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-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-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
of those unhappy widows and orphans who have nothing left them by their deceased husbands and fathers but their merits to administer But oh the disappointment Our Apost'l after his so great boast of the Galatians love quickly complains Where is the blessedness you spoak of And well may we demand Where is this great beauty that so descends to the very feet Hath age withered it to a deformity equal to its youthful loveliness Our very eyes are as loathsom as the primitive Preachers very feet were beatiful and the deformity descends to our posterity as their only sure inheritance yea som are so impios as to make God a party with themselvs in the entayl pretending that Clergy-mens children are equally hated of God and Man seldom or never attaining either worth in themselvs or prosperity in the world God be blessed we are henceforth secured from that malicios slander This conspicuos and perhaps matchless assembly having for ever rooted that fals toung out of its dwelling Yet thogh the Toung be rooted out the Heart is still the same so void of Love so full of ' spite against this once so honored caling that we must think it a great bargain if we can compound for ordinary charity and depose my Text to this poor plea The Preachers of the Gospel bring no evil tidings therefor they deserv not to be hated And since it is better to Cure an evil than to Complain of it I conceve I cannot do better service to my Text the Gospel and its Preachers than by removing the cause of the hatred we sink under which indeed is no other than that Epidemical mistake the root of all misery the taking things by wrong handl The Gospel hath two handls Threats and Promises its threats are Few and its promises Many its Threats shew us our danger only that we may rejoyce in our escape its Promises immediately raise our joys Threats therefor both in quantity and design sit upon the face of the Gospel as beauty-spots do upon that of a fair Lady here one and there another to this only end that by their vanquished blackness they may set off the lustre of the beauty which is to adorn the very feet but by the unhappy officiosness of melancholy messengers those spots have been enlarged to a visor which so cover the face of Religion that we cannot see its Joys for its Fears and the very grace of God which bringeth salvation appeareth like the inhumane Nero saying Let them Hate me so they Fear me This ugly visor shall I endeavor to pull off as my Text directs me by two Propositions 1. The Gospel doth not design to bring us to God by Fear but by Love For it is a Gospel of Peace glad tidings of good things 2. The mistake of this is the cause that the Gospel and its Preachers are so hated by the world For if Glad tidings make the messenger beautiful Evil tidings must make him loathsom I. THE Gospel doth not draw men to God by Fear but by Love This as it is clearly exprest in my Text so is it almost in every page of the New Testament I shall instance but in one or two places more which expresly offer one handle and reject the other In this same Epistle ch 8 v. 15. our Apost'l declareth as clearly as possib'l You have not receved the spirit of bondage again fear but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And no less clearly 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love and of a Sound mind In the former place he opposeth the spirit of the Gospel to That of the Law and in the later he vieth with the Philosophers who pretend to exalt the mind to the highest freedom and perfection If this can be yet more clear St John hath made it so for with pomp unmatched by any other pen he ushereth his first Epistl with This proclamation These things we write unto you that your joy may be full and throghout the whole body of the following Epistl exalteth Love as the only way to this fulness of Joy ch 4. v. 18. There is no fear in Love but Love when it is perfected casteth out fear bicaus Fear hath Torment It is impossib'l to find Plainer and therefor needless to seek for More declarations of this truth Nothing can remain but that we reconcile them with such other words of Scripture as seem to contradict them Two such especially there are One spoken by our Lord and another by our same Apostl to which may be reduced all others of the same air These two therefore if we can reconcile we shall both State and Clear the truth 1. Our Apostl himself seemeth to contradict this Phil. 2 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Doth not this offer salvation by that handl which but now he rejected That we may now or at any other time reconcile appearances of contradiction we must carefully consider which of the two Propositions may best be broght to compliance It is plain that what we have heard declared a-against Fear cannot be bent to any other sence we must therefor try whether the fear and trembling which he recommendeth to the Philippians may agree both with his declaration in two other Epistl's that we have not receved the spirit of fear or with his exhortation in the same Epistl ch v. Rejoyce in the Lord evermore and again I say rejoice To find out this it is necessary we look about us and see how he useth the same phrase upon other occasions possibly it may be an Idiom Twice more we find him at the same phrase and in both places his meaning will very well comply with Love and Joy Eph 6.5 Servants obey your Masters with Fear and Trembling What doth not a Servant please both God and his Master better if he Obey him with Love and Chearfulness And what shall we say to the 9 th verse And you Masters do the same things to Them Must Masters also treat their Servants with Fear and Trembling Yes but such as may circulate between the best Masters and the best Servants even such as himself explaineth by good will v. 7. This possibly will be plainer by 2 Cor. 7.15 His inward affection is more abundant towards you while he remembreth the obedience of you all how with Fear and Trembling you receved him Titus came in kindness to visit them and they welcomed him with such endearing caresses as made his already great inward affection more abundant than before Here certainly the Fear and Trembling which so welcomed and heightned Love must be so far from excluding it and Joy that they import an extraordinary mesure of them Yea we need look no farther for a good light whereby to see the meaning of this phrase in That his exhortation to the Philippians than the encoragement wherewith he quickneth them in the words immediately following For it is God which worketh in you
both to Will and to Do of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good will It is the very same word wherewith the Angels broght their glad tidings of great joy and it were strange if out of the same breath should come Gladness and Fear Joy and Trembling That we may not seem bent wholely to pull down the obvios sence without bringing a better in place this we offer as the Apostl's meaning It was only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the loving kindness of God which wrought in you the desire of salvation and the same loving kindness will crown That desire with success if it be attended with endeavor do you therefor your part with such affection as shall make you even Tremble again And that we may give account of the Idiom as well as of the Argument we must observe that Any passion whatever if vehement will cause Trembling But bicaus this is most visib'l in Fear therefor Fear is added to express the certainuy of Trembling as Trembling is used to express the vehemence of the Passion 2. HAVING Thus interpreted one saying of our Apost'ls by another we com now to do our Savior the same service who also seemeth to contradict our position Lu. 12.4 I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forwarn you whom you shall fear Fear Him which after he hath killed you hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you Fear Him It is plain that Fear in this place can signifie no other than the Properest and no less than the Greatest and is enforced by our Lord in the most pressing manner inculcated by sundry repetitions and urged with a most dreadful reason This cannot be denied but must be interpreted by our Lord 's own parab'l Lu. 14.16 A certain man made a great supper and bad many and he sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden Com for all things are now ready and they all with one consent began to make excuse and the Lord said unto his servants go out into the high ways and hedges and compell them to com in that my house may be furnished with guests This parab'l will fully reconcile our Lord's threats with the spirit of Love for it declareth that the Lord 's proper design was not to Troubl his neighbors but to Fest them His first work was to provide a great supper and then many guests to enjoy it to which end he secondeth his large provisions with kind invitations But when few or none can this way be prevailed with to leav the farms and cattel which they have boght or the Lusts which they have espoused either all the provisions must be lost or som other means used more suitab'l to the necessity than to the nature of a fest We must therefore distinguish the Principal End from the Subordinate Means who 's whole buisiness is to serv That End And since the End is chosen for its own sake and the Means only for the Ends sake we must advance the spirit of Love as much as is Possib'l but That of Fear only so much as is Necessary Comply with it so far as to follow it from the Hedg to the Hous and then dismiss it to exercise its kind rudeness upon others who need it And thus I hope I have fully accounted for my first position The Gospel doth not design to draw us by Fear but Love and it is for Love's sake if Fear be at all employed Com we now to our Secund. II. THE mistake of this is the cause that the Gospel and its preachers are so hated by the world What can we expect but contrary causes must produce contrary effects If therefor our preaching be different from that of the Apostl's our reception must be so to if glad tidings make the messengers feet beautiful evil tidings must needs make them loathsom Ahab's inference is Natural thogh scarce Reasonab'l I hate him bicaus he prophesieth not good of me but evil And whatsoever Jehoshaphat can say to the contrary such a Prophet shall be sentenced to the bread and water of affliction And hereof the proof is but too evident in all our enemies which may be reduced to two regiments 1. Those that hate All religion in general 2. Those that hate Ours of the Church of England in particular 1. Of those who hate All Religion in general som are Atheists and som are Semi-atheists I. THE ATHEISTS are made such by the spirit of Fear Upon This only ground did Epicurus build his impudent pretence to that gracios title which the Scripture teacheth us to pay our Lord THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD For he bosted that he delivered his disciples from the torment of Fear But we now heard St. John declare that this is do'n by the spirit of Love Love casteth out Fear and for this reason too bicaus Fear hath torment The question therefor between Atheism and Religion is not whether Fear shall be cast out or no but whether of the two doth it most effectually Christ or Epicurus Should we insist upon the Weakness or Dangerosness of Atheism we might easily prove it both insufficient to give any settled peace to the never-that-way secure conscience and terribly dangeros if at last it prove fals But my present work rather promts me to insist upon this that it maketh not the least pretence to the Beauty admired in my Text but wholely renegs all glad tidings of good things It 's utmost aim is to cast out Fear without a thoght of making our joy full And this indeed is the proper ground whereon to fight out the quarrel Whilst we dispute whether there be a God and Providence or no we maintain but a hedge fight wherein the enemy may make a bad shift to skulk behind his bushes and ditches But if we dispute concerning our own Happiness even our Present happiness whether it be greater in a Religios life or in a Sensual then we charge him home in his own ground and leav him no shelter Colotes it seems was the first Epicurean that ever appeared in this field For he wrote a Treatise professing to prove that upon the principls of the Religios it is impossib'l to live pleasantly Against this Plutarch opposeth another Treatise proving that upon the principls of Epicurus a man cannot so much as live and thus bosteth of his work This is to trampl upon their bellies and put them to fight for their very flesh to take plesure from men that do nothing but cry we are no good soldiers nor scholars nor magistrates but we love to make good chear to banquet and fill our flesh with all delights until the plesure mount to the very soul to rob such men of plesure is to rob them of life Thus doth he crow and upon this ground comparing the plesures of the Spirit in Religios Fests with those of the Flesh in Sensual
apparently trampl the Epicurean to dirt yet with force how short of the Gospel who 's Joys are fed with Hopes more glorios and Evidences more incontestab'l than could enter into Plutarch's imagination Here then let us take our post Let us not so much contend for the Truth of the Gospel as its Joys Yea let us argue from its Joys for its Truth since infinite goodness will not fail to make That truest which is Best Let us compare the Fruits of the Spirit with That of the Vine the Beauty of Holiness with That of a Whore the Plesures of an Angel with those of a Beast and he cannot scape the evidence that his choice is as foolish as impios True saith Plutarch we must be careful to shun superstitios fear as the most pernicios error in the world and herein he proceedeth so far as to say that it is less impios to deny God to have Any being than to character him such as superstition apprehendeth him Let the comparison pass for odios our Apost'l putteth us above any need of it When he saith Love casteth out Fear he condemneth it sufficiently thogh he say not whether it be more or less guilty than its daughter Atheism Objection What then must we not fear God as our Savior admonisheth Answ Yes as our Savior admonisheth but no otherwise For we must distinguish Fear that hath Torment from fear that hath only Caution Love casteth not out That fear that keepeth waking but that which tormenteth it Therefor casteth it out BICAUSE it hath torment That is the Reason and That is the Mesure Just the same Fear and in the same Mesure as That Reason requireth but no more The Best and Greatest Subject so feareth the Law of his Prince as to beware he run not upon its Punishments yet is he not thereby hindred from living chearfully upon those honors and riches which by the same Law he enjoyeth A good man may be very careful to avoid the Threats yet chearful in festing upon the Promises of the Gospel Yea our Apost'l himself so far cherisheth this kind of Fear as to say I keep my body in subjection lest possibly when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast away II. THE SEMIATHEISTS who mount not the scorners chair so as to oppose All Religion yet keep distance from a Religios life and they are kept at that distance by Fear And under this character com not only the Worst but the Most Not only those for whom the Apost'l declareth the Law to have been made the lawless and disobedient the ungodly and profane c. but the unscandalously wicked yea such moral men of whom we may say as our Lord did of the young man they are not far from the Kingdom of God Such as would pass thro the world with as litl guilt as possib'l but with as litl troubl too and therefor put repentance as an evil day far from them not in love to their Lusts but their Ease They hear an evil report of Repentance which must be their entrance upon a Religios life Those who press it and its conditions speak in a stile opposit to St. John these things we write to you that your grief may be full Those who adventure upon it complain that such a grief is no more in their Power than it is for their Pleasure And those who have long served under it are as far from freedom as at first but live as much tormented with fear that their repentance is insufficient as at first they were with repentance it self For those who are broght to Repentance by Fear are still to cherish That fear as their best security from relaps They must ever and anon but specially when they are to receve the holy communion be anxiosly examining themselvs whether their repentance be sound and themselvs in the state of grace or no and they are directed by Teachers as melancholy as themselvs and marks which rather multiply than remove their fears They are told of a twofold hypocrisy open and secret and the bounds between the Least that saving grace requireth and the Most that a hypocrite may perform are so undiscernab'l that they cannot be sure whether they be in the one state or the other But still the more they Examin the less they Satisfie themselvs they bate and flutter without End or any other fruit but this that they entang'l themselvs more and perhaps at last sink into deep melancholy incurab'l either by Spiritual or Corporal Physician and by so sad a spectacl the by-standers take warning to shun the place of Torment and hate their Ministers as Tormentors So the Christian World is almost all divided between such as are frighted from a Religios life and such as live fearfully under it It is worth more time than I can allow fully to convince either party of their error but it is of so great import that I must however briefly avow that it proceedeth in Both from taking repentance by the wrong handl I. THOSE who are frighted from Religion by the hardship of Repentance It would not be so terribl if we receved it by the spirit of Love bicause it would be neither so Difficult to be obteined nor so Troublesom in the performance 1. Not so difficult to be obteined Observ the Love of God as proclamed in the Gospel and answer that Love of God so as to be able to say with the Apost'l We love God bicause he loved us first and forbear grieving for your sins if you can I say again Love God and forbear to griev for having offended him if you can But be sure you cannot for it is utterly impossib'l to forbear grieving when we have offended whom we love 2. Yet fear not you that love your Ease this grief will not disturb it For as I said of Fear so say I of Grief there is a grief that hath Torment and there is a grief that hath only Tenderness a grief that hath Bitterness and a grief that hath only Sharpness and That such a sharpness as shall not mar your fest but improve it with its poignance This is that grata aciditas which recommendeth bankets it is so sweetned by the sence of God's pardoning goodness that it is none of the meanest part of the joys of the Spirit I pray you take notice and remember it I deny not but grief is necessary I confess it is impossib'l a penitent soul can be without it But this grief as it is Necessary so it is Natural as a gracios foul cannot be without it so can he not Wish to be so it costs him no pain either to obtein or exercise it But the grief that proceedeth from the spirit of Fear is every way contrary I. It is hard to be obteined To fear God's punishment and for That reason to griev for sin and thence to love God for pardoning upon such repentance This is to go quite against the hair both in grace and nature In Grace