those that are now in Authority as we could for those that were heretofore But how unreasonable is this when S. Paul has bid us to put up prayers and supplications and intercessions for all men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority Doth he make any restriction any distinction what Kings or what persons in Authority we are to pray for and what not Doth he not expresly say we must pray for all men and for all that are in authority And doth not the reason of his exhortation imply as much if his words did not Namely that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty But I pray consider what this Doctrine leads to If this principle be admitted to be good Divinity then farewel all the obligations to Ecclesiastical Communion among Christians For what Government is there in the World that will not meet with such Subjects as are not satisfied with it and if that dissatisfaction be a just reason to break Communion with the Established Church what Ligaments have we to tye Christians together What will become of holding the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace What is the consequence of this but endless Schisms and Separations But further I wish these Persons would consider what an unaccountable humour it is to make a Rent and Schism in the Church upon a meer point of State Great Revolutions have happen'd in all Ages and in all Countries and we have frequent instances of them in story But I believe it will not be easily found that ever any Christians separated from the Church upon account of them Still they kept unanimously to their Doctrine and their Worship and never concerned themselves farther in the Turns of State how great soever they were than peaceably to submit to the Powers in being and heartily to pray to God so to prosper their Government and direct all their affairs that all their Subjects might lead quiet and peaceable lives under them in all Godliness and Honesty But when in a Revolution a Prince was advanced to the Throne that they looked upon to be a good man and an encourager of the True Religion in that case they did not only readily submit to him but acknowledged it as the great blessing of God to them that he had raised up such a Man to rule over them This was the Notion and this was the Practice of the Primitive Christians as to this matter I may indeed say of the Christians in all Ages And whatever you may have heard to the contrary I doubt not to say that this is the very Doctrine of the Church of England Let me therefore exhort all of you to be followers of Peace to promote publick Unity and Concord as much as is possible to study to be quiet and mind your own business to be more concerned for your Country and Nation than the Interest of any single man in it heartily to submit to the Government and not only so but to thank God for the Blessings you enjoy under it and most earnestly to pray for the Continuance of them Lastly never to espouse any party or faction against the Government nor ever to be driven away from the Communion of the Church of which you have always professed your selves members by any of the pretences which some warm men may suggest to you This I dare venture to say how uneasie soever some of you now may be in joyning with our prayers you will at last be ten times more uneasie in separating from us For Faction has no bounds and God knows whither it will lead a man at last Were there nothing else but the Heat and Turbulency the Passion and Peevishness the bitter Zeal and Uncharitableness that the being of a Party doth naturally ingage men in I say were there nothing else but this No man that consults the peace of his own mind would for any consideration leave the publick Communion and espouse the cause of a separate Interest But there are worse Consequences than these and I pray God we may never feel them And now I have done with my Exhortation I have spoke my thoughts very freely to you And I hope you will receive what I have said with the same kindness that I meant it And truely I have no reason to doubt of it after so long an experience as I have had of your Civility and Candor Indeed during all the time I have been among you which hath been now near Sixteen years I have been so kindly treated by you and have received so many Testimonies of your Good-will that I cannot but take this Opportunity of publickly acknowledging my Obligations to you and returning you my Solemn Thanks for Them I cannot indeed say that I have done my duty as I ought and I heartily beg of God to forgive all my defects But I have this satisfaction that I have sincerely endeavoured in all my Preaching to instruct you in the true doctrine of the Gospel and to teach you the right way that leads to Salvation And I am so certain that I have not been mistaken my self nor mis-led you in that matter that I dare with Confidence address my self to you in some of the words of the Apostle which do immediately follow after my Text Viz. Those things which you have learned and received and heard from me do and the God of peace shall be with you I shall ever bless God for that Providence of his which placed me among you and as I shall always and do earnestly desire all your prayers for me so I shall always heartily pray for you That God would guide and prosper you that his good Providence would always watch over you for Good that he would bestow upon you and your Children after you all sorts of Blessings needful and convenient for you and especially that he would deliver you from every evil work and preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom This God of his infinite mercy grant c. FINIS
the making men better or at least keeping them from growing worse hath this practice always had that you may observe the most profligate men among us who for their wickedness come to an untimely end do generally impute their falling into those sins which caused their death to their breaking the Sabbath as they commonly express it But Fifthly Let me upon this occasion put you in mind of another thing which by many of us is too much neglected And that is the taking all opportunities of coming to the holy Sacrament I have often spoken to you about this matter and I now desire to remind you of it There are little hopes you will ever make any great progress in vertue and holiness till you can bring your selves to a frequent and constant participation in this holy Mystery Because indeed this is the solemn Ordinance that Christ hath appointed for the conveying his grace to us and inabling us to overcome our sins and grow daily in vertue and goodness I know we have generally many and inveterate prejudices as to this matter But assure your selves they are meer prejudices and no good reasons Every man that means and designs honestly and endeavours to lead his life as a Christian ought to do may certainly with as little scruple come every Month to the Communion as he may come every Week to say his Prayers or hear a Sermon Nay and I say further if a man do not so lead his life that he may approach to the Sacrament every Month nay every Week nay every Day if there be occasion I am afraid that he doth not live so as to be fit for it tho' he comes but once in a year or once in seven years For the dueness of your preparation doth not depend upon your setting aside so many extraordinary days for the forcing your selves into a Religious posture of mind but upon the plain natural frame and temper of your souls as they constantly stand inclined to vertue and goodness A man that seriously indeavours to live honestly and religiously may come to the Sacrament at an hours warning and be a worthy Receiver On the other side a man that lives a careless or a sensual life may set apart a whole Week or a whole Month for the exercising Repentance and preparing himself for the Communion and yet not be so worthy a Receiver as the other And yet he may be a worthy Receiver too provided he be really honest and sincere in the matter he goes about and provided that he remember his vows afterward and do not sink again into his former state of carelesness and sensuality But to return to my point I do verily think that most of the doubts and fears and scruples that are commonly entertained among us about receiving the Sacrament are without ground or reason and that every well disposed person that hath no other design in that action but to do his duty to God and to express his belief and hopes in Jesus Christ and his thankfulness to God for him may as safely at any time come to the Lord's table as he may come to Church to say his prayers And if the case be so as I believe it is then of what a mighty priviledge and benefit do they deprive themselves who when they have so many opportunities do so seldom joyn in that solemn Institution of our Lord which as I said was design'd for no other purpose but to be the means of our growing in grace and vertue in love to God and to all the World O therefore my Brethren let me beg of you not to be strangers at the Lord's Table But I need not beg it of you for I am sure you will not whensoever it shall please God to put it into your hearts seriously to mind the concernments of your Souls and to be heartily sensible of the need you stand in of the grace of Christ for the leading a holy and pure life I have but one thing more in the Sixth place to leave with you and I have done It is not indeed of the nature of those things I have last recommended to you that is a means or instrument of growing more vertuous but it is a principal vertue it self And I do therefore recommend it to you because it is at all times useful at all times seasonable but more especially it seems to be so now And that is that you would walk in Love and study Peace and Unity and live in all dutiful subjection to those whom God hath set over you and endeavour in your several stations to promote the publick Happiness and Tranquillity as much as is possible But by no means upon any pretence whatsoever to disturb the publick Peace or to be any way concerned with them that do by no means ever to ingage in any party or faction and least of all any faction in Religion which is grounded upon a State-point I am sorry the posture of things among us gives me occasion to mention this matter but it is too visible to what a height our animosities and discontents are grown and what the consequences of them may be unless there be a timely stop put to them I tremble to think With mens differences as to their notions about the Politicks I am not concern'd let men frame what Hypotheses they please about Government tho' I do not like them yet I do not think my self bound to Preach against them But when these differences are come to that pass that they threaten both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Peace there I think no Minister should be silent Church-divisions God knows we have and have always had too many but it is very grievous that those who have always declared themselves the friends of our Church and enemies to Schism should at this time of day set their helping hand to promote a Separation And yet it seems to this height are our differences come Some people among us that formerly were very zealous for the established worship of the Church are now all of a sudden so distasted with it that they make a scruple of being present at our Service Nay some have proceeded so far as to declare I know not upon what grounds open war against us and set up Separate Congregations in opposition to the Publick What is the meaning of this hath Schism and Separation from the established Worship which heretofore was branded as so hainous a sin and deservedly too so changed its nature all of a sudden that it is become not only innocent but a duty Have we not the same Government both in Church and State that we formerly had Have we not the same Articles and Doctrines of Religion publickly owned and professed and taught without the least alteration Have we not the same Liturgy the same Offices and Prayers used every day that have always been What is there then to ground a separation upon Yes But the names in the Prayers are changed and we cannot pray for
A SERMON Preached on the 28th of June AT S t GILES in the Fields BY John Sharp D. D. Arch-Bishop of YORK Elect At his leaving y t Parish Published at the Request of the GENTLEMEN of the VESTRY LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. Philip. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things I Have the two last Lord's Days made it my business to treat of this Text in a way that I thought did most tend to the informing your Judgments And to that purpose I have raised several Observations and drawn several Inferences from it I mean now to Treat of it in another way and to apply my self wholly to the pressing you to the Practice of it And indeed the Nature of the Sermon I am to make doth call for this from me For I am now to take my leave of you this being the last time in all probability that I shall Preach among you as your Minister And therefore I suppose good Advice and Exhortation will more become me at this time than a close Discourse upon a Text. And yet my Text doth afford matter enough without straining it for such a purpose Nor indeed do I know a Text in the Bible that I could more willingly pitch upon to leave with you as the last advice I would give you and as the Sum and Conclusion of my Preaching among you than these Words of St. Paul I have now read to you Let me therefore at this time address my self to you all as the Apostle here did at the conclusion of his Epistle to the Philippians Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true c. Here are a great many things recommended by the Apostle to our thoughts and pursuit If we would make a distribution of them I believe they will all naturally enough fall under these Four Heads For the things here recommended are not so many as the words by which they are expressst there being several Words used in this Enumeration that are of the same importance and seem to express much the same thing The Four Heads I would reduce them to are these I. A Constant Adherence to the true Religion II. Honesty and Justice in our Dealings III. A Life of strict Purity in opposition to Sensuality and Lewdness IV. The Adorning the Doctrine of God we do profess by the constant Practice of every other thing that is Virtuous or Commendable or well thought of by Mankind This as I take it is a fair account of the Parts of this Text and these I shall make the Heads of my following Exhortation I begin with the first Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true think on those things The Truths that S. Paul here exhorts them to think on are undoubtedly the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he had delivered to them These he would have them to think upon and persist in and never to be prevailed upon by any Temptation to depart from them Let me now apply this Advice of his to you It is the particular Blessing of God to this Kingdom and an inestimable Blessing it is that he has not only vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel for many years but He has also taken Care that the Truths of it should be delivered to us with greater Purity and Sincerity and freer from the mixtures of Errour than to most I was going to say than to any other People in the World If it lay in your way to make observations concerning the State of Religion in other Countreys nay or but to read the Accounts that are given of it I am sure you would be convinced how exceedingly happy we of this Church are above all the other Churches in Christendom O therefore let us all firmly adhere to the Truths we have been taught to the Truths we have hitherto made Profession of And let us firmly adhere to that Church which hath held forth these Truths to us and taught us this Profession We do not pretend that any Church is Infallible and therefore not ours But this we dare say and we can justifie that if we take our measures concerning the Truths of Religion from the Rules of the Holy Scriptures and the Platform of the Primitive Churches the Church of England is undoubtedly both as to Doctrine and Worship the Purest Church that is at this day in the World the most Orthodox in Faith and the freest on the one hand from Idolatry and Superstition and on the other hand from Freakishness and Enthusiasm of any now extant Nay I do farther say with great seriousness and as one that expects to be called to account at the dreadful Tribunal of God for what I now say if I do not speak in sincerity That I do in my Conscience believe that if the Religion of Jesus Christ as it is deliver'd in the New Testament be the true Religion as I am certain it is Then the Communion of the Church of England is a safe way to Salvation and the safest of any I know in the World And therefore I do exhort you all in the Name of God stedfastly to hold and to persevere in this Communion Here you have the Things that are true Think of them and embrace them heartily and Live and Die in the Profession of them This is the Doctrine I have always Taught you and by the Grace of God I mean to Practise accordingly II. The next thing I have to recommend to you from these words of the Apostle is Universal Honesty and Justice and Righteousness in your Conversation Whatsoever things saith he are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just think on these things You see I join these two words Honest and Just together as importing the same thing Tho yet I am aware that the word we here render Honest is often used in another signification that is to say for Grave or Venerable But since that other signification falls in most properly under my last Head I wave it here and take the word as our Translation renders it Indeed it is in vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the Truth if we be not sincerely Just and Honest in our Actions Whosoever can allow himself in the practice of any dishonest knavish indirect Dealing let that Man be never so Orthodox in his Belief and Opinions yet I am sure he is no true Christian. O therefore let me exhort you all whatever Interests you have to serve whatever Dealings you are ingaged in to be always strictly Just and Upright in your Conversation Use no Tricks practise no ill Arts for the serving your ends but in all your transactions with Men deal with that Simplicity and Integrity and good Conscience that becomes those who would