which we partake in that Sacrament 1 Con. 10.17 We are all partakers of that one bread and that the Cup of which we drink and thus believing we do not give Divine worship unto the Elements in the Sacrament But they in absolute contradiction both unto Scripture and unto Reason and unto four of their five Senses believe that after Consecration there is no bread but the natural flesh of Christ's body no wine but his very natural blood Upon which account they pay a Divine worship to them worship that which is not God that which is really bread and wine To all these things I might now add the Superstition of their Devotions their Prayers for delivering departed Souls out of that place they call Purgatory a place that is of their own making for gaining Wealth unto their Church Their Pilgrimages to the Tombs of Saints an infinite Mass of Rites and Ceremonies for which things they have no precept in the Scripture no example either there or in the primitive Ages of Christianity Rites which obscure and burden Religion with a numberless heap of Superstitions contrary to the very nature to the simplicity of Christianity From matter of Worship pass we on to matter of common life and action 1. As it relates to moral Duty 2. And also unto Civil Society 1. And for the former our Church declares that true repentance is absolutely necessary to gain the remission and pardon of sin We also affirm that reformation is the best and most essential part of true repentance We do not pretend to any power to give Absolution to any person who doth not practise such repentance that is to say who doth not truly reform himself in life and action in case life be continued to him or in real purpose and resolution in an effectual change of heart We make no pretence to an Authority of giving Indulgences and Remissions or of admitting any Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of the sin where the sin is still continued in Whereas they of the Church of Rome give Absolution to Attrition that is to the meer fear of Hell and these two things namely Attrition and Absolution they judge sufficient to Salvation They admit of Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of mens sins and by these means teach their Followers to hope for remission of the punishment although they retain the sin it self And lest the Penance should seem burthensom and too severe they can give Indulgence for that too to them that will be at the cost to buy it By all which means they make the Precepts of the Gospel the Laws of Christ of no effect make it needless to obey them unless a man have a mind unto it and to do more than what is needful 2. For Civil Society 't is well known how many there are in the Church of Rome who do affirm that it is not needful to discharge a promise to a Heretick and all are Hereticks in their account who make profession of Christianity and do not communicate with their Church We know there was safe conduct promised to John Hus and Jerom of Prague to the Council of Conslance and how that promise was performed The promise was broken and the men burnt and so indeed they justified their Doctrine by their practice They exempt the Clergy from the Authority of secular Power till they be surrendred thereunto by their Superiors in the Church and they surrender them when they please and when they please they do not Upon which account many Villanies many Murders have been committed in the State to the infinite scandal of Religion It was complained in the sixth year of King Henry the Second that there have been above an hundred man slaughters committed by the then Clergy since the beginning of his Reign But that which is of the vilest consequence in this point is that they affirm that the Popes of Rome have power to depose Kings and Princes and that pursuant to this Doctrine they have excommunicated and deposed lawful Princes in several places and given their Kingdoms and Dominions to other persons that there are infinite numbers of Authors who defend and justifie this Doctrine that these are countenanced by a Council that is to say the fourth Lateran which they themselves call a General Council For it is there expresly said that in case a Prince does not purge his Country from heretical pravity in the space of a year after admonition so to do by the Metropolitan and his Comprovincials then this be signified to the Pope that he may deprive him of all Authority terram ejus exponat Catholicis occupandam expose his Country to be possessed and seized by Catholicks In direct pursuance of which Doctrine private persons have stab'd Princes and have been commended and applauded by the Pope himself for so doing For so it was in the case of Henry the Third of France These are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome relating unto Civil Society what ours are I need not say We owne our selves obliged to do good to all men and that although we have not obliged our selves thereto by any particular promise to them much more discharg'd our faith to all We owne the King to be supreme in his own dominions and that there is no power in any to depose him And to conclude we owne the truth of S. Peter's words and that in the very fullest sense Honour or as the margent reads it esteem all men love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 We owne all to be oblig'd to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or to Governours as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers I have here given you an account of some of the most material differences between us and the Church of Rome in point of faith and worship and manners and should now perswade you to stand fast in all these things as they are taught in this Church not suffering your selves to be abased by vain Sophistry of deceivers If they ask you where our Church was before Luther ask you again where theirs was before the fourth Laterane Council nay before that of Trent it self For sure it is there was never any Church before those Councils that did in all things teach and practise as the Church of Rome at this present time Tell them our Church that is a Church wherein the same faith and worship the same obedience to Gods commands were taught and required which are now taught and required in ours were many ages before theirs Such a Church there was assoon as there was a Christian Church such a Church planted by Christ himself such a Church propagated by his Apostles such a Church for several hundred years for several ages after that Afterwards there arose a time of darkness upon the face of the Christian world in that darkness many errours crept into the Church many corruptions in worship
Councils and endeavours but only from the God of Spirits from him that moves the hearts of men when and where and whither he pleases by strong though invisible operations And which further entitles God to our deliverance was that it was wrought without Arms without war without the effusion and loss of blood in a still and quiet and peaceable manner This shews that it was from the God of peace this owns him for its proper Author and to him belongs the honour of it To us the due and proper use of such a timely and great deliverance 2. Having thus dispatched the former general namely the acknowledgment made to God that it is he that settles Kingdoms and Common-wealths proceed we now unto the latter which is the prayer put up to him Strengthen O God what thou hast wrought for us where we have these two things suggested 1. The necessity of Gods assistance for the confirmation and establishment of the Societies of mankind especially 2. And Secondly his willingness to establish them upon their due and right behaviour both which things are plainly granted by him that made this prayer for it else had the prayer it self been useless 1. The first thing then that is suggested is the necessity of Gods assistance for the establishment and confirmation of the Societies of mankind And had we no more for the demonstration of the necessity of Gods assistance to this purpose than the very nature of mortal men even this might serve for the proof of it All the affairs of mankind depend upon the actions of men their actions depend upon their Counsels and their Counsels generally upon their passions and these upon so many accidents so many little uncertain causes so numerous so various things that it is no wonder that every day produces so many alterations the wonder is that the greatest things that depend upon such uncertain causes the greatest Kingdoms and Common-Wealths have not more and quicker revolutions greater and more sudden changes than what we generally find have been The strength and settlement of every Government of every Kingdom and Common-Wealth depends not only upon the close and entire Union of the members of the fame Society amongst themselves a thing not easie to be had but upon all the several causes that keep the balance even and steddy between the neighbouring Nations also which causes are so very numerous and so various mutable and uncertain that the balance would daily change and vary did not God himself hold the scales and keep things even by his own power It is impossible to give an account of all the causes that may produce strange alterations in the Societies of mankind unless providence shall interpose for their continuance and preservation A sudden fire may break out in a Capital City and presently consume the greatest part of the Wealth and Treasure of a Nation A tempest or violent inundation an earthquake or thunder from above may have the very same effects A general Plague may sweep away such vast multitudes of the Inhabitants as that the rest may be exposed to the invasion of their neighbours This gave Sparta a great advantage against Athens The dulness and idleness of one Country may give opportunity to another to overgrow it in wealth and power and so to conquer and enslave it The Vice and Luxury of a People may soon consume their own strength and bring the same distress and difficulty upon a Country that they usually bring on a single Family Ease and plenty and wealth it self may first occasion disuse of Arms and then infect a whole Nation with a general softness and effeminacy and so expose it to the Usurpation of a hardier and more needy People Thus fell the Persians before the Greeks The death of a Prince or a great Man may prove destructive to a People When Epaminondas the Theban fell Thebes it self fell with him was never prosperous before nor after him Add hereunto what violent changes and alterations domestick Seditions may produce in every Nation and how many causes and little accidents may easily produce such Sedition The errours and mistakes of Magistrates the natural inconstancy of the People the ambition of Men of Wit and Parts or such as fansie themselves to be so their mutual enmities amongst themselves their envy at each others greatness their infinite rage and indignation when they fail of what they aspire after These with infinite other causes which are impossible to be numbred do as naturally tend to the dissolution of publick bodies of Civil Governments and Societies as all the diseases and fatal accidents to which mans body is obnoxious both from within and without also to the destruction of his body Now to what end is this discourse to shew the need that all the concernments of mankind that the greatest States and Kingdoms have of support from Divine Providence being not only so inclinable to crumble to pieces of themselves by the diseases that are within them but likewise so obnoxious too to be dashed to pieces each by other And if the very Civil Societies of mankind need the assistance of Gods Providence for their continuance how much more doth Religion want it Religion if true is a ray from God and depends as much upon his influence as the beam depends upon the Sun And being planted in us men must needs partake of our infirmities and therefore is apt even of it self like other establishments and constitutions to vary from Primitive institution and lose its original strength and purity So it came to pass that Christianity which in the first and Primitive ages maintained it self against all the cruelties of persecution by the zeal and piety of its followers afterwards suffered strange decays first by infinite swarms of Heresies and then by Ignorance and Superstition which now is reel'd to the other extreme namely to Atheism and Infidelity and to the contempt of all Religion Nor need we wonder it should be difficult to preserve so wise and holy a Religion as that which Christ hath revealed to us in its original strength and purity for it hath strong and numerous Enemies Every mans lusts are at enmity with it every mans vanity apt to corrupt it every mans Ignorance apt to mistake it nay the very Religion of some persons their pride and pretence to Inspiration the greatest Enemy to this Religion Besides all this there are several accidents that may have dangerous effects upon it according to the nature of times and places If the Ministers of it be poor and mean this generally brings contempt on them and upon Religion for their sakes If they be rich this creates envy and then Sacriledge is Reformation If a National Church be guarded and setled by the Laws of the State Dissenters complain of perfection and if it be not so guarded it is impossible it should be national that is that one and the same thing should ever be able to approve it self to an infinite difference of
apprehensions If a Church be setled by the Laws of the State and those not put in Execution opposers have a double advantage the Laws of the State being against them give them all the advantage of being thought to suffer persecution The not executing those Laws gives them all the advantages of Toleration and truly they have great advantages that have both these put together that of a seeming persecution and that of a real Toleration To these I might add many other instances to shew the frailty and mutability of all the Societies of mankind and how much help they do require from the power and Providence of God Almighty for their establishment and preservation 2. But I have said enough of this and shall now proceed to die next particular which is the willingness of God Almighty to afford his help and assistance to them upon their due and right behaviour Now the terms whereupon Divine Providence usually strengthens and settles Nations in peace and quiet and prosperity are 1 either general or 2 More particular 1. The general terms are the piety and vertue of a Nation 2. The more particular are due reverence to the Magistrate and chearful obedience to the Laws The former of these that is to say piety and vertue are so necessary so indispensable to this end that it is impossible that any Nation should flourish and be secure without them Prophaneness impiety and irreligion riot and luxury and oppression are so destructive to the peace and strength of every Nation that would God leave them to themselves and to their natural effects and issues would he stand neuter or indifferent and bring no other evils on them than what they bring upon themselves they would at length destroy a Nation for a people abandoned to prophaneness can have no conscience faith or truth to knit them together in society and the vices of luxury and excels are like a flame that eats and devours its own fuel and then perishes together with it dies and vanishes when that is consumed But God is far from being indifferent to any National sins or vices his Judgments indeed may be delayed but they are sure to come at last and that in most severe displeasure they have iron hands though leaden heels and come with so much greater violence for having been so long delayed Prophaneness wickedness and impiety destroyed the Kingdom of the Jews a Kingdom setled by peculiar Providence and under a Family chosen by God and anointed by his special Command God hath prescribed it as a Law as a certain Rule to his own Providence not to protect any such people as live in rebellion against himself and this we learn from his own words Deut. 5.29 O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always that it might he well with them and with their children for ever Where he is pleased to represent it as a thing ven out of his own power because so contrary to that Law which he hath prescribed to his own Providence to make it well with an impious people so necessary and so indispensable are piety and vertue to the establishment of a Nation 2. But now the more particular terms requisite to the same establishment are due reverence unto the Magistrate chearful obedience to the Laws quiet and peaceable dispositions These are so requisite to this end that whatsoever is contrary to them Rebellion Tumult and Sedition immediately tend unto destruction which is the reason why God hath charged and required obedience to the Magistrate in such express and explicite language and under a most severe penalty So hath he done Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But this is a duty that I need not perswade in this Audience All I have further to add is this that while we return our thanks to God for restoring our Prince and Laws and Government we do not omit the like for the peace we now enjoy under them while all our Neighbours are in want We dwell at home in our Country and sleep Securely in our beds while they are driven from place to place and alarmed with daily fears and dangers We build and plant and adorn our houses and habitations while theirs are burnt and battered down and lie in ruine and desolation We sow and reap eat and drink in peace and plenty and enjoy the fruits of our own labours while others reap what they sow and the owners it may be starve for want and think it well to save their lives which yet they cannot always do with their loss of all accommodations What full we render unto the Lord for these and all his mercies to us Let us love the Author of all our happiness let us demonstrate that love by free and thankful obedience to him Let us thus study peace with him and let us also duly study the things that make for peace amongst our selves Let us heartily and really love one another Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from us with all malice and Let us be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God fir Christs sake hath forgiven us Let us fear God honour the King not medling with them that are given to change So will that God who hath wrought our deliverance strengthen what he hath wrought for us To him c. The Third Sermon Philip. 1. 27 28. That ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries THere were two sorts of bitter Enemies that opposed themselves to Christianity in the primitive Ages of the Gospel the former were the Idolatrous Gentiles in whose hands the secular Government then remained The latter were those of the Jewish Religion who had toleration amongst the Gentiles Both which though differing each with other did yet conspire and agree in this to extinguish and root out Christianity The former because that this Religion did as well demonstrate the Gods they worshipped to be no Gods but Devils or Beasts or dead mens Souls Images and inanimate Creatures as the worship itself to be vain and barbarous The latter because it disannulled the temporary Rites of Moses his Law much more the many Superstitions which themselves had added thereunto Upon this account the Apostle St Paul being now in bonds writes this Epistle to the Philippians whom he had converted to Christianity not only further to inculcate what he had before delivered to them but also to fortifie and prepare them against such sufferings and persections as their Religion drew upon them He lets them know that he himself was now a prisoner for the Gospel that he
his affections and corrects exorbitant heat and passion and powerfully moves and inclines the Soul to sobriety patience and humility So is the third disease of the mind its vanity in useless speculations together with the effects hereof perfectly cured by sound judgment in things excellent and worthy knowledge 2. Add hereunto in the second place that the same judgment is a constant guide and faithful monitor to all our duties in every instance of life and action 1. A guide it is that points out the way to life eternal through all the varieties and uncertainties that perplex the minds and pervert the practices of them that want it a guide it is that doth not stoop to groundless dictates that is not frighted with bold Anathema's nor yet misled by soft perswasions by fair pretences or shews of Piety no mans confidence shall amuse it no mans zeal impose upon it If it be said loe here is Christ here an unerring way to life If it be said on the other hand no he is not there but here there is nothing but imposture under the name of infallibility nothing but Vanity and Superstition under a mask of external piety But here is the spirit of Jesus Christ here is his Doctrine truly preached here are his ordinances pure and entire without humane mixtures and inventions he that hath clear and stable judgment in the things the Apostle stiles excellent knows what to believe and what to practice in the midst of all this noise and clamour He is not put upon demurrs first to doubt and then to put off and delay his duty till interest passion or example till the hopes or fears of the present world prejudice and beguile his judgment much less by a mistaken zeal to pursue a crime instead of a duty and think he is doing God service when he is violating Gods Laws breaking the peace of a Church or State or censuring those whom he ought to honour Such is the singular help we have from the approbation of things excellent from stable judgment in all these things It is a constant guide unto us to shew us what our duties are in every instance of life and action 2. Nor is it only a ready guide but a faithful monitor to these duties for judgment inform'd by practical truth is one and the same thing with conscience and conscience is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conscience is a domestick God conscience is Gods vicegerent in us which both declares our duties to us and powerfully presses us to obedience No man offends it but wounds himself no man follows it but finds content in so doing whence that practice of St Paul recorded in his own words Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men And certainly did we take a survey of all the several considerations that recommend our duties to us and then so six these considerations in our thoughts as to turn them into a stable judgment this would so confirm and strengthen us in the choice and practice of what is good as that neither the hopes nor fears the charms nor dreads of the present World should move us to a wilful sin Let a man consider that his duties are made to be so by the Laws of God who having made us out of nothing hath made himself our Sovereign Lord by so doing and being so hath all Authority to command us Let him consider that these Laws are good and excellent in themselves as highly tending to the welfare both of Societies and single persons Let him consider with what variety of application God recommends our duties to us how he exhorts invites and intreats how he expostulates and reasons with us how he upbraids and chides our folly in many places of the Scripture Let him consider what he hath done and what he hath promised to do hereafter that he may perswade us to obedience that he hath given his Son to die for us to redeem us both from sin and punishment and promised his grace to assist obedience and eternal happiness to reward it And having considered all these things and digested the consideration of them into a firm and setled judgment can we imagine that such a judgment shall not perswade a free choice and ready practice of every thing thus recommended to him Especially if he shall further consider what are the principles within himself and what the temptations also without that urge him to reject his duty and what unhappy and sad effects attend the wilful rejection of it The principles within that corrupt our choice and practice too are as St John himself hath told us 1 John 2.16 the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life sensuality covetousness and ambition infatuations as well as sins and torments as well as infatuations especially in their effects and issues in the cares and Envyings and Animosities which they kindle upon the minds of men The temptations that move these vain desires are bodily pleasures secular riches and the esteem of vain men for none but such can value a proud ambitious person These are the things even these which are not satisfactions to the mind of the meanest man in the World these which bring regrets and pangs cares and anxieties death and misery along with them that tempt us to forsake our duties These are the things that offer themselves in recompence for the loss of innocence the loss of holiness and true righteousness the very Image of God himself These are the things that offer themselves in recompence for the loss of peace of Conscience of Gods favour and the care of his good providence over us Nay these are the things that present themselves in exchange for our immortal Souls the loss whereof cannot be made up by gaining the whole world it self for what shall it profit a man saith our Saviour if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Mark 8.36 37. So then let a man take an exact survey of all that recommends his duty and of all that moves him to forsake it and then compare them both together and the comparison will be thus On one hand there is the law of God who hath all Authority to command him on the other his own extravagant passions urging him to forsake that Law on one hand behold all the vertues all the graces of Christianity that is to say all the perfections of humane nature on the other all its sins and follies all its degeneracies and decays on one hand there are stable joys peace of Conscience peace with God and assurance of his grace and favour on the ther muddy and fleeting pleasures mixt with abundance of regrets on the one hand clear and setled hopes of future life and immortality on the other want of these hopes nay the fears and dreads of eternal misery Now when a man makes