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A70390 A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself. Keith, George, 1639?-1716. 1700 (1700) Wing K209; ESTC R14185 28,024 34

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and living Impression on our hearts and making our hearts that were stony before now to be soft and tender to receive that Impression and yet so solid firm and tenacious as to retain it being as a Nail fixt in a firm place by the Masters of Assemblies given by one Shepherd Eccles 12. 11. But so is not the heart of Unbelievers or Heathen Gentiles whose heart is a heart of stone but the heart of every sincere Believer is a heart of flesh according to Ezek. 11. 19. and 36. 26 27. compared with 2 Cor. 3. 3. But say some cannot the Spirit teach us without Book even without the Scripture Thus some argue for the sufficiency of the Light within without any thing else I answer and so can an able Schoolmaster teach his Scholars without Book but they cannot well learn without Book As the Master condescendeth to the weak capacity of his Scholars to teach them by Books so doth the Spirit condescend to our weak capacity to teach us by the written Word Now as concerning the peculiar positive Laws of the Gospel under the New Testament and the Gospel Precepts some of them are greater and some lesser but all highly valuable and profitable The greater are such that Obedience to them is of absolute and indispensible necessity to our Salvation as to believe in Christ and to love Christ and to rejoyce in Christ whom yet we have neither outwardly heard nor seen according to 1 Pet. 1. 8. and John 20. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed The lesser are such that are not of that absolute and indispensible necessity to Salvation in some cases thought still generally necessary to Salvation as Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper It would be too uncharitable in us to conclude that all who die without them fall short of Salvation Christ said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he said not he that is not baptized shall be damned but he that believeth not shall be damned Our most mereiful and gracious Lord knew well that by some unavoidable Providences some could neither receive Baptism nor the Supper how much soever they desired it being prevented by Death before they could have them administred to them in which case all good Casuists and Divines say Votum Baptismi i. e. The Desire of Baptism and the Willingness of the Mind to subject to it as the Ordinance of Christ is equivalent to Baptism it self And the like may be said of the Lord's Supper But what shall we say or think of many in our day and time who may have it and yet through woful Ignorance and Errour being deluded by false Teachers and prejudice of Education or otherwise darkned and blinded in their Minds refuse and reject it not only break these two precious Commands of Christ but teach Men so to do And many have lived and died in this opposition to these Precepts of Christ without any sign of Repentance being taught by their false Teachers to believe that they are no Commands of Christ I own to my Grief and Shame that I have been so deceived by them and I thank my gracious God that has spared and prolonged my natural Life until he was pleased to farther enlighten me and give me to see my great Errour and renounce it as I have done and now to practise that which I formerly rejected But to answer directly to the Question what other or better Answer can I give than the words of our Saviour himself Mat. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Some understand it so that he shall have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven which is true if he live and die in wilful Ignorance and Disobedience but I will not be so uncharitable as to think so of many who have in some measure in Faithfulness held the Fundamentals of Christianity and have sincerely endeavoured to obey such of the greater Commands of Christ that they are perished but on the contrary I have the charity to them and so I hope and desire that ye may have the same that God has in mercy received them and has not excluded them from the Kingdom of Heaven notwithstanding they have lived and died not only in the disuse of some of Christ's Commands such as Baptism and the Supper but have even continued in the opposition of them to the last moment not throught any wilful Ignorance but by being imposed upon by the high Pretences of their false Teachers whom they esteemed to be Prophets Yet I think without breach of charity I may say that for their Ignorance and ignorant opposition to these or any of the least of Christ's Commands they shall have a lesser degree of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven than otherwise they should have had I have now done with what I had to say in answer to these weighty Questions I shall only observe one Particular from the words of the Text which is this That it hath oft been and is the Lot of good Men having a good Conscience to be wrongfully judged misrepresented and falsly accused both Scripture and History abounds with Examples to prove this as in the case of Joseph Moses David and Daniel and many of the Prophets and in the case of John Baptist and our Saviour John came neither eating nor drinking and they said he had a Devil Christ came eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners and they called him gluttonous and a Wine-bibber to which my Case somewhat resembles These four Years past my Adversaries among the Quakers reproached me that I was of no Communion neither Quaker nor Presbyterian nor Independent nor Baptist nor of the Church of England and unless I would declare my self to be of some particular Communion they would not dispute with me nor regard me to answer me though I told them I was a Christian and a Member of the Catholick Church of Christ and have great charity for all the sincere that hold the Head in all the several Communions of Protestants but this would not satisfie but they would insult and sought to trample me under their feet but God supported me But now again when with a good Conscience being farther I bless God enlightned and my Scruples I had being fairly removed after diligent Examination and mature Deliberation I have declared my self to be for the Church of England and have joyn'd in Communion with her they do as much reproach and revile me and falsly accuse me as formerly and so would they have done if I had joyned with any of the Dissenters but I bless God I have a good Conscience and my care hath been is and I hope ever shall be to have Peace with God and my own Conscience and therefore I need not be much concerned what my Adversaries or any other ignorant persons shall say of me I am comforted with the words of