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A30672
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Not fear, but love a sermon preached before the governors of the Charity for Relief of Poor Widows and Orphans of Clergy-men, at St. Mary le Bow, on the 7th day of Decemb., 1682 / by Ar. Bury ...
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Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B6203; ESTC R37172
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30,572
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54
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Not FEAR but LOVE A SERMON PREACHED Before the Governors of the Charity for Relief of poor Widows and Orphans of Clergy-men at St. Mary le Bow on the 7 th day of Decemb. 1682. By Ar. BVRY DD. Rector of Exon. Coll. Oxon. Ama fac quicquid vis D. Aug. OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield Printer to the University in the year 1683. ADVERTISEMENT THIS following Sermon dear Reader I send to wait upon the foregoing Treatise as being thereto both very neer of Kin and very Serviceable Neer of Kin as being a Restorer of Communion with our Lord for This laboreth to Restore our Communion with the Father and the Son to that Full joy which St. John declareth to be the Summ of his message as That doth to Restore our Communion with the Son in his Flesh and Blood to that Constancy which himself made due to it And Serviceab'l not only in casting out the spirit of Fear which is the common enemy but particularly in caling to a more strict account that Self-examination which as prescribed and practised by the best is the greatest discorager from the Lord's Supper Here tht Sermon advanceth beyond the Treatise denying it so much as adviseabl to a good person either upon That or any Other occasion I say to a good person For to others I acknowledge the Prophets admonition always necessary that they search and try their ways and turn unto the Lord but for those who have already do'n this necessary work I see no Reason to be always repeting it Many exhortations I find encoraging them to rejoice in the Lord alway but not one to be always tormenting themselvs with examining their interest in him This and another no less heterodox assertion concerning Repentance my design invited me to Touch but my time forbad me to Handl in any proportion to the need which defect I have now endeavoured to supply by additional Annotations wherein I have accounted for such texts as seem to discountenance them More or Less than this cannot be required A sound mind cannot acknowledg the Scripture to be the adequate rule of faith and manners yet fear to appeal to it But to manage the appeal is not every one's work it requireth good acquaintance with the Original language som Academical improvement of the understanding a Carefuley a Free Heart and a Good Key For the last of these we stand obliged to the great Erasmus who hath furnished us with This as the best key to understand mystical Scrpture that we observ what the speaker aims at With this key I have unlocked such texts as stood in my way And I add this to Erasmus's rule That as every particular word must be unlocked by the Author's aim as by its proper key so must every text and its particular key conform to the Universal Aim of the Gospel as their Common and Supreme king-King-key This then I say and inculcate and wish the whole Christian world would hear it As sure as St. John hath proclamed that this is the design of the Gospel that our joy may be full as sure as St. Paul hath determined that the Kingdom of Heaven is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost c. so sure it is that the king-King-key wherewith we must unlock every abstruse text of Scripture the Test whereby we must try every Doctrine of Faith or Manners the Oracle which we must consult in all doubts of Conscience is this Whatever will most exalt the Joy of the Wise and Good is most properly Evangelical and most certainly True Were this as generally believed as throghout the whole New Testament it is plainly declared how great how happy a change would it work in the Christian world How would it advance both the Honor and Power of the Gospel How would it promote both the Joy of the Godly and the Conversion of the Profane How would it exalt the Glory of Gods love trward Us and the Ardor of Ours towards Him Whereas not to know what spirit we ate of is the most pernicios Ignorance It made our Lord's Apostls uncharitabl to the Samaritans and it still makes his best intentioned disciples Tormentors to Themselvs and Scare-crows to Others How serviceabl the discovery may be God grant Experience may verify as much as Reason promiseth beyond what this poor Sermon can express which that it may contribute its mite offers its self and its unvulgar assertions to thy most deliberate examination But remember we appeal from All Human authority to Divine Rom. X. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent as it is written How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad tidings of good things WE shall not now consider these words as Part of an Argument but as an Entire one And since an Argument moveth more Gracefully perhaps from the Consequent to the Antecedent but more Strongly from the Antecedent to the Consequent it will be reasonab'l we should invert the Apostl's order for so we find a Sorites of three pieces The Gospel is glad tidings therefore the Messengers feet are beautiful therefore no man may preach except he be sent A Gospel A Gospel of Peace Glad tidings Good things How doth the Apost'l travel to bring forth an expression suitab'l Such glad tidings of great joy an host of Angels found worth a jorny from Heaven to bring and perhaps for that reason its first Preachers were stiled Angels of their Churches And their reception was suitab'l both to this title and those tidings You received me saith our Apost'l to the Galatians as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus If it had been possibl you would have pluckt out your own eys and have given them unto me And here he saith not much less How beautiful are what the Lips the Eyes the Countenances yea the very Feet the very feet of Messengers the feet of Messengers in those countries where they must needs be Dirty bicause naked The charms of this beauty like Aaron's ointment run down from the Face to the very Feet And for this reason no man may take this high honour to himself but he that is caled of God as was Aaron For as this encoraged our Apost'l in his work so did it temt popularly ambitios spirits to dubl his task he must not only Execute his commission but Assert it His next words speak him no less troubled with Rivals than with Persecutors and This makes it necessary to urge as in my Text they must not preach except they be sent Thus may the order of my Text be inverted thus may it make a weighty argument not perhaps so proper to the Apost'ls own design as to that which hath brought us together If the beauty of the Preachers descend from their Heads to their very Feet needs must it descend from the head of the family to its neerest members and you may justly expect that from this expression I should take occasion to plead the right
that is the Greatest part of mankind And at That time the world was not capabl to have it Cured but only Fomented And that upon That very account the Law imposed such exercises as the Gospel forbids we have a clear discours of St Paul in the beginning of the fourth chapter to the Galatians Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant thogh he be Lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father even so we when we were children were in bondage under the Elements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the a b c of the world But when the fulness of time was com God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receiv the adoption of sons And bicause ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba father Wherefor thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God throgh Christ In this discours you have a full discovery of Superstition its Nature its Operations and its Abolition 1. It s Nature childishness requiring the discipline of Fear to govern it 2. Its Exercises childish weak and beggarly Elements the first letters that children learn 3. It s Cure the spirit of Adoption sent forth into the hearts of Gods children now grown up to manhood Vpon this discours how justly doth he ground his expostulation ver 9. Now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements wherein you desire again to be in bondage When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thoght as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things When mankind was unripe in Age it was so in Vnderstanding and no wonder its Exercises should be suitabl It was governed by the rod and busied about ceremonies but now it is com to manhood you are called to have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Jo. 1.3 to be partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and consequently of his Wisdom and Holines his Loves and his Hates and therefore to approve things that are excellent Phil. 1.10 How is it then that you still spend your time your strength and your labour in whipping of topps bandying of balls and playing with nuts no less childish in your imaginations than the law of Moses could either Find or Make you Thus did the Apostl rebuke the Galatians and what would he have said to this and som preceding generations which have outgo'n both Jews and Gentiles in this childishness and that especially in two great respects 1. We find not that either Jews or Gentiles disquieted themselvs about maters of mere Belief thogh they did about maters of Action 2. Nor that they disturbed the peace of their Nations thogh they did that of their own Minds 1. They disquieted not themselvs with maters of mere belief conceiving that the true worship of God consisted not in Disputing but Imitating his Perfections But we in mere honor to the glorious promises which are made to Believing have multiplied Articls of Faith and Questions upon every Articl and Doubts upon every Question and every one of these we call maters of Faith and mater of Faith we take to be mater of Salvation and if we mistake in the One we believ we shall miss of the Other Hence is it that Catholik and Heretik among the Romanists Orthodox and Heterodox among the Beformed sound so terribly as to fray many a good man if not quite out of his Wits yet which is almost as bad out of his Corage to use them Reason we are told must not presume to medl in maters of Faith but we must deny our selvs no less in our Rational faculties than in our Sensual appetites for it is no less impious to Disbeliev God's word than to Disobey his command And in This they speak not only Truth but Reason which therefor they justify by exercising But as it is in Moral vertues so is it in Faith it lieth between two extremes Defect on One hand and Excess on the Other It is no less frequent in maters of Faith than in Manners to teach for Doctrines of God the Commandments of Men in the One tormenting the Mind with needless Mysteries as in the Other the Body with needless Penances But to Faith what could have be'n more incongruos Repentance indeed in its very name carrieth a sower countenance importing a mortification of our Natural appetites and consequently a pain to our hearts But Faith who 's proper object is Glad-tidings might justly claim not only freedom from Pain but such fulness of joy as should cast out the grief even of Repentance whereas now it is made the harder taskmaster of the two For however painful it be it is not impossibl to cut off hands or feet or pull out eys but our Reason is not only the Ey but the Heart of our Soul not to be cutt or pluckt off Tormented indeed it may be and most in those who have most improved it as the clearest ey is always tenderest and stupified it may be yet not to such a privation but that it will ever and anon feel anxios fits of melancholy doubting of the truth of som things which are received as matters of Faith and consequently of our title to Salvation for want of Faith Few can at all times bost with the Physician there are not impossibilities enogh in Religion and fewer with the Father credo quia impossibile est It is hard to apprehend how any thing can be at once True and Impossib'l but to make the very Impossibility a reason why I should believ it let St. Paul judg whether this be not cum ratione insanire For when he would perswade a belief of the Resurrection he did not urge the impossibility but the contrary Why should it be thoght a thing incredib'l that God should raise the dead and when hereupon Festus charged him with madness he replied I am not mad but speak the words of truth and soberness What Soberness can there be in a quite contrary argument yea what plainer madness than to talk such extravagant inconsistences as infer credibility from impossibility What other spirit but that of Fear could thus confound mens understandings Fear of all passions the most infatuating Fear which most frequently blindeth the most piercing judgments Fear which maketh every shadow a man and every bush a thief and every thief a murtherer Fear and only fear can so disorder our minds that we think it equally necessary to salvation to believ the niceties of Schoolmen and the Doctrines of the Gospel and distrust our interest in Christ if we can neither satisfie nor destroy our reason when it cannot comply with contradictions which he never enjoyned us to believ 2. Much less did they embroil the publik peace with controversies in Religion Whereas among Christians there is not any question so nice in point of Belief or so slight in point of Worship but hath be'n able to engage whole Families in the fiercest contentions and whole Nations in most bloody wars yea for two or three ages there hath hardly b'en a rebellion whereof Religion hath not be'n either the Real or Pretended cause And This as it is more notoriosly scandalous than the now mentioned disquiets of private persons so is it if possibl more directly opposit to the most earnest endeavours of the Gospel which doth indeed very frequently exhort us to joy and comfort in our own spirits but much more earnestly and solenly provoke us to love and peace toward others Yea Love maketh so great a figure in almost every page of the New Testament that it seemeth not only the Supreme but almost the Only grace It looks like unlawful to fight upon Any occasion whatsoever but to fight for Religion seemeth no less contradictious than to fight for Love And that the Only Religion which commandeth to beat swords into plow-shares should be the only religion that forgeth plow-shares to swords is a fanaticism so irrational as nothing but Fear could have produced The summ therefor is This The light of Nature agreeth with that of the Gospel to declare that we are not to serv God for Fear but Love What our Apost'l opposeth to a Sound mind that our Philosopher caleth a mad error but the madness is incomparably greater in a Christian than ever it was or indeed could possibly be in a Heathen For as it is the utmost extravagance of frensy to beat our selvs or our friends so in this we exceed the Heathen that many among Vs but none among Them disturb their own souls with anxios doubts concerning Faith or imbroil their Nation with bloody wars upon difference of opinions in Doctrine or Worship so is it more monstrosly mad in a Christian by how much more clearly and solenly the Gospel hath labored to prevent the one and the other by declaring that we have not receved the slavish and mad spirit of Fear but of Power and Love and of a sound mind And again that The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteosness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men This upright and erect walking this frank and chearful this manly yea divine freedom of spirit as it maketh men more Like God so doth it make them more Acceptabl to him it will not only vindicate religion from the obloquies of its enemies who either despise or fear it as a curb to generosity and freedom but recommend it to them as most noble and pleasant nor will it only silence our quarrels but endear us in mutual affection FINIS * See Annot. 1. a Annot. 2. b Annot. 3. c See Annot. 4. d See Annoi ult a Plutarch in Dione