A SERMON PREACH'D before the KING AT White-Hall MAY the Twentieth MDCLXXVII BY JOHN SVDBVRY D. D. And DEAN of Durham Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Published by His Majesties special Command In the SAVOY Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to be sold by Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange 1677. MATTHEW 28.20 And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World THese Words were spoken by Christ to his Apostles a little before his Ascension into Heaven when he was about to send them abroad into the World with that Commission in the Words immediately before Go Ye therefore and Teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you To which purpose having told them before by what Authority he sent them and how Able he was to carry them through all the Difficulties and Dangers which were before them in the former Verse All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth He tells them here how ready they should find him on all occasions in which his Presence should be needfull to them Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World In which Words he speaks of his Presence not with one of them onely whom he had made the Head and Chief of them all commending them to his Direction and Commanding them to submit themselves to his Authority But as he joined them altogether in one and the same Commission in the former Verse Go ye therefore and Teach all Nations So he speaks here of his Presence with them All Lo I am with you And not with them onely and with those among all Nations whom he sent them to Teach and to Baptize For he would not have them think that he sent them to lay the Foundation of a Church which should Stand and Fall together with them for want of his Power and Presence with it afterward when they were dead and gone and therefore he tells them that should never be wanting to it so long as the World should stand Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World This Presence of Christ with his Apostles in their Generation and with his Apostolick Church among all Nations in that and in all succeeding Generations to the end of the World is here commended to our Consideration with a Note of Attention Lo or Behold I am with You. For it is a point which requires a more than ordinary Consideration because it is not easie to conceive how he that is exalted far above all Heavens can be Present with so many Men on Earth when he is at so great a distance from them and many of them at so great a distance from each other And as it requires it upon that account so it deserves it upon another which is the great importance of it as we shall see before I end Now first for his Presence with them when he said I am with you he did not exclude the Presence of the Father and of the Holy Ghost For speaking of the Holy Ghost John 14.16 he saith I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you And that they might not think the Holy Ghost so much another Comforter that in sending him he would withdraw Himself from them he tells them in the next Verse I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you And speaking of the Father at the 23 Verse of the same Chapter he saith If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him But because he had spoken to them oftentimes of his departure from them and perceived that sorrow had filled their heart Joh. 16.6 because he had said this to them he tells them for their comfort that he would not so depart from them but that he would still be with them Lo I am with you alway 2. When he said I am with you he did not speak of his bodily presence They could not well so much mistake him if they did believe and remember what he had often told them Me ye have not always Joh. 12.8 I go to the Father and ye shall see me no more Joh. 16.10 and at the 28 Verse of the same Chapter I leave the world and go to the Father Or if they could be so incredulous or forgetful it could not be long before they would see their errour if they would believe their own eyes for it was not long after that while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Acts 1.9 And though it follows in the next Verse that while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven They knew very well that would not be till the end of the world Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began But what ever we may think of them we find that others have so much mistaken him as to alledge these words to prove the Ubiquity of his Body which is contrary to the nature of a Body and all the differences that are or can be imagined between his Body and all other Bodies cannot give it a property which is repugnant to the nature of a Body for then it should not be a Body There have been likewise and still are great disputes about his Bodily presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud And for want of better Arguments many strange Tales have been told of Miracles which have been wrought to prove it but they are so absurd and impertinent that it is almost a miracle that any men should be so void of shame as to report them or any men or women so void of understanding as to believe them For though he that hath all power in heaven and in earth can do any thing that he will he never did nor ever will do any thing that is absurd or impertinent And many Tales of his visible appearance sometimes in the form of a Lamb sometimes of a little Child and sometimes in the substance of flesh and bloud which are reported in Authors of no small account are so absurd that if the Books in which they are to be read were not easie to be produc'd it might be
it is with all Ministerial Officers under him For all Ministerial Offices require the personal service and attendance of men and cannot be supplyed to the end of the World but by a Succession of men The Word must be Preached by the mouths of men the Sacraments must be Administred by the hands of men and because it is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 there must be a succession of men that as one man dies another man may fill that place that is made void by his death There must be likewise Rulers and Governors under him for the good of Order which is not onely comely but necessary in all Societies or Bodies of Men as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and there must be a Succession of them to supply that defect which would be by reason of their mortality if that care were not taken to prevent it And therefore when he ascended up into Heaven he made provision of such Officers in a continued Succession to the end of the world but he made no provision of a Successor to himself but saith I am with you alway even to the end of the world That which is said of his Priestly Office compar'd with other Priests Heb. 7.23 They truly were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death But this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood or as it is in the Margin a Priesthood which passeth not from one to another May as truly be said of his Office of an High-priest or Vniversal Bishop compared with other Bishops and Priests they truely are many Bishops and Priests because they are all subject unto death which takes them off and makes way for others to succeed them but he that continues for ever hath no need of a Successor We must not then say or think of him who is ascended into Heaven as the Children of Israel said of Moses when he was gone up to the Mount Make us gods which shall go before us for as for this Moses we wat not what is become of him For though he is ascended not onely above the highest Mountain upon Earth but far above all heavens he is not so departed from us but that he is still with us as a Bishop in his Church as a Shepherd with his Flock as a Master in his House as a Bridegroom with his Spouse as a Head with his Body The great Bishop of our Souls is resident in his Church alway even unto the end of the world That See can never become void which is filled with a Bishop who can never die The great Shepherd of the Flock which he hath purchased with his own blood had not so little care of it as to go his way and commit the oversight of it to a Shepherd who at the best is but as one of his Sheep and might prove a Wolf The Owner of that great House which he hath built for himself had not so little regard to the government of it Matth. 24.48 49. as to leave it to a Servant who might say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and begin to smite his fellow-servants That Spouse which he hath betrothed to himself cannot be married to another so long as he lives and can never be a Widow because he lives for ever That great Body Ephes 1.2 13. which is the fulness of him that filleth all in all is but one Body and can have but one Head and though it is not too great a Body for such a Head Col. 1 1â— in whom all fulness dwells it is too great a Body for any other Head but him All others of what rank or quality soever are but Members of his Body and though they have not all the same Office there is none of them that hath the Office of a Head to the whole Body St. Paul knew no other such Head but him for when he saith Rom. 12.4 As we have many members in one body and all the members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ What can be more clear than that he knew no other Head with which all the Members are one Body but Christ And when he saith in the next words Every one members one of another what can be more evident than that all others without exception to any one of them every one are not onely Members but Fellow-members not onely Members of him but Members one of another Every Sovereign Christian Prince is a Head of that Church which is in his Dominions as the Head signifies the principal Member in which sense he who takes upon him to be a Head to all Churches may be called the Head of that Church in which he is a Sovereign Prince but as in other Kingdoms he hath no such Sovereignty so he hath no such Headship And as God hath not submitted all the Kingdoms of the World to one King so neither hath Christ submitted all the Churches of the World to one Bishop It was not expedient that he should though that is commonly alledged as an argument to prove that he hath For as St. Augustine saith of the Kingdoms of the World that they are better under the Government of many Kings who are in Amity among themselves than they would be if they were all subject unto one so we may say of all the Churches in the World they were better govern'd at first when they were under the Government of many Bishops who were at unity among themselves than they have been since under the claim of one Bishop to a Superiority and Jurisdiction over them all And of the two an Universal Monarch in the World could not be so great a mischief as an Universal Monarch in the Church might be For if all the Kings and Kingdoms of the World were in subjection to one King and that King should prove a Tyrant all the mischief that could follow could reach no further than the Bodies and Estates of men But if all the Bishops and Churches in the World were in subjection to one Bishop and that one Bishop should prove a Heretick the mischief would reach unto their Souls But this is not all the importance of this Point It serves likewise to let us see how little need we have to apply our selves to the Saints departed from us to offer up our prayers to God or to make our requests known to him much less to ask those things of them which he can give but they cannot For the Saints who are departed from us are not with us And that which is said of Abraham Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us may as truly be said not onely of many Saints in the Roman Calendar of whom we have no better proof that they are Saints than that they have been Canoniz'd by men who could no more know that they are Saints because they could not know their hearts than we can know that they by whom they have been
the Kings Evil the King toucheth and God healeth so it was in the Cures which were wrought by them Jesus Christ maketh thee whole Acts 9.34 saith St. Peter to Aeneas when he cured him of the Palsie And speaking of that great Cure which he wrought upon a man who had been a creeple from his Mothers womb whom he made not only to stand up but to walk and leap he was so far from arrogating that power to himself that he disclaimed it in the presence of them that were the Spectators of it Acts 3.12 Why look ye so earnestly upon us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk And in the next Chapter at the 10th Verse Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole These and many more Miracles which he wrought by them to confirm that word which he sent them to preach were so necessary at that time when it was a new Doctrine not only different from all the Religions that were then in the world but in many things contrary to the most of them that as there was no Religion that was so universally receiv'd and so stedfastly retain'd so it is not credible that it could have prevail'd so mightily if he had not mightily assisted them And the word which they preach'd was thereby so confirm'd not only to them of that Generation but to all succeeding Generations to the end of the world that there was not that need of such manifestations of his presence when it was become the faith of the World which there was when it was a new and strange Doctrine But when he saith I am with you alway even unto the end of the world we may perceive that he spake not only of his presence with them and with those of that Generation among all Nations who are long since departed out of the world but of some that are still and will be to the end of the world Now if he spake this of his Church among all Nations which he hath built upon the foundation which he laid by them it is a point of so great importance that the not observing it hath been the cause of the greatest mischiefs that ever have befaln the Church of Christ I mean that great Controversie about a Visible Head to rule and govern this great Body of the Church which hath not only disturb'd that peace and unity which he hath so expressly so earnestly and so frequently commended to it and corrupted the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints by an addition of many things as Articles of Faith which are but matters of Dispute and many of them not so much as Theological Truths but likewise perverted much of the Devotion and depraved the true Worship with Invocation and Adoration of other Advocates and Patrons which are not with us Now that these Words I am with you were spoken by Christ to his Apostles not only of his presence with them but with those of all Nations whom he sent them to Teach and to Baptize is evident by their own acknowledgment who ascribe the success of their Ministery to the working of his Grace upon the Hearts of them that heard them And the several Epistles of St. Paul in which he commends the Churches to which he wrote to the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with these or the like Words in the beginning of them Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ And these or the like Words in the end of them The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all are very good evidences of his presence with them The seven Churches of Asia which were represented to St. John in the Vision of the seven Golden Candlesticks and Christ walking in the mid'st of them and speaking of his Knowledge not only of their Works but of their Hearts and Affections in the three first Chapters of the Revelation of St. John are very sufficient to make good proof of his presence with them And though these come not home to the Text in which he speaks of his presence with them to the end of the World there be other Texts of Scripture in which he speaks of his presence in all times not only with great Churches but with little ones For there cannot be a less Church than that of which he saith Mat. 18.20 Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And in the fifth Verse of the same Chapter he speaks of his presence not only with two or three but with every one of those little ones that believe in him How and in what manner he is with them is a point so much above the comprehension of our understanding that we must say of it as the Psalmist saith of the presence of God with all men everywhere and at all times Psal 139.5 Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me I cannot attain unto it But we must not deny that which is evident because we cannot comprehend that which is difficult And the truth of this is so evident in the Scriptures which are the Rule of our Faith that we must either believe it or deny the authority of the Scriptures and renounce our Christianity For the Scriptures speak expresly and clearly of the exercise of his Regal and Priestly Office by himself from the time of his Ascension into Heaven to the end of the World with that power of which he saith in the Verse but one before my Text All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth With that authority of which he saith Joh. 5.22 23. The Father hath committed all Judgment unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father with that Administration of all things by him of which he saith Mat. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father And with that presence by which he is so sensible of our infirmities that he is touched with a feeling of them Hebr. 4.15 upon which it follows in the next Verse Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need There is hardly any point that is so frequently set forth with so great variety of so significant and elegant Expressions as this of his presence with his whole Church and all the Members of it in all places and at all times He is with them as a Shepherd with his Flock over which he watcheth as a Lord or Master in his own House in which he dwells and which he Rules and Governs as a Husband with his Wife whom he loves and cherisheth as a Head with that Body which lives and grows by that influence which it receives from