and grant in the antecedent,) and that which is more than what hath been said yet; they must, upon the account of their enthralment under the said error, maintain many uncouth, harsh, irrational, venturous, and daring interpretations and expositions of many texts and passages of Scripture, and particularly of these, Gen. xvii. 7; 1 Cor. vii. 14; Acts ii. 39, and xvi. 15; 1 Cor. i. 16; 1 Cor. x. 2; besides many others, which frequently upon occasion are argued in way of defence and proof of the lawfulness of infant baptism. Now as the Greek epigram maketh it the highway to beggary, to have many bodies to feed, and many houses to build, so may it truly enough be said, that for a professor of Christianity to have many errors to maintain, and many rotten opinions to build up, is the next way to bring him to a morsel of bread, not only in his name and reputation amongst intelligent men, but also in the goodness of his heart and conscience towards God. Nor is it of much more desirable an interpretation, for such a man to appear distracted in his principles, or divided in himself. * por Tenthly, and lastly, error is in this respect also of very sad tendance unto men, viz. because being once entered within the doors of a man's judgment, it commonly bewitcheth the person with such an adulterous affection towards itself, that his foot is very hardly recoverable out of the snare. There is no error but at one turn or other, either directly or indirectly, gratifieth the flesh, or that which remains of the old man in men. Now the flesh in all men is very loath to part with any of her benefactors; to be despoiled of any principle, which speaks to her heart in any matter of ease, pleasure, honour, profit, or the like. Upon this account it cometh to pass, that error is so readily, and sometimes even greedily, entertained, and with so much difficulty, and conflicting with the judgments and consciences of men, cast out.† "None," saith Solomon, speaking of the harlot, "that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life," Prov. ii. 19. They are not many, who having once turned aside into error, return back again into the way of truth, when once they have forsaken it. Such persons commonly prove ἰσχυρογνώμονες καὶ ἐμμενετικοὶ τῇ δοξῇ, as the philosopher speaks, i. e. stout and stiff in their opinions, and men that will stand fast in their conceits. And, as another expresseth their genius, they will have that to be truth which they hold, but they will not hold that which is truth. Yea, a great part of those whose judgments and consciences are enthralled under error, and this of a very sad and dangerous import, are yet so superstitiously fearful to make use of those means which God hath expressly • Σώματα πολλὰ τρέφειν, καὶ δώματα πολλ' ἀνεγείρειν, + Nauseabit ad antidotum, qui hiavit ad venenum. Arist. Ethic. 1. vii.. c. 9. § Multi veritatem ita amant, ut velint esse vera, quæcunque amant; vid. de quodam Judæo, qui noluit Deum orare, ut illuminaret cor ejus, quia hoc esset dubitare de lege sua, etc. apud. Th. Bradward. 1. i. c. 1. Corol. part 32. Sic amatur veritas, ut quicunque aliud amant, hoc quod amatur, velint esse veritatem: et quia falli nollent, nolunt convinci, quod falsi sunt. Aug. Confess. 1. 10. c. 23. prescribed and enjoined for their deliverance, that they make it matter of conscience to refrain from hearing such teachers, and so from reading such books, and admitting such discourses, whereby their judgments might be healed, and themselves made sound in the faith. Error in this case is so full of a pestilential malignity to the soul, that whereas God hath commanded men to try all things, that so they may be in a capacity to hold fast that which is good, they, on the contrary, resolve to hold fast at peradventure that which they have, and to make no trial at all, whether it be good. or no. The premises concerning the fierce and bloody war, wherein error fights against the soul, considered, it cannot seem strange unto us, that the great lover of the peace and prosperity of souls, Jesus Christ, blessed for ever, should pour out his heart and soul unto men so abundantly, as he hath done in the gospel, in cautions, admonitions, directions, threatenings, promises, almost without end, that so, by one means or other, they might be effectually prevailed with, to use all diligence to keep themselves unspotted of such errors, which he knew the great enemy of their peace would be industriously diligent to spread and scatter up and down the world in all ages. "Believe not every spirit; but try the spirits, whether they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world," 1 John iv. 1. So, again, Try, or "prove, all things," i. e. all doctrines and sayings of men, "hold fast that which is good," 1 Thess. v. 21. Again, "Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness," &c. 2 Pet. iii. 17. Of like notion whereunto is that of another apostle : "Take heed, brethren, lest there be an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God," Heb. iii. 12. An evil heart of unbelief is never contracted, but by suffering erroneous conceits, and false persuasions concerning God, to grow upon our judgments, and corrupt them. The same apostle again: "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines," Heb. xiii. 9. Elsewhere: "That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive," Ephes. iv. 14. Again: "Let no man deceive you with vain words, Ephes. v. 6. So, "Be not deceived," 1 Cor. vi. 9. "Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit," &c. Coloss. ii. 8. "These things," saith John, "I have written unto you concerning those that deceive you," 1 John ii. 26, or seduce you, i. e. that endeavour to seduce or deceive you. The Lord Christ himself cautioneth his disciples, and in them others, ex abundanti, against false Christs and false prophets, who, as he saith, "should show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect," Matt. xxiv. 24. This operous and abundant interposure of the Holy Ghost, for ten times more of like consideration might be added, in all variety of applications unto men, which are any ways conducing to the preserving of men's judgments free, and their minds pure from error, doth with a great pregnancy of conviction argue and suppose, that errors and false conceptions in matters of religion, are of a most formidable and dangerous consequence to the precious souls of men. Far be it from any man to imagine, that the Holy Ghost should, according to the proverb, thus labour about the lifting of a feather, or be solicitous at that high rate, which hath been expressed, to prevent the lighting of a grasshopper upon the earth, where it can do little or no harm. The second thing, good reader, wherewith I desire to possess and fill thee, judgment and conscience, heart and soul, and all that is within thee, to strengthen thy hand to a diligent perusal of the treatise ensuing, is the high necessity that lieth upon thee, as it doth upon all the world besides respectively, to awake, raise, and engage all those worthy faculties and endowments which God hath vested in thee, reason, judgment, memory, understanding, about the things of thine eternal peace; and because this iron, I fear, hath been of late much blunted with the earthly conceits and suggestions of many, I am desirous to put so much the more strength to it. But to me it is the first-born of wonder and astonishment, that, amongst men professing the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the wisdom of God, yea, amongst the teachers themselves of this wisdom, men should be found who think they do God and men very good service in persuading men wholly to lay aside their reasons, judgments, understandings in matters of religion, and not to make use of or engage any of these in their inquiries after matters of a spiritual or supernatural concernment. Doubtless, Satan is a debtor to those persons who have seasoned the world with the unsavoury salt of such a principle as this, for all the religious respects and high entertainments that have of late been given by many amongst us,-to all those wicked, senseless, sapless, hideous, and blasphemous doctrines and opinions which, like the dead frogs of Egypt, Exod. viii. 14, make the land to stink. For, if men may not interpose with their reasons and judgments to distinguish between spirit and spirit, opinion and opinion, why should not one spirit be believed as well as another, and one opinion received as well as another? Or, if the difference be not to be made by the interposure and exercise of reason in a man, I demand by what other principle or means ought it to be made? If it be said, Partly by the word of God, and partly by the Spirit of God, I answer, 1. Concerning the word of God, it is acknowledged that this is to be in a special manner interested in all our dijudications between doctrine and doctrine, opinion and opinion, in matters of religion, and that this is the fire which must try every man's work, of what sort it is, 1 Cor. iii. 13, and that must separate the vile from the precious. But as the plummet and rule do not measure the work of the architect, or discover whether it be true and square or otherwise, of or by themselves, but as they are regularly applied hereunto either by the workman himself or some other capable of making such an application, for however true the work may be, a sufficient test or proof of the work cannot be made without the use of the plummet and rule about it; in like manner, though the word of God be of sovereign use and necessity for the measuring of opinions and doctrines, and for the discovery of what is straight and what crooked in them, yet he that desires to reap the spiritual benefit and advantage of the usefulness of it in this kind, must, first, rightly understand the sense and mind of God in it, and, secondly, be dexterous and expert in making a due application of it, being rightly understood, to the doctrines or opinions the soundness or unsoundness whereof he desires to understand by it; for it is not the letter or form of words, as separated or considered apart from the spirit, notion, or sense of them, that is the touchstone or rule of trial for doctrines: yea, the letter and words are only servants to the sense and notion which they contain and exhibit, and were principally, if not only, delivered by the Holy Ghost unto men for this end, that by them the sense, mind, and counsel of God, in all the particularities of them which are held forth in the Scripture, might be communicated and conveyed to the reasons and understandings of men. So that in case a man had the sense and mind of God upon the same terms of certainty and knowledge, without the letter, on which he hath it or may have it by means of the letter, he should be as richly, as completely qualified hereby to discern between doctrines as he now can be by the opportunity and advantage of the letter. Now, if the Scriptures themselves be upon no other terms, nor in any other case, serviceable or useful unto men for the trial of doctrines and opinions, but only as and when they are truly understood by them, it clearly follows that whatsoever is requisite and necessary to bring men to a true understanding of the Scriptures, is of equal necessity for the distinguishing of doctrines, and to interpose or be made use of in all affairs and concernments in religion. If, then, the reasons, judgments, and understandings of men must of necessity interpose, act, argue, debate, and consider before the true sense and mind of God in any Scripture can be duly apprehended, understood, and believed by men, it is a plain case that these are to be used, and to be interested in whatsoever is of any religious consequence or concernment to us. That the mind of God in the Scriptures cannot be duly apprehended, received, or believed by men, but by the acting and working of their reasons, minds, and understandings, in order hereunto, is evident from hence, viz., because the mind of God cannot be thus apprehended or believed by men but by means of an intellectual or rational difference tasted or resented by them between this mind of his and all other minds, meanings, or senses whatsoever that may be supposed to lie or reside in the words. For example: if there be another sense to be given of such or such a passage of Scripture, either contrary to or differing from that which I conceive to be the mind of God here, which hath the same rational or intellectual savour and taste with this, that is, which as well suits with the words, agrees with the context, falls in with the scope and subject-matter in hand, is as accordable with Scripture assertion elsewhere, comports as clearly with the unquestionable principles of reason, and the like, how is it possible for me in this case to conceive or believe, especially with the certainty of faith, that my sense is the mind of God, and consequently the true sense of that place, rather than that other which hath all the same characters, symptoms, and arguments of being the mind of God which mine hath? Therefore it must needs be by the exercise and acting of my reason and understanding, and by the report which they make of their discoveries in their inquiries, that I come regularly to conclude and to be satisfied that this is the mind of God in such or such a scripture, and none other. If it be here objected and demanded, But is it meet or tolerable that the reason of man should judge in the things of God? or that the understandings of men should umpire and determine in his affairs? I answer, 1. If God pleaseth to impart his mind and counsels in words and writing unto men, with an injunction and charge that they receive and own them as from him, and that they take heed that they do not mistake him, or embrace either their own conceits or the minds of others instead of his, in this case for men to put a difference, by way of judging and discerning between the mind of God and that which is not his mind, is so far from being an act of authority, presumption, or unseemly usurpation in men, that it is a fruit of their deep loyalty, submission, and obedience unto God. When Christ enjoined the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians to "render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's," Matt. xxii. 21, he did not only give them a warrant and commission to judge and determine what and which were the things of God, as well as which were the things of Cæsar, but laid a charge upon them also to put this warrant in execution, and this not only by judging actually which were the things of God, but by practising and acting also upon and according to this judgment. 2. To judge of God and of the things of God in the sense we now speak, is but to acknowledge, own, and reverence God and the things of God in their transcendent excellency, goodness, and truth, and as differenced in their perfections respectively from all other beings and things. The poorest and meanest subject that is may lawfully and without any just offence judge his prince, yea, or him that is made a lawful judge over him, to be wise, just, bountiful, &c., at least when there is sufficient ground for it. If it be yet further demanded, But is the reason or understanding of a man competent to judge of the things of God, as, for example, to determine and conclude what is the mind of God in such or such a passage of Scripture, or in such and such a case? Doth not the Scripture, speaking of men in their natural condition, call |