Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A34182
|
The bishop of London's charge to the clergy of his diocese at his visitation begun Ann. 1693 and concluded Ann. 1694.
|
Compton, Henry, 1632-1713.
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing C5663; ESTC R32775
|
23,015
|
41
|
THE Bishop of LONDON's CHARGE TO THE Clergy of his Diocese AT HIS VISITATION Begun Ann. 1693 AND Concluded Ann. 1694. LONDON Printed by Benj. Motte 1696. THE Bishop of London's Charge TO THE CLERGY of his Diocess c. BRETHREN I Have always thought it my Duty upon these solemn Meetings to say something that might be most proper for your Notice And I believe there has rarely been a Time that afforded greater Variety of unhappy Circumstances than these we now labour under For we are divided into so many and such pernicious Principles that without the gracious Assistance of the Almighty to our utmost Care for the rooting of them out they will inevitably ruin both Church and State Obedience Truth and Sincerity Quietness Peace and Love are no longer the measures of Civil and Religious Behaviour but a noisie pretence of Liberty has with too many broken both the Tables If therefore I entertain you a little longer than ordinary with such Discourse as may call to your minds those good but forgotten Rules of former Times to encounter so universal a Depravation as we are at present involved in I hope you will bear with me For it is absolutely necessary where ye have so many obstinate Enemies to encounter that ye muster up all your Forces and put them in the best posture of Service for all Occasions I shall direct what I have to say by St. Paul's words to Timothy Take heed unto thy self and unto thy Doctrine Which tho' written to a Bishop are as justly applicable to any who minister about holy things I. The first of which words Take heed unto thy self directs 1. To your Vertuous and Godly Conversation in general as well as 2. To your special duty of walking orderly in the House of God 1. And reason good Since a sober and good Life is so extreamly necessary for the Edification of your Flocks For what an Awe and Reverence do we find an Upright Man to gain upon those that behold his Conversation The shining Light of a Righteous Man so discovers the shamefulness of the ways of Sinners that they are confounded to see their own Filthiness and from that time often commence true Penitents Therefore St. Peter seems to take it for granted that it was the sure and tryed way to win the Wicked to a Holy Life by leading such a one themselves Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles That whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation According to the words of our blessed Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven And it stands to all Reason in the World that it should be so For it puts Life into the Commandment and makes Religion truly active it raises it from the dead Letter to a living Sacrifice and cloaths it through the sanctifying Spirit with the Beauty of Holiness Besides it is natural for them that are habituated to do Evil to fancy it an impossible thing to observe the Law they having never experienced the Practice and their minds having been always alienated from the knowledge and understanding of it In which opinion they would be mightily confirmed should they find the Teachers of the Gospel not walking according to their own Rules For they will then cheerfully conclude that the Precepts of Holiness were given only for a Testimony of the Gospel Purity and to hold forth the Perfection and Excellence of Gods Law not in the least to oblige Men to the Observation of it And they have this ready Answer to put off all such unsanctified Teachers Physician heal thy self Tho' ye should lay Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept if you should not live up to your own Doctrine there would be as small hopes of Success as of Gods Blessing For since all things turn by Providence with what face can a sinner a persevering sinner expect that either his Prayers should be heard or his Endeavours prosper For the Lord is far from the wicked but he heareth the prayer of the righteous I leave it therefore to you my Brethren to consider with your selves whether you find people in these days so meek so gentle so easie to be intreated as not to need the best instructed and disposed Teachers and the most artificial in that Guile with which St. Paul tells the Corinthians he craftily caught them And if ye do not meet with so tractable a Generation as may tempt you to be remiss I beseech you for your own sakes and for theirs that are committed to your Charge not to faint in well doing since your Reward is certain Especially since there is no surer a way to put to silence those that dissent from us who are too apt to judge of the sincerity of our Doctrine from that of our Lives II. But this is not all your Task to set an Example of a vertuous and sober Life Ye have attained to a good degree when ye get so far yet if it be not attended with an orderly and conformable Behaviour ye will be in danger of turning your Righteousness into Sin by making it serve for a Cloak to Disorderliness and Schism which are always attended with Uncharitableness and for the most part with Confusion and every evil Work For should ye live never so strictly up to the general Rules of Morality yet if ye submit not your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake ye are Transgressors of the Word by breaking the Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace For it is a Duty of that Importance I mean the Discipline of the Church that if it should not be observed it would be impossible to preserve Religion it self For Discipline consists of Decency and Order which two concur as the Fashion of a Frame does with the Frame it self The Word by which Order is expressed in Scripture is used by the Inspired Writers sometimes in a confin'd Sense and sometimes in a large one When they use it in a confin'd Sense they take it either for an appointed Time or for degrees of Men or for a set Course of performing any Office or for the Constitution of the Office it self When they take it in a large Sense they mean the Rule by which the Church directs and governs her Members and preserves Order within the Sanctuary the discreet and modest Observation of which gives a Lustre to that Decency in which Order is constituted And of the Word taken in this Sense ye have several Instances in Scripture which at the same time set forth the Value of the thing it self Let all things be done decently and in order Ioying and beholding your order We exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly Now we
alone that preserves the mutual Confidence between Churches far and wide For the Pursuit of which we have Two infallible Directions 1. Hold fast the form of sound words 2. Rightly dividing the word of truth I. From the first I suppose we are directed to keep to the Common Style of the Church without First Addition Secondly Subtraction or Thirdly Variation First The Papists are most notoriously Guilty of the first notwithstanding that they generally hold all the Fundamentals by superinducing so many false Articles of Faith Idolatrous Worship grievously Superstitious Practices and setting up their own Laws under greater Penalties if not above the very Law of God thus shamefully Defiling his Worship and with the Rubbish of their own Inventions and the Doctrines of Men Perverting and Smothering the Truth of the Gospel Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar Secondly They are likewise Guilty of a Sacrilegious Subtraction by withdrawing the Cup of Blessing entirely from the Laity and holding back the Word of Life the Holy Scripture from the People and deceitfully amusing them with Legends in its stead But they whose great Business it has been to Narrow the Word of God to Enervate the Power of Godliness and to Destroy the Efficacy of Saving Faith are the Pelagians the Socinians and their Harbingers These do it with a witness whilst they attack the Essential Foundations of our Hope by denying the Meritorious Purchase of Christs Death in our Redemption the Imputation of his Righteousness Seal'd to us by his Blood and Confirm'd to us by his Resurrection for our Justification shutting the Gates against the King of Glory and his Divine Majesty disowning the inward Assistance and Comfort of the Holy Ghost and the Blessed Effects of the Gospel Sacraments To such as these had the Author to the Hebrews an eye when he says He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who has trodden under foot the son of God and has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the spirit of grace Now both to the Superstitious and Prophane to him that would add and to him that would take away hath God given this Charge What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it And this is St. Iohn's Witness in God's Name I testifie unto every man that heareth the prophesie of this book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this bock And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesie God shall take away his part out of the book of life c. Thirdly The Variation though in it self not so Malicious is yet of dangerous Consequence It may I confess proceed from a Luxuriant Fancy and a Heedless Affectation But there is a Fault even in this For it is an unmannerly Trespass upon our Governours and Superiours to pretend to correct their Style and in a Private Capacity to be wiser than the multitude of Counsellours Besides the Confusion and Uncertainty it creates in the Apprehension of the Sense of Doctrines thus delivered For every Art and Science has its peculiar Terms and Expressions confin'd to one peculiar Sense and Meaning so fixed by long Use and Experience and if that be once passed by and a Liberty taken by the several Professours to use the Various Words and Loose Expressions of Common Conversation and Entertainment or which may otherwise be the Original Propriety of the Language all Points and Cases will become Unintelligible through Ambiguities and Difference of Acceptation Should we put Coetus for Ecclesia in the different Senses apply'd in our Ecclesiastical Style what a Confusion would it make the former being never otherwise understood than for a Company of Men met together whereas the latter is extended to the utmost Meaning it can bear For sometimes it is taken for the Material Church sometimes for a Congregation and that either of one Parish or Collectively of many as the Church of England or farther for the whole Body of Christians throughout the World or yet more extensively for the Church Triumphant as well as Militant Should we Change the English Word Church into any other Expression what Work would it make For though it properly signifie the Material Edifice or Building as being Deriv'd from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet by a most extended Metonymie is it used in as large a Sense as Ecclesia in the Latin Were Comitia apply'd instead of Concilium how uncoothly and strangely would it for want of Use suit with the Epithets of Provincial National Patriarchal Ecumenical and the like Castalio has Translated the Bible into a Ciceronian Style but he is blamed for it by all who have weighed the Inconvenience of such a Novelty And yet there would not be so much Hurt in this if the Mischief reached no farther than an Affected Singularity But they who stop here serve only for Blinds to give a more easie Introduction to Heresie For under New and Unusual Terms the Hereticks Equivocate their Meaning and are contented to Manage the Simple-hearted in the best Manner they can till they find a proper Season to speak out Thus did the Hereticks of old couch their Errors under Dubious Expressions and Colourable Words So did the Arians Pelagius Nestorius and Eutyches as may be seen in the Records of the Church II. I come now to the other Direction Rightly dividing the word of truth And I take this Translation of ours to come the fullest up to the Sense of the Original of any in what Language soever The Import of which Words I take to be 1. An Advice of Discretion to Administer the Word according to the Capacity and Strength of the Hearer 2. An Advice of Justice to make known the whole Mind of God concealing no Part but giving to every Portion its due Weight I. In the first Sense the Expression seems to have relation to the Distribution of a Sacrifice cut of divided into due Proportions For we know the Body of the Church is likened to the Body Natural which consists of several Members under different Dispositions according to their respective Uses Therefore as in the Natural so in the Politick Body there must be regard had to the different Office and Constitution of each Member Some are more of less Honouraable some more or less Necessary some more or less Powerful each is to be Treated in that way which is most suitable to its Disposition and if any Member be Sick or Weak proper Remedies must be apply'd And I am sure however it be Practised it is one of the most necessary Duties incumbent upon our Calling The Truth of it is where there is a