sending them strong delusions because they receive not the love of the truth that they should believe a lie and delivering them up to those whose interest it is still to keep them in it and whose business to beguile unstable Souls that have no ballast in them Their Proselytes being usually such as are weak or loose men that have lost either their reason or their conscience This being the condition of the greatest part of mankind to be blinded with ignorance or prejudice against the Truth and of corrupt lives no marvel if they be so easily deluded by those who come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their slight of hand and cunning craftiness creeping first into men's houses and then into their hearts and affections dazling the eyes of such silly people with glittering pretences of stricter severities with a shew of wisedom and neglect of the body of self-denial rigorous observances and mortifications of notions of a higher and sublimer strain oppositions of science falsly so called that puzzle their own and others understandings and of greater favour and liberty to nature while they promise liberty and allure through the Lusts of the flesh and a thousand such artifices No marvel I say if every one has not wit enough to discover such gaudy impostures nor grace to withstand them These are disguises able to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. But that they shall not we have our Saviour's warrant for it Matt. 24. 24. The gates of hell shall never finally prevail against the Church nor the true Members of it Their eyes can see through the sheeps-cloathing and pierce into that corruption which lies under the painted sepulchres In vain is the Net spread in the sight of these Birds not to be caught with such chaff Ad populum phaleras Christ's Disciples will soon smell out a Cheat be it never so well laid these Children of light being in their generation not be outwitted by the children of this world They will not dance after every Seducer's pipe nor be charmed by every Siren charm he never so wisely Christ's Sheep are rational and will not follow a Stranger They are all taught of God and have an Unction from above which teaches them all things to discover errour and truth that they may avoid the one and embrace the other True indeed the Apostles had a more extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits than others had and St. John upon the very sight of a Cerinthus could immediately pronounce him Satan's First-born But every true Disciple of Christ has as infallible a light to guide him which is a holy prudence and a sanctified reason that is as the Apostle phrases it senses exercized to discern good from evil Let him then make use of these and they will safely direct him in his choice nor will the Spirit of God be wanting to him if he be not wanting to himself Should an Angel from Heaven object against the truth he would not yield to him or Should an Angel of darkness transform himself into an Angel of light his own natural ugliness would soon betray him at last to the eye of a Disciple of Christ and his noisome stench to his Nose Satan and all his Minsters have a cloven foot that will shew them Be their leaves never so glorious or flourishing yet these trees shall be known by their fruits which is the Second thing to be considered By their Fruits Not by any secret character of Reprobation nor mark of the Beast stampt on their foreheads which some with the advantage of their Enthusiastical Spectacles can so plainly see when they are invisible to all other men's eyes not by the blossomes of good purposes nor the thin fig-leaves of a hollow profession For Satan may confess a Christ as well as a St. Peter and Pirates may hang out the Flaggs of those Princes whose Subjects they intend to rob every one can wear Christ's Livery and none boast more of it than they who are the Devil's servants as you may find these false prophets here did v. 21 22 23. 'T is not by such signs as these then that we must know them but by their fruits i. e. by their doctrines as some by their practices as others understand them or rather indeed by both of them joined together and so making up a full and complete Criterium whereby to judge of them And first We may know them by their doctrines For indeed these be the proper and genuine fruits of a Prophet Nor can we better judge of the quality of a Messenger than by the nature of that message he delivers They who make no other use of their being counted Prophets but to infuse higher degrees of all kind of Piety and Charity without doubt are sent from God for the Devil would never help them to credit and reputation in the World who should employ it only to the advancement of Piety On the other side if their design be to infuse into their Followers seeds of impiety and injustice of uncleanness and uncharitableness of fedition and rebellion be their pretences never so specious or their behaviour never so fair to be sure they are to be rankt among the false prophets The wisedom that is from above says S. James is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie whereas that which descendeth not from above is earthly sensual and devilish always levelled at interest lust or pride And therefore St. Paul yokes seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. v. 1. To let us know that the latter is an infallible sign of the former But here it may be objected How can we know doctrines to be true or false To this I answer 1. Negatively Not by the maxims of natural reason which are so far from being infallible that if extended beyond the sphere of Philosophy for whose Meridian only they are calculated they are for the most part defective if not wholly false stretch them never so far they can never be adequate to those things which are to be believed nor any foundation for a divine Faith all assent wrought by them in the Soul being but opinion or science Nor 2. from Antiquity which is so far from being a certain rule that it can be no certain mark of Faith Nor 3. by the writings of learned men which at best can never pretend to infallibility and being humane judgments can make up no more but a humane testimony and which can never exactly be known by all men some having neither skill nor leisure to inquire much less ability to find it out 2. I answer Positively That the Scripture is that which must direct us in our search for Truth this alone being a Rule in it self infallible as dictated by an infallible Spirit in respect of us also clear and known and in
with their several Actions and Operations All which clearly demonstrate their Existence For the first Their Creation may be gathered though it be not set down in express terms from the first and second Chapters of Genesis where they are styl'd the Host of Heaven an usual Title afforded to all Creatures in Scripture-language but in a more especial manner appropriated to Angels as 't is by the Psalmist Psal. 148. 2. and most suitable to them in regard of their great Power and exact Order And so all Expositors allow it 'T is true indeed there is no such express mention of the Creation of Angels in Moses's Writings as in those of the other Holy Pen-men which he omits not so much as some would have it to prevent Idolatry in the Israelites who had they known Angels would have been apt to have ador'd them as for these two Reasons 1. Because Moses applies himself to the simple Capacity of that People and describes the Creation of visible and sensible things leaving spiritual as above their lower apprehensions and 2dly lest Men should think God needed the help of Angels either in the production or disposition of other Creatures As if the Fabrick of the World had been too great a Task for Himself alone to undertake as Heathens and some Hereticks also have fancied to the manifest derogation of the Divine Omnipotency But for what reason soever Moses forbore to speak out here the Psalmist is plain enough By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth Psal. 33. 6. and clearer yet Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire And whereas our Apostle v. 4. tells us That God made the Worlds Colos. 1. 16. He explains the meaning of that expression by things visible and invisible and these invisible things by Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the usual Titles Angels are design'd by So void of all Reason as well as of Religion is that bold or rather impudent Assertion of the Author of the Leviathan concerning the Creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in Scripture 2. A second proof of the Existence of Angels may be taken from their sundry Apparitions both before and under the Law and in the first dawning of the Gospel There is nothing more certain than that under those several Dispensations especially at the beginning of them such Apparitions were very frequent Holy Men in those times had a familiar acquaintance and correspondency with Heaven 'T was no news then to see an Angel of God The Patriarchs scarce convers'd so much with Men as with blessed Spirits They were their Guests and their Companions of their Family and of their Counsel Nothing of importance was done either at home or abroad without their privity and direction And he must be a great stranger to the New Testament that finds them not there too very often among the Servants of God For though God had for a long time withdrawn from the Jews all means of supernatural Revelations yet at the first publication of the Gospel he began to restore them 'T was no marvel that when that wicked people became strangers to God in their Conversation God should grow a stranger to them in his Apparitions But when the Gospel approacht he visited them afresh with his Angels before he visited them with his Son Joseph Mary Zachary the Shepherds Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius St. Paul St. John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of them In succeeding times 't is also very credible what Ecclesiastical Writers report That the good Angels were nowhit more sparing of their Presence for the comfort of Holy Martyrs and Confessors who suffered for the Name of Christ. I doubt not but Constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no less than he reported to Julian the Persecutor Nor do I question but that those retired Saints too of the prime Ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly Companions for the Consolation of their forced Solitude as St. Jerome reports of them But this is evident too that the elder the Church grew the more rare was the use of these Apparitions as of all other Miracles Actions and Events not that the Arme of God is shortned or his Care and Love to his abated but that his Church being now setled in an ordinary way has no need of any extraordinary ones no more than the Israelites had of Manna when they were once got out of the Wilderness Nay such extraordinary ones now would perhaps be not useless only but dangerous and we may justly suspect those strange Relations of the Romanists concerning later Angelical Apparitions to Saints of their own Canonizing when we see them made use of to countenance Doctrines of Men. And yet notwithstanding their false play here 't is hard to say that all those instances which sober learned Men have given us of Modern Apparitions are utterly incredible But it has often fallen out indeed that Evil spirits have appeared in this wicked and corrupt Age more than good ones The frequent experience of later days gives in here its Evidence and 't is unreasonable wholly to reject it there being no other reason but this to doe so that our selves doe not see what others so peremptorily affirm they did which were to call in question all that our own Eyes have not been witnesses to and if we will believe nothing but what we see we may as well doubt whether there be Souls as Devils And yet so far as men's Eyes may discern Spirits they may doe it in those possessed Bodies they usurp For that such Possessions have been and still are in the World though more frequent in our Saviour's time than ours is as hard to deny as that there are Witchcrafts which yet many will not allow of and the Papists would take it ill we should deprive them of this one great Argument to prove the truth of their Doctrines who though they feign Possessions where there are none and conjure up imaginary Devils that they may have the credit to lay them yet this is no good reason to say there are no such things at all And this once granted as we must needs doe unless we will contradict all credible sensible Experience there will be no ground left to dispute the real Being of bad Angels which is an Argument of equal force to prove that there are good ones But then 3dly What if we do no longer now-a-days see Angels in visible shapes may we not discover them by their several actions and operations And do not these necessarily imply the Being of things Now besides the Testimony of Scripture which represents Angels standing moving talking and the like It is apparent that there are many effects in Nature which as they cannot be attributed to any natural Causes unless we will have continual
quarrels and divisions For this gives all men an equal right to persecute as many as differ from them in Religion For by the same reason that I have a good opinion of my persuasion and call it true because I think it so Another who is as strongly convinc'd of the truth of his may justly and upon equal pretence doe the like It matters not where the truth or error lyes the mischief is still the same For so long as men continue in such a persuasion be it right or wrong they will be sure to act vigorously according to it And it is certain that they who use bad means to compass a good end against others doe arme them with the same power resolution and justice to employ the like when ever occasion serves against themselves And thus you see both the Impiety and the Mischief of pious but misguided Intentions which though not allowable in ordinary practice yet in cases extraordinary some think may be justify'd by that common Maxime That All great Actions have aliquid Iniqui something bad in them which publick advantage afterwards makes amends for How far this may go in State-policy I know not but I am sure it will not pass for good Divinity if our Saviour's word here may be taken or St. Paul's Rule be good Rom. 3. 8. That we must not doe evil that good may come of it Not any the least Moral Evil for the greatest either Temporal or Spiritual Good whatsoever Which Rule some finding too strict and severe for them and those designs they carry on as utterly inconsistent therewith usually plead the Examples of some holy Men in Scripture who having served God by strange violences of fact have for his glory laid hold on Instruments not fit to be used by a Christian As for example Jacob's telling a down-right lye to get his Father's blessing David's making use of Hushai as a spy Elias and Jehu's causing a sacrifice to be proclaimed to Baal with intent to destroy that Idol and its Worshippers and the like Instances of humane frailty which God was pleased to over-look and pardon in those that did them but never intended them as Patterns for us to imitate Many things have been done by good men in their heat which had God's approbation after they were done but not his Law to countenance the doing them and therefore can be no certain Rule for us to go by From what has hitherto been said we may now perceive what ill Commentators they are of those words of our Saviour Compell them to come in who put this sense upon them by threats and torments force them into the Church Than which Doctrine nothing certainly can be more unreasonable but the way of excusing it by a good meaning a fair pretence of advancing God's glory by any though never so bad means as if God would be served by taking in the Devil into his service Surely as the wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God so neither can any good end of his if carried on by bad instruments advance his glory He may make great allowances to the miscarriages of sincere but he will never doe it to the errors of such wicked Intentions as are besides his Commission yea and against his express Will and Command Now as this was the Jews and Heathens way so I could heartily wish that many Christians did not follow it The former to wit the Jews had still recourse to their Excommunications and both Jews and Gentiles fell to killing Christs servants out of equal Zeal and pious Intention no doubt The one for their Law and the other for their blind Superstition But neither of these two ways suit with true Christianity As for Excommunication which some Men are so apt immediately to fly to upon every trivial occasion they doe not well siconder what a dreadfull thing it is A forestalling of the great-day of Judgment It is the delivering up of a man to Satan a declaring him to be as a Heathen-man and a Publican one that has nothing to doe with the people of God but is to be cast out of their Church and Company Now as this is the last Remedy to reclaim Sinners by so is it but rarely to be made use of and but in cases extraordinary We do not find that our Lord Himself ever practised it nor any of his Apostles except St. Paul and he but in one Instance He bids us indeed Reject an Heretick after the first and second admonition Tit. 3. 10. Not presently anathematize much less kill him I would they were even cut off that trouble you says he Gal. 5. 12. It was but an I would I could wish it done And when himself did it it was but to one single person and that for an enormous crime Incest nor was it done at last but with much solemnity too by calling on the name of Christ 1 Cor. 5. 4. so seldom even scarce at all were these spiritual arms employed even by those who were Boanerges's Sons of thunder and surely knew best how to manage them And when they did it for the destruction of the flesh that is for the mortifying and destroying the old man for that only is meant there by flesh they did it for the saving of men's souls That their spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus v. 5. Excommunications are such edge-tools as will cut their hands who have not skill to manage them but seldom or never hurt or hit those at whom they are lanc'd at randome Is it not then strange that some men should think to approve their Christianity by ruining that of their Brethren or to secure themselves of Heaven by keeping others out of it Though with these men in the Text they should think it a service to God to kill men's bodies methinks they should not think it one to destroy their Souls How the Council of Trent can be excused in this particular I understand not For who-ever looks into the Canons of that Council will find That as there is scarce any one there without its Anathema so that most of them are either for such matters as cannot deserve so heavy a Censure or for such plain Scripture-truths as deserve none being some of them of Christ's own Institution Nor are these Church-weapons for the most part Bruta Fulmina They carry a fatal Train after them Deposition Absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance to their natural and lawful Sovereigns who are thereupon abandoned to whosoever shall think it fit to kill them follow close upon them These Thunder-claps are not without their Thunder-bolts which will be sure to doe Execution one way or other either on men's Souls or on their Bodies if not on both So that when once People are devoted to Hell all the mischiefs of the Earth immediately pursue them The Instance of this Day 's intended work is an evident demonstration of this Truth For he who was a main Instrument in the