Thomas Manton · 17 of 67

Verse 3. · Part 3

2. The next office of the church is to preserve the truth, and transmit it pure to the next age. As the law was kept in the ark, so was truth delivered to the church to be kept: 1 Tim. i. 11, ‘The glorious gospel committed to my trust.’ There is a trust lieth upon us; upon the apostles first to publish the whole counsel of God, and then upon pastors and teachers in all ages to keep it afoot, and upon all believers and members of the church to see that after ages be not defrauded of this privilege. We are to take care that nothing be added, Deut. iv. 2, and xii. 32; there is enough ‘to make the man of God perfect;’ nothing diminished; none of the jewels which Christ hath left with his spouse must be embezzled; that it be not corrupted and sophisticated; for we are not only to transmit to the next age the scriptures, those faithful records of truth, but also the public explications of the church in summaries and confessions must be sound and orthodox, lest we entail a prejudice upon those that are yet unborn. Every one in his place is to see that these things be accomplished. So much for the tradition itself.

Secondly, Now for the manner, once delivered; that is, once for all, as never to be altered and changed; and when the canon or rule of faith was closed up, there was nothing to be added further, as a part of the authentic and infallible rule, though the daily necessities of the church do call for a further explication. But you will say, You told us but now how the word was many times delivered, how then once? I answer—The apostle speaketh not of the successive manifestations of God’s will to prophet after prophet till the Old Testament was perfected, but of that common doctrine which the apostles and evangelists by one consent had published to the world, and which was now to settle into a rule, and so to remain without change till the coming of the Lord. Observe, that the doctrine of salvation was but once delivered, to remain for ever without variation. Paul chideth them for being withdrawn to ‘another gospel,’ Gal. i. 6; and Peter telleth them, to prevent the reception of feigned oracles, that they had ‘a surer word of prophecy,’ 2 Peter i. 19, a safe rule to trust to; and Paul biddeth Timothy ‘continue in the things which he had learned,’ 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15; and our Lord saith, Mat. xxiv., ‘This word of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations.’ Now the doctrine of salvation is but once delivered—(1.) Because all is done so fully and perfectly, that nothing can be added; there is enough to ‘make us wise to salvation,’ 2 Tim. iii. 15, and what should Christians desire more? There is enough to ‘make the man of God perfect,’ ver. 17, that is, to furnish him with all kind of knowledge for the discharge of his office; there needeth no more; there is enough to make us wise to preach, and you wise to practise; and it is certain enough that you need not spend your time in doubting and disputing; and it is full enough, you need nothing more to satisfy the desires of nature, or to repair the defects of nature: here is sufficient instruction to decide all controversies, and assoil all doubts, and to give us a sure conduct to everlasting glory. (2.) Because this rule can never be destroyed. The word hath often been in danger of being lost, but the miracle of its preservation is so much the greater. In Josiah’s time there was but one copy of the law; in Diocletian’s time there was an edict to burn their bibles, and copies were then scarce and chargeable; yet still they were kept, and so shall be to the end of the world, for the sacraments must continue ‘till Christ come,’ Mat. xxviii. 20, and 1 Cor. xi. 26; and the word must be preached till we all ‘grow into a perfect body in Jesus Christ,’ Eph. iv. 12, 13; not only de jure, but de facto, not only it must be so, but it shall be so. Well, then, expect not new revelations or discoveries of new truths beside the word, which is the immutable rule of salvation: ‘Hold fast till I come.’ Rev. ii. 25. Again, it checketh them that expect new apostles, endowed with a spirit of infallibility, to resolve all doubts and questions. We must give heed to the scriptures, ‘till the day-star arise in our hearts,’ that is, till we have full communion with Christ; for our reward in heaven is expressed by ‘the morning star:’ Rev. ii. 28, ‘To him that overcometh I will give the morning star.’ Again, it confuteth the Familists, that dream of some days of the Spirit, wherein we shall have a greater light than is in the scriptures; they fancy the time of the law to be the days of the Father, the time of the gospel to be the days of the Son, and the latter end of the world to be saeculum Spirilus Sancti (as the Weigelians phrase it), the age of the Holy Ghost; but foolishly, for these are ‘the last times,’ Acts ii. 17, and Heb. i. 1; and the Holy Ghost was never more gloriously poured out than at Christ’s ascension, and greater things cannot be revealed to us than ‘God in Christ reconciling the world,’ Lastly, it is for the comfort of the saints that their salvation is put into a stated course, and God hath showed you what you must do if you would inherit eternal life.

Thirdly, The next circumstance is the persons to whom it was delivered, to the saints. It may be understood of the apostles, to whom it was delivered to be propagated; or of the church, to whom it was delivered to be kept, and who, in the constant use of scripture, are called saints. Observe, that saints are most interested in the acknowledgment, propagation, and defence of truth. The Christian faith was delivered to saints, and by saints, and none receive it so willingly, and defend it so zealously, and keep it so charily and faithfully as they do. (1.) The men that the Spirit of God made use of as penmen were ‘holy men,’ specially purified and sanctified for this work: 2 Peter i. 21, ‘Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;’ and Eph. iii. 5, ‘Revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.’ These men were the fittest instruments to beget an external repute to the word. Surely they would not do anything for their own ends, and obtrude their own inventions upon the world as oracles from God. A carnal man’s testimony is liable to suspicion. Who would count that wholesome that cometh from a leprous hand? Yea, those that were not of eminent sanctity were not fit for such an employment: a novel doctrine, such as the gospel seemed to be in the world, needed all the advantages that might be, to gain a title and interest in their belief; therefore did the Lord make use of such holy and self-denying persons, who expected to gain nothing but ignominy, poverty, afflictions, bonds, death; these things did abide for them in every city. (2.) Holy persons are only fit to preach the faith; sancta sanctis, holy men for holy things; it is an holy faith, and therefore fit to be managed by holy persons, that their hearts may carry a proportion with their work: Isa. lii. 11, ‘Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.’ The officers that carried the vessels and utensils of the temple out of Babylon were to take care of their cleanness. God purified Isaiah when he sent him to reprove, Isa. vi. 7, and the priests under the law that ministered before the Lord were to wash in the great laver. Re generation is the best preparation for the ministry. Others disparage their testimony, and bring a reproach upon the gospel. People think we must say somewhat for our living, and so give us the hearing, but that is all. Oh! think of it, the credit of Christ lieth at stake; and since miracles are ceased, all the external confirmation that we can add to the word is by holiness of conversation. The Levites first cleansed themselves, and then cleansed the people, Neh. xii. 30. The life of a minister is much either to edification or destruction; they take the lesson rather from your lives than your mouths, and by your levity or vanity sin cometh to be authorised: in short, either your doctrine will make your life blush, or your life will make your doctrine blush, and be ashamed. (3.) None are fit publicly to defend the truth but the holy; they speak with more power, as from the heart and inward experience, and are more zealous as being more nearly concerned. They that partake of God’s nature will soonest espouse God’s cause and quarrel, and their zeal is most pure. Carnal men pervert religious differences; they change the nature of them, turning them into a strife of words, or a contention for interests; matters are not managed so purely as when there is conscience on both sides. The saints contend best for the saints’ faith: ‘We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth,’ 2 Cor. xiii. 8. Zeal in carnal men is like fire in straw, quickly up and quickly down; but in the godly, it is like fire in wood, longer kept: ‘Wisdom is justified of her children,’ Mat. xi. 19; they are fittest to interpose. Again, false zeal is most passionate, without pity and meekness; but the flame is most pure and bright in a holy heart, which is subdued to the power of truth. (4.) None receive the truth so willingly as the saints do. Holy persons can best understand what was written by holy men, they pierce into it more deeply; as iron that is red hot runneth further into the board than a sharp tool that is cold. God unbosometh himself to his familiars, Ps. xxv. 14; John vii. 17. Holy hearts are not clouded with the mists of lusts and interests. Where there is purity there is brightness; μοῦ κάθαρσις ἔλλαμψις (Nazi. Orat. ut memini 40); the mind being separated from gross things, is fitted for the reception of spiritual mysteries. Paul saw most of God when he was blind to the world; the heart being taken off from the world, is erected to things supernatural and of a higher cognisance. (5.) None retain the truth more firmly than the saints do. Manna was kept in a golden vessel, and so is truth in a pure soul: 1 Tim. iii. 9, ‘Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.’ Holiness doth not blunt the wit, but sharpen; none have a worse spiritual sight than they that lack grace, 2 Peter i. 9. An unclean vessel soureth the liquor that is put into it; so doth a carnal heart pervert the faith and taint the judgment. Let a man once be given up to some great lust, and you shall soon find him to be given up to some roaring error also; and when once they come to ‘make shipwreck of a good conscience,’ they do not long hold the faith that was once given to the saints, for grace and truth always thrive together.

I come now to the main observation that is to be drawn from these words.

Doct. That it is the duty of Christians in times of error and seducement to contend earnestly for the faith once given to the saints. It is their duty at all times, but then especially—(1.) That we may not discredit ourselves and the truth. (2.) That we may not hazard ourselves and the truth.

1. Let me first speak to the discredit, and there I shall show—(1.) That truth is honoured by a bold and resolute defence of it. We are not ashamed of it, though it be questioned and scorned in the world: Mat. xi. 19, ‘Wisdom is justified of her children.’ Neither John’s doctrine nor Christ’s doctrine would relish with the world, yet some had a reverent opinion of it for all that: Ps. cxix. 126, 127, ‘They make void thy law, therefore I love it above pure gold.’ In times of defection our love to God and the ways of God should be the greater; as fountain water is hottest in coldest weather. It was an honour to the Christian religion that the primitive professors were glad of an occasion to die for it, and the more it was despised and persecuted, the more did they own it; falsehoods cannot endure the brunt of opposition. (2.) That we may not dishonour ourselves, and discredit our own profession. He is but an ill servant of Christ that will not serve him when ‘the Lord hath need of him;’ when God distinguisheth sides, and crieth out, ‘Who is of my side, who?’ Exod. xxxii. 26. Times of error and seducement are searching, trying times. Light chaff is carried about with every wind, but the solid grain lieth still upon the ground: ‘The approved are made manifest,’ 1 Cor. xi. 19. There is a time not only to show love, but valour: Jer. ix. 3, ‘They are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.’ To be valiant for truth is to defend it in time of opposition, and to sparkle so much the more in a holy zeal because they pervert the right ways of the Lord. A Christian must have a heart as well as a liver; not only love the truth, but contend for it, and the more earnestly the more it is opposed. The apostle saith that a bishop must ‘hold fast the word of truth,’ Titus i. 9, ἀντεχόμενον. The word signifieth a holding it fast against a contrary force; as when a man seeketh to wrest a staff out of another’s hand, he holdeth it the faster.

2. The next reason is, that we may not endanger and hazard ourselves and the truth. (1.) That we may not endanger ourselves. It is good to be able to defend religion when it is questioned; ignorant, secure, and careless spirits will certainly miscarry. Present truths and present errors have an aspect upon our interests; we must determine one way or another. Now how easily are they carried away with interests that have no principles, no ἴδιου στήριγμου, 2 Peter iii. 17, no proper ballast in their own spirits! Therefore let us strive to know the truth, to own the truth in a time of trial; it is needful. All errors and heresies are but men’s natural thoughts gotten into some valuable opinion, because backed with the defences of wit and parts. What are all the learned disputes against the truth, but the props of those vulgar misprisions and gross conceits that are in the heart of every natural and ignorant man? We have all a heretic in our bosoms, and are by nature prepared to drink in all kinds of errors and lies, and therefore we are said, Ps. lviii. 3, to ‘speak lies from the womb,’ because these things are in our natures. We are born Pelagians, and Libertines, and Papists. As in the new nature there is a cognation and proportion between us and truth, so in the old nature there is an inclination to all manner of errors. Luther saith, Every man is born with a pope in his belly. And Mr Greenham hath a saying, that if all errors, and the memorials of them, were annihilated by the absolute power of God, so that there should not the least remembrance of them remain, yet there is enough in the heart of one man to revive them again the next day. Certainly whatever is suggested from without doth very well suit with the carnal thoughts that are in our own bosoms. Look upon any error or blasphemy that is broached in the world, and you will find it true. Is atheism vented? ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,’ Ps. xiv. 1. Gentilism, or the doctrine of many gods? So do we set up many gods; whatever we fear or love, that we worship: ‘Whose god is the belly,’ Phil. iii. 19. Every man naturally is a pagan and idolater. Pelagian tenets, wherein original sin is denied, are natural. Common people think they had ever a good heart towards God: ‘All these have I kept from my youth,’ Mat. xix. 20. Chance and fortune, in a contradiction to God’s decrees, are a man’s natural opinions. So the doctrine of works and merit is in every man’s heart. What question more rife, when we begin to be serious, than ‘What shall I do?’ A ceremonious ritual religion is very pleasing to carnal sense; conjectural persuasions is but a more handsome word for the thoughts of ignorant persons; they say they cannot be assured, but they hope well. Doctrines of liberty are very suitable also to corrupt nature: ‘Cast away the cords,’ Ps. ii.; and ‘Who is lord over us?’ Ps. xii. 4. Nay, all sins are rooted in some error of judgment, and therefore they are called ‘errors,’ Ps. xix. 12. Well, then, for our own caution we had need stand for the truth, because error is so suitable to our thoughts; now when it spreadeth further, it is suitable also to our interests, and then we are in great danger of being overset. (2.) That we may not hazard the truth. When errors go away without control, it is a mighty prejudice both to the present and the next age: ‘The dwellers upon earth’ rejoiced when God’s witnesses were under hatches, and there was none to contest with them, Rev. xi. 10. Fools must be answered, or else they will grow ‘wise in their own conceit,’ Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. Error is of a spreading, growing nature, therefore it is not good to retreat and retire into our own cells from the heat and burden of the day; let us stand in the gap and make resistance as God giveth ability. Two motives will enforce this reason:—(1.) The preciousness of truth: ‘Buy the truth and sell it not.’ It is a commodity that should be bought at any rate, but sold by no means, for the world cannot bid an answerable price for it. Christ thought it worthy his blood to purchase the gospel; by offering up himself he not only procured the comfort of the gospel, but the very publication of the gospel; therefore we should reckon it among our treasures and choicest privileges, and not easily let it go, lest we seem to have cheap thoughts of Christ’s blood. (2.) The trust that is reposed in us for the next age, that is an obligation to faithfulness. We are not only to look to ourselves, but to posterity, to that doctrine which is transmitted to them; one generation teacheth another. And as we leave them laws and other national privileges, so it would be sad if we should not be as careful to leave them the gospel: ‘Our fathers told us what thou didst in their days,’ Ps. xliv. 1. Every age is to consider of the next, lest we entail a prejudice upon them against the truth. What cometh from forefathers is usually received with reverence: ‘A vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,’ 1 Peter i. 18. If you be not careful you may sin after you are dead; our errors and evil practices being continued and kept afoot by posterity. All the world had been lost in error and profaneness, if God had not stirred up in every age some faithful witnesses to keep up the memory of truth. There is in man a natural desire to do his posterity good; love is descensive. Oh! consider, how shall the children that are yet unborn come to the knowledge of the purity of religion, without some public monument or care on your part to leave religion undefiled? Antichrist had never prevailed so much if men had thought of after ages; they slept, and unwarily yielded to encroachment after encroachment, until religion began to degenerate into a fond superstition, or bundle of pompous and idle ceremonies; and now we see how hard it is to wean men from these things, because they have flowed down to them in the stream of succession, and challenge the authority and prescription of ancient customs. Look, as sometimes the ancestor’s guilt is measured into the bosom of posterity, because they continued in their practices, Mat. xxiii. 35, ‘That upon you may come all the righteous blood,’ &c.; so many times the miscarriages of posterity may justly be imputed to us, because they shipwrecked themselves upon our example: ‘The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Well, then, let us perform the part of faithful trustees, and keep the doctrine of salvation, as much as in us lieth, pure and unmixed.

Use. It presseth us to this earnestness of contention and zeal for the truths of God. We live in a frozen age and cursed indifferency hath done a great deal of mischief. Christians! is error grown less dangerous, or the truth of religion more doubtful? Is there nothing certain and worth contention, or are we afraid to meddle with such as shroud themselves under the glorious name of saints? We will not oppose saints, and so let the ‘truth’ go that was given to the saints, to be kept by them. Oh! my brethren, Paul withstood Peter to the face when truth was like to suffer, Gal. ii. 11. So should we with stand them to the face rather than make such sad work for the next age, and leave our poor babes to the danger of error and seduction. What is become of our zeal? ‘There is none valiant for the truth upon the earth.’ Prejudices and interests blind men so that they can not see what they see, and are afraid to be zealous, lest they should be accounted bitter. We have been jangling about discipline, and now doctrine itself is like to escape us. In the name of God let us look about us. Are there not crafty thieves abroad that would steal away our best treasure, and in the midst of the scuffle cheat us and our posterity of the gospel itself. We have been railing at one another for lesser differences, and now we begin to be ashamed of it. Satan hopeth that error and blasphemy itself shall go scot-free. Ah! my brethren, it is time to awake out of sleep. Whilst we have slept the enemy hath come and sown tares. What a tattered religion shall we transmit to ages to come; if there be not a timely remedy! To help you I shall show:—

1. What we must contend for.

2. Who must contend, and in what manner.

1. What we must contend for. For every truth of God, according to its moment and weight. The dust of gold is precious; and it is dangerous to be careless in the lesser truths: ‘Whosoever shall break the least of the commandments, and teach men so to do,’ &c., Mat. v. 19. There is nothing superfluous in the canon. The Spirit of God is wise, and would not burden us with things unnecessary. Things comparatively little may be great in their own sphere, especially in their season, when they are the truths of the present age, and now brought forth by God upon the stage of the world, that we may study his mind in them. Better heaven and earth should be blended together in confusion, saith Luther, than one dust of God’s truth should perish. If the Lord call us out to the defence of them, what ever cometh of it we must be faithful. A man may make shipwreck of a good conscience in small matters. Say not, ‘It is a little one, and my soul shall live.’ Hearken to Satan, and this will be a little one, and that shall be a little one, till we have littled away all the principles of faith. I tell you, the world hath counted those small things for which the children of God have ventured their all. It is your duty to ‘take the little foxes,’ Cant. ii. 15. The first appearances of error are many times modest. There is a chain of truths; the devil taketh out a link here and a link there, that all may fall to pieces. See 2 Thes. ii. 2, ‘Let no man deceive you with such doctrine as that the day of Christ is at hand.’ Why? They might say there is no great danger in that. Peter saith, ‘The end of all things draweth nigh,’ 1 Peter iv. 7. The seducers said, ἐνέστηκε, it ‘is at hand;’ and Peter saith, ἤγγικε, ‘it draweth nigh.’ Here is no great difference. Ay! but be not shaken in mind, saith Paul, ‘neither by letter nor by word nor by spirit, as if the day of the Lord were at hand;’ that is, take heed of such suggestions, under what pretence soever they are brought to you, either of revelations or collections from my doctrine; it is all a falsehood. Why is Paul so earnest? Because Satan had an aim to make them look for the sudden coming of Christ, which not happening accordingly, to make them fall a-questioning all the truths of God. So Gen. iii. 3, ‘Ye shall not eat nor touch lest ye die.’ That was Satan’s repetition. Whereas God had said, Gen. ii. 17, ‘Thou shalt surely die.’ No great difference, but Satan got a great deal of advantage by it. Therefore be not ‘ignorant of Satan’s devices.’ The Council of Nice would not gratify Arius in a letter, and Nestorius in a letter. The lesser truths are not to be slighted in their time and place; they deserve an earnest contention. The martyrs were not foolish nor prodigal of their lives; they knew what they did when they durst not give place for a moment.

All this is not spoken to justify undue rigours, such as are without any temper of Christian moderation, or those frivolous controversies about trifles, such as have no foundation in the word; as about the observance of Easter between the eastern and western churches, which difference grew so high that they excommunicated each other; or about celebrating the Lord’s Supper with leavened or unleavened bread; or the fierce bickerings between Chrysostom and Epiphanius about Origen’s books, set on by Theophilus, in pursuit of which many were slain, the senate house pulled down, and the great church at Constantinople set on fire; nor to justify mere verbal strifes about ‘words and names,’ forbidden by the apostle, 2 Tim. ii. 14; 1 Tim. vi. 4. Vainglorious men, if they can get but a different method of expression, cry, No new light, and so there is a great deal of noise stirred up about a mistake. Nor to justify the breaking of church fellowship and communion, and making rents in the body of Christ, because of difference of opinion in smaller matters, when we agree in the more weighty things. We are to ‘walk together as far as we are agreed,’ Phil. iii. 16; and externals wherein we differ, lying far from the heart of religion, are nothing to faith and the new creature, wherein we agree, Gal. v. 6, and vi. 15. The most weight should be pitched upon the fundamentals and essentials of religion; and when there is an agreement there, private differences in smaller matters should not make us break off from one another. False zeal is unevenly carried out to these lower things, both in opinion and practice; and usually young professors are eager upon disputes, impatient of contradiction, and lay out all their strength this way, to excuse their care in the more weighty matters of Christianity; whereas ‘the kingdom of God doth not stand in meat and drink, but in peace and righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ Rom. xiv. 17. The itch of disputing and zeal for an opinion, rather than religion in the main, are bad characters. Again, when men, though in the right, think there is no religion or holiness but within the compass of such an opinion, this is censorious rigour, or to be ‘righteous over-much,’ Eccles. vii. 17; or when a lesser dissent is loaded with all the odious consequences that you can fancy in your thoughts, though disclaimed by the party dissenting; when Eloi is turned into Elias, and things are perverted by a misinterpretation, as Christ’s words were, John ii. 19, compared with Mat. xxvi. 61;—briefly, when men upon every small occasion draw all things to extremity, and break out into contumely, revilings, persecution, biting and devouring one another, it is not zeal, but fierceness and brutish immoderation. Therefore, all this excepted, it standeth us upon to be zealous even to sufferings for the lesser truths, that we may prevent the further encroachments of Satan, and antichrist, his eldest son, upon the liberties and privileges of the saints.

But now, besides the lesser things, there are fundamentals and essentials in religion, which challenge the choicest of our care and zeal, that they may be kept entire and without violation; the ignorance of them is damnable, and the denial heretical: to determine what they are is an undertaking of great concernment to the Christian world, but of too high a nature for the present exercise. I shall only mention a few points which seem to be ἐν πρώτοις, matters concerning the foundation; as the creation of the world by God in six days out of nothing, God’s providence, man’s misery by sin, deliverance by Christ, the necessity of the new creature, the resurrection of the dead, and the everlasting recompenses. These are points of the greatest moment, though I cannot but say that others also are fundamental; but these come to mind as being of the most practical concernment.