hatred and detestation of the wickedness of their Brethren After which pattern Christ expected the Church of Pergamus should be severe against all those among them who were seduced from the Christian purity in Doctrine and in Manners by the like artifice of the Devils Agents Whereby he knew he should put them out of Christs favour and if they continued in those wicked courses quite unchurch them and bring them again under his vassalage This is the Repentance which Christ here calls for in my Text and which He requires of all Governours and those in Authority Civil or Spiritual that they should not be slack in punishing sin and suppressing all false Doctrine and especially those leud opinions which lead men to all manner of loosness and wickedness For if you observe it the Church of Pergamus had been stedfast in the Faith in the time of persecution and when Antipas his faithful Martyr suffered were a commendable people in many things as we likewise in this Church at least our Forefathers may be commended for this that in the days of Fire and Faggot many chose to dye rather than to change their Religion But there were a few things which Christ had against them First Because they had those among them who held the Doctrine of Balaam c. and Secondly Those who held the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans who were another sort of filthy people giving themselves over unto promiscuous lusts of uncleanness When He saith They had such among them He means they connived at them and did not eject them For it was not their fault that those men held such opinions but that they suffered them without the censure of the Church And then immediately He addes Repent or else I will come against thee quickly c. As much as to say You must suffer these men no longer among you that was their repentance at that time or if you do I will not endure it but will come and punish you for this indifference in Religion Now I leave you all to judge whether the Factors of the evil one have not taken this very course to unchurch us and we by our negligence be not in the way to unchurch our selves They have infused poysonous principles into mens minds and taught them for instance to decry Marriage as a foolish slavery to think Fornication an innocent thing and so to give up themselves to commit all uncleanness with greediness that so forgetting all respect to our Religion they may in the issue make them Romanists and proselyte them to their Idolatrous Services that is make them ten times more the Children of the Devil than they were befoee And what other way is there to be saved from the destruction which these and other vices will bring upon us but that which we are not willing to take for every man to repent of his own wickedness and turn to God and then for those who have authority to set themselves with all their might to punish and to root out such wickednesses with all the principles that lead unto them together with the Abettors and Supporters of them And here it may be fit to observe That a few things if very destructive to Religion may provoke the Divine severity against a Church For they were no more that Christ charges this Church of Pergamus withal and yet if they did not amend He threatens to come and fight against them with the Sword of his mouth What will become of us then whom He hath so many things to charge withal if we go on still to provoke Him with them to jealousie I doubt we cannot clear our selves from such filthinesses as are here mentioned nor from foul Doctines leading to them which too many have entertained nor from coldness and indifference in Religion if not plain infidelity nor from a disposition of heart in some to turn back to Rome the spiritual Egypt again nor from conniving at the defection which so many have made from Christs true Religion here established and not endeavouring to suppress all those that seek to destroy it And which is still more we are foully guilty of slighting that Authority which should call men to an account for all their wickedness and not only reprove and rebuke but censure and chastise and exercise Christs Discipline upon notorious Offenders This is a thing not only laugh'd at and despised but hated and scorned nay the Ministers of Christ themselves are but lightly esteemed For which if there were nothing else we may be sure Christ will reckon with us Reckon with us did I say He hath done it in part already and yet we are not cured of this malignant humour which makes me fear the saddest part of the reckoning is still behind Take the Prognostication in the words of a great Doctor of this Church * Dr Jackson on the Creed Book II. Chap. 9. who thus denounced God's Judgments against this Nation a good while before the late Wars upon this very account That he saw the people running headlong into this great sin which is marvellously encreased since that time Questionless saith he this open malapert scoffing disobedience to all Ecclesiastical Power now openly professed by the meanest and countenanced by many great ones of the Laity is the sin which to all that know Gods Judgments or have been observant to look into the days of our visitation cries loudest in the Almighties ears more loud by much than the Prayers of Friars Monks and Jesuits do for Gods vengeance upon this land For vengeance to be executed by no other than our sword inveterate malicious enemies by no other grievances than by the doubled grievances of the long-enraged Romanists iron-yoke which is now prepared for us ten times more heavy and irksome than that was which our Forefathers have born I pray God this do not prove a true Prediction If it do we cannot say but we were forewarned and that Gods Watchmen discharged themselves and told us beforehand of the danger Which we had better prevent by becoming more obedient to their godly admonitions by submitting to their just censures by esteeming them very highly for their works sake and giving them all due encouragement to do their duties sincerely And though some be negligent and idle or ignorant let not either the baseness or the leudness of any of their persons tempt you to despise their office For that 's the reason in that Doctors opinion why God sends no better men in many places God knows saith he for whose fake it is but we may at fear it is especially for the infidelity and disloyalty of this people towards Him and for their disobedience to his Messengers that He sends them such idle foolish and lewd Pastors as they have in many places Because the Laity of this Land are so prone and head-strong to cast off Christs yoke and to deny due obedience to his faithful Ministers He therefore sets such Watchmen over them in many places as they shall
device of entertaining the people with Images which they call the Books of the Ignorant and are the means of keeping them in ignorance instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise to salvation For all which the holy and reverend Name of the Church and its infallibility is used for a colour By which they mean only the Roman Church which being but a particular Church not the universal is become Judg in her own Cause and maintains she does well nay cannot erre because she says she cannot do otherwise There is no man who will take the liberty to consider that can think this the way of salvation No it is the manifest method of perishing without remedy for any thing that the people of that Church can know For they being taught simply to believe in the Church of Rome and to depend wholly upon its authority without any other enquiry can never be satisfied whether this Church wherein they believe teaches the true and pure Doctrine of Christ Jesus the Lord and Spouse of the Church For they are deprived of all means to find this out being forbidden to look into the holy Scriptures where Christ hath delivered his mind unto us All the Faith therefore of the poor people of the Roman Church is no other than a humane Faith being grounded wholly on the authority of men and of all humane Testimony they rely upon the most uncertain viz. that which they give of themselves For they believe their Church to be good merely because She says so that is make her judge in her own case which is like to produce the most partial Judgment of all other But it is time to leave the consideration of their faults in this thing and as the duty of this Day requires to reflect seriously and impartially upon our own Which we shall the better do when I have a little opened the second general part of my Text wherein we shall see how happy we of this Church might have been if we had held fast that which we have received II. For that follows you see in the Charge given to the Church of Sardis Remember what thou hast received and heard and HOLD FAST or keep to it observe it and take care to do accordingly For that 's the end of calling things to mind that we may not depart from them if they be of consequence to our happiness Such was the Doctrine at first delivered by Christ and his Apostles and to apply it wholly to our selves such is that which we have received being the very same as you have heard with that at first delivered Which we ought therefore to keep most sacredly and to stick to it stedfastly never in the least warping from it nor turning aside either to the right hand or to the left from the principles and rules of a Religion which is so well grounded that it stands upon the undoubted word of God our Saviour For as I have shewn you the Religion which we have received and heard is no other than what the holy Scriptures which all acknowledg to be the word of Truth teach us to believe and practise And is a Religion so sincere that it teaches the people to read the holy Scriptures because it is not afraid they should therein read its condemnation And for that end propounds the Scriptures to them in their own Language because it is not in the least ashamed of any thing it bids them believe nor unwilling to be laid to that rule of righteousness and examined by it A Religion also which in reading the holy Scriptures bids the people content themselves with that which they find there clearly and evidently delivered for that it assures them is sufficient for their salvation leaving things obscure for the exercise of the learned and things not drawn from thence but from uncertain Traditions or private Inspiration to superstitious and fantastical Persons A Religion which doth not make Faith consist in ignorance but in knowledge and yet to keep this knowledge within the bounds of sobriety directs and enjoyns all private persons to take heed to the publick Ministry of the Church and all publick Ministers to study the Scriptures diligently and to teach nothing to be religiously held and believed as one of our ancient Canons is * 1571. Tit. Concionatores but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and which the Catholick-Fathers and the ancient Bishops have collected out of that very Doctrine It is a Religion also which doth not teach us to rely upon Faith alone but presses the necessity of good works far more than the Roman Church doth whatsoever they falsely pretend only it teaches that God rewards all the good we do out of his own free mercy without any desert And therefore instead of framing and fashioning Wood and Stone into the Images of men and setting them up for the people to worship it exhorts men by all means possible to study to frame themselves after the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness and to conform themselves to those excellent patterns of Vertue which the Saints have left us for imitation Instead also of worshipping the Sacrament it teaches us to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy and reverend use of the Sacrament not using it to make Jesus Christ but to honour Him not to make His Body descend from Heaven to us but to lift up our hearts to Him in Heaven not to turn the Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Blood of Christ but into the spiritual nourishment of our Souls For it doth not think that Christ and the Devil both entred into Judas together or that our Saviour did eat Himself or hath ordered matters so that He may be carried away by a Mouse and eaten by his greatest enemies It teaches none of these or any such like absurd and incredible things nor doth it intrench upon any man's civil Rights But though it bid men reverence and obey their spiritual Pastors yet doth not place any of them above Kings nor exempt them from their jurisdiction much less ascribe a power to them of deposing them from their Thrones giving away their Kingdoms and exposing them to be murthered which the proud Bishop of Rome challenges but humbly and meekly declares as St Paul doth That every Soul even the greatest Apostle as St. Chrysostome interprets him must be subject to the higher Powers What shall I say more It is a Religion which acknowledges no other supreme Head of the Church but Jesus Christ no other rule of Faith but his Word no propitiatory Sacrifice but his Death no Purgatory but his Blood nor any merits but his obedience to God in all things A Religion therefore which hath little of outward pomp and show but much of inward substance life and power which ordaineth few Ceremonies but ministers abundant instructions and consolations which attributeth little to distinction of meats but prescribes fasting and
Communion Which have so far degenerated from the primitive Christianity such is the mischief of not reflecting perpetually upon what was first delivered and received that their Religion looks more like the old Paganism revived in a new shape than that good old way of worshipping God which our Saviour taught when He came to destroy the works of the Devil And they were still plunging themselves further into such gross Superstitions as endangered the very Being of Christianity by magnifying the Blessed Virgin and St. Francis to such a degree that they were regarded more than Christ himself that a Reformation became absolutely necessary and was generally desired as it were easie to shew by men of the greatest note in these parts of Christendome for choise learning and piety Nay in that very Council which they themselves packt to hinder the Reformation that of Trent I mean Ten several Kingdomes and States desired both by their Ambassadors and Prelates That the Cup in the holy Communion might be restored to the people from whom it had been sacrilegiously taken to the manifest violation of the Christian Religion which had instituted it in both kinds And many pressed for Divine Service in a known tongue the want of which was another palpable corruption and shameless abuse in the Roman Church Which many desired might be reformed in other Particulars but nothing could be obtained from them who were resolved to baffle all these pious endeavours In order to which they took such a course that there were more Italian Bishops in that Council who would vote as they were directed sometime more by twenty sometime by an hundred than there was of all the World beside So that in effect all these Parts of Christendom would have reformed had not Italy opposed it and craftily combined by all manner of artifices to hinder these honest intentions Which blessed be God prevailed notwithstanding in this Church and were so zealously and yet so prudently prosecuted that we were happily purged by the singular Grace of God to us from all those corruptions which had infected the Body of Religion without the loss of any part of that Truth which was anciently and at first received For when we reformed we did not set up a new Religion as they falsely and foolishly accuse us but only cast out their novel errours and reduced all things to the ancient Standard or Rule of Faith and Worship which was once delivered to the Saints that is to the Church of Christ As will appear by applying all this to our selves and remembring you as briefly as I can what it is that we received and have often since heard to be the true Doctrine of Christianity as it stands reformed from the corruptions and abuses of the Roman Church 1. Which is no other than that which the Church of Sardis and all the rest at first received The fundamental Principle of our Religion being this That all things necessary to be believed and done for the obtaining salvation are contained and plainly enough expressed in the holy Scriptures A Compendium of which as to matters of Faith is drawn up in the Apostles Creed as it is explained by the famous Council of Nice which comprehends all things that are necessary to be believed in order to eternal life 2. Yet we acknowledge that it is not sufficient as you have often heard to believe but though our sincere profession of Faith according to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures and comprehended in the Creed do enter us into the state of Justification yet the fruits of Faith in a godly life are absolutely necessary to continue us in it For that very Faith which justifies us doth imply and include in it a purpose and is accompanied with a promise of holy obedience Which if it be not performed we cannot be accepted with God nor claim the promise of eternal life This is another Principle which we have received 3. And among the rest of the duties which are required of us by our Faith the holy Scriptures teach us this as plainly as any whatsoever That Christian People ought to have a great regard to their Pastors the Guides and Conductors of their Souls in the way to Heaven whose spiritual authority over them is to be reverenced though not as infallible yet as most valuable not to be followed blindfold but fit to be consulted on all occasions and most to be relied on in dubious cases There is no principle of the Reformation more undoubted than this That a Pilot is not more necessary in a Ship or a Shepherd to watch over the Flock than such spiritual Shepherds and Guides are to teach direct and govern Christ's Church and that among other means and helps which Christian people should use to understand the Scriptures the direction of their Guides is the chief To whom it belongs as to receive men into the Church by Baptism so after they are thus born again to breed them up in their Religion as their spiritual Parents to expound and interpret to them the holy Writings and out of them to instruct the ignorant convince Gainsayers correct the peoples mistakes reprove their sins stir them up to all the Duties of a holy life satisfie the scrupulous censure the contumacious absolve the penitent and administer comfort to dejected Spirits The people indeed ought to examine whether the things they deliver out of the Scripture be so or no as the Beroeans did and are commended for it xvii Acts and conscientiously to discern between truth and falshood between the right faith and rule of life propounded to them by their Pastors and the poysoned Doctrine of Hereticks and Deceivers But they must not judge alone without their direction and guidance nor hastily conclude their Teachers to be in the wrong nor rashly dissent from them and refuse to follow their direction but rather suspect themselves and enquire further when they think they ought not to assent to them and in the issue if the things they deliver be not plainly against the holy Scriptures to suspect their own judgments rather than contradict those whom God without all doubt hath appointed to be their Instructors and Guides By which principle we have quite shut out the Roman tyranny on one hand who would lead the people blindfold whereas we endeavour to make them see and require them to open their eyes and show them that we do not mislead them and avoided also on the other hand the wild frantick liberty of those who will not be led at all but go alone and guide themselves by their own private judgment As by the other principle also of sticking to the Scriptures in all things necessary to salvation we have cut off all the fond Traditions of the Roman Church which they have equalled with the Scriptures and yet have retained many things of ancient observation which were not absolutely necessary but not sinful for peace and decency sake Because we would not seem to have undertaken