every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive And if we were thus affected on all hands we might yet be a happy Church and Nation if we would govern our selves by these Rules and walk according to them peace would be upon us and mercy and on the Israel of God Thirdly I shall conclude all with a few words in relation to the occasion of this present meeting I have all this while been recommending to you from the Authority and Example of our Blessed Saviour and from the nature and reason of the thing it self this most exellent Grace and Virtue of Charity in the most proper Acts and Instances of it But besides particular Acts of Charity to be exercised upon emergent occasions there are likewise charitable Customs which are highly commendable because they are more certain and constant of a larger extent and of a longer continuance As the Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy which is now form'd and establish'd into a charitable Corporation And the Anniversary Meetings of those of the several Counties of England who reside or happen to be in London for two of the best and noblest ends that can be the maintaining of Friendship and the promoting of Charity These and others of the like kind I call charitable customs which of late years have very much obtained in this great and famous City And it cannot but be a great pleasure and satisfaction to all good men to see so generous so humane so Christian a disposition to prevail and reign so much amongst us The strange overflowing of vice and wickedness in our Land and the prodigious increase and impudence of infidelity and impiety hath of late years boaded very ill to us and brought terrible Judgments upon this City and Nation and seems still to threaten us with more and greater And the greatest comfort I have had under these sad apprehensions of Gods displeasure hath been this that though bad men were perhaps never worse in any Age yet the good who I hope are not a few were never more truly and substantially good I do verily believe there never were in any Time greater and more real effects of Charity not from a blind superstition and an ignorant zeal and a mercenary and arrogant and presumptuous principle of Merit but from a sound knowledg and a sincere love and obedience to God or as the Apostle expresses it out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned And who that loves God and Religion can chuse but take great contentment to see so general and forward an inclination in People this way Which hath been very much cherished of late years by this sort of Meetings and that to very good purpose and effect in many charitable contributions disposed in the best and wisest ways and which likewise hath tended very much to the reconciling of the minds of men and the allaying of those fierce heats and animosities which have ben caused by our Civil confusions and Religious distractions For there is nothing many times wanting to take away prejudice and to extinguish hatred and ill-will but an opportunity for men to see and understand one another by which they will quickly perceive that they are not such Monsters as they have been represented one to another at a distance We are I think one of the last Counties of England that have entred into this friendly and charitable kind of Society Let us make amends for our late setting out by quickning our pace that so we may overtake and outstrip those who are gone before us Let not our Charity partake of the coldness of our Climate but let us endeavour that it may be equal to the extent of our Country and as we are incomparably the greatest County of England let it appear that we are so by the largeness and extent of our Charity O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of Charity the very bond of Peace and of all Vertues Without which whosover liveth is counted dead before thee Grant this for thy only Son Jesus Christ's sake Now the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL April 4th 1679. 1 JOHN IV. 1. Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World THIS caution and counsel was given upon occasion of the false Prophets and Teachers that were risen up in the beginning of the Christian Church who endeavoured to seduce men from the true Doctrine of the Gospel delivered by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour And these teaching contrary things could not both be from God and therefore St. John calls upon Christians to examine the Doctrines and Pretences of those new Teachers whether they were from God or not Believe not every Spirit â—hat is not every one that takes upon him to be inspired and to be a Teacher come from God But try the Spirits that is examine those that make this pretence whether it be real or not and examine the Doctrines which they bring because there are many Impostors abroad in the World This is the plain sense of the Words In which there are contained these four Propositions First That men may and often do falsly pretend to Inspiration And this is the reason upon which the Apostle grounds this Exhortation Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world therefore we should try who are true and who are false Secondly We are not to believe every one that pretends to be inspired and to teach a Divine Doctrine This follows upon the former because men may falsly pretend to Inspiration therefore we are not to believe every one that makes this pretence For any man that hath but confidence enough and conscience little enough may pretend to come from God And if we admit all pretences of this kind we lie at the mercy of every crafty and confident man to be led by him into what delusions he pleaseth Thirdly Neither are we to reject all that pretend to come from God This is sufficiently implied in the Text for when the Apostle says believe not every Spirit he supposeth we are to believe some and when he saith try the Spirits whether they be of God he supposeth some to be of God and that those which are so are to be believed These three Observations are so plain that I need only to name them to make way for the Fourth Which I principally designed to insist upon from these Words And
and clear enough That there is a God and That his Providence governs the World and That there is another Life after this though neither Pope nor Council had ever declared any thing about these matters And for Revealed Doctrines we may be certain enough of all that is necessary if it be true which the Fathers tell us That all things necessary are plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures Fourthly An infallible Judge if there were one is no certain way to end Controversies and to preserve the unity of the Church unless it were likewise infallibly certain That there is such a Judge and Who he is For till men were sure of both these there would still be a Controversy whether there be an infallible Judge and who he is And if it be true which they tell us That without an infallible Judge Controversies cannot be ended then a Controversie concerning an infallible Judge can never be ended And there are two Controversies actually on foot about an infallible Judge One Whether there be an infallible Judge or not which is a Controversie between Us and the Church of Rome and the other Who this infallible Judge is which is a Controversie among themselves which could never yet be decided And yet till it be decided Infallibility if they had it would be of no use to them for the ending of Controversies Fifthly There is no such absolute need as is pretended of determining all Controversies in Religion If men would devest themselves of prejudice and interest as they ought in matters of Religion the necessary things of Religion are plain enough and men would generally agree well enough about them But if men will suffer themselves to be by assed by these they would not hearken to an infallible Judge if there were one or they would find out some way or other to call his Infallibility into question And as for doubtful and lesser matters in Religion charity and mutual forbearance among Christians would make the Church as peaceable and happy as perhaps it was ever design'd to be in this World without absolute unity in Opinion Sixthly and Lastly Whatever may be the inconveniences of mens judging for themselves in Religion yet taking this Principle with the Cautions I have given I doubt not to make it appear that the inconveniences are far the least on that side The present condition of humane Nature doth not admit of any constitution of things whether in Religion or Civil matters which is free from all kind of exception and inconvenience That is the best state of things which is liable to the least and fewest If men be modest and humble and willing to learn God hath done that which is sufficient for the assurance of our Faith and for the peace of his Church without an infallible Judge And if men will not be so I cannot tell what would be sufficient I am sure there were Heresies and Schisms in the Apostles Times when Those who governed the Church were certainly guided by an infallible Spirit God hath appointed Guides and Teachers for us in matters of Religion and if we will be contented to be instructed by them in those necessary Articles and Duties of Religion which are plainly contained in Scripture and to be counselled and directed by them in things that are more doubtful and difficult I do not see why we might hot do well enough without any infallible Judge or Guide But still it will be said Who shall judge what things are plain and what doubtful The answer to this in my opinion is not difficult For if there be any thing plain in Religion every man that hath been duly instructed in the Principles of Religtion can judge of it or else it is not plain But there are some things in Religion so very plain that no Guide or Judge can in reason claim that Authority over men as to oblige them to believe or do the contrary no though he pretend to Infallibility no though he were an Apostle though he were an Angel from heaven S. Paul puts the case so high Gal. 1.8 Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than what you have received let him be accursed which plainly supposeth that Christians may and can judge when Doctrines are contrary to the Gospel What not believe an Apostle nor an Angel from heaven if he should teach any thing evidently contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel If he should determine Vertue to be Vice and Vice to be Vertue No not an Apostle nor an Angel because such a Doctrine as this would confound and overturn all things in Religion And yet Bellarmin puts this very Case and says If the Pope should so determine we were bound to believe him unless we would sin against Conscience I will conclude this Discourse by putting a very plain and familiar Case by which it will appear what credit and authority is fit to be given to a Guide and what not Suppose I came a Stranger into England and landing at Dover took a Guide there to conduct me in my way to York which I knew before by the Mapp to lie North of Dover having committed my self to him if he lead me for two or three days together out of any plain Road and many times over hedge and ditch I cannot but think it strange that in a civil and well inhabited Country there should be no High-ways from one part of it to another Yet thus far I submit to him though not without some regret and impatience But then if after this for two or three days more he lead me directly South and with my face full upon the Sun at noon day and at last bring me back again to Dover Pere and still bids me follow him Then certainly no modesty do's oblige a man not to dispute with his Guide and to tell him surely that can be no way because it is Sea Now though he set never so bold a face upon the matter and tell me with all the gravity and authority in the world That it is not the Sea but dry Land under the species and appearance of Water and that whatever my eyes tell me having once committed my self to his guidance I must not trust my own senses in the case it being one of the most dangerous sorts of Infidelity for a man to believe his own eyes rather than his faithful and infallible Guide All this moves me not but I begin to expostulate roundly with him and to let him understand that if I must not believe what I see he is like to be of no farther use to me because I shall not be able at this rate to know whether I have a Guide and whether I follow him or not In short I tell him plainly that when I took him for my Guide I did not take him to tell me the difference between North and South between a Hedge and a High-way between Sea and dry Land all this I knew before as well as he
what that was he expresseth more particularly c. 26. v. 6 7 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come By the promise made of God unto the Fathers he means some promise made by God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for so S. Luke more than once in his History of the Acts explains this phrase of the God of their Fathers Acts 3.13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers and c. 7. v. 32. I am the God thy Fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now what was the great and famous Promise which God made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was it not this of being their God So that it was this very Promise upon which S. Paul tells us the Jews grounded their hope of a future state because they understood it necessarily to signifie some blessing and happiness beyond this life And now having I hope sufficiently clear'd this matter I shall make some improvement of this Doctrine of a future state and that to these three purposes 1. To raise our minds above this world and the enjoyments of this present life Were but men thorougly convinced of this plain and certain Truth that there is a vast difference between Time and Eternity between a few years and everlasting Ages would we but represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying persons have of this world how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a pageant and a shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of those things could be a sufficient temptation to any man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the delights and pleasures of sense we should be strangely intent upon the concernments of another world and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of that vast Eternity which we are ready to launch into For what is there in this world this waste and howling wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain our affections here and take off our thoughts from our everlasting habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and be happy for ever If we settle our affections upon the enjoyments of this present Life so as to be extremely pleas'd and transported with them and to say in our hearts It is good for us to be here if we be excessively griev'd or discontented for the want or loss of them and if we look upon our present state in this world any otherwise than as a preparation and passage to a better life it is a sign that our faith and hope of the happiness of another life is but very weak and faint and that we do not heartily and in good earnest believe what we pretend to do concerning these things For did we stedfastly believe and were thoroughly perswaded of what our Religion so plainly declares to us concerning the unspeakable and endless happiness of good men in another world our affections would sit more loose to this world and our hopes would raise our hearts as much above these present and sensible things as the heavens are high above the earth we should value nothing here below but as it serves for our present support and passage or may be made a means to secure and increase our future felicity 2. The consideration of another Life should quicken our preparation for that blessed state which remains for us in the other world This Life is a state of probation and trial This world is God's school where immortal spirits clothed with flesh are trained and bred up for eternity And then certainly it is not an indifferent thing and a matter of slight concernment to us how we live and demean our selves in this world whether we indulge our selves in ungodliness and worldly lusts or live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world No it is a matter of infinite moment as much as our souls and all eternity are worth Let us not deceive our selves for as we sow so shall we reap If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sow to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart The righteous hath hopes in his death Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the ungodly are not so whoever hath lived a wicked and vicious life feels strange throws and pangs in his conscience when he comes to be cast upon a sick bed The wicked is like the troubled sea saith the Prophet when it cannot rest full of trouble and confusion especially in a dying hour It is death to such a man to look back upon his life and a hell to him to think of eternity When his guilty and trembling Soul is ready to leave his Body and just stepping into the other world what horrour and amazement do then seise upon him what a rage does such a man feel in his breast when he seriously considers that he hath been so great a fool as for the false and imperfect pleasure of a few days to make himself miserable for ever 3. Let the consideration of that unspeakable Reward which God hath promised to good men at the Resurrection encourage us to obedience and a holy life We serve a great Prince who is able to promote us to honour a most gracious Master who will not let the least service we do for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from this large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrrection 1 Cor. 15.58 Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Nothing will make death more welcome to us than a constant course of service and obedience to God Sleep saith Solomon is sweet to the labouring man so after a great diligence and industry in working out our own salvation and as it is said of David serving our generation according to the will of God how pleasant will it be to fall asleep And as an useful and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of Piety we do to God or of charity to men whatever we lay out upon the poor and afflicted and necessitous will all be considered by God in the day of recompences and most plentifully rewarded to us And surely no consideration ought to be more prevalent to perswade us to alms-deeds and charity to the poor than that of a resurrection to another life Besides the promises of this life which are made to works of charity and there is not any
and mediation of Jesus Christ as he hath given us Commandment because there is but one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus If it seem evil unto you to have the liberty to serve God in a Language you can understand and to have the free use of the Holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto Salvation and to have the Sacraments of our Religion entirely administred to us as our Lord did institute and appoint And on the other hand if it seem good to us to put our necks once more under that yoke which our Fathers were not able to bear If it be really a Preferment to a Prince to hold the Pope's Stirrup and a Privilege to be deposed by him at his pleasure and a courtesie to be kill'd at his command If to pray without Understanding and to obey without Reason and to believe against Sense if Ignorance and implicit Faith and an Inquisition be in good earnest such charming and desirable things Then welcome Popery which wherever thou comest dost infallibly bring all these wonderfull Privileges and Blessings along with thee But the Question is not now about the choice but the change of our Religion after we have been so long settled in the quiet possession and enjoyment of it Men are very loth to change even a false Religion Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods And surely there is much more reason why we should be tenacious of the Truth and hold fast that which is good We have the best Religion in the World the very same which the Son of God revealed which the Apostles planted and confirmed by Miracles and which the noble Army of Martyrs sealed with their Blood And we have retrench'd from it all false Doctrines and superstitious Practices which have been added since And I think we may without immodesty say That upon the plain square of Scripture and Reason of the Tradition and Practice of the first and best Ages of the Christian Church we have fully justified Our Religion and made it evident to the World that our Adversaries are put to very hard shifts and upon a perpetual disadvantage in the defence of Theirs I wish it were as easie for us to justifie our Lives as our Religion I do not mean in comparison of our Adversaries for that as bad as we are I hope we are yet able to do but in comparison of the Rules of our holy Religion from which we are infinitely swerv'd which I would to God we all did seriously consider and lay to heart I say in comparison of the Rules of our Holy Religion which teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World in expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. JOSHUA XXIV 15. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve THese words as I have already declared in the former Discourse are the last counsel and advice which Joshua gave to the People of Israel after he had safely conducted them into the Land of Canaan And that he might more effectually perswade them to continue stedfast in the worship of the true God by an eloquent kind of insinuation he doth as it were once more set them at liberty and leave them to their own choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve The plain sense of which Words may be resolved into this Proposition That notwithstanding all the prejudices and objections against the true Religion yet it hath those real advantages on its side that it may safely be referred to any impartial and considerate man's choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord intimating that to some persons and upon some accounts it may seem so but when the matter is throughly examined the resolution and choice cannot be difficult nor require any long deliberation Chuse you this day whom you will serve The true Religion hath always layn under some prejudices with partial arid inconsiderate men arising chiefly from these two Causes the prepossessions of a false Religion and the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice First From the prepossessions of a false Religion which hath always been wont to lay claim to Antiquity and Vniversality and to charge the true Religion with Novelty and Singularity And both these are intimated before the Text Put away the Gods whom your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood and in Egypt and chuse you this day whom you will serve It was pretended that the worship of Idols was the ancient Religion of the world of those great Nations the Egyptians and Chaldeans and of all the Nations round about them But this hath already been considered at large Secondly There are another sort of prejudices against Religion more apt to stick with men of better sense and reason and these arise principally from the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice It is pretended that Religion is a heavy yoke and lays too great a restraint upon humane Nature and that the Laws of it bear too hard upon the general inclinations of mankind I shall not at present meddle with the speculative Objections against Religion upon account of the pretended unreasonableness of many things in point of Belief because the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice is that which in truth lies at the bottom of Atheism and Insidelity and raises all that animosity which is in the minds of bad men against Religion and exasperates them to oppose it with all their wit and malice Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil And if this prejudice were but once removed and men were in some measure reconciled to the practice of Religion the speculative Objections against it would almost vanish of themselves for there wants little else to enable a man to answer them but a willingness of mind to have them answered and that we have no interest and inclination to the contrary And therefore I shall at present wholly apply my self to remove this prejudice against Religion from the contrariety of it to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice And there are two parts of this Objection 1st That a great part of the Laws of Religion do thwart the natural inclinations of men which may reasonably be supposed to be from God And 2ly That all of them together are a heavy yoke and do lay too great a restraint upon humane Nature intrenching too much upon the pleasures and liberty of it I.
key of knowledge and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven against Men That is doing what in them lies to render it impossible for men to be saved For this he denounceth a terrible Woe against the Teachers of the Jewish Church Though they did not proceed so far as to deprive men of the use of the H. Scriptures but only of the right knowledge and understanding of them This alone is a horrible impiety to lead men into a false sense and interpretation of Scripture but much greater to forbid them the reading of it This is to stop knowledge at the very Fountain-head and not only to lead men into Errour but to take away from them all possibility of rectifying their mistakes And can there be a greater sacrilege than to rob men of the word of God the best means in the world of acquainting them with the will of God and their duty and the way to eternal happiness To keep the people in Ignorance of that which is necessary to save them is to judge them unworthy of eternal life and to declare it do's not belong to them and maliciously to contrive the eternal ruine and destruction of their Souls To lock up the Scriptures and the service of God from the people in an unknown tongue what is this but in effect to forbid men to know God and to serve him to render them incapable of knowing what is the good and acceptable will of God of joyning in his worship or performing any part of it or receiving any benefit or edification from it And what is if this be not to shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men This is so outragious a cruelty to the souls of men that it is not to be excused upon any pretence whatsoever This is to take the surest and most effectual way in the world to destroy those for whom Christ dyed and directly to thwart the great design of God our Saviour who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Men may misâ—â—â—ry with their knowledge but they are sure to perish for want of it The best things in the world have their inconveniences aâ—â—â—ding them and are liable to be aâ—used but surely men are not to be ruâ—â—â—d and damned for fear of abusing their knowledge or for the prevention of any other inconvenience whatsoever Besides this is to cross the very end of the Scriptures and the design of God in inspiring men to write them Can any man think that God should send this great light of his Word into the world for the Priests to hide it under a bushel and not rather that it should be set up to the greatest advantage for the enlightening of the world St. Paul tells us Rom. 15. 4. That whatsoever things were written were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And 2 Tim. 3.16 That all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is prositable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness And if the Scriptures were written for these ends can any man have the face to pretend that they do not concern the people as well as their teachers Nay St. Paul expresly tells the Churâ—â— of Rome that they were written for their learning however it happens that they are not now permitted to make use of them Are the Scriptures so usefull and profitable for doctrine for reproof for instruction in righteousness and why may they not be used by the people for those ends for which they were given 'T is true indeed they are fit for the most knowing and learned and sufficient to make the man of God perfect and throughly furnished to every good work as the Apostle there tells us But do's this exclude their being profitable also to the people who may reasonably be presumed to stand much more in need of all means and helps of instruction than their Teachers And though there be many difficulties and obscurities in the Scriptures enough to exercise the skill and wit of the learned yet are they not therefore either useless or dangerous to the People The ancient Fathers of the Church were of another mind St. Chrysostome tells us that Whatever things are necessary are manifest in the Scriptures And St. Austin that all things are plain in the Scripture which concern faith and a good life and that those things which are necessary to the Salvation of men are not so hard to be come at but that as to those things which the Scripture plainly contains it speaks without disguise like a familiar friend to the heart of the learned and unlearned And upon these and such like considerations the Fathers did every where in their Orations Homilies charge and exhort the people to be conversant in the holy Scriptures to reade them daily and diligently and attentively And I challenge our Adversaries to shew me where any of the ancient Fathers do discourage the people from reading the Scriptures much less forbid them so to do So that they who do it now have no Cloak for their sin And they who pretend so confidently to Antiquity in other cases are by the evidence of truth forced to acknowledge that it is against them in this Though they have ten thousand Schoolmen on their side yet have they not one Father not the least pretence of Scripture or rag of antiquity to cover their nakedness in this point With great reason then does our Saviour denounce so heavy a Woe againd such teachers Of old in the like case God by his Prophet severely threatens the Priests of the Jewish Church for not instructing the people in the knowledge of God Hosea 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee thou shalt be no more a Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy Children God you see lays the ruine of so many Souls at their doors and will require their blood at their hands So many as perish for want of knowledge and eternally miscarry by being deprived of the necessary means of Salvation their destruction shall be charged upon those who have taken away the key of knowledge and shut the kingdom of heaven against men And it is just with God to punish such persons not only as the occasion but as the Authours of their ruine For who can judge otherwise but that they who deprive men of the necessary means to any end do purposely design to hinder them of attaining that end And whatever may be pretended in this case to deprive men of the holy Scriptures and to keep them ignorant of the service of God and yet while they do so to make a shew of an earnest desire of their Salvation is just such a mockery as if one of you that is a master should tell his prentice how much you desire he should thrive in the world and be a rich