and not to be encountered by thofe forces which truth has on its fide.

We have that honeft confidence of the goodness of our caufe and religion, that we do not fear what can be faid against it; and therefore we do not forbid our people to examine the objections of our adverfaries, and to read the best books they can write against it. But the church of Rome are so wife in their generation, that they will not permit those of their communion to hear or read what can be faid against them: nay, they will not permit the people the ufe of the holy fcriptures, which they with us acknowledge to be at least an effential part of the rule of faith. They tell their people, that after they are once of their church and religion, they ought not to hear any reafons against it: and though they be never fo ftrong, they ought not to entertain any doubt concerning it; because all doubting is a temptation of the devil, and a mortal fin. But furely that church is not to be heard, which will not hear reafon; nor that religion to be much admired, which will not allow thofe that have once embraced it, to hear it ever after debated and examined. This is a very fufpicious bufinefs; and argues, that either they have not truth on their fide, or that truth is a weak, and pitiful, and sneaking thing, and not able to make its party good against error.

I fhould now have proceeded, in the fecond place, to fhew positively what is implied in holding faft the profeffion of our faith without wavering; and then to have confidered the argument and encouragement hereto, Because be is faithful that promifed. But I fhall proceed no farther at this time.

SERMON

Let us hold faft the profeffion of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promifed.

I

The fecond fermon on this text.

Have already made entrance into these words, which
I told you do contain in them,

1. An exhortation to hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering.

2. An argument or encouragement thereto : Because be is faithful that promifed. If we continue stedfast and faithful to God, we fhall find him faithful to us, in making good all the promises which he hath made to us, whether of aid and fupport, or of recompence and reward of our fidelity to him.

I have begun to handle the first part of the text, viz. the Apostle's exhortation to Christians to be conftant and fteddy in their religion: Let us hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering. The word d'an, which we render without wavering, fignifies inflexible and unmoveable; not apt to waver, and to be fhaken with every wind of contrary doctrine, nor by the blasts and storms of perfecution. And that we might the better comprehend the full and true meaning of this exhortation, I propounded to do these two things.

1. To fhew negatively, wherein this conftancy and fteddiness in the profeffion of the true religion doth not confist. And,

2. To fhew positively, what is implied and intended here by the Apostle in holding faft the profeffion of our faith without wavering.

First, To fhew negatively, wherein this conftancy and fteddinefs in the profeffion of the true religion doth not

confift.

confift. This I fpake to the last day; and fhewed at large, that there are two things which are not contained and intended in this exhortation.

1. That men fhould not have the liberty to examine their religion, and to inquire into the grounds and reafons of it; fuch I mean as are capable of this examination and inquiry: which fome, I fhewed, are not; as children, who, while they are in that ftate, are only fit to learn and believe what is taught them by their parents and teachers and likewife fuch grown perfons, as either by the natural weaknefs of their faculties, or by fome great difadvantage of education, are of a very low and mean capacity and improvement of understanding. These are to be confidered as in the condition of children and learners; and therefore must of neceffity trust and rely upon the judgment of others.

2. This holding fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering, does not imply, that when men upon examination and inquiry are fettled, as they think and verily believe, in the true religion, they fhould obftinately refufe to hear any reafon that can be offered against them. Both these principles I fhewed to be unreasonable, and arguments of a bad cause and religion.

I fhall now proceed to explain the meaning of this exhortation, to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, by fhewing, in the

Second place, what it is that is implied in the conftant and steddy profeffion of the true faith and religion, namely, that when, upon due fearch and examination, we are fully fatisfied that it is the true religion which we have embraced, or, as St. Peter expreffes it, 1 epift. v. 12. that this is the true grace of God wherein we ftand; that then we fhould adhere ftedfaftly to it, and hold it faft, and not fuffer it to be wrefted from us, nor ourselves to be moved from it, by any pretences, or infinuations, or temptations whatsoever: for there is a great deal of difference between the confidence and ftedfaftness of an ignorant man, who hath never confidered things, and inquired into the grounds of them; and the affurance and fettlement of one who hath been well instructed in his religion, and hath taken pains to fearch and examine to the bottom, the grounds and reafons of what he holds

and

and profeffeth to believe. The firft is mere wilfulness and obftinacy. A man hath entertained and drank in fuch principles of religion by education, or hath taken them up by chance; but he hath no reason for them: and yet, however he came by them, he is refolved to hold them faft, and not to part with them. The other is the refolution and conftancy of a wife man: he hath embraced his religion upon good grounds, and he fees no reason to alter it; and therefore is refolved to stick to it, and to hold fast the profession of it stedfaftly to the end. And to this purpose there are many exhortations and cautions fcattered up and down the writings of the holy Apostles; as that we fhould be stedfaft and unmoveable, eftablished in the truth, rooted and grounded in the faith; and that we should hold fast that which is good, and not fuffer ourfelves to be carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine, through the fleight of men, and the cunning craftiness of thofe that lie in wait to deceive; that we fhould not be removed from him that hath called us unto the grace of Chrift, unto another gofpel; that we should stand fast in one fpirit and one mind, ftriving together for the faith of the gospel, and be in nothing terrified by our adverfaries; and that, if occafion be, we fhould contend earneftly for the faith which was once delivered unto the faints; and here in the text, that we should hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering. For the explaining of this, I fhall do two things.

1. Confider what it is that we are to hold fast, namely, the profeffion of our faith.

And, 2. How we are to hold it faft, or, what is implied in holding faft the profeffion of our faith without wavering.

I. What it is that we are to hold fast, namely, the profeffion of our faith; i. e. of the Christian faith or religion: for I told you before that this profeffion or confeffion of our faith, or hope, (as the word properly fignifies), is an allufion to that profeffion of faith which was made by all those who were admitted members of the Christian church by baptifm; of which the Apostle makes mention immediately before the text, when he fays, Let us draw near in full affurance of faith, having our hearts Sprinkled from an evil confcience, and our bodies washed with pure water: and then it follows, Let us hold fast the

profeffion

profeffion of our faith without wavering; the profeffion of faith which we made in our baptifm, and which by the ancient fathers is called the rule of faith, and which is now contained in that which we call the Apostles creed, and which is called by St. Paul, Rom. vi. 17. the form of doctrine which was delivered to them, i. e. to all Chriftians; and 2 Tim. i. 13. the form of found words: Hold. faft (faith he) the form of found words, which thou haft heard of me, in faith and love which is in Chrift Jefus ; and by St. Jude, the faith which was once delivered unto the faints.

So that it is the firft and ancient faith of the Christian church, delivered to them by Chrift and his Apoftles, which we are here exhorted to hold faft; the neceffary and fundamental articles of the Chriftian faith; and, by confequence, all thofe truths which have a neceffary connexion with those articles, and are implied in them, and by plain confequence are to be deduced from them. It is not the doubtful and uncertain traditions of men, nor the partial dictates and doctrines of any church, fince the primitive times, which are not contained in the holy, fcriptures, and the ancient creeds of the Chriftian church, but have been fince declared and impofed upon the Christian world, though with never fo confident a pretence of antiquity in the doctrines, and of infallibility in the propofers of them: these are no part of that faith which we are either to profess or to hold fast; because we have no reason to admit the pretences, by virtue whereof thofe doctrines or practices are impofed; being able to make it good, and having effectually done it, that thofe doctrines are not of primitive antiquity; and that the church which propofeth them, hath no more claim to infallibility, than all other parts of the Christian church; which, fince the Apostles time, is none at all.

In a word, no other doctrines which are not fufficiently revealed in fcripture, either in exprefs terms, or by plain and neceffary confequence; nor any rites of worship, nor matters of practice, which are not commanded in fcripture, are to be esteemed any part of that faith in religion, the profeffion whereof the Apostle here commands all Chriftians to hold fast without wavering;

much