the error to be esteemed involuntary; but then only when it is as innocent in the principle as it is confident in the present persuasion. And such persons who by their ill lives and vicious actions, or manifest designs (for by their fruits ye shall know them) give testimony of such criminal indispositions, so as competent judges by human and prudent estimate may so judge them, then they are to be declared heretics, and avoided. And if this were not true, it were vain that the apostle commands us to avoid an heretic: for no external act can pass upon a man for a crime that is not cognizable.

Now every man that errs, though in a matter of consequence, so long as the foundation is entire, cannot be suspected justly guilty of a crime to give his error a formality of heresy; for we see many a good man miserably deceived; (as we shall make it appear afterwards;) and he that is the best amongst men, certainly hath so much humility to think he may be easily deceived; and twenty to one but he is, in something or other; yet, if his error be not voluntary, and part of an ill life, then because he lives a good life, he is a good man, and therefore no heretic: no man is an heretic against his will. And if it be pretended that every man that is deceived, is therefore proud, because he does not submit his understanding to the authority of God or man respectively, and so his error becomes a heresy; to this I answer, that there is no Christian man but will submit his understanding to God, and believe whatsoever he hath said; but always provided he knows that God hath said so, else he must do his duty by a readiness to obey when he shall know it. But for obedience or humility of the un

derstanding towards men, that is a thing of another consideration, and it must first be made evident that his understanding must be submitted to men; and who those men are, must also be certain, before it will be adjudged a sin not to submit. But if I mistake not, Christ's saying, 'Call no man master upon earth,' is so great a prejudice against this pretence, as I doubt it will go near wholly to make it invalid. So that as the worshipping of angels is a humility indeed, but it is voluntary and a willworship to an ill sense, not to be excused by the excellency of humility, nor the virtue of religion; so is the relying upon the judgment of man an humility too, but such as comes not under that obedience of faith which is the duty of every Christian, but intrenches upon that duty which we owe to Christ as an acknowledgment that he is our great Master, and the Prince of the catholic church. But whether it be or be not, if that be the question, whether the disagreeing person be to be determined by the dictates of men, I am sure the dictates of men must not determine him in that question, but it must be settled by some higher principle: so that if of that question the disagreeing person does opine, or believe, or err bonâ fide, he is not therefore to be judged a heretic, because he submits not his understanding; because, till it be sufficiently made certain to him that he is bound to submit, he may innocently and piously disagree; and this not submitting is therefore not a crime, (and so cannot make a heresy,) because without a crime he may lawfully doubt whether he be bound to submit or no, for that is the question. And if in such questions which have influence upon a whole system of theology, a man may doubt lawfully if he doubts

heartily, because the authority of men being the thing in question, cannot be the judge of this question, and therefore being rejected, or (which is all one) being questioned, that is, not believed, cannot render the doubting person guilty of pride, and by consequence not of heresy, much more may particular questions be doubted of, and the authority of men examined, and yet the doubting person be humble enough, and therefore no heretic for all this pretence. And it would be considered that humility is a duty in great ones as well as in idiots.* And as inferiors must not disagree without reason, so neither must superiors prescribe to others without sufficient authority, evidence, and necessity too; and if rebellion be pride, so is tyranny; both may be guilty of pride of understanding, sometimes the one in imposing, sometimes the other in a causeless disagreeing; but in the inferiors it is then only the want of humility, when the guides impose or prescribe what God hath also taught, and then it is the disobeying God's dictates, not man's, that makes the sin. But then this consideration will also intervene, that as no dictate of God obliges me to believe it, unless I know it to be such; so neither will any of the dictates of my superiors engage my faith, unless I also know, or have no reason to disbelieve, but that they are warranted to teach them to me, therefore, because God hath taught the same to them; which if I once know, or have no reason to think the contrary, if I disagree, my sin is not in resisting human authority, but divine. And, therefore, the whole business of submitting our understanding to human authority

* Mean, or illiterate persons.

comes to nothing; for either it resolves into the direct duty of submitting to God, or, if it be spoken of abstractedly, it is no duty at all.

But this pretence of a necessity of humbling the understanding, is none of the meanest arts whereby some persons have invaded and usurped a power over men's faith and consciences; and therefore we shall examine the pretence afterwards, and try if God hath invested any man, or company of men, with such a power. In the mean time, he that submits his understanding to all that he knows God hath said, and is ready to submit to all that he hath said if he but know it, denying his own affections, and ends, and interests, and human persuasions, laying them all down at the foot of his great master, Jesus Christ, that man hath brought his understanding into subjection, and every proud thought unto the obedience of Christ; and this is the obedience of faith, which is the duty of a Christian.

But to proceed. Besides these heresies noted in Scripture, the age of the apostles, and that which followed, was infested with other heresies; but such as had the same formality and malignity with the precedent, all of them either such as taught practical impieties, or denied an article of the creed. Egesippus, in Eusebius, reckons seven only prime heresies, that sought to deflower the purity of the church: that of Simon, that of Thebutes, of Cleobius, of Dositheus, of Gortheus, of Masbotheus. I suppose Cerinthus to have been the seventh man, though he express him not: but of these, except the last, we know no particulars, but that Egesippus says, they were false Christs, and that their doctrine was directly against God and his blessed

Son. Menander, also, was the first of a sect; but he bewitched the people with his sorceries. Cerinthus's doctrine pretended enthusiasm, or a new revelation, and ended in lust and impious theorems in matter of uncleanness. The Ebionites* denied Christ to be the Son of God, and affirmed him mere man, begot by natural generation, (by occasion of which and the importunity of the Asian bishops, St. John wrote his Gospel,) and taught the observation of Moses's law. Basilides taught it lawful to renounce the faith, and take false oaths in time of persecution. Carpocrates was a very bedlam, half-witch, and quite mad-man, and practised lust, which he called the secret operations to overcome the potentates of the world. Some more there were, but of the same nature and pest; not of a nicety in dispute, not a question of secret philosophy, not of atoms, and undiscernible propositions, but open defiances of all faith, of all sobriety, and of all sanctity; excepting only the doctrine of the Millennaries, which in the best ages was esteemed no heresy, but true catholic doctrine, though since it hath justice done to it, and hath suffered a just condemnation.

Hitherto, and in these instances, the church did esteem and judge of heresies, in proportion to the rules and characters of faith. For faith being a doctrine of piety as well as truth, that which was either destructive of fundamental verity, or of Christian sanctity was against faith, and if it be made a sect, was heresy; if not, it ended in personal impiety and went no farther. But those who, as St. Paul says, not only did such things, but had

* Vide Hilar. lib. i. De Trin.