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A56696
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A sermon preached before the king, on the second Sunday in Advent, Decemb. viii, 1678 by Symon Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P841; ESTC R7087
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16,535
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44
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our Saviour sayes in the New Testament Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also And if a man take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also v. Matth. 39 40. Are not these things opposite I answer with St. Austin who hath made an excellent Reply to this Cavil both in his Book against Adimantus * Cap. VIII and against Faustus †Lib. XIX cap. 25. to this effect These things discover no contrariety in the two Testaments but only the different degrees of their perfection For there being two degrees of Meekness and Forbearance the first that the Grief of the injured person do not provoke him to seek a revenge beyond the measure of the damage that was done him the second that the injured person pardon and pass by the whole wrong though grievous to him with a peaceable and appeased mind the Old Testament as less perfect preserved carnal men within the bounds of the first degree of Patience and kept them from extending their revenge too far but the New Testament as more perfect advances spiritual men to the most excellent degree of a plenary remission without any revenge at all So that even from such passages as these we learn you see how much we are indebted to God for a greater abundance of his Grace than he bestowed in former times Which should raise us as to a greater degree of gratefull Love to him so to a more excellent degree of Piety and Vertue to which He intends to improve us by this New Revelation he hath made of his good will to us in Christ Jesus And that is part of the use we may make of what hath been said If we may learn so much from those Books which were written aforetime in the dayes of old before the Coming of our Saviour into the World what may we do from those which were written since his appearing who is the very Wisdom of God the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father and hath declared him unto us They prescribe us a more rational Service of Almighty God and raise us to a higher pitch of brotherly Love and teach us greater Purity of Body and Mind and press all these upon us by more perfect Examples and by more excellent Motives especially by the blessed hope of Immortal Life which if we have any sense of our own dearest Interest we ought to embrace and to hold fast as it is in the Collect for this day being willing to do and to suffer any thing that God would have us rather than lose so great so incomparable a good Which the more we think of the more it attracts us to it and holds us fast in its embraces as a perfect satisfaction to all our desires But from that Consideration we may take occasion also to reflect how injurious they are to Christian People to whom God hath been so bountiful who forbid them without their leave to meddle with these holy Books wherein their Hope of Immortal Life is contained Nay make a severe Inquisition after them that dare be so bold as to have in their own Language a Copy of the Will and Testament of their blessed Saviour or if you please so to call it of that Deed of Grace whereby he hath conveyed to them the Eternal Inheritance S. Peter indeed 1 Epist ii 9. honours all Christians so much as to call them a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People But they who pretend to succeed him use them as if they were no better than base Slaves nay vile Beasts who are not fit to be entrusted with this Liberty and enjoy the Priviledge of hearing God himself speaking to them in his holy Gospel No there is a Caution in the Law saith Innocent the third that if a Beast touch the Mountain it shall be stoned from thence concluding that the simple and unlearned should not meddle with the Subtilty of Holy Writ And herein we agree with him that from all Subtilties and curious Inquiries every body ought to abstain But we are not satisfied that He or any man else hath Authority to compare the People of God to Beasts As others among them have done in a most scornfull manner when they prove from hence that the People must not read the Scriptures because we must not cast that which is holy to Dogs nor throw Pearls before Swine This is very rude Language but the Authors are well known who have spoken thus contemptuously of the Flock of Christ whom he calls his Sheep but they call Dogs and Swine and thereby debased Christians below the most blockish Jews who did never so abuse their Holy Books as to forfeit the liberty of Reading them which they challenge and use as a Right belonging to all at this very day What Reason can be given for such unworthy Treatment of those whom the Apostles so highly esteemed and spake of with so much respect but only this that they see there is such a manifest disagreement between them and the Scriptures that their Errours would be in danger to be detected by the simplest people if they should be permitted to come into this light And here let me note that such guides are faln into a contrary errour to that of the Manichees of which I have now treated They do not say that the Books of the Old Testament are superfluous and unnecessary but that they and the Books of the New Testament to boot are defective and imperfect and that their defects must be supplied out of such Traditions as they propound to our belief But among opposite Errours the causes of erring are commonly the same as the great Philosopher observes and is very true in this case For though there be several wayes the Enemy of mankind hath taken to compass his design of bringing the Scriptures into disgrace and setting up the inventions of men instead of them or in Conjunction with them yet the reason still is one and the same which is that the holy Scriptures are not for his turn he cannot deceive men so easily if they keep close to this hold Which is a strong hold indeed and comprehends all that we need to know or believe or do to which nothing need nothing ought to be added as necessary to our Salvation According to that peremptory resolution of St. Austin in his third Book against Petilians Letters Chapt. vi Whether it be about Christ or about his Church or about any other thing whatsoever that belongs to Faith or to our Life I will not say we who are by no means to be compared with him that said licet nos although we but as he presently adds if an Angel from Heaven shall declare to you any thing besides that which you have received in Scripturis Legalibus Evangelicis in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed To which let me add this notable sentence of S. Basil the
that these things belong not to us for that Authority which was in Kings under the Old Testament is now translated if you will believe those Doctors unto the Priests under the New But what man of sense can entertain this wild fancy that Kings under the Government of Christ are in a worse Condition than they were in under the Discipline of Moses Or that Christ should single out Kings of all other men to be injurious to them and deprive them of their former rights when he left every body else in the very same estate wherein he found them Was this our Saviours business when he came to reign over the Gentiles to strip their Princes of their Prerogatives and lessen their Power and Authority over their Subjects How detestable would the Apostles have been if they had broached this Doctrine when they went out to convert the World Or shall we be so impious as to think that St. Paul equivocated or had some mental Reservation when he Commanded every Soul in the Roman Church to be subject to the higher Powers Mark I beseech you it is upon the Church of Rome that he presses this Doctrine Chapter xiii of this Epistle more than upon any other Church whatsoever as if he foresaw there would be an Apostasie among them from this Faith Let every Soul be subject though thou beest an Apostle and the Bishop of Rome I hope was never greater than so though an Evangelist though a Prophet or whatsoever thou beest thou must be subject as S. Chrysostome whose words these are faithfully expounds the Apostles honest meaning And so Christian Princes long after his time understood him and did not fear both to assume this Authority and to justifie it when they had done so after the same manner that we do by the Example of the Kings that ruled over the People of God before the Coming of Christ Witness to name one for all Charles the Great a Prince as great in Ecclesiastical Policy as in Feats of Arms who in his Preface to his Capitulary tells the Clergy of the Empire That he had sent his Deputies to them that they by his Authority might together with them correct what stood in need of amendment according to the Example of the godly King Josias who endeavoured saith he to restore the Kingdom which God had given him to the Service of the true God by going about it by correcting and admonishing it as we read in the xxiii Chapter of the Second Book of the Kings And they had been very much to blame if they had not taken this pains For as the forenamed S. Chrysostome admirably speaks in a Sermon of his recorded by one of the writers of his Life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Georgius Alexandrius Tom. Ult. p. 265. The Care appertaining to Kings is not so much about War as about the Church not so much about Political Affairs as about the Church with whose Preservation and Safety God having been pleased to intrust them he expects they should be as angry with those who would Adulterate his Worship therein setled as Moses was with Aaron when he had made the Golden Calf That very example is sufficient to shew the Authority which the Civil Magistrates have in matters of Religion With which they ought not to part no more than they would with their Crowns nor to suffer their people to be deprived of these Holy Books wherein they may read these things and thereby be so throughly possest with a sense of their high Authority that they may never be Debauched from their Duty But of that more presently IV. Let us first hear what the next exception of the Manichees was aginst the Scriptures written aforetime which they said were unprofitable to teach men good manners nay were destructive and contrary to them There are two parts you see of this wicked suggestion the first of which is so directly confuted by St. Paul in another place that one would think these men never read the New Testament at all nor the Old for any other end than to carp at it and frame Objections against it For in 2 Tim. iii. 16. he expressly saies that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Scripture speaking of the Old for not much of the New was then extant given by inspiration of God is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness Upon which words you may be pleased to take this short gloss All Holy Learning consists in being wise and in being good in acquiring of both which the Scriptures being Divinely inspired give us singular assistance As for the first Christian Wisdom it consists in knowing the Truth and in rejecting Falshood Now behold how profitable the Scriptures are in both regards For they are profitable for Doctrine which is teaching the Truth and for reproof which is confuting the falsehood of Error And then for the Second learning to be good that consists of two parts more as the Prophets instruct us to cease to do Evil and to learn to do Well To both which ends also the Apostle affirms the Holy Scripture is profitable for correction that is when we do amiss and for instruction in Righteousness to make us do better And that I may add not only by its Precepts but by its Examples examples which strongly excite and quicken us to our duty and which mightily deter and withold us from doing wickedly I shall only mention some of the latter sort which are drawn up to my hand by St. Paul in the next Epistle 1 Cor. x. where he sets before that Church the example of the ancient Israelites with many of whom God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the Wilderness after he had brought them out of the bondage of Egypt v. 5. And lest they should think themselves unconcern'd in such stories he adds v. 6. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not Lust after evil things as they also Lusted Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them as it is written The people sat down to Eat and Drink and rose up to Play Neither let us commit Fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things hapned unto them for Examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come So he concludes after the same manner as he began this pathetical discourse Which we ought to lay to heart and apply to our selves as much as if he had told us in other words which are but an explication of these I would not willingly have you abuse your selves with false Opinions and therefore do not imagine I beseech you that these things which were done so long ago do not belong to you or that the