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A43065 A sermon preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, January the 30th, 1695/6 by Gregory Hascard. Hascard, Gregory. 1696 (1696) Wing H1117; ESTC R25418 14,412 31

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is apt and fit to gain upon all And therefore Men of Contrivance and Policy if themselves had no real Persuasion of Religion yet ever thought it necessary to infuse the belief of it into those they had to manage supposing that all other Methods to rule the World were only Formalities and Entreaties And t is plain what they acted upon the account of State-craft is really so A Land without Religion is a World without a Sun producing Horror and Confusion and the Prophets Wo. And the belief of a God Without real Goodness is to say there is no God at all 3. What particular Reasons may move us to bewail the want of real Goodness 1. The want of it is the principal Cause of our Distractions about Religion Men of Wisdom and Sobriety cannot but be pleas'd to have the methods of Salvation plain and the Characters easy whereby they may judge whether they shall be saved or no but it sometimes happens that good Men live and walk where different ways are chalk'd out and several Voices are heard to say Lo here and lo there lies the road to Jerusalem their Opinions are numerous their Arguings warm their Censures severe every one pretending Heaven and true Religion is only with them How must the good Man carry himself here when his Birth Privacy Imployment and other Circumstances of Life will not permit him to consider and conclude who hath the greatest truth on his side The only Gound among these Quicksands Waves and Winds variety of Opinions as ill as they to anchor on is real Goodness This being the best evidence that our Faith is true our Spirit Divine Decrers irreversible the great preparative to Heaven to which all other parts in Religion do minister in which most Persuasions tho sometimes they mistake the means to it do agree most suitable to natural Reason the design of Christ's coming and the solemn end of all Religion If this good Man mistakes yet so long as his Error toucheth not upon the great Article of Faith nor Goodness he hath a merciful High-Priest at God's right hand who will accept his Sacrifice and pardon the blemish of it He is safe and secure and is a Israclite indeed tho he hath not the Phylacteries and Fringes of a nicer Rabbi tho he cannot call over all the Points of the Compass and understand all the Sailer's terms yet he is in the Channel to Sion not having made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience And tho this Church of England which our Martyr so heartily defended with his Pen and his Blood be charg'd by some with Heresy and others with Superstition and Secular Interest yet being sure that her Faith is Primitive her Discipline Ceremonies Collects Homilles and whole Constitution are model'd for and directly lead to a good Conversation we may fix in her and not grow giddy by turning round in all Religions Nothing giving more satisfaction to the Mind in a divided Age that we shall not miscarry in our hopes of Heaven that when our purposes in Religion are honest to make us better Men than the common Lump and Mass of Mankind that we are now designing only to be good and to have our Conversation as becomes the Gospel of Christ 2 Real Goodness is the best way to unite us among our selves Religion upon any other account than the hopes of Heaven above and real Goodness below is changeable being only Fashion Interest or Humour which will dwindle into as many Divisions as there are in the World Religion that aims not at Goodness is nice and clamorous worldly and uncertain which naturally produce Factions and Dissentions Religion or Wisdom from above is gentle and easy to be entreated plain and substantial which easily beget Unity and Charity great parts of Christianity and as great Blessings of Mankind Real Goodness purges our Judgment removes our Prejudices then we easily discern what is Notion and Opinion and Speculation and what is solid and practical Truth what is probable and what is plain what may be parred with for peace-sake and what is to be retain'd what is Soul and and Heaven and what is Flesh and Blood The great occasion of Differences that have vext the Christian World and been its Scandal hath sprung from the Ambition and Peevishness idle Disputes Contests of Power and Gain For tho must in their religious Heats pretend Faith and Goodness and entitle other things with those excellent Na●es yet they confute themselves in the Prosecution of them being guily of Cruelty Hypocrisy and falshood things directly contrary to the Christian faith They kill Jesus to save Christ disgrace Religion in so maintaining of it And would Men be in earnest in this pretence the great Contentions would draw to an end For let us but leave things controverted and dark to the Schools for Discipline Order and things of indifferency submit to the Wisdom of our Governors and let not Factories and Changes mix with our Churches and call Interest Christianity and strip our selves of Passion and hopes of Victory there would be only left Faith and a good Life necessary to Salvation such as Christ and his Apostles taught the Primitive Christians practised and were saved by plain and manifest to all And then the only Contention would be Honest and truly Christian who should be the best Men and some mens Zeal would therefore cool the flaming Bigot not always having this good design to receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child in simplicity and goodness to grow thereby It being easy to observe that an Age full of Contention about Religion was not always the best and when the Church as in the first Three hundred years was truly good it had most Unity within its Pale Vice directly stirring up Wars and Feuds and Virtue Peace and Love and to reform mens Lives is the best method to bring them into truth and if our Conversation be in Heaven we shall be exercising and singing Peace of Earth Duty to our King Good will to all men the short and easy Method to bring us to the place where the Sould of our Blessed Martyr dwells that with him and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect we may sing Praises and Hallelujahs to the Lamb and him that sits upon the Throne blessed for evermore Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENT A Sermon preach'd before the King at His Majesty's Chappel in Windso-Castle November 10. 1695. By Gregory Hascard D. D. Dean of Windsor and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Published by his Majesty's Speci●l Command Printed for Daniel Brown at the Bible and Swan without Temple-Bar