that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroyed true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antepast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun among us and establish that Love and Vnity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other Parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho' in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5 th 1689. Being The FAST-DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN'S Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon Their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689. Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. OF THE Nature and Benefit OF A PUBLICK HUMILIATION JOEL ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable Account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jews for their Sins But that which is yet more surprising is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Allarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of glooâ—iness a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho' they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before
practice of it I shall endeavour with all the plainness I can to discourse to you of these Four Things I st Of the Danger and Mischief of Inconsideration II dly I will enquire into the Causes of it III dly I will offer some General Rules for the Practice of Consideration And IV thly and Lastly Will close all with some Motives that may serve to stir you up to the discharge of your duty in so great and important an instance of it I begin with the First of these I. Of the Danger and Mischief of Inconsideration It has been the usual Method of most Casuists in enquiring into the Causes of Sin to expose the Mischief and aggravate the Danger of those particular Temptations that are the immediate occasions of it Hence there is hardly a man so little inâ—â—ructed in Morality that has not learnt to run into an invective against the Interests and Pleasures the Honours and Riches of this world that the good Christian must resolve either to abandon them as much as is possible or at least to quit all undue Esteem and inordinate Desire of them But the great and Catholic Cause of all our evils Inconsideration this is either not at all or but very lightly touch'd upon by them So far are men from exposing the Danger of it that I believe there are few who have yet learnt to place it in the number of their Temptations or that think themselves at all concern'd to provide against it Very necessary therefore it is before I proceed to those particular Proposals I am hereafter to make for the removal of this evil that I should first convince you of the necessity there is of setting about it to show you that of all the Artifices of the Devil this has been the most successful that whatsoever strength any other Temptations may seem to have 't is all derived from the influence of this In a word That Riches and Honour and Pleasure and Interest seduce some particulars only triumph over the weakness of some certain dispositions that are more peculiarly apt to be moved by them But that Inconsideration is a general snare stops not at particulars but carries all before it The One Last Vniversal Cause of all our Sins being no other than this That we do not consider as we ought what our Duty is and what our Obligations are to the Practice of it And 1 st It cannot be denied but that this Inconsideration exposes us to every Temptation which the Devil shall think fit to lay in our way is very often the Cause that we are tempted at all but always the reason that we are overcome by the Temptation I shall not need to say how many Sins men fall into for want of considering and knowing that they were so I would to God the frequent Excuses that are drawn from this Topick did not too fully shew how great a cause this is of our offending There is hardly a more general Plea in the mouth of every Sinner than that he meant no harm in what he did but either he did not know or he did not think that it was unlawful But then I am sure we must resolve to lay aside this excuse altogether and confess it to be as false as indeed it is for the most part frivolous or we must be allowed to conclude from it that this want of Consideration exposes men to infinite Temptations by keeping them in an unwarrantable Ignorance of what they might have known and ought to have Consider'd But they are not only the Ignorant that are concern'd in this danger He who knows his Duty the best is yet oftentimes no less surprized by his Incogitancy than he who is the most Ignorant of it The Devil who knows our weakest times and constantly watches his advantage never fails then especially to assault us when he sees we are least upon our Guard and by consequence least in a condition to resist him And if by a diligent care of our selves and attention to our Duty we are not as ready and prepared to resist those Temptations which may be apt to sollicite us from it as we are otherwise well instructed in the duty its self 't is evident that our Enemy will have a very great advantage against us and 't is odds if for want of being prepared to fight we are not for the most part overcome by him For 2 dly And which may be alone sufficient to confirm my assertion that 't is our Inconsideration that is the real ultimate Cause of all our sin be it observed secondly That there are in our Religion such Motives such Engagements to Obedience that were they but duly weighed it would be impossible for a man ever to live wickedly And indeed he must be a very great instance of this defect I am now speaking of and never have considered any thing at all of his Religion as he ought to do that can reasonably doubt of what I now say Is there any among us that has but once seriously reflected on the Nature of God Almighty How excellent his Goodness is how Terrible his Justice With what an irreconcilable hatred he prosecutes Sin and Sinners for its sake That he is Omnipotent and cannot be Resisted Omniscient and cannot be deceived Nay that he is Present with us sees our most retired actions and will one day bring them all to light in presence of the whole World in the day when He shall judge the world in righteousness Is there any one here that has but seriously consider'd all this Let him then say whether it were Possible for the Devil to have been able to draw him into Sin whilst he had such thoughts as these present to his mind to oppose to his Temptations But Christianity carries us yet farther It shews us a God Incarnate a God made man on purpose for our Salvation He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of Good works It represents to us a Covenant of Grace Sealed with his own most precious Blood and into which we have every one of us been solemnly initiated that is solemnly Sworn at our Baptism and the condition wherof on our part we know was this that we should forsake the Devil and all his works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful lusts of the flesh and instead of serving these should obediently keep God's Holy will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of our Lives I shall not now enquire how often we have I believe the most of us renew'd this Covenant whether in the Church at the Holy Table or on other Occasions that have called us to put up our Vows to Heaven Nor need I add that 't is to such a Practice alone as that requires that God has promised the Blessings of Eternal Glory But sure I am whosoever will but duly consider the weight and moment of this
all hot and furious for their several particular Opinions as if the whole Gospel of Christ and all the Hopes of Eternity depended on them but for the Practice of a Gospel-life for that Devotion that Charity that Humility and Integrity which were once the great Care and Ornament of the Christian Church these God knows are but little regarded by the most of us If 1 st We consider the Publick Effects of these Controversies to a decay of Piety What a desolation shall we find too often occasion'd by them I need not tell you how many Countries have been ruined what Kings and Princes have been murthered and banished and deposed by their own people what Blood has been spilt what numbers of honest and innocent people men women and children have been lost and undone by them And by a strange Metamorphosis Cruelty and Oppression Falseness and Dissimulation Deceit and Perjury all the vilest and most scandalous sins by the Sacred Power of the Churches Interest consecrated into Christian and Heroical Virtues And to compleat the astonishment the Holy Martyrs and Confessors have been damned to Hell whilst their Persecutors have been Sainted and placed in Heaven If 2 dly We look upon these Disputes in themselves only without regarding any such desperate effects of them I wish I had no occasion to say how prejudicial they have even thus been and without God's Infinite Mercy might have been much more to our common Christianity Whilst by the means of these not only Schisms and Heresies and even those too St. Paul reckons among the works of the flesh Gal. v. 20 which whoso are guilty of cannot inherit the kingdom of God have crept into the Church but Some from these Contests have concluded all our Religion to be uncertain and esteem'd it the wisest way not to join with any of us till we can somewhat better agree to which of us they ought to go Others considering the manner how these Controversies have of late especially been managed and carried on have with some colour of reason been tempted to believe all our Pretences to be only Deceit and Vision for that surely did those who stand up in the defence of Religion believe it themselves they would never defend their Faith in such a manner as utterly contradicts all the Morality of it Which of the great Articles of Christianity have not our modern disputes call'd in question It is but a very little while since the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity and the Glorious Incarnation of the Son of God have again been struck at by those who plainly shew they care not what becomes of Christianity if they cannot make their Popish Heresie prevail with it And that if not in so plain and direct a manner as the Arians and Socinians of our days do yet in another no less repugnant to the belief of them For if the contradictions as they say be indeed as great in these as 't is plain they are in that other Mystery or rather as one of their own great defenders of it truly called it That MONSTER of Transubstantiation to which they are compared I doubt all considering persons will resolve from the self-evident falseness of the one to conclude against the others rather than from their belief of those to give up their assent to this If we look to the Morality of the Gospel let the Heat and the Passion the Bitterness and the Evil-speaking shall I add and even the fraud and dissimulation which have appear'd in these debates be a sad evidence how destructive such disputes are of true Piety and Religion Whilst to lessen an Adversary or to be thought to get the better in an Argument men value not how or what they write but seem resolved at any rate to maintain their point thô for the doing of it they are forced to such shifts as without God's Infinite Mercy must lose them their own Souls What shall I say to that Epidemical Vncharitableness that is from hence diffused into the several Parties of Christians Whil'st every one seems to reckon his Enemy no better then a Heathen and a Publican and having by their uncharitable censures cut him off from the hopes of God's Mercy hereafter think themselves afterwards disengaged from all obligations even of common humanity towards him now I speak not this as if I meant to accuse those of our Church who have so generously stood in the Gap and sacrificed their Peace their Quiet and their Interests to the defence of an excellent Cause and a truly Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church And much less would I be thought hereby to discourage you from being as zealous for the Faith and as constant in its defence as both your duty requires and as I bless God you all of you are this day and I hope and am persuaded will ever be so But I speak this to deplore the sad state of Christianity and to bewail â—â—â—se divisions than which nothing ha◠〈◊〉 â—ore destructive to the practice of Religion I speak it earnestly to beseech and exhort you even by the Bowels and Mercy of Christ Jesus that you will be careful to add to your Faith Works To adorn your holy Profession by a suitable Conversation To live to the Honour of your Church as well as to dispute for it And seeing ye know what danger these Controversies are apt to bring to the decay of Piety that you would be careful to prevent them and not suffer your Zeal for your Faith ever to carry you to any unchristian or unwarrantable measures in the defence of it And thus have I set before you some of those devices whereby the Devil is wont to hinder our Piety I have but just time to mention a very few of the other kind viz. II dly Those by which he is wont to draw us into the commission of Sin It has been an ancient Remark and the reason whereof is so deeply rooted in our very Natures as may justly make it a first principle in this Enquiry That Evil as such is not desirable No Man ever commits a sin for sinning sake but upon the account of some good or other which he either really does or at least thinks shall accrue to him thereby Now 't is upon this the Devil founds all his devices to deceive us He observes our Interests our Tempers and Inclinations what it is that either our Condition or Circumstances or Designs in the World render us the most apt to be caught with and accordingly offers his Temptations to us in such a manner as may be most like to prevail with us So that then to arm our selves against those Artifices by which he is wont to draw us into Sin we shall need no long search no laborious enquiry into his particular Temptations Only let us turn our eyes into our own Souls there let us consider what sins they are we are the most apt to fall into what passions the most command us to what irregularities our
obstinate but he cannot be wisely stedfast in the Faith A good Christian must be able to give some more reasonable account of his Faith than this if ever he means to be securely firm in the Profession of it His Creed must be founded on some better Authority than a bare Credulity And 't will be a very useless Plea at the last day that a man believed as his Church believed when he might have had the opportunity of a better information should he chance by so doing to live and dye in a damnable Heresie unless he can render some tolerable account either wherefore his Church believed so or at least wherefore it was that he submitted himself so servilely to her Authority But he that believes with knowledg because he is clearly and evidently perswaded that it is the Truth need never fear either the danger or imputation of such an Obstinacy for his firmness in adhering to his Faith If for instance a Member of the Church of England reads in his Bible those express words of the Second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above c. Thou shalt not Bow down to it nor Worship it If he looks forward to the History of the New Testament and there in the Institution of the Blessed Eucharist sees those words Drink ye ALL of this in as plain and legible Characters as those others Take and Eat and thereupon resolves never to be prevailed upon either to Bow down himself before an Image or to give up his Right to the Cup as well as to the Bread in that Holy Sacrament whatever glosses may be made or pretences be used to induce him to either 'T is evident that such a Firmness as this cannot be called Obstinacy unless these Scriptures be no longer the Word of God or that no longer a Principle of Scripture that in matters of plain and undoubted Command we are to obey God rather than man And in these and the like instances where the matter is clear even to demonstration there is no doubt to be made but that such Knowledg will certainly secure us against the charge and danger of Obstinacy But because all points in debate are not thus Evident but on the contrary many are not a little obscure therefore for the securing our selves from danger in our adherence to these too we must to our Knowledg add 2 dly A sincere zeal to discover the truth with an affectionate Charity to those that differ from us In such Cases as this thô we must believe and profess according to what appears to us at present to be the Truth yet since the Evidence is not such as to exclude all possibility of our being mistaken our adherence to it must be qualified with this reserve neither rashly to censure those who are otherwise minded nor obstinately to resolve never to change our Opinion if we should perhaps be hereafter convinced that we ought to do so Now in order hereunto it is not necessary that a Man should either fluctuate in his present Faith or not be firmly persuaded that he shall never see any reason to forsake it It is sufficient to take off the imputation of obstinacy that our stedfastness be such as not to exclude either a readiness of being better informed if that be possible or of making upon all occasions a strict and impartial enquiry into the Grounds and Reason of our Faith or even of hearing freely whatever objections can fairly be brought against it And all this with a sincere desire and stedfast resolution to discover and embrace the Truth wheresoever it lies Whether it be that which we now suppose to be so or whether it shall be found to be on the contrary side He who is thus disposed in his mind at all times to receive instruction and never presumes rashly to condemn any one that is thus in like manner disposed however otherwise disagreeing in Opinion from Him need never fear that his firmness is any other than that Wise and Christian stedfastness which our Text requires not such an obstinacy as both that and we most justly detest and condemn But here then we must look to the other extreme and take heed lest for fear of being perversly constant to our Faith we fall into a weak and criminal Instability To prevent this these three things may be consider'd 1 st That we carefully avoid all Vnworthy Motives of changing our Religion 2 dly That we be not too apt to entertain an ill Opinion of it 3 dly That if any Arguments shall at any time be brought against it that may deserve our considering we then be sure to give Them that due and diligent Examination that we ought to do I st He that will be stedfast in the Faith must above all things take heed to arm himself against all unworthy Motives of changing his Religion It is very sad to consider what unchristian means are made use of by some persons to propagate their Religion And a Man need almost no other assurance that it cannot be from God than to see the Professors of it pursue such methods for the promoting of its Interest as most certainly never came down from above Thus if a Man's fortunes be mean or his ambition great If Religion has not taken so deep root in his Soul as to enable him to overcome the flatteries and temptations of a present Interest and Advantage then there shall not be wanting a seducer presently to shew him that he must needs be out of the right way because it is not that which leads to preferment And 't is great odds but a good Place or an Honourable Title will quickly appear a more infallible mark of the true Church than any that Scripture or Antiquity can furnish to the contrary If this will not do and Interest cannot prevail then the other governing passion of our Minds mens fears are tried Instead of these allurements the False Teacher now thunders out Hell and Damnation against us Nothing but Curses and Anathema's to be expected by us if we continue firm in our Faith And it shall be none of the Prophets nor his Churches fault if all the Horrors and Miseries of this present life be not employ'd against us in charity to prevent our falling into the Everlasting Punishments of the next The Truth is I am ashamed to recount what unworthy means some have not been ashamed to make use of to promote their Religion and draw us away from our stedfastness France and Savoy Hungary and Germany The Old World and the New have all and that but very lately been witnesses what ways it is that Popery has and does and if ever it means effectually to prevail must take to propagate its interest Animus meminisse horret luctúque refugit Now he that shall be so unhappy as to suffer himself by any of these motives which a constant Man might and ought to have overcome
you to go along with me in these following Reflections First That though as I have just now shewn there must be the publick marks of Sorrow and Humiliation in our publick Repentance yet we must by no means stop in these nor thinks that this is all that God requires of us in order to our Forgiveness This was indeed the Vanity of the Jews heretofore and is too much the folly of some misguided Christians now Their Indignation against their Sins and against themselves for having committed them was spent especially in the outward appearance of Sorrow They rent their cloaths and put on sackcloth they wept and fasted and went softly and then they supposed they had done their business though it may be their Souls were not yet humbled nor their Hearts at all broken with any true Contrition for their Sins And so among those of the Church of Rome at this day If we may believe some of their greatest Casuists an external Worship is sufficient to carry a Man to Heaven without the trouble of the true inward Devotion of the Soul He may repent without Contrition may fast with a full Meal Nay and if the Pope pleases may obtain a plenary remission of his Sins se ancho non fosse confesso ne contrito though he has neither confess'd them to any Priest nor finds in his own Heart any manner of Contrition for them I shall not need to say how many new ways of Salvation of this kind they have found out by wearing Leathern Girdles about their Loins or Scapularies over their Shoulders by listing themselves into such or such certain Fraternities by dressing of Altars and going on Pilgrimages by Holy Water and Agnus Dei's And all which and infinite more of the like kind if as our late Masters tell us they are not Authorized by their Church yet I am sure are publickly recommended by their Greatest Men and generally practised too without any censure or contradiction among them This is certain that all these and whatever Artifices of the like kind Men may please either to flatter themselves or to delude others withal without a true Contrition and a serious Reformation they are all but Vanity they make a shew of Piety in the Eyes of Men but they avail nothing to our forgiveness with God I will not now dispute of what use some of these External Performances may be to assist our Repentance and render our Sorrow for Sin the more solemn and so in some Cases as I have before observed the more pleasing to God I know well enough that St. Paul has told us That Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be considerâ—d by him When Jonah denounced God's Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3 d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our Forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient to dispose Men to obtain the Grace of God by the Sacrament of Penance and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin committed with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Penance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents seeing we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our Forgiveness 3. In short Thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn
Lights in the Primitive Church and Reason according to the common Condition of Mankind and from which they themselves cannot produce us any Authority of Holy Scripture to exempt her And if some among us have with St. Chrysostom freely supposed That in some cases she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the very Instances to which they refer they have at least probable grounds for what they say And for the most part we are contented with St. Austin to suspend our selves and for the honour of our Saviour not to enter into any question at all concerning her as to this matter whether she ever did actually sin or no Or now that God has taken her up into Glory Have we not all that high and worthy Opinion of her Exaltation that we ought to have because indeed we freely profess we cannot believe such extravagant Romances as all sober Men even of their own Church are ashamed of We doubt not but she is at this time in Heaven Do we ever the more debase her because we will not entertain a shameless Legend of her Assumption thither We are persuaded that she is adorn'd with one of the brightest Aureola's in God's Kingdom That her Crown is more Illustrious than any among the Daughters of Eve Is not this sufficient unless we will undertake to tell you what her Crown was made of how many Stars went into her Atchievement what Badges her Servants wore and what Speeches and Complements were made to her upon the occasion and to compleat all set forth in perspective all the Holy Trinity concurring in this Ceremony and all the Powers of Heaven and Earth singing Praises to Her and adoring of Her We make no question but that as she was very highly favour'd by God on Earth so is she now no less beloved by him in Heaven But should we therefore set her up as another Mediatrix that as both Sexes concurr'd to our Ruin so might both concur to our Reparation and so tye up the Hands of God as not to allow any to be saved but according to Her Will Nay make her so far the Queen of Heaven and Earth as to give her a Power of all the Grace that is to be bestowed on Mankind Of saving her Votaries if they do but sufficiently love and worship Her whatever their Affections or their Service be to God Almighty Of fetching Souls not only out of Purgatory but even from Hell it self by her Authority Of ordering all the Events of the Fortunes of Men and Kingdoms insomuch that not a Battel can be fought or a Victory obtain'd but by the favour of this Pallas to whom the Success is due and to whom the Praise and Honour therefore ought to be return'd These indeed are the Extravagancies of some of our Adversaries but God forbid they should ever be the Practice or Opinions of any among us To conclude It is impossible for any to entertain more honourable Sentiments of the Blessed Virgin than we do who will not run out into Blasphemy and Fanaticism and believe such things as neither Scripture nor Antiquity have deliver'd nor will either Piety or common Sense suffer us to receive Let us see Secondly Whether our Actions be not every way suitable to our Opinions Now for this I must observe according to my Foundation before laid down That the Holy Virgin however highly exalted by God being yet still but a meer Creature our Actions towards her must be no other than what a Creature that is at such a vast distance from us and out of all compass of Civil Communication is capable of receiving And so the summ of what may warrantably be paid to her will fall under these Three Generals First To celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Secondly To return Praises to God on the account of them And Thirdly To endeavour what in us lies to imitate her Excellencies This is all the Honour she is capable of receiving from us and it cannot be doubted but that we are as careful as any to fulfil the Prophecy of our Text in every one of these Particulars First We celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Let this day and the other Solemn Festivals we observe to the same End be our Witness how careful we are as to this particular We mark it out in our Rituals as a Day Holy unto the Lord We assemble in our Sacred places solemnly to recount what the Holy Scriptures have recorded of God's Mercies to Her And annually as at this time we encourage one another to bless and praise Him upon the account of them But here the Objection made in the beginning will rise against us 'T is true indeed we do observe some of her Festivals but yet we pass by the greater part of them And for the main thing of all we quite omit it in that we say not AVE MARIA so often and so impertinently as they do nor other Anthems of our Lady as they call her by a new and phantastical Title never given her either in Scripture or by any of the ancient Fathers This we confess is in some measure true We say no AVE MARIE'S i. e. after the manner that they do nor can we imagin what Honour is done to the Blessed Virgin by the nauseous tautologie of a Salutation pertinent in its season when the Angel spoke to her upon her Conception but now as unseasonable in the Application as it is vain and absurd in the Repetition But yet when we recite the History and celebrate the Memory of that surprising Salutation then we read it in our Assemblies that is we do say Ave Maria as often as 't is either pious or to the purpose to do it And if for not doing it as they do we are to be excluded out of the Number of those of whom our Text speaks yet God be thanked we shall run but the same Fortune that the Apostles and the primitive Ages of the Church did before it was first as they tell us revealed to St. Dominick and by him to the Church how they were to recite the Rosary But now for the other Instances objected against us viz. The Feasts and Anthems of our Lady in these we may venture to justifie our selves We celebrate the Memory of all the great Particulars that we know of her Life And if upon the meer Authority of Fables confess'd to be uncertain and disputed by many among themselves as not fit to be credited we cannot be induced to observe more yet in this we hope all sober Christians will acquit us and esteem us to be very excusable in what we do It being certainly to mock not honour both God and Her solemnly to commemorate and seriously to thank God for such Blessings as at the same time we are sure He never bestowed upon Her nor She ever receiv'd
without a particular Revelation no one can according to their Doctrine be sure that he is of the number of the predestinate yet as they allow that there are certain Marks whereon to found a probable Conjecture so among those which is as much as can be said in this Case he doubts not to place this in the first rank to be devoted to the Virgin MARY Secondly * Whether a Christian that is devoted to the Blessed VIRGIN can be damned To which he answers roundly That he cannot Thirdly * Whether God refuses any thing to the Blessed VIRGIN And indeed we need not wonder that they are peremptory in this that he do's not when their Church it self calls upon her to shew her self to be a Mother and once at least did pray to her that by the Right which she had over her Son she would command him Fourthly * Whether the Blessed VIRGIN loves Sinners i. e. so as to save them And of this the Blessed VIRGIN her self has given us an Assurance In this famous Revelation to one of the Saints of that Church I am says she the Queen of Heaven I am the Mother of Mercy the Joy of the Just and the Gate by which Sinners must go to God And there is no Sinner so far from God but what shall return to him and obtain Mercy provided only that he call upon me and put his Trust in me But I shall pursue these Extravagancies no farther from what I have said we may see what their Opinions are of the Holy MARY in that wherein they differ from us viz. That she is to be honoured with a Religious Worship above any other Saint That she is to be prayed to as an Advocate and Mediatrix in Heaven that she has Authority to do what ever she pleases there and in effect do's partake of the most proper and peculiar Attributes and Prerogatives of the Divinity Let us enquire in the next place 2. What their Practices are towards her in conformity to these Opinions I shall need say the less as to this Point having already in great measure exhausted it in the Account I have given of the foregoing There is so near a connexion between the Opinions of the Church of Rome and their Practices founded upon them with reference to the Blessed VIRGIN that 't is impossible to mention the one without inferring the other as consequent upon it He that saies that the Blessed VIRGIN ought to be prayed to do's imply That if he believes himself in what he affirms he must then pray to her And so of all the other Instances I before mentioned But yet because this will still the more clearly shew the true state of the Difference between us I will make a few Reflections upon the Practice of Piety which is found in the other Church towards the Holy MARY in two Considerations 1. Of the publick Worship that is offered to her 2. Of the private Devotion which is usually practised and recommended by them towards the Blessed VIRGIN For the former of these 1. The publick Worship that is given to her in the Church of Rome It runs through all the Parts of their Offices and scarce any holy Exercise performed among them that is not infected with this Superstition If we consider the publick Prayers of the Church sometimes we find the Mass it self said to her Honour and in the very Canon of it God is constantly desired That for her Merits he would grant them the help of his Protection In all their Hours they close with a particular Salutation and Address to her and once every Week if no more a particular Office is publickly said to her If we look into their other solemn Acts of Devotion I have already observed what a Share she has in their Confessions and Absolutions Three times every Day at the sound of a Bell all her Votaries are taught to fall down and worship her What the Allowance and Encouragements have been to the Practice of her Rosary and what a mighty place this Devotion has among them I need not say In their solemn Sermons to the People the Preacher never fails first to invoke the Assistance of the Virgin MARY in the angelical Salutation and lest Men should not by all this be sufficiently encouraged to a publick Devotion to her there have been particular ways found out to carry them the more readily thereunto 'T was for this that the Order of the Scapulary was set up about 400 Years ago and to which Men are encouraged by no less a Promise than that of a Deliverance from Damnation by the Blessed Virgin and from Purgatory by the Promises of five or six of their Popes To the same purpose in the last Century Pope Gregory the xiii th first and Sixtus the v th afterwards set up another kind of Order the Congregations of the Annunciation to the same End And the solemn Admission into which is made by the Dedication of him that enters to the Service of the Blessed VIRGIN whom he there chuses to be his Lady Patroness and Advocate and vows to honour serve and love unto his life's end I might to this add that other long Catalogue of Superstition the building of Churches and setting up Altars and Images to her Honour Their Pilgrimages that are made to them their Litanies and Processions in which she bears no small part of the Service The dedicating whole Countries and Kingdoms to her as her own proper Inheritance The glorious Titles and Attributes which they give her in all their Prayers and many other Instances no less superstitious than these And by all which it plainly appears That they have too much divided their Love Service and Obedience nay their very Faith and Hope between God and her as if the End of Christianity had been no less to teach us how to magnifie the Mother than how to serve and honour and believe in the Son and the Duty of a Christian were as much to set forth her Praise as our Saviour's Glory But I shall stop here and add only a Word or two 2. Of that Private Devotion which is usually practised by and recommended to her Votaries Many are the Instances that I might offer of this but I shall take a few only as they lie together in the late Directions that have been given by one of their own Authors to this purpose 1. To have a high Value for her sublime Dignity to congratulate her in the full Possession of it to make a publick Profession of this our high Esteem of her incomparable Perfections and to invite others to the like Valuation of them 2. To express these inward Affections by external Acts of the Worship of eminent Servitude towards her By frequent visiting Holy Places dedicated to her Honour By a special Reverence towards Images representing her Person By performing some daily Devotions containing her Praises congratulating her Excellencies or imploring her Mediation
not well see how they will be able to clear themselves altogether of those Follies which they so readily encourage and not only neglect to correct themselves but will not suffer those who would to do it Nay but we must not stop here They have given a yet greater encouragement to the dishonour of our Saviour than this If we look into their Churches and there view their Pictures and their Images those Books of the Ignorant as they are pleased to call them what can be either more wretched in it self or more apt to seduce unthinking Votaries than every where to see Holy MARY with our Saviour still an Infant in her Arms as if he were never to get out of the state of his Pupillage And this were yet tolerable if they thereby took care to call back their Minds to the condition of his Infancy once when on Earth But alas I must add what exceeds all Extravagances besides that they set him out still as a Child in Heaven Nor is there any thing more common in the Lives of their Saints in the Records of the Miracles of the VIRGIN and even in their Offices and Books of Devotion than to hear of the Son of God brought down in the Arms of his Mother and still behaving himself as a little Child towards her Votaries And what mean and low Opinions such things as these must needs create in Superstitious and Ignorant Minds of the Saviour of the World is very natural to conceive and the Devotion of the People towards the Blessed VIRGIN compared with their Notions and Zeal towards the Holy JESVS does but too fatally demonstrate But Secondly This Consideration is not only thus important in it self but of a more especial concern with regard to us Were the Votaries of the Blessed VIRGIN content with a Speculative Opinion of her Excellencies or would they be satisfied to pay her what Homage they thought fit themselves without forcing others to joyn in it this Matter though very Scandalous to our Religion yet would not so much concern our Practice But now that the very Publick Devotion of the Church is wholly over-run with this Abuse so that 't is impossible to pray to God with them unless you will be content to pray to Holy MARY too it was certainly very necessary for us to understand the danger of such an Error which is thus combined with the most publick and solemn Piety of a whole Body of Christians And then Thirdly This is a Point not only of very great moment in it self and of a particular concern to us but very plain too and easie to be understood In other things though our Arguments are strong to those that comprehend the force of them yet many times the Subject is obscure and the Disputation past the Capacity of the ordinary Christian. Thus in their Doctrines about the Church the Authority Vnity Infallibility and other either real or pretended Privileges of it The Argument is nice and easily perplexes an uninstructed Capacity But here the Advice is evident and the whole Subject easie The only hardship is to bring them to own their Doctrine but afterwards the most Vulgar Christian is able to discern the falseness of it Those first Rudiments of Christianity Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus and the like being abundantly sufficient to shew how impossible it is that those should not have departed from their first Faith who give Religious Honour to the Virgin MARY and set her up as a Mediatrix in Heaven Now this being once proved it will from hence presently follow Fourthly That all the Pretences of the Church of Rome against us are vain and that we not only had sufficient Reason but that it was our Duty to reform as we did from them For to consider this Argument in one word If the Church of Rome be actually and undoubtedly Erroneous in this Point then let her fancy what she please 't is plain she can Err and is not what she says Infallible If she be not Infallible then there can be no Obligation to believe and follow her at all Adventures without examining what she teaches whether it be true or false If we may examine her Doctrine then the End of all Examination being to find out the Truth and to cleave unto it it must follow that when upon the Enquiry we had discovered her to be involved in grievous Errors it was our Duty to abandon her Corruptions and to declare against them And thus this one Point alone being well cleared does in the Consequence of it plainly prove a Vindication of the whole Work of the Reformation and is alone sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced Mind what just Cause we had for it And let us then Bless God who has opened our Eyes to discover such Abuses as these and which had almost subverted the very chief Principles of Christianity And let us as we ought value nothing so much as that Purity of Religion in which we have the happiness to exceed most Christians in the World Let our Adversaries if they please revile us let them call us Hereticks and Schismaticks Despisers of the Church and Haters of the Blessed Virgin let them fill Heaven and Earth with their Anathema's against us because we will not joyn with them in these and the like Abominations But let us stand fast in the Lord and in the Religion which we have received knowing from whom we have received it and what is the rule and measure of it And that though I do not say They or We or any other Church or Society of Men whatsoever but though an Angel from Heaven though St. Peter himself should come to us and preach any other Gospel he is to be accursed I shall conclude all with those excellent words of an Ancient Father of the Church against some who began in his time to Honour the Blessed VIRGIN though not with any part of that excess that these Men now do yet more than he supposed was fitting for them 'T is true says he MARY was Holy but she was not therefore God She was a Virgin and highly honoured but she was not set forth to us to be worshipp'd And therefore the Holy Gospel has herein arm'd us before hand our Lord himself saying Woman what have I to do with thee Wherefore does he say this But only left some should think of the Blessed VIRGIN more highly than they ought He called her Woman as it were foretelling those Schisms and Heresies that should arise upon her account But God permits us not to worship Angels how much less the Daughter of Anna Let MARY be held in Honour but let the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Worshipped Let no one Worship MARY for though she were most fair and holy and honourable yet she is not therefore to