A SERMON PREACHED before the KING.

§ 1. THERE are Multitudes of De­ceivers in these our last and worst Times, by way of Antidote unto whose Venom These words of S. John are a good Provision. And however they are numerous, I think they may fall under two general Heads. Vide Haeresin Jenxuanam apud Maffae­ium, l. 16. Some are so credulous as to be­lieve every Spirit; and some so Atheisticall, as to believe none at all. Both are Enemies [Page 2] to Religion, though not Both alike. For though the first are bad enough, the last are very much worse. The first are Meteors in Religion, expressed to us in Scripture by Clouds without water, and wandring Stars; such as are carried to and fro with every Wind of false Doctrine; men so unlearned and so unstable, so in love with New Light, and so given to change, that not contented with one or two, (though the best and soun­dest,) they heap up Teachers unto themselves; and by the Novelty of the Doctrine putting an estimate or value on him that brings it, they are easily made Proselytes to every New Prophet who next bespeaks them; little con­sidering with S. John, (in the next words after my Text,) that there are many false Prophets (many even in His Time, and many more sure in ours,) gone out into the World. The second sort of Enemies (which are the worst too) are the Disciples of the Book which is call'd Leviathan; the grea­test Monster in all the World, excepting onely the Authour of it. For if the perfectest Definition of Man as Man, is to be Animal [Page 3] Religiosum, which still includes Rationale, and therefore makes the most exact Defi­nition, (as many great and good Writers have very rationally esteem'd it;) then He must certainly be aVid. Ar­rian. Epict. l. 3 c. 29. & l. 4. c. 5. Plotin. Enn. 3. l. 2. Monster, more properly then a Man, who is so destitute of Reason, as wholly to be void of Religion too. And for any one to Teach, (as the Monster of Malmesbury has been permitted to doe in Print,) that there is no Spirit at all, or that there is no incorporeal Substance, (two Ex­pressions of the same Thing,) what is it but to pluck up all Religion by the Root? 'Tis publickly to set up a School of Atheism. For God (if any thing) is a Spirit; not for This reason onely,Joh. 4. 24. because our Apostle S. John affirms it, (whom the Hobbists will not be­lieve;) but for this other reason also, (which even our Hobbists cannot but yield to,) that, supposing a God there is, (or that 'tis but possible for him to be,) He must be Infi­nite, and Indivisible; and yet, we know, He can be neither, if He is any way Corpo­real. For All Corporeal things have Parts, and so by consequence are divisible, and so [Page 4] by consequence are finite. And for God to be finite, or divisible, is for God not to be God; the worst and grossest of Contradic­tions. From whence it follows unavoida­bly, that for any one to teach, and to teach in publick, (not publickly from the Pulpit, but much more publickly from the Press,) that an Incorporeal Substance is in it self a Contradiction, (the Positive Doctrine of the p. 214. Leviathan,) is publickly to open a School of Atheism: It being publickly to teach There is no Spirit, and (by a Consequence unavoidable) There is no God. For every thing that is, is either an Accident, or a Substance. (What is neither, is not.) And every Substance (a nobler sort of Being then any Accident can be) is either Corporeal, or Incorporeal. That denominates a Body, and This a Spirit. To say that God is the for­mer, implies the horridest Contradiction; (as hath been shewn;) and so He must be the latter, by undeniable Consecution. To say, He is not a Spirit, or not an Immaterial Substance, is neither better nor worse then to say, He is not. It is to say, There is no such Thing.

[Page 5] § 2. Against the dangerous Contagion of the premised two Extremes, S. John in this Text has timely given us Two Caveats; one express'd, and another imply'd. First, 'tis express'd in plain terms, that, seeing many false Prophets (or false Pretenders to the Spirit) are gone out into the World, we are bound, for that Reason, not to believe Every Spirit. Next, 'tis as evidently im­ply'd, (as if it were expressed in words at length,) that though Many Prophets are False, we must not thence reckon that None are True: as though many Lines are crooked, we must not thence argue that none are strait; seeing every crooked Line must needs presuppose and imply a strait one. Nor may we sottishly disbelieve the Spirit of Ho­liness and Truth, for fear of believing with too much ease a Spirit of Errour and Ʋn­cleanness. But as my Text is in the middle between an important Dehortation, [Believe not every Spirit,] and as important a Reason of it, [for many false Prophets are gone out into the World:] so our Course is to be steer'd in a middle way, betwixt the Scylla [Page 6] of Credulity, and the Charybdis of Ʋnbelief. We must examin all Pretenders, and try of what sort they are. We must get a Lapis Lydius, whereby to learn the true difference betwixt the two sorts of Spirits in the sixt Verse of this Chapter, the Spirit of Truth, and the Spirit of Errour: or, (to express it without the Metonymie which our Apostle here useth,) betwixt a True, and False Pro­phet; betwixt1 King. 13. 1. a man of God, and aDeut. 13. 1, 3. Dreamer of Dreams; betwixt a Theopneust, and a Dae­moniack; betwixt a reall Possessor of Divine Revelations, and a phantastick Pretender to them. For as there were Prophets in the Old Testament, both True and False, so are there also in the2 Pet. 1. 21. & ch. 2. ver. 1. New. As there were Spi­rits under the Law, too many to be good, so there are also under the Gospel. There was in That a familiar Spirit, (Lev. 20. 27.) a lying Spirit, (1 King. 22. 22.) and a Spirit of Perverseness, (Isa. 19. 14.) There is in This a foul Spirit, a deaf and dumb Spirit, (Mar. 9. 25.) a Spirit of Errour and of De­lusion, (2 Thess. 2. 11. 1 Joh. 4. 6.) a Spirit of Slumber, (Rom. 11. 8.) Still the more [Page 7] and the worse the unclean Spirits are, the greater need we have to Try them. And though there are also as many Good Spirits, as there are Angels who never fell; yet all their Good­ness is but derivative, from the one Spirit of God, who is God the Spirit. To Him are ascribed the famous Gifts, 1 Cor. 12. 4. And amongst all the severall Gifts wrought by one and the same Spirit, the Discerning of Spirits is worthily reckon'd to be a chief, (v. 10.) Which Gift of Discerning 'twixt good and bad Spirits, (as all the rest,) The Spirit of God divides to every man severally as He will, (v. 11.) to some in a greater, and to some in a lesser measure. And in this Gift S. Pe­ter did very mnch excell S. Philip. (For so 'tis obvious to collect from the 8^th. of the Acts, by comparing the 13^th. with the 23^th. verse.)

§ 3. Now whatever can be meant by the Subjects of Triall we are to make, whether Churches or Church-men, whether Prophe­cies or Prophets, whether Doctrins or Doc­tors, whether Inspirations or men Inspir'd, or every one of these equally; however dif­ferent they may be, or inconsistent with one another; 'tis plain they All pretend alike [Page 8] unto the same Spirit of God. And therefore [...], Try and prove them, (says our Apostle,) whether they are what they pre­tend: whether really they are Gold, or do but eminently glister: whether they speak by Commission, and as the Oracles of God, or onely run ere they are sent, inspir'd by Ava­rice, and Ambition, and by the Impulse of the Devil: whether they teach the sound Doctrins of Christ's Apostles and of his Church, whose Faith and Doctrins we are to follow; or are but some of the foolish Pro­phets (in the 13^th. of Ezekiel) who follow their own Spirit, Ezek. 13. 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, &c. and prophesie out of their own Hearts; are like the Foxes in the De­sarts, have spoken Vanity, and seen Lies, say­ing, The Lord saith, and the Lord hath not sent them. In any case we must try them, of what sort they are.

§ 4. Nor must we onely try Them; but we must also try the Rule by which they All are to be tried. For severall Tests and Rules of Triall (who are true or false Teachers, and which Doctrins are right or wrong,) have been lately set up to the hurt of Souls, by the Two sorts of Enemies whereof I spake in the beginning; to wit, the Pretenders to [Page 9] Enthusiasm, and the Disciples of the Levia­than. The first of these will allow of no other Test, than the Sturdiness and Strength of their own Perswasion, which it is their will and pleasure to call The Testimony within them. And by running in a Circle they grow so giddy, that the longer we Catechize, the more we lose them. And 'tis worthy to be observ'd, how they wrest and misapply the Word of Life to their Destruction. For, If we ask how they know they have a Testimony within them from God the Holy Ghost; We know it (say they) by This, that 1 Joh. 4. 13. God hath given us of his Spirit. If we ask how they know that He hath given them of his Spirit; We know it (they say) by This, that 1 Joh. 3. 9. we cannot sin. If we ask how they know that they can­not sin; their Answer is,Ibid. We are born of God. If we ask how they know This; We know it, (they will answer) because we have Rev. 2. 17. a new Name given us, which no man knows but He that hath it. If we ask how they know of a new Name given them; they will answer, We know it by that Rom. 8. 11▪ Spirit which dwelleth in us. If we ask how they know the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit of Errour; their Answer is still at hand, (and still out of the Scriptures,) [Page 10] He that knoweth God heareth us, 1 Joh. 4. 6. and he that is not of God heareth not us. If we ask them for a Witness whereby to prove it;Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit (their Answer is) beareth witness with our Spirits. If we bid them produce their Witness; He that believeth (they will say) hath the witness in himself. 1 Joh. 5. 10. If we call for any Witness of men; ver. 9. they tell us, The Witness of God is greater. Thus they argue by their Circular and Identical way of discourse, [They have the Holy Spirit of God, because they are (for­sooth) assured; and assured of it they are, be­cause of the Spirit which dwelleth in them.] So strongly does the Spirit of Perverseness shew it self in such as are delivered up to be­lieve a Lie. (For that is sometimes the case, 2 Thess. 2. 11.)

The other Enemies of Religion, (who are withall by much the worst,) in a derision and contempt of supernatural Revelation, Leviath. p. 36. & 169. will have no better Test of true and false Prophets, or of right and wrong Doctrins, than the War­ranty and Allowance of the Sovereign Powers, Ibid. p. 232. in every Kingdom and Commonwealth, of whatsoever Denomination throughout the world. Which Position of the Leviathan, (fetcht as 'tis from Japonia, and there from [Page 11] the Sect of the Jenxuani) is so prodigiously absurd, that it either makes no difference 'twixt Right and Wrong, and infers True and False to be a couple of empty words, (which signifie nothing, or the same thing, the Will and Pleasure of the Prince;) or else infers this Contradiction, that the same Things and Persons are in severall Times and Places both True and False. So that according to This Position, the Christian Religion was a false one under all the Heathen Emperours, who did publickly prohibit the Teaching of it; yet a most true one under Constantine sur­nam'd the Great, and under all the following Emperours, who strictly commanded it to be Taught. Jesus Christ (with Mr. Hobbs) must have been a false Prophet, as not approved of by Herod and the Then-Emperour of Rome; whilst Mahomed must be a true one, because allow'd by the great Sultan, supreme Gover­nour of the Turks. The Will and Pleasure of the Prince being set up by That Monster, as the sole Touchstone, or Criterion, whereby a Prophet, or a Doctrin, or a Religion is to be try'd. Leviath. p. 250. None (says He) but a Sovereign in a Christian Commonwealth, can take notice what is, or what is not the Word of God. A greater [Page 12] power than is ascribed by the Jesuites them­selves, either to the Bishop or Church of Rome: a power to abrogate the old, and (as often as he will) to make a new Canon of Scripture, or none at all.

§ 5. Had such Seducers of the people appear'd in publick among the Jews, a pre­sent Death without Mercy had been inflicted as the wages of Their Iniquity. (Deut. 13. 5. and ch. 18. v. 20.) The Setters forth of new Doctrins in that Mosaical Dispensation could not escape their publick Trials in the Great Parliament of Israel they call'd The Sanedrim; and were condemn'd as false Tea­chers, either to be strangl'd, or ston'd to death. Yea,Deut. 13. 1, 2▪ though they had shewn Signs and Won­ders, and though their Signs came to pass too, yet could it not exempt them from suffering Death, in case they tended to seduce the silly Admirers of their Wonders to worship Idols, or any other way to enervate the Law of Mo­ses: which none could be allow'd to doe, and yet be thought a True Prophet, unless he could doe as real Miracles as Moses, and give as cogent Demonstrations as Moses had given, of his having been inspired and sent by God. Therefore None but the Messias, who out-did [Page 13] Moses, and that as well in point of Miracle, as in Holiness of Life, and in illustrating or com­pleating the whole Moral Law, could lawfully abolish the Ceremonial. Yea even Those Di­vine Prophets or Men of God (as they were call'd) who still asserted the Law of Moses, and disswaded men with vehemence from Idolatry and Schism, were fain to prove they were of God by unfeigned Miracles. By such a Real Miracle of the anonymous Prophet at Bethel, 1 King. 13. 4, 6. Jeroboam's Hand was dry'd up, and restored to him. By such a Miracle of Elijah, the Fire of the Lord fell down from Heaven, 1 King. 18. 38, 40. and consum'd the Burnt-sacrifice, together with the Altar on which it lay. Whereby the People were incens'd against the false Prophets of Baal, and presently slew them all as Cheats by the River Kishon. By such a Miracle of Elisha, 2 King. 5. 15. even Naaman an Idolater was sud­denly cleansed from his Leprosie, and convin­ced of Jehovah's being the onely true God. By the like unfeigned Miracles, Moses baffled all the lying ones of the Sorcerers in Aegypt. And if the Prophets Then had need of shewing many and great Miracles, to prove the Truth of That Religion which the Israelites were then in Possession of; How much a greater [Page 14] need of Miracles should our Seducers stand in, whereby to make us leave our Old, and where­with to draw us on to their New Beliefs? That Doctrin (for example) of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, [that we must obey them who have the Rule over us, and that we must submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,] was confirmed by greater Miracles (if any greater can be) then Moses and the Pro­phets confirm'd theirs by. And by Conse­quence, if our Pretenders to supernatural Il­lumination will have us adhere to their New Doctrin, [that we must not submit to every Ordinance of man, but rebell against them; nor obey, but resist such as have the Rule over us; nor do any thing in Religion with any Decency or Order, but all as rudely and as confusedly as we can,] they must perswade us by greater Miracles than those of Christ and his Apostles, whom we believe. At least they must be able to convince us of Errour in Life and Doc­trin,Num. 16. (as Moses did Corah and all his Sepa­ratist-Relations,) by commanding the Earth to open, and to swallow us up quick: or strike us dead without a blow, (just as Peter did Ananias,) for our usurping That Autho­rity to preach God's Word, which our Schis­maticks [Page 15] and Enthusiasts of each Extreme are wont to arrogate as a Right belonging onely to them­selves. But (God knows) we have too many, who need no working of Signs and Wonders to de­ceive them: so very fond they are of Novelties in Religion it self, that they are often drawn from it without a Miracle. Yea, if the True Prophet from Judah could suffer himself to be deceiv'd by the cunning False Prophet who dwelt in Bethel, (1 King. 13. 18.) for which (not the False, but) the True Prophet was slain; (v. 24.) how apt are others to be deceiv'd who are no Prophets at all? Very great need therefore we have, to Try Pretenders to the Spirit, before we Trust them, whether or no they have indeed a Prophetick Spi­rit; and whether they speak the mind of God by any Immediate Revelation.

§ 6. A general Rule whereby to try them (though 'tis particularly apply'd) S. John sets down in the next verse after my Text; Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every Spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh, is of God. A Text whose pithy Brevity makes it difficult and obscure, and so it stands in some need of an Explication. I take its meaning to be This. Every Spirit which confesseth, or every Pretender who owns our Saviour, not onely by [Page 16] word of Mouth, but in Life and Practice, and from the Heart, both as Jesus a Saviour, and as Christ a King too; Every one who does own him as well by his Faith, as his Confession, and as well by his Obedience, as by his Faith, to be the onely true Shiloh that was to come; Every one who does own him to be come in the Flesh too, not onely in his Divine, but in his Humane Nature also, which Cerinthus and Ebion and Simon Magus did deny; (unto whom in particular S. John alludes in this place;) lastly, Every one who owns him in his Exinanition, in his most despicable Condition, which made his Friends to fly from him, and Pe­ter himself to disavow him; Every one who does own him in his tremendous Crucifixion, his Death, and Burial, and confesseth him even so to beMar. 16. 16. the Son of the living God, or God manifest in the Flesh, 'Tis plain that every such Spirit must be conclu­ded to be of God.

So that if any shall here object against S. John's Rule of Triall, that many Hereticks and Schisma­ticks do confess Jesus Christ to be come in the Flesh, who notwithstanding are of the Devil, and not of God; Two Answers are to be given for the Ob­jector's behoof and satisfaction; one from Estius, and another from Tirinus. (Though the Sub­stance of them Both I have anticipated already.) [Page 17] Estius answers, that S. John did direct This Rule against the Hereticks of his own Times, who de­nied Jesus Christ to have come in the Flesh: and such were those Three whom I nam'd a little be­fore. Which Answer is indeed good, but not suf­ficient. Tirinus therefore adds fitly, that by our Confessing Jesus Christ to have come in the Flesh, is meant our Confessing and Believing (to wit, our practical Believing) that Jesus Christ is the Mes­sias; Act. 5. 31. both a Saviour and a Prince, (as S. Peter calls him,) who gives Repentance unto Israel, Ibid. and Forgiveness of sins. Not Forgiveness without Re­pentance, nor Forgiveness before Repentance; but Repentance in the first place, and Forgiveness in the second. In which very order, both of Dig­nity and Nature, S. Peter had exhorted to Both before, (ch. 3. v. 19.) Repent, and be converted, that your Sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And all sincere Repentance implies. Obe­dience, as the same S. Peter argues, Act. 5. 32. This Answer is very good and sufficient too, un­less, by being too short, it may be also too obscure, or not sufficiently perspicuous to some of the slowest apprehensions; for which defect in the next place I shall endeavour to make amends.

§ 7. And because where the Touchstone it [Page 18] self is False, all sorts of Trial must needs be foo­lish; Therefore Pretenders to the Spirit are to be try'd by such a Touchstone, as needeth not it self Another Touchstone for its Trial. And such a Touchstone is to be taken out of those plainest Places of Scripture, whose sense and meaning is agreed on even by men of All Judgements; Texts deliver'd in such clear and univocal Terms, that opposite Parties do apprehend them in the very same way; And as they never have been yet, so they never can be matter of any Cavil, or Dispute. And because I pretend not to teach my Fellow-Teachers, or such as need not to be thus taught, (though the most knowing may not disdain to be put in remembrance of what they know,) but onely the Ignorant and the Ʋnstable, who (for want of due Knowledge, or of sufficient Consideration,) are like Clouds without water, carried about of Winds, (as S. Jude describes them;) I shall be carefull that every Part of the Test or Criterion I am to give, may be short, and yet easie, and (I hope) without all Question. The several Parts of the Touchstone will be no fewer than 6 or 7. Nor are the Spirits to be try'd by any one or two of them, but by All put together, whether or no they are of God.

First,Joh. 14. 17. The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit [Page 19] of Truth. And therefore if any man, who is out­wardly of a seeming good Life, is yet of very ill Judgement in Fundamentals, in Points essential to Christianity, 1 Pet. 2. 13. as in the Doctrin of Obedience to every Ordinance of Man, Rom. 13. 1. to the Higher Powers, to Them that have the Rule over us, Heb. 13. 17. and do watch for our Souls; (a Doctrin running in a Vein through­out the Body of the Gospel, and essentially belon­ging to All Religion;) especially if he ascribes to a sinfull man (not to say, The Man of Sin,) That Incommunicable Attribute of God himself, [Infal­libility,] and gives to every Priest the Privilege to doe a much greater Miracle than ere was done by Christ Himself, so far forth to transubstantiate a piece of Bread, as first to make his own Saviour, and then to eat him; He must needs be misinstruc­ted by the Spirit of Errour and Fascination, 1 Joh. 4. 6. the Spirit with which he is bewitch'd, Act. 8. 9, 11. (as S. Paul speaks to the Galatians,)Gal. 3. 1. let his outward Conver­sation be what it will, let his visible Course of life be never so plausible, or severe.

Next,Rom. 1. 4, 18. The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Holiness and Purity, as well as Truth. And there­fore if any man, who is Orthodox, is at the same time Dishonest, of some good Opinions, but evil Practice, does hold the Truth, but in unrighteous­ness; especially if he takes upon him (by That Vi­per [Page 20] of Morality and all Religion, the Jesuites Doc­trine of Vid. Les Provinciales 5. 6. & Ca­ramuel de Theologiâ Fundamenta­li p. 71, 72. & Escobar Theol. Moral. Tom. 1. l. 2. c. 2. p. 34. 39. 43. 160. &c. Probability) not onely to allow, but to in­courage and abett the grossest Villanies in the World, (without exception;) He is not season'd by the Holy, but the Mar. 5. 8. Ʋnclean Spirit, let his Ortho­doxie of judgement, as to some Fundamentals, be what it can. An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave.

Thirdly, The Spirit that is of God isEph. 4. 3, 4. the Spi­rit of Ʋnity and Love. And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by ma­king Schism, by dissolving the Bond of Peace, wherein the Ʋnity of the Spirit is to be kept, and shall crumble Religion into as many small Par­cells, as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the li­berty to suggest; especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign, by absol­ving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedi­ence and Fidelity, or by instructing them to swear, with a Design to be forsworn; They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion, Mar. 5. 9. even the Spirit of Division, Rev. 12. 9. That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World.

Fourthly, The Spirit that is of God is the Spi­rit of Meekness and of Order. 1 Cor. 4. 12. And therefore if any despise Dominion, 1 Cor. 14. 23. and speak evil of Dignities, and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by [Page 21] right of Promise to inherit the Earth, demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers, and love to be levelling with their Feet, whatsoever (according to God's special Providence) does overtop them by Head and Shoulders; especially if they pre­sume to place the single Bishop of Rome above Ge­neral Councils, invest him with a Power to excom­municate Kings, and subvert whole Kingdoms, and make the People hope to Merit by the most pro­digious Murthers; They must be led by That Spi­rit, Rev. 9. 11. which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Abaddon, and [...], that is, Destroyer; even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience. Eph. 2. 2.

Fiftly, The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity, induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart. And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God, but their Right against their Governours; having Godliness in their Profession, but practical Atheism in their Lives; hating Idols from the Teeth outwards, but loving Sacriledge from the Heart; crying down Superstition, but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder, which they call Providence; declaring with zeal against the Prelates, but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents; declaiming much against [Page 22] the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination, but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline where­by the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure; especially They who have invented the Art of Ae­quivocating and Cheating, the Art of Swearing any thing safely, by mental Exceptions and Reser­vations, the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra, and the like; must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies, Joh. 8. 44. even the Spirit of Hypocrisie, 2 Cor. 11. 14. That black Prince of Darkness, which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light.

Sixtly, The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge, Isa. 11. 2. and Wisedom, and Ʋnderstanding. And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture, and wanders into the wrong way, even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one; especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha, and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition, whereby it be­comes Matth. 15. 6. of none effect; if men so learned, and so acute,Mar. 7. 13. and so sagacious as the Jesuites, after all the heinous things they have done and taught, are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of, that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one; a Spirit from Hell, for one from Heaven; the Spirit [Page 23] which reigns in the Court of Rome, for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England; if they can think it the Top of Piety, to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ, and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of It­self (which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society;) if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection, to e­spouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime, that Religion is to be propagated (where 'tis pos­sible) by the Sword; They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber, Rom. 11. 8. the Spirit of dead Sleep, the God of this World which blindeth the mind: Isa. 29. 10. for so the Devil is once call'd, 2 Cor. 4. 4.

What I have thus drawn out at length, our Bles­sed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom, (Matth. 7. 20.) Ye shall know them by their Fruits. But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are rec­kon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These;Gal. 5. 22, 23. Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Meekness, Good­ness, and the like. And therefore They who, in stead of loving Enemies, do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head; who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders, robbing one of a Living, a­nother of a Liberty, a third of a Life; and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious, [Page 24] (and very real Friends to All, because the Flat­terers of None, though able to injure, or to oblige them;) must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit, which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh: such as Hatred, Gal. 5. 19, 20, 21. Variance, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, He­resies, and the like.

§ 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid to­gether in our minds, I suppose we have a Touch­stone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders, whether or no they are of God; and such a Touchstone, as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by. But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it, we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it. For, considering how manyTroppo con­fina la Virtu col Vitio. Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues, and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than ma­ny Truths; and hardly any thing can be so false, but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off; (being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked;) and that a multitude of Ignaro's do of­ten swallow the grossest Errours, (presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths,) by not distinguishing Words (as they ought) from Things, and blending one thing with another, and taking them down all at once, without any masti­cating [Page 25] or chewing; I say, for This reason, we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit, untill we have made our selves acquain­ted as well with their Habits, as with their Acts; as well with the main or general current of their Lives, as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs; with the Means they make use of, as well as with the End they pretend to aim at; with the Building which is erected, as well as with the Scaffold by which 'tis rais'd; with All their Actions in a lump, as well as with the most specious and fai­rest of them. And when This is done throughly, Then let the Hypocrites and Impostors be what they will, let the Forms of Godliness and the Fea­tures of Religion be never so artificially and neat­ly drawn, let the Colours be laid on with never so delicate a Pencill, and let that Pencill also be ma­naged with never so exquisite Address; 'twill be most easie to find the difference between the Picture and the Life. Let Zeuxis his lively Grapes be never so apt to deceive the Birds, yet the Deadness of his Boy will unfold the Cheat.

§ 9. The very Truth of it is, We should be ut­terly unexcusable, if we should fall into the Snare of The certain men among us crept in unawares, of ei­ther sort, because their Arts of deceiving are gross and obvious; fit to infatuate Understandings of the [Page 26] lowest size onely, and such as are willing to be delu­ded. There were Counterfeits in the most primitive and purest Times of the Church, who were brave Cheats indeed; who, besides their Form of Godliness, besides their Praying and their Preaching, could also set forth themselves by Signs and Wonders. 2 Thess. 2. 9. The Devil had taught them That subtil Trick of trans­forming themselves into Angels of light; 2 Cor. 11. 14. and so of deceiving (if it were possible) the very Elect. Matth. 24. 24. Such were Barchochebas, Apollonius, and Simon Magus. Whereof the First had got a faculty even of vomi­ting flames of Fire; the Second could tell the men of Ephesus, what in That very Hour was done at Rome; the Third (like a Cherub) could fly abroad into the Air. So that They had some kind of Colour for their giving out themselves to be the Messen­gers of Heaven, some Pretences for their Broaching a New Theology to the People; because their Coun­terfeited Miracles, however derived from below, might seem at least to short Reasons to have been gi­ven them from Above. And to be couzen'd by such as These, were a more tolerable Infirmity; a Credu­lity more to be pitied, and very much more (rather than less) to be pardon'd also. The Magicians also in Aegypt were such admirable Deceivers, that They were able (as well as Aaron) to turn their Rods into Serpents, Exod. 7. & 8. and their Slime into Frogs, and [Page 27] their Waters into Bloud. So as if Moses and Aaron (through God's Assistance) had not publickly con­victed them of downright Sorcery and Inchant­ment, (wherein the Magicians grew eminent through the Assistance of the Devil;) If Aaron's Rod at last had not swallow'd up Their Rods, and turn'd the Dust into Lice through all the Land, w^ch the Magicians could not doe, but confessed (to their own shame) that The finger of God was in it; Lastly, if Moses had not smitten the very Sorcerers them­selves (as well as the rest of the Aegyptians) with Boyls and Blains, insomuch that the Magicians could not stand before Moses; They had had a shrewd Advantage in the deceiving of the People, and the People so deceiv'd had been excusable à Tanto. Whereas our modern Enthusiasts, or Preten­ders to Revelation, and to a Testimony within them from God the Holy Ghost, are not so much as good Jugglers; They are woefull Impostors, and silly Cheats; such as Satan indeed has furnished with very much Industry, but with very small Wit; whereby He does not more strongly Tempt them, than he discovers them to be His. They being so far from being indow'd with extraordinary Gifts, whereby to prove to us an extraordinary Commis­sion; so far from setting out themselves by Signs and Wonders, (like those Primitive Deceivers of [Page 28] whom our Saviour gave all his Disciples Warning, (in the 24^th. of S. Matthew,) or like Those of whom Moses forewarn'd His People, (in the 13^th. of Deuteronomy;) that they come short of most men of the Church of England, even in Those very things wherein they would be thought eminent. The onely Gifts of the Spirit which they pretend to, are but Praying and Preaching; in their Performances of which they signalize themselves by Nothing; or at least by nothing more, than Noise, and Nonsense. The Gift of Tongues, or the Gift of Healing, or the Gift of being subject to Higher Powers, for Conscience sake, or for the Lord's, or any other such remarkable A­postolical Gift of the Holy Ghost, I never heard that our Adversaries on either side did ever yet so much as pretend unto. They seem to be as unapt to obey their Governors for Conscience sake, (which is one special Gift of the Holy Ghost,) as to speak with new Tongues, or to raise the Dead.

§ 10. Now if those Exquisite Pretenders, in the Infancy of the Gospel, Barchochebas a Jew, and A­pollonius Tyanaeus an arrant Heathen, Simon Magus, Menander, Basilides, and the like, who by Profession at least were Christians, were not Then to be be­liev'd, notwithstanding their Inchantment and Magick-miracles; If a false Prophet under the Law, who led the People into New Errours, (as Vincen­tius [Page 29] Lirinensis expounds that Passage Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3.Vin. Lir. c. 15. and applies it to a false Teacher in the Times of Christianity, in particular and by name, to Va­lentinus, Donatus, Photinus, Apollinaris,) was not onely not to be heeded or hearkened to, but also was by That Law to be put to Death; yea (one step far­ther,) If an Angel from Heaven, who shall preach a­nother Doctrin than what hath hitherto been deli­ver'd, (whereby to lead us into Rebellion, or Schism, or Sacrilege, or any Conspiracy whatso­ever against the Government we are under,) must be no otherwise entertain'd, than with an Anathe­ma Maranatha; How much less may our Shallower and Ʋnskilfuller Impostors be believed to be of God upon their own single Word, and without a Witness, whilst they cannot confirm or commend their Novelties, no not so much as by seeming Mi­racles? no not so much as That Man of Sin, That Son of Perdition, of whose Coming S. Paul saith to his Thessalonians, 2 Thess. 2. 3, 9. that 'tis after the working of Sa­tan, with all Power, and Signs, and (with stupen­dous, though) lying Wonders?

But grant they had (what they have not) an A­bility to shew us some Signs and Wonders; Matth. 24. 24. yet A­pollonius Tyanaeus would put them down.

Suppose they preached extremely well, Matth. 7. 22. (as 'tis plain they do not,) yet Photinus and Nestorius would go beyond them.

[Page 30] Do they make very long Prayers? Matth. 13. 14. So did the Pharisees for a Pretence, that they might the more slily devour Orphans and Widows houses.

Have they a readiness and facility in citing Scripture? So had Julian the Apostate when he disputed against the Gospel. So had Satan in his tempting our Blessed Saviour; Matth. 4. 4, 6. when he wrested God's Oracles with as much subtilty and address, as the keenest of our Recusants (of what strain so­ever) are wont to do.

Do they pretend their being warranted by an immediate Revelation? So did Numa the Roman; and so did Eumenes the Greek: so did Mahomed the Saracen; and Alarichus the Goth: lastly, so did the Pretenders in the Primitive Church; which made S. John exhort Christians to Try the Spirits; alledging This for his reason, that many false Pro­phets are gone out into the World.

Is God's permitting them to be prosperous, Quomodo ob Religionem Magni, qui­bus Magnitu­do de irreli­giositate pro­venit? Ter­tull. Apolog. cap. 25. p. 56. or to sin on with great Impunity, any Argument that he approves them? No, 'tis the weakest way of reaso­ning which our Adversaries of Rome have deligh­ted in. For, (besides that we find them confuted of­ten by their Afflictions,) God permits, what he abo­minates, his own Dishonour. How patiently did he permit the Disobedience of the First Adam, and Crucifixion of the Second? All the Villanies in the [Page 31] world do come to pass by God's Permission, how­ever contrary they are to his Rules and Precepts. And if prosperous Impiety does therefore cease to be Impiety, because 'tis prosperous and permitted, (that is) not hinder'd by force and violence, (inconsistent with a free and a moral Agent;) Then the great Sultan; and the great Cham, and the great Mogul, as well as the great Bishop of Rome, are by an e­qually-sound Consequence the greatest Favou­rites of Heaven. And then the Argument ofapud Pru­dentium ad Valentin. Si Romanae Religiones regna prae­stant, nun­quam retro Judaea reg­násset, De­spectrix com­munium ista­rum Divini­tatum. Ter­tull. Apol. c. 26. p. 57. Symma­chus had been unanswerably conclusive against the Primitive Christians, who for 300 years and up­wards lay groaning under the Yoke of the Heathens Tyranny. Lastly, if Permission were still a Mark of Ap­probation; Then Dionysius (or Diagoras) had argued logically well, when, having robb'd the Delphick Temple, & immediately after escap'd a Shipwreck, he gave it out, that the Gods had approv'd his Sacrilege. Not at all that he believ'd, but laught at Providence.

§ 11. What now can be said farther, in the be­half of our Pretenders to the same Spirit's Illumi­nation, which clear'd the Heads of the Apostles, and warm'd their Hearts? Can it be said they live strict and religious lives, though lives of Schism and Disobedience to humane Laws and Lawgivers, expresly said in Holy Scripture to be the Ordinan­ces of God? But admit it were True, (which yet is so false, that it implies a Contradiction,) 'twere not [Page 32] prevailing. Hieron. ad Marcellam. For the Heretick Montanus grew so proud of his Strictness, of his Demure Course of life in point of Abstinence and Sobriety, and suffering Hardships, as to believe himself in Time to be The Paraclete downright;Philostrat. l. 3. not a Godly man onely, but even The Holy Spirit of God. In which case 'tis very evident, that even his strictness was his Disease: and that the Spirit which overrul'd him was from his Spleen. The Heathen Brachmans also of India were so temperate, and chast, and so addicted to Self-de­nials, (in (Maffaem)Maffaeium Hist. Ind. l. 12. p. 319. & l 14. p. 398. 1 Cor. 7. 31. order to their gaining upon the opi­nions of the People with whom they liv'd,) that they seemed (in all appearance) to use This World as not abusing it: (exactly so as S. Paul exhorts the followers of Christ.) Such an externally-strict Per­son was the Papalins S. Francis; who yet disco­ver'd his Humility and passive Meekness (as I have read many years since, apud Authorem nescio Quem, as Cicero speaks in the like case,) to have partly been a Cloak, and partly an Instrument of his Pride. For, being ask'd why he rejoyced amidst the hard­ships of his Imprisonment, Ideo me exul­tare noveri­tu, quia ad­huc-Sanctus per totum Seculum ad­or ator. Because. (said he) the whole world will even adore and canonize me among their Saints. Hereby we see the strict Necessity of the last Rule I mention'd for the right using of the Great Rule by w^ch the Spirits are to be Tried. For,

Lastly, by neglecting to Try the Spirits of Pre­tenders, whether or no they be of God, (and to try [Page 33] them impartially by every part of That Touchstone I lately gave,) How very many have we known of our poor Separatists in England, (acted as they have been by the late Emissaries of Rome,) so strangely shallow, and over-credulous, as readily to imagin that every Schismatick is a Saint, who is not a Sabbath-breaker, or Swearer, not a Drunkard, or an Adulterer, and is so or so qualified in point of Judgement; or (to speak more exactly) in point of Party, and of Opinion? It must therefore be well consider'd, and carried constantly in mind by such as These, that of the two 'tis less intole­rable to be a Swearer, than a Rebel; a Drunkard, than a Thief; a common Thief, than a Sacrilegious one; and a less horrid thing, to be corporally vile, than to be spiri­tually proud of one's own Perfections. We must beware of all the former, as we ever hope to fly from the wrath to come; but more especially of the latter, as being much the more Luciferian Sins. Sins which can never attend men to Heaven, having brought down the An­gels of Heaven to Hell. Drunkenness and Whoredom (however damning) are Sins the Devil cannot commit: but Envy, and Malice, and Schism, and Sacrilege, Hy­pocrisie, and Rebellion, and intoxicating Pride, are pe­culiar to him; they are the Devil's Sins so properly, that they are properly call'd Devilish in Men, or Christians, whereever found. And as These of all Sins are much the most Diabolical, so they are the most damning of any other, for ought I can collect from [Page 34] the words of Christ, (Matth. 23. 14.) and by the words of S. Peter, (2 Pet. 2. 9, 10.) If they who hate our Congregations and way of Worship, because they judge the Holy Ghost to have forsaken our Mee­tings, and to dwell onely in theirs, or because we do not easily shut the Door against Sinners, (till by Authority authoriz'd,) though they are under the Reputation either of Drunkenness, or Whoredom, or any other the like Scandalous and Deadly Sin, but not under the Sentence of legal Excommunication, (till when we cannot lawfully shut them out from our Communion,) I say, if the Censurers of our Pa­tience and Longanimity towards such would but turn their Eyes inwards, or duely reflect upon them­selves, and compare those Sins which the Devil ne­ver commits, with those several other Sins which are proper to him; If they would not onely observe, but also remember, and consider, and religiously lay to heart, 2 Pet. 2. 9, 10. the terrible Emphasis and force S. Peter puts on the word [...], saying of Them who despise Government, that they are chiefly, or most especially, reserved by the Lord unto the day of Judgement to be punished; and the most formidable Importance of That Greater Damnation, Matth. 23. 14. which our Saviour has denounced against those Hypocrites, who for a Pre­tence do make long Prayers; I say again, if our dis­senting & separating Brethren (in love and pity to whose Souls we pray & preach for their Conformi­ty) [Page 35] would have the Patience and the Humility to chew enough on these things, They would think with more Charity of our Communion, and with less Arrogance of their own. They would not separate from us Then, unless for contrary Inducements than now do move them. They would separate from us Then, in an humble opinion of their own Vileness; saying from the heart with the meek Centurion, Luk. 7. 6. Lord, we are not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under our Roof, and are by conse­quence unworthy to have admittance under Thine. They would not separate from us Then, unless in the Spirit of S. Peter, afraid to approach unto Christ him­self, with a Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a Sinfull man. They would not separate from us Then, like those Idolaters in Isaiah, Isa. 65. 2, 5. with a Stand farther off, come not near to us, for we are holier than you; But rather, like the Lepers under the Law of Leprosie, would cover their faces with Confusion, and stand aloof from God's House,Lev. 13. 45, 46. accusing themselves of their Ʋncleanness: or, like the [...] & [...] in the Primitive Times of Discipline, falling down flat upon their faces, (not in the Church, but the Churchyard, at an humble Di­stance,) would beg the Charity of Their Prayers whom they saw entring into God's House at the Times of Prayer. Were they such Separatists as These, and from such a Principle as This, from the excesses onely of Meekness, and not of Pride, we should receive them with the Embraces of Arms and Hearts; we should [Page 36] readily afford them even the Right hand of Fellow­ship; we should conclude the Holy Ghost had so de­scended upon their Souls, as once he did upon the Heads of the 12 Apostles, Act. 2. 41. or rather upon the Hearts of th [...]se 3000 who at S. Peter's one Sermon were added to them: Though not in the Edifying Gifts which were bestowed upon the former, yet in the Sanctifying Graces which were infused into the latter.

§ 12. But having spoken enough already of Trying the Spirits in other men, I think it fit to say something of Trying them also in our selves. For considering the words of the Prophet Jeremy, The Heart of man is de­ceitfull above all things; and that 'tis given to very few, (few, I mean, in comparison,) to know what Spirits they are of; I guess it concerns us all in general, and every one of us in particular, to resume the whole Text, and bring it home unto our selves; to search and try our own Hearts, and to examin our own Spirits, whether or no they are of God. 'Twas the Precept of Pythagoras to every man of his Sect, that he should bring himself to the Test, or call himself to an Accompt, every Evening of his whole Life, with a [...]; what he had done in That Day which he ought to have omitted, [...]. and what good thing he had omitted which 'twas his Duty to have done: Nor was he to suffer himself to sleep, till he had made up this Rec­koning three several Times. So 'twas the Precept of S. Paul, 2 Cor. 13. 5. in his 2^d Epistle to the Corinthians, Examin [Page 37] your selves whether ye be in the Faith: (meaning That Faith which does work by Love all manner of Obedi­ence to the Law of Christ's Gospel:) [...], prove or try your own selves, whether ye have not yet received the True Faith of Christ; or whether, having once received, ye still retain it. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be Repro­bates? So S. Paul reason'd with his Corinthians; and so must we with or within our selves. Know we not that Christ is in us, by the Presence of his Spirit? and by the Power of his Word? and by the evident effects of His O­peration? Such as our Sorrow for our sins past, our ha­tred of our selves in Remembrance of them, and our stedfast Resolutions of better life? Know we not that Christ is in us by such Evidences as These? If we do, Then let us treat him in such a manner, as may become so Divine a Guest. But if we do not, we have some rea­son to fear, lest we have sinn'd-away our Saviour, as ar­rant Reprobates and Castaways; as men unworthy to be call'd Christians; as men who either are not at all Re­generate, or else are fallen from That State of Regene­ration which we were in; or (to express it with S. Paul) as men who have received the Grace of God in vain. And as it concerns us on all occasions to try the Spi­rit which is in us, whether 'tis a good, or an evil Spirit; so most especially does it concern us at such a Time as This is, when we Tread in God's Courts, to offer up the Gospel-sacrifice of Supplication and Thanksgiving; to [Page 38] hear His Word, & to partake of his Sacraments (Duties equally belonging to the first Sunday of the month.) For the Bread of God's Children must not be cast unto the Dogs; and the Food which is Spiritual belongs to Them onely who can spiritually discern it, and who live not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. I do not mean after every Spirit, (for there are many more than good, as I shew'd before,) but after The Spirit that is of God; The Spirit of Holiness, and Truth; The Spirit of Ʋnity, and Love; The Spirit of Meekness, and of Order; The Spirit of Singleness, and Sincerity; The Spirit of Wis­dom, and Ʋnderstanding; The Spirit of Counsel, and Ghostly Strength; The Spirit of Knowledge, and true Godliness; Isa. 11. 2. and lastly, The Spirit of God's Holy Fear; (as the divine Prophet Isaiah expresseth him resting upon Christ, of whom the good King Hezekiah was but a Type in That place.) Unto all which if I should add, The Spirit of Promise, Eph. 1. 13. (with S. Paul,) and The Spirit of Pro­phecy (with S. John,)Rev. 19. 10. The Spirit of Grace, Zech. 12. 10. (with holy Za­chary,)1 Pet. 4. 14. and The Spirit of Glory, (with S. Peter,) I should but say, The same Spirit, in the vindicating of whom from the many False Spirits, which (in this last Age especially) have been debauching the Christian World, I have imploy'd the little Time which is allow'd for this Part of our Morning Service.

To Him therefore with The Father in their Unity with The Son, Sing we Hosannahs, and Hallelujahs, Blessing, Glory, Honour, and Power, To Him that liveth for evermore.

OF The exceeding Sinfulness OF SCHISM; In how many GREAT REGARDS It is worse than HAERESIE; AND Why more damning than other Crimes.

§ 1. A TEXT exciting us to a Duty which does equally invite and command At­tention. For the Duty is introduced with as important an Obtestation, as is any-where us'd in [Page 40] S. Paul's Epistles: and it must certainly be a matter of exceeding great moment, which could extort from our Apostle so great and signal an Obtestation. He calls us Brethren, (for we are now in the place of the Thessalonians,) to win our Love, and to shew his own. But withall he commands us, as God's Embassador, that he may make as good impression upon our Fear too. We may take his whole Meaning in This plain Paraphrase.

[...], We charge you, and that by virtue of our Commission, or in the power of our Apostleship, in the name and the behalf, by the Bowells and the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, as ye will answer it at the great and terrible Day of Discrimination,2 Thess. 1. 7, 8, 9. the Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire, taking ven­geance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power; by every thing that is dreadfull, or dear unto you, [...], we declare, we de­nounce, we command you, Brethren, that if ye observe any Professor of the Christian Religion (who for that reason onely is call'd a Brother) [Page 41] to forsake his proper Calling, his Place and Sta­tion, and to meddle as a Buisybody in other mens Matters, (v. 11.) and so to cast off all Obe­dience to the Rules of Direction which we have given; (especially if ye observe him to leap from the Shop into the Pulpit, or out of the Church into a Synagogue consisting of the most factious and disorderly Opiniators, who, under colour of serving God, despise the Ordinances of Men;) ye presently Note him, and mark him out, as a Disorderly Walker, as a Disturber of Society, as a Disseminator of Discords, the very Bane of all Religion, and the Discredit of Christi­anity; most unworthy to be admitted to any Commerce or Conversation with regular Chri­stians; but to be shunn'd like any Leper, and to be cast out of your Company, as if he had a Plague-sore. (v. 14.)

Thus I paraphrase the Text, as I find it re­lating to the Context; and by comparing our Apostle's with our Saviour's own Rule. For [...], A Brother walking disorderly, in this present verse, does seem to be the same unruly and irregular Person, who is expressed by the word [...] 1 Thess. 5. 14. Which be­ing a Military expression, and of peculiar use in Tacticks, does properly signifie a Souldier [Page 42] who runs away from his Colours; quits the Ser­vice he undertook and ingaged in; denies obe­dience to his Commander; not onely to his Lieu­tenant, but Captain-General; (that is to say, without a Metaphor,) depraves the Doctrin, disturbs the Disciplin, disowns the Government of the Church: By any one of which Three he is disorderly in his Walking, however they are commonly all Three in one.

§ 2. Now when a Brother, (that is) a Chri­stian, (at least in Profession and Pretense,) is so disorderly in his Walking, as that he will not hear the Church, but is a Contemner of Autho­rity, and Publick Order; He is, by the Rule of our Blessed Saviour, to be look'd upon and dealt with, just asMatth. 18. 17. Heathen-men and Publicans were look'd upon and dealt with amongst the Jews: We must avoid him, as a prophane and an impious person; as one who is void of all Religion, and as it were without God in the World. Thus we must brand and stigmatize him for two good Rea­sons, and pious Ends: first, that himself may be asham'd, and being asham'd may be converted; (2 Thess. 3. 14.) next, that others also may 1 Tim. 5. 20. fear to doe, and suffer, by his Example.

§ 3. That This was the meaning of our Lord, (Matth. 18. 17.) seems to me very evident from [Page 43] Two especially of his Apostles; I mean, the most learned, and most beloved. They tell us Both, that when a Brother is become contumacious, and not reclaimable either by private, or by publick Admonitions, we must not onely not religiously, but not so much as civilly entertain commerce with him. We must not 1 Cor. 5. 11. eat with such a Brother, or keep him company; must not 2 Joh. 1 [...] receive him into our Houses, or bid him God speed. And there is reason for this Severity, which S. Paul and S. John have thus injoyn'd us. For can there be any thing more apposite, more pertinent, or proper, than to deny them our Com­pany in private Houses, who disdain to afford us their own in God's? Why should we eat and drink with Them, either at Their, or Our Tables, who are therefore too unworthy, because they think they are too Good, to eat and drink in our company at the Table of the Lord? Why should we any-where go with Them, who will not go with Ʋs to Heaven; and hate the means of Sal­vation, so far forth as we injoy them? Is it any way consistent either with Charity, or Reason, that we should bid a man God speed in the ways of Co­rah; or affect his Society, who hates our Reli­gion, and our God? No, he is rather (says our Apostle) to be put away from us, 1 Cor. 5. 2. & 13. and from among [Page 44] us, (as a foul, pestilential, accursed thing,) and even deliver'd up to Satan by the Censures of the Church:1 Tim. 1. 20. although it be to this charitable and wholsome end, that he may learn not to blas­pheme; that he may learn to be conformable to Rules and Rulers; 1 Cor. 5. 5. and so that his Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus.

§ 4. 'Tis true that All vicious persons are dis­orderly Walkers, who walk as far as they are able from the strait Path of God's Command­ments: and from All that are Scandalous we are commanded to withdraw. For so saith S. Paul, (1 Cor. 5. 11.) I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator, or Covetous, or an Ido­later, or a Railer, or a Drunkard, or an Ex­tortioner, with such a one no not to eat. No not in one of your private Houses, much less in the Sacrament, and House of God. But I do not here speak (nor does S. Paul) touching abso­lute Apostates, who do renounce and fall away from the whole Faith of Christ, and the very Profession of Christianity; because They are not so much as call'd, or accompted Brethren. Nor do I speak of Jews, or Heathens, who, because they are avow'd and open Enemies of Christ, may with much the more safety, or rather with [Page 45] much the less danger, be traffick'd with. (And accordingly S. Paul has excepted Them, in the very next verse before my Text, and the next verse after.) But I speak of gross Sinners, on whom the name of Christ is call'd. And amongst Them, in special manner, I aim at two sorts of men who are called Brethren; and so (like Judas downright) do betray the whole Cause of Christianity with a Kiss. I mean the Haeretick for one, who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Doctrin, by denying one or more of her Fundamentals: I mean the Schismatick for another, who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Disciplin, by doing as much as in him lies to overthrow her very Government, Laws, and Order. The First of These we must reject, and withdraw our selves from, in case he shall not reform himself, after a couple of Admo­nitions: Tit. 3. 10. MuchNulla ab iis tanta po­test fieri cor­ruptio, quan­ta est Schi­smatis perni­cies. Iren. l. 4. c. 62. more the Second, as the more Scandalous, and the more mischie­vous, and the more impious of the two. And being by much the most irregular of all disorder­ly Walkers my Text intends, he is the fitter to be the Subject of my Discourse at this Time. For an Haeretick, as he is such, does onely offend against Faith and Truth; and keeping his Er­rour to himself, (as very easily he may, and very [Page 46] many there are that do,) so as it never shall run out, either at his Tongue's or his Finger's end, is no body's Enemy but his own; is a regular Ci­tizen, and a good Subject, living friendly with his Neighbours, and in an uniform Obedience to his Superiors. Whereas a Schismatick, as he is such, does also offend against Peace and Charity; and cannot possibly keep his Schism unto himself, but needs must hurt others with it, because 'tis publick in its own Nature, and can­not be Schism, unless it be so. For he separates himself from the publick Worship; affronts the Governors, and scorns the Government of the Church; cuts himself off from the Communion of the Body of Christ; sets up Altar against Al­tar, Dan and Bethel against Jerusalem and Sion; sets up a Ministry of his own making, against a Priesthood ordain'd by God; abetts a Conventicle prohibited by God and Man, against a Church set apart by the Laws of Both; like Jeroboam downright, whose Sin consisted in This especial­ly, that he made Israel to Sin. Now an active Divider in and of the Church of God, must needs be worse than any other, who is but pas­sively divided and cut off from her. And to destroy a whole Society by subverting the whole Legislative power, must needs be worse than to [Page 47] violate a particular Law. And That which makes way for all the Haeresies in the world, as well as for all the Immoralities of life, (which Schism does evidently do,) must needs be worse than any Haeresie, which does onely make way for itself. And so a Schismatick is the more im­pious, and the more mischievous of the two. Again, a Schismatick is worse than a simple Haeretick as such, not for this reason onely, be­cause a vitious Practice is naturally worse than a wrong Opinion; (though that is reason great enough;) but for this other reason also, (not so commonly observ'd as I wish it were,) be­cause a Schismatick ipso facto is mostly an Hieron. ad Tit. c. 3. See Dr. Ham. of Schism, c. 1. p. 7. Haere­tick into the Bargain. For besides his renoun­cing the Ninth Article of the Creed, (that Form of sound words deliver'd to us by Christ's A­postles,) The holy Catholick Church, and The Communion of Saints; (duly expounded and understood;) I say, besides That, He flatly despises, and detests (for 'tis a little thing to say, he disowns, and disbelieves,) That prin­cipal Doctrin of the Gospel, That Fundamen­tal of Christianity, That great Essential to All Religion,1 Pet. 2. 13, 14, 15. that we must heartily submit to e­very Ordinance of Man; and that as well for the Lord's sake, as for our own; nor one­ly [Page 48] for fear of Wrath, but for Rom. 13. 5. Conscience sake.

§ 5. Why I chuse to call This, a principal Doc­trin of the Gospel, a Fundamental of Christianity, and the great Essential to All Religion, I seem to my self to have so many and great Reasons, that if they were every-where urged, and laid to heart, (especially by the Parties who are the least aware of them, but most concern'd to take them in,) they might suffice to put an end to those numerous Schisms, which now do threaten to put an end to our whole Religion. The Doctrin of Obedience to humane Governours and Laws, is certainly the ap­test of any other, (next to that of our Obedience to God himself, whereof this Doctrin is a most neces­sary part too,)Eph. 4. 3. to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace; and to congregate into one Body the most disjoynted and scatter'd Members in Church and State. A Doctrin laid for this pur­pose by God the Father, from the Foundations of the World; and that in the Law of the first Crea­tion. A Doctrin propagated by Moses, as Taught of God to teach others. A Doctrin perfected by Christ, as by the Wisedom of the Father, who pray'd his Followers might be one, even as his Father and He were one: (Joh. 17. 11.) which yet without Obe­dience to this very Doctrin can never be. A Doc­ctrin inculcated and inforced by God the Holy [Page 49] Ghost, as by the Spirit of Love, and Meekness, of Peace, and Ʋnion. A Doctrin extended to All Au­thority upon Earth; not onely Regal in the first place, (1 Pet. 2. 13.) but Ecclesiastical in the second, (Heb. 13. 17.) To summe up all in a word, There is not a Doctrin in all the Gospel, either more earnestly, or more assiduously, either more plainly, or more expresly prescribed to us, (and that under pain of Damnation too,) than that of our uniform Obedience to All that are over us in Authority. I say, to All; not onely to the Best, (the Good and Gentle,) but as well to the worst, and most 1 Pet. 2. 18. froward Governours.

§ 6. It is not onely most foolishly, but most nefariously pretended, that the Piety, or Impiety, the Religion, or Irreligion, of them that are over us in the Lord, can either widen, or contract our divine Obligation to strict Obedience. For never was any incarnate Devil more incomparably im­pious than those Emperours of Rome, Tiberius and Nero; whom yet our Saviour and S. Paul commanded their Followers to obey, and obey'd Themselves. For Obedience to Magistrates being of Divine right, strongly founded upon the Will and the Word of God, and even a part of our Obedience to God Himself, (whilst it is paid to that Authority which God has commanded us to [Page 50] pay an Obedience to,) cannot possibly be due to the men, as men, or to the Good, as they are Good; but to the Magistrates or Masters redu­plicativè, as they are such: 'Tis due to the Go­vernours as they are Governours, Rom. 13. 1, 2. and as the Ordi­nance of God; let their Practices and Opinions be what they will.

§ 7. 'Tis true, when our Governours are Ʋsurpers, or (being None) do command us what God forbids; There there lies an Exception to our Obedience, due to God, rather than Man. But This Exception makes strongly for all I have hitherto said; and that by virtue of the old Axiom, Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis. So that by this Rule and Reason, that when God and His Deputies do stand in competition for our Obedience, God must have our whole Active, and His Deputies our Passive Obedience onely; It cannot but follow, that when our Governours are rightfull, and do onely command what God does no-where forbid, or do onely forbid what God does no-where command us, There we must obey God, by obeying Man: there being no other way of paying God our Obedience, in such a case. For There our Governours Command is the Com­mand of God too. There the very same Law which is immediately Humane, is also mediately [Page 51] Divine; Because we There are commanded by That Authority upon Earth, which in the Old and New Testament God has commanded us to obey. Nor is there any one Duty, belonging to us as Men or Christians, which God is pleas'd to make a stricter Provision for. We are no more commanded to fear God, than to honour the King: nor are we more forbidden to worship Idols, than to resist or disobey such as are over us in Authority.

§ 8. This I do the rather insist upon, in my Design upon the Welfare and the Conversion of our Schismaticks, (the most Disorderly Wal­kers of all my Text alludes to, or comprehends in its Importance,) because I can no more sepa­rate (no not so much as in my Conception) the Sin of Schism from Disobedience to just Authority, than Disobedience from Rebellion against the Gospel, or a State of Damnation from either of them. They are all three united in the Schi­smaticks of old, as S. Jude describes them. For, speaking in his Epistle of Certain men crept in unawares, Jude 4. despising Dominion, 8. and speaking evil of Dignities, 12. Clouds without Water carried about of Winds, 13. raging Waves of the Sea, foaming out their own shame, wandring Stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; He [Page 52] proceeds in his Description to call them Mur­murers, 16. Complainers, Walking after their own Lusts, 19. Separating themselves [from the Church Establish'd,] and pretending to have, but in­deed having not the Spirit. This is S. Jude's Hypotyposis or Description of the Gnosticks, who were the first and worst Schismaticks, the first and worst Haereticks, the first and worst Re­bels in the Primitive Church; the first who sepa­rated themselves upon this account, that they thought themselves perfecter and purer Christians than others were; the first who preached up Christian Liberty to consist in an Exemption from all Authority upon Earth, from all Superiours whatsoever, whether Masters, or Kings, or A­postles and Governours of the Church; The first we meet with in all the Gospel match'd and par­allel'd (for wickedness) with Cain and Core, yea with Sodom and Gomorrah, yea with Those Schismaticks in Heaven, the Angels that kept not their first Estate, but left their own Habitation, (v. 6.) and were thrown headlong by their Schism from Heaven to Hell; Briefly, the first in the New Testament, who are set forth for an Example, (as Sodom and Gomorrah were in the Old,) of suffering the Vengeance of eternal Fire, (therein tormented day and night for ever and [Page 53] ever, Rev. 20. 10.) And so they are parallel'd (for their Misery, as well as Sin,) with them that separated themselves from the Church Trium­phant; Jude 6. reserved therefore by the Judge in ever­lasting Chains under Darkness, unto the Judg­ment of the Great Day. In all this S. Jude agrees exactly with S. Paul, (1 Tim. 6. 3, 4, 5.) and as exactly with S. Peter, (in his whole 2^d Chap­ter of his 2^d Epistle,) as if the one had taken Notes out of the other. No less terrible are the Expressions of the Epistle to the Hebrews, con­cerning such as persevere in the Sin of Schism, Heb. 10. 23, 25. to v. 30. where They that do not hold fast the Profession of the Faith without wa­vering, (v. 23.) but forsake the Assembling of themselves together, (at the Stated Times and Places by just Authority appointed,) as the manner of some is, (v. 25.) are inferr'd to sin wilfully, after they have received the knowledge of the Truth, (v. 26.) and there remains nothing for such, but a certain fearfull looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation, (v. 27.)

§ 9. Nor indeed is it a wonder that the Holy Ghost's Penmen and Amanuenses should set them­selves, as 'twere on purpose, to terrifie Schisma­ticks from their Schisms, and to persuade them into Conformity,2 Cor. 5. 11. by shewing the Terrours of the [Page 54] Lord; by thundering out Damnation, more to That single Sin, than to all the rest: For a wil­full and a Groundless Separation from the Catho­lick and Apostolick Church, or from a National Church onely, which is a true Part of the Ʋni­versal, (such as is the Church of England, where nothing sinfull is required as the Condi­tion of our Communion,) whether by Breach of that Communion in which a man ought to have continu'd, or by a Refusal of that Communion which 'tis his Duty to be of, (and that as well by Divine as by humane Laws,) is so infinitely far from walking orderly, or according to the Tra­dition we have received of S. Paul, (that is, according to the Rule of a Christian Life, de­liver'd to us in the Scriptures,) that 'tis to give the greatest Scandal which can be given to Christ's Enemies, and tends to make the whole Gospel of none effect. It helps to justifie the Turks; the Jews, and Gentiles, in the Praejudices they have to the Christian Name. It helps to harden them in their hatreds, and even tacitly forbids them to be Believers. 'Tis true that Haeresie and Schism do so agree in one generical Signification, that Haeresie is Schism in point of Doctrin, and Schism is Haeresie in point of Ʋse. But they are so very different in their specifical acceptions, that Schism [Page 55] is many ways the worse, as I said before. And if S. Paul by the word Haeresies doesNote that [...] placed after [...] may well signifie Schisms, be­cause the word is so taken Rom. 16. 17. and because Schisms are a kind of Ecclesiastical Seditions. not sig­nifie them Both, it follows that Haeresie of itself is rank'd with Hatred, Idolatry, Witchcraft, Mur­thers, Gal. 5. 19, 20, 21. And then how dam­ning a Sin is Schism, whereof Haeresie is but a Part, as I shew'd before? This is also there reckon'd among the Works of the Flesh. For Hatred, Variance, Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, what are they all, but several Mem­bers or Concomitants of Schism? implying Schism to be a System or Body of Sin epitomiz'd. S. Paul accordingly speaks of Schism, as of a complicated Carnality, which (like the prover­bial Trojan Horse) carries an Army of Impieties within its Bowels. 'Twas That (by way of eminence) S. Paul accused, of having made his Corinthians carnal. 1 Cor. 3. 3, 4. And the Character which is given to the Double-minded man (Jam. 1. 8.) belongs as well to the Schismatical or Carnal­minded man, that he is unstable in all his ways. For such exactly is the Schismatick by way of peculiarity; who having faln from his Center, [The Church of God,] knows not after where to fix; but wanders about from Sect to Sect, from Party to Party, from Haeresie to Haeresie, from Schism to Schism, and so indeed does try [Page 56] all things, (in a most perverse and peevish sense,) as never to hold fast what is good. Experience is the Mistriss by which we have been taught This. (I mean the wofull Experience of Six and Thirty years old.) And we are most prodigious Dunces, if after so many years Instruction in the School of Affliction and Experience, we are no whit the wiser for such a Lesson. For what things are there in Holy Writ, (how essential soever to Christianity,) which have not been question'd, and disputed, if not deny'd, and rejected, since Schism took place in the Chair of Scorn? To this alone we owe the raging of the Sea, and the roaring of the Waves, whereby the Madness of the People is oft express'd. To this alone we owe the Legion, I do not say onely of Creeds, of Re­ligiosities, of Dogmatizings here in England, (since the year 41. in especial manner,) but even of Skepticism, Apostasy, and of Atheism it self.

§ 10. Now if any are desirous to know the Reasons, why our Schismaticks, rather than o­thers, (however Scundalous in their lives,) are singl'd out from the whole Herd of Notorious Sinners, to be paradigmatiz'd as disorderly Wal­kers, from whom we arePejus hoc crimen est, quàm quod admisisse Lapsi viden­tur. Cyprian. de Ʋnitate Ecclesiae.— [...]—Eusch. l. 6. c. 36. most to withdraw our­selves; I shall endeavour their Satisfaction by [Page 57] these 4 Reasons. 1 First, because of all Sinners, They seem to be the most destitute of Christian Meekness and Humility. 2 Next, because of all Sinners, they are the most void of Christian Cha­rity, as That is Superiour to Faith and Hope. 3 Thirdly, because of all Sinners, they are the greatest Ʋnderminers of Society and Govern­ment; the greatest Adversaries to God, as the God of Order; the greatest Disturbers (and the most dangerous) of private Propriety, and pub­lick Peace. 4 Lastly, because of all Sinners, our Schismaticks here in England are the most bar­barously ingratefull, and most deplorably un­excusable of any other. I am very much mista­ken, if I have not great reason for these 4 Rea­sons. But whether so, or not so, I leave to the Judgment of my Superiours; and content my self with This, that (without any passion) I speak mine own.

§ 11. To the first of my 4 Reasons I pre­mise S. Paul's Character touching Schismaticks in general;1 Tim. 6. 3. to wit, that they consent not to whol­some words, and the Doctrin which is according to Godliness; 4, but are proud, knowing nothing, doat about Questions, and Strifes of words, where­of cometh Envy, Strife, Railings, evil Surmises, perverse Disputings of men of corrupt Minds, 5. and [Page 58] destitute of the Truth. From such (says he to Timothy) withdraw thy self. S. Peter adds, They are presumptuous, 2 Pet. 2. 10, 15. selfwill'd, despise Govern­ment, have forsaken the right Path, and are gone astray. Now from Scripture thus speaking, let us reason the case a little, and then apply it. Can any be farther from Humility, than They who know nothing, and yet are proud of their Know­ledge? Can any Pride be more prodigious, than that by which the very basest and the most despi­cable of Subjects do not onely abhor, but de­spise their Governours? nor onely the Persons, who are but Men, but even Government it self, which is avowedly Divine in its Institution? The Apostle's Expression is rich and elegant, as well as true. For to despise, or contemn, to de­pretiate and scorn, and as it were to look down upon Those above us, does not savour of a vul­gar, or of a middle-siz'd Pride, but of Pride in its Exaltation. Can any Pride be more mon­strous, than for vile Dust and Ashes even to Dei­fie It self? yet the Schismatick seems to doe it in Three respects. For first, he arrogates to himself God's Incommunicable Attribute, whilst he founds his grossest Errours upon an Infalli­bility: which he does not onely ascribe (as others do with more modesty, and shew of [Page 59] Reason, although 'tis no more than a shew of Reason,) to the whole, either diffusive, or repre­sentative Church; but to his own individual Per­son, acted (forsooth) and over-acted by That which he calls (speaking out of his own Heart) the infallible Spirit of God. In any Controversie arising touching the sense of any Scripture, He does not appeal to the Original, or Context, to Fathers, or Councils, or Commentators, (all riff­raff in his Esteem,) but to Illumination, and Re­velation, and The Testimony within him. Nor can I imagin what should keep him from returning in­to the Church he has turned from, unless it be the worst Effect of the greatest Pride, a shamefulness to confess he has ever err'd. Next he Deifies himself by not enduring God's Yoke, or indeed that God should reign over him. For if the Powers that are on Earth are ordain'd by God, (as S. Paul affirms,) it is evident that we live under a [...]; that God, by Them, does reign over us: and they that resist shall receive Damnation, be­cause they will not be under God. This is cer­tainly at the Bottom both of S. Jude's, and S. Paul's, and S. Peter's reasonings, when they infer eternal Torments (as they every-where do) from Disobedience to the Authorities, and the lawfull Commands of Men. Besides, the Schis­matick [Page 60] seems to Deifie himself, by seating him­self on the Throne of God, and undertaking to be the Judge of Quick and Dead; by opening the Seals of the Book of life; and expounding God's Decrees of Particular mens States from all Eternity. He takes upon him before the Har­vest, to sever the Wheat from the Tares, and the Sheep from the Goats. He forsooth, and his Party, and none besides, are the Elect; whilst all from whom they All separate, are Vessels of Wrath and Reprobation. Again, how far is That Professor from Christian Meekness, who says as the Schismaticks did of old, in the Prophet Esa. Isa. 65. 5. Stand farther off, come not near me, for I am holier than Thou? thanking God that he is not as other men are, neither a Sab­bath-breaker, nor Swearer, nor even as this or that Publican; no Conformist, no Royalist, nor even as this or that Excize-man, gathering Tri­bute-money for Caesar: and proudly taking to his Party the name of Saints at every turn, which he denies to the Apostles in all Discourse he makes of them on all occasions. Briefly, for a Person of very low Parts, and little Learning, of contemptible Education, and small Improve­ments, to separate from a Great and Admired Church, The Church of England, and from the [Page 61] Devotions of the same in her Publick Liturgy, All contrived by the Wisedom, directed by the Learning, embraced by the Piety, established by the Authority of such a Nation, confirmed by at least 33 Acts of Parliament, and by as many Convocations, or Representatives of the Clergy, sign'd and seal'd by the Sufferings of many Confessors and Martyrs, lastly, asserted and defended against the Wit and the Malice of all Opponents; I say, for a person grosly igno­rant, and knowing nothing in comparison, to scorn or pity all his Teachers, as Fools and Blind; for him to think he sees more or better, than the two Ʋniversities put together, com­monly call'd the two Eyes of this National Body, (which is as if the silliest Sheep that ever leap'd out of a Fold, should take upon them both to guide and to feed their Shepherd;) This does argue such an Arrogance, Self-conceitedness, and Pride, as no Rhetorick can express, no Charity excuse, no Humility not censure. Although Novatus was made a Schismatick by a proud opi­nion of his own Purity, and by his carnal Am­bition to head a Party, as Simon Magus did the Gnosticks in the Apostles own Times, on the same account; yet now the Copy and Transla­tion has so outdone its Original, that our Schis­maticks [Page 62] have accus'd the Laws and Canons (for Ʋniformity) of being Such. They could approve of most things, in case they were not impos'd by Law. The very Reason why they ought, is the Reason they will not serve God in order. They dare not doe what they know they may lawfully, for fear they should seem to think an human Law binding. The onely fault of our Liturgy, is its having been com­pos'd, Authoriz'd, and made use of, by the wisest and the Best of our English World, especially by the Governours in Church and State. They will have Parliaments and Synods strike sail to Them. Whatsoever is Great or Sacred is mar­ked out for the object of their Contempt. Un­less Antiquity and Authority will condescend and stoop to them, yea unless they may tread upon Crowns and Scepters, there is not any thing will please them, or give them rest. For­sooth They want a main part of their Christian Liberty, unless they may not onely be suffer'd to cast away their Cords from them, but also to bind their Kings in Chains, Psal. 149. 8. and their Nobles with links of Iron.

§ 12. Nor are our Schismaticks onely arriv'd at the Top of Pride, (which is my first reason,) but they are also sunk down even below the [Page 63] very Bottom of Christian Charity, (which is my second.)1 Cor. 13. 5. For Charity thinketh no evil, but our Schismaticks nothing else. They cannot see their own Eyes, much less the Beams that are in them; but in the Eye of a Conformist they can see every Mote, and easily look it into a Moun­tain. They perfectly hate, whomsoever they have injur'd for being blameless; that is, for re­fusing to walk with Them in the ways of Corah: And if we strive to doe all things (in the pub­lick worship of God) with any Decency or Or­der, as S. Paul and our Governours do strictly bind us; they pretend to see nothing, (such is the yellow, or black Jaundise of Malignity and Prejudice,) but either Popery or Paganism in all our Service. Hence they separate from us, (though not Christians onely, but Protestants,) with no less aversion (in all appearance,) than from Papists, and Pagans, and Limbs of Satan. Nor can they rationally deny, that they esteem us as bad as either: for if they judge not our Communion to be as absolutely Ʋnlawfull, as they do their own Communion to be of absolute Necessi­ty to their Salvation, they cannot separate from us, and excuse themselves at the same time. They will not pretend they are unwilling to go to Hea­ven in our Company; but that they leave us as [Page 64] going on in the way to Hell. This must needs be their meaning, or else they cannot excuse themselves unto themselves. So as they must be void of Charity by either side of the Dilemma. For either they really do believe us to be as well their fellow-Saints as their fellow-Subjects, or they do not: truly if they do not, they then are void of all Charity to Ʋs, in thinking nothing but evil of us; not the best our Case will bear, but the worst to be imagin'd. And (on the other side) if they do, they are at the least as void of Charity to Themselves, and do despise their own Souls, by excommunicating themselves from their fellow-Saints. For what Pretense can they have for their separating from us, if they think us Christ's Members, as well as They? The terrible Saying of S. Cyprian, Etsi tales oc­cisi in Con­fessione nomi­nis fuerint, Macula ista nec sanguine abluitur; Inexpiabilis culpa Discor­diae, nec pas­sione purga­tur. Cyprian. de unit. Eccl. 1 Cor. 13. 1, 2 3. [that Mar­trydom is not sufficient to make amends for a man's Schism,] is as true, as 'tis notorious, and as rational, as 'tis true. And yet it can be nei­ther, unless it be on this Ground, that Schism is exclusive of Christian Charity: on which sup­posal S. Cyprian did strongly argue out of S. Paul. Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels, though I have the Gift of Prophecy, Faith, and Knowledge, though I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor, lastly, though (by Martyrdom) [Page 65] I give my Body to be burnt, and have not Charity, it profiteth me nothing. But if I live in Schism, I have no Charity; because I separate my self (as from the Children of the Devil) from many Thousands of thousands better Men, better Christians, better Protestants than my self. And so my Alms in that case are but Ostentation: my yielding up my self to be burnt alive, is a mad kind of Martyrdom in such a Case; 'tis but a Sacrifice to my Humour, to my Obstinacy, and Stomack, like that of Clement and Ravilliac, who died Martyrs to the Popedom, and not to Christ; or like the Martyrdom of Hierocles, who writ a Book against Christ, and after That at By­zantium died a Martyr to his Stoicism, as our English Regicides to their Fanaticism, and Van­ninus to his Atheism. Those alone were the Deities which they ador'd, and died for. 'Tis not the Bravery of the Sufferer, but the Divinity of the Cause, which makes a Martyrdom meri­torious (if any properly can be such) in any measure: and so S. Cyprian said rightly, (being but rightly understood,) that even Martyrdom cannot expiate the Sin of Schism.

§ 13. Thirdly, Schism is destructive, (in its Tendency at least,) not onely of Government, wheresoever there is any; but of Society itself, [Page 66] upon a supposal that there is none. Every body knows, (as well as Machiavel,) that to divide, is to infeeble, and so the very shortest way to destroy a Nation. The Church of Eng­land is but one, and in its Ʋnity lies its Safety, because its Strength. But many and many are the Sects, which Schism has made by dividing from her; and so it is a Devil whose name is Legion. For the effects of which Legion, we shall not need consult more, than our own Me­mories and Experience. For from the year 41 till 60, all our National Calamities began in Schism; in Schism they continued; and if ever they are completed, 'twill be in Schism too. Schism was ours, as it was Corah's first Crime. For though Mutiny and Rebellion were the natu­ral Issue of it, (as Schism in the Church does ever carry Faction in the State along with it;) yet 'twas chiefly as aOptatus l. 1. p. 25. Schismatick, that Corah was swallow'd up alive, and his separate Congregati­on together with him. 'Twas Schism which did set up The Assembly of Divines, against our regu­lar Convocations and National Synods of the Clergy. 'Twas That that set up the Directory, a­gainst the Liturgy of the Church. 'Twas Schism made Sacrilege, and a Sale of the Crown-Lands, and kill'd God's Anointed in order to it. But [Page 67] for Schism, we had not heard either of Plunder, or Sequestration; the sound of those Names had never reach'd our English Ears. 'Twas Schism call'd Strength the Law of Justice. 'Twas Schism which founded all Right in Dominion, and Right of Dominion onely in Grace; and so (by their Doctrin of irrespective and necessita­ting Decrees,) inferr'd the Great Turk to have much more Grace than our Christian Princes, be­cause more Right, by more Dominion. Finally, Schism was the Dam of all the Blasphemies, both of those and the present Times. The Leviathan itself was but the Spawn of That Parent. Behind the Veil of Toleration, which Schism begot too, and under the Protection of Christian Liberty, which Schism expounded into what we now see it, Horrid Ochlocracy, and Chirocracy, and ugly Anarchy itself, has been hatching, or ingendring, ever since Monarchy was restor'd. For some are longing after the Onions and the Flesh-pots of Aegypt, as much as ever. And as we have liv'd to see a Triumph without a War, or a Skirmish, (in the most happy Resuscitation of God's Spouse, and his Vicegerent;) so do we live to see a War too, within the Bowells of Church and State, without other Weapons than those of Schism. For our Schismaticks are an Army, [Page 68] however yet without Arms. Happy we, that they are so; and most unhappy, if they are otherwise. For hardly ever were there Schis­maticks (in any Part or Age of the Christian World) without this Turkish and Popish Prin­ciple, that Religion is to be propagated (where 'tis possible) by the Sword.

§ 14. Lastly, our Schismaticks here in Eng­land are of all others the most ingratefull, and unexcusable in their Schism. The most ingrate­full; because by Those very Laws, and under the Protection of those Legislators, which they hate, and despise, and conspire against, they hold the greatest Injoyments that men are capable of on Earth; to wit, their Liberties, and their Safe­ties, their Livelihoods, and their Lives. Again, the most unexcusable; because they cannot but know, yea they cannot but acknowledge, (and their Chieftains do it in Print,) that we are Christians, and Protestants, which they also pre­tend to be: that we have all the Fundamentals (which they pretend also to have) of the true Religion; whether as it consisteth of Faith, or Practice: we own the Creed, and the Command­ments, and the whole Word of God, as all (or most of) our Schismaticks pretend to doe. We agree in all Essentials with All the Protestant [Page 69] Churches of Christendom, as The Harmony of Confessions will convince every Creature who will but read them. Whence then the Murmu­rings and Disputings (against Authoritative Commands) so strictly forbidden by S. Paul, Philip. 2. 14? or what excuse can be found for a Separation? Let us examin the whole Affair from Top to Bottom; and let us consider what they would have to make us worthy of their So­ciety; and why they separate from Ʋs of the Church of England, as from Papists, if not Pa­gans, and Brands of Hell, as I said before. 'Tis plain, we do not worship Idols; and 'tis plain, we have none to worship. We add no Articles of our making to the Apostles own Creed, (as we know who do.) Nor do we pare away one of the Ten Commandments, and slit another in the midst, to complete the num­ber. Nor do we equal the Apocrypha with the Canonical Books of Scripture. We have but two Sacraments; and pray in English. Wives are permitted to our Clergy; and by Them to the Laity the Cup of Blessing. We do not buy and sell Pardons; nor do we trust in any Me­rits save those of Christ. We pray for none at all who are departed this Life; and much less to them. We renounce the strange Doctrin of [Page 70] Transubstantiation, as we do all Pretensions to Infallibility upon Earth. If we yield the Bishop of Rome a naked Primacy of Order, we do refuse him at the same Instant all Supremacy of Power; and do limit his Jurisdiction within his own own Dioecese, or Province. Then what Pretense can any have, (who are not Papalins Them­selves,) to dread, or hate a Communion with us? If some things indifferent, and uncomman­ded in Holy Writ, do make them separate from us of the Church of England, They must not onely separate (for the very same reason) from all the Reformed Churches of Europe; but they must separate from Themselves too, and from their separate Congregations, wherein some things must be Indifferent. I hope they will not here alledge, They love Division quatenus ipsum; and that to cross S. Paul's Precept, they love as much as in them lies to live unpeaceably with all men; Rom. 12. 18. or think it their Duty to be Disturbers. They will not say, they are obliged to turn the World upside down, as once the Apostles were said to doe, by Ill-will. They will not pretend they are bound in Conscience, to set up That Parti­tion-Wall our Saviour came to break down; and throw the World into a Chaos of Confusion, worse and wilder than That, out of which 'twas first [Page 71] taken. Nor do I think that they will plead, They were decreed to love Schism, and cannot help it. They will not say (whate're some think) that any man's Avarice was decreed to midwive Schism into the World, for the Love of sweet Sacrilege, or other Spoils: or that his Envy was Praedetermin'd to sow the Tares of Dissension for sweet Revenge: However Envy and Ambition are as probable Impellents, as any other. For, had Aërius been timely made a Bishop himself, he had not envied That Order, much less headed a Sect against it. And were our Schismaticks Legislators, they would inforce such a Conformity, as now they will not forgive, much less comply with. They seem to reckon themselves oppress'd, in that they are not permitted, much less made choise of, to be our Rulers. Which yet by their Principles of Li­berty and Conscience, (as They expound them,) they are incapable of being, should we desire them. For if things which are Indifferent are not properly the matter of Human Laws, (as hu­man Laws are contradistinct unto Divine,) No­thing else with any reason can be pretended so to be. For Necessary things are all sufficiently commanded by God already in his World: and All things unlawfull are There as evidently for­bidden: [Page 72] and things impossible are not comman­dable at all. 'Tis very evident that the For­mer, both affirmative and negative, are the Di­vine Laws of God, and in no wise human. So that if our disobedient and Schismatical Bre­thren should now be chosen or admitted our Le­gislators; Then by the Principles they are of, (would they be but true to them,) there would be but one Law (precisely human) which They could possibly enact, and it must be This; That every Christian man living should be a Law unto Himself. Every man's Reason should be his Guide; and every man's Will should be his Reason. Therefore, according to their own Principles, they cannot possibly be our Rulers, if we would have them. For every man's Rea­son would be his Royalty. All besides would be Rulers, as much as They. And so for Them to be our Governours implies a gross Contra­diction; by nothing in the world to be avoided, but by their quitting Their Principles, and ow­ning ours.

Now I am tempted to appeal to our Schisma­ticks themselves, whether they are not [...], Sinners in whose behalf no Apology can be made. Whether they are not the worst Re­cusants, because the most unexcusable. Whether [Page 73] they are not worse than Those who were accused by the Apostle of being tossed to and fro by every blast, and carried about with every Wind of false Doctrin, when (not our Doctrins, true or false, but) even our Surplices can scare them, and Organs blow them out of the Church. Whe­ther it will not be more tolerable in the tremen­dous day of Judgment, for them that never were Members of Jesus Christ, than for them, who ha­ving been Members, did excommunicate Them­selves, and even cut themselves off from his Mystical Body, which is his Church. Whether, when the publick Safety cannot evermore sub­sist without publick Peace, nor publick Peace without Compliance on one side or other, it is not fitter that such as They should meekly com­ply with their Superiours, than that their Supe­riours should bow to Them? Whether an yiel­ding can be made better, than by the ignorant to the most learned, by the fewest to the most numerous, by the Shrubs to the Cedars, or by the Subjects of Law to the Legislators. Indeed Obedience to one another, that is to Equals, and Obedience to Inferiours, or People exceedingly below us, might be grievous and vexing with some Excuse. However Christians are (in love) bid to serve one another; and Christ did wash [Page 74] his Disciples Feet; and England has had her Saturnalia; during which, some of the greatest and noblest Masters did indure a December of Twelve years long, and did contentedly see their Servants to bear Rule over them. But Obedience to Superiours, to men above us (not against, but) according to the Laws of Heaven and Earth, (such as was the Obedience of Christ to Caesar; for Christ according to his Manhood was but a Subject, though King of Kings in re­gard of his Divinity; and Caesar was one of those Mortal Gods, who liv'd like Devils, and died like Men;) I say, Obedience unto Superiours whom the Scripture calls Gods, is the most noble, and the most natural, and the most ne­cessary Duty; such as bears up upon its shoul­ders (by God's Assistance) both the whole Fabrick of the Church, and all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and of Heaven itself. Whereas Schisms are Pioneers, which digging below their very Foundations, do clearly strive to under­mine and subvert them All.

§ 15. I have now done with my 4 Rea­sons, why our Schismaticks rather than others, (however scandalous in their Lives,) are singl'd out from the whole Herd of Notorious Sinners, to be made the chief Exemplars of dis­orderly [Page 75] Walking, from whom we are most to withdraw our selves. These (I say) are the chief reasons, why by this Precept of S. Paul, compar'd with Those of S. John, and our Bles­sed Saviour, we are chiefly bound to separate from Separatists. Yet would I not here be thought to mean, that every Subject should be a Judge, from what kind of Separatists (in Civil Conversation) he ought to separate. (For pub­lick disorder and confusion might Thence en­sue.) But I would be understood to intend Those Schismaticks, who are censured by their Gover­nours and proper Judges to be Such. From a civil Commerce with such (and a commerce of free choice) I think it a Duty to abstain, and to abstain in such a measure, as our Lord and His Apostles have mark'd out to us.

§ 16. And now I may have done with my Sermon too, but that I have remaining an hearty Wish, that our Separating Brethren would un­passionately consider Three obvious Truths. First, that if Obedience to Christian Governours and Laws is not really so essential to Christia­nity itself, but that still it is possible (as some imagin) that Saints may be Schismaticks, and Schismaticks Saints, Then our Faith, and our Preaching, yea and our Scriptures are all in [Page 76] vain. Welcome Anarchy and Disorder; and Farewell to all Society. Next, that however Sin and Errour are very different in themselves, yet a Wilfulness in Errour does make such an Errour become a Wilfull Sin too. And the con­temning of Authority, link'd with an obstinate contumacious fomenting of Divisions, is such a Monster, that the least Errour of Judgment which had been venial in itself, is by these Aggrava­tions made great and grievous, and contracts unto itself as well a Diabolical, as Damning Quality. Thirdly, that Schism, were it no Sin, were very well worthy the parting with, for the purchasing of so pretious and so inestimable a Jewell, as Publick Peace; the fruits of which (rightly us'd) are Piety, and Prosperity, Strength, and Safety. 'Twas for the purchasing of This, that S. Paul has his Compliances with Jews and Gentiles. 'Twas for This that he yielded to cir­cumcise Timothy; and 'twas for This that he re­fused to circumcise Titus; (as well as for the shewing his Christian Liberty and obedience to the Conciliar Constitution Then first Enacted.) 'Twas his great Business and Design,1 Cor. 9. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. to make the most adverse Parties agree in Christ. To gain the Jews therefore, he deny'd himself the use of his Christian Liberty: and as well to [Page 77] win the Gentiles, he resum'd the use of it with equal Care. 'Twas to unite dissenting Parties, and make them meet in one Church, that the Apostles (meeting together in a full Council at Jerusalem) thought it requisite to establish Things Indifferent by a Law. Thereby giving aAct. 15. 28, 29. Necessity à parte post, to things Indifferent à parte ante. It was to gain both Jews and Gen­tiles, that our Lord in some things comply'd with Both. And to hope that our hitherto-dissenting Brethren, who now do enfeeble and indanger both Church and State by their Disobedience, will one day comply with their Superiours upon the Reasons I have given, (if by any fair means they may be brought to their knowledge, and laid before them,) is at present the greatest Charity I can have for those men, who are void of All Charity, till That is done.

§ 17. Finally, Brethren, farewell: and suffer a word of Exhortation from S. Paul and S. Peter,1 Pet. 3. 8. Both joyn'd together. Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as Brethren, be pitifull, be curteous: so S. Pe­ter:) to which I add out of S. Paul, [...],2 Cor. 13. 11. be knit-together and compacted, (so the Greek,) or be ye perfect, (so the English,) because your being perfect, must consist in your [Page 78] being well knit-together and compacted in one Communion.Phil. 3. 16. Therefore walk by the same Rule, and mind the same things, live in Peace; and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you.

To Him be Glory for ever and ever.

OF CIRCUMSPECTION In THESI.

1. AS Philostratus once said of Apollonius Tyanaeus, [...], That he writ not his Life, but his Peregrina­tion; after the very same manner may I say here, The Life of man is butGen. 47. 9. Heb. 11. 13. a Pilgrimage, and that Pilgrimage but a Walk; A going up­hill on one side, and down-hill on the other. First of all he walks up-hill, untill he comes to his 30^th. or 40^th. year; And from thence he walks down-hill, untill he comes to fourscore. For [Page 80] All, after That, is a Descending into the Pit, (or if it must needs be call'd walking,) a kind of walking in the Valley of the shadow of Death.

2. First then [...], be sure to walk: do not faintly lie down, or yawningly lean upon your Elbows: [...]. Hippocrat. Aphor. 1. [...]. Jam. 4. [...]; Sophoc. for your Journy is long, and your Time but little. Therefore up, and be doing. Set your feet in his steps, who went about doing Good, and rejoyced as a Giant to run his Course. For rather than be benigh­ted, we must not walk onely, but run too. So saith the Author to the Hebrews; Heb. 12. 1. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

3. And yet withall we must remember Ve­spasian's Motto, (which deserves to be ingra­ven in all our Rings,)Quàm im­pensè etiam Octavius Au­gustus Caesar eodem Dicto delectatus fuerit, videre est apud Aul. Gell. l. 10. c. 11. & Ma­crob. Satur­dal. l. 6. [...], to make haste slowly; that is, to make no more haste than may consist with good speed. Be­cause the way we are to walk in is not sleep onely, but slippery. Therefore look to your footing, and mark your steps as you walk along: for the footing of a David had well-nigh slipt. Nor is the way onely slippery, but narrow too. Nay our Saviour saith farther, (though 'tis not [Page 81] express'd in our English Bibles,) 'Tis [...], a way incumber'd as well as nar­row, 'Tis very difficult to find it, and very easie to tread aside. And therefore [...], see how ye walk. (So it is in the Greek, though somewhat otherwise in the English.)

4. And then in the next place, [...], see how circumspectly ye do it, (as it is in the translation,) or see how exactly, (as it is in the original.) The word [...] is of an higher signification, than our ordinary Bible doth here express. It imports a Providence, and a Caution, which being joyn'd with Circum­spection, make up the Integral Parts of a Christian Prudence. Now we must walk so exactly in all these respects, (with so much Providence, and Caution, and Circumspection,) as not to turn an hair's breadth to the right hand, or to the left. We must not be Latitudinarians in point of Practice; but must rather [...], walk with such regular and upright Feet, as to abstain [...], in either notion of the word; not onely from all the kinds, but all the Appearan­ces of evil.

5. Not at all like those Hypocrites, who are indulgent to the Evil, and onely abstain from the bare Appearance; not like Him in the Epi­gram, [Page 82] who put himself to Death, for fear of Dying; not like the Pharisees of the Times, who think it their Duty to rebell, for fear of a little Disobedience; and greedily swallow the greatest Camels, for nothing else but their avoiding the smallest Gnats. This is a foolish Circumspection, to be so shy of a Ceremony, as to run headlong into a Schism; and for fear of Superstition, to swallow practical Atheism. For are not they the greatest Atheists, who (to use S. Paul's words of the antient Gnosticks) profess to know God, but in their works deny him? And They deny him in their works, who quite disown him in his Word, where it calls for Compliance (in All things lawfull) with his Vicegerents. For sure the same Spirit that saith, Obey God rather than Man, doth also say,1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. The same Spirit that saith, Call no man Master upon Earth, and Be ye not the Servants of men, doth also say, Servants obey your Masters in all things, that the Name of God be not blasphemed; nor onely with Eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the Servants of Christ. Again, the same Spirit that saith, Thou shalt have no God but me, doth also say,Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you, and submit your selves, Rom. 13. 1, 2, 5, &c. &c. for the Powers that [Page 83] are, are ordain'd of God, and He that resists, receives Damnation. From all which it follows, that for a Professor of Christianity to disobey the Laws of men, under pretense (rather than fear) of disobeying the Laws of God, when this is one of God's chiefest Laws, That we obey the Laws of men, shews such a spirit of Contradiction, as 'tis not Charity to indure. We must be cir­cumspect of our ways, as well as of our walking. For a Circumspect Walker in the ways of Corah, who dares not do as God bids him for fear of Sin, and shews a Zeal to serve God by his Dis­obedience, who craves for Liberty of Conscience to break the Bonds of Society, which are the Laws of the Nation wherein we live, (that is to say, in the Consequence, for a Liberty of Conscience to cut mens Throats,) and because the Meek shall inherit the Earth, does think it a part of his Humility to set his foot upon Crowns and Scepters; such a Circumspect Walker is the greatest Monster to be imagin'd. He may pro­fess to know God, as the Gnosticks did; but in his works he denies him, like any Gnostick. And as a practical Atheist is still the worst, so such a Boutefeux is the worst of all practical Atheists. 'Twas by so foolish a Circumspection, and too easie a Connivence at all such Folly, that so [Page 84] many of our days have been so evil, and stand in need of a Redemption. And therefore for the future, See that ye walk circumspectly, not as Fools, but as Wise, redeeming the Time, because the days are evil.

6. The words are seasonable and fit in a threefold respect. In respect of the Counsel which our Apostle here gives; in respect of the Occasion on which he gives it; and in respect of the Reason wherewith he does inforce it on those that read him. The subject mat­ter of the Counsell is Christian Prudence. The Counsell is given upon Occasion of great and manifold Temptations, whereby a Christian is ensnared on every side. The principal Reason why it is press'd, is the present Corruption of the Time. A Time wherein there is requir'd the Wisedom and Wariness of the Serpent, whereby to preserve the Inoffensiveness and Integrity of the Dove.

7. Now though Prudence is a thing which does consist of three parts, to wit, of Provi­dence, Caution, and Circumspection, (which though commonly confounded, are very diffe­rent in themselves;) yet in the Tenor of my Discourse, I shall keep to the stile of our En­glish Bibles; and so far comply with the po­pular [Page 85] usage of the word, (which is apparently Synecdochical,) as to name Circumspection in stead of Prudence.

8. And first, because our Inadvertency ap­pears to be the very Root, from which the whole Stock of Sin (with all its Fruit and its Branches) doth seem to grow; [...], See how ye walk circumspectly.

9. Next, because there is such a thing, as an Inconsiderate Circumspection, for want of a necessary regard both to the manner, and me­thod, and measure of it; See therefore that ye walk circumspectly, [...], not as Fools, but as wise: [...], walk in wise­dom, Colos. 4. 5. And as your Speech, so your Behaviour is to be season'd also with Salt, v. 6. Ye must behave your selves exactly betwixt your Scylla and your Charybdis; Corruption of Soul upon the one side, and Destruction of Body on the other. But still the first and chie­fest heed is to be taken of the former; that the better part may be in safety, whatever Disasters befall the worse.

10. And then in the last place, because the worse the Times are, by so much the better and the more circumspect men ought to be; There­fore it follows in the Text, [...], [Page 86] Redeem, or buy out the Season. For it is not [...], the Time at large, but precisely [...], the Nick of Time. And so the meaning of it must be, Be ye sober, and vigilant, and watch at all opportunities; use such Providence, and Caution, and Circumspection, as to fly from Sin on the one hand, and causeless Suffering on the other.

11. This I think may suffice for an explica­tion of the Text; and by this a man may easily discern the Links, which will make up the Chain of my whole Design.

12. For first, considering how we are plac'd as so many Sheep amongst Wolves, we must walk for That reason with Circumspection. And then, because there are Errours on either hand, as well on the Right, as on the Left; we must therefore walk circumspectly, not as Fools, but as Wise. And this we must do in a threefold respect; to wit, of Things, and Persons, and Opportunities: of evil Things, of evil Persons, yea of all the very Occasions and Appearances of evil. Our walking is to be circumspect in respect of All Persons; and as of all other persons, so especially of our selves. It must be in respect both of our Enemies, and our Friends; and as of all other Friends, so especially of those [Page 87] who pretend a Friendship unto our Souls. And this must be, as at all times, so more especially in These. Our days being likely to be as evill at least in one sense, as the Days in my Text are said to be evill in another.

§ 1. Before I can orderly come to speak of Circumspection in Hypothesi, as it stands in relation to This or That Station or State of Men, (which to do will be the work of another Text,) I must consider it in Thesi, or in the gross. And this the rather, as well because it lies first in the order of Nature; as because Heedfulness in the General should be as well known to be strictly necessary, as That Triumvirate of our Enemies (The World, the Flesh, and the Devil,) is universally acknowledged to be Deceitfull. And how deceitfull These are, one may con­jecture even by This; That there was hardly ever any such Golden age, as had not its portion of Iron in it. For no sooner had God Almighty imprinted his Image upon the Creature, than his Competitor or Rival began to ingrave his Super­scription. No sooner had the true Coin receiv'd its Stamp from God's Mint, but straight the Tempter turn'd Althymist to embase the Metall. There was a Serpent even in Paradise; (or else our first Parents had not so soon been kept out [Page 88] with a flaming Sword;) and a stumbling-block in Heaven; (for else so great an Host of An­gels had not faln headlong into Hell:) Yea the blessed Conversation of Christ Himself was no such Amulet or Preservative, no such con­quering Prophylactick against the Contagion of this Disease, Mar. 14. 68, 69, &c. but that there was a Peter to deny, yea and a Judas to betray him.Gen. 3. 22, 23. And if these things are so,2 Pet. 2. 4. That S. Peter himself, the first and chief of the Apostles, was not all his life safe in a state of Grace; Nor the Protoplast for a day in a state of Innocence; No nor Lucifer for a week in a state of Glory; Lord! how fitly may any Monitor say That to us, which our Apostle thought needfull (not onely usefull) to his Ephesians, [...], See how ye walk circumspectly? If 'tis as true in things spiritual, as it is thought in things temporal, That the one half of the world is deceiv'd and cheated by the other; and that if there are no more than an Hundred Sects, Ninety and Nine of That hundred must needs be sick of some Imposture; (unless Christ can be divided, or the Truth of Religion be more than One;) If in our hovering condition 'twixt Grace and Na­ture, we are placed in the Confines of two im­placable Enemies,Rom. 7. 23. the Law in our Members, and [Page 89] the Law in our Minds, whereof the one is still warring against the other; And if the Author of this Caveat against Supineness and Noncha­lance, though the great Doctor of the Gentiles, and also a Vessel of God's Election, was yet so brought into Captivity to the Law of Sin, (as the 7^th. to the Romans is very commonly under­stood, though perhaps not so happily as might be wish'd,) that he was forc'd to break forth into That tragical Ecphonesis, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this Death! O then what a Necessity must needs be incumbent upon us, that we repeat this holy Caveat, and reinforce it on one another, [...],Jam. 2. 10. & ch. 3. 2. See how ye walk circumspectly? If in many things we offend all, and He who offen­deth but in one Point, is someway guilty of all the rest; Matth. 12. 36. If an account is to be render'd of every idle word spoken, and sure much more of every wicked one;Matth. 19. 17. & ch. 7. 14. If none shall enter into life but He that keepeth the Commandments, and life does dwell in That City, Luk. 13. 24. to which the Gate is as streit, as the way narrow; insomuch that of the Many who seek to enter into life, many shall miss it for all their seeking; Rev. 2. 7, 17. If onely He that overcometh shall have the privilege to tast of the hidden Manna, 1. Pet. 4. 18. so as the righteous man [Page 90] himself shall be scarcely sav'd; and all for want of being heedfull both of the way he treads in, and in the ordering of his steps, and as to the sureness of his footing; Methinks we need no other Sermon, than the constant repetition of this one Text, (at least 'twere well if This Text were call'd to mind at every Sermon,) [...], See how ye walk circumspectly. If S. John thought fit to preach no other Sermon to the Convert Eusebius speaks of, than the Psalmist's Resolution ofPsal. 39. 1. taking heed unto his ways, which made his Convert not sollicitous to be enrich'd with more Lessons, whilst he found that That One was sufficient of itself to employ him wholly; If we live in an Age of so much fallacy and Deceit, and yet for all that of so much Heedlesness and Security, that no abundance of Caution can be too much; It follows then that This Caveat cannot be thought upon too much, or inculcated too warmly, or unexcusably offend in the Repetition, but that we have such prurient Ears as cannot forsooth be pleas'd without great variety, and such ca­pricious understandings as will not easily be quieted with Truth and Plainness; but must have Altitudes and Depths for their Enter­tainment.

[Page 91] § 2. All our Sins and our Miseries seem to have enter'd into the World at this one Door, even the want of That Heed which is here in­joyn'd. Other Defects may be as fibres, but This is sure the Main Root, (as I said before,) from which the whole Stock of Mischief (with all its Fruits, and its Branches,) does clearly grow. 'Twas meerly for want of Circumspec­tion, that our first Parents fell; and still 'tis for want of Circumspection, that all their Poste­rity is ever stumbling. 'Tis but for want of Circumspection, that many Professors are so blind as to be led by the blind, till both the Lea­ders and the Followers fall all together into the Ditch. In the whole Body of Christianity, Cir­cumspection may fitly be call'd the Eye. Now as our Eyes are put in our Heads to direct our Feet; and as good be quite blind, as be always winking: so Circumspection in our Hearts is to guard our Actions; and as good be none at all, as unwary Christians. For what with those powerfull Impellents which Satan useth from without, and those bewitching Allectives where­with he charms us from within, we are so smoothly drawn aside with great contentedness into some dangers, and so vehemently dragg'd with equall reluctance into others, that we do [Page 92] not onely (like Janus) stand in need of four Eyes, but (like Argus) to be Eyes all over. And just as the Builders of the second Temple at Jerusalem were so encompassed with Ene­mies on every side, (the Chaldaeans before, and the Philistins behind, the Moabites on the right hand, and the Edomites on the left,) that they were taught by their Necessity to hold a Sword in the one hand, for the defending of the Work­manship which they advanced with the other; Even so we Christians, who are dignified with the Title of [...], 1 Cor. 3. 9. Fellow-Labourers with God, whilst we are building up our selves in the most holy Faith, Mar. 16. 20. and building up our selves into Temples too,1 Cor. 3. 16, 17. (for Temples we are of the Holy Ghost,) must have one Eye upon our Enemy, as well as another upon our work; still looking upward towards God, but withall downward towards our Temp­ter; still looking foreward towards Vertue, but withall backward towards Vice. We must not onely have an Eye unto the right and left hand of our Spiritual Poyse (like a man walking upon a Pope,) but like a Thief at high Noon, just in the Act of his purloyning, must look exactly quite round about us.

§ 3. And the reason of This is extremely evident. For if we onely look upwards, we [Page 93] shall be easily apt to stumble, like Mother Eve; who, whilst she fixt her whole Aspect upon the goodness of the End, did overlook the manifold Evill which lay concealed in the Means. So praeproperous was the Haste which she made to­wards Knowledge, that she left Obedience be­hind her back. Or if we onely look forewards to shun a Praecipice, we may at that very in­stant be attacqu'd behind us with a Wolf. Just as Judas was so intent upon the Money lying before him, that he was blind to the Despair which dogg'd him closely at the heels. And we may guess by That Threat of God Almighty to the Serpent,Gen. 3. 15. [It shall bruise thy Head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,] that commonly the Devil does come behind us; and loves to sur­prise us in a part the farthest distant from our Eyes; that is to say, at such a time, as in which we are remotest from Christian Prudence. Or if we look onely upon the left hand for the avoiding of a Shelve, we may be our Negli­gence of the right be swallow'd up of a Quick­sand. Like some Pretenders to Reformation, who taking heed of Superstition, but nothing else, are so much the apter to grow profane; Taking heed but of one extreme, they run into the other, which is many times the worse too; [Page 94] and to prevent an Inconvenience incur a Mis­chief. Thus we see how it concerns us on eve­ry side, not to look upwards onely, or down­wards, not onely backwards, or forewards, not to the right hand onely, or to the left, but at the same point of Time to be both provident, and cautious, and even circumspect in the let­ter, which [à circumspiciendo] is to carry our Eyes quite round about us.

§ 4. Nor must we be onely looking round, but be always looking. The word is [...], See; But See we cannot, whilst we are sleeping. And by our Saviour's Admonition, we are to watch, as well as pray, lest we enter into Temp­tation. So S. Peter to all in General, who are concern'd for their own Safety, does recom­mend a strict Vigilance, as no less requisite than Sobriety; and that for this reason, because the Devil is still awake, whilst we are sleeping. Be sober, 1 Pet. 5. 8. be vigilant, because your Adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring Lion, (and that by Night as well as by Day,) seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist stedfast in the Faith. So that in our Christian Warfare, besides the manning of our Works, we need our Scouts, and our Countermines. We must besiege our very Besiegers; And as that Sophister, The World, [Page 95] does surround us with Fallacy, so must we the World with Circumspection.

§ 5. Nor does the Prudence of a Christian end onely Here. For Circumspection is to be us'd both in the manner, and in the method, and especially in the measure of being circumspect. It being obvious to infer from the following Words,Eph. 5. 15. [See that ye walk circumspectly, not as Fools, but as Wise,] that there is in the World a kind of accurate folly, an inconside­rate Circumspection, a capricious sort of Wariness, of which we are also to beware. Such as is lying all Night out of Doors, to be sure that our Houses shall not fall upon our heads: De­stroying Vineyards, to prevent Drunkenness: Pulling down Discipline and the Hierarchy, to shun the Tyranny of a Pope: Distrusting the Fathers of the Primitive Church, because of Antichrist's being at work in the Apostles own Times: Making the Laws and Law-givers conform themselves to Nonconformity, for fear the Church should want a Breadth whereby to support her Superstructure: Eating of nothing but Nuts and Shell-fish, for fear the Cook should be a Sloven. There are some uneasie Souls, who seem at least to be incumber'd with so incomparable a Niceness, that under colour of [Page 96] respect to the Word of God, they take The Scrip­ture to be the Rule, I do not say of the most weighty, (for so it is,) but even of their tri­vial'st and slightest Actions; looking on every thing as Sinfull, to which the Plain Word of God does not immediately direct them. From which fundamental Mistake it is, that They dare not call it Wednesday, but the Fourth day of the Week; nor Nine of the Clock, but the Third hour of the Day. A Surplice or a Sacrament must not be mention'd, because there are not such words in all the Scriptures; no more a Sacrament, than a Surplice. And by the very same reason, (as our judicious Mr. Hooker does well observe,) If a Master commands his Ser­vant but to take up a Straw, the Servant shall not be obliged in point of conscience to obey, untill his Master has found a Text for that one particular. For though the Scripture saith to Servants, Obey your Masters in All things; yet That Precept is but General, and Dolus latet in Generalibus, There are very few Generals which have not a fallacy lurking in them. Now by such a way of arguing, or at least by one as good, if Pontius Pilate was not a Saint, be­cause his Name is in the Creed; at least the Scribes and the Pharisees must pass for very [Page 97] good men, because they have their Names writ in the Book of life. But for the men who thus argue, and are circumspect in their walking, not as wise men, but fools, we can in cha­rity call them no worse than Hypochondriacs in religion; men whose Souls are directed by the Infirmities of their Bodies; and are fitter for the Pity than Indignation of their Superiours, because the Distempers of their spleen may be sincerely thought by Them to be the Scruples of their Conscience. Thus the jealous Mithridates stood in such fear of being poison'd, that even his Meals were all Antidote; and so his Body in tract of time became a walking Pharmaco­poeia. This indeed is a great, but an heedless Caution. Such as does cross and confute the Proverb, because abundance of this is hurtfull. Some heed therefore is to be taken, not to be heedless and imprudent in the extravagant ex­cess of our taking heed; and that we do not deceive our selves with too immoderate a fear of our being deceiv'd.

§ 6. But This is certainly a Caution, to which a small portion of Rhetorick will be sufficient to persuade us. So unapt we are to erre on the farther side of This Duty, that our usual fault is, we are too much behither it. Our [Page 98] greatest danger commonly is our opinion that there is none; and we are most likely to be unsafe, by our too great aptness to be secure. Indeed in matters of little moment, concerning the Body, or the Purse, we need no Sermons against Security, or excitations to Circumspec­tion. Very few there are that travell in times of danger, without a Pistol, or a Sword; or that in places of infection will walk the streets without an Amulet. Few Families go to bed, till they have made fast their Doors; and in the morning when they arise, their first care is to shut out Nakedness and Hunger. So that if it were a Sin to be in Poverty, or a scanda­lous matter to suffer Pain, there would be no­thing so difficult, as not to abound in this Duty of Circumspection. But, alas! we do not consider (heedless Creatures as we are) how it fares with our Souls, as with so many Ships, where­in the very least Crevices (if undiscover'd) are too sufficient to drown us all. And yet how partially we prefer the care of our Bodies and Estates, before the Care and Concernment we ought to have of and for our Souls, we may conjecture by the Practice of the Physician, and the Lawyer, above That of the Divine. For one Scruple in the Conscience, how many are there [Page 99] in the stomach? How many Empiricks are sought to, for here and there a single Confessor? and how many reall Patients are in all places to be met with, for one true Penitent? Be there never so slight an Ʋlcer in any part of the Body, we straight desire the grim Artist to use his Corrosive and his Probe; perhaps his Lance, and his Caustick too. But be the Soul never so ulcerous, we are content either with none, or a palliate Cure. So again it is in the other Instance; That though we have little or no sol­licitude about the making of our Calling and E­lection sure, (which in my Text is expressed by walking circumspectly, as Wise, and not as Fools,) nor trouble our heads with an Inquiry, what shall become of us hereafter; what kind of In­terest we may have in the Bloud of Christ; what kind of Title we can pretend to the inheriting of a Kingdom, a joyfull Aeternity in Reversion, and how we shall plead it at the Assizes which will one day be held in the Court of Heaven; Yet be there never so small a flaw in any Title to an Estate, Lord! how sedulous we are to have the matter made up? How many Coun­sellors are consulted, and set on work, for one Casuist? How many Cases are try'd in Law, for one in Conscience? I will not call it the [Page 100] universall, but usuall Custom, that when Luke the good Physician has little hope of our Bodies, we send for Gamaliel the able Lawyer, to take care of our Estates. And (That being done,) Then for Barnabas the Divine, (who is a Son of Comfort too,) to make provision for our Ae­ternity.

§ 7. Thus we see the most of men have Cir­cumspection very sufficient; but 'tis sufficiently misapply'd too. And in the Misapplication lies all the Mischief. Just as the Pharisee in the Parable was very free of his Confessions; But he apply'd them to his Vertues, and not his Sins. He made confession of his righteousness, to wit, his fasting twice a week, and paying Tithes to a Pin's-worth of Mint and Cummin; He very ambitiously confess'd that he thought him­self holier than other men, (for which he gave God thanks too, and not himself:) But of his manifold impieties we do not hear a word from him. So the greatest numbers of men are very circumspect, and wary: But they are wary of their Duties, as of dangerous things; things which probably will betray them to the dis­friendship of the world; (esteeming Him an im­prudent man, who dares adventure on what is strait, when the Times are crooked; and to [Page 101] stand his old Ground, when new is temporally safer, and more in vogue too.) Men are wary of loving Enemies, or doing good to such as hate them; very wary how they part with a sinfull Pleasure, or send a bill of divorce to a beloved Passion. Extremely heedfull they are and cau­tious, how they fall from a station of wealth and honour; how they beat down their Bodies, and bring their Flesh into subjection; how they cru­cifie the world unto themselves, and themselves unto the world: (as if there were nothing more ridiculous than That primitive Criterion, by which a Christian was distinguish'd from Jew and Gentile; nor any thing more to be avoi­ded by one of Quality and Parts, than such a seriousness of life, and such a tenderness of Con­science, as may expose him to the Censure of his being little more than a well-bred Quaker.) And as 'tis commonly observ'd of the Lace­daemonians, that they stated the guilt of Stealth, not so much in the Act, as the Apprehension, and therefore reckon'd it a Sin, not to steal, but to be caught: So the greatest heed taken by the Majority of Professors, is not so really to be innocent, as not to be censur'd for being guilty. As if, their Prayer were like That of the famous Hypocrite in the Poet,

O my Goddess, give me the Grace to seem as religious as the best, and to be as deceitfull as may be possible. The greatest Mischief to be avoided in most mens judgments, (if yet their Judg­ments may be judged of by their Practice,) is not the ocular Sin, (I mean the Eye full of A­dultery,) but the auricular Confession; Not the Protestant's Impiety, but the Popery of making it known. Now such as These should be exhorted, not so much to increase, as to direct their Cau­tion; not so much to make it greater, as wiser and better than heretofore; to change the Ob­ject and the End of their Circumspection; that what is now a meerly Carnal, may suddainly pass into a spiritual and Christian Prudence. For this will be to walk circumspectly, not as Fools, but as Wise.

§ 8. And for the bringing this about with the greater Ease, we must be circumspect Walkers in two general respects: In respect of the Per­sons with whom we are conversant, and in re­spect of the Rules by which we are to be direc­ted. I therefore say in respect of Persons, (by way of distinction from all other objects,) be­cause [Page 103] our Days cannot be evill, but as we our selves are such: and therefore by the evill Days in which it is our Lot to live, must needs be meant the Evill men of the Days we live in. And our Walking is to be circumspect, as in respect even of all men, so of Those more especially to whom we bear the greatest kindness. (But This is a Point I must refer to another subject of Discourse.) The Rules by which we are to walk, not as fools, but as wise, are especially these two; Conscience, and Discretion. And for the better using of These, we must warily occurr to two grand Fallacies, whereby the greatest part of Men are wont to prevaricate with Them­selves.

§ 9. Some are so thick of understanding, as to measure their Conscience by their Confidence; their being lustily perswaded a thing is lawfull, or unlawfull. Esteeming all without Sin which is said or done without Scruple; and all things sinfull of which a scruple may be made. Neither discerning any difference betwixt a Conscience which is tender, and misinform'd, nor yet be­twixt a meer numness, and Peace of Conscience. Such were our Regicides here in England, who, how scrupulous soever in things indifferent, were not scrupulous at all in the point of Murther; [Page 104] But sturdily pleaded at the Bar, that they be­liev'd they had a right to try, and execute their King; and that they did Both in the In­tegrity of their hearts; it was no more than their Consciences did dictate to them; their Con­sciences were satisfied in what they did; and by consequence they would do it, were it for ever to be done. Meaning still by the word Con­science, the strength and sturdiness of their Opi­nion; which might indeed be call'd Witchcraft, as well as Conscience; (I mean with an equal impropriety, and an easier pardon to the word.) Thus it was with the Conspirators of our Gun­powder-Treason, and with the two infamous Mur­therers of Henry the Third and the Fourth of France, who taking That for their Conscience which was indeed but their Caprice, made no doubt but their Murthers were Meritorious. And thus it was for some time with furious Saul, the Blasphemer and Persecutor of Christ; who grew so mad, and transported, with giddy zeal without knowledge, (as himself confessed free­ly against himself from after the time of his Conversion,) that he thought it his Duty to be destructive of whatsoever was call'd Christian. Like Them of whom our Saviour tells us, who thought (forsooth) they were bound in Con­science [Page 105] to execute Murther on the Apostles, be­cause it was, in Their Judgments, to do God Ser­vice. Where by the way we may observe, how much 'tis every man's duty to fear himself, and to suspect his own Judgment in divers cases.

§ 10. Now the way to walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise, and to free our selves from That Fallacy, which is so generally swallow'd by other men, is first to consider what Con­science is, (a thing the most talk'd of, but the least commonly understood, of any principle or faculty to be imagin'd,) and after That to be carefull how we walk by that Rule. For whilst the Rule itself is false, the Circumspection must needs be foolish, and can onely serve to make us the more disorderly Walkers. Con­science indeed is the Rule of Action; But to be sturdily perswaded a thing is lawfull or unlaw­full, is not at any time the Rule, and not at all times the work of Conscience. For Conscience is not a Perswasion, but Knowledge rather; Nor is it any kind of knowledge, but knowledge com­pared with a Rule; (as [...] in the Greek, and Conscientia in the Latin, do Both import:) And yet how many of those men who pass for Instructers of the Ignorant, and Eyes to the Blind, are wont to use the word Conscience (before the [Page 106] people, and to themselves,) by that dangerous Catachresis I just now mention'd? But before I say fully what Conscience is, I proceed to shew what it is not. I say, it is not a being so fully perswaded in our minds, as not to have any regret or scruple; to be void of all Doubt, or haesitation; for we know the Sear'd Atheist has none of That. And when our Saviour Christ said, The time cometh that whosoever killeth you, shall verily think he does God Service, he did not mean, they shall be conscionable Murtherers, or Persecutors of Men in the fear of God, and so shall break the Commandment in the Integrity of their Hearts; (for That had been to say, They shall be innocently guilty, which had flatly imply'd a contradiction in Adjecto.) But his meaning was clearly This, that some mens hearts shall be so hardned through the Deceit­fulness of Sin, as to mistake the very worst for the best of actions. Their Ʋnderstandings shall be so dark, and their Souls so benighted with their customary impieties, as to grope after Mur­ther instead of Sacrifice. Just like them of whom we read in the fift of Esa, (lately match'd with the Readers and Admirers of the Levia­than,) who had so lost the distinction of right and wrong, as to put evill for good, and good for [Page 107] evill, bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, dark­ness for light, and light for darkness. The Custom of Sin had so pav'd their Palates, as that they had utterly lost their Tast. Now it is not a satis­fied, but seared Conscience, which is not startl'd at such impieties. As many silly mens Con­sciences are too full of scruples, not because they are tender, but ill-instructed; so many wicked mens Consciences are void of Scruples, not because they are clear, but callous; and so must every thing be that is cauteriz'd. Yea give me leave to say farther, Many desperate Malefactors have mounted the Gibbet without regret, not so much because they had no scruples in their Consciences, as rather because they had no Consciences to be scrupl'd; since one that's sear'd with an hot Iron (to use the figure of our Apostle) is in effect none at all.

§ 11. For (to shew briefly what it is, ha­ving shew'd largely what it is not,) A Man's Conscience is his Knowledge of what he has done, or not done, which the known Law of God (writ­ten within him, or without him,) has either com­manded, or not commanded; and so by conse­quence 'tis a Witness either for him, or against him, after the measure that he has done, or has omitted to do his Duty. From whence it fol­lows [Page 108] unavoidably, That as Conscience properly so call'd is the Rule of Action, so the known Law of God is the Rule of Conscience. And from hence again it follows as unavoidably as before, That for any man to say he is bound in Conscience, (as we know who did in the worst of times,) not onely to covet his Neighbour's goods, but at once to kill, and to take possession, (the thing with which the holy Prophet upbraided Ahab,) is as much as to say in directer Terms, That he thinks it his Duty to be a Devill.

And so much for the first Fallacy, by which a Multitude of men are led indeed to walk cir­cumspectly, but as Fools, and not as Wise, be­cause against the true Notion and Rule of Con­science.

§ 12. And as some do thus foolishly offend against Conscience, so do others against Discre­tion. For many Professors are very willing to be in possession of the End of their Christianity, who yet are very unwilling to use the Means. They would with all their hearts embrace the Service of Christ, but not abstain from those things with which his Service is inconsistent. De­sirous they are to do the thing that is good; but they cannot abide to depart from evill. Or if they have a woulding to cease from That too, [Page 109] yet they are fond of the Occasions which still do tend and lead towards it. There is nothing in the world either more serviceable to Satan, or more pernicious and destructive to the Kingdom of Christ, (which he would gladly set up in the Souls of men,) than That most pleasant, but kil­ling Fallacy, which the far greatest part of men are wont to impose upon themselves, [That they need not scruple at the doing whatever is lawfull to be done, and has not any thing in it which can be properly call'd Sin.] A fallacy the apter to be swallow'd down glibly, (and that by good Logicians too,) because it delights whom it in­dangers; and as it finds men dispos'd (yea greedily willing) to be abus'd, so it makes them well-pleas'd with the hurt it does them; as be­ing suitable and compliant with all the Appetites of the Flesh. When men are tempted to do a thing which is not formally unlawfull, as being no where forbidden by God or Man, they will not be at the pains to meditate about the Ten­dency and Byass of such a thing. For it would rob them of the pleasure they take in Sin, if they should patiently admit but of this one Con­sideration, (which is commonly distastfull and irksom to them,) That there was hardly ever any unlawfull thing, which did not arise from [Page 110] the Admission of something or other that was lawfull. Yea that sometimes the greatest and damning'st Sins have taken Rise from the least and most contemptible Occasions. I shall at once make it plain and usefull too by some examples; and that especially out of Good will unto the younger, and more illiterate, and less con­sidering part of Those that shall chance to read me.

§ 13. No doubt 'twas lawfull enough for Eve, at least to look upon the fruit which was forbidden, (for God forbad her onely to eat it;) And as lawfull for her it was, to lend the Ser­pent an empty hearing; (that is to say, upon condition she did not give him her Assent too:) But how much happier had it been, if, like Ʋ ­lysses in the Odysses, she had stopt her very ears against the Voice of That Charmer, and had not suffer'd her self to look? For her Eye and her Ear became the Panders to her Palate, and then her Palate betray'd her Heart. Holy men have This property,Greg. Mag. Dial. l. 4. c. 11. fol. 37. (says Gregory the Great,) Quòd ut semper ab illicitis longè sint, à se plerumque etiam licita abscindunt; That they may still be far enough from doing any thing unlawfull, they abstain from many things which are lawfull too. Certainly Job could be no such [Page 111] Ideot, as to think it a thing unlawfull for a man to look upon a Maid, who yet did covenant not to do it, not onely with his Heart, but with his Eyes too. Nor may we think it was for nothing, that S. Paul so solemnly did distinguish betwixt things lawfull, and things expedient: clearly in­timating unto us, that there are very many things to be left undone, not because they are unlaw­full, but onely because they are unfit; not be­cause they are actuall Sins, but because they ea­sily may become so; not because they are vi­tious, but dangerous things. And it belongs to Circumspection or Christian Prudence, to mind the Counsells of Scripture, as well as Precepts: as,Prov. 5. 8. not to approach the very Door of an Harlot's House; Jude 23. to hate the very Garment spotted of the flesh; Psal. 1. 1. and not to stand in the way of Sinners. We may not be Haunters of the Tavern and other places of Debauch, because there are some who come out sober; But rather of the two we must beware of such Places, because there are others who come out drunk. For 'tis a mocking of God, and a reproaching of our selves too, to run without warrant upon Temptation, and at the same time to pray, Deliver us from evill. We know that many most tender Parents correct their Children, not onely for doing what is [Page 112] morally evill, but meerly for coming in Harm's way; for not being so Circumspect, as to be afraid before they are hurt. And though no doubt it is barely lawfull, for a man to walk upon a Praecipice, or to stand on a Pinnacle of the Temple; yet whosoever dares do it deserves a Rod. We cannot say it was unlawfull for Herodias to dance, or for Herod sitting by to behold her motions; But yet Herodias and He­rod were both deservedly to be blam'd, because if She had not danc'd, nor He beheld her, she had not so easily (as she did) stoln his heart out of his Bosom, and Then the Innocent Bap­tist had kept his Head upon his Shoulders. Will any man say it was unlawfull, for the women of Israel to hold up their chins, or set one foot be­fore another? But yet God smote them with Isa. 3. 16, 17. scabbed heads, because they minced their steps as they went along, and because they walked with stretched-out Necks. It was not certainly unlawfull for Mother Monicha, (the famous Mo­ther of S. Augustin,) to drink a cup or two of Wine now and then with her Neighbours; But yet by little and little practice grew into a Custom; and Custom justled out Judgment; and so she grew out of Permission, into Delight; an arrant Wine-bibber at last, and vulgarly known so to be; [Page 113] sadly purchasing unto her self the odious Title of Meribibula. Which, without more Examples, may serve to teach us, with what kind of Cir­cumspection we ought to walk, to save our selves as from the Mixture, so from the Neighbourhood of evill.

§ 14. And being thus far secur'd from the two grand Fallacies of which I spake, with which there is hardly any thing commoner than for Christians to couzen and cheat Themselves; We have found the way to walk circumspectly by the Rules of Conscience, and of Discretion; or (as our Apostle does here express it) not as Fools, but as Wise. And truly upon a supposal, that as many as have heard, have also minded what I have spoken, I think I have spoken at least enough of the praevious part of my Design, which was onely to discourse of Circumspection in Thesi. To consider it in Hypothesi, 'twill properly belong to another Text, and must therefore be deferr'd till another Time.

OF CIRCUMSPECTION In HYPOTHESI.

§ 1. THE words in general are theNon primis verbis respon­det ad ea de quibus fuerat interrogatus; sed illud pri­mum admo­net, quod in­primis fuerat observandum, nè imposturis hominum ab­ducamur à fide. Clarius in locum. Preface of our Saviour's Answer to his Di­sciples. Their Question was, what the Signs of his Coming should be, (v. 3.) Which Coming of his having a double Signification, either the end of the Age, (as the Greek imports,) or else the end of the World, (as we commonly read in our English Bibles,) This Inquiry of the Disciples may have in proportion a double Prospect. The first and more immediate on the Destruction of the Jews; the second and more remote on the Day of Judgment. And 'tis possible that the [Page 116] Prognosticks our Saviour gives them may be equally appliable to Both acceptions of his Coming; as well to the Scepter's departing from Judah, which in the Prophecy of Jacob should be when Shiloh was fully come, as to the End of All things, when Christ shall come with his Holy Angels, to judge the Secrets of all mens Hearts.

I have so very good Authority for Both these Notions, that I am not very willing to leave out either, although I cannot but in Judgment prefer the first: and that as for many other rea­sons,V. Tertull. de Praescript. adversus Hae­res. cap. 45. (too many, and too long to be here in­serted,) so more particularly for one, in which the words of This Text are more particularly concern'd. For I observe Three Periods or Parts of Time, pointed at by our Saviour in several parts of this Chapter: in the first of which he gives warning of bare Deceivers, (v. 5.) in the second of false Prophets, (v. 11.) in the third of false Christs, (v. 24.) such as would set forth themselves in so plausible a manner, with so bewitching a Parade, and such astoni­shing advantages of Signs and Wonders, as to deceive (if it were possible) the very Elect, had not our Saviour countermin'd them with an [...], Behold, I have told you before [Page 117] they come, (v. 25.) and with a [...] in my Text, Take heed that no man deceive you.

§ 2. Now if to satisfie the Desire and Cu­riosity of the Inquisitive, I may examin and give account, who the Deceivers, and the false Prophets, and the false Christs were by Name, whom our Lord in this Text may seem in parti­cular to intend or allude unto; The first I find wasOrigen contra Cels. l. 2. Act. 8. 10. Simon Magus, Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 2. c. 12. & l. 3. c. 20. & l. 4. c. 6. who call'd Himself The Power of God; and Helena, his Harlot, A piece of Deity,A Claudio Cas. honora­tus, à multis quasi Deus glorificatus esse dicitur. Docuit se esse qui inter Ju­daeos quasi Fi­lius apparue­rit, in Sama­ria quasi Pa­ter descende­rit, & in re­liquis genti­bus quasi Sp. Sanctus ad­ventaverit. Helenam pri­mam ejus [...] fuisse dixit, & ge­nerâsse Ange­los & Po­testates per quas Mun­dum hunc factum esse ait. Iren. l. 1. c. 20. flown forsooth from His Bosom. He was a very bewitching Sorcerer, in great Esteem with the Emperour Claudius, and worshipt by many as a God. Nor would he be thought to be onely one, but every Person in the Trinity; The Father in Samaria, The Son in Judaea, The Holy Ghost among the Gentiles. Yet This was That Simon who is said to have believed, and by the Sacrament of Baptism had been admitted into the Church. Act. 8. 13. Such another was Dositheus, who call'd himself The very Christ. A third was Menander, who would needs have been thought The common Saviour of the world. A fourth was Barchochebas, who preached up himself as The Messias that was to come, and whom the Jews were Followers of, as of I know not what Star dropt down from Heaven. These [Page 118] were [...]. Polycarp. ad Philippens. p. 20. 1 Joh. 4. 3. properly false Christs. Then for Decei­vers and false Prophets, who are alluded to in the Text, I shall but name some of the Chief. One was Theudas in the Time of Claudius, who pre­tended to separate the Waters of Jordan, as Moses Those of the Red Sea. Euseb. l. 2. c. 20. Aegyptius was another in the Time of Nero, who (with 30000 Followers) was by Felix cut off at the Mount of Olives. Iren. l. 1. c. 25. & l. 3. c. 3. A third was Ebion, who contended that Jesus Christ was an arrant Man, the off­spring of Joseph as well as Mary. Euseb. l. 3. c. 23. A fourth was Cerinthus, who taught his Followers to expect a Thousand years of Sensuality, which (forsooth) were to commence from after the general Resurrection. (The like to which was said of Papias, who had been Scholar to S. John.) A fift was the Sect of the Nicolaitans, who ex­horted their Disciples to the promiscuous use of Wives. Iren. l. 1. c. 1. &c. 24. A sixt was Carpocrates, and all his Gnosticks, (forEpiph. Haer. 20. Nicolaus bred some, andHieron. lib. de Script. Ec­cles. Augustin. Haer. 6. Va­lentinus bred others,) who commended Ʋnclean­ness, as one great Requisite to Man's Redemption. (meaning his being freed from his Confinement to The Body.) A seventh wasEuseb. l. 4. c. 7. & l. 6. c. 28. Basilides, who held it lawfull in Times of Triall, to re­nounce the Doctrin of the Gospel, and did set up in Aegypt an open School of this Heresie: [Page 119] which was afterwards espoused by theEuseb. ibid. Iren. 1. c. 1. 22. 23. Hel­cheseitae. An eighth was Saturninus, who did the like to this in Syria. And though some of these did flourish after the sacking of Jeru­salem, yet the Jews received Massacres even after that time of their Desolation. Witness That in the Days of Hadrian, whereof Barchochebas was the occasion. For God it seems had design'd them to such an absolute [...], such a Consumption of the whole, that even their Ruins were to be levell'd, and their Graves buried. They were prohibited by Hadrian, Judaeis nec Advena­rum jure Ter­ram patriam saltem vesti­gio salutare conceditur. Tertull. in Apol. c. 21. p. 45. to do so much as to look on their Native Country. Yea Jerusalem was decree'd to be called Aelia, and its Name to be blotted out from the Common Register of Time. So that All those Deceivers I just now mention'd,Euseb. l. 4. c. 6. were either the Harbin­gers, or the Attendants, of That so matchless a Devastation; and did literally fulfill this fa­mous Prediction of our Lord, in the 5^th. the 11^th. and 24^th. verses of this Chapter.

§ 3. All which being premis'd by way of general Explication, may serve to guide our Attentions into Three Subjects of Discourse.

First, an Heedfulness, and Prudence, to which our Saviour thought fit to exhort his first Fol­lowers; the Exhortation as it were reaching, [Page 120] through Them, to Ʋs. [...], See, or Take heed.

Secondly, the Danger, or Ground of fear, which more particularly calls for this Christian Prudence. To wit, the Multitude of Deceivers gone abroad into the World; which by their Subtilty, and their Number, will be so likely to prevail, that there is no little need of our greatest Care, [...], lest any Man deceive us.

Lastly, the Time is very observable, wherein the use of this Care will be most in Season: and this we may gather from the Context to be be­fore a Destruction of Church and State. For Imposture and Deceit will be Then most rife, and therefore the Prudence of a Christian will be Then most needfull.

The first Observable of the Three I have insisted upon at large on another Text; where­on I shew'd the strict necessity of circumspect Walking in the Generall, in respect of evil Things, and all that have Tendency unto evil.

It now remains that I proceed to the second Observable I propos'd; and so to consider Circumspection or Christian Prudence, as relating in Particular to the Deceitfulness of Persons. Nor can it be severely imputed to me, if still I continue to deal in Caveats. For,

§ 4. If ever there were an Errour to be com­mended [Page 121] out of a Pulpit, it is the right-handed Errour of too much Caution. And if ever there can be any, This is certainly the Time, when no abundance of Caution can be too much. When perhaps the very greatest a man can use, may prove the very least he shall stand in need of. At least I take This to be a satisfactory reason, why having spoken enough already of Christian Prudence in Thesi, I am led by the love of Me­thod to consider it also in Hypothesi; as it stands in relation to this or that Station and State of Men. For as Charity is the greatest of Christian Vertues, so (in a secular Consideration) 'tis the most dangerous, and ensnaring, and the most difficult to be managed of all our Duties; because it has This peculiar to it, that it thin­keth no evill; but beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Cor. 13. 5, 7.) I will not say it is the weakness or fault of Charity to be Credu­lous; But yet exposing its owners to many Risques, and Inconveniences, it stands in need of great Prudence to keep it safe. The Dis­ciples therefore did very wisely,Act. 9. 26. in being afraid and suspicious of Paul himself, till Barnabas gave him a Testimonial, ver. 27, 29. that by his preaching boldly at Damascus, and by his disputing against [Page 122] the Graecians, he prov'd himself an unfeigned Convert: as if the repentance of an Enemy were never to be trusted untill 'tis try'd; nor any other Triall could be sufficient, but That of bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Our Blessed Saviour himself would not entrust him­self with some who believed in him; Joh. 2. 23, 24. because he knew their Belief was such, as would not bear any stress in a time of Triall. Seeing the Mi­racles which he did, they believ'd in his Name: but he knew that they were not Temptation-proof; that they would not hold out at his Crucifixion. How much more might his Apostles be distrust­full of Believers, who knew them not? And yet so unguarded was their Simplicity, (I mean the Simplicity of the heart, not of the head, or the understanding; as opposed onely to knavery, and not to knowledge;) that they made their own Innocence the usual measure of other mens. Hence it was that their Master did call themMatth. 10. 16. Sheep; because they knew not, till he had told them, that they were going out as Sheep in the midst of Wolves. And the more he had observ'd they were unapt to be suspicious, by so much the rather did he exhort them to use the wisedom of the Serpent, whereby to set a constant Guard upon the Innocence of the [Page 123] Dove. For as Wisedom isJam. 3. 15. devillish, without Simplicity, so This, without Wisedom, is never safe. It is the property of the one, not to do any Injury, and the benefit of the other, is not to suffer it. Indeed as Fear is oppos'd to For­titude, it is a childish unmanlike Passion; still betraying those succours which reason offereth. Wisd. 17. 12. Again, as Fear is oppos'd to Faith, it is an heathenish and carnal Passion; That that made so many Compliers in the evil days pass'd, with the Spirit which Then was working in the pro­sperous Children of Disobedience. Eph. 2. 2. But as Fear is oppos'd to Folly, (I mean Imprudence, and want of Heed,) it is at once a very generous and Christian Thing. There being no true Faith, no nor any true Fortitude, which has not a mixture of such a Fear. As Fear is opposite to Reliance and Trust in God, it is indeed a great Duty to laugh at Danger: But as 'tis opposite to Rashness and a defect of Circum­spection, it is as much a man's duty to provide against danger by timely fear. For the same Spirit that saith by the Royal Priest,Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them that can kill the body, does also say by the Royal Preacher,Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always. All which being compared with the Importance of my Text; and the [Page 124] evill of those days, which in the Context are spoken of, being duly compar'd with these I speak in, (for in truth the whole Chapter which lies before us may very well serve for an English Mirroir, wherein our Modern Deceivers may partly see how they look;) I think I may say (without impertinence) to the most prudent Congregation, what our Saviour esteemed need­full, not onely pertinent to his Disciples, [...], See, or take heed: and [...], Take heed ye be not deceived: and [...], Take heed that no man deceive you.

§ 5. That thus the Emphasis is to be put, I am confirm'd in my opinion from other words of our Lord to his 12 Apostles, when being about to send them abroad to an inhospitable world, he did not speak in this manner, (which yet he might very well have done,) Beware of those foolish and hurtfull Lusts, which drown the Soul in misery and perdition. Nor did he choose to say Thus, (which he might very well have done too,) Beware of the Inticements of worldly Great­ness, of Riches, and Pleasure, and Reputation. He did not say, (with S. Paul,) Beware of Dogs; Not yet, (with S. Peter,) Beware of Devils: But (as a greater Mischief than either,) Beware of [Page 125] Men. (Matth. 10. 17.) For as Deceitfulness, and Fraud, and all the dire effects thereof, do give us a very true Character of the Greater World; so Man, being a little world, is a little world of Deceits too. The falsest Crocodile in Aegypt is not Hypocrite enough to become his Embleme. The reason is, because the best things debaucht are the most transcendent evils. Those Angels that fell from as high as Heaven, could not therefore fall less, than as low as Hell. And so Angelical was the Nature of Man undeprav'd, by injoying a Rectitude both of Intellect and Will, that he admitted not of a middle betwixt a Devil, and a Saint. So that Man's being the worst on this side Hell, as well as the best of God's Creatures on this side Heaven, does help to ad­just and reconcile the seeming contradictory Pro­verbs, [...]. Polyb. Hist. l. 1. & Le­gat. 122. [...]. Plato de Legibus l. 6. [...]. Homo Homini Deus, and Homo Homini Diabolus. Man to Man is a kind of God, and Man to Man is an arrant Devil. All the rest of our Fellow-creatures are very innocent Neigh­bours; Nay, whensoever we have occasion, they are our most obedient and faithfull Servants. But Man to Man (for the greatest part) is either a very fierce Enemy, and so the worst of Wild Beasts; or else a very false Friend, the worst of Tame ones.

[Page 126] § 6. So far therefore as we are men, I think our first and greatest head is to be taken for our selves against our selves. Not for this Reason onely, because we love our selves most, and so are most apt to deceive our selves; (the Devil commonly using us, as the Empress Agrippina her husband Claudius, whilst she poyson'd That Dish, with which she knew he was most delighted, and on which he was likely to make the plenti­fullest Meal;) But withall because the Soul, like the Eye of Man, is least of all able to see itself. [...] &c. Diod. Sic. l. 20. p. 778. And this I think the best Moral, (though I know there is another,) of Diodorus his My­thology concerning Lamia, who did put on her Eyes, when she went abroad; but always coming home, put them up into her pocket. We are blind to the greatest Beam, if it be in our own Eye, though we can spy the least Mote in ano­ther man's. Nor is it onely the Eye, but the Heart of man also (if we believe the Prophet Jeremy) is deceitfull above all things. Jer. 17. 9. And this is that which makes him his own worst cheat; whilst either he falls without a Tempter, like Lucifer in heaven; or else (like Peter upon earth) he is endanger'd by a temptation from the meer Confidence of his safety. Amongst a Thousand which might be given, I cannot name [Page 127] a fitter Instance of Self-Deceiving, than that of Eldavid the Fanatick in Rabbi Mosche Ben Maiemon: Vid. Bux­torph. The­saur. Lingu. Hebr. qui historiam re­censet inte­gram ex libro Shevet Je­huda. who was so very sincere a Cheat in the couzenage of himself, and did so seriously believe he was the Prodromus of the Messias, that he offer'd to be try'd by a Decollation, and died a Martyr to his Delusions. So much 'tis every man's duty to fear Himself, and to suspect his own Phantasie, or Imagination, which he takes to be his judgment in divers cases.

§ 7. Next and immediately after our selves, we must be circumspect and wise in respect of one another. And as of other men in generall, (for this very reason that they are Men,) so of Those in special manner whom we have most of all trusted, and most obliged; who have mingl'd their Projects and Prayers with us; who have eaten of our bread, and as it were lain in our very Bosoms; who are apt to hate us for the favours they are not able to requite, and for exceeding their Gratitude, will not allow us their Humanity. Of such ill-natur'd Crea­tures we read in Tacitus, quibus beneficia eo­usque laeta, dum videntur exolvi posse; sed ubi antevenêre, pro gratiâ odium redditur. Little Curtesies and good turns they take very well, and are thankfull for: But when a Munificence [Page 128] is excessive, and far beyond their possibility ei­ther to recompense, or deserve, Then they onely love the benefits, but perfectly hate the Bene­factor, and wish Him Dead, because (accor­ding to that of Aristotle, [...],) as often as he sees them, he makes them blush. Now 'tis very sound arguing from the Act to the Aptitude; such Things there may be in these our days, because there were such in the days we read of. And special heed is to be taken that we be not deceived by such as These; be­cause by Courage and easie Caution a man may be saved from his Enemies; But God alone can keep him safe from his dearest Friends. Thence said God by the Prophet Jeremy, Jer. 9. 4, 5, 6. Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour, and trust ye not in any Brother: for every Brother will utterly sup­plant; and every Neighbour will walk with slan­ders; their habitation is in the midst of Deceit. So said Jesus the Son of Sirach, Ecclus. 6. 13. Separate thy self from thine Enemies, and take heed of thy Friends: Julius Caesar was more endanger'd from Brutus, and Cassius, his Bosom Friends, than from Antony, and Cato, his open Enemies. Pom­pey the Great could never hurt him with all his Armies, because he was a brave and a generous Enemy. But his Friends were such Flayls, as [Page 129] against which there was no Defense. Even the Serpent himself was not more treacherous to Eve, than Eve was unto her Husband, and her Hus­band to his posterity. For although she derived Her Body from His, and so might seem in some regard to have been his own Daughter, before his Wife; (as it were joyn'd to him in Wedlock by a kind of lawfull Incest;) yet no sooner had that Woman received Life from out his Side, than she (in a lamentable Requitall) returned Death into his Bowells. David did not complain,Psal. 55. 12, 13, 14. That an open Enemy had disho­nour'd him, or that an Adversary had magnify'd himself against him: for (said he) I could have born the one, and have hid my self from the other. But his Cordolium and his out-cry was against his Companion, and his Guide, with whom he took sweet Counsell, Psal. 41. 9. and walked with as with a Friend in the House of God. I wish it may prove a very groundless and weak Sug­gestion, that both our Jesuites, and their Journy­men, (passing commonly under the name of fanatick Protestants,) are by much the most innocent, because they are [...], (as Aristotle words it) the most undisguised and barefac'd Enemies, at once to the Monarchy and Church of England. Such as declare them­selves [Page 130] inConser Bu­chananum, & Junium Brutum, cum Catalogo Scriptorum apud Is. Ca­saub. Epist. ad Fronto­nem Ducae­um. praeser­tim p. 11, 12, 14. print for the Deposing of our Kings, and the Disposing of their Kingdoms. In this respect the more innocent, that by professing themselves implacable and ungainable Antago­nists, they give us an Helmet before they strike. We know the Thirtieth of January stands as execrably black in our English Calendar, as the Fift of November has ever done. Which proves the Truth of what was written byBeatum il­lum, qui non vidit mala Patriae quae parant duo genera homi­num, Jesuitae [...], & [...]. Deus misereatur Ecclesiae suae. Casaub. E­pist. 116. Confer etiam Thuani l. 54. A D. 1572. cum ejusdem l. 17. A. D. 1556. & l. 18. A. D. 1557. Isaac Casaubon to Heinsius before our days, (and when the days were less evil than we have liv'd in,) that we have Jesuited Protestants, as well as Pa­pists; equally Haters of the Government of Church and State here in England; equally poy­son'd with an Opinion, that the worst of all Murthers is the most highly meritorious; equally Practicers and Patrons of That Hildebrandine Divinity, which has cost so many Monarchs their Lives and Fortunes. I say, 'twere safer than now it is, if all our Enemies were such, ut professa prodant odia vindictae locum; that by knowing our utmost Danger, we might Timely stand upon our Guard. Were I at leisure to rifle Story, I could name several Hundreds, besides the Em­perour Darius, and Charles the first of these Realms, who were betray'd by those most, in whom they most trusted: and whilst they thought [Page 131] the best way to make men Loyall, was not to doubt of their being such, most unhappily have died by their Credulity. It is indeed a very generous and Princely Errour, (as being the Errour of a Great and a Candid Soul,) not at all to be capable of Fears and Jealousies; and rather to run the greatest Hazards, than either to fear, or to be fear'd. But yet the oftener I reflect upon what was once said by a Duke of Florence, [That He reckon'd All Subjects, who were Principl'd by the Jesuits, would rebell if they could, and therefore (said he) for mine, let them do it if they can;] And comparing there­with the several Caveats of our Lord, Be wise as Serpents, Beware of Men; And considering that Distrustfulness is the chief Wisedom of the Ser­pent, as well as a necessary Safeguard to the Sim­plicity of the Dove; Lastly, the less I have been able to free my self from an opinion, that in the Wariness of the Prince the People's Interest and Safety does chiefly stand, (for sure it is our greatest Interest, not to be able to be damn'd for our Disobedience, and, by a con­sequence unavoidable, not to be able to Dis­obey the Lord of Hosts in his Vicegerents,) the more I think there is place for an Epichar­mus, to bring That Motto to Remembrance, [Page 132] [ [...], that is,] forget not to be Distrust­full.

§ 8. And as of all other friends, so above all beware of Them, who pretend a Friendship unto the Soul. For there is no Devil to the white one. That Serpent is the most deadly, which covers over his malice with the seeming simplicity of a Dove. Matth. 7. 15. A Wolf is ever most Rave­nous, when cloath'd in sheep-skin. Nor is there any such dangerous Highway-Thief, as he who follows that trade in the Reverend Habit of a Priest. There are no Jugglers in the world to be compar'd with false Teachers; those Spi­ritual purloyners, who commit a kind of Bur­glary upon mens Souls, and even plunder their very Consciences; who first steal into their Heads, and carry away from thence their true Opinions in point of faith; then creep into their Hearts, and steal away from thence their right Affec­tions in point of practice. Such as these here­tofore were Nestorius, Photinus, and Apollinaris. All three very learned and frequent Preachers,Vincent. Li­rin. cap. 17, 18, 19. of eminent wit, and elocution, highly approved by the Clergy, as well as admired by all the people, untill infected with an Itch to be the Authors of so many Sects, or the Heads of so many Factions, they polluted all their Excel­lencies [Page 133] with the Leprosie of Errour; and of three great Shepherds became three Dogs, whose constant business was nothing else, but to be barking and snarling against the Truth. Pho­tinus (even with vehemence) against the Trinity of the Godhead; Nestorius against the Ʋnity of our Saviour's Person; and lastly, Apollinaris against the Duality of his Nature.

§ 9. From whose examples we may learn, not onely to beware of such as creep into Houses, 2 Tim. 3. 6. and there lead captive those Silly women, who again do lead captive their Silly men; But of such as domineer in their factious pulpits, and like the great Red Dragon in the Revelation, Rev. 12. 3. do draw after their Tail, perhaps a whole third part of the Stars of Heaven. (I cannot be thought to speak of fixt, but of erratick and wandring Stars.) The common fallacies of the world do onely couzen the peoples senses, and so impose upon their Reason. But these at first dash do even bewitch their very reason, and so beguile them of their Religion. A spiritual Cheat, or false Teacher, is so incomparably hurtfull; (espe­cially when his false and seditious Doctrin is such as easily runs out at his fingers ends,) that Lucifer himself, to become such, did first of all turn Devil. For as if his Devilship were [Page 134] his Qualification, He was first an Apostate, and then a Preacher. The forbidden Tree was his Text, forbidden Knowledge was his Doctrin, Hor­rid Rebellion was his Ʋse, and so he concluded with just Damnation.

§ 10. Now we shall find such Impostors to have been still very rife, whether we look into the Jewish, or Christian Church.

In the Jewish it is observable, that for one Elijah, (that man of God,) the Prophets of Baal were four hundred and fifty. 1 Kin. 18. 22. For one Mi­caiah, Ch. 22. v. 6, 8. who prophesied Truth, four hundred there were that dawb'd with untemper'd Morter. The ways of Apostasy in Israel were chiefly two. The first was the way of Jeroboam, who ador'd the true God, but in the similitude of a Calf; nor that at Jerusalem, but Dan and Bethel. In that lay his Heresie, in this his Schism. The se­cond way was the way of Ahab; who besides the publick worship, common to him with Jero­boam, did farther worship his Baalims or God­lings also. Now there was never any Apostasy, no nor Idolatry in Israel; in which their False Prophets had not still a great hand. No nor any false Prophets who prophesied Lies, but they pretended to derive them from the mouth of Truth. The work of Satan still was done [Page 135] in Jehovah's name. An example of which we have 1 King. 22. where though Ahab's lying Prophets were Prophets of Baal, yet still they usher'd in their falsehoods with a [Thus saith the Lord.]

Come we hastily from the Jewish to the Chri­stian Church, which we shall find to have been infested, from her first2 Thess. 2. 7. Infancy and Childhood, with such Deceivers. A Simon Magus was found at Rome, to resist the doctrins of S. Peter; An Apollo­nius also at Ephesus, to check the preachings of S. John. Besides Menander, and Cerinthus, Barcho­chebas, and Dositheus, Carpocrates, and Ebion, Sa­turninus, and Basilides, and the most venemous Crew as well of Gnosticks, as Nicholaitans, (where­of the greatest part did flourish in the Apostles own times, and all pretended to be Reformers,) there were not wanting amongst the Heathen, who did endeavour the setting up a New Messias of their own; and that by craftily diverting the clearest prophecies of the Old Testament, from that natural Aspect which they all fasten upon the New. V. Justin Mart. [...]. p. 70, &c. Justin Martyr in his Paraenesis to the Em­perour Antonine, does make this appear by an Induction of particulars. That famous pro­phecy (for example) of dying Jacob, [The Scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh [Page 136] come, binding his Asse's Colt unto the choice Vine, and washing his Cloaths in the blood of Grapes, Gen. 49. 11.] which is so manifestly fulfilled in Jesus Christ the Son of God, The Heathen Greeks apply'd to Bacchus, their Son of Ju­piter; not onely because his Rites were solem­nized with an Ass, and because he was wor­shipped as the God of the Vintage; but because he was feign'd to have been torn in pieces, to have suffer'd many things, and to have enter'd into Glory. So what is spoken by the Prophets of our Saviour's riding into Jerusalem upon an Ass, (Zech. 9. 9.) They apply to Bellerophon (another Son of their Jupiter) riding to Heaven upon Pegasus, a winged Horse. And that prae­diction of Isaias concerning a Virgin's bringing forth, (Isa. 7. 14.) They will needs apply to Dance in the Brazen Tower; where having care­fully been sequestred from the Society of men, and yet for all that grown big of Perseus, she got the fabulous repute of a Mother-Maid. So that passage of the Psalmist, [He rejoyced as a Giant to run his course, Psal. 19. 5.] Those Idolatrous Greeks apply to Hercules, whom they affirm to have ran through all the habitable world. And those distinct praedictions of the Prophet Esa touching our Saviour's healing [Page 137] Virtue over all manner of Diseases, they apply to Aesculapius, their God of Physick. Not to be endless in particulars, All the Prophecies of our Messias, excepting that of his Crucifixion, (which their Poets could never parallel in all their fabu­lous Sons of Jupiter,) have by the wicked In­geny of Deceivers, been profanely misapply'd to the bolstering up of their Idolatries, and that by having been wrested from those Completions they all do find in our Blessed Saviour. Inso­much as without, and within the Church, both under the Law, and under the Gospel, This has ever been a pertinent, if not a necessary Caveat, Be wise as Serpents; Beware of Men; or [...], Take ye heed that no man deceive you.

§ 11. We stand in need of This Caveat, in respect of All Persons without exception: not onely of the worst, but the Best of men. For as the worst may deceive us by their very good Words, so may the Best of men too (though without any design, and even before they are aware,) by their evil Deeds.

To begin with the worst, let us first of all at­tend unto that Caveat of S. Paul to his Ephe­sians, Eph. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words. A Caveat extended to many things of great mo­ment, however expressed by our Apostle in the [Page 138] stile of vain words. He does not mean by vain words, such as are but unprofitable and imperti­nent to the Hearers; such as are to no end, and purpose: but such as are filthy as well as foo­lish; and withall such as are false, or fallacious words. Such as blind a man's Judgment; such as pervert his Understanding; such as impose upon his Reason; such as mislead him from the true Faith; and even couzen him of his Reli­gion. In all these respects, though in the last above all, S. Paul is carefull that his Ephesians be not deceiv'd with vain words.

They who call foolish or filthy Talking, by the plausible names of Facetiousness, or Drollery, Ʋr­banity, or Burlesque, are the first fort of such as do deceive with vain words. These are called by the Greeks [...], and by the Latines Ridicularii, in French and English, Drolls, and Railleurs; such as think it a mark of Wit, never to speak a serious word, but to turn all into Ridicule. By foolish tal­king and jesting, (two words for one thing) is meant such insipid and unsavory discourse, as has not in it any Salt either of Charity or of Prudence to make it usefull. 'Tis true that Aristotle does reckon [...] (which is here S. Paul's word) a Semivertue in Conversation. But being usually coupled with Scurrility, or Obscoeneness, or some [Page 139] degree of Profanation, (for mala sunt vicina bo­nis,) it is prohibited, and condemn'd, and heavily censur'd by our Apostle, as inconsistent with the seriousness and the gravity of a Christian, whose Conversation should be in heaven, and his Joy in the Holy Ghost; not in jesting, and buffonery. Mor­tification and Repentance and Amendment of life should be His Business; and Praising God his Recreation. The Study and Contemplation both of the Wisedom, and the Will, and the Word of God, should be his Labour, and his Diver­tisement, his daily Exercise and Delight. To them that place their present happiness in the contrary to This, in sparing nothing to break a Jest, neither the holy Word of God, nor the good Names of Men, nor the modest Ears of Women, but sacrifice all considerations to Sport and Laughter, as to the Idol they most adore, To Them our Lord's Denuntiation belongs of right, Wo be to Them that laugh, for they shall mourn and weep. As for such things as These, impious Jests to cause laughter, and filthy Tal­king, (v. 4.) let no man deceive us, (saith S. Paul,) as if they were altogether Venial, and such as easily consist with a Christian state: For even because of These things, ver. 6. (as arrant Trifles and Peccadilloes, as by too many they may be [Page 140] thought,) the wrath of God cometh upon the chil­dren of Disobedience, either in This, or the World to come.

Again, Let no man deceive us with vain words, that is, with false ones (saith Estius,) or with fallacious ones (saith Menochius.) And so the Caveat is extensible to All the Deceitfulnesses of Men, who with the Sophistry of words, or the words of man's Wisedom, (which is the wise­dom of the Flesh,) seek to impose upon the Consciences and minds of those they speak to. As in calling vitious Fear by the Name of Pru­dence; in calling Avarice, Frugality; Luxury, Nobleness; Lightness, Affability; Ambition, Greatness of Soul; Sheepishness, Humility; In­sultation, Courage; and devilish Envy, Hatred of Evil. For now and then a great Vice does so Ape-out Vertue, and several Vertues in some degrees do so border upon Vice, that for want of due Heed to the vain words of men, many mistake them for one another. Let no man therefore deceive us (as many will, unless we stand upon our Guard,) by giving vain Sub­tilty the name of Wisedom; and Cruelty the name of Corrective Justice; by calling Rashness, Re­solution; and Giddiness, Zeal: Let no man lead us into Intemperance, under the stile of [Page 141] Goodfellowship; nor seek to lessen the guilt of Wantonness, by its being intitl'd a Trick of youth; nor withdraw our Obedience to publick Parents, in pretense of Sacrifice to God; no nor our Sacrifice to God, (when That is due,) because Obedience indeed is better. Let no man persuade us to leave undone the smallest Duties, under colour of our doing the weightier mat­ters of the Law; nor wilfully to admit of a lesser Sin, in a sophistical Pretense of avoiding greater. For That saying of Aristotle, [...], that of two Evils the least is to be chosen, is not meant of two Moral, but of two Physical, or civil Evils. 'Tis true when two Evils are Both of Punishment, or when of any two Evils, the one is of Sin, and the other of Affliction, Reason prompts us to choose the lesser. But of two moral Evils, or of two for­mal Sins, Religion bids us choose neither: But rather suffer the greatest evil, than submit to do the least.

§ 12. Should I adventure to reflect upon all sorts of Men of this first rank, of whom an heed is to be taken in this last Age, (though this at first was my Design,) I should heedlesly ingage in a new Sea of matter, and wear out the Pa­tience of all that hear me. I shall therefore [Page 142] choose to spend the little Remainder of my time, in giving notice of two or three of the most plausible Deceivers, which seem to have had the chiefest hand in all the Miseries of the late Times. For till the Errours they have sown, and sometimes planted, be rooted out of the people's Minds, I cannot imagin how it is possible to keep our Peace any longer, than whilst the persons so imbued want Power to break it.

§ 13. Take we heed then in the next place of such Deceivers, as sow the seeds of Discontent in their credulous Congregations, by feeding the People with Apprehensions, fears, and jea­lousies, of Superstition, and Popery, and impo­sitions upon Religion by the Commandments of Men. This has been a sore Evil under the Sun, (ever since the Days of Queen Elizabeth,) by fictitious and pretended, to make a Broad way for real Popery. When a Protestant resolves to espouse a Schism, a Separation from the most per­fect of Protestant Churches in the World, He must accuse her either of Popery, or of Papistical In­clinations, for fear of being found out by all, to drive a Trade of Animosities, either for Re­venge, or for filthy Lucre; or for fear of being known to be Satan's chief Journy-man, in being [Page 143] passionately amorous of breeding Hatreds, and a Lover of Schism as it is Schism. Neither Christ nor his Apostles were used otherwise or worse than the Church of England, whose Accusations were adapted to their Enemies Ends, which were onely to make them odious, and thorowly fitted for De­struction; as far from Truth, or Probability, as Truth can possibly be from Falshood. Nor could it sure be more impossible, that Christ himself, blessed for ever, should be a Conjurer, or a Glutton, (who yet was accused of being Both,) than that His Spouse the Church of England should be Popishly affected, whose first Refor­mers were put to Death for resisting Popery, and whose Sons at this day are the Sole Persons that keep it out, and whose Communion is detested by none so much as the Popish Party, who are not wont to hate men for their kind affections. A man would think that all Protestants should unite themselves with us, because the Romanists will not. A man would think that no Protestant should separate from us, because the Romanists all do. A man would think our common Ene­mies should make us Friends. But when the Primitive Christians were to be baited, and torn in pieces, 'twas but suitable for them to be put in Bears Skins too. And 'tis as suitable for [Page 144] our Church to be very well cloath'd with the worst of Calumnies, by such as aim at her Ruin, and are resolv'd on her Condemnation. The many Divisions and Subdivisions of our Sectaries in England cannot be easily reckon'd up, they are so numerous; (for there are hardly more Divisions amongst the Romanists themselves.) Every Sect is desirous to have the new-modelling or new-moulding of our Church: and there is not one of them but has as much pretense for it, as any other; if not an equal right, yet an equal want of right to be our Reformers. They be­ing equally void of; and as equally Dissenters from all Authority; abounding All equally in a preference of their own to Superiour Judg­ments; equal Admirers of Themselves; and as equally contemptuous of other men. There is not an Anabaptist, or Quaker, not an Adamite, or a Behemist, no nor any other Sectary of what­soever Denomination, but thinks it hard, and takes it ill, we are not All of Their Opinion, and do not conform to Their way of Worship. Now what a Monster would our Church be, if every one of these Sects had the shaping of her? and how much worse would our Babel be, than That which they call The Whore of Babylon? What then is to be done, or to be said in this [Page 145] case of our present Breaches? They that are over us in Authority must tell us what is to be done; But what is fittest to be said I suppose is This: That such of our Englishmen as own themselves Protestants, and yet divide from the Church of England, do contribute a great deal more to­wards the bringing in of Popery, than all the Emissaries of Rome could have done without them. And if ever we live to see the Abomi­nation of Desolation, standing as heretofore in our holy Places, it will enter in at That, and at no other Door, than what our Schisms and Sepa­rations have open'd to it. Nothing but our Divisions can bring in Popery; and I had almost said too, that Nothing but our Ʋnion can keep it out. But united we cannot be, (whilst they that have divided from us are so strangely subdivided among themselves,) unless it be by All Parties, from every part of the Circumfe­rence, concentring themselves in the Church of England. And this the proudest of them may do, not onely without a Blush, but with the greatest honour and reputation to be imagin'd. For what (I pray) is the Church of England, but a most Renowned and National Church? A National Church the most peaceably and the most regularly reformed of All the Churches. [Page 146] The chief Reformed Church of Christendom, which has publickly been Establish'd by Law, and Canon. The onely Protestant Church in Europe, which has been able as well as willing to protect other Churches in their Distresses. In a word, The Church of England has ever con­quer'd, and confuted, and (if her fugitive Chil­dren do not unnaturally betray her,) will ever keep us all safe from the Church of Rome.

§ 14. Take we heed in the Third place of such Deceivers, as would have it thought a mark of the most reform'd, to preach up an Exemption from human Laws, (such especially as relate to the externals of Religion,) and so a Licentiousness of Life, for Christian Liberty; ever pressing their Hearers to stand fast in it, Gal. 5. 1. that is, to be obstinate and sturdy Rebells. As if the Liberty of a Christian, wherein the Gala­tians were bid to stand fast, were not at all a Manumission from the Bondage of Sin, and from the Empire of Satan, and from the Rigor of the Law as 'twas given by Moses, But a freedom from Christ, and Christianity it self. Not onely from the positive, but from the Moral Law of Moses, which is as well the Law of Nature, and the Law of Christ too; and which, he tells us most expresly, He came not to abrogate, but on [Page 147] the contrary to fulfill; and also [...], to fill it up. As if the Liberty of a Christian ex­tended it self even to Libertinism it self; ren­dring every man free to judge the Laws, and Legislators, and (with a greater force of reason) the learned Judges of the Land: free to regu­late the Laws by their several Humours, (which by the way is a thing impossible, and flatly im­plies a Contradiction,) rather than to regulate their several Humours by the Laws; which is not onely possible, but so absolutely necessary, that He who will not do this, (conform his pri­vate humour to publick Laws,) is fit to live in a Desert, in the Company of Creatures which have no Law at all; not in a Kingdom, or Com­monwealth, not in a City, or a Church, where Human Laws (under God's) are the Life of Liberty, and Propriety, nor onely of Livelihood, but Life it self. Whosoever has been protected from any injuries of men by the Laws in force, must needs confirm, by his Experience, the Truth of what I now say: That such a Subject as will no longer allow the Laws, than the Laws allow him in his being Lawless, or no longer than they are pleasing and usefull to him, (as when they avenge him upon his Enemies, defend him in his Liberty, and assert him in his Estate,) [Page 148] deserves not those Benefits of Propriety and Safety the Laws afford him. The Laws (I say) not onely under which, but by which he lives. 'Tis very plain, that such Laws de­serve but ill from all others, if they do not de­serve from Him an uniformity in his Obedience. Where human Laws command That which God does no where forbid, and vice versâ, where they forbid what God does no where command, Nothing is plainer in all the Scriptures, than that The Ordinances of Men are also the Or­dinances of God: Rom. 13. 1, 2. and to submit our selves to Them, 1 Pet. 2. 13. not of necessity, but of choise, not so much for fear of wrath, as for Conscience sake, is no small part of our Christian Li­berty, wherewith Christ has made us free. Gal. 5. 1.

§ 15. Take we heed in the fourth place of such Deceivers, as would beguile us into a faith, apt to make us unfaithfull in all our ways; a faith that all things coming to pass were antecedently unavoidable; and that by consequence when we have sinn'd, we have onely done That, which we could never have prevented the doing of: and this by the force of a most absolute irrespective irreversible De­cree, which did eternally so determin both the [Page 149] End, and the Means, as to necessitate our Im­pieties as well as Punishments. So that if we are Elected, all our Vices cannot hurt us; and if we are not, all our Vertues cannot avail us. So again, if we are Reprobates, we cannot re­pent although we would; and if we are not, we must repent, do what we can; and by consequence, as we were born, so we may live without care. Take we heed of being cou­zen'd by such false Logick, as may help us either merrily or despairingly to Hell, by ma­king us careless of our Actions, and neglectfull of our End. By way of Antidote to the Ve­nom lying hid in this Doctrin, we must so think of God, as becomes his Godhead. We must think nothing of God, which is dishonou­rable in Men. We must believe nothing of Him, which we would not be very willing to have believed of our selves. And we must so speak of God in the Ears of Men, as to beget in them a love and a reverence of him. And this we shall be sure to do, if we speak of his Promises and his Threats as we find them in Scripture to be General, and by consequence Conditional; of his Soveraignty, as Just; and of his Mercy, as extensive to all his Works; of his Will, as Wisedom; sincere, and uniform, not [Page 150] repugnant to it self, whether as signi, or bene­placiti, reveal'd, or secret; of his Decrees from all Aeternity, in proportion to the Rule by which they are executed in Time; exclusive of his be­ing a Respecter of Persons, and inclusive of his dealing with All according to their Deeds; of Faith, as dead, without Works; of Repentance, as false, without Amendment; of Justification, as in Time, not (as say the Antinomians) from all Aeternity. For hence 'tis logically inferr'd by some of Eminence in the world, (who would not be thought to be Antinomians,) that their Sins were forgiven before committed; and that Repentance does not praecede, but follow Pardon. A Doctrin as dangerous as any other that can be nam'd; and which does not adorn, but dis­grace the Gospel, (as far as Some at least are thought to be Preachers of it,) which S. Peter on the contrary thought good to preach in This Order; Repent, and be Converted, that your Sins may be blotted out. Clearly intimating unto us, that a blotting out of Sins can never follow, unless Repentance and Conversion do go before. They that teach otherwise, are apt to beget a Disbelief, or (which is worse) an ill Opinion of the Almighty. Take we heed therefore that we be not deceived by such as These.

[Page 151] § 16. Again take we heed of those Idol-Shep­herds, Zech. 11. 17. (to use the phrase of the Prophet Zecha­ry,) whose left Eye at least is sharp enough sigh­ted, but onely their right Eye is full of darkness. They have human Learning enough, enough and too much of worldly Wisedom, but have no Di­vine light whereby to guide it. Such are they of whom I spake in the later part of my Last Discourse; who call their Confidence or Caprice by the name of Conscience, and teach the people under their charge, as 'twere to regulate their Lives by that crooked Rule. I do the rather speak twice of this grand Fallacy, because I take it to be That, of which we can never be told enough. For till men are catechiz'd in the point of Conscience, made to know its true nature, and the signification of its Name, (if I may speak mine own judgment with due submission to my Superiours,) they will not onely go securely, but even greedily to Destruction. Be their Sins ne­ver so many, and in weight never so great, yet if they can get themselves to think that they are conscionably committed, (as Clement did, and Ravilliac, and many more nearer Home,) they will reckon upon a Saintship, from nothing else but the absence of lesser Sins than they delight in, and doat upon. They will imagin they have [Page 152] made their Election sure, or rather that they have made themselves sure of their Election, (as they love to mistake the Text,) even by such a kind of partial and painted innocence, as (being seriously consider'd) is common to them with the Devil; who is not a Swearer, or a Drunkard, or a Com­mitter of Adultery, and yet he is not the less a Devil. But such Professors not considering, that Spiritual Pride with her two Daughters, Sacrilege, and Rebellion, are Sins more antient than Hell itself, make no doubt but Those things will not onely accompany, but (as the Angels did Lazarus) will carry them up into Abra­ham's Bosom. If we consider by what Impie­ties some Bigots have expected to merit Bliss, and what others have understood by their fol­lowing Providence, and Conscience, and by their being over-acted to do the Work of the Lord, (for so they cant it,) we cannot but say the greatest Mercy which can be shewn to such Cri­minals, is to make them less nocent (if not in­nocent) unavoidably. Which being not to be effected by congruous Grace, because it is not irresistible, should by consequence be effected by that which is; that if they will not choose the Glory, they may be mercifully compell'd to injoy the benefit of their Obedience; and that [Page 153] however they may perish by other Crimes, they may yet be disenabl'd to damn themselves by their Rebellions.

§ 17. Lastly, take we the greatest heed, of being led into The Errour that 'tis impossible for us to Erre, whilst we believe as we are bid by the Church of Rome, which deceives the most in­curably, by getting her Children to believe, she is divinely undeceivable. Take away This, and all her other Impositions will fall to ruin of Themselves. But by the Help of This Errour, All the rest must needs be swallow'd, how gross soever. To wit, That the 2 Books of Maccabees (and All the rest of the Apocrypha) are as much the Word of God, as the 5 Books of Moses, or any other: at least since the Canons of the Council at Trent, to whose Authority (forsooth) The Holy Scriptures owe Theirs. That in the Sa­crament of the Lord's Supper, it is the Interest and the Duty of every Christian to be a Canibal; even materially and grosly to eat and drink the Flesh and Bloud of The Man Christ Jesus. That the single Bishop of Rome is the Ʋniversal Pastor, Head, and Monarch, over the whole Catholick Church, both Diffusive, and Representative, though in an absolute Contradiction to Four famous Councils, (which with the Papalins [Page 154] themselves do pass for General,) to wit, of Pisa, Constance, Basil, and Siena. Not to in­sist on those other Councils, of Chalcedon, Con­stantinople, Antioch, and Africa. That there must be an Infallible Judge of Controversies on Earth, over and above the Word of God; Though they who say it are not agreed, who the Judge of them should be:See the two short Discourses of Mr. Dod­well, espe­cially the First, and the excellent Praeface to it. whether the Diffusive, or Represen­tative, or (That which They call) the Virtual Church Catholick, or Their Principium Ʋnita­tis, (as they call the Bishop of Rome,) who proudly Lords it over them All. That though nothing is to be added to The Apostles own Creed, consisting of but 12 Articles, (Each Apostle casting in One, as Ruffinus tells us,) yet the 12 more at least, thereto added by Pius Quartus and the Council of Trent, are to be sworn to, and Believed, as of equal Necessity to Life Aeternal. To sum up all in a word, No Contradiction can be so gross, no Absurdity so great, as not to be readily entertained by Those Jesuited Bigots, who have beforehand devou­red and swallow'd down without chewing That Breeding Blasphemy and Falshood,Thesis pro­pugnanda in Aulâ Colle­gii Claromon­tani, die 12. Decembris A. D. 1661. See the plea of Monsieur Talon Advo­cat General against This Thesis, in the New Haeresie of Jesuitism, p. 242, 243. and of the same Book, p. 3. & 4. That the Pope is as Infallible as Jesus Christ, as often as he speaks ex Cathedrâ, even without a General Council, not in Questions onely of Right, but in [Page 155] those of Fact also. Let no man therefore de­ceive us with his pretended Infallibility, more than with his being God, or wholly Impeccable upon Earth. For He who cannot be deceiv'd, can as little Sin; they are Attributes peculiar to God alone.

§ 18. But now 'tis time that I proceed to the second general Member of Sub-Division, by which a Caveat was enter'd against Deceipts of all sorts, as well of the best, as the worst of Men. For

As heed is to be taken that no evil man deceive us by good Appearances and Praetenses; so there is use of as great heed, that no good man deceive us (against his will) by the evil Example of his Miscarriage. There being at least as much danger of the one, as of the other. If we allow our selves to Ab exemplo & simili tot sunt experi­menta falla­ciarum, quòt hominum ca­pita: dum quilibet asse­qui vult quemlibet, dum exemplo dicit se vi­vere talium, quos approbat Ecclesia & canonizat, &c. Gerson Tract. 8. de custodiâ An­gelorum par­titio 3. super Magnificat. think we may safely do, what some very good People have done be­fore us, the consequence of it will be This, that we shall imitate the worst in the best of Men, and leave the best to be Their peculiar. And there­fore here 'tis very fit for our observation, that 'twas not said by our Saviour (Matth. 10. 17.) [...], beware of Men, that is of Some men, (Those of the Consistories or Sane­drim amongst the Jews, who yet are aimed at [Page 156] in especial manner,) But with an article prae­fixt, [...], beware of Men, that is, of all men in general, not excepting the very best. For let Erasmus and Vatablus say what they will, the praefixing of the article seems to import the whole species; as Tostatus and Casaubon at least do judge. Let us not say therefore withNon credi­bile est Sa­ram foemi­nam sanctissi­mam id fac­turum fuisse, nisi licitum esse scivisset. Bellarm. lib. de Matrimo­nio cap. 2. Bellarmin, that so good a Wo­man as Sarah had never prompted her Husband to lie with Hagar, if she had not well known it to have been lawfull. No nor yet with aAugustin. in Gen. Quaest. 26. & contra Faustum Manich. l. 22. c. 23. grea­ter man, that Abram might dissemble and tell a lie to save his life. Nor think the better of A­dultery or wilfull Murther, for being committed even by David after a state of Regeneration. Nor look upon Incest itself as venial, because 'twas acted even by Lot, who in the holy Scrip­ture is stiled Righteous. Nor imagin it does the rather consist with Wisedom to be Idolatrous, for that Solomon Himself did worship Idols, who is renowned for his Wisedom throughout the World. Nor be so illogical as to conclude in the behalf of Polygamy, because so honest a man as Jacob had two Wives at once, and is no where reproved in all the Scripture. Nor may we give an ear to Them who do excuse the worst Impieties of all such men as have been Regenerate, by im­puting [Page 157] them wholly to the infirmity of the flesh, and not as well to the filthiness of the Spirit. Some there are who are serious in the use of such Logick, (be it spoken to the disgrace of their wit and learning,) though it is patcht up of nothing but one gross Fallacy, à benè divisis ad malè conjuncta. Many things are very false in a compound sense, which being divided are very true; and many are true being compounded, which in sensu diviso are very false. David was holy, and committed wilfull Murther in con­junction with Adultery; But it was not com­mitted by holy David. (for This would imply a Contradiction in adjecto.) He was holy be­fore, and holy after, but in a state of Ʋnholiness and Condemnation whilst he lay snoring in his impieties (as he did for some months) without repentance. So Solomon was wise, and a Wor­shipper of Idols; But he was not Then wise, when he stood guilty of Idol-Worship. Solomon and Solomon were just as different, as Peter in the Hall, and behind the Door: or as the Book of Kings, and the Book of Ecclesiastes. When That impiety was committed, it was by Solo­mon the Fool, who recover'd not his Wisedom till he repented; that is to say, till he amended, and chang'd his life, till he became a new Crea­ture, [Page 158] and brought forth fruits meet for Repen­tance.

§ 19. And if heed is to be taken that no good man deceive us, we may not sure neglect Him who has nothing of good but in bare appea­rance. If the former may deceive us by the ex­ample of his Sin, well may the later deceive us too by the lying sanctity of his life. Then let not any man deceive us by any means. 2 Thess. 2. 3. Neither by giving smooth Speeches, nor by wearing rough Garments; Zech. 13. 4. Neither by using Foxes words, Eph. 5. 6. nor by having Sheeps Cloathing; Matth. 7. 15. Neither by Spirit, nor by Letter. Not by the current of his Prosperity, not by the reddiness of his Pray­ing, not by the commonness of his Preaching, not by the plausible Demureness (called the God­liness) of his Practice. For the Devil were but a Dunce, in case he could not fish (whilst he is angling after Souls) with more Baits than These; and too contemptible a Mimick, if a­mongst all his cunning Actings he could not personate a Saint.

§ 20. But this is not All which does pro­perly belong to a Christian's Caution. We must not onely take heed that no man deceive us, but as great heed is to be taken that we our selves deceive no man, and (more than That) that [Page 159] we undeceive others who are deceiv'd. We must contend for the Faith, and we must do it also with earnestness, (as S. Jude exhorts us all in the 4^th. verse of his Epistle,) not onely be in the right our selves, but labour to bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are de­ceiv'd. We must labour by our Arguments, as well as Prayers, to strengthen them that al­ready stand, to comfort and help the weak-hearted, to lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble Knees, to raise up such as we know are fallen, and by any means possible to Tread down Satan under all our feet.

§ 21. We see there is Danger on every side, both within us, and without us, both in solitude, and in company, whether our Company does consist either of evil, or good men, we had need have our Eyes and our Wits about us. We have need of it at all times, but above all in such as These, to which our Lord does here allude in the Text and Context which lies before us. And This would lead me, if I would follow, to the Third particular in the Division; to wit, the Time, or Occasion, wherein the use of this Care will be most in season. But This I confess is such a difficult and such a slippery kind of Doctrin, as of which I had rather make a very [Page 160] private use, than run the publick risque of an Application. For in such an Auditory as This, (consisting of All that is Great and Prudent,) for Me to adventure to make a Search into Those particulars, out of which our publick dangers are most arising, were to discourse concerning Tacticks to such as Hannibal and Scipio; or to Demetrius the Poliorketick concerning the Ta­king of a Town. And therefore leaving to men of Counsel their proper Business, which is to sit at the Helm of Church and State, and wisely to provide for the Good of Both; I keep my self within the Modesty which is expected from a Divine. Abruptly concluding my present Ser­mon, just as S. Peter his first Epistle, with a [...],1 Pet. 5. 8, 9, 10, 11. Be sober, be vigilant; because your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion wal­keth about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist stedfast in the Faith. And the God of all Grace who hath called us to his aeternal glory by Christ Jesus, make you perfect, stablish, streng­then, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

OF FEAR As Necessary to FAITH, IN THE Well-ordering of our LIVES.

§ 1. A Caveat evermore in season, and of necessity to be press'd, and that upon every sort of Persons of all Conditions and De­grees, and this in what sense soever we please to take it.

It has its value even in That wherein the A­postle never meant it, and which (to say Truth) was much below his Consideration, to [Page 162] wit, as apply'd to any secular or worldly Sta­tion. For had we the leisure to make reflec­tion upon all Times and Places, as far as Histo­rians have brought them to us, we should find the observation to be as general, as it is whol­som, That the greatest Things and Persons, (the greatest Monarchies with their Monarchs, the greatest States-men as well as States,) have Then been nearest to a Downfall, when they have been in all appearance the most establish'd. How many are there in the world in whom Ex­tremities have concenter'd? And as the two Globes of Heaven and Earth do mutually touch in a single Point, so there is nothing more fre­quent, than for Conditions of as great Distance as the Nadir and the Zenith to meet in one and the same Man. Nebuchadnezzar the most ex­alted, and the most abject in all Assyria. A­pries the best provided, and the most destitute thing in Aegypt. Polycrates the fortunatest and the unfortunatest man of Samos: Deified one day, and crucified the next. Polydorus the most belov'd, and the most hated of Lacedaemonians. Periander the very wisest, and most besotted of the Corinthians. Sejanus the most admir'd, and most contemptible man in Rome. Diony­sius the fiercest Tyrant, and tamest Paedogogue [Page 163] in Greece. Therefore the Apophthegm of Solon was not so witty, as it was true, That no man's happiness can be certain before his Death. Diog. Laert. l. 1. And 'twas for this reason onely, that Cleobis and Bi­ton were praeferr'd before Croesus in point of Bliss, that They were dead, and died well; where­as He, with his Prosperities, was yet but li­ving; And neither knew how he should End, nor what Evenements might befall him 'twixt This and That. My Text had therefore been very pertinent and of moment, had it exhorted to nothing better, than human Prudence; or provided for nothing more than an outward Safety.

§ 2. But as nothing can profit a man to pur­pose,Prov. 11. 4. which cannot profit him at all in the day of Wrath, so no Prudence can be sufficient, but That by which a man stands in the Evil day. Eph. 6. 13. Not in the day of Temptation onely, But in the hour of Death, and the Day of Judgment. Nor can we pronounce of our Condition, as it is spiritual and aeternal, but by beginning our Accompt from our later End. Which because without Prophecy we cannot do, (as Jeremy did by Zedekiah,)Prov. 28. 14. therefore happy is the man that feareth always, as Salomon by his experience was taught himself to teach others. Prosperity [Page 164] is one thing, and Happiness quite another. We may be sure, whilst we live, that we are more or less prosperous; But whether more or less happy, we must live and die too to assure our selves. Death alone is That Point, in which the Terrestrial and Coelestial Globes meet, if they meet at all. And as the Tree falleth, just so it lyeth. S. Paul himself, whilst yet a Passenger, and not within sight of his Journy's End, (whilst he was yet but in the Valley, far enough from having ascended unto the Top of Mount Nebo, from whence he might have seen his Crown of righteousness,) was so afraid to loose his Station, and to fall from his own sted­fastness, 2 Pet. 3. 17. (which S. Peter provides against too) that he did beat down his Body, and carefully bring it into subjection, and all for this mo­mentous,1 Cor. 9. 27. though modest reason, lest whilst he preached unto others, He himself might become a Castaway. And being as carefull of other Mens, as of his own aeternal Interest, he did as tender­ly admonish them as he had done his own Soul. Giving this Caveat to all in general, though written in special to his Corinthians, Let him who thinketh that he stands, take heed lest he fall.

§ 3. In which words we have Three things [Page 165] observable. First, a tacit Dissuasive from carnal Confidence and Security. Next an ex­plicit Exhortation to Christian Prudence. Last­ly, the Reason of Both at once from a great Danger on the one side, and in consequence of That, from as great a Necessity on the other The Danger is not so trivial, as That of falling with holy Job, from an high Pitch of Wealth to the Depth of Poverty; or with the brave Aristomenes, from a Pinnacle of Glory into the Gulph of Lacedaemon; Nor is the Danger no more affrighting, than That of falling with Je­remy into Jonathan's Dungeon, or with Daniel into the Den of the hungry Lions. But here the Danger is of falling from Light to Dark­ness; from an high pitch of Grace, the Favour of God, into a Bottomless Asphaltites of Fire un­quenchable. Some there were who did not think there could be any such Danger, to them that stood as They did (or as they thought they did at least) in a state of Grace. Such were the Gnosticks alluded to in several verses before my Text. But 'tis below S. Paul's Reason, and inconsistent with his Sincerity, to write of Danger where there is None; or to forewarn us of a Mischief which cannot possibly come to pass. In bidding us look unto our footing, he [Page 166] takes it for granted that we are liable to a Fall. And accordingly 'tis the sense of our common Mother the Church of England, (in the 16^th. of her 39 Articles,) That after we have recei­ved the Holy Ghost, we may depart from Grace given, and fall into Sin, though by the Grace of God too we may rise again. Now the greater our Danger is by carnal confidence and security, the greater need we stand in of a Christian Pru­dence. And This, though but One, is such a Cardinal vertue, that 'tis really a Guardian to all the rest. Especially as consisting of those three parts, Providence, Caution, and Circum­spection, without which it is impossible (as nicely distinguish'd by theAquin. 22. q. 48. c. & 22. q. 49. art. 6, 7, 8. School-men) for Christian Prudence to be complete. For first of all we must have Providence, to cast about for such means as are conducing unto our End. Next we must have Circumspection, whereby to attend to every Circumstance wherewith the Means are to be cloath'd. Last of all we must have Caution, for the avoiding of those Impedi­ments, which may otherwise hinder our Course of vertue, and unhappily interrupt us in bring­ing the Means unto the End.

§ 4. Now to These three parts of a Christian Prudence, there are three sorts of men who are [Page 167] here exhorted; either directly in the Text, or in its relation to the Context.

First, consider we the Text in its meer lite­ral importance, [...], Let him who seems to himself to stand, and that as fixt as an Anti­nomian, even by Grace irresistible; by having been justified from Aeternity; by having had all his Sins forgiven, so long before they were com­mitted; or by being not able to Sin at all; so as in His imagination he cannot possibly depart from the Living God; Heb. 3. 12. (which yet the Epistle to the Hebrews does bid him take heed of;) who seems to himself to stand so firmly, as that he cannot fall a little, much less totally; much less fi­nally from Grace; Let Him, (I say) as well as others, take heed lest he fall.

Next, consider we the Text as it looks back upon the Context, (from the first Verse unto the eleventh,) and thereby acquaints us with its more rational importance. Let him, (who does not only seem to himself to stand, but) who stands in good earnest by ghostly strength; by having had his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel; Eph. 6. 15. by having been cleansed from his Sins in the Bloud of Christ, and in the Baptism of Tears, which arise from the Spring of sincere Repentance; Let him not think it a thing be­low [Page 168] him, to take great heed, that he do not fall. For the Israelites from the first to the tenth verse of this Chapter, were all in Covenant with God; did all partake of those priviledges which he vouchsafed them as his Children; were all bap­tized unto Moses in the Cloud, and in the Sea; did all injoy the same Miracles; were fed with Manna sent down from Heaven; refresh'd with Water out of Horeb, gushing forth from a dry and a barren Rock; They mystically tasted of Christ Himself, (v. 4.) But yet as firmly as they stood, we find their feet slipt. For first they stagger'd in the Faith; Then they stumbl'd into Idolatry; Next they fell in the Wilderness, (all excepting two persons,) and were destroy'd of the Destroyer, (v. 5. and 10.) All which things (saith our Apostle) happen'd to them for Ensamples, and are written for our instruc­tion on whom the ends of the world are come, (v. 11.) From whence He rationally draws This signal Corollary and Caveat, (for we see 'tis Both at once, and is accordingly brought in with the Causal Wherefore,) Let him who thin­keth that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Yet one step farther. Let him who stands faster than other men who do truly stand, almost as fast in reality, as the Gnosticks in the Con­text [Page 169] did in their proud Imagination; as fast as David and S. Peter in their high pitch of Grace; as fast as Adam in That of Innocence; or as the bright Morning Stars in That of Glory; Let him (I say) as well as others, yea let him above others take heed lest he fall. The reason is, because His Fall, if he falls, must needs be the greater and less excusable, the higher and fir­mer his Station is, and the greater his Ability to stand his Ground. The Angels that fell from as high as Heaven, and that without a Tempter too, even for this very reason (as I ob­served once before) could not fall less than as low as Hell; and so Their Fall was without Re­covery. For when God was in Christ reconci­ling the World unto himself, he did not take upon him the Nature of Angels, whereby to give the faln Regiment a Capability of rising, (however Origen and his Disciples would have given it had they been able,) and that for the reason I just now hinted. Whereas the lapsed Man Adam, newly taken out of the Earth, and whose Foundation was in the Dust, had both the Sub­tilty of a Tempter, and the Strength of a Tempta­tion, and (together with his Innocence) a Frailty of Nature; all which did excuse him at least à Tanto; whereby he became the properer [Page 170] object of God's Compassion as well as Justice, and so the more fit for a Restauration. From whence I humbly conceive I may infer with good Logick, that by how much the firmer our footing is, by so much the greater, and not the lesser, our heed ought to be that we do not fall.

I have hitherto shew'd the Meaning and the Cohaerence of the Text, and how 'tis necessary for all, of all Conditions and Degrees, by whichsoever of its handles men please to hold it. And I have laid out the several matters to be meditated upon in its Prosecution.

§ 5. But being seriously desirous to speak as usefully as I can, and that within the Time al­low'd, I am to take and give notice of three sorts of Libertines in these our days, who ei­ther have wilfully transcrib'd, or else have stum­bl'd accidentally upon some of the worst of Hae­resies in the Primitive Times; and are as dange­rous to others, as destructive to Themselves. Some are of opinion, that if Vessels of Election, they Manichaeus electos suos, quos inter a­nimas Pla­tonis in coe­lestibus col­lecat, dicit omni carere peccato, nec si velint, peccare posse. Hieron. ad Ctesiph. ad­versus Pelag. Tom. 2. p. 252. cannot Sin do what they can. They are placed in such a state of Impeccability, that on a supposal of their willingness, they are not able to do amiss. And This expresly was the Haeresie of The infamous Manichaeus, as S. Jerome tells Ctesiphon; adding also that Priscilian was a [Page 171] Bird of that Feather. Others are of opinion, that though they can commit Sin, God cannot see it in his Elect. And This expresly was the Haeresie of Marcus, who taught the poor and rich Women whom he debauch'd and made His, that they might fearlesly and freely be as volup­tuous as they pleas'd, [...]. Epi­phan. Hae­res 34. ex Iren. l. 1. c. 8. & 9. p. 72. Hom. Iliad. 5. because by vertue of their Redemption they were [...], at once inapprehensible and invisible to the Judge. Just as Homer feign'd Pallas to have cover'd her self with Pluto's Helmet, that so she might not be seen by Mars. (A Privilege as sensless, as That which was allow'd to the Ring of Gyges.) There is a Third sort of Thinkers, who say that God can see Sin, but cannot punish it in his Elect, or impute it to them; and that they are so sure-footed, that though they slip never so grosly, or stumble never so often, yet for all That they can never fall, not only not finally, but but not so much as for a Time. And This ex­presly was the Haeresie of Jovinian, Hieronymus adversus Jo­vinianum l. 2. Tom. 2. p. 69. &c. (which S. Je­rome in a whole Book has very effectually con­futed,) that They who once have been regene­rate in the Laver of Baptism, cannot be tempted by the Devil, so as to cease being regenerate. We have the Sum of all Three (and the Sequel too) in the one Valentinian Haeresie, which [Page 172] was one of the first, and the worst of all; as the holy Father and Martyr Irenaeus shews it at large. What the Malignity of it is, and to how deep a degree of Wickedness 'tis apt at least in its nature to betray them that own it, They Themselves have best told us by This Similitude, [...], &c. Iren. l. 1. p. 26. That as a Mass of pure Gold in the foulest Dirt does not lose so much as its beauty, much less its nature, but still retains the whole goodness and worth of Gold; so let the Saints, that is Them­selves, lie and wallow whilst they will in the Mire of Sins, and in those Sins especially whereof the Scripture saith plainly, that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, yet they cannot thereby lose their spirituality and perfection. Gal. 5. 21. They cannot cease from being Bran­ches of That true Vine, 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. into which they were once ingrafted.

§ 6. Now that other mens Dangers may be employ'd to keep us safe, and that other mens real Miseries may be improv'd to our being Happy, we must convince our selves throughly of the Truth of this Doctrin, which in my Text is most clearly and unavoidably imply'd; To wit, that He who now stands in a Christian State, of Repentance, and Conversion, and a blotting out of Sins, (which is Justification,) may possibly [Page 173] fall into a dangerous yea and a damnable Con­dition, unless he takes such strict heed, as our blessed Apostle does here injoyn. And here I cannot but be sorry, that so clear a Text as This should stand in need of any Sermon to give it Evidence. That our Apostle's Exhortation should be so little argumentative in some mens minds, that we must light up our Candles to shew his Sun. I much admire that those Liber­tines, who think they stand in no need of this holy Caveat, are not sufficiently convinc'd by their own Experience, that since their having been regenerate in the Sacrament of Baptism, which is (no less than Circumcision) aRom. 4. 11. Seal of the righteousness of Faith, they have faln into deadly and wasting Sins. Lord! how ma­ny Sons and Daughters of our one Common Mother, the Church of England, have renounced the very Baptism, by which alone they were Chri­stianiz'd, have abandon'd the House of Prayer, and in it the Lord's Table, and on it the outward Sign of invisible Grace? have fallen away before our faces into the scandalous commissions of Schism and Haeresie? have turn'd apostates from the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints? have indulgently marched on in the ways of Corah, in the Sins of Sacrilege, and Re­bellion, [Page 174] and still are snoring in the Impieties of being heady, Jude 8. high-minded, Despisers of Dominion, and Evil speakers of Dignities, Rom. 13. 1, 2. ever Opposers of Authority ordain'd by God, which is to be a worse Thing than a Common Drunkard?

§ 7. How many Examples are there in Scri­pture of final Apostasie from Grace, or from a State of Regeneration, enough to dit the widest Mouth of the daring'st Gnostick? How many of God's peculiar people under the Law, did fall away from their acknowledgment of the onely true God, into the worst of all Sins, which is Idolatry, and into the worst of all Idolatries, which is the worshipping of Devils, and into the worst of that worst too, not by offering their Sheep and Oxen, Psal. 106. 37. but their own Sons, and their own Daughters unto Devils?Isa. 1. 21, 22, 23. which compare with Hos. 4. 1, 2, 6. How did the faithfull City become an Harlot? how did her Silver be­come arrant Dross? She was once full of Judg­ment; Righteousness lodged in her, but now Murtherers. Be astonished, O ye Heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, (as God himself spake by the Prophet Jeremy,)Jerem. 2. 12, 13. for my People have committed two evils, forsaken me the foun­tain of living waters, and bewn them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns which hold no water. 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thy self, in that thou hast [Page 175] forsaken the Lord thy God? 21. I had planted thee a noble Vine, wholly a right seed; How then art thou turned into the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto me? Nor is it onely under the Legal, but under the Gospel Dispensation, that many begin to build well on a good foundation,Luk. 14. 30. but do not finish. ManyGal. 3. 3. end in the flesh, who be­gan in the Spirit; and Many are Matth. 20. 16. called, but few are chosen. Many are sanctified, but few are sav'd. Many are justified for a time, but very few in comparison do persevere unto the End. That saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 12, 13. [The love of many shall wax cold, but he that indureth unto the end shall be saved,] S. Paul reflecting on,Matth. 24. 12, 13. has explained Thus: That some in the later times shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to seducing Spirits, and doc­trines of Devils: 1 Tim. 4. 1. speaking lyes in hypocrisie, ha­ving their Conscience seared with an hot iron. There the word in the Original is very obser­vable: They shall depart (saith the English,) [...]) (saith the Greek,) They shall aposta­tize from the Faith of Christ. A very evident opposition unto final perseverance, in Both those Places; and 'tis as evident that the Apostasie there prophesied of, is from a State of Sanctifi­cation. For the Love waxing cold, and the [Page 176] Faith departed from, (That expressed by our Saviour, and This by our Apostle,) are the same in both Texts, in which they ought to have per­sever'd. So again in the first Chapter of the same Epistle to Timothy, S. Paul exhorts him to hold fast faith, 1 Tim. 1. 19, 20. and a good Conscience, which some (says He) having put away, concerning Faith have made shipwrack. That This was justifying Faith which was thus put away, and suffer'd shipwrack, may appear by two reasons clearly arising out of the Text: First, because it was That, to the holding fast of which S. Paul does there exhort Timothy; next, because it was That, which was attended with a good Con­science. Joh. 15. 6. If a man (saith our Saviour) abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a Branch, and is withered, and cast into the Fire: clearly spo­ken of a Reprobate who had formerly been in Christ, but abideth not in him, and was there­fore cast forth as a wither'd branch. A Text to which our Apostle in probability does allude, where he tells us of certain Branches broken off, Rom. 11. 17, & 20. from The Olive Tree, though once partakers of the Root and Fatness of it; and broken off they were for their unbelief. From whence he exhorts his Believing Romans to beware, lest they who now stand by Faith, do also fall into infidelity; [Page 177] and They be also broken off, who are grafted in. There are that hear the word of God, Matth. 13. 20, 21. and re­ceive it with Joy, and indure for a while in that good Course, and yet in time of Persecution they are offended and fall away, saith our blessed Lord.1 Tim. 6. 10. Some have erred from the Faith through the Love of money, saith S. Paul to his Son Ti­mothy; and in the Eighteenth of S. Matthew, the Servant forgiven, v. 32. was yet condemn'd, v. 35. The same is signified by the Parable of an unclean Spirit cast out by Repentance,Matth. 12. 44. or re­generation, and re-entring by a Relapse into the House of a man's Heart well swept and garnish'd, and that with 7 Devils, worse (if possible) than himself, so as the Person he repossesseth is worse than ever. Which very Parable of our Saviour S. Peter seems to point at in the plainest terms; whilst he tells us of some,2 Pet. 2. 20, 21, 22. so intangled and over­come by those pollutions of the world which before they had escap'd, as that their later end was very much worse then their beginning. Again 'tis said by the same Apostle, in the Chapter going before,2 Pet. 1. 9. that He who lacketh those things by which he is to make his Election sure, has for­gotten that he was purged from his old Sins, that is to say, that he was regenerate.

§ 8. Whosoever is not satisfied with what I [Page 178] have hitherto alledg'd out of holy writ, let him tell me what he thinks of That unpardonable Sin,Matth. 12. 31, 32. The Sin against the Holy Ghost. Let him say whether that Sin can ever be possibly com­mitted, unless by one who was once enlightned, and had tasted of the heavenly Gift, Heb. 6. 4, 5. had been made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, and of the good word of God, and the powers of the World to come. Let him weigh the fourth Verse, and compare it with the Sixth of the Sixth Chapter to the Hebrews, and Both together with the Com­ment of learned Calvin thereupon, if he will not trust That of our most learned Dr. Ham­mond. Let him consider if 'tis not possible for such a man to fall away who is so enlightned; and if 'tis not impossible for such a man falling away from such a Station and State of Grace, to be renew'd again unto repentance. But above all let him consider the [...] in the sixth verse of That Chapter, which signifies ex­presly a second regeneration, and every second implies a first. The Apostle does not say bare­ly, it is impossible to renew them (if such as they fall away,) but that 'tis impossible to re­new them again; clearly intimating unto us these two Illations: First, that a man may so fall from a State of Grace, as not to be able to [Page 179] rise again; Next, that the Grace he falls from was such as gave him a Salvability; or such as by which he was in a State of Regeneration.

§ 9. Being about to carry my proof from Ʋniversals to Individuals, I shall not instance in Saul, with S. Cyprian and S. Austin; much less in Ahab, with S. Jerom and S. Chrysostom; much less yet in Cain and Esau; nor yet in A­lexander, and Demas, Philetus, and Hymenaeus, Phygellus and Hermogenes, 2 Tim. 2. 17. who were Deserters of Christ in his Apostles, 2 Tim. 4. 10. Wasters of Conscience, 2 Tim. 1. 15. and Shipwrackers of Faith; I shall not instance in Do­rotheus who fell away to serve Idols at Thessalo­nica; nor yet in Nicolaus, who, though one of the seven Deacons, was yet the Author of that old Haeresie which carries the Name of The Ni­colaitans; much less shall I instance in the most excellent of the Haeresiarchs, Nestorius, Photinus, Apollinaris, and Pelagius; (for these last may be the subjects of great Dispute; and whatsoever may be true in the Judgment of Faith, yet the Judgment of Charity forbids me to affirm that These did finally fall away:) But of Judas I suppose there is no Dispute. For He was chosen by Christ as one of the Twelve select Apostles, Joh. 6. 70. and is said to have been given by God the Father to God The Son, [Page 180] whose word he kept for some time, Joh. 17. 6. and was justified by Faith, v. 8. prayed for by Christ, not as one of the World, but as His pecu­liar, v. 9. He confess'd and taught Christ, and did Miracles in his Name, Matth. 10. 5, 7, 8. He was one of Christ's Sheep, v. 16. had been grafted into Christ, Joh. 15. 2. notwithstanding all which, he did not onely fall from, but be­tray his Master, hang'd himself as a man Lost, and is call'd by our Lord expresly, [...], The Son of Perdition.

§ 10. I would not here be so mistaken, as if I meant that God's Elect can fall away finally from Grace. I am so very far from That, that I affirm it to be impossible, and to imply a Con­tradiction. For They and They onely are God's Elect, who do finally persevere in a Christian Course; who being delivered out of the hands of their Enemies, do not onely serve God in ho­liness and righteousness, (for so do many that are called, and are not chosen,) but they serve him in Both together All the days of their Lives; as Zachary goes on in his Benedictus. We must therefore so distinguish in our Discourse of this subject between The Regenerate and The Elect, as still to carry in our minds as well their Diffe­rence as their Agreement. In This they agree, [Page 181] that all The Elect are still Regenerate; In This they differ, that all The Regenerate are not Elect. The former may and do often, the later cannot fall finally from Grace. Concerning the for­mer, and Them alone, all the Scriptures I have urged and argued from must be understood. For the later are onely They, who doMatth. 24. 13. indure unto the End. Onely They that overcome, and so are said to have a right to the Tree of life. Rev. 21. 7. & 22. 14. The Elect are onely They,2 Pet. 1. 10. that can finally never fall; for if they could, they could not have been e­lected to life eternal.

And yet even of These I am to say in the se­cond place, that they fall totally, and for a Time, many of them, and of the Best too. Not onely Solomon, and Aaron, and David himself in the Old Testament, but all the Apostles in the New, and S. Peter above them all, are uncon­trouble Examples of This sad Truth; if Idola­try, and Adultery, and wilfull Murther, if Ly­ing, and Cursing, and wilfull Perjury, and a repeated abjuration of Jesus Christ, are Sins in­consistent with saving Grace, and the inhabita­tion of God the Holy Ghost. 'Tis true indeed that The Elect who fall away for a time into Deadly Sins, and so by consequence, whilst im­penitent, into a State of Damnation, cannot [Page 182] possibly die 'till they have repented; because they have This Seal upon them, The Lord know­eth them that are His. But This which is offer'd as an Answer to what I say, is an irrefragable Argument to evince the Truth of it. For if Da­vid (for example) could not die till he repen­ted, it is for this reason onely, that he could not be sav'd without Repentance; and that before he repented, he was in a State of Condemnation. Saving Grace and Impenitence cannot simul & semel be in one and the same Man. 'Tis the Condition of the great and precious promises in the Gospel, and in effect the whole Covenant 'twixt God and Man, that all shall be saved with repentance, 2 Chron. 15. 1, 2. and None without it. Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin, (said The Spirit of God by Azariah,) The Lord is with you, whilst ye be with Him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. So again by The Prophet Ezekiel,Ezek. 33. 18. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby:ver. 15. and if the wicked walk in the Statutes of life, he shall surely live. Pro­mises and Threats are both alike conditional, not onely under the Law, but as expresly under the Gospel. It is the saying of Christ himself, Who­soever [Page 183] shall confess me before men,Luk. 12. 8, 9. Him shall the Son of man also confess before the Angels of God. But he that denieth me before men, shall be de­nied before the Angels of God. 'Tis S. Paul's to the Christians who were at Rome in his days, that God will render to every man according to his works.Rom. 2. 6, 7, &c. To them who seek for Glory by con­tinuance in well-doing, aeternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the Truth, Indignation and Wrath. And again, If ye live after the flesh,Ch. 8. v. 13. ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live. And yet more plainly to our purpose, Col. 1. 21, 23. in his Epistle to the Colossians, You who were Enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he reconcil'd, if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard. And in like manner to the Corinthians,1 Cor. 15. 1, 2. Ye are saved by the Gospel, if ye hold fast or keep in me­mory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believ'd in vain. The Epistle to the Hebrews is very full to this purpose, Heb. 3. 6, 14. We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our Con­fidence stedfast unto the end. Whose House we are, if we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoy­cing of the hope firm unto the End.Heb. 10. 38, & 39. Now the Just [Page 184] shall live by Faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Plainly intimating in This, what is taken for granted in the very next verse, that from the same kind of Faith by which it is said the Just shall live, there were some in the best of Times who drew back unto Perdition. Heb. 10. 39.

§ 11. What now is the Advantage we are to make of all This? and what the Lesson, which all these Scriptures are apt to teach us? Truly the lesson is plainly This: That if the End of our Prayers, if the End of our Hopes, the End of all our Endeavours is but Conditional, and All the Promises of the Gospel are made unto us with an [If we do so and so,] we must not now boast of our being Christians, as the Hebrews once did of their being Israelities. We must not glory in our being the younger Brethren or Members of Jesus Christ, as They in their being the Seed of Abraham. We must not pride it in the Church, as They did commonly in the Tem­ple. Nor insult over the Jews, as They did foo­lishly over the Gentiles. For if God spared not Them who were the natural Branches, Rom. 11. 18, We must also take heed, 19, lest he also spare not us. If They were broken off for their unbelief, 20, and we by Faith are grafted in, the proper use we are to [Page 185] make of the observation,21, is that we boast not against the Branches; that we be not high-minded, but rather fear; 22, for we bear not the Root, but the Root us. We must consider both the Good­ness, and Severity of God, and the Grounds of Both: on them that fell, Severity; but towards us, Goodness; with an If we continue in his Good­ness. Otherwise we shall be broken off too; and They shall be grafted in again, 23. if they do not still abide in their unbelief. We cannot reasonably desire a clearer State of this matter, than in That whole Passage of the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans. And therefore seeing it is imploy'd by our blessed Lord,Matth. 5. 13. that even The Salt of the Earth may lose its Savour, and become good for nothing, but to be utterly cast out, and trodden under foot; Joh. 15. 5, 6. that a Branch of the true Vine may lose its Verdure, and become good for nothing, but to be cast into the Fire; I thought it good (as S. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 12, 13, 15. & ch. 3. v. 1, 2. speaks) to put you in mind of these things, although ye know them already, and are established in the Truth. And still I think it good (with the same S. Peter) to press the giving all diligence for the making of our calling and election sure. 2 Pet. 1. 10. I think it good (with S. Pe­ter) to say,Ch. 3. v. 17. Beware, lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked, fall from your own [Page 186] stedfastness. If God was so provoked by the Children of Israel, (to whom the Conditional Promise was made) that he swore in his Wrath, Heb. 3. 11. they should not enter into his Rest, because they fail'd of the Condition on which the promise was made; Then I may sure without Praesum­ption draw the very same Ʋse from That tremen­dous matter of Fact, which the Inspired Writer makes in the very next Verse,ver. 12, Take heed, Bre­thren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd, 13. To Day, lest any of you be hardened through the de­ceiptfulness of Sin. Heb. 4. 1. And again, Let us fear (saith the same Apostle) lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it, or [...], to come be­hind it. I may sure without arrogance ex­hort the Best of my Hearers, much more my self, and all other Christians of my low Class, that They and We receive not the Grace of God in vain. 2 Cor. 6. 1. That They and We do look diligently, Heb. 12. 15. lest any man fail of the Grace of God; or lest any fall from it, as it is in the Margin, and is sufficiently imported by [...].

§ 12. The Sum and Upshot of all is This: [Page 187] There is in many a Seed of Grace, Mar. 4. 3, 4, &c. to verse 21. which does never bring forth the fruit of Glory. For as The Spirit of Truth makes none Infallible upon Earth, so The Spirit of Holiness makes none im­peccable, none incapable of falling into any Deadly Sin, or a Sin unto Death. The reason is, because the workings of The Spirit are onely congruous, and sufficient upon voluntary Agents, never compulsive, and irresistible. From whence it follows that The Degrees of Grace and Truth in several persons, are not at all from God's Omnipotence as it is such, or from his over-ruling Providence as over-ruling, (for Then there could not be possibly such a variety of Degrees; All persons Then must have been equally good, and onely good in perfection;) But partly from the different Dispositions, and Behaviours, and Negotiations of the Subjects with the Talents of Grace committed to them, (which some are for Luk. 19. 16, 20. imploying, and some for wrapping in aLuk. 19. 16, 20. Nepkin, as our Lord in his Parable was pleas'd to make it plain to us,) and partly from the Measures of The Spirit's Communication: which to some, is much more; to others, less; to none, irre­sistable; to all, sufficient. How very many there are that fall from that Faith and Patience, which in Job were two Rocks, which nothing [Page 188] was strong enough to shake, much less to shatter, (and yet the Grace of God in Him was never co­gent,) but being wellCol. 2. 7. rooted, and very well cultivated besides, by daily exercises of Piety, and all good Works,2 Thess. 1. 3. grew up exceedingly in his Soul, and did not wither; I say, how many there are that fall from their several Graces, that idly waste, and mispend, or wilfull squander a­way their Talents, I have hazarded your pa­tience in making it plainer than there was need; by which excess if I have err'd, I am the rather to be forgiven, because it has proceeded from the sincerity of my Desire, to beget in such as stand, a taking great heed that they do not fall. And that our Adversary The Devil may never find Ʋs, as the Messengers of the Danites found Them of Laish, Judg. 18. 7, 27. dwelling careless, and secure, after the manner of the Zidonians, and void of Business; Let it be our prime Business, from this day forewards and for ever, not onely to watch and pray lest we enter into Temptation, but to reflect on the chief Ends, and the chief Objects of the Caution commended to us. The chiefest Ends of it are the Glory of God, and our own Sal­vation. Its chiefest Objects are the Evils of Sin and Punishment; the Work itself, and the Wages of it. But in calling these The Chief, I do imply [Page 189] there are many more. Even as many as there are Dangers wherewith we are every day beset; and whereof in this Text we are advised to take heed.