was so far from being terrified either by his bonds or death it self that were it not for their sakes to whom his life might be more useful he should rather desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ He further acquaints them with his design to visit them again in order to their support and settlement if God should rescue him from his bonds In the mean time gives this admonition Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel and in nothing thing terrified by your adversaries That ye stand fact c. In which words you have an account what are the most effectual means for any Church which God hath blessed with the true Faith of Christianity still to abide and continue in it Firmness of mind in every mans private belief of it close union amongst themselves zeal and diligence in joynt endeavours for its defence and propagation and courage against such oppositions as others may possibly make against it 1. Firmness of mind in every mans private belief of it which is suggested in these words Stand fast that is to say as it there follows in the faith of the Gospel 2. Union amongst themselves Stand fast in one spirit with one mind 3. Zeal and diligence in joynt endeavours for its defence and propagation Stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel 4. Courage against such oppositions as other persons make against it And in nothing terrified by your adversaries These are the methods which our Apostle here propounds for a Church to retain the true Faith that is to continue a true Church 1. The first of which is firmness of mind in every mans private belief of truth For feeing that every particular Church is made up of particular persons so far as particular Members fail in the true Faith so far is that Church they are Members of maimed and mutilated in its parts and the whole in tendency to dissolution Now seeing the firmness of belief depends upon clear and evident proof I might here offer a demonstration of the truth and excellency of Christianity But being this is neither so needful nor yet so seasonable to the occasion of our meeting I shall rather chuse to address my self to what the occasion now requires which is to shew the truth and excellence of Christianity as it is professed in our own Church in opposition to that of Rome which I shall do by comparing theirs and ours together in point of Faith and Worship and Manners 1. And first of all for matter of Faith we firmly believe the holy Scriptures and every thing therein contained to be the infallible Word of God We believe the Scriptures do contain all things necessary to Salvation according as St. John assures us Joh. 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name Which we could not have if every thing necessary to Salvation was not written was not contained in this very Gospel of St. John Nay further yet we believe and receive all Creeds that were ever received in the Catholick Church These Creeds are taken into our Liturgy they are repeated in our Churches we signifie our assent to them by standing up when they are repeated and are we still to be judged Hereticks and deficient in the Catholick Faith On the other hand the Roman Church deny the Scriptures to be a compleat Rule of Faith they build their faith upon Tradition a thing uncertain They rely upon Councils which may erre nay upon such as have grosly erred They vary as well from the Primitive Church in many cases as from the holy Scripture it self And last of all they pretend a power of making new Articles of Faith that is such as were not made by our Blessed Lord and his Apostles which being so let reason judge whether they or we be likeliest to erre in point of Faith 2. For matter of Worship in the second place their publick Prayers are made and used in a tongue unknown unto the people ours in a tongue which we all understand And here let St. Paul decide the controversie that is between us I Cor. 14 15 16 c. I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with understanding also I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with understanding also Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest For thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified From whence it appears what edification may be expected from their prayers that is to say none at all And therefore the Apostle further adds I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue But to proceed as we make our prayers in a known tongue so in them we invoke the true God and him only We use no other Mediator no other Patron but only Christ whom God hath appointed so to be For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 But they that are of the Church of Rome make their addresses to Saints and Angels as well for patronage and protection as for their prayers to God for them and some of those the Virgin Mary do they invoke in as magnificent and high a stile as they invoke God himself We pay no worship to any Images seeing that God hath expresly said Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them But they bow down and prostrate themselves before the Images of Christ and others And though they affirm that the honour they give unto the Image passes through it to the person whom it represents yet still they acknowledge they worship the Image that this at least is a transient object of their Worship And then again we give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper unto the people as well as the Priests in both kinds So it was instituted by Christ himself so it was given all along for many Ages but others in perfect contradiction to the Institution of our Lord deny the Cup unto the Laity We believe that after Consecration the Bread and Wine set apart and consecrated for the Sacrament do still retain the natural substance of bread and wine And so the Apostle himself believed when he stiled that bread of
is in Heaven He is adorned with an excellent Character in the words immediately following those And I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church which priviledge although it was not peculiar unto S. Peter but common to the other Apostles with him yet being first declared of him adds to the Dignity of his Character and yet detracts nothing at all from the power of the rest of Christs Apostles upon whom as upon a sure foundation S. Paul assures us the Church was built Ephe. 2.20 It was built on them together with him whom our Saviour mentions in this place it was most firmly built upon them for so it appears from these words and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it For the better understanding of which words we must 1 consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Hell is frequently used in the holy Scriptures as well as prophane Authors to signifie the grave to denote the place and state of the dead so it is used in these words Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption And then further 2 We must consider that the grave or place and State of the dead is sometimes compared unto a house If I wait the grave is mine house Job 17.13 and to a house with gates or dores shut up and locked with bars and locks and hence that saying of Hezekiah Isa 38.10 I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave Hence mention is made of the bars of the pit Job 17.16 and of the keys of hell and death Revel 1.18 and of the keys of the bottomless pit Revel 9.1 3 Being then that the grave being that the place and state of the dead is compared to a house with gates and doors shut up and fastned with bars and locks from hence likewise it comes to pass that Death or Destruction is described by entering into the gates of the grave for so you find in the words which I have already cited Isaiah 38.10.11 I said in the cutting off of my days when God told me that I should dye I shall go to the gates of the grave am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world where entering into the gates of the grave plainly signifies death it self or entring into the place of the dead as all the other expressions shew 4. This being so if the Church be taken for Gods people not considered as a Society being together in Communion but as single Members of Christs Body then these words that are before us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church imply no more than that the Members of Christs body shall overcome death and the grave by a Resurrection to Immortality But then if the Church in this place be taken as it usually is and as I judge it ought to be for the general Society of Believers considered as they are a Church living together in Communion in the use of all Christ's Institutions then are the words we have in hand which tell us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church a promise that there shall be a Church professing the true Faith of the Gospel and living in the use of its Institutions in visible Fellowship and Communion till the second Coming of our Lord. Then when it is said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church the meaning will be that the Church shall never enter into those gates which is as much as if it were said that it should never be destroyed Having thus interpreted the words before us I shall proceed in this Method 1. I shall shew what Church this is which is designed in these words 2. And then secondly how far this promise of our Lord made to that Church in these words secures it from errour and defection 1. It is needful to understand what the Church is which is designed in these words where it is promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And the reason is because the Patrons of the Roman Church have assumed this promise unto themselves with as much confidence and presumption as if it had been expresly said That the Church of Rome should never fail but always continue firm and stable nay absolutely infallible in the Faith in the true Doctrine of Christianity whereas in truth this is as well a great arrogance as a most wide and foul mistake For certain it is that our Saviour here speaks not of any particular Church planted in this or the other place but only of the Universal Church the whole Society of those persons who profess the Doctrine of the Gospel He speaks indefinitely of his Church Vpon the rock will I build my Church and speaking indefinitely of his Church cannot possibly understand any particular part of it the Church of any particular place but the Catholick Universal Church The truth is the Church of any particular place seated in any particular Country may utterly fail and be extinguished How many great and excellent Churches have failed and perished long ago How many others have so decayed that they seem near unto destruction Where are those many famous Churches which once flourished in the Coast of Africks Where are those seven Churches of Asia largely mentioned by St. John in the three first Chapters of the Revelations Where are those many other Churches which formerly flourished in the East How many of them are extinguished utterly ruined and destroyed with the very Cities where they were planted How many others are decayed almost to a total dissolution Be it then concluded that this promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church belongs to the Church Universal only and not to any Society of Christians seated in any particular place not unto any particular Church Which being so I cannot dismiss this point without an Inference and a Caution 1. The Inference is That seeing this promise of our Lord that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church belongs to the Church Universal and not to any particular Church The consequence which the Romanists draw from these words namely that the Church of Rome is indefectible and infallible is most inconsequent and unreasonable This promise belongs to the whole Church of which the present Church of Rome is but a part and a part infected with strange corruptions This promise belongs to the Universal Church of Christ the Church of Rome was never more than only a particular Church that is a member of the universal and is now what it hath long been a most corrupt and unsound member And as that Church hath strangely sunk into heathenish and barbarous Superstitions so may it utterly fail and vanish and disclaim the
higher powers the Princes and Potentates of the World exercised all external violence to destroy and kill the professors of it No reproaches were thought too foul to blacken no tortures too cruel to destroy the professours of the Gospel of Christ for the three first ages of Christianity insomuch that they had but little time to breathe in the intervals of persecution while they continued under heathen Emperours 2. No sooner did the supreme power owne the profession of Christianity no sooner did peace dawn upon the Church by the favour of Constantine the Great but that the professors of Christianity broke and divided amongst themselves Then was the Church as much troubled by the Errours and Heresies by the Schisms and Factions of them that professed the name of Christ as it had been in former ages by the open violence of persecution 'T is true indeed there had been Errours there had been factions amongst the Christians before that time but now they grew to greater height especially concerning the person of Christ for the repressing of which errours the four first general Councils were called 3. Next after the mutual strifes that arose among the Professors of the Gospel they fell into the sleep of ignorance dark and stupid and profound ignorance which began in the sixth and seventh Ages and continued for divers Ages together And then it was that all the follies and superstitions entred into the Christian Church which are still retained in the Church of Rome Then were Images set up in Churches and great Veneration given to them then came in the Invocation of Saints then the Adoration of Angels also then the opinion of Transubstantiation then infinite forgeries of Epistles forgeries of large and great Volumes fictions of the Lives of Saints fictions of the Miracles done by them to advance the Glory of the Church of Rome which were no sooner disclaimed and baffled by the Reformation that still continues but they of that Chuch presently fell to practise the very same cruelties the same bloody Arts upon the Reformed that the Heathen Emperours had formerly practised upon the whole Church of God Such were the methods that have been used to prevail against the Church of Christ violence from without divisions within the troubles of danger the temptations of ease all the cruelties and arts of Satan to bring confusion and ruine upon it and yet behold it still continues and will continue in the world either in one place or another by virtue of the promise of Christ that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church 2. Seeing that Christ our Lord hath made it the matter of a promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church that is to say that there shall always be a Society professing the Faith of Christianity and living together in communion in the use of all Christs Institutions this may serve for an admonition to all Christians to study Unity amongst themselves to make no breach in the Church of Christ where it is possible to keep together with piety and good conscience He that promised there should be a Church to the end of the world promised the unity and Christian communion of its members amongst themselves without this there is no Church And he that doth any thing directly tending to break this unity and communion doth what is in him to frustrate the very promise of Christ and to destroy that Church which he hath founded upon a rock In the mean time I must profess that I am much more than well satisfied in our separation from the Church of Rome or rather in their separation from us and from the Catholick Church it self by their infinite variations from it But on the other hand I cannot but tremble to think of the many grievous divisions amongst them that are divided from the Church of Rome These if not timely cured and removed will certainly bring confusion amongst us and then will that old Enemy enter in the smoke and darkness of that confusion I wonder to see how little regard how little value many men have for the preservation of peace amongst us I wonder to see what little exceptions what groundless cavils are made pretences to separate from us Certain it is that these men are infinitely wanting either in knowledge or sincerity If they do not understand that the peace of the Church is a thing of most important value for the preservation of Faith and love and the very essence of Christianity if they do not understand how weak and trifling all their Arguments against us are and that it is next to an impossibility to find a Church against which nothing shall be objected if they do not understand all these things they are guilty of very great ignorance but if they do understand these things and yet persist in separation they are guilty of equal insincerity The duty of every good Christian in these distractions and divisions that so much trouble the Christian World is to put up constant prayers to God and also to use his best endeavours for the peace of the whole Church of Christ They are short sighted in Christianity and very mean and narrow spirited that mind or study peace no further than concerns a particular Congregation nay the Church of any particular Nation Christ hath a care of his whole body and requires an unity and communion not only of the particular Members of any Church but of all particular Churches also These make up the Catholick Church and the Catholick Church is Christs body There is one body and one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4.4 5 6. There is saith he one body one universal Church the unity and the peace whereof he recommends unto our study Now therefore study the peace and unity of this Church as much as possibly lies in you adorn it by your Faith and Piety labour its purity and its peace For to this end did Christ our Lord give himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it might be holy and without blemish Eph. 5.25 26 27. The Sixth Sermon 1 Cor. 14.15 What is it then I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also OUR Blessed Lord having a while before his death promised his Apostles another comforter who should for ever abide with them John 14.16 that is to say the spirit of truth to lead them into all truth renews this promise again unto them a little before his ascension into Heaven Act. 14. and commands not to depart from Jerusalem but there to wait for the promise of the Father And long it was not before this promise was fulfilled