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A56702
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A sermon preach'd before the Queen at Whitehall, March 1, 1688/9 by Symon Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing P848; ESTC R22949
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15,746
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40
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relates to the preaching of the Gospel by vvhich vve vvere called unto Belief of the Truth 2 Thess ii 13 14. and by that Truth not only taught but required to be at Peace among our selves 1 Thess v. 13. and to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Ephes iv 3. Nay if it be possible as much as lieth in us to live peaceably with all Men Rom. xii 18. or if they refuse it yet to follow Peace with all Men Heb. xii 14. to seek Peace and ensue it 1 Pet. iii. 11. Finally brethren as St. Paul writes 2 Cor. xiii 11. be perfect i. e. compleat Christians be of good comfort or receive this Word of Exhortation be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you that is as we desire and hope for the Favour and Love of God and for all the blessed Effects and Fruits thereof we are bound to live in peace For he is the God of peace and love and his Son is the Prince of peace who left Peace with his Church as his last Legacy when he left the World Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you John XIV 27. And his Gospel is the Gospel of peace the word of reconciliation which instructs us in that Heavenly Wisdom Jam. III. 17. which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated or easily persuaded unto those things which make for peace tho' therein we deny our own Will and particular Interest This is the Genius of that Religion unto which we are called by the preaching of Christ's Gospel 2. And it was the greatest favour and grace that Heaven could bestow upon us to communicate unto us the knowledge of his Will and to make us of this heavenly Spirit for so the word Calling is sometimes used in Scripture for the free Grace and Bounty of God in opposition to any work of ours whereby we could deserve it as in Rom. IX 11. That the purpose of God might stand not of works but of him that called that is mercifully dispensed the benefit according to his own Free-will and good Pleasure We do not understand our own happiness nor the great Grace of God to us if we do not think our selves highly obliged to him in commanding and disposing us by the Gospel of his Grace to be peaceably minded that is to be as I said of an Heavenly Spirit For what other Notion can we frame of the Happiness of those above but that they live in perfect love of God and of one another without any discord or contention which would disturb their Blessed Repose For having all the very same End and Design the very same Affections and Desires which are to do Honour to God and to promote one anothers good there can be no rupture nor so much as quarreling or dissention among them which arise from mens private desires and aims and the cross Interests which they pursue in this present world And therefore the more perfectly we divest our Minds of all selfishness and bend our thoughts to study the common good the nearer we shall approach to their Blessed State and the fitter we shall be for the Company of happy Souls and Spirits by such a sweet Concord and Agreement here as reigns in the Peaceable Society of Heavenly Minds in the other World. And on the contrary while we live in Wrath and Bitterness in Pride and Disdain one of another and thereby are engaged in perpetual Contests and quarrelsome Differences pursuing one another with a deadly hatred we are of the same Nature and Disposition with the Infernal Ghosts the Devil and his Angels And if we go out of the World in this wretched Temper of Mind which cannot be changed in a moment we fall unavoidably into their troublesome Company who could not be quiet even in Heaven it self but there raised such a Faction and Disturbance that they were thrust down from that Blessed Place and condemned to keep one another company in endless Misery and Despair And one great part of their Misery we all apprehend is That they are ever restless and unquiet unalterably bent to trouble and torment themselves by contriving how to make disturbance among others Which shows what a kindness our Blessed Saviour hath done us in calling us unto Peace and thereby redeeming us from the Society of those rancorous Spirits unto whom we are so strongly linkt while we are of a turbulent and untractable Spirit that we must necessarily fall into their Company when we depart from hence if we be not cured of this Disease and have our Natures altered into the peaceable Mind that was in Christ Jesus 3. By which we understand Thirdly the Honour also our Lord hath done us in calling us to be peaceable for this the word Calling implies in Rom. XI 29. The gifts and calling of God are without Repentance Where Calling is the great Preferment God designed for Abraham's Family and to which accordingly he advanced them wherein he intended immutably to have continued them if they had believed on him as Abraham did And indeed we are called to a very high Dignity by being called unto Peace for it intitles us to the Honour of being the Children of the Most High. So our Saviour instructs us in his Sermon upon the Mount Matt. V. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Peace-makers are peaceable minded men For as to make a lie in Scripture Language is to be given to Lying and to make a practice of it So to make peace is to have a strong constant inclination to it and to bend that way upon all occasions Which is a Divine disposition and makes us like to God So like him that we may thereby be known to be his off-spring who are endued with his most excellent Nature and act by his Spirit and therefore shall be partakers of his blessedness This is the sum of the first part of the Reason We do not answer the gracious design of the Gospel and the great kindness and honour Christ hath done us if we do not let the peace of God Rule in our hearts unto which we are called in one body II. That 's the second part of it We are therefore called unto peace because we are called to be one body of which Christ is the Head. When we were made Christians we were not brought into that state to live separately and distinctly every one of us by our selves as our particular Fancies and Affections shall incline us But to be knit together in one Christian Society every Part of which is to seek his own good interest and safety by preserving the Whole in peace and quietness without any rupture in the Body of Christ For by that the Body is destroyed as by union of the Members it is maintained and preserved There is nothing plainer than that no Society can subsist unless they who belong to
it as Members of it live peaceably together as the Members of the Natural Body do which are made to love and have a care one of another and keep all together without any division for that certainly tends to its dissolution But above all others the Christian Body or Society is disposed and bound hereunto by its very Constitution and by various Obligations As for its Constitution It is founded upon the Law of love and kindness and mutual care of each other By which our Saviour hath told us all his Disciples are to be known as by their very Badge and proper Character And as for their Obligation St. Paul reckons up a great number of things wherein we are united and thereby tied to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes IV. 5 6. There is one Body That 's the first and general obligation And what can be more unnatural than for the Members of the same Body to quarrel and fall out and tear one another in pieces And one spirit that 's the second the Spirit of Love and Truth which suggests the same peaceable inclinations to every one that it doth to any one and what more unchristian than to throw off the Government of this one Heavenly Guide and to live as if we were severally acted by so many Infernal Furies Even as we are called in one hope of our calling that 's the third we must all be Friends in Heaven if we ever meet there Why do we bite then and devour one another in the way thither One Lord that 's the next who redeemed us all at the same rate of his own most precious Blood And is it agreeable to this relation for the Servants of the same Master to make disturbance nay confusion in his Family Is this think you for his Service Or can it turn to our good account when he reckons with us One Faith delivered to us by his Apostles How come we to fall out about that which teaches us to agree For faith worketh by love as the Apostle speaks Gal. V. 6. One Baptism whereby we are received into Christ's Family upon the same terms and conditions We are marked with the same Cognizance as an excellent Writer of our own glosses upon it * Bp. Bramhall's Answer to S. W. p. 5â— Edit 1. we use the same word we march under the same banner How come we to mistake one another for Enemies Lastly There is one God and Father of all who is above all by his most excellent Nature and through all by his Providence and Care of the whole World especially of every Member of the Church and in all by the operations of his Grace in our hearts For Christians then to contend and quarrel and fight What is it but to divide this one God to commit him against himself to disown his Government to cross his Motions to refuse to follow the conduct of his Graces which works in us and by abandoning our selves unto our own passions to throw our selves out of his Fatherly care of us and Favour towards us and to expose our selves to all the sin and all the mischief unto which the malice of the Evil Spirit can hurry us Behold here not one or two alone but seven Bands of Unity and Peace among Christians whereby they are tied to such mutual care of each others welfare that they cannot vex much less destroy one another unless they forget all these Obligations and break these Bands in sunder Nay there is not a Leaf in the whole Book of God wherein we read these things but it teaches us this blessed accord The very Body of the holy Scriptures we might easily see if we did observe from the one end of them to the other is a most lively Image and Type of this unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace which the Apostle commends unto us in this place For though the Writers of them lived in divers Ages in distant places and were of different tempers yet they all most admirably agree together having the very same relish in their writings carrying on the same design and aiming at the self same end without the least ground for suspicion that they had any private respect to themselves Let us but remember then that we have so many ties upon us and endeavour to have a feeling of them and then as the consideration that we are Members of the same civil Society moves us to be at peace one with another in the State which cannot otherways subsist but must be dissolved So the serious consideration that we are Members of the same Sacred Body of Christ linkt together by so many strong ligaments will much more move us to study the Peace of his Church which cannot be preserved but by a firm Union of those parts of which it consists and is made up To end this let it be considered that the peace of God here mentioned is a branch of Charity as appears by the foregoing words v. 14. And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness And let the peace of God rule in your hearts c. Which tell us that peace is the natural effect and product of a lively and sincere Love in the Heart Especially of such a love as is between the Members of the same Body 1. For we naturally fear to do any harm to those we love And it is from the injuries we do one another of several sorts that abundance of quarrels and contentions arise among us 2. But suppose any hurt be done the affection we have to those whom we dearly love disposes to look upon all the faults we commit against them as great and all that they commit against us as small Which stops up the very source of quarrels which for the most part spring from those false Ideas which make all things that concern our selves look very bigg and those that concern other men seem very little 3. Nay we are so far from being disposed to hurt those we love that we cannot but perceive an inclination we have to serve and succour them the best we are able Which it is not possible for us to do unless we be at peace with them For Peace is the very gate by which we enter into their Hearts which is barred against us when men have an aversion for us and are upon terms of Enmity or opposition to us Therefore if we be bound to help we are bound to be at peace one with another And all that have any sense of Humanity cannot but confess that we are made by God to be helpful one to another which Christianity cannot but make us more sensibly acknowledge Because of the ardent love which above all things it commends to us and is no where so strong as between Members of the same Body especially of such a Body as theirs which hath Christ for its Head and the Spirit of God for its Soul and Life Which inclines them