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A65563
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Six sermons preached in Ireland in difficult times by Edward, Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross.
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Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing W1521; ESTC R38253
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107,257
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296
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can pray for nothing else in their behalf yet may we most charitably pray that God would give them Faith and Repentance though they come in even in the end of the eleventh hour of the day There was indeed in the miraculous days a miraculous Gift of discerning of Spirits and I will not say but St. John and other like inspired persons might be able hereby to perceive what men sinned unto death and when how and in what acts But I think there is none but mad men will in the present age pretend to this Gift and then there will be no knowing who will sin unto death that is be finally incredulous or impenitent except God should reveal it to us Besides as just now intimated none can be said to be incredulous or impenitent finally that is to their end till their end that is till their death and we do not teach to pray for any persons longer Wherefore it remains except God should reveal to any of us that such and such particular persons were incorrigible and by him eternally rejected from all Grace and so by immediate Inspiration or voice from Heaven interdict us to pray for them I conceive in the present â—â—ate of the Church we stand bound in charity to pray for all men at least that God would give them repentance as long as they are in this life or on this side Hell be they never so wicked Further 2. If that Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which our Lord has declared Matt. xii 31 32. shall not be forgiven unto men either in this world or that which is to come were as in all probability it was the Jews malicious ascribing those Miracles to Beelzebub the Prince of Devils which in their Consciences they were convinced he did by the power of the Holy Ghost then by reason of the Cessation of Miracles no man of the present age is capable of it and therefore is no man now upon supposition of this sin to be excluded from our Prayers In a word as the world goes I know not how there is any maintaining Charity or the true Christian Temper without strict observing the Apostles injunction in my Text. For allow this that we are not to pray for those who have sinned a sin unto death and withal that sins unto death are in the present age as certainly to be known as they are commonly committed there will be few men if they have but ill nature enough to maintain enmities whose Malice will not byass their Judgments to pronounce their Enemies to have sinned a sin unto death and so there will be no loving of Enemies or praying for them at least there will be a proper method to absolve us from the Obligation of that our Lords Command of loving our Enemies and blessing those that curse us so proper to the Religion by him instituted Wherefore by the way give me leave from hence to recommend unto you the Prudence Piety and Integrity of the first Reformers of our Church and consequently the Soundness of the Reformation it self The first thing the Apostle gives in charge here to Timothy in order to the settling the Church of Ephesus is the due constituting the publick Prayers The first part of the Reformation was the compiling the Liturgy of our Church and that almost in the very form we at present have it The primitive publick Prayers by the Apostolical Injunction in the Text were to consist of Supplications Petitions Intercessions and giving of Thanks And St. Chrysostome on the Text tells us in his time the practice of the Church was accordingly The Priests all know saith he how this is performed every day both morning and evening Our Liturgy does consist of Confessions Suffrages or Litanies of Collects of Prayers for the whole Church Hymns and Eucharistical Devotions parts perfectly conformable to what was then both enjoyned and practised And these according to the Apostle were to be made for all men and as Chrysostome tells us were actually so made We pray accordingly in our Litany That it please thee to have mercy upon all men Besides we have other Prayers for all sorts and conditions of men But especially for Kingâ— saith the Apostle and all that are in Authority And that these Prayers according to Order in our Liturgy are offered up morning and evening I need not tell you but as led hereby proceed to my main design Proposition II. Publick Prayers of the Church in all kinds are to be made for Kings and all in Authority Nothing can be more expresly said in terms than this is in the present Text. And it gives a very great emphasis to the Apostles Injunction and so makes our Obliâ—ation to the Duty much the stronger if we consider when this Epistle was writ or in what days the Apostle laid this Charge on Timothy namely in the first year of Nero's being Emperor of Rome according to Baronius in his third year say others all agree 't was under his Empire What Nero was for a Monster of a man as to all Villanies imaginable I need not speak nor will you easily think the Governours sent by him viz. the Prefects of the Army or Provinces were most of them much better than their Emperour And such a long time continued the Emperours and the other Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome In loc expresses it ungodly men succeeding ungodly men so that Quot erant eo tempore magistratus tot Ecclesiae hostes atque Idolatriae As many Bez. in loc Magistrates as there were so many Enemies were there of the Church so many Idolaters and God knows vast multitudes more by their example Yet even for these did the Apostle injoyn constant Prayers daily to be made in the Church So that we must necessarily if we mind this circumstance apply hereto that of the Apostle St. Peter as to be subject to so to pray for not only the good and gentle but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the froward or perverse Yet let none by the way be so vile as to make here any misconstruction God be blessed we have no need to apply this Emphasis in our circumstances We have a King most Gracious who protects us in our Religion and has again and again promised so to do of which we have most publick and ample assurance However as long as there are such infernal Spirits in humane shape as are at this day many of the Scotch Covenanters who will not so much as say God save or God blâ—ss the King to save themselves from the Gallows it was not fit to omit this observation of the Date of this Epistle For hereby let the King have been what he could be to them they are convicted by our Apostles Doctrine to have renounced their Christianity in this case with their Allegiance and Duty to their King let them dye what they would they dyed no Christians It is not impossible there are others in the world who though to
of all whom very briefly I shall present a Summulary or Abstract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplications are generally understood such Prayers by which we deprecate Evils whence the word is anciently by St. Ambrose and St. Austin as well as by more modern Writers rendred Deprecations In plain terms we may conceive for our distincter understanding hereby meant such Prayers as now we style Litanies wherein we pray that God would deliver us from the several evils of Soul and Body And these are Impensior Oratio as St. Jerome glosses the word a more earnest kind of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Petitions or Prayers in a stricter sense of the name are such Addresses to God by which we ask that good things may be bestowed on us I judge hereby specially signified such Prayers as generally our Collects are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercessions or interposing with God for Interpellatio pro aliorum salute Theod Beza Cornel à Lapid c. the Safety of others seems very properly to denote such Prayers as have been ever since the primitive age used at the Communion for the whole Estate of Christs Church militant on Earth And then as to giving of Thanks whether for our own or others Mercies there can be no doubt of its plain certain difference from all the rest And not only the Te Deum other Hymns of the Church but in an especial manner the close of the forementioned Prayer blessing the Name of God for all his Saints which is a very ancient part of the Office of the Eucharist will properly suit thereto So that in short we find here the blessed Apostle prescribing or directing a kind of Liturgy in the Christian Church and that consisting of such parts and Offices as our present Service Book consists of And this he gives as the very first point in charge to Timothy To proceed Such Prayers as these must be made for all men This saith St. Chrysostome the Apostle begins with that his Injunction which follows For Kings and all that are in Authority might not be misjudged to proceed from slattery to them that were in power The Fathers conjecture is not to be contemned yet doubtless there was further reason for the Practice enjoyned it is but an agreeable product of the Christian Spirit or Temper Christianity both teaches and implants universal Charity We are to love all men and therefore to pray for all men For Kings and them that are in Authority The Greeks saith Grotius called the Roman Emperors Kings not regarding so much the name as the thing it self And then by proportion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are iâ— Authority will be the Presidents of the Provinces I acknowledge the note is learned and wholesom yet if we explain St. Paul out of St. Peter the Text will be more plain or the Words understood in a way more accommodate to the present forms of Government 1 Pet. ii 13 14. Submit your selves saith he to every Ordinance of Man whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as those that are sent by him By Kings we understand those who are supreme those who have within their Dominions the highest Authority under God and Christ independant on any other And such I conceive none here believe any one to be within these Kingdoms but His present Majesty James the second whom God preserve By Governours those who are commissionated by the Sovereign For both and all we are especially i. e. expresly by the Apostles command to supplicate in our publick Church Prayers There are more Heads might be insisted on from hence than I am willing to detain you with at present but of any two Propositions that I can pitch on deducible hence these following are most comprehensive of the whole 1. Prop. In the publick Service of the Church there ought to be Prayers Supplications Petitions and giving of Thanks for all men 2. Prop. In an especial manner such publick Prayers and that of all the kinds mentioned ought to be made for Kings and all subordinate Governours I will speak a few things briefly of the first as a good and proper foundation for it hath seemed such to the Holy Ghost in the Text as a proper foundation I say to the second We are in our publick Prayers to make Supplications Petitions and Thanksgivings for all men And I have already suggested the indefensible ground or foundation hereof Christianity teaches and induces universal Charity or Love to all men to Aliens and Enemies we know as well as to Fellow-natives and Friends I cannot therefore simply either approve or justifie that distinction which the parsimonious Charity of some applies here interpreting the All men in the Text meerly of the Genera singulâ—rum not the singuli Generum We are here commanded say they to pray for all sorts and degrees of men but not for all the men of each sort and degree there are many particular persons for whom we ought not to pray Obj. As to what they bring in proof hereof that the Apostle has given us a limitation 1 Joh. v. 16. There is a Sin unto Death I do not say that ye shall pray for it that is as appears by the Context for them who commit it I allow it Sol. to be true and God forbid but all men should allow it as such for 't is express Scripture but I assert it to be in the present state of the Church generally unapplicable as a rule of Practice For 1 What is a Sin unto Death pro hic nunc we know not I mean in this or that mans ordinary practice we are not able I am sure I have not met with that judicious person living who has dared to determine If God would be severe or but exactly just if as the Prophet speaks he should lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet there is no Sin at all which would not be unto death but now that through Christ Jesus all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. xxii 39. we know no Sins unpardonable that is unto Death but either 1. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which if we know what it is we cannot I think judge properly incident into the present age if we do not know though we should hear a man to commit it we could not be assured he in that sinned unto Death or 2. Such Sins which are an utter defeisance of the Covenant of Grace of which kind as far as I am able to see we know none but final Vnbelief and final Impenitence and till men are dead in their unbelief and impenitence we are not sure though we may strongly fear that God will not give them Faith and Repentance that is we are not sure their Unbelief or Impenitence will be final that is we know not that they have yet sinned unto Death Wherefore if they are so bad that we