the Mahometans which of later times hath so far overspread and swallowed up so many Christian Kingdomes and flourishing Common-wealths in the world and both the one and the other of these not only derive their original but also their progresse successe and present continuance doth depend upon immediate Revelations which no good Christian surely doth doubt to be any other then Diabolical Delusions The Divinity of the Heathens was such as the Priests of their respective Temples and Oracles delivered to the people in their prophetick trances for celestial Responses and divine inspirations And the more subtil and sublime of the heathen Philosophers recommend unto us an Ecstatical contemplation even to the abolition of the understanding and Reason as the highest and most perfect way of divine knowledge Mahomet began with Raptures and extasies and supposed Revelations of Angels He therefore that shall seriously consider the monstrous Idolatries of the one and the horrid Blasphemies of the other will be careful surely how he trusts unto or depends upon immediate Revelations 9. This doctrine of immediate Revelation should it be granted is not safe for sober and peaceable-minded Christians to embrace or depend upon it but is fittest rather for such persons whose destructive plots and designs under the mask of Religion are to dethrone and murder Christian Princes ruine well establisht government and governors both Ecclesiastick and Civil massacre their Christian brethren rob ruine and destroy whatever opposes their designs and private perswasions in point of faith and manners how sacred and useful soever it be such mischiefs and barbarous cruelties when open force is wanting to effect may be and too often have been effected by pretended Revelations and men of ecstatical and seduced fancies who have thought they have greatly merited thereby and done God good service by destroying the enemies of his Truth and abolishing Haeresie Superstition c. when as indeed they have made havock of a people more righteous then themselves destroy'd the truth and true worship of God open'd the way to disorder and confusion and this through perjury sacriledge murder rebellion and the breach of all the lawes of piety justice and charity 10. The neglect of the means of saving knowledge viz. learning divine and humane and to depend upon Revelation without the use of such means is the way to advance Lady Ignorance again as the mother of devotion Espencaeus to drown the world in Barbarism to reduce the Church of Christ to that sad condition wherin it was in the ninth age which was called The unlearned and the unhappy age of the Church wherein he that studied Philosophy and the Mathematicks was counted a Magician he that knew the Greek tongue was shrewdly suspected but if he understood Hebrew also he was no better then an Haeretique 'T is observed by the learned both Historians and Divines that all the ten bloudy persecutions of the Church by the Heathen Emperors did not so damage holy Christian Religion as did the subtil underminings of Julian the Apostate Euseb eccl hist l. 10. c. 32. Soz. l. 5. c. 5. Theod. l. 3. c. 7. who fought not against Christian Religion as did the rest of the persecuting Emperors with fire and faggot but by taking from them all offices of dignity and places of preferment all Ecclesiastical promotions and Church priviledges and more especially by putting down and forbidding all Schools of learning for the training up their youth in the knowledge of tongues and sciences that so the light of holy Religion might be lost in the dark of ignorance and decay of arts For Arts and Tongues are the handmaids to holy Religion these as 't were hold the candle whilest the sacred light of Truth is display'd for our direction in the waies of light and life everlasting 11. He tempts the good Spirit of God who expects to receive the knowledge of Truth by immediate Revelation and miracle which by ordinary common Dominum tentare est novo miraculo velle perficere quod aliis rationibus fieri potest and known means is attainable so the Devil tempted our Lord to feed himself with the bread of a miracle when Gods ordinary and common providence yeelded bread enough Mat. 4.3 and to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple when the way to come down by steps was plain and easie without any such praecipitation That dependence upon immediate Revelation is unnecessary and consequently uselesse and unprofitable is manifest from what hath been already said from the sufficiency of Gods revealed Truth and is yet further manifest from the vain and bootlesse issue of all such dependence For what sacred Mysteries of holy Religion have been either made known or more plainly unfolded by immediate Revelation in these last daies since the time of Christ and his Apostles many Impostures and lies many Haeresies and errors many Schismes and divisions have fancied Revelations brought forth but that any sound soul-saving truth hath been of later times immediately revealed I could yet never hear or read of by any authentick witnesses and it is most just with God to give men up to the vanity of their minde and to the delusions of their own hearts who thus tempt his holy Spirit by leaving the known and beaten paths of Truth revealed to depend upon what is unnecessary useless and vain and not only so but also 12. Dependence upon immediate Revelations laies us open to the delusions of Satan 2 Cor. 11.14 who transforming himself into an angel of light insinuates his suggestions and diabolical doctrines under the shew and vizard of
smaller parcels Denique penitus inspecta omnes haereses in multis cum autoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur Tert. de prae cont Haer. c. 42. The Anabaptists amongst us are subdivided into Antinomians Brownists Seekers Ranters Quakers Familists c. And finally saith the Father look into all Heresies and you may easily finde them in many things dissenting even from their own authors and Founders And seldome shall you see Heretiques agree in any one point except it be to oppose and cry down the Truth as Herod and Pilat against Christ 6. From the same dark Abysse of Ignorance Neque nâ—… natae sunt haereses quaedam dogmata illaqueantia animos in profundum praecipitantia nisi dum scripturae bonae intelligerentur malè quod in iis non bene imelligitur etiam temerè audacter asseritur Aug. in Joh. Tract 18. under the semblance of self-conceited wisdome hath sprung that which is of all others the greatest cause of Heresies viz. The misinterpretation and mis-application of the holy Scriptures For saith the Father Heresie had never sprung up nor false doctrines bewitching and destroying the souls of men had never been broacht had not the good word of God been ill understood and that also which is but ill and weakly understood been rashly and presumptuously affirmed 'T is ever the custome of Heretiques to alledge holy Scriptures in a wrested and perverted sense making those sacred writings like a nose of wax turning and writhing them to this and to that and to every sense that best agrees with their own vain imaginations Aliter Photius aliter Novatianus c. One Heretique understands it this way and another diversly from him and a third distinct from both and all put another sense upon the words of God then ever his holy Spirit intended therein Pro voluntatis suae sensu Hilar. Vinc. Lir. adversus Haer. c. 2. The sense of their own minde and spirit not of Gods Spirit Hil de trinitate l. 2. they put upon the Scriptures which occasion'd that complaint of S. Hierome Sola scripturarum ars est quam sibi passim omnes vendicant Hanc garrula avus hanc delirus senex hanc so phista verbosus hanc universi presumunt lacerant docent ante quam discant Hier. ad Pel. l. 1. c. 6. 'T is only the Art of understanding Scriptures which all persons challenge to themselves This the pratling old wife and the doting old man and the wrangler full of words this all men presume unto and upon presumption of their interest therein they tear and wrest and abuse it at their pleasure presuming to teach the doctrine thereof before they have half learned it As in the natural creation of children too many are the issue of lust and wantonness nor is it considered when they are begotten how they shall be kept even so 't is in the spiritual brood of Heresies pride covetousness and ignorance begets them before the authors know how to maintain them but as children when they are once gotten must be kept though they pinch upon their neighbours so this heretical crew rather then the opinions which are the issue of their pride and vanity should die they will steal the sineere milk of the word to nourish them or in language of another strain rather then they will submit their vain imaginations to the truth and true meaning of Gods word the truth of that must submit to their imaginations Videtis id vos agere ut omnis scripturarum de medio auferatur authoritas suus cuique animus author sit quid in quaque scriptura probet quid improbet id est non ut authoritati subjiciatur scripturarum ad fidem sed ut sibi scripturas ipse subjiciat non ut illi ideo placeat aliquid quia hoc in sublimi authoritate scriptum legitur sed ideo rectè scriptum videatur quia hoc illi placuit Aug. cont Faust And this saith the Father is the way to rob the Scripture of its authority whilest every mans own imagination must tell him what it allowes and what it disallowes this is not to be subject to the authority of the Scriptures but to make the Scriptures subject to our imaginations so that therefore this or that is not acceptable unto them because 't is written in the word of God but therefore 't is well said or written there because 't is acceptable unto them The great danger they incur who put another sense upon the holy Scriptures then Gods holy Spirit ever intended therein is represented to us by the strange fire which that rebellious crew under the conduct of Corah Dathan and Abiram offered up unto the Lord there came out a fire from the Lord and devoured the presumptuous sacrificers Numb 16.18,35 So those unlearned and unstable souts which wrest the Scriptures do it to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 As a remedy to prevent so great mischief Lat. conc secundum sess 11. the ancient Fathers thought it meet to provide saith the reverend Andrewes that they who took upon them to interpret the Scriptures should put in sureties that the sense they gave of them should be no other then what the Church in former times acknowledged So Vinc. Lirin also Propter tantos tam varii erroris anfractus necesse est ut propheticae Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum ecclesiastici catholici sensus normam dirig aâ—… Vinc. Lir. advers Haer. c. 2. By reason of the manifold windings and turnings of the Scriptures for the maintenance of several errors 't is necessary to direct the line of prophetical and Apostolical interpretation according to the rule of an Ecclesiastical sense and meaning for Quis unquam Haereses c. saith the same Author Who ever brought in an Haeresie but first he disagreed from the consent of antiquity and of the ancient Catholique Church Et in laqueum sit verbum Dei saith Estius the holy Word of God becomes a snare and a stumbling block to all those who contemning the authority of the Church presume to impose their own private sense upon it And he that obtrudes his private sense of Scripture upon his hearers not only lords it over their faith Estius in Rom. 11.9 but over the faith of the universal Church of Christ nay he makes null and void the authority of holy Scriptures for Scripture is no more Scripture if not rightly interpreted 7. Another general cause of erroneous opinions in Religion is Hypocrisie when men are cold and lukewarm and too negligent in the practise which is the life of Christianity when they receive not the love of the Truth so as readily to obey and practise it then it is just with God to give them up to strong delusions Nay hereby men lay themselves open to the delusions of Heretiques because the excellency of holy Christian truths are not cannot be known but by the practise and experience thereof
and yet as S. Jude observes The despise government and speak evil of dignities vers 8. To be righteous and just persons and contrary to the rule of righteousness they render not to all men their due tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome fear to whom fear belongeth honour to whom honour appertaineth Rom. 13.7 No men ordinarily profess more zeal to Religion then Heretiques and to the pure worship of God in spirit and in truth yet none do more maim corrupt and deprave Religion and undermine Gods holy worship the greatest heat of their zeal being laid out and exercised in crying out against parts and essential branches of Gods service some against Gods Commandements others against the Articles of the most holy Faith others against that all-perfect form and pattern of devotion the Lords Prayer some against publique prayers others against the Sacraments some are against the places others against the times others against the persons devoted to the sacred service of God and others sacrilegiously rob him of the means and maintenance of his service S. James tels us Pure Religion and undefiled before God is to visit the fatherless and widowes and to keep our selves unspotted of the world Jam. 1.27 And yet 't is usual with Heretiques none more to profess purity of Religion and none lesse charitable to the fatherless and widowes whose number is increased by their cruelty not relieved by their mercy And as to the pollutions of the world none more subtil and active to undermine their neighbours and by covetousness injustice false accusations and all unlawful and indirect means to deprive them of their means estates and preferments in the world And hence it is that Heresies and Seditions or Schisms are reckoned amongst the fruits of the flesh because both they proceed from fleshly lusts pride covetise c. and are themselves also productive of many exorbitant and wicked works Nor is it possible but that all Heresies and heretical opinions must needs produce loose sinful and dissolute actions because the acts of the understanding and of the will are so nearly and mixedly enterwoven that the corruption of the one doth ever corrupt and vitiate the other And indeed there are few Heresies which either do not directly teach or secretly imply some kinde of loosness exorbitancy and sinfulness of action The Gnosticks and Ebionites openly declaimed against the honour of virgin chastity The Nicholaitans would have all wives in common The Manichees with their ancestors the disciples of Simon Magus were all of loose dissolute licentious lives of whom S. Peter particularly speaks 2 Pet. 2.10 Yet they i. e. Simon Magus and his disciples walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government presumptuous are they and self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities The Circumcellions were taught to lay violent hands upon themselves and the Montanists also The Anabaptists and many other Separatists of the same stamp openly profess that themselves being the only people of God have only right therefore to the creature all others beside themselves being usurpers of what they enjoy and so 't is no injustice in them to rob plunder and dispossess them of their goods and estates The Solifidians deny the necessity of good works and so they may live as they list and generally all Heretiques rail revile censure judge and condemn all that are not of their own minde and way which are sins of no small account in the sight of God And what else hath filled all Christendome with factions and seditions with tumults and troubles with massacres wars and bloudshed but first the broaching and belief of Heresies and lies and renting the seamless coat of Christ by uncharitable excommunications and schismatical separations both of general Churches and particular congregations each from other We read not that the Arrians or the Donatists taught or professed any thing that was for matter of action sinful factious and seditious and yet the tumults and troubles uncharitable censures cruel persecutions that followed both the Heresie of the one and the Schism of the other are too many to be expressed It is the duty of all good Christians to be meek gentle humble patient obedient to superiors c. and 't is the duty of all good Pastors to exhort their people to the practise of these and the rest of the fruits or graces of the Spirit but Heretiques on the contrary part blow the trumpet of war faction division crying Down down still with this and that and tother piece of religious worship which they brand with the loathed name of Superstition only because it sutes not with their deceived imaginations 3. Great is the danger of Heresie and Schism because the spirit of Heresie and faction shuts out the Spirit of Grace and robs the soul of all divine assistance in the waies of life It is no marvel therefore that Heretiques are generally cruel mischievous and evil persons since they are deprived of the grace of God without which we can do nothing that good is And Grace cannot live out of the company of her twin-sister Truth Grace and Truth flow from Christ the Sun of righteousness as light and heat from the Sun in the firmament both which are so co-essential to the Sun it self that the one cannot have a being without the other All errors therefore when through perversness and wilfulness they are grown up to be Heresies as they blinde the understanding so they harden the heart also and provoke the most just God to give up such persons to a reprobate sense Rom 1.28 4. Heresie and Schism are the more dangerous in that the infection knowes no bounds or limits but spreads and eats like a canker 2 Tim. 2.17 saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 2.17 or as a gangren which beginning in a small unperceivable spot increases still if it be not destroyed till it overspread and consume the body So 't is in the way of Error that which begins many times but with a small scruple if it be not wisely stayed increases into such erroneous opinions as are destructive to the main body of Religion and being of a Church Thus Montanus first began with the conceit of immediate Revelation then to limit the inspiration of the holy Ghost to himself and his followers thence they fell into the sin of Schism and broke off communion with the whole Church of Christ which proceeded at length to this monstrous conceit among them that only the house of Montanus was the true Church and that Montanus himself was the holy Ghost even so amongst us first the ceremonies and then the substance both of the holy Sacraments and divine service were first scrupled and then cryed down and afterward pulled down also first Christian liberty is pretended and then brutish disorder and confusion followes The Church is free 't is most true and not to be clog'd and burthened with a number of needless fruitless insignificant ceremonies but
of the world they have left their religion behinde them according to the old proverbe making a great deal more hast then good speed That therefore our much forwardness in opposing one error may not headlong us into another and our zeal to truth over-run and trample it under foot we must remember that this zeal is to be tempered ever with meekness of wisdome Quia quos im plet omnes columnae simplicitate mansuetos igne zeli ardentes exhibet Gal 6.1 therefore the holy Ghost descended on our Saviour in shape of a Dove as well as on his Apostles in likeness of fire to denote unto us that we are as well to be endued with the meekness and innocence of a dove as with the heat and fire of zeal that as by the one we are quickned and enlivened unto piety so by the other we may be tempered and qualified to keep within the limits of truth and sobernesse 4. That we beware of opposing one part of religious truth against another and of disjoyning those things which God hath joyned together e. g. God hath joyned faith and good works as the soul and body as the tree and its fruits or as the foundation and building of holy Religion And in good-works or the holy actions of obedience he hath coupled both the Tables of the Law together the one containing the sacred offices of piety towards God and the other of justice and charity towards man he then that will not be guilty of Error must not presume upon any pretence how specious soever to divide these or any of these each from other For he that parts faith from good works parts the body from the soul and overthrowes holy Religion from off its proper basis and foundation And he that parts holiness and righteousness or righteousness from holiness who pretends Religion to God to be unjust or uncharitable to man or out of a pretence of justice or kindness to man robs God of any part of his worship uses one table of the Law as an instrument to break the other to the ruine and breach of both 5. To avoid errors 't is necessary that we obey and submit our selves to the directions and guidance of those consecrate persons whom God hath ordained and according to Gods ordinance are lawfully called and rightly instituted to be the Pastors of our souls and the pillars of his Truth This direction God himself giveth to his people as an antidote against idolatry and all false worship Deut. 12.19 Take heed to thy self that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth and chap. 17.8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement thou shalt arise and come unto the Priests the Levites And the man that wil do presumptuously will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister even that man shall die vers 12. And Mal. 2.7 The Priests lips c. Haec sunt initia haereticorum ut sibi placeant praepositum superbo tumore contemnant Cyp. l. 3. epist 9. The same command is given Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. But when people contemn their Pastors and despise their directions when they presume to be wiser then their teachers and to set themselves above those who are over them in the Lord when they will controll their Priests and snatch the holy oracles out of their mouths censure their doctrines revile their persons scandalize their profession hence arise Heresies Schisms and factions this opens the gap to all errors seductions and falshoods Thus when the spirit of contradiction reigned and the people were as those that strive with their Priests Hos 4.4 hear what a dreadful ruine attended them vers 5. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the night destruction shall follow upon destruction as the night followeth the day and I will destroy thy mother the Church And what else can be expected but that men should stumble and fall into errors and deceits even when the light of saving knowledge shineth unto them if the directions of those whom God rightly placed to be the lights of his Church Mat. 5.14 are neglected and disobeyed especially if we remember that all such contempt and disobedience reflecteth upon Christ the true Light himself In discipule magister auditur in filio pater honoralur Bed in loc Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me saith our Lord to his Disciples and in them to all faithful Pastors and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And here we that are Pastors ought in all humility to acknowledge that there is as well obedience due from us to our Ecclesiastical Fathers the Bishops as there is from the people unto us and when we deny the one it is most just with God to deprive us of the other the miserable effects whereof we are by sad experience too sensible of 6. That we be not ensnared in the labyrinth of error 't is necessary that we suppress all swelling conceits of our own knowledge and wisdome For seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hopes of a fool then of such a one Prov. 26.12 And undoubtedly no men for the most part are so wise in their own conceits and proud of their knowledge in spiritual things as they that have the least portion of spiritual understanding for the first appearance of spiritual light doth so amaze all weak and ignorant minds that they think presently they are the children of the light when they are not yet out of the confines of the Kingdome of darkness and are confident of knowing all things when as yet they have not so much knowledge as to acquaint them with their own ignorance And as one hath truly observed 'T is ordinary with men whilest they are young and novices in Religion to despise those doctrines and religious offices which upon more maturity and ripeness of judgement they have approved and embraced He then that desires to be endued with the spirit of truth must conform himself to the Spirit of Christ in all meekness and humility Learn of me for I am meek and lowly Mat. 11.29 And he that will not learn this lesson shall never learn exactly to know the errors of his waies for Humility moulds and prepares the soul to receive the impressions of holy Truth which pride and self-conceitedness resists and opposes so Psal 25.9 The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way but Jam. 4.6 God resisteth the proud and 't is because the proud first resist the impressions of Gods Spirit As the black apple of the eye sees clearly but if there be a white pearle therein it sees nothing even so the eye of humane understanding saith Greg. Greg. de cur past c. 11. if sensible