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A59576 The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe ... Sharp, John, 1645-1714. 1674 (1674) Wing S3003; ESTC R9975 18,272 41

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great way to the Cure of the sad Divisions that are among us And that I may discourse with more clearness and more evidence I shall deliver what I have to say in this matter by way of Propositions taking my Rise from the first Principle of Church-Society and so regularly ascending The first Proposition I lay down is this That every Christian upon the very account of his being so is a Member of the Church of Christ and is bound to joyn in External Communion with it where it can be had For the clearing of this you may be pleased to consider that the Primary Design and Intention of our Saviour in his undertaking for us was not to save particular persons without respect to a Society but to gather to himself a Church out of Mankind to erect and form a Body Politick of which himself was the Head and particular Christians the Members and in this method through Obedience to his Laws and Government to bring men to Salvation And this is no more than what is the Sense and Language of the Holy Scriptures wherein whatever Christ is said to have done or suffered for Mankind he is said to have done for them not as Scattered Individuals but as Incorporated into a Church Thus Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it Christ redeemed the Church with his own Bloud Christ is the Saviour of his Body that is to say the Church with many passages of the like importance The plain Consequence from hence is that every person so far as he is a Christian so far he is a Member of the Church and by virtue of that Relation to the Church it is that he hath any relation to Christ or any Title to the Privileges of the Gospel And agreeably to this Notion it is very plain that Baptism which is by all acknowledged to be the Ceremony of Initiating us into Christianity is in Scripture declared to be the Rite whereby we are entred and admitted into the Church Thus St. Paul expresly tells us that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body And again that Christ hath sanctified that is to say separated his Church by the washing of Water and the Word Now then it being thus evident that every Christian as a Christian is a Member of that Body of Christ which we call the Church there will be little need of taking pains to prove that every such person is obliged to joyn in External Communion with the Church where he can do so for the very nature of this Church-membership doth imply it Without this neither the Ends of Church-Society nor the Benefits accruing to us therefrom can be attained First not the Ends of it The Ends of Church-Society are the more Solemn Worship of God and the Publick Profession of our Religion and the Mutual Edification one of another Now how these can be in any measure attained without associating together in Publick Assemblies and mutual Offices and other Acts of External Communion with one another cannot any ways be imagined And as little in the second place can it be conceived how without this we can be made partakers of the Benefits and Privileges that Christ hath made over to the Members of his Church For we are to consider that God hath so ordered the matter and without doubt for this very reason to unite us the more firmly in Society that the Privileges of the Gospel such as Pardon of Sin and the Grace of the Holy Spirit are not ordinarily conveyed to us so immediately by God but that there must intervene the Ministry of Men. Gods holy Word and Sacraments are the Channels in which they are derived to us and Those to whom he hath committed the Ministry of Reconciliation and the Power of the Keyes are the Hands that must dispence them We have no promise of Spiritual Graces but by these means so that in order to the partaking of them there is an absolute necessity laid upon us of joyning and communicating with the Church It is true indeed God doth not so tie himself up to these means but that he can and will in some cases confer the Benefits of them without them as in case of a General Apostacy of the Church or of Persecution for Religion or of an unjust Excommunication or any other case where Communion with a true Visible Church is denied to us But though God doth act extraordinarily in extraordinary cases where these means cannot be had yet this doth not at all diminish much less take away the necessity of making use of them when they can be had From what hath been discoursed on this first Proposition we may by the way gather these two things I only name them First how untrue their Position is that maintain that all our Obligation to Church Communion doth arise from a voluntary admission of our selves into some Particular Congregation and an explicit Promise or Ingagement to joyn with it in Church Ordinances 2. How wildly and extravagantly they discourse that talk of a Christianity at large without relation to a Church or communion with any Society of Christians The second Proposition is That every one is bound to joyn in Communion with the established National Church to which he belongs supposing there be nothing in the Terms of its Communion that renders it unlawful for him so to do For if we are bound to maintain Communion with the Catholick Church as I have before proved it is plain that we are bound to maintain Communion with that part of it within whose Verge the Divine Providence has cast us For we cannot communicate with the Catholick Church but by communicating with some Part of it and there is no communicating with any Part of it but That under which we live or where we have our Residence Well but it may be said that there may be several Distinct Churches in the Place where we live There may be the fixed Regular Assemblies of the National Church and there may be Separate Congregations both which are or pretend to be Parts of the Catholick Church so that it may be all one as to our communicating with that which of these we joyn with supposing we joyn but with one of them and consequently there is no necessity from that Principle that we should hold Communion with the Publick Assemblies of the National Church But as to this I desire it may be considered that That that lays an Obligation upon us to joyn in Communion with the Church to wit our being Members of that one Body of Christ doth also lay an Obligation upon us as much as in us lies to preserve the Unity of that Body for this both the Fundamental Laws of Society and the express Precepts of Christianity do require of every Member But now to make a Rent in or separate from any Part of the Body of Christ with which we may lawfully communicate and such we now suppose the Established Assemblies of the Nation
greater than this that some men in these matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker grounds and misapplyed Texts of Scripture and discourse more loosely But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this that being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But fourthly another thing that would make for peace is this Never to charge upon men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate mens spirits one against another when having examined some Opinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great absurdities and evil consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other whereas indeed the men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrin maintained by some That Gods Will is the Rule of Justice or that every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrin do contend that if this Doctrin be true it will necessarily follow that no man can have any certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the foresaid Doctrin would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative evidence make out that the Doctrin of Gods irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of mens Endeavours after virtue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the world Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrin many of whom are certainly pious and good men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The sum of all is that a man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it not but that all the deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitly own them If this Rule was observed our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errors and Heterodoxies maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The fifth Rule is to abstract mens Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no pretender to ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion what ever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a man holds it And truly if men would leave this impertinence we might hope for a better issue of our Religious Debates but whilest men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Mens Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable distasts and heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean arts of exposing Mens Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all misbecoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely baffled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the world to support it For quick-sighted men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad matter to manage We should consider that Mens Persons are Sacred things that what ever power we have to judg of their Opinions we have no authority to judg or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an affront to Human Society and the most contrary thing in the world to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil speaking that it obliges us to cover as much we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good Do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not Practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to seed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah how little satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more Profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busy our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it but a mean Employment to spend our time in spinning fine Nets for the catching of Flies Besides this Divine Life if it once took place in us would strangely dilate and enlarge our hearts in Charity towards our Brethren it would make us open our arms wide to the whole Creation it would perfectly work out of us all that Peevishness and Sowrness and Penuriousness of spirit which we do too often contract by being addicted to a Sect and would make us Sweet and Benign and Obliging and ready to receive and embrace all Conditions of men In a word it would quite swallow up all Distinctions of Parties and what ever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus would need no other Commendatories to our Affection but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and pretious to us Let us all therefore earnestly contend after this Divine Principle of Holiness let us bring down Religion from our Heads to our Hearts from Speculation to Practice Let us make it our business heartily to love God and do his will and then we may hope to see Peace in our days This this is that that will restore to the World the Golden Age of Primitive Christianity when the Love and Unity of the Disciples of Jesus was so conspicuous and remarkable that it became into a Proverb See how the Christians love one another This this is that that will bring in the Accomplishment of all those glorious Promises of Peace and Tranquillity that Christ hath made to his Church Then shall the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid Then shall not Ephraim envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim but we shall turn our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and there will be no more consuming or devouring in all Gods Holy Mountain I should now proceed to the second General Point in my proposed Method of handling this Text viz. To set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations we have upon us to follow after the Things that make for Peace and that 1. From the Nature and Contrivance of our Religion 2. From the great weight the Scripture lays upon this Duty 3. From the great Unreasonableness of our Religious Differences 4. From the very evil Consequences that attend them as 1. In that they are great Hinderances of a good Life 2. They are very pernicious to the Civil Peace of the State 3. They are highly Opprobrious to Christianity in general And 4. and lastly Very dangerous to the Protestant Religion as giving too many advantages and too much encouragement to the Factors of the Papacy But I have I fear already exceeded the Limits of a Sermon and therefore shall add no more God open our eyes that we may in this our day understand the Things that belong to Peace before they be hid from our eyes FINIS V. 4. seq Ver. 13 14 15. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. Mr. Hales Eph. 5. 25. Acts 20. 28. Eph. 5. 23. 1 Cor. 12. 13. Eph. 5. 26. Rom. 16. 17.