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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56628	Christs counsel to his church in two sermons preached at the two last fasts : one April xi. MDCLXXX, the other December xxi. MDCLXXX / by Symon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1681 (1681)	Wing P770; ESTC R22417	50,470	126

in humane reason they can by no other means be remedied than by the special hand of Heaven Which we come therefore here to implore in a particular blessing upon the consultations and endeavours of the great Council of the Kingdom and in defeating the wicked counsels and devices of our enemies and uniting the hearts of all his Majesties loyal Protestant Subjects But these great Blessings we cannot reasonably hope to obtain no not by our Fasting and Humiliation and Prayers unless we endeavour a true reconciliation with God by being unfeignedly penitent and resolving to forsake those sins which we our selves confess have brought us into such distresses and perplexities as nothing else can remedy Now in order unto this As I excited you on the last Day of solemn Fasting and Prayer to a serious and speedy Repentance by such Arguments as I found in those words of our Saviour to another of the seven Churches of Asia ii 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight against thee with the sword of my mouth so at this time I shall direct you a little in the way and method of repentance and point at some things of which you are to repent from these words which I have read out of our Saviour's Letter to the Church of Sardis with whom we of this Church have too manifest a resemblance For as our blessed Lord complains ver 1. we have a name that we live i. e. are good Christians but alas in deed and truth are dead for we produce not the fruits of Christian vertue There is a great deal of bustle and stir about Religion for which we seem to be mightily concerned but the inward life and power of it is generally wanting which we do not love to be troubled withal Nay we can scarce say so much of our people as God doth of Judah in the first Lesson for Evening Prayer lviii Isai 2. They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God c. which alas we have most openly deserted though this was far short we find in that Chapter of making them an acceptable Nation to him At the best we must confess we are fallen asleep and grown very slothful as our Saviour here supposes ver 2. them of Sardis to have been and there is so great and universal a decay of true piety and goodness among us that we are in apparent danger to lose the small remainders of it Something good there is still left in this Church as there was in that but far from that intire and compleat obedience which our Lord expects from us as will appear by considering what is to be done by us for our recovery to a better condition And there are three things which our Lord here requires of them in my Text and are incumbent upon every one of us as our necessary Duty if we would be saved from our present danger First To remember what they had received and heard Secondly To hold it fast Thirdly To repent of their forgetfulness I suppose their looseness and indifferency in their Religion I shall treat of them all in the order wherein they stand and consider them both with respect to the condition of that Church to whom they were first delivered and then with respect to ours who have no less need of such admonitions I. The first of them supposes That they had been taught some Doctrin which they had received and entertained with belief and had heard it also often since inculcated and pressed so I understand the words by those Pastors who were set over them by the Apostle or those who first delivered the Truth unto them Which was nothing else but the Christian Religion of which I must not here speak at large but only tell you It is that way of serving God which is prescribed by Christ and his Apostles in the Books of the New Testament Wherein we now read what they then received by word of mouth from the Apostles and understand fully what we must believe and do to be saved Now as there is no cause to which God more frequently ascribes the sins and particularly the Idolatry of the Children of Israel than their forgetfulness of Him and of his Law and of what He had done for them so this very thing stupid forgetfulness and neglect of what Christ and his Apostles delivered by Signs and wonders and mighty deeds introduced that deadness in Religion of which our Saviour complains in the beginning of this Chapter and He foresaw would bring in all the corruptions which afterwards followed in the Church and began very early to appear in the Christian World For there arose false Apostles and false Prophets nay direct Antichrists as this very Apostle Sr John tells us men who denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ that brought in damnable Heresies sleighted the authority of the Apostles turned the Grace of God into lasciviousness nay brought back the old Idolatry as you read in the foregoing Chapter of this Book vers 14.20 And though this Church of Sardis is not charged with so deep a degree of Apostasie as those of Pergamus and Thyatira yet there was great danger of falling into it unless they took this advice of our Saviour to remember better than they had done what they had received and heard Which is the very same with that which God himself had given of old to the Israelites to prevent their defection from Him in many places of the Book of Deuteronomy viii 1 2 18 c. and which his Prophets were wont to give in after times as the first step to their recovery when they had revolted from God their Saviour xlvi Isai 8 9. vi Mic. 5. Who here calls upon his Church in like manner to bring to remembrance and think again and again till they had fixed it in their mind what they had received and with what affection also they had embraced the Gospel of God's Grace for that may be implied in the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how you have received and heard as the only means to preserve them from lapsing farther into a worse condition and losing that good which was still remaining but ready to dye among them This the Apostles afterward endeavoured with great care and diligence and promised as we read in St. Peter 2. i. 12 13 15. to endeavour that after their decease they might have those things in remembrance always which they had been taught But for want of the like diligence and watchfulness in the people who did not take such heed as they ought to have done to these admonitions the Christian Religion in process of time was so adulterated that a great part of the Church fell into that lamentable apostasie which is foretold and described in this Book of the Revelation and which we see now fulfilled too plainly in the Church of Rome and those of its

satisfied but fearing withal it may prove a sin not to obey to use all means for satisfaction not absolutely denying obedience much less reviling their Injunctions or making violent oppositions to them which commonly ends in wresting all authority out of their Pastors hands but merely not doing for the present what is enjoyned modestly entreating their forbearance in such matters or if it cannot be obtained peaceably and patiently submitting to their censures Which sure would not be heavy upon such humble modest and truly conscientious Christians if they should God would judge such Governours for their unreasonable severity but there would rather be ways found out to make up the difference without taking their Pastors power from them and governing themselves as they please For God I am confident would enlighten the one or the other to see either their errour in enjoyning or in not obeying 5. And this that I have said is the least that can be meant in such places of Scripture as these 1 Thess v. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know that is to love them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among your selves Which they could not fail to be as long as they kept close to their spiritual Instructors and Governours And xiii Heb. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. And 1 Pet. v. 5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves unto the Elders Where first observe the name given to the Pastors of the Church viz. Elders which imports an Office and Authority in the language of all Nations and here in St. Peter implies so high an Authority in the Rulers of the Church that the Apostle supposes more danger of its growing too imperious than of its being slighted and disobeyed For he requires the Elders to feed that is govern as well as teach the Flock of God not as Lords of Gods heritage but being ensamples to the Flock ver 2 3. Which Caution against domineering and Lording it as we speak had been idle if the power of the Pastors and the obedience due and paid then to it had not been so great that it might easily grow extravagant such was the reverence they had to their Persons and deference to their Judgments and submission to their Authority For the word submit you may observe further is the very same whereby he expresses in the second Chapter ver 13. the obedience he would have them give to Kings and those in Authority under them And therefore cannot signifie less than that their directions ought to be followed and the Flock ruled by their Orders in all things where God hath not ordered otherways and that they should be afraid to offend them by disobedience and much more by shaking off subjection to them and denying their Authority 6. Which includes in it a power of ordaining and constituting the manner of performing the Service of God according to His Word which requires that all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. xiv 40. The things themselves to be done which that place speaks of are many of them specified in that very Chapter and the rest in other parts of the holy Scripture but the decent manner form and order how they shall be done is no where particularly defined there And therefore though by virtue of this Precept no Body hath power to form new Articles of Faith new Objects of Worship new Sacraments c. wherein the Church of Rome hath abused her power yet the substance of Religion being thus prescribed in His Word the order disposition form and manner of doing the Duties of Religion is left hereby to be determined by the wisdom of the Governours of the Church according to the general Rules of the holy Scripture Which they cannot indeed enact into Laws binding by civil penalties yet no Christian Magistrate to whom that power belongs ever denied them a directive power in making Rules for the Government of the Church or at any time made them without them but always took their advice in such matters For who so well able to tell as they what is most consonant to the Scriptures profitable for their Flock and agreeable to what hath been practised in the Church of God Which always taught and it is as undoubted a principle of the Reformation as any other That where the holy Scriptures have not given particular directions for the decent performance of the Duties they call for as it was impossible they should for all Cases Times and Countries there the Ministers of Christ whom the holy Scriptures appoint to be the Governours of His Church are to draw up Orders and Rules agreeable to the general Rule which the people ought to observe And it is very reasonable to interpret the place of the Apostle before mentioned in this manner Let all things be done first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently or honestly after a comely beseeming fashion with such Rites as will procure veneration to holy things at least secure the service of God from contempt and promote devotion in the people and the way to have things done with such gravity as this word imports is next to do them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to order or by the deliberate appointment of those who have authority to ordain such Rites as will become holy actions An example of which we have in that very Chapter ver 32. where even such as had extraordinary spiritual gists are required to submit to this Order For the Spirits of the Prophets he saith are subject to the Prophets That is there was such a subordination in that Order of men that when one was prophesying he was to cease if a superior Prophet commanded him silence Which among other places of Scripture might silence those who question the authority of the present Governours of our Church because of their superiority over other Ministers Or it might be sufficient to make them modest in this thing to say only this That Christ sure did not leave His Church without a Government which had been to leave no Church and that it is incredible the whole Church Pastors and people should agree to change His Government without any contradiction that we can find into this which we have if this be not it which He left And that I think hath been as little nay less questioned as any Point of Christianity which must needs weigh much with all considerate minds 7. Who likewise cannot but grant that things being thus ordered and appointed by the Authority of Christs Ministers those Constitutions in all reason ought to be obeyed by those who are subject to them and not left at liberty whether the people will observe them or no. This is most judiciously handled by Mr Calvin in the Tenth Chapter of the Fourth Book of his Institutions which is well worth the