wherein the Members of it reside and there is the Greek Church and the Latin Church the English Church and the Dutch Church c. who though they may differ from each other in some Circumstantial and Extrafundamental Points of Religion yet so long as they agree in the Substantial and Fundamental Points thereof have all one Lord one Faith one Baptism are all but Members of one and the same Holy Catholick Church One and the same Sun shoots out from it many Beams of Light one and the same Kingdom hath in it many Counties one and the same Tree many Branches one and the same Body many Members so hath also one and the same Mystical Body of Christ one body but many members saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.20 Now the true and infallible marks whereby a particular national Church may be known to be a Member of the Holy Catholick One are as our Church of England hath well said in her Articles of Religion Artic. 19. The word of God sincerely preached and the blessed Sacraments rightly and duly administred according to Christs Ordinance and in what ever Congregation of men professing the Faith of Christ the word of God is sincerely preached and the two Essential Sacraments of the Gospel Baptism and the Lords Supper are rightly and duly administred according to Christs Ordinance by persons lawfully called sanctified and set apart for the work of the Ministry there is a true branch of the Holy Catholick Church and with it may any one that professes himself a Christian safely joyn and from it must no man that lives within the bounds and limits thereof presume to separate himself if he will obtain Salvation And that this Member of the Holy Catholick Church wherein we live The national Church of England is such a Church we need not make use of many words to prove since that which is the best of witnesses Her works most clearly approve and manifest it Her Doctrines she confirms nâ—t by Traditions Miracles or Dreams by the Decrees of Councils or Decretals of Popes but by the Holy Scriptures and she saith not Sic dicit Papa but Sic dicit Dominus The blessed Sacraments she neither sophisticates nor mutilates neither adds to them nor substracts from them In administring the Sacrament of Baptism she makes no mixture of Salt Spittle Oyl Milk c. but makes use only of pure Water and the words of Consecration which Christ himself instituted Baptizing with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost In administring of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper she doth not make a God of the Bread and lift it up for the People to Worship and Adore nor doth she think the Wine too good for any but the Priests to drink but having Blessed and Sanctified both Elements with the very words of Consecration which Christ himself used she according to his Institution and Practice delivers both Bread and Wine into the hand of every particular Communicant Charged is our Church on the one hand by the Papists with Innovation and Separation and on the other hand by the Presbyter and Sectaries wi h Popery and Superstition And I shall crave leave in a word to vindicate her against them both To the Papists who charge us with Innovation and Separation and ask us where our Church was before Luther's time we say at Rome though lying hid there under a great heap of Popish Trash and Luther with his Associates did but that with better success which others before them had attempted As the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Hussites in Germany the Wickliists in England c. shake off the Corruptions and Superstitions of the Romish Innovators but did not separate from and forsake the Orthodox Primitive Catholick Doctrines of the Church of Rome The Church of England holds no other Doctrine than that which the Church of Rome Primitively did and which St. Paul taught them in his Epistle unto them viz. justification only by the bloud of Christ If upon this Foundation the Romanists have built up a great heap of Wood and Hay and Stubble added as things necessary to Salvation The Adoration of Images The Invocation of Saints The Supremacy of the Pope The lawfulness of Deposing and Murthering of Kings Masses Merits Pardons Purgatory and a number of the like Trash which were never prescribed by God in his Word never practised in the Church of God no not in the Church of Rome it self for the first Five Hundred Years after Christ they and not we are the Innovators we separated from them no farther than they separated from themselves and their original purity Let the Church of Rome return to her self and her original Purity and though we will not down on our knees and honour her for our Mother yet we will run with open Arms to embrace her and will own her for our elder Sister And though we will not give her a Supremacy over the rest of the National Churches of Christ yet we will grant her a primacy in the Church of Christ and because Rome was the chief City and Empress of the World her Bishop shall have the first place assigned him in a General Council if ever the World be so happy as to have one again To the Presbyters and their spawn of Sectaries who charge us with Popery and Superstition and say that we have borrowed most of our Rites and Ceremonies from the Papists we say That if nothing which the Papists believe and practise is to be believed and practised by us we must go look for a new God a new Christ and a new Heaven as well as a new Religion for they believe all the Articles of the Three Orthodox Creeds as well as we hope to be saved by the same Christ and to go to the same Heaven that we do When the Church of England separated from and renounced the Church of Rome she did not seperate from and renounce what she received from the sacred Scriptures from the four first general Councels and the Orthodox Fathers of the Church but only from what she innovated was brought in and intruded upon the Church of late years by the pride and avarice the superstition and fopperies of the Popes and their Consistories she piously separated the precious from the vile winnowed away the Chaff from the Wheat kept what she found pious and primitive but rejected what she found to be superstitious and novel Did not cast away both because the one was nought and under pretence of reforming utterly deform Religion did not run from one extream into another from Idolatry and the worshipping of Images into profaneness and the not vouchsafing to worship God himself from a bad religion into no Religion She kept such a Decorum in her carriage that when she repudiated and cast off the too too gawdy dress of the Babylonish Harlot she leapt not straight with some of her Neighbour Sisters into the contrary extream of a slovingly Garb but
on till she return thither again And a true Israelite when he hath with King Solomon tryed all the things in the world pleasures riches honour will in the end conclude with him that all worldly things are vanity and vexation of Spirit And that there is no true content nothing that can satisfie a mans mind no hope of Salvation to be had any where but in the true Ark of Gods Church 3. Damnable is the estate and on the very brink of hells pit are the feet of those Factious and Schismatical Spirits who out of pride and singularity of heart or because they disgust some of the outward external ceremonies of our Church forsake the Society of the faithful separate themselves from the lawful allowed Church assembly and repair to Conventicles and private meetings where having no lawful allowed priests to officiate they cannot have the word of God sincerely Preached nor the Sacraments rightly administred according to Christs Ordinance for though it be granted lawful for private persons within the limits of their own family to open and expound the Scripture according to their talent yet he who without a lawful call and mission shall presume in a publick Congregation to handle and expound the word Though he handle it never so well and expound it never so truely yet doth he not preach nor is his Doctrine sufficiently qualified for the Salvation of Souls For how can they Preach except they be sent demands the Apostle Rom. 10.15 proving most plainly by this his interrogative that effectual Preaching such as is sufficiently qualified for the Salvation of Souls is the proper work of the Ministry of those that are lawfully Called and Sent forth to execute this publique function in the Church And no man as saith the Apostle Heb. 5.4 may take this hence to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron i.e. unless he have as Aaron had not only an inward call and inclination of the Spirit but also an outward one and a solemn ordination to the sacred function 4. Since there is no Salvation to be had out of the Church and the Lord addeth daily unto the Church such as shall be saved Oh how infinitely are they bound to be thankful unto God and alwayes to praise and bless his holy name who find themselves to be placed in the state of Salvation or made visible Members of the holy Catholick Church for it is not by their own natural inclination nor by the care or piety either of their natural or spiritual Fathers though these be good helps and means that men are placed in the state of Salvation and added to the Church but by the exceeding goodness mercy and grace of God And it is as saith my third position the Lord that daily adds unto the Church such as shall be saved God is the principal agent in the great work of mens Salvation he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith the beginner and perfecter of every good work yea he that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure as saith the Apostle Phil. 2.13 Rebecca may look the Venison but it is Isaac that must give the blessing Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that gives the increase He he it is who perswades wild Japhet to come and dwell in the tents of gentle Sem that being men as the Apostle phraseth it that were born Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel Strangers and Forreigners to become fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Now this work of mans regeneration of his being begotten a new in the Gospel and added to the Church God works not extroardinarily by miracle but ordinarily by means And the ordinary means which God makes use of for the perfecting of this great work we may find here in this Chapter by the means which he used for the making of this great addition to the Church of 3000 Souls to be the word preached faith to apprehend and belive it and baptism to confirm and Seal it These primitive Converts had the word preached unto them by Saint Peter And being convicted in their Consciences of the Truth of it they believ'd it And applying themselves to Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles for advice what to do that they might be saved they were prescribed by them the baptism of repentance for the remission of their sins Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins v. 38. And they as it is testified v. 41. thankfully embraced his advice gladly received his word were immediately baptized and on that very day there was an addition made unto the Church of no less than 3000 Souls And of these initiating grounding Ordinances and Graces I would more largely discourse but that I remember you are persons who being born of Christian Parents and within the pale of the Church are already by Baptism added to the Church and made visible Members thereof and therefore it is more seasonable and necessary to shew you the way and means which you must be careful to use if you will keep your selves in the Church and the State of Salvation and this if you will do you must take these Primitive Christians here at the 42. v. for your pattern For they being by Baptism added to the Church continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and breaking of Bread and in Prayer And of these Four precious preservative confirming Christian Duties I shall now by Gods gracious assistance orderly discourse And first of the Apostles Doctrine By the Doctrine of the Apostles is here signified that form of sound Doctrine concerning Christ and his being the true Messiah promised unto the Fathers which the blessed Apostles first viva voce in their Sermons and Harangues delivered unto the people and afterwards for the instruction of the Church unto the worlds end wrote in their Gospels and Epistles This contains in it all things necessary unto Salvation both as to the credenda and what we are to believe and to the agenda and what we are to do And he who being by Baptism received into and added to the Militant Church on earth receives nothing as an Article of Faith and recessary to be believed but what can immediately be induced out of the holy Scriptures and who in matters of Obedience resigns up himself wholly to the practice of those Rules and Directions which are given us in the wholesom words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness shall not fail in due time to be made a glorious Member of the Church Triumphant in Heaven And able are holy Scriptures to make a man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus as it is written 2 Tim. 3.15 Surely he who to Heaven will be directed aright must neither be guided by the false fire of the Conclave or the Conventicle must neither
rely on unwritten Traditions nor on unwarranted Revelations but must make that bright shining and unerring light Gods holy Word his onely Director and Guide must neither add to it nor diminish from it must neither turn to the right hand and do more nor to the left hand and do less than is enjoyned him in the holy Scriptures And accursed be he yea though he be an Angel from Heaven that shall presume to preach any other Doctrine contrary to that which the holy Apostles have delivered unto us saith S. Paul Gal. 1.8 A Treasury full of all manner of precious Stones is Gods holy Word and there is no one of what condition or quality sex or age soever but hath his particular Rule given him in the Scripture and may if he come to the hearing or reading of Gods holy Word with an heart humbled and willing to be instructed find what he in his particular vocation and calling must especially do and perform what he must especially shun and avoid And 't is indeed the Reformation of those Abuses which we commit in our particular Callings wherein the power of Grace and Religion doth most especially appear Religion Religion my Brethren is not a thing merely of publick and common profession it dwells not onely in Churches and Temples no it hath a principal respect to the well ordering of our particular and personal Callings it saith to us as Christ did to the man in the Gospel whom he dispossessed of a Legion of Devils Go home to thy House and let thy behaviour and carriage there evidence and shew forth the truth and sincerity of thy Religion We read Deut. 11.20 that the Jews were commanded to write Gods Law not onely on the Doors of their Temples but also on the Doors of their Houses that so they might meditate and think on it to do it not onely on the Sabbath and holy Solemnities when they were called upon to go up into the House of the Lord but all the days of their life and as oft as they went in and out at their own Doors that so they might learn to regulate their personal Imployments and the works of their particular Callings according to those Directions which are given by God in his holy Law And 't is indeed according to the ordering of our selves in our particular Callings that God will proceed with us at the last day and when summoned to appear before his dreadful Tribunal we shall not be called to give an account of other mens Stewardships but of our own and how we have demeaned our selves in that state of life wherein he hath been pleased to place us Surely Brethren if we who have the Gospel printed amongst us bibles at home in our Houses and I hope read therein every day If we who have the Gospel preached amongst us and may if we be not sloathful and negligent on every Lords day hear it expounded and applied in our Churches and Synagogues would instead of curiously inquiring out of it with S. Peter what is other mens duty and required of them set our selves with S. Paul to inquire out of it what is our duty and required of us in that station wherein God hath placed us and set our selves sincerely about the doing of it we should most clearly manifest our selves to be true Members of his Militant Church on earth and should not fail in due time to be made glorious Members of his Church Triumphant in Heaven The second thing which you must learn of those primitive Christians if after you have been added to the Church you will continue and preserve your selves in the Church is to continue stedfastly in the Apostles Fellowship By Fellowship with the Apostles is here signified conformity unto them in those laudable and decent Rites and Ceremonies Customs and Orders that were practised by them in their Church Assemblies and publick Meetings In which whosoever refuseth to have Community and Fellowship with that Church into which he is admitted by Baptism and of which he is made a Member is void not onely of all Religion but even of all Reason and common Civility The actions of Religion and Divine Worship are twofold either Essential and ordinate or circumstantial and subordinate 1. The essential and ordinate parts of divine Worship are Faith and Holiness of Life and our Rule for this must be Gods Holy Word and we must receive nothing as an Article of Faith a thing absolutely necessary unto salvation which cannot be immediately deduced out of it 2. The circumstantial and subordinate Actions of Religion are the time the place the vesture the gesture which are required to be observed in our performance of Church Duties and these things being not absolutely determined of God in his Holy Word are left to the determination of the Church And God in that general warrant which he has given the Church 1 Cor. 14. ult Let all things be done decently and in order hath impowred her to cut out and shape each particular decency and order as will best suit with the condition the comliness and the edification of every particular National Church and it is no more necessary that all Churches should observe one and the same Rites and Ceremonies than it is that all Nations should wear one and the same kind of cloaths Surely these Orders and Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies which by our lawful Superiors we are enjoyned to observe in our Church meetings and Assemblies though they cannot immediately be deduced out of Gods Holy Word yet if they be not contrary unto it but serve for decency and comliness in the service of God are part of those Ordinances of men unto which we are commanded by St Peter 1 Ephes 2.13 to submit for the Lords sake And therefore though pride or arrogancy contempt or neglect to violate and break the established Order of the Church is to be guilty of no less crime than Disobedience to the Commands of God Indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators here render Fellowship is the very word which St. Paul in the 1 Cor. 16.3 useth to fignify the Collections and Comributions which were made for the poor and that in this sense it is to be taken here is the opinion of the incomparable judicious Dr. Hammond in his Annotations on that place Piously indeed with great praise to themselves and much comfort to the afflicted Members of Christ were Collections for the poor ordained by the Apostles to be used in their Church meetings As I have given order unto the Church of Galatia Even so do yee saith St. Paul to his Corinthians 1 Cor. 16.1 on the first day of the week Let every one lay by of his store as God hath prospered him for the poor And though the practice of this Apostolical Primitive and most Christian duty be strictly injoyned in our Liturgy to be used on every Lords day and solemn Festival and after the Sermon is ended the Priest is required to