us We may indeed be confident and we ought that he will save all those that so believe as to obey him but may not trust that he will save us except we are some of those To rely upon Christ for our Salvation must follow our sincere and obedient striving and not go before it The mistake of this is exceeding dangerous and I doubt hath been fatal to many The sum is to rely on Christ without a resolute and steady endeavour to overcome every sin and temptation will gain us nothing in the end but shame and disappointment For 't is not every one that saith unto him Lord Lord shall enter into Heaven but he that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7. 21. The foolish Virgins relyed upon him and expected he should open to them Lord Lord open to us Mat. 25. 11. but he kept them out and would not know them v. 11. Thus of the First imperfect Mark of Godliness A man may upon the account of meer Nature arrive to all the mentioned degrees of Faith and yet if his endeavours in the practice of Christian vertues be not suitable he will certainly come short at last II. A man may be very devout given much to Prayer and be very frequent and earnest in it He may have the gift of expressing himself fluently without the help of Form or Meditation yea and so intent and taken up in these exercises that he may as it were be ravish't out of himself by the fervours of his Spirit so that he really kindles very high Affections as well in others as in himself And yet if he rests in this and such like things as Religion and reckons that he is accepted of God for it if he allow himself in any unmortified lusts and thinks to compound for them by his Prayers he is an evil man notwithstanding and one of those seekers that shall not be able to enter The Pharisees we know were much given to Prayer They were long in those Devotions and very earnest in them often repeating the same expressions out of vehemence Ignatius Loyola founder of the Jesuites was a man almost ecstatical in his Prayers and Hacket the Blasphemer executed in the days of Queen Elizabeth was a person of Seraphical Devotion and would pray those that heard him even into transports Basilides the cruel Duke of Mosco is said to have his hands almost continually lifted up in Prayer except when they were imployed in some barbarous and bloody Execution And we have known and felt one not much unlike him There are infinite instances in our days of this dangerous sort of evil men And we may learn hence that the greatest gift of Prayer and earnestness and frequency in it is no good mark of Godliness except it be attended with sincere constant and vertuous endeavours For some men have a natural spice of Devotion in a Religious Melancholy which is their temper and such have commonly strong Imaginations and zealous affections which when they are heated flame forth into great heights and expressions of Devotion The warm Fancy furnisheth words and matter readily and unexpectedly which many times begets in the man a conceit that he is inspired and that his Prayers are the breathings of the Holy Ghost or at least that he is extraordinarily assisted by it which belief kindles his affections yet more and he is carried beyond himself even into the third Heavens and Suburbs of Glory as he fancies and so he makes no doubt but that he is a Saint of the first rank and special favourite of Heaven when all this while he may be really a bad man full of Envy and Malice Pride and Covetousness Scorn and ill Nature contempt of his Betters and disobedience to his Governours And while it is so notwithstanding those glorious things he is no further than the Pharisee Hearty and humble desire though imperfectly exprest and without this pomp and those wonders is far more acceptable to God who delights not in the exercises of meer Nature Psal 147. 10. but is well pleased with the expressions of Grace in those that fear him So that a sincere and lowly-minded Christian that talks of no immediate incomes or communications and perhaps durst not out of reverence trust to his own present conceptions in a work so solemn but useth the help of some pious form of words sutable to his desire and wants who is duly sensible of his sins and the necessity of overcoming them and is truly and earnestly desirous of the Divine aids in order to it such a one as this prays by the Spirit and will be assisted by it while the other doth all by meer Nature and Imitation and shall not have those spiritual aids which he never heartily desires nor intends to use This I think I may truly and safely say But for the Controversie between Forms and Conceived Prayers which of them is absolutely best I determine nothing of it here And indeed I suppose that in their own nature they are alike indifferent and are more or less accepted as they partake more or less of the Spirit of Prayer viz. of Faith Humility and holy desire of the good things we pray for and a man may have these that prays by a Form and he may want them that takes the other way and thinks himself in a dispensation much above it So that my business is not to set up one of these ways of Devotion against the other but to shew that the heights and vehemencies of many warm people in their unpremeditated Prayers have nothing in them supernatural or Divine and consequently of themselves they are no marks of Godliness which I hope no one thinks I speak to discredit those pious ardours that are felt by really devout Souls when a vigorous sense of God and Divine things doth even sometimes transport them Far be it from me to design any thing so impious my aim is only to note that there are complexional heats raised many times by fancy and self-admiration that look like these in persons who really have little of God in them and we should take care that we are not deceived by them Thus far also those may go that shall not enter I add III. A man may endeavour somewhat and strive in some degree and yet his work may miscarry and himself with it 1. There is no doubt but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness and that even to anguish and torment The Gentiles saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 14. which have not the Law shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another Conscience often stings and disquiets the vilest sinners and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confession of their sins and earnest declamations against them They may weep bitterly at their remembrance and be under great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion They may speak vehemently against sin themselves and
he have them deceive themselves by fond Dependences When one made this Profession to our Saviour Lord I will follow thee whither soever thou goest Christ tells him that he must expect from him no worldly Honours or Preferments no Power or sensual Pleasure no not so much as the ordinary Accommodations of Life The Foxes have Holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head Luk. 9. 5 8. He would not have the man that likely might look for these upon the opinion of his being the Messias in the Jewish sense one that should at last whatever the meanness of his Condition was at present appear as a Mighty and Triumphant temporal Monarch I say our Saviour would not have the Man follow him for that which he had not to bestow upon him Since then that he who would not put us upon fruitless labours hath commanded us to strive to enter 't is evident that an entrance may be procured into the Gate by striving and that the Difficulties may be overcome The next thing in my Method is to shew How the manner is implyed in the Text and exprest in the Proposition viz. By striving and by this is meant a resolute use of those means that are the Instruments of Happiness They are three Faith Prayer and active Endeavour I. Faith is a chief Instrument for the overcoming the Difficulties of our way And Faith in the general is the belief of a Testimony Divine Faith the belief of a Divine Testimony and the chief things to be believed as encouragements and means for a Victory over the Difficulties in Religion are these That God is reconciled to us by his Son That he will assist our weak endeavours by the Aids of his Spirit That he will reward us if we strive as we ought with immortal Happiness in a World of endless Glory By our belief of God's being reconciled we are secured from those fears that might discourage our approaches and endeavours upon the account of his Purity and Justice By the Faith of his Assistance all the objections against our striving that arise from the greatness of the Difficulties and the disproportionate smallness of our Strength are answered And from our believing eternal rewards in another World we have a mighty motive to engage our utmost diligence to contest with all difficulties that would keep us from it What satisfaction is there saith the believer in the gratification of my corrupt Inclinations and Senses in comparison with that which ariseth from the favour of God and an Interest in his Son What difficulties in my Duty too great for Divine Aids What pains are we to undergo in the narrow and difficult way that the Glory which is at the end of it will not compensate What is it to deny a base Inclination that will undo me in obedience to him that made and redeemed me and to despise the little things of present sense for the hope of everlasting enjoyments Trifling pleasure for Hallelujahs What were it for me to set vigorously upon those Passions that degrade my noble Nature and make me a slave and a beast and will make me more vile and more miserable when the Spirit of the most High is at my right hand to assist me Why should my noble Faculties that were designed for glorious ends be led into infamous practices by base Usages and dishonourable Customs What is the example of a wicked sensual wretched World to that of the Holy Jesus and all the Army of Prophets Apostles and Martyrs What is there in the World that it should be loved more than God and what is the Flesh that it should have more of our time and care than the great interests of our Souls Such are the Considerations of a mind that Faith hath awakened and by them it is prepared for vigorous striving So that Faith is the Spring of all and necessary to the other two Instruments of our Happiness Besides which it is acceptable to God in it self and so disposeth us for his gracious helps by which we are enabled to overcome the Difficulties of our way While a man considers the Difficulties only and weighs them against his own strength let him suppose the Liberty of his Will to be what he pleaseth yet while 't is under such disadvantages that will signifie very little and he that sees no further sits down in discouragement But when the mind is fortified with the firm belief of Divine help he attempts then with a noble vigour which cannot miscarry if it do not cool and faint For he that endures to the end shall be saved Mat. 24. 13. Thus Faith sets the other Instruments of Happiness on work and therefore 't is deservedly reckoned as the first and 't is that which must always accompany the exercises of Religion and give them life and motion II. Prayer is another means we must use in order to our overcoming the Difficulties of the way Our own meer natural Strength is weakness and without supernatural helps those Difficulties are not to be surmounted Those Aids are necessary and God is ready to bestow them on us For He would have all men to be saved and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. But for these things he will be sought unto And 't is very just and fit that we should address our selves to him by Prayer to acknowledge our own insufficiency and dependence on him for the mercies we expect and thereby to own Him for the giver of every good and perfect gift and to instruct our selves how his favours are to be received and used viz. with Reverence and Thanksgiving This 't is highly fit we should do and the doing it prepares us for his blessings and he fails not to bestow them on those that are prepared by Faith and Prayer For he giveth liberally and upbraids not And our Prayers are required not as if they could move his will which is always graciously inclined to our Happiness But as it 's that tribute which we owe our Maker and Benefactor and that without which 't is not so fit he should bestow his particular favours on us For it by no means becomes the Divine Majesty to vouchsafe the specialties of his Grace and Goodness to those that are not sensible they want them and are not humbled to a due apprehension of their weakness and dependence But for such as are so and express their humble desires in the Ardours of Holy Prayer God never denies them the assistances of his Spirit For if ye being evil saith our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to those that ask Him Mat. 7. 11. And These Divine Helps obtain'd by Faith and Prayer and join'd with our active constant endeavour will not fail to enable us to overcome the Difficulties and to procure us an entrance at the strait Gate
eternal Glories 'T is true indeed our own natural strength is small in proportion to the Difficulties we are to encounter but the Grace of God is sufficient for us 2 Cor. 12. 9. and we may do all things through Christ that strengthens us Phil. 4. 13. Nature is weak and imperfect but we are not left in the condition of meer nature For we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. We are under the influences of the holy Spirit which will remove the mountains and plain the way before us if we take care to engage those aids by Faith and sincere endeavour For this we may be sure of that God will never be wanting to us if we are not so unto our selves So that the case as to our natural inability and the assistance of Gods Spirit seems to be thus A man in a Boat is carried from the Harbour he designs by the violence of the Current he is not able only by plying the Oar to overcome the resistance of the Tide but a gentle Gale blows with him which will not of it self carry him up against the Torrent Neither of them will do it single But if he hoist the sail and use the Oar too this united force prevails and he gets happily to the Harbour This methinks resembles our Condition we are carried down the Torrent of evil inclinations and Affections our own unaided powers are too little for that great force but the Holy Spirit is with us It breaths upon us and is ready to assist if we are so to use it and by the superaddition and ingagement of those blessed Aids there is no evil in our natures but may be overcome So that we have no reason to be discouraged at the apprehension of our impotence out of weakness we shall be made strong Heb. 11. 24. If we imploy our Talent though it be but a very small one we shall have more Mat. 25. 29. And if we accept of those divine helps and use them what was before to meer natural consideration uneasie will be pleasant and sweetly relishing One of the greatest Difficulties in the way of Religion is to begin the first steps are roughest to those feet that have been unaccustomed to it The helps and manifold incouragements we shall meet with in the Progress will render it more agreeable and delightsome Those very toils will be grateful there is scarce any great sense of pleasure but where there is some Difficulty and Pain Even our Work it self will be Wages And 't is not only the End of Wisdom that is pleasantness but the very way Prov. 3. 17. So that though we are call'd upon to strive and to run and to fight which words import Labour yet we are not required to Quit our pleasures but to change the objects of them to leave the delights of Swine for those of Angels sensual for spiritual Satisfactions Thus all things encourage and invite us to strive God calls upon us and our own Interests call Christ Jesus came to engage us to this Work and the Holy Spirit waits to assist it If notwithstanding all this we sit still our Negligence will be inexcusable and fatal or if we arise and go a little forward and then lay us down to take our ease and rest our state in the judgement of one that knew will be worse more desperate and excuseless 2 Pet. 2. 21. I Conclude all then in the words of the Blessed Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord To him be Glory and Honour henceforth and for ever Amen SERMON II. Catholick Charity Preach'd to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen OF LONDON The Third Edition SERMON II. OF Catholick Charity 1 Pet. I. part of xxii v. See that ye Love one another HOW many and how great have been the Feuds and still are of this tottering and broken Age there is no man here so happy as to be ignorant That such Strifes among Brethren are Unnatural and Diabolical and that 't is a lovely thing to see Christians live together in Charity and Love there is no Christian but will grant but how the fatal Evil is to be cur'd and the lovely thing is to be compast here 's the Knot here 's the Difficulty To endeavour the reconciling Extreams that are so divided looks like a design to perswade a friendship between the Winds and Waves 'T is very strange that Christians should be so at odds whose Religion is Peace and Love and the reasons of whose differences are so small in proportion to the degree of their Animosities Our GOD is One and we have the same common SAVIOUR we profess one GOSPEL and believe the same Creeds we have the same SACRAMENTS and the same fundamental ORDINANCES And since we are agreed in These what is there left that is worth the heat of a Dispute what that can justifie a Division Certainly it is not mens Principles that keep them so at odds there is somewhat more in the matter there is something wanting that would heal our Breaches and compose our Divisions Love would heal us if we would be healed Now in a general Combustion 't is every Christians Duty to bring what Water he can to throw upon the Flames especially it is the office of the Ministers of Peace to endeavour to promote it 'T is a plain subject but such are most necessary and this is most seasonable seasonable at all times but principally in these wherein 't is hard to discern by the practice of Christians that the Duty of Love hath any thing to do with Christianity And yet this is a vital grace of our Religion 'T is the Law and Gospel in a word for Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Gospel is a Law of Love And 't is very strange and very sad that an Age which hath so much of light and faith in the pretence should have so little of Charity and love in the practice especially since that light which is from above is full of Benignity and Goodness and that Faith which is truly Divine worketh by love This is that which our Apostle recommends in the words and I have chosen it for my present subject In Discoursing it I shall shew you 1. The Necessity of the Duty 2. It s Extent 3. The Excellency of it and 4. propose some Means to assist us towards the attainment of this Generous and Catholick Spirit FOR the 1. The Necessity of the Duty the whole Scripture is so full and so express in enjoyning it that methinks I might be excused from a labour that would seem superfluous to one that knows the Gospel and not the practice of those that profess it But because the Christianity of most Christians is if I may so speak quite another thing from the Christianity of CHRIST it will be necessary to mind them what
HIS was that they may be perswaded to conform theirs unto it and though mens understandings are convinced already that Charity is their Duty yet there is but too much need to represent some of the vast heap of injunctions that make it so to incline their Wills I shall therefore briefly lay together a few of the chief instances of this kind that you may have the distincter sense of the reasons of your Duty and from them the most powerful motives to enforce it In order to this let us consider in short the Injunctions of Christ and the teachings of his Apostles Our Saviour urgeth it as his New Commandment John 13. 34. and inculcates it again under the obliging form of his Command John 15. 12. He makes it a distinguishing note of his Disciples John 13. 35. and enjoyns them to love their Enemies Mat. 5. 24. He mentions it as the great qualification of those on his Right hand that shall be received into his Kingdom Mat. 25. 34 35. and the want of it as the reason of the dreadful Curse pronounced upon those miserable ones on the Left at the solemn Judgement ver 41 42. St. Paul calls Love the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 8 9 10. and sets it in the first place among the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. yea reckons it five times over under other Names in the Catalogue viz. those of Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness ver 22 23. He advanceth it above all Gifts and Graces 1 Cor. 13. above the Tongues of Men and Angels ver 1. and above Prophecie and Mysteries and Knowledge and Faith ver 2. And the beloved Disciple St. John who lay in the Bosom of his Dear Lord and seems to partake most of his Spirit is transported in the commendation of this Grace He tells us that God is love 1 John 4. 7. and repeats it again ver 16. He makes it an Argument of our being born of God and Knowing Him ver 7. and the want of this an evidence of not Knowing God ver 8. He counts it the mark of Discipleship aâ—d the contrary a sign of one that abideth in Death 1 John 3. 14. He calls him a Murtherer that hates another ver 15. and a Lyar if he pretends to Love God and loveth not his Brother 1 John 4. 20. In fine he out-speaks the greatest heights of Praise when he saith God is Love and he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4. 16. I might represent further that we are commanded to Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. to be kindly affectioned one towards another ver 10. to put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love 1 Thess 5. 8. to be pitiful and courteous 1 Pet. 3. 8. to provoke one another to love and to good works Heb. 10. 24. to serve one another Gal. 5. 13. to love as Brethren 1 Pet. 3. 8. We are minded of Christ's New Commandment 1 Joh. 3. 23. and of the Message which was from the beginning That we should love one another ver 11. and are urged by the consideration of Gods loving us 1 John 4. 1. Thus the Apostles exhort and teach and they Pray that our Love may abound Phil. 1. 9. and 1 Thess 3. 12. and give solemn Thanks for it when they have found it 2 Thess 1. 3. And now considering the expresness of all these places I cannot see but that any Duty of Religion may be more easily evaded than this and those who can fansie themselves Christians and yet continue in the contrary Spirit and Practice may conceit themselves religious though they live in the constant commission of the greatest sins And if such can quiet their Consciences and shuffle from all these plain Recommendations and Injunctions they have found a way to escape all the Laws of God and may when they please become Christians without Christianity For the evidence I have suggested to prove the necessity of this Duty doth not consist in half Sentences and doubtful Phrases in fancied Analogies and far-fetcht Interpretations but in plain Commands and frequent Inculcations in earnest Intreaties and pressing Importunities in repeated Advices and passionate Commendations And those whom all these will not move are Incapable of being perswaded against their humour or their interest to any Duty of Religion So that though I see never so much eagerness for an Opinion or Heat for an indifferent Circumstance without the conscience of Christian Love I shall never call that forwardness for those little things Zeal or Religion Yea though those warm men should sacrifice their Lives to their beloved Trifles I should not think them Martyrs but fear rather that they went from one Fire to another and a Worse And in this I have the great Apostle to warrant me who saith Though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. Thus of the First Head the Necessity of the duty I Come to the II. the Extent Our Love ought 1. To be extended to all Mankind The more general it is the more Christian and the more like unto the Love of God who causeth his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Good and upon the Evil. And though our Arms be very short and the ordinary influence of our kindness and good will can reach but to a very few yet we may pray for all men and desire the good of all the world and in these we may be charitable without bounds But these are not all Love obligeth us to relieve the Needy and help the Distressed to visit the Sick and succour the Fatherless and Widows to strengthen the Weak and to confirm the Staggering and Doubting to encourage the Vertuous and to reprove the Faulty and in short to be ready in all the offices of Kindness that may promote the good of any man Spiritual or Temporal according to the utmost of our power and capacity The good man is Merciful to his Beast and the Christian ought to be Charitable to his Brother and his Neighbour and every man is our Brother and every one that Needs us is our Neighbour And so our Love ought to extend to all men universally without limitation though with this distinction II. That the more especial Objects of our Love ought to be those that agree with us in a common Faith Gal. 6. 10. that is All Christians as Christians and because such Whatever makes our Brother a Member of the Church Catholick that gives him a title to our nearer affections which ought to be as large as that Our Love must not be confin'd by names and petty agreements and the interests of Parties to the corners of a Sect but ought to reach as far as Christianity it self in the largest notion of it To love those that are of our Way Humour and Opinion is not Charity but Self-love 't is not for Christ's sake but our own To Love like Christians is to Love his Image
from whom we are so called And that consists not in demure Looks and affected Phrases in melting Tones and mimick Gestures in Heats and Vehemence in Rapture and Ecstasie in systems of Opinion and scrupulosity about Nothing But in Faith and Patience Innocence and Integrity in Love to God and Charity to all the World in a modest sweetness and humble Deportment in a peaceable Spirit and readiness to obey God and Those He hath set over Us Where-ever These are there is the Image of our Lord and There ought to be our Love though the persons thus affected are Ignorant of many things and err in many though they differ from us in some Opinions we count Orthodox and walk not in the particular ways or Circumstances which We esteem Best And thus briefly of the Extent of the Duty we ought to Love ALL MEN but especially ALL Christians I descend to the Third general viz. III. The Excellency of Christian Love which I represent in the following particulars I. IT is the Image of God and of all the graces renders us most like our Maker For God is love and the Lover of men and his tender Mercies are over all his Works And the most sutable apprehension we can form of his Being is to look on him as an Omnipotent Omniscient Immutable Goodness And is it not a glorious Excellency that makes Men like the fountain of all perfection Our unhappy first Parents lost Paradise by aspiring to be like God in Knowledge and if we endeavour to be like him in Love we shall be in the way of gaining a better Paradise than they lost II. LOVE is the Spirit of Angels Glorified Souls and the best of Men. There is nothing by which the Angelical nature is so much distinguish'd from the Diabolical as Love and Goodness for the Devils have Spiritual and Immortal natures and great degrees of Power and Knowledge and those perhaps not much inferiour to what is to be found in some of the better Spirits so that the great difference is not in the excess of natural perfections which the Angels of Light have above those of Darkness but in this that the former abound in Love Sweetness and Benignity and the latter in Malice Cruelty and Revenge these are the very Image of Satan and Spirit of Hell Whereas all the Celestial Inhabitants live in the joyful exercise of uninterrupted Love and endearments Nor is that Love confined to the blessed and glorified Company but it sheds it self abroad upon the nether world and they are Ministring Spirits for our good Heb. 1. 14. They so far Love us that they can stoop from Heaven to serve us There is Joy there at the Conversion of a Sinner and no doubt there is Love to converted Saints and care and pity for all the rest of Men. For the spirits of the just made perfect are freed from their froward humours and pettish natures their mistaken Zeal and fondness of Opinions which straitned their Affections while they were on Earth and now they are inlarged by the vast improvements of their Knowledge and accomplishment of their Vertue by a fuller sense of Divine Love and of their Duty by the genius of their company and the imployment of the happy Place So that in Heaven all are truly Catholick in their Affections And the better any man is the more he is so upon Earth The good man makes not himself his center nor are his thoughts wholly engrost about his own concernments but he is carefully solicitous for the general benefit and never so much pleased as when he is made an instrument of Divine Goodness to promote the interests of his Christian brethren 'T was an high strain of Love in Moses exprest towards the Transgressing Israelites when he was content to be blotted out of Gods Book rather than that their Sin should not be blotted out Exod. 32. 32. And St. Paul was no less Zealously affectionate towards the Jews when he said he could wish himself accursed from Christ viz. separated from Christian communion as a most vile and abject person for their sakes Rom. 9. 3. These were spirits whom Religion and Divine Love had enlarged and the more any man advanceth in Christianity the nearer he approacheth to this generous heroick temper III. LOVE is an eminent branch of the Divine Life and Nature Love is of God and every one that Loveth is born of God saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 7 8. The Divine Nature in us is the Image of God Pourtray'd and lively drawn upon the regenerated Soul and I noted before that Love is the vital Image of our Maker 't is His spirit infused into us and growing in us and upon that account to be preferred before all Gifts and natural Perfections as St. Paul hath done it in the mentioned 1 Cor. 13. And the common Gifts of the Spirit differ from this special Grace as the Painters Picture doth from his Son His Counterfeit may indeed in a superficial appearance to the Eye resemble him more than his Child but yet it is but an empty shadow destitute and incapable of his Life and Nature So there are a sort of Gifts that have a spiritual appearance and may to those that see things at distance or have not their senses exercised seem more like the divine nature than this modest vertue But those that come near them and are better able to discern perceive that in themselves they are without the Divine Life and Motion and are meer Lifeless Pictures And here I dare say that the happiest faculty to Preach Plausibly and Pray with Fluency and Eloquence to Discourse Devoutly and readily to Interpret Scripture if it be not joyned with a benign and charitable spirit is no participation of the God-like life and nature nor indeed any more Divine than those common gifts and natural parts which those that think highly of themselves upon these accounts despise For very Evil men have been eminent in these accomplishments and Wicked Spirits are without question endowed with them and they are of themselves arguments of nothing but a faculty of Imitation a devotional Complexion and warm Imagination Whereas on the other hand Charity and Christian Love are good Evidence of a Renewed state and nature Our Saviour made it a Character Joh. 13. and the Apostle concludes from it 1 John 3. 14. By this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And if this be a Mark and St. John be not mistaken I doubt that some who are very gracious by many Signs of their own will want one of Christs to prove their comfortable presumption IV. LOVE is the bond and tye of Christian Communion How can two walk together except they are agreed The Church is a Body consisting of many Members which unless they Unite and send their mutual supplies one to another the whole is distempered and in the ready way to Death and Dissolution Now Charity is that vital Cement whereby they
the Purity and Spirituality of Worship it never left canting on the Subject till mens Tongues and Minds were fired against every matter of decency and order as formal and Antichristian And so far had it prevailed as to drive those of warm affections and weak heads from all external Reverence to God and Holy things And the well meaning people being frighted with the terrible noise of Popery Superstition and Antichristianism words they had learnt to hate though not to understand boggled and flew off from every thing their furious Guides had marked with these abhorred Characters though it were never so innocent and becoming And thus a rude and slovenly Religion had made its way into the World and such a sordid carelessness in matters of divine Worship that should a Stranger have come into the Assemblies that were acted by this Spirit he would not have imagined what they had been doing and that they were about Holy Offices would perhaps have been one of the last things in his Conjecture Thus bold and sawcy talk had crept into mens Prayers under pretence of Holy Familiarity with God nauseous impertinent Gibberish under the notion of Praying by the Spirit and all kind of irreverences in external demeanour under the shelter of a pretended spiritual Worship Men had subtilized Religion till they had destroyed it made it first invisible and then Nothing AND now it being thus multiplied corrupted and debaucht being made the Game of the Tongue and the Frolick of Imagination phantastick in its principles sordid in its practices separated from the foundation of a vertuous life and made to serve the ends of Pride and Avarice what was like to follow according to the nature and order of things but Atheism and contempt of all Religion And when one says here 's Religion and another says there 's Religion a third will scornfully ask where 's Religion and what 's Religion When the Heathen Deities were so multiplied that every thing was made a God Protagoras Diagoras and others first began to question and next to affirm that there was NONE Religions have been multiplied in our days as much as Gods in theirs and we have seen much of the same fatal event and issue They made their Gods contemptible and vile by deifying things that were so and we had no less detracted from the credit of Religion by bringing it down to things of the lowest and vilest rank and nature Our Idolized Opinions were no better than their Garlick and Onyons The diseases of the Mind Phrensie and Enthusiasm which our days have worshipped were no better than those of the Body which they adored And they never raised Altars to worse Vices than REBELLION FRAUD and VIOLENCE which our Age hath hallowed and made sacred So that notwithstanding all the glorious pretensions of those Times Religion was among many taken off all its Foundations and the World prepared for Atheism The Follies and Divisions of one Age make way for Atheism in the next Thus also briefly of the Condition of our RELIGION AND thus I have shewn how much RESISTANCE of the Authority that is over us is against our DUTY and our INTEREST The former God hath plainly told us and the latter we have sadly felt It remains that we humble our selves under the sense of the publick guilt as well as complain of the consequent miseries That we may not draw down new judgements by repeating old provocations and adding our particular sins to the common score And I think we shall do well to consider what we who abhor Rebellion have contributed to the fatal evils that followed it We can perhaps be well enough content that the visible actors of those mischiefs should be lasht and exposed and it may be are well pleased and tickled with our reprehensions in which we think our selves not concerned But if we will be just if we will have this Fast to signifie we must turn our reproofs upon our selves also and with grief and shame acknowledge that our sins and Debauches our contempt of God and scorn of Religion have helpt towards the plucking down that sad judgement upon the Nation which we lament this Day And it must be confest that there were those that fought against the KING who yet spent their blood in his service and many by their vices endeavoured to engage Heaven against that Cause which themselves strove in another way to less purpose to promote And therefore we ought not to think that this Fast is appointed to inveigh against the faults of others and to make them and their actions odious but to humble our selves under the apprehension of our own and to teach us to shew our love to the King and readiness to obey him by subjecting our selves first unto God whose Vice-gerent HE is And we may be assured that they that are not Loyal to the UNIVERSAL LORD of all the World can scarce possibly be so to their particular SOVEREIGN And 't will need a great deal of Charity to help us to believe that those who make no scruple to blaspheme the Name of God and to break the plainest most earnest and most express of his Laws will be withheld by considerations of Duty or Conscience from rebelling against their King or affronting His when there is any powerful interest to oblige them to it If therefore we would give any evidence of a serious humiliation at present or any security of a future loyalty let us do so by confessing our particular sins and forsaking them and then there will be hope that the Authority of God may oblige us quietly and peaceably to submit to his MINISTER and in doing so we shall be blest with his influence and deserve his protection And thus demeaning our selves like Professors of the Gospel of Peace and Subjects of the Prince of Peace the Peace He left with his Disciples will be with us here and everlasting Peace will encircle our heads with rays of glory in the Kingdom of Peace And so the Peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus To whom with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Glory Honour and adoration henceforth and for ever Amen and Amen SERMON IV. THE SIN and DANGER OF SCOFFING AT RELIGION The Second Edition SERMON IV. AGAINST SCOFFING AT RELIGION 2 PET. III. 3. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts IT is a question that hath much exercised the wits of the Curious whether there be any decay in nature or whether all things are not still as they were from the beginning in all their kinds and in all the degrees of their vigour and perfection I shall not undertake to determine ought in this Theory Be the matter how it will as to the natural world we have cause to believe that there are degeneracies in the moral This our Saviour supposeth in the Question Luke 18. 8. When the Son of man cometh shall he find
that Spirit to which they are most opposite Thus when warm and brisk Sanguine presents a chearful Scene and fills the imagination with pleasant dreams these are taken for divine illapses for the joys and incomes of the Holy Ghost When heated Melancholly hath kindled the busie and active fancy the Enthusiast then talks of Illuminations New Lights Revelations and many wonderful fine things which are ascribed to the same Spirit But when Flegm predominates and quencheth the Fantastick Fire rendering the mad man more dull lumpish and unactive then the Spirit is withdrawn and the man under spiritual darkness and desertion And when again choler is boiled up into rage and fury against every thing that is not of the Fantastick cut and measure this also is presumed to be an holy fervour kindled by that Spirit whose real fruits are Gentleness and Love Thus then doth the Devil devise to disgrace the Spirit of God and its influence by those numerous vile and vain pretensions which he thinks a likely means to extirpate the belief of the agency of the Spirit and to render it ridiculous But again 4. Satan deviseth against Gods own glory by designing against his worship Which he doth by endeavouring to destroy its reverence under pretence of Spirituality God requires to be glorified in body and in soul which are his and Satan sets the worship of one against the other that he may destroy both Thus when under the Law Religion required the Pomp and Solemnity of external Rites and Usages the subtle designer drives it on in that method so far that at last the Spirit of Religion was lost in the ceremony and the life and substance in the circumstance But when Christianity came into the world to abolish that ceremonial oeconomy in order to the establishing a more spiritual frame of Worship then doth Satan turn with the Tyde and puts on the semblance of a Zealot for Spirituality which he prosecutes so far till at last in the Gnosticks and other aiery Hereticks he had run Religion out into meer empty Fantastick Notionality In like manner where in these latter ages the world hath been disabused and hath detected the vanity of the formal outside Religion of Rome There doth the designer fall in with the Current sets up for a Reformer and mightily contends for the Spirituality of Worship He gets into the Pulpit and there with hot and sweating zeal he crys up the purity the purity of Religion and never leaves canting on the subject till he hath fired mens tongues against every matter of decency and order as formal and Antichristian And when he is shut out of those high places he creeps into corners and inflames the Spirits of the zealous and the ignorant against all harmless circumstances of Reverence and Decorum And so far hath he prevailed in this device as to drive those of warm affections and weak heads from all due external Reverence to God and things Sacred For these well-meaning people being frighted by the terrible noise of Popery Antichristianism Superstition things they have learnt to hate but not to understand boggle and fly off from every thing their furious Guides have marked with this abhorred Character And thus a rude and slovenly kind of Religion hath made its way into the world and such a sordid carlesness in matters of divine worship that should a stranger come into the assemblies that are acted by this Spirit He could not by their carriage imagine what they were a doing and that they were about holy Offices would perhaps be one of the last things he could conjecture Thus bold and sawcy talk hath crept into mens prayers under the pretence of holy familiarity with God nauseous impertinent bawling under the cover of praying by the Spirit and all kind of irreverences in external demeanour under the shelter of a pretended Spiritual worship And thus the design of Satan is successfully carried on in the world which is to subtilize Religion till he hath destroyed it To make it invisible that he may make it nothing And this is another way whereby be betrays those who are Ignorant of his Devices And thus I have dispatcht the first General viz. Satans Devices against Gods glory From which I descend to the second viz. Satans devices against the Peace of the Church which while it stands in its main and united body is like a mighty mountain unconcern'd in the tumults in the air while the blustering winds and tempests assault but cannot prejudice or disorder it And therefore the Designer endeavours to divide what he cannot deal with in its knit and combined strength He strives to crumble it into Sects and Atoms that this mountain may become an heap of Sands which he may blow up and down and scatter with his winds and so at last become a plain before him For which Design he hath two main instruments and Devices viz. 1. Pharisaical Pride under the cover of Religious strictness And 2. Intemperate Heat under the notion of Holy and Divine Zeal These are the chief Engines for the dividing purposes 1. Then he hatches and fosters a Spirit of Pride and Sectarian Insolence a sure and fatal Divider under the specious pretence of Religious strictness For where he perceives he cannot succeed in his designs of debauching the world and propagating open prophaneness and Impiety He shifts his shape puts on the cloathing of light and wraps himself in a Cloak spun of strict and severe pretensions and in this habit puts himself among the proud and conceited Professors These he and their own vanity gild and adorn with all the glorious names and priviledges of the Gospel and when they have incircled their heads with their own Fantastick Rays and are swoln in their imaginations with a tympany of ridiculous greatness They then proudly contemn all but their darling selves under the notion of the formal the moral and the wicked and scornfully pity the poor and carnal world that is all that are not arrived to their conceited pitch and elevation and now having thus dignified themselves and debased others they herd together draw the Church into their little corners and proudly withdraw from the Communion of others who have less conceit though more Christianity They bid us stand off lest we pollute them with our unhallowed approaches and having made us as the Heathen and Publican they cry Come out from among them The true Church Soundness of Judgement Purity of Doctrine and of worship if we will believe them is confined to their Gange just as it was to the corners of Africa of old when their friends the Gnosticks were there Thus they swell and swagger in their fantastick imaginations till some other Sect as well conceited as themselves endeavour to take their Plumes from them and to appropriate these glorious Prerogatives unto their own party and then they bustle and contend Here 's the Church crys one nay but 't is here crys another till a third gives the lye to them
both and then the scuffle grows warm of Pride against Hypocrisie and the self-conceit of one Sect against the Pride of another and all against sobriety and truth and thus is the Church divided the interest of Religion weakned and the world prepared for Atheism But 2. Another instrument and Device Satan useth to imbroil the Church is Fantastick heat under the name and notion of divine zeal Fire is a subtile and powerful Divider and no fire like that which is supposed to come from the Altar though it be but a passionate flame kindled in a fiery temper that is only tinctured with Religion For every thing that is hot and vehement about Religious matters wears the name and Livery of Zeal and Zeal when 't is directed by good Principles to the ends of sobriety and vertue is a noble and generous temper but when 't is actuated by ignorance and evil principles and hurried on by blind impulses to the ends of rage and animosity 't is a dangerous and killing evil And like a fire-brand in a Magazine of powder which destroys without distinction and blows up every thing that resists the fury of its motion This then being fair in its pretence and mischievous in its effects Satan useth in his designs of dividing He kindleth some little Religious warmths in eager and violent Constitutions and blows the Coals till natural passion be concerned and fired So that at last what was at first only a spark of Religion becomes a mighty flame of Rage Then breaks he out upon the Church with this holy Fire destroys that Charity which is the bond of peace and fills all with smoak and vapour darkness and confusion He Christens this Jehu-like fury a Zeal for God and declaims against every thing that is sober and temperate as luke-warmness and indifference He gets into the Populace who have many grains of Rage for one of Judgement and hurries the poor mistaken Bigot together with the proud Pharisaical Dissenter and the silly conceited Schismatick into the same unavoidable ruine to eternal ages From which c. SERMON XI THE ANTIQUITY OF OUR FAITH Stated and Cleared SERMON XI JUDE I. 3. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints OUr Saviour tells us in the Parable that where the Husbandman had sown the good Seed there the enemy scatter'd Tares where God by his Spirit and Messengers hath planted Sacred and Divine truths there Satan sets Errours Heresies and Doctrines not according to Godliness These were early in the Christian Church even in the original Purity and Simplicity of it There were then Deceivers Lying Spirits Seducers who separated themselves from the Communion of the Church crept into houses led captive silly men and silly women privily brought in damnable Heresies even to the denying the Lord that bought them turned many from the faith to follow fables dreams and sensless imaginations Such there were then and St. Paul tells us that there must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11. 19. The lusts and various corruptions of men in conjunction with the permissions of God make them unavoidable Some of the first we read of in the Christian Church were the Judaizing Christians who taught the necessity of retaining the Mosaical law the denyers of the Resurrection and the vile Gnosticks who under pretence of more knowledge and higher priviledges abused Christian Liberty to all licentiousness and vileness of living making shipwrack both of Faith and Conscience Against these St. Peter St. James St. John particularly write in their Epistles and this of our Apostle St. Jude is all directed against that Heresie In opposition to which writing of the Common Salvation he saith it was needful to write unto them the true Catholicks and exhort them that they should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints This was needful in his days and 't is certainly as necessary in ours in which all the old Heresies are revived with the addition of new on which account the subject is too seasonable and I chose it at this time as a Preface to the discourses I intend on all the main Principles of the Christian Religion as I have already treated in order on all the Principal heads of the Natural In the words read two main propositions are implyed 1. That there was a Faith anciently deliver'd to the Saints 2. That all Christians are bound to contend and earnestly for that Faith which was deliver'd to those Saints I begin with the First There was a Faith deliver'd to the Saints Now aimidst the great diversity and contrariety of opinions that at present are in the Christian Church each entitling it self to the Faith that was originally deliver'd to the Saints it may seem a matter of difficulty to determine which is the right the true Faith which difficulty doth not arise so much from the nature of the thing as it doth from mens corrupt interests and affections disputing about it And therefore abstracting from these I shall endeavour to set before you the chief Characters of the true Faith by which you may judge what that is and where it is to be found And 1. The Faith we treat of is an Ancient Primitive Faith Quod verum id prius Truth was from the beginning Divers of the Doctrines with which our Saviour hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world were before his personal appearance in it Before Abraham was I am saith He and Abraham saw his day the discovery of his great truths and ways He was the Author and Finisher of our Faith In him it begun and it was consummate in his personal teaching and instructions of his immediate Disciples and Apostles who by the Spirit deliver'd to us what they had received from him Natural Truths are more and more discover'd by time For many go to and fro and Science shall be encreased But those divine verities are most perfect in their fountain and original They contract impurities in their streams and remote derivations and the way to discover the corruptions is to stand upon the old ways and see how it was in the beginning By this Character of the Faith that of the Roman Church is condemn'd For all the Doctrines and usages of that Church that are denyed and opposed by ours are in comparison Novelties and Innovations and whatever Antiquity they pretend to they were not primitive Their Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Half-Communion and Prayer in an unknown tongue are directly palpably contrary to the Holy Scriptures Their pretended Infallibility and Universality their Indulgences Purgatory and Transubstantiation with divers others of their Doctrines and usages are by plain consequence condemn'd by those Sacred Writings which are the repository of the ancient Faith and Practice and both the one and the other were unknown to the first and
ways they must not be parted with or silenc't no all Laws and Constitutions of Government must be thwarted overthrown rather Love and Peace and all must be sacrificed to the Idols which being so what quietness can there be from hence what peace or temper among such principles These perpetually annoy and disturb the Church and to know what they do in the State let us consider Germany Scotland and 't is to be hoped though we have frail memories on this side we shall not forget how peaceable the Sectaries have been in England or not observe how quiet they are at this day Remember I hope we shall for Caution I urge no other remembrance I wish they themselves did not remember them so well as we find they do by many of the same actions and discourses That Kings hold from the people are only Trustees for them and may be resisted and deposed when they fail in that trust are Politicks that do not much tend to civil peace and we know whose Principles those were and we have no great reason to think they have quitted them I can give but brief hints of things that would afford matter enough to fill Volumes as both Popish and Sectarian disloyalty Rebellions and disturbances would do But into these mens secrets let not our Souls come The Church that we some of us at least profess our selves to be members of teacheth no unpeaceable doctrines is guilty of no such practices It imposeth no Articles on our belief as necessary to our Salvation but the Ancient Creeds no terms of Communion but such reasonable orders and decencies as are free from all appearance of Idolatry and Superstition or any thing else that is unlawful as will appear to any rational man that shall take the pains to consider and will judge impartially nothing that is more burthensome or grievous than the Rites and usages of the Primitive Christian Church were which assertions I have in this place lately proved and divers of our Divines in their books have fully done it to the shame of Fanatical Gainsayers As to the concerns of civil peace our Church with Christ and his Apostles teacheth active chearful conscientious obedience to the King and subordinate Rulers in all lawful things and quiet submission to the penalties of not obeying when the things required are unlawful plainly certainly so And that we are not in this nor in any case to resist Suitable to this have been the practices of the people of this peaceable Church Among whom there hath not yet been found a Rebel We never heard of a Church of England-man in the late wars against the King nor of a Sectary for him But 4. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was a reasonable Faith the understanding of man is the Candle of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. The light of Reason is his light with this The true light hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world Joh. 1. 9. and one light is not contrary to another there is difference in degree but no opposition of Nature Faith and Reason accord Yea Faith is an act of Reason 't is the highest reason to believe in God and the belief of our reason is an act of Faith viz. Faith in the truth and goodness of God that would not give us faculties to delude and deceive us when we rightly exercise and employ them By Faith Reason is further enlightned and by the use of Reason Faith is applyed Religion and Reason sweetly agree and nothing can be Religious that is unreasonable Religion is a reasonable service And by this Character Popery is disproved also For that imposeth on the practice and minds of men things that are extreamly unreasonable and absurd as Articles of Religion Such are the worship of invisible beings by Images of Wood or Stone and especially the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is full of Contradictions as that the same body can be in a thousand places at once that at the same time it may be bigger and less than it self that it may move towards and from it self That it may be divided not into parts but wholes These and numerous other absurdities and contradictions to the reason of mankind are contain'd in the sensless mystery of Popish Transubstantiation To defend which the Doctors of that Church are put upon this miserable shift of denying all reason in Religion even the greatest and most fundamental Article of it That the same thing can be and not be which some of them say is the only method to confute Hereticks And while Reason and our Faculties are acknowledg'd we cannot entertain their non-sence nor be answer'd in our just oppositions of their gross absurdities On the other side the Character of a reasonable Faith condemns the Sects the greatest part of whose Divinity is made up of sensless absurd notions set forth in unintelligible Fantastical Phrases and these they account the heights of spirituality and mystery upon which they value and boast themselves as the only knowing the only spiritual people When there is nothing in all their pretended heights and spiritualities but vain imagination and dreaming and in v. 8. of this Epistle they are described by this Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dreamers And as the light of Sense and Reason dispels the vain Images of Dreams so these admitted would cure Fanatical impostures and delusions For which cause there is nothing they so vehemently declaim against as Reason under the notion of carnal and as an enemy to the Spirit and the things of it There is indeed a carnal Reason that is enmity to truth and goodness but that is not the reason of our minds but the reason of our appetite passion and corrupt interest which is not reason truly so called no more than an Ape is a man But for want of thus distinguishing the things that so differ Enthusiasts rail violently against all Reason as the grand adversary of the truths and mysteries of the Gospel Their Tenents that she calls so will not bear that light But the Church of England teacheth no opinions no mysteries that need such a desperate course to defend them Its Articles of Faith are all contain'd in the Ancient Christian Creeds which are no way opposite to Reason in any Article yea Reason either proves or defends them all So that we never give out at this weapon but are ready to use it upon all occasions against Atheists and Infidels of all sorts The Church of England owns no Religion but what is reasonable 5. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was certain it was deliver'd to them by those that had it from the holy Spirit of God in the way of immediate inspiration Those holy men spake as they were inspired And that they were really so was no fond imagination or bold presumption but a truth assured by those mighty miracles they were enabled to perform Those are Gods Seal and the grand confirmation of a commission from him and to this proof of their
Doctrines both Christ and his Apostles continually appealed Here is the firm reasonable Foundation of the Christian certainty The truths we believed are confirmed by Miracles than which there can be no greater evidence But now the Roman Church destroys this ground of certainty by a multitude of lying wonders which they impudently obtrude upon the belief of the people for proof and confirmation of their false and corrupt Religion the immediate consequence of which is a suspicion thereby brought upon the true Miracles and here is way made for Scepticism and uncertainty in the greatest and most Sacred Christian Doctrines And besides the Church of Rome having introduced among these many doubtful uncertain and many certainly false opinions and imposed them upon the faith of its votaries under the same obligations as it doth the most fundamental Articles what can be the consequence but that those who discover the errour or uncertainty of some of those pretended propositions of Faith should doubt all the rest And indeed since the main assurance is placed in the Infallibility of that Church for which there is so no reason and so much plain evidence to the contrary Since themselves cannot tell where that boasted Infallibility is whether in Pope or Council if we should allow them any such it follows that their Faith is precarious and hath no foundation at all In like manner the Sects among us resolve all their assurance either into a bare belief or the testimony of a private Spirit for their ground of crediting the Scriptures is but this Testimony and consequently whatever they receive from hence bottoms here The Papists believe the Scripture on the Testimony of the Church and these believe them on the Testimony of the Spirit that is in earnest the suggestions and resolutions of their own viz. they believe because they will believe and they find themselves inclin'd unto it And upon the same reason when the imagination and humour alters they may cease to believe or believe the contrary And there is not any thing in the world more various and uncertain than the suggestions and impulses of a private Spirit Besides the Sects also have vastly multiplied Articles of Faith and made all their private opinions sacred calling them Gospel truths precious truths saving truths and the like when they are but uncertainties at the best and usually false and sensless imaginations by which way also they expose the whole body of Christian Principles to suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy the Faith of others But the Church of England secures the certainty of our Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true seats of Infallibility and the belief of that into the Testimony of the Spirit in the true sense viz. that Testimony that God gave by his Spirit to Christ and his Apostles in those miraculous works he enabled them to perform They did not only bear witness of themselves that as our Saviour argues with the Jews Luk. 11. 48. would not have signified much The Father bore witness with them John 15. 8. and the works they performed by his power were the sure testimony Believe me for the works sake saith our Saviour Here is the ground of certainty And the Church of England entertains no Articles of Faith but those principles that have been so confirm'd that is none but what are evidently contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Whereas the Roman Church to mention no other have made the absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation sacred though it is not only not contained in Scripture but contrary to the reason and even to the sound senses of mankind And if neither reason nor so much as our senses may be believ'd what assurance can we have of any thing A ground is here laid for everlasting Scepticism and uncertainty And the Sects have laid the same in their numerous silly tenents that are contrary to some of the most fundamental principles of Reason Nothing of which can with any shew be objected against this Church 6. The Faith delivered to the Saints was Catholick 'T was deliver'd to all the Saints entertain'd by all and was not only the opinion and belief of a prevailing Faction or of particular men in Corners The Commission given the Disciples was to go and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature and accordingly it was widely diffused and all that profest the name of Christ were instructed in his Faith and Religion in all the articles and duties of it that were essential and necessary In these they joyn'd in holy love and communion till Sects came among them that introduced damnable Heresies contrary to the doctrine they had received These divided from the Unity of the pure Catholick Church and separated themselves from it gathering into select companies of their own under pretence of more Truth and Holiness After this manner the Church of Rome which had for some ages been eminent in the Catholick Church did at last corrupt and introduce divers unsound doctrines and usages unknown to the Ancient Catholicks and being great and powerful it assumed the name of the Catholick Church to it self and condemn'd all other Christians as Hereticks when it was it self but a grand Sect against whose depraved doctrines and ways there was a Church in all ages that did protest For the Greek Churches which are of as large extent as theirs never assented to them and divers other Christians in all times bore Testimony against those errours and depravations This Sect was large and numerous indeed but 't is not the number but the principles make the Catholick Principles conformable to those that were deliver'd to the Saints From these they have departed And the lesser Sects among us have done the same by the many vain additions that they have made to the Faith and their unjust Separation from that Church which retains the whole body of Catholick Doctrines and main Practices without the mixture of any thing Heretical or unlawful A Church that doth not damn all the world besides her own members as the Roman Church and divers of the Sects do but extends her Charity to all Christians though many of them are under great mistakes and so is truly Catholick both in her Principles and Affections I mean the Church of England as now established by Law which God preserve in its purity Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Who dyed at his Rectory of Bath the fourth of November 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1681. REVEL XIV Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their
would suffer a contradiction and become imperfect And that not only for the future but the present by introducing such passions as must needs debase and allay the highest delights So that by being thus secur'd in the possession of our happiness we receive thereby an unspeakable addition to it II. Proceed we next to shew you the Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promis'd and asserted and whether it bear any proportion to our duty and the Rewards of it for so we are allow'd to call them though not upon the account of merit yet by reason of their necessary connexion with dependance upon and that kind such a one as 't is of proportion they bear to each other There is a two-fold evidence God Almighty has given us for the strengthning of our hope and confirming of our faith in the belief and expectation of the other World The first moral grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit the other I call natural and is grounded in the things themselves 1. The first evidence of our future bliss is the testimony of the Spirit express in the Text Yea saith the Spirit But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it for understand it as 't is vulgarly taken for some act or operation wrought in and upon us besides the Enthusiasm of it fain would I be satisfy'd what validity can there be in such a testimony as it self needs something else to confirm it for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tryed by its concordance and agreement to the word of God nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil 's besides And though to err thus in this single instance may not be very pernicious for I am not mighty solicitous how it was wrought so there be a firm perswasion in us of this truth yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is nor is it safe in this for it leaves a passage open and unguarded to down-right Atheism By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I understand the word of God or the Scriptures as made known and prov'd to us to be deriv'd from this Divine Spirit which we may call the outward testimony thereof for though St. John knew this by the other way as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation yet never was any other than the person himself assur'd that way Nor do I make degrees of more or less certainty in the way or manner of the Spirit 's revealing a thing for the Apostles were as well assur'd of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles as we are by them but we were not nor could be so But this notwithstanding in respect of us we must admit of such degrees for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness God hath said it in his word And this I call a moral certainty not in opposition to divine and infallible as they are sometimes contradistinguish'd but only to natural for we can desire no greater evidence we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth than the veracity of Heaven to attest it I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this That God ought to be believ'd in what he says and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revelation 't is impossible to do so of any thing we acknowledge to be so revealed So that the stress of this point lyes upon that great and necessary praecognition in our Religion namely the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures Upon which postulate if we proceed there is as great certainty of the truth of this proposition That good men shall enjoy eternal happiness after this life as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice and God himself should sensibly attest it 2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural because it depends upon that Intrinsick Relation and consent there is between goodness and it the difference between them being only in degree like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon For what is it to be happy but to be united to God and what does unite us to God but Love and what is the love of God but Religion And if you remove but all inward imperfections and all outward impediments there remains no difference at all So that Virtue and Piety do not only dispose and prepare us for Heaven and Salvation but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world we cannot be infallibly assur'd of it as to our own particulars because every alteration in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other Yet in the general we may even from hence be very well assur'd hereof because there is nothing more requir'd to the compleating of our essential happiness than an advance and progression in the same vertuous tract And however it looks in a Divine if we will speak rationally to the thing we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation even of their very eternity it being naturally impossible to be other than happy while we love God and contrariwise if we hate him and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity And to remove your astonishment see how in this lower world many stupendous and admirable works are daily produc'd which were mean and unnoted while they lay hid and contain'd in the seminal beginnings after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formation in our trembling and unstable desires to the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine nature How else will you vindicate the Justice of God in all the odd and confused occurrences of this World Where 's your infinite goodness and bounty that suffers its servants always to be neglected what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never call'd to an accompt Or one or t'other cannot be III. 'T is true indeed the compleating of this bliss which brings us to our next head is neither promis'd nor to be had in this life 'T is at Death these rewards become due and payable Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera possit It has been the constant method of Divine providence to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion and