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A57156
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A sermon preached before the peers in the Abby Church at Westminster, November 7, 1666 being a day of solemn humiliation for the continuing pestilence / by Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich.
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Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing R1281; ESTC R618
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19,863
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55
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and of Christ the Prince of Peace it is said that he would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax Matth. 12. 20. as he saith of himself Learn of me for I am meek and lowly Matth. 11. 29. and the Apostle beseecheth the Corinthians by the Meekness and Gentleness of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 1. so the same Apostle expresseth his tenderness towards the Church by the affections sometimes of a Father 1 Cor. 4. 15. Sometimes of a Mother Gal. 4. 19. Sometimes of a Nurse 1 Thess. 2. 7. He calleth upon Timothy In meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves because the Servant of the Lord must be Gentle to all men 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. and upon Titus to shew all Meekness to all men Tit. 3. 2. Rulers are called Healers Isai. 3. 7. and a Physician saith Plutarch will if it may be cure the Disease of his Patient rather by Sleep and Diet than by strong Purges Grave Writers have observed that even in the avenging of conquer'd Enemies Moderation is advantagious to the Conqueror He saith Thucydides who is kinde to an Enemy provideth for his own Safety and surely it cannot but be usefull for Healing Distempers amongst a long dilacerated and discomposed People ut quod Belli calamitas introduxit hoc Pacis Lenitas sopiret to use the words of Iustinian the Emperor A course observed with rare clemency by our most Meek and Gracious Soveraign in the Act of General Pardon and Indempnity towards his People I do often sadly recount with my self the wofull distractions which are in this once flourishing Church occasion'd by the wantonness of some and subtilty of others and can scarce arrive at any other Expedient than Abrahams Iehovah Iireh Gen. 22. 14. I do not need at all neither shall I at all presume to bespeak the Reverend Governors of the Church in this Case of Moderation in any other way than the Apostle doth the Thessalonians in the Case of Brotherly Love As touching Moderation ye need not that I write unto you for you your selves are taught of God to shew all meekness to all men and to restore those that are overtaken in a fault with the spirit of Meekness and indeed you do it One thing I assure my self would greatly conduce to the Healing of our Divisions and reducing of many unto the Communion of the Church who have departed from it If all the other Ministers of the Gospel in their respective Places would every where preach the Word with that Soundness Evidence and Authority and so commend themselves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God reproving Sinne not with Passion Wrath and Animosity but with the Spirit of Meekness and by the Majesty and Authority of the Word which alone can convince and awe the Conscience would lead such holy peaceable and inoffensive Lives would treat all men with that prudence meekness and winning Converse that all who see and hear them may know that God is in them of a truth that they do indeed love the Peoples Souls and so faithfully discharge their Trust as those that do in good earnest resolve to save themselves and those that hear them Thus are all the Interests of a Christian Church by all the Officers therein to be managed and preserved with that wisedom which is from above which Saint Iames tells us is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and without hypocrisie whereby the fruit of Righteousness is sowen in peace of them that seek Peace 3. Moderation of Passion when we suffer not our Passions to anticipate right Reason or run beyond the dictates of Practical judgement when they flye not out beyond their due measure nor transport us unto any undecency or excess when they do not like a troubled Sea cast up mire and dirt but are like the shaking of clean Water in a Christal Glass which onely troubleth it but doth not defile it For this purpose we must keep sanctified Reason alwayes in the Throne The higher and more heavenly the Soul is the more sedate and calm it will be Inferiora fulminant Pacem Summa tenent We must get the Heart ballanced with such Graces as may in special manner establish it against perturbation of Passion with clearness of Reason serenity of Judgment strength of Wisedom sobriety and gentleness of Spirit humility and lowlyness of Minde for ever the more Proud the more Passionate with Self-denial for all Impotency of Affections is rooted in an inordinate Self-love This will transport a man to furious Anger to insatiable desires to excessive Delights to discruciating Fears to impatient Hopes to tormenting Sorrows to gnawing Emulations to overwhelming Despairs The Heart saith the Apostle is established by Grace Heb. 13. 9. We have thus largely considered the Duty here required which the Apostle would further have to be such a Moderation as becometh them as Christians And therefore the Precept is closed in on all sides of the Text with certain peculiarities of Christians Rejoycing in the Lord Verse 4. And what can befall a man to shake and discompose his Heart who hath a Lord alwayes to rejoyce in nearness of that Lord the Lord is at hand And what is there in all the World the beauty whereof can bewitch with Inordinate Love the evil whereof can tempt to Immoderate Fears the Heart which can by Faith see Christ coming quickly with a farr more exceeding and abundant weight of glory An access in Prayer and Supplication unto the Throne of Grace v. 6. And what Evils can disquiet the Heart of that Man with anxious excessive and discruciating Cares who hath the bosome of a Father in Heaven to powre out his Requests into Lastly the peace of God which passeth all understanding and what Perturbations are able to storm such a Soul as is garrison'd with Divine peace There is a mere philosophical Moderation quae mimice affectat veritatem as Tertullian speaks But Christian Moderation is that which is founded in the Law of Christ which requireth us not to resist Evil to love our Enemies to Bless them that Curse us to do Good unto those that Hate us to recompence to no man Evil for Evil to weep as though we wept not and to rejoyce as though we rejoyced not It is founded in the love of Christ the sense and comfort whereof ballanceth the Soul against the assault of any other Perturbations It is Regulated by the Example of Christ of whom we learn to be meek and lowly to forbear and to forgive who when he was reviled reviled not again who prayed for his Persecutors and saved them by that Blood which their own hands had shed It is wrought by the spirit of Christ the fruits whereof are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness as the Apostle speaks It is ordered to the glory of Christ and honour of Christianity when by our Moderation we adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour
28 29 32. 1 Pet. 2. 16. we may use our power and authority sharply and severely to the grieving rather than benefiting our poor Brethren in all such Cases the Apostle's Exhortation is seasonable Let your Moderation be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation in Iudgement not to disquiet the Church or offend our Brethren with every unnecessary opinion of our own not rigidly to insist on our Liberty to the grief and scandal of our Brethren Moderation of Power not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 severe Exactors of the extremity of Justice but to adorne our authority and render it amiable with clemency and meeknesse Moderation of Passions not to be transported with excessive delights overwhelmed with inordinate sorrows or possessed with any other unruly or tempestuous affection to the suffocating of Reason and dishonour of Religion but to let Grace and Wisdom hold the reins and keep within just bounds of Temper and Sobriety whatsoever offers to break forth into undecency and excess We see the wide extent and comprehensivenesse of this most amiable Grace Give me leave to speak a word or two to each of these Particulars and then I shall proceed to that which follows 1. We must walk secundum decentiam dignitatem status Christiani so as becomes the Gospell that we may credit and honour our most holy Profession as those who have a Lord to rejoyce in a God to pray unto a Blessed appearing of a Glorious Saviour to wait for as a People whom God hath formed for himself to shew forth his praise Isai. 43. 21. This is the frequent Exhortation of the Apostle that we walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called Eph. 4. 1. as becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1. 27. So as we have learned and received Christ Iesus the Lord Col. 2. 6. worthy of God who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. as becometh Holyness as a peculiar People that we may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things Tit. 2. 3 10 14. and may shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvelous Light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And truly there is nothing deserveth such Lamentation as this to consider how few there are who live consonantly to the Gospel which will too evidently appear if we consider the Law of Christ the vow of Baptisme and compare our Conversations with them Are not these the Laws of Christ He that hateth his Brother is a Murtherer He that looketh on a Woman lustfully is an Adulterer that we Resist not Evill that we love our Enemies that we lay not up for our selves Treasures in Earth but in Heaven that we enter in at the strait Gate that He who will come after him must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that we learn of him to be meek and lowly who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffred threatned not In one word that we should walk as he walked and observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded us and have we not solemnly vowed all this in our Baptisme wherein we promised to keep a good Conscience towards God and did in the presence of God and Angels renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh with all their pomps vanities and lusts and so not onely subscribe to the truth but undertake the practice of those necessary Doctrines And if we should now compare the Lives of Men amongst us their bare-fac'd and open Profaneness their daring Atheisme and Blasphemy their Oaths and Curses their Luxuries and Excesses their Wantonness and Impurities their Variance and Wrath their Contentions and Defiances their Bloodshed and Duels their Implacableness and Revenge their inordinate love of the profits and pleasure of the World more than of God their utter unacquaintance with the Yoke of Christ and the narrow way that leadeth unto Life if I say we should lay together Christ's Laws and our Lives our most solemn Vow and our most perfidious violations of it might we not most confidently conclude aut haec non est Lex Christi aut nos non sumus Christiani Either this is not Christianity or we are not Christians and so Tertullian Iustin Martyr and other Antients are bold to affirm of such men That they are not Christians Ioannes Picus Mirandula professed That he had an amazement upon him when he seriously considered the Studies or rather Follies of Men For saith he a Madness it is for Men not to believe the Gospel which hath been sealed by the blood of Martyrs published by the preaching of Apostles confirmed by Miracles attested by the World confessed by Devils Sed longe major insania si de Evangelii veritate non dubitas vivere tamen quasi de ejus falsitate non dubitares But a farr greater Madness it is if not doubting of the truth of the Gospel we so live as if we doubted not of the falseness of it And certainly they who abuse the Doctrine of the Gospel unto licencious Living and expose the holy Name of God unto Contempt by turning his Grace into Lasciviousness are Christiani nominis probra Maculae the stain and dishonour the blains and ulcers of the Christian Name no otherwise belonging unto the body of Christ than dung and excrements to the Natural body If the Lacedemonian in Plutarch would often look on his Gray Hairs that he might be put in minde to do nothing unworthy the honour of them how much more should we continually minde the dignity of our Relation unto God as his Children that we never admit any thing unbecoming the Excellency of so High a Calling 2ly Being in danger by the different vicissitudes of divine providence to be tossed and discomposed with various and unequal Affections contrary to that stedfastness of Heart which ought alwayes to be in Believers who have an all-sufficient God to rejoyce in and a Treasure of exceeding great and precious Promises able by Faith and Hope to ballance the Soul against all Secular Fluctuations and Concussions to take Comfort from In this Case therefore it is necessary that our Moderation be known that we learn with the Apostle in every state to be content to be abased and suffer need without pusillanimity or despondency to abound and be full without arrogance or vain-glory Faith makes a Rich man rejoyce in that he is made low and humbled to glory no longer in Grass and Flowers in withering and perishing Contents and it makes the Brother of Low degree to rejoyce in that he is exalted to the hope of Salvation Jam. 1. 9 10. When therefore with David we finde one while our Mountain strong and presently we are moved Psal. 36. 6. when one day with Ionah we rejoyce in our Gourd and another day are as angry because it is withered then we must labour for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this pacateness and serenity of Soul like Gold to keep our nature in the fire like