Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

thofe of the Clergy, who promote and preach fuch Doctrines,Falle Doctrine is falfe Doctrine, and the Confequence of it fatal and deftruЄtive, whether he be Bishop, Presbyter or Deacon, who publishes it; and whether it be offer'd at Court, in a Cathedral, in a ParishChurch, or in a private Chappel. Urijah the High-Prieft may court fecular Favour at as dear a Rate, as Micah's Levite may carry on Idolatry for a Livehood. But a wretched Condition must a People be in, under the Conduct of fuch Time-ferving Spiritual Guides, who seek not them, but theirs: And inftead of Preaching the peaceable Gofpel of Jefus Chrift, make it their Bufinefs to fanctify Rebellion with the fuppofititious Pretence of Neceffity, and cry out of Popery, when labouring with all their Might, to bring it in Who, in former Days, I could ever have expected to fee the Thirteenth Chapter of the Epiftle to the Romans, 'prefs'd to encourage Subjects to take up Arms against their lawful Prince? Or David's humble and harmlefs Management toward his Father-in-law and Sovereign, brought as an Inftance to vindicate Rebellion, or to justify Abfalom's Attempt upon his Fathsr's Life and Throne? Yet we, in thefe Days, have seen thefe Paradoxes, maintain'd and afferted, tho' by, more ridiculous Arguments than his, who prov'd the Antiquity of Cardinals from that Paffage in the Vulgar Latin Tranflation of the Bible, Ecce Domini funt Cardines Mundi; or his, who prov'd there were no fewer than Ten Worlds, by that Question of our Lord (according to the fame Tranflation, when only one of the Ten Lepers whom he had heal'd, re

turn'd

turn'd to give him Thanks,) Nonne decem funt Mundi? So fweet a Confent has there been be tween fome lawful Poffeffors and fome unjuft Ufurpers, between fome Church and fome Conventicle-Doctors, to lay the Foundations of perpetual Unquietneffes and Revolutions.

But can our glorify'd Redeemer always bear with thefe Things? Will he fet his Seal to the Doctrine of thofe Perfons, who only abufe his Name and Commiffion, and do the moft they can to delude and mifguide those whofe Souls are committed to their Care? Will thofe who act as if they believ'd fuch Doctrines found and good, and are angry with all fuch as dare to oppofe fuch Antichriftian Errors, will they pin all the Hope of their future Salvation upon the Sleeves of fuch glozing Divines? Will all those who preach up fuch Doctrines, freely yield themfelves to be damn'd for ever, in the room of any of thofe Men whom they have by fuch Doctrine feduced and encouraged by Unchriftian Refiftance to procure and receive to themselves Damnation? It was a Time of Vengeance and fierce Anger, when God permitted Micaiah his own Prophet, to be confin'd to Prifon, because he would not chime in with, nor fpeak favourably of Abab and the idolatrous Ifraelites, but permitted a lying Spirit to enter into Ahab's Prophets, and to drive him in fpite of all Divine Warning, to lofe his Life at Ramoth-Gilead. It is, a Time of Judgment upon any People, when God gives Leave to Deceivers, to Men of Antichriftian Spirits to vend their Falfhoods boldly, and permits many poor unthinking Creatures to depend upon and believe them. In the mean

Time, as fuch Perfons bring Dishonour to Re ligion in general; (for the very Atheistical Politicians whofe wretched Tools they are, think the worse of all Religion for theirSakes;) as they bring Difgrace to their own particular Profeffion,and Mifchiefs and Dangers to others; fo they toil hard to bring certain and inevitable Damnation upon themselves. Therefore, as the Apostle fpeaks concerning fuch as have apoftatiz'd from the Gofpel, that, It had been bet-2 Pet. 2. ter for them not to have known the Way of Righ-21. teoufness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment deliver'd to them; it may be truly faid of thefe; it had been bet ter for them never to have affumed the Character of the Chriftian Priesthood, than when they have affumed it, to fall off from their Duty, and to make Ufe of his facred Name as a Cover, under which to fcatter Plagues and Poifons among the lefs wary and confiderate Multitude. No Character can fecure fuch from Deftruction any more than his Call to the Apoftleship did Judas from being an Antichrift. But, as they endeavour to fubvert the Foundations of Divine Laws under a reverenced Name and Character, fo they'll receive the juft Rewards of Deceit and Treachery at laft.

4. Thofe are Antichrifts, or acted by an Antichriftian Spirit, who will be thrusting their Sickles into Chrift's Harveft, without any lawful Call, or who are Teachers unfent, ChurchOfficers only of their own Invention, and of their own Confecration. And this appears from the Text it felf, from which we difccurs'd at firft, and from its Context. The Author of

v. 3

it, as I obferv'd at firft, is an Apoftle, one who, without all Controverfy, was lawfully fent by his Mafter for the Inftruction of Mankind. He makes the Spirit of Error and the Spirit of Antichrift to be the fame Thing: He makes the Hearing of, and Obedience to him and his Companions in the Apoftolical Office the diftinguishing Mark between the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error. Thofe who act contrary to Divine Rules, contrary to continual and primitive Ecclefiaftical Practice, contrary to the Ufage of the Apostles themselves, (as I have largely prov'd before, that all Self-fent Preachers do,) can never pretend to be Hearers of, or Submitters to the Apoftles, or thofe who have regularly fucceeded them in their ordinary Office and Power, which is the fame Thing with hearing the Apoftles themselves: And therefore they muft of Neceffity, be influenc'd, not by the Spirit of Truth, but by the Spirit of Error, and the Spirit of Antichrift. Such Men feem to be very much in the Condition of thofe of whom John 16. our Saviour fpeaks, who conclude, that they do God good Service, when they are very forward in perfecuting his Servants: So thefe, when they break thro' all Divinė Inftitutions, look upon themselves as great Advancers of the Kingdom of Heaven. It was the Charge 2 Tim. 2. given by St. Paul to Timothy, The Things which thou haft beard of me, before many Witnesses, the fame commit thou to faithful Men, who may be 1 Tim. 5. able to teach others: And again, Lay Hands fuddenl on no Man. But what Need was there of all this Care? Why muft Timothy himself ordain others? and why must he ordain only

2.

2.

22.

faithful Men, and beware of doing rafhly in the Cafe? Was not all this for the better Security of the Church of God from Antichriftianifm or falfe Doctrines and fcandalous Practices, which Things Men unfaithful, unordain'd, will always be ready to impose upon the Church And to what Purpose was all this Apoftolical Caution, if every one who thought himself illuminated from Heaven might have taken upon himself the Work of Preaching and Difpenfing the facred Ordinances of God in his Church. But I fhall not here expatiate further on this Subject: Enough will occur in making good what we propos'd to do in the

3d Place, To lay down fuch particular Cha- 3. racters, as by which we may certainly know, that the Charge of Antichriftianifm does really belong to all fuch Perfons as will take upon them the Miniftry of the Gofpel without any lawful Call to that Purpose.. What I fhall infift upon, are principally thefe:

1. By taking upon them the Difpenfation of God's Holy Word and Sacraments without a lawful Call to that Work, they bring, as far as in them lies, a Difgrace upon the infinite Wisdom of Almighty God, which is one particular Employment of an Antichriftian Spirit. The Reduction of fallen Mankind to a Capacity of enjoying eternal Happiness, as it was an Effect of immenfe Goodness, fo it was the genuine Product of incomprehenfible Wif dom too. As none would have done fo much for poor loft Creatures but God alone, fo none but he alone could have found out a Mean proVOL. II. portionable

S

« FöregåendeFortsätt »