Power the Infallibility of a General Council the praying to Saints the redeeming souls out of Purgatory Indulgences Pilgrimages with a thousand other additions by whiâ—h they have vitiated the purity of that holy Doctrine which the Apostles delivered to the world This is the foundation of our whole Religion that we believe all that the Apostles delivered to the Churches and no more so we stand to this appeal in my Text Remember therefore that thou hast received and heard It were easie to instance it in many particulars and to shew you how at first ignorance and superstition let in some Customs and perhaps those who introduced them at first being innocent but weak men meant well in it so to draw the Heathens off from their Idolatry they directed them to call on Saints instead of the gods they had formerly worshipped and to perswade people to receive the Sacrament with great devotion they strained their eloquence and invention to recommend the value of it in high figures Many more might be named but these may suffice afterwards when the Roman Empire was over-run by the incursions of the Barbarous Nations and Civility Religion and Learning were almost driven out of the world then some crafty and aspiring Priests came to graft upon the Customs of the former times new Opinions and still to add new Rites till in the end they swelled up to what they are now at in the Roman Church When these Opinions were first broached Visions and Dreams were given out to support them and if these lesser frauds did not prevail pretended Miracles were not wanting to give them credit till they were received and being once received they were enrolled among the Traditions of the Church and so were no more to be contested or denied if any presumed to do it it was at his peril These Miracles were coined so as to fit not only the Doctrine it self but the way of explaining it and as new ways of explaining were fallen upon new Miracles suitable to these new expositions were at hand When the Doctrine of the Corporal presence was first received in the 9th Century it was believed that the whole Loaf was an entire body of Christ so that he was sliced in pieces and eat up in gobbets and so they continued to understand it near 300 years Then the Miracles to prove it were adjusted to that conceit it was given out that it did sometimes bleed and pieces of it were said to be converted to pieces of slesh but after that the School Divinity came to be in request this way was not found so defensible nor so decent and then it was said Christ was in every Crumb of the Host so that upon the breaking it an entire Christ flew off from the rest which yet remained still as entire as it was notwithstanding that diminution and then as they blessed Wasers instead of a Loaf so the former Miracles were not so much talked of though some ignorant Priests that did not consider that these were contrary to the Doctrine of their Church did in some places continue to act the former cheats but new ones were more generally invented and Christ was said to appear all in rayes over or upon the Host so well practised were they in the arts of jugling as to make their tricks always agree with their Hypothesis In opposition to all these false Doctrines and lying wonders the Reformed have from the first beginning of the Reformation set up the whole strength of their cause upon this single Plea of receiving nothing as a part of their faith but what could be found in the Writings of the Apostles that so all agreeing on a common Umpire their differences might be more easily composed The Church of Rome knows well what the issue must be if this is granted and so have put the strength of their whole cause upon the authority of the Church that is themselves and the certainty of Oral Tradition handed down by such men as themselves are Whether the one or the other seems to be the more ingenuous Principle the more certain method of Trial and the less liable to deceit I leave it to the Consciences of all wise and good men But as we ought to remember what we have thus received and heard so the end of this is not barely for speculation to inform us about some notions or to furnish us with arguments and discourse these things are only necessary for a further end that our minds being well informed and our belief rightly directed we may govern our lives according to what the holy Apostles have left to us It is because their works were not perfect that they are here charged therefore to remember the doctrine that they had received What shall our knowledge our Orthodoxie and soundness of opinion avail us if we do not reduce it to practise unless it be to heighten our condemnation and to intitle us to more stripes and severer judgements Here we will find our duties set before us and from thence we will both know what our sins have been and how to turn from them Oh that there were such a heart in us But as we ought to remember and improve the Doctrine delivered to the Church by the Apostles so we ought to keep it carefully 3. And this is the third particular I am to speak to All who have received this Doctrine ought to preserve it and to conveigh down that sacred trust committed to them to the succeeding generations This is to Hold-fast what we have received and heard The meaning of this considering the circumstances the Church of Sardis was in is either that they should preserve it pure and keep it as it was delivered to them or that if persecutions should arise for the Faith they should not depart from it for the love of this present world or make shipwrack of it but should hold fast the profession of their Faith without wavering There were many Tares sown then in the field of the Church many of the followers of Simon Magus were corrupting the Christian Religion it was necessary on that account to look carefully to that sacred Depositum that was put in their hands There was also a black Cloud gathering a persecution was coming on the Church One storm had passed that had been raised by Nero and they were now in another set on by Domitian therefore it was necessary to put them on their guard and to charge them to keep or Hold fast the Doctrine delivered to them This was all that they could be obliged to but in our circumstances there is somewhat else imported in this Holding fast that we ought not only to keep our Religion pure and to be ready to suffer for it if we are called to it but since we enjoy the protection and security of law and lawful authority we ought to hold that fast and deliver it down to our posterity as we have received it from our Fathers We are to keep it pure from the
that continued to the end in that course of life that they should be advanced to the same State of perfect Holiness their Names were now to be written in the Book of Life and at the Great Day when these Books should be opened Christ would before God Angels and Saints give such a Testimony to them as is recorded in the 25. Chap. of St. Mat. Gospel When I was Hungry ye Fed me c. This Epistle being thus explained it will not be difficult to apprehend what the Particulars are on which I shall enlarge They are these five 1. Jesus Christ observes and will reckon with every Church according to the blessings which they have received if they live not suitably to them 2. The Rule by which we are to examine our selves and by which God will judge us is the Doctrine which the Churches received from the Apostles 3. All those who have heard and received this Doctrine ought to keep it carefully and to conveigh down that Sacred Trust committed to them to the succeeding Generations 4. The chief Use We ought to make of this Doctrine is to reform our Hearts and Lives to repent and to forsake our Sins 5. Such as will not make this Use of it have reason to look for sudden and severe Judgments All these things are clearly gathered out of my Text and seem to comprehend the full sense of these words I have not found thy Works perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee To Return to the first 1. Jesus Christ observes and will reckon with every Church according to the Blessings which they have received if they live not suitably to them I have not found thy Works perfect before God Perfect the Greek word is different from that which is commonly rendered Perfect and strictly imports accomplished or filled up with such Ingredients as make Works acceptable with God By this we are not to understand that absolute Perfection which excludes all Sin or all Defects for Works so perfect belong to another State but such a Perfection as agrees to the Gospel-Covenant by which all that is sincere is perfect in some sort and will be so accounted for to us by God Wherein the Works of this Church were not perfect We can only guess at it by what we find in the other Epistles in this and the former Chap. and in the Epistles written by S. Paul to some other Churches There are three things chiefly specified and insisted on 1. Their falling from their first Love and not doing their first Works charged by St. John on the Church of Ephesus and by St. Paul on the Galathians they received the Gospel according to the Parable of the Seed with great joy they begain in the Spirit they did run well but the fear of Persecution or the Cares of the World and the Deceitfulness of Riches made that the Seed of the Word of God that had been sown among them either withered or was choaked their first Fervour abated their Love cooled they became Lukewarm and then quite cold and dead so that those who began in the Spirit in a spiritual Course or had received the Gifts or Graces of the Holy Spirit ended in the Flesh became carnal and loose men 2. They are charged for listning to false Teachers and Seducers they had heard many strange things from the Apostles which were new to them and these did raise a curiosity in them after Novelties with a disposition to receive them some of them are particularly named in these Epistles some brought in Heathenish Sorceries and Idolatrous Rites among them as Balaam and Jesabel had done others loosed all the Tyes of Modesty and Wedlock as the Nicolaitans did others were for subjecting the Christian Church to the Yoke of all the Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law and by the Arts which these Seducers used the Churches that had received the Apostles with great kindness so that they were ready to have plucked out their very Eyes for them a phrase expressing the tenderest affection yet Were too much inclined to entertain those false Apostles 3. They were apt to divide and quarrel unreasonably about little and inconsiderable things and carried these Heats so far that even when they assembled together to receive the Holy Sacrament they met for the worse and not for the better so that there were Divisions among them and the several Parties assumed such Names as they thought would give them the most Credit some were for Paul some for Apollo some for Cephas and some for Christ. And the very Teachers themselves were factious and contentious so that some at Rome when S. Paul was in Prison for the Gospel preached there out of Contention that they might thereby add affliction to his Bonds though in that they were disappointed for notwithstanding their Injustice to him he rejoyced that Christ was preached by them Some one or all these had perhaps got into the Church of Sardis for which S. John in the name of Christ Expostulates with them They had much to answer for to whom the Apostles had delivered what they had seen and heard concerning Jesus Christ confirming it with many Miracles and had conferred on them extraordinary Gifts so that they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and of the Powers of the World to come These seem to have been the sins of this as well as of the other Apostolical Churches And now to apply all this to Our own Case suffer me first in the Name of God to plead with you and to set before you the many blessings you have received from him beyond most or rather any Nation now in the World We are born in a Country that abounds not only with all that is necessary for the Inhabitants but yields Us great store of very valuable Goods which We exchange with other Nations and bring over such things as grow not among Us with a vast encrease of wealth which from all parts of the World flows unto Us Our Country being equally well situated for security and Traffique We have almost forgot when We were visited with the Plague of Famine We are under a Government so rarely tempered by Law that in it We have all the advantages of other Constitutions and avoid the mischiefs of the several forms of Government as much as is possible for any thing that is managed by mortal and sinful men to be So that after any of the Convulsions that have been among Us it has been still found necessary to return to the old Channel and observe the Landmarks which Our Forefathers set Us. These blessings We enjoy beyond any Nation in the World but these We have in common with the former Ages they are also Temporal and end with this Life We have yet much more to
corruptions that may be introduced to vitiate the simplicity of our holy Religion we know the Enemies of the Church sleep not tho the Watchmen sleep too often While we have Adversaries that are so restless and industrious that make up in their arts of insinuation and indefatigable diligence what is wanting in the justice and goodness of their Cause on these our eyes ought to be much set They have corrupted Religion where ever their arts have been succesful and have endeavoured to overthrow all Governments and broken the peace of all Societies that have been so much on their guard as to look carefully to them For that same principle that makes them burn and destroy where they have power makes them also incessantly Plot and practise where they have it not Severities in matters of Religion are indeed contrary to that humanity that is imprinted in our nature and to those rules that are often repeated in Scripture But if any Sect of Religion continues to breed frequent and almost uninterrupted disturbances in any Government it is not enough to punish those that are found in the fault but if it is evident as it is certainly in this case that their Doctrine sets them on to and will bear them through in such conspiracies it seems not possible to secure the peace of a Kingdom so much infested by them as we have been now 120 years but by delivering it entirely out of their hands and putting an utter end to the distractions we have been in and the mischiefs we have smarted under by their means They will live much better among their own friends beyond Sea where they may freely exercise their own Religion and I am sure we will be much the happier and quieter for being freed from the trouble they have given us And thus we are to Hold fast the Apostles Doctrine and to keep our selves from the infection of those who have corrupted it But if this cannot be done and if God either to punish us for our former sins or to raise again the true spirit of the reformed Religion to purifie us from our dross and to melt us into one lump and close up those breaches which we have been rather widening than healing will deliver us up into the hands of our merciless and implacable Enemies then as we know what we are to look for so we ought to prepare our selves for it and resolve to be faithful to the death We know what wil be not only by what has been but by what is the Doctrine of that Church of extirpating Hereticks decreed in their General Councils and what they have met with of late among us has so whetted their Spirits against us that if ever we are in their power the cruelty of their Religion being quickned by their private resentments we can look for nothing but either to be forced to worship a piece of bread and to renounce that Faith which we now profess or to seal it with our blood and that perhaps in the cruellest manner I know it is not easie for flesh and blood so much as to think on these things without horror But Oh what will it be to suffer them It will not be our living peaceably nor our keeping our belief to our selves that will secure us we must in all things comply nay and if we should dissemble and comply we must by an over-acting zeal procure our pardon for what is past and beget a confidence in them for the future I shall on this head represent a little of what you may expect by mentioning some few passages of Queen Maries never to be forgotten bloody Reign that are not so generally known At first She promised the continuance of the established Religion soon after She procured it to be generally changed even while the Laws were yet in force for it but then it was said none should be forced in their Consciences if they would live peaceably but when the change was fully brought about then according to the Natural Genius of that Religion an open and undistinguish't persecution was resolved on Orders were then sent from the Council Table to the Justices of Peace to have spies in every Parish to observe every mans deportment a bare suspition was ground enough to proceed upon Persons being presented upon suspition were imprisoned and without any proofs or witnesses brought against them Articles were offered to them to which if they did not in all things answer according to the Doctrine of that Church and if they could not be induced to change their perswasions they were condemned to the fire tho they had neither said nor acted any thing contrary to the established Religion And it went yet further The Justices of peace having been often writ to grew more and more backward to these cruelties especially when they saw them burn poor people single at first then by pairs then six eight ten and thirteen were burnt in one fire neither the blind nor lame aged men nor women near their time no nor new-born Infants escaping the rage of these Butchers Then to make way for the Courts of Inquisition a Commission was given to a selected number of whom three was a Quorum to make enquiry over all England not only of such as were suspect of Heresie but of all that did not express their zeal for the Popish Religion in taking holy Bread or holy Water or going in Processions which tho they are not things to which all in that Communion are obliged yet these discovering the affections and inclinations of the people such as did them not were to be proceeded against upon these suspitions At first such as were burnt had their lives offered to them at the Stake if they would recant but as the persecution went on they became more barbarous so that it was not enough for one to recant then for a Sheriff was cast in Prison and fined for staying the execution of one who did it It was said if he recanted sincerely it was better to burn him than to leave him to the temptations of becoming a relapse and if he did it not sincerely it was pity to spare him So which way soever it was dye and burn he must And that none might escape out of their Toils care was taken to secure all the Ports that none might fly beyond Sea Here is a sad prospect before us but in what disposition are we to bear it we have no reason to doubt but great numbers will turn with the tide as they did then Many who seem now to be hot and zealous for the Protestant Religion will then perhaps be as busie to discover and accuse those whom they now censure not only rashly but maliciously Men of ill Lives and defiled Consciences want that principle which must strengthen them to bear the Cross and make it easie and comfortable to them It is quite another thing to own this Faith in our present circumstances from what it will be to adhere to it then It is