Most High may take up the Lamentation of him that first gave them their Commission To whom shall we speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is Vncircumcised and they cannot hearken Behold the word of the Lord is to them a reproach they have no delight in it Jer. 6.10 Some indeed are much for the Ear attending to those scandals and reproaches that the envious man will cast upon him whom his malice ruins or his ambition undermines others even in Sacred things reduce devotion all to the Ear and when God principally requires the Heart in Prayer these will give little else but the Ear in Hearing being as partial in their Sacrifices towards God as they are in their Censures towards their Neighbours as if the Decalogue were now abolished and the only Command were Hear O Israel 'T was the error of the Euchites to be always Praying and 't is as great an error to be always Hearing as if the School of our Saviour should not only be enjoyned Biennial silence but be for ever mute Porphyry indeed that great Blaspemer big with malice against the Heavens when checks of Conscience forced him to speak out something of the results of his own Reason teacheth us to Sacrifice our Souls to God in silence with Chast thoughts How Chast men are at those seasons that ought to be attended with Solemnity and Devotion it would be presumption in any to judg but sure I am that they put in practice this sage advice of their Father Porphyry who thus pretend to Worship God in silence As if he that made the Tongue as well as the Ear did not require the one to make Oblations of Prayer and Praise as well as the other to Hear his Word or he that Created the whole man would be contented with a partial Sacrifice And now if any one has Ears to hear let him hear and not only so but retain also what he has heard so will the Exhortation in my Text be embraced Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning Having thus endeavoured to free mankind from such diseases and distempers in Religion I must now crave leave to attempt the recommendation of our duty and persuade men to the diligent attention to that Sacred Word which is able to make us wise unto Salvation and be greedy to receive it when not extended in an adulterated hand For as we cannot hear without a Preacher so he cannot Preach that is not sent Rom. 10.15 Some men are like those large tongued women in Tertullians time Tert. de prae Scrip. Hae. et cap. 41. who though a person of excellent Language was yet forced to inveigh against them that being so liberal of their Speech in Private conjectured they had if not Rhetorick and Reason yet yet words enough to declame in Publick whom the Father reprehends in this Prohibition Tert. de virg velandis cap. 9. Non permittitur mulieri in Ecclesiâ loqui sed nec docere nec tinguere nec offerre nec ullius virilis muneris nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem tibi vindicare or like those that St. Austin complains of in the second Chapter of his first Book of the Trinity that are garruli ratiocinatores elatiores quam capaciores that are pratling Disputants more shrill than rational How many dismal mourning souls whose Education never advanced them to any degree above Mechanism steal away the Priests Office as Neanthus did Orpheus's Harps who thinking to effect the same wonders Orpheus did and make Woods and Trees dance after his melody played so ill that the very Dogs being affrighted at his strange noise tore him all in pieces When we hear therefore we must not throw away our attention upon usurping Schismaticks whose very Preaching is their Crime because without a Sacred and Divine Commission and since giving them Audience is their encouragment it can no less involve such easie Auditors in a snare and guilt And yet since the Text exhibits something that always has been heard it does not only imply our duty of attention but presents us with what we ought to hear and that 's the Gospel what both the Apostles and Disciples were acquainted with from the beginning And since in that Sacred Testimony to our Saviour there are various Truths which make up its Contexture those things are first to be heard and received that are in themselves most Fundamental Primarium dogma de Christi divinitate says Justinian the chief Doctrine of the Divinity of our Saviour without which the Foundation being sunk the whole fabrick must of necessity be demolished For since his Divinity gives merit to his Passion by which his temporal punishment bears proportion to an infinite offence detract from his Deity and you spot his sufferings and then if he be a Lamb with blemish though he be slain he cannot satisfie and so the series of our Salvation becomes disordered and our eternal safety undermined And now perhaps some wise person might take advantage to exhibite or adventure at a Catalogue of Fundamentals and a clamorous Adversary might with as much confidence and triumph demand them but when we receive a particular of Explicits we may then attempt a Catalogue of Fundamentals In the mean time since Faith is the general condition of the Gospel and He that believeth and and is baptised shall be saved Mark. 16.16 Methinks we need disturb our selves no further for Fundamentals than to define what compleats that one thing Faith And though Interest and Opinion have rendered it as different from it self as one mans fancy from another and we have created almost as many varieties of Faith not only as there are Nations in the world but men too multitudes dealing by it as Caligula did by the Image of Jupiter Olympiacus when he took from it its head of Gold and put upon it an head of Brass yet if we will admit the Father of the Faithful to explain the difficulty we shall find that the practice of the Patriarch Abraham who is exhibited as a pattern for Gospel believers will give us a prospect of that Faith which had its being from the beginning And though there are many acts of this ancient Faith presented to our perusal in New Testament Pages yet there are two comprehensive of all the rest to wit Belief and Obedience For when he to whom all things are possible had promised a branch should sprout forth from this dry Root and that he would be his shield and great reward Gen. 15.1 Abraham did not question the word of a Deity who he knew was able to controul the world and alter the power of second Causes according to the pleasure of his own will but stedfastly assented to the truth of what God had promised relying on it with Faith and Expectation And as this Action includes belief of the Promises so the second prescribes obedience to the Commands and it was that work which St. James says justified
it self into an actual Rebellion And when various and severe Contests about Religion have openly distinguished men from each other till they are hardly able to know themselves when private Dispensations shall in some cases vacat Publick Oaths by single Interpretations and in Equivocations and Mental Reservations men are able to out-strip the Jesuit himself this is a way to remove the Pope only by bringing him into our own Bellies and instead of a Union of Protestants among our selves is the direct way to introduce Popery in Masquerade that I may use some Rhetorical words and to imbrace what we declame against and every Protestant is bound in his own capacity to withstand But when Trade and Occupations determine our Option and past Acts though evil in themselves must regulate our present and future deportment when persons chuse their Articles of Creed as well as various ways of Worship suitable to what they gain from those with whom they seem Religiously to associate Conscience and Christianity do no longer guide them but they give away their choice to Clients Trade and amongst Divines to the preferments of this World and all this while 't is Earth becomes their Supreme God and Secular Interest governs their Religion When Affairs therefore through our own indiscretion or the wickedness of others are brought to this pass that men will violate their Oaths to preserve Religion or neglect Prayers to serve God or attend Prayers to serve the Devil and when by such methods as these the Prologue is made to the dismal Tragedy of a general Confusion 't is time to call for a solemn Consultation and for a Christian Magistrate to interpose by Law least the Disorders in what we call by the Ancient and Venerable name of Religion may have too severe an influence on the State and both be ruined by the same hands since these are like Hypocrates Twins that weep and laugh both together 'T is time therefore at such a Season to call upon our sleeping Laws to awake whose Penalties have an equal Sanction with themselves and more especially because punishment of Extravagant Offendors can be no Persecution when the Christian Religion is not concerned but the various Interests of this World and Penalties in this Case will only restrain the inordinate Affection of some men to their private Concerns in relation to their abode here and teach them how to be Crucified to this World that they may more easily ascend into Glory in the next 'T will keep them steady whilst they walk upon the Earth when the Wings of their Ambition are clyp'd and pois'd and cause them to grow better by Religion and Loyalty that by a peaceable departure out of this Life they may enter into the Joy of our Lord. This though to some it may seem severe can be no violence offered to Conscience where we plainly see there is none at all 'T will be at most no more than a limitation of Trade and Covetousness by restraining the Contentions and Ambition of mankind And now if upon all this Discourse a carping Protestant or angry Romanist should blunder upon this Objection that if the Church be infallible quoad nos so it was at the time of our withdrawing from the Roman Communion and therefore we then breaking the Principal Bond of Truth and Union must remain guilty of the greatest Shism unless we return to that Church from whence we have departed It is without any difficulty replied that he supposes that granted which we will not yield for we were never lawfully subject to the Roman Church in respect of Spirituals any more than we were to the late Monster of Traytors in respect of Temporals a prosperous Usurpation giving them no better Title over our Church which was distinct at its first reception of Christianity than the others possession gave him right to his Sovereigns Throne both being effected by Subtilty Force and Usurpation Thus having through this Discourse exhibited a great Character of Truth which is prime Antiquity and given some slender account of what has been heard from the beginning All that remains is to inforce the Apostles Exhortation to the duty and beg that ancient Truths may abide in you We have now had the Tryal of all things let us therefore hold fast that which is good we have been too long tossed in a storm but having at last arrived at a safe Harbour let us no more sail out among the Rocks nor put to Sea whilst the Winds rage and the Waves roar The True Ancient and Apostolick Faith was for some time like the lost sheep it wandred about in a Wilderness of Error and the by Paths of Heresie and Schism being torn and scratched with Briars and Thorns not only till it was smeered with blood but at last it became Naked Truth Naked indeed for being void of Hypocrisie it became Naked of Friends too But now since we have found the lost sheep no wonder that I Exhort you as he did his Friends in the Gospel Rejoyce with me for I have found the sheep that was lost And since the search has been no less tedious than in these times full of hazard let us no longer shift the Principles of our Religion nor permit the wry Face of a man to draw our Souls and Bodies asside but let those Truths abide in us which we have heard from the begining Why should I use any Rhetorick to persuade when there is the Authority of God to command Tacitus informs us of Caesar's Soldiers Imperium potius quam concilium sequebantur A word of Command was more to them than persuasion or advice in a formal Speech And shall we that march under our Saviours Banner be more disobedient than a Heathen Militia Why should we not for Edification submit to true Decency and Order that we may no longer be like Samaritans and Jews refuse kinder Correspondences with each other As the Apostle therefore Exhorts those Jews who though dispersed were united in Christian Faith and Discipline so let me with all Charity and Affection beg that you would hold fast your Profession Heb. 4.14 Can we reasonably part with the Glorious Gospel which promises Crowns and everlasting Rewards that takes care of us after we are Dead and leaves us neither in Purgatory or the Grave nay that free us from the Torments of Hell and advances us to the Joys of Heaven We cannot once depart from our Religion but at the same time we abandon our selves exchange our Reason for Folly and Madness and barter our precious Souls for trifles and what proportion in this exchange What is a man profited says our Saviour nay how is a man utterly undon if to gain the whole world he loses his own soul Matth. 16.26 Understand what you are capable of apprehending and when you have found a Doctrine to be sound take St. Pauls advice to Timothy Hold fast the form of sound words 1 Tim. 1.13 Many of our fierce and staring Seperatists like their Ancestors of another denomination the Papists I mean embrace Principles and Ways of Worship though they understand them not As Quintilian speaking of the Toscan Rights and the Soothsayings of the Salian Priests Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta sed quae mutari vetat Religio Scarce apprehended by their Priests themselves but yet their Principles and Religion forbid a change But that Gospel which has been heard from the beginning is no Airy Doctrine to be condensed into a Cloud nor so hot as to be raised into a Pillar of Fire we are not to be conducted as the Israelites were of old nor thanks be to God and a Christian Government is the Church yet in a Wilderness condition our Principles are as Plain as Honest and our Religion as Intelligible as it is Rational and the Doctrine and Discipline if our Practice Corresponds which the Church of England pretends a reverence for by Gods blessing being submitted to with meekness will be sufficient to save our Souls through him who first published it to the World and died to make satisfaction for our sins Let this therefore abide in you that you may not be like Waves of the Sea always rolling and driven which way a Storm pleases but setled and immovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord which let God Cooperate and strengthen you in for Christ Jesus's sake To whom with the Father and his Eternal Spirit be all Glory and Honour now and for ever Amen FINIS
him even the offering up his Son Isaac upon the Altar Jam. 2.21 So that to sum up the whole Gospel in one word that you may here have presented in an Epitome what I humbly beg may abide in you He that believes the Promises so as to obey the Precepts that accepts his Saviour as a King to rule and a Prophet to teach as well as a Priest to make attonement and consequently submits to the authority of his Laws and to the conduct of his Ministry and Discipline that relies upon the merits of his Cross and persues the steps of his vertuous Life in order to the securing his eternal Safety He is the Person who retains what he has already heard and he need not fear any deceiptfull Imposition since he embraces that which was from the beginning Which minds me of the Motive here proposed to fortifie our resolutions that what we have heard may abide in us since it is no more than what was delivered from the beginning In Philosophical Propositions we usually deem those most certain that later experiments prove and evince but in Divine Truths those are best that were from the beginning Time which is in a continued flux being in this like the swiftest Torrents that carry down to us what is light and frothy but sink that which is grave and ponderous and indeed Reason which is the result of our nobler part if not disturbed by passion or interest is the surest guide in the midst of perplexities and this does upon the first prospect of Religion lead us to that which was from the beginning And Christianity being that which pretends to be first begotten in Heaven though brought forth here on Earth owning not less than a God for its Author whose great propositions are made up of Eternal Truths and since the Apostles were inspired to a compleat delivery of what was at first Preached by our Saviour the same Doctrine by a continued succession having been derived and conveyed to Posterity it follows by an inevitable conclusion that the surest way for us to whom these Principles are exhibited when any Objection or different Opinion presents it self to startle our apprehensions is to persue the first Rule and follow that which was delivered from the beginning But since the various subdivisions of those that intitle themselves to the names of Christians pretend to those infallible Maxims treasured up in the Sacred Book there must be left a Judg of Controversies or else there will remain no way of freedom from present disturbances or certain method of reducing those who being too fond of their own fancies resolutely adhere to their private Opinions to the detriment of Christianity and ruin of themselves and the obstruction of Peace and Unity in the world The Doctrine of the Gospel although certain in it self being conveyed to us in Words and Language which may admit of different Constructions suitable either to the use of words or the apprehensions of men cannot without such a judgment upon it as may oblige the various extravagancies of mankind to silence and a passive submission whatever may be their internal belief be sufficient Clue to lead us out of these Labyrinths Though had the multitude of its Followers justly measured and proportioned Understandings rightly to discern the Fruits wrapped in those Leaves it must appear to every man the best and only Conductor in the world But because every person usurps Authority to interpret and every Illiterate and Enthusiastical head if he has not reason to confirm his Gloss has confidence however to pretend an Inspiration necessity inforces us to seek some method to quiet our minds and to allay the briskness of our own fancies and those heats and fury that our warmer contrivances introduce into the world that so we may arrive at such certainty as is possible to be obtained of what was heard from the beginning And though I shall not attempt the leading any to St. Peters Chair nor beg that Rome may be the place of Umpire because there is no need of fetching water from Tiber when we have clear Fountains at our own doors yet reason must force this confession that since it is not the letter but the sence of Scripture that is the proper Guide of life there must be allowed some Interpretation since our demands to one another may be the same with the Eunuch to St. Philip how shall we Read without some Interpreter And then the last question will be who are those that are most likely to exhibit to us the exact design of Scripture Phrase and the infallible Rule that leads to Life To produce therefore some conclusions touching this controverted and difficult Question Those must certainly best inform one of the meaning of a Sermon that have had the most familiar acquaintance with the Preacher Capacities also to apprehend and Fidelity to deliver what they have received from the mouth of the Orator upon which proposition those persons that seem most rational attempt the proof of the Apostles Writings that are but the first Commentaries upon that Gospel which our Saviour Preached and Ushered into the World From hence secondly it follows that the persons who were the immediate Disciples to those Holy Penmen of Sacred Writ having the advantages of Converse and the benefit of Audience must of necessity be the fittest Judges of what is Controverted in matter of our Religion which we pretend to derive from their Books and Writings and there seems to remain nothing to be doubted but either their Capacities to receive or their Faithfulness to deliver what they heard from the beginning Their Capacities and Parts their Writings publish their Integrity and Honesty their Lives declared neither had they either reason or advantage thus to cheat or impose upon the world And therefore those Writers who lived in the first Ages of Christianity are first to be believed that in difficulties and straits we are to have recourse unto and consequently the later to be less confided in as having met with greater and more subtile opposition and therefore subject to more intermixtures of heat and passion and like Rivers the further off the Fountain the less do they retain of their first purity and the greater mingling of different waters As the nearer we are to the Fountain therefore the clearer will the Stream be so the nearer we Travel to that which was heard from the beginning the more certain and infallible will our Guide and Rule be But because the reports and sayings of Fathers are like melted Wax that receives the Image suitable to the Seal which makes the impression and persons of divers Churches and Persuasions deal with their Sentences as young Sophisters with a Text of Aristotle by a distinction or a figure force them to countenance the various Sentiments of their disturbed minds If we rest here we shall still be as far from the end of Controversie as the Controversie from the beginning of Truth To proceed further then by the