This is a Cause which men do not indeed care so openly to profess but yet such a one as their Actions oftentimes do but too plainly point out to us And I wish that even this were all and that there were not some in the world whose very Principles seem to lead them into such an opinion so contrary to the very nature of Christianity and so fatally ruinous to their own Eternal Salvation For 1 st Not to say any thing now to those wise men of the world who laugh at all our discourse of another life after this and of an account to be given of all our Actions before a Divine Tribunal but to leave them to the convictions of their own Consciences which speak loudly to them this great truth and make them with Felix still fear what they pretend not to believe What shall we say to a more refined sort of Disputants who acknowledging a future Judgment and an Eternal Reward for those that do well yet extinguish in great measure all the flames of Hell-fire and allow of little or no danger for those that do ill They suppose that the worst that can happen to them if they should chance to be overtaken in their sins is but to lose their Portion in the Joys of Heaven and be for ever annihilated the only danger that if you will believe them attends the greatest Sinners in the other World But yet still methinks since they confess that there is such a place as Heaven and that there shall be an enjoyment of Honour and Glory there to all Eternity for those who at that day shall be found worthy of it even this should be enough to make them think it worth their while to endeavour to procure themselves a share in so much happiness And however they suppose that the Everlasting Punishment which the Holy Scriptures threaten sinners with shall be only an Eternal Annihilation yet since 't is plain that the same Scriptures speak very dreadful things of it and it cannot be denied but that the greatest part of Christians have and do believe that the wicked shall not cease to be but on the contrary for ever continue in a state of Misery which neither any tongue can express nor any thought conceive and 't is certain there are many passages in the Sacred Writ that seem very much to favour this apprehension indeed that cannot without violence be detorted to any other signification It must certainly be the wisest course not to be too secure in their own sense but whether they believe the Torments of the Damn'd to be Eternal or no yet certainly to live so as if they made not the least doubt of it 2. But secondly Another sort of men there are who by their mistaken Notions of Christianity have very much contributed to lessen their Opinion concerning the necessity of Repentance that I do not say have utterly corrupted the very nature and practice of it I mean the Casuists and Confessors of the Church of Rome It is a Point commonly disputed among these men what the precise time is in which men are bound by the Law of God to Repent There have been some of them indeed so severe as to think that a man ought to repent on all the greater Festivals of the Church Others think that 't is enough if a man do it against Easter But the common Opinion is that this is only to be understood of the external and ritual Repentance of the Church which consists in Confessing and Receiving the Holy Sacrament but that for the true inward Repentance the precise time in which the sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins is the imminent Article of a Natural or Violent Death Insomuch that some of them doubt not to say That even for a man to resolve to defer his Repentance and refuse to Repent for a certain time is but a Venial Sin nay and others think no sin at all And these men to be sure in express terms take away the necessity of present Repentance But this is not yet all for when they do come to the time that they think it necessary to put it in practice even then they find out so many other Artifices to elude the sincere performance of it that they who do all which they require of them yet do not in effect truly Repent What else can we make of the allow'd practise of that Church upon Confession of Sins and an imperfect Contrition for them to admit them to Absolution and so in effect make the whole of this Duty to amount to no more than a little sorrow for sin and a resolution to forsake it though at the same time they are so far from doing it that it may be they do not themselves believe that ever they shall make good such their Resolution And that too though they have neither any love of God in their hearts nor otherwise hate their sins than they are afraid of being damn'd for them I need not say how many other Devices these Men have found out to free themselves from the trouble of a true Repentance By Pardons and Indulgences by Masses and Prayers for the dead by Consecrated Garments and Priviledg'd Fraternities and the End of all which is what I am now complaing of to make men careless and negligent in the discharge of that Piety that God requires of them and of that Repentance which alone can obtain an effectual forgiveness of their Sins But these are not yet all who by their mistaken Notions of some of the Doctrines of Christianity have been but too much encouraged to neglect the practise of a Christian life Others there are 3 dly And those of a more near concern to us than either of the foregoing whose Principles seem without great care but too naturally to tend to the same neglect Such are The Great Assertors of Salvation by Faith alone without Works of God's Eternal Predestination and in consequence thereof Mens Absolute Election or Reprobation Of the slavery of the Will and its incapacity to do any thing as to the business of our Future state without that special Grace of God which if men have then they must needs do Well and without it cannot but do Ill and which God does not afford indifferently to All those to whom the Gospel is preach'd but to such only as he intends thereby to bring to Faith and Repentance first and then to Salvation Now not to dispute with any one the Truth of all these Points when wisely and soberly stated according to the Authority of the Holy Scripture that which I say is this That all these and the like Principles are apt to mislead Ignorant and Wicked Men who are not very well instructed in the true notion and understanding of them to a neglect of their duty as if the whole work of their Justification were either so secure and setled on the one hand
Charity to think they do not themselves know them to be so I fear the best Account we should be able to give of this matter would be That Interest and Prejudice blind their Eyes and that their Errors are as Useful and Beneficial as they are otherwise Gross and Unreasonable But would Men indeed lay aside all Humane Considerations as in things wherein Eternity is at stake they ought to do Would they with Charity and Humility seek the Truth and be as willing to discover their own as they are but too forward to censure other Mens faults In plain terms would they be Christians indeed seek nothing but the Glory of God the Peace and Unity of his Church and the Salvation of their own Souls I cannot but think that most of our Controversies would presently vanish and we should yet recover that Truth which I fear some Men have too long detain'd in Unrighteousness and been deprived of by their own fault But especially would they to this Honesty and Integrity add 4 thly The Apostle's next Direction Of fervent Prayer to God for his Assistance For certainly the Truth and Purity of Religion is so great a Good and so pleasing and acceptable to God Almighty to be implored of him that a pious and upright Man earnestly praying and heartily seeking after it shall hardly be deny'd the Happiness of being constant to the Faith if he be already in the right way or of being brought to it if he is not He who has promised the true Votary not to refuse him in any thing that is necessary or but expedient for him if he asks as he ought to do will never fail to answer him in a matter of such moment And if he does not neglect himself while he prays to God but uses such Care and Caution as St. Jude here directs us to do for our Security he need not be afraid though he were encompassed with Seducers on every side but be confident that he shall either still go on in the right way or obtain God's Pardon if after all this he should chance to be mistaken in it There is yet one means more whereby St. Jude exhorts the Christians earnestly to contend for their Faith And that is 5 thly By a serious Consideration of their future state Keep your selves says he in the love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life ver 21. And indeed it cannot be doubted but that this great Consideration which so highly influences all the other parts of a Christian Life must here also prove of a singular advantage to keep us firm and stedfast in our Faith This will make us diligent in all the rest will awaken our Care will perfect our Piety and enflame our Devotion By this we shall be secure that no worldly Considerations shall be able to prevail upon us to forsake our Religion We shall neither be moved for any Terrors to renounce it nor be cajolled by any Interests or Persuasions to give it up But we shall resolve as we ought to enquire diligently into the Grounds of our Profession to judge impartially and stedfastly follow what we are persuaded to be the right Faith that so we may be able to give a comfortable Account of our selves to God when we shall appear at his Tribunal No matter how severely we may be censured by Men for our so doing We know that Truth very often meets with and makes Enemies to the best Men. Christianity it self was once every where spoken against and St. Paul arraign'd as a Heretick But whilst with that Apostle we know wherefore we believe we shall be so far from being afraid of their Censures or ashamed of our Profession that should we for the sake of Christ as he was be brought even before the Tribunals of our Enemies we shall be able with assurance to answer for our selves as he did That after the way which they call Heresie so worship we the God of our Fathers believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets Such a power will this great Consideration of Eternal Life have over us to secure us in our Religion that it will actuate all the other means that have before been offer'd to establish our Faith and it self become a new defence and such as all the Sophistry and Malice of our Enemies shall not be able ever to overcome And thus have I given you as full an Account as the time would permit of the several things I proposed to consider And however I have not so closely confined my Reflections to the particular concern of those Christians to whom St. Jude wrote as not to have observed somewhat in general the use that all others ought to make of this Caution yet I will now in the close crave leave to offer two or three Reflections more which may serve to shew our own more immediate concern in it And First Let us from hence learn with what Zeal and Constancy we ought to contend for our Religion which I will be bold to say does if any in the whole World the best deserve the Character of the Text of being the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints and that without mixture of any thing corruptive of or contrary thereunto We pretend not to impose any thing either upon your Belief or Practice but what the Rule of this Faith the Holy Scriptures themselves prescribe or at least allow us to do We give no other Interpretation of Scripture than what is either so apparently the meaning of it that no impartial Person can doubt of it or else has been so universally received by the best and purest Antiquity and is otherwise so agreeable with the rest of our Faith that there can be no just cause to suspect it The Articles of our Creed are the same now which the Church has received and profess'd from the beginning and so evidently founded on the Authority of God's Word that they neither can nor do admit of any Dispute among Christians Those who the most pretend us to be defective in our Faith yet dare not say we are erroneous in what we do profess They acknowledge that what we believe is right only they think we do not believe all that we ought because not all that they would have us to do And certainly then such a Faith as this cannot but deserve to be earnestly contended for as being without all Controversie truly that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints And that so much the rather Secondly At this time when so many Seducers for I shall spare the rest of St. Jude's Character ver 4. are crept in among us and make it their great Endeavour by any means to draw us away from it I shall not repeat either the manner how I have shewn we ought to contend for our Faith against them or the Directions which from the Apostle I have before offered for the doing of it Let us only resolve
Tempers or our Circumstances lay us the most open and this will presently both shew us our danger and how we ought to fortify our selves against it But thô to enter therefore upon all the particular Devices of Satan whereby he leads Men into sin be a work as needless as it would be infinite yet some general remarks there are which we may do well to make in order to our security And 1 st It is commonly the first step which the Devil takes towards the leading Men into sin to perswade them to a Carelesness and Indifference in their duty Whil'st Men are warm and vigorous in the practice of Piety zealous of God's Honour and sincere in the pursuance of what makes for it 't is plain the Enemy can get but very little advantage of us But if instead of this we live only in a form of Godliness and regard not the power of it If we are negligent and unconcern'd for Religion and take but little notice of what it requires of us We are then ready for the Tempter to make his Assault upon us And 't will be no hard matter to deceive that Man into the commission of sin who is already but very little affected with the sense of his duty nor takes any great care for the fulfilling of it 2 dly Another device whereby the Devil often gets an advantage of us not only to hinder our Piety but even to lead us into the greatest violations of it is by the Customs and Opinion of the World I have before observed what Slaves we are the very best of us to these things They corrupt our Practice and debauch our very Reason and Vnderstanding And we may at this day find many things in the practice of mankind become the praise and accomplishment of a Gentleman which were we to examine them by the Rules of the Gospel would be seen to have no part in the Character of a Christian And then I need not say how fatally dangerous that must be to lead us into sin which is able so far to deceive our very Consciences as not to be thought to carry any guilt or shame in the commission of it And these are such Devices whereby the Devil oftentimes draws men into Sin I will add only two more whereby when once men are engaged in a course of sin he is wont to strengthen and confirm them in it viz. 1 st An unreasonable Hope of God's Mercy And 2 dly A vain dependance on their own future Repentance That is to say They sin on now in prospect of amendment hereafter and then they make no doubt but that they shall find favour and mercy with God as well as other sinners in the like circumstances have done before them But O God! what a desperate reliance is this whereon to venture all the Hopes and Glories of Eternity For tell me O Sinner whoever thou art that thus projectest a future Amendment after thou hast taken thy fill of Pleasure and art no longer able to pursue thy Sins and thy Debaucheries What security hast thou that That God whom thou so despisest shall continue thy life to thee and give thee any such Time and Opportunity to repent Canst thou command the Sun that it should stand still and put a stop to thy days that thou may'st the more freely follow thy Revels and thy Delights Or canst thou hope when thou lyest down on thy last Bed with Hezekiah to add a new Series of Years to thy expiring breath by then lifting up thy profane Heart and thy deceitful Voice to That God whom thou hast so long continued to offend Nay but couldst thou do this and so arrive to the time thou hast assign'd for this Work Art thou sure thou shalt then be in a Capacity of fulfilling it There is a time when there shall be no more any opportunity for Repentance tho' we should have otherwise leisure enough for the accomplishing of it And sure if any such is the most likely to be that Season which Wicked Men have lay'd out for their return to their duty in order to their going on for the present in their evil doings Nor is there any reason why that man should expect Grace to repent at the last who all his life long has neglected and despised the Offers of it I will not now say how unfit a time that of Old Age and Sickness is for so great an undertaking When the Soul as well as Body is feeble and impotent when the Memory is decay'd the Reason fails and our Affections are dull our Zeal is cold and all our thoughts taken up with the horrors of Hell and the sense of those Infirmities under which the Body labours But sure I am all these things ought to convince men of the desperate folly and even madness of such a procrastination and to engage them whil'st they have yet the time to lay hold upon that Mercy which it may be they shall hereafter neither have Grace nor Opportunity to implore But I must not pursue these things any further nor shall I make any Application of what I have already offer'd but without more enlargement will conclude all with the words of the Church O God who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our Nature we cannot always stand upright Grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom c. OF Stedfastness in Religion A SERMON Preached before the PRINCE and PRINCESS OF DENMARK August 5 th 1688. 2 PET. III. 17 18. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen THese words are not only the Close of this Epistle but also the Application of all that the Apostle before had written in it And for the understanding of them we must observe That the design of St. Peter in this Address to the Christians dispersed abroad among the Jews and now under great temptations either to corrupt or to abandon that Faith that had once been delivered to them was to exhort and stir them up to a constant continuance in their Profession and not to suffer themselves whether by the cunning Artifice of Some or by the open Violence of Others to be either totally frightned out of their Religion or to be misled into any false Doctrines contrary to the Truth and Purity which they had been taught In the beginning of the second Chapter he speaks of certain false Teachers that were crept in amongst them and made it their great endeavour by any means to bring in damnable Heresies And he foresaw that their wicked Industry would be likely to prove
obstinate but he cannot be wisely stedfast in the Faith A good Christian must be able to give some more reasonable account of his Faith than this if ever he means to be securely firm in the Profession of it His Creed must be founded on some better Authority than a bare Credulity And 't will be a very useless Plea at the last day that a man believed as his Church believed when he might have had the opportunity of a better information should he chance by so doing to live and dye in a damnable Heresie unless he can render some tolerable account either wherefore his Church believed so or at least wherefore it was that he submitted himself so servilely to her Authority But he that believes with knowledg because he is clearly and evidently perswaded that it is the Truth need never fear either the danger or imputation of such an Obstinacy for his firmness in adhering to his Faith If for instance a Member of the Church of England reads in his Bible those express words of the Second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above c. Thou shalt not Bow down to it nor Worship it If he looks forward to the History of the New Testament and there in the Institution of the Blessed Eucharist sees those words Drink ye ALL of this in as plain and legible Characters as those others Take and Eat and thereupon resolves never to be prevailed upon either to Bow down himself before an Image or to give up his Right to the Cup as well as to the Bread in that Holy Sacrament whatever glosses may be made or pretences be used to induce him to either 'T is evident that such a Firmness as this cannot be called Obstinacy unless these Scriptures be no longer the Word of God or that no longer a Principle of Scripture that in matters of plain and undoubted Command we are to obey God rather than man And in these and the like instances where the matter is clear even to demonstration there is no doubt to be made but that such Knowledg will certainly secure us against the charge and danger of Obstinacy But because all points in debate are not thus Evident but on the contrary many are not a little obscure therefore for the securing our selves from danger in our adherence to these too we must to our Knowledg add 2 dly A sincere zeal to discover the truth with an affectionate Charity to those that differ from us In such Cases as this thô we must believe and profess according to what appears to us at present to be the Truth yet since the Evidence is not such as to exclude all possibility of our being mistaken our adherence to it must be qualified with this reserve neither rashly to censure those who are otherwise minded nor obstinately to resolve never to change our Opinion if we should perhaps be hereafter convinced that we ought to do so Now in order hereunto it is not necessary that a Man should either fluctuate in his present Faith or not be firmly persuaded that he shall never see any reason to forsake it It is sufficient to take off the imputation of obstinacy that our stedfastness be such as not to exclude either a readiness of being better informed if that be possible or of making upon all occasions a strict and impartial enquiry into the Grounds and Reason of our Faith or even of hearing freely whatever objections can fairly be brought against it And all this with a sincere desire and stedfast resolution to discover and embrace the Truth wheresoever it lies Whether it be that which we now suppose to be so or whether it shall be found to be on the contrary side He who is thus disposed in his mind at all times to receive instruction and never presumes rashly to condemn any one that is thus in like manner disposed however otherwise disagreeing in Opinion from Him need never fear that his firmness is any other than that Wise and Christian stedfastness which our Text requires not such an obstinacy as both that and we most justly detest and condemn But here then we must look to the other extreme and take heed lest for fear of being perversly constant to our Faith we fall into a weak and criminal Instability To prevent this these three things may be consider'd 1 st That we carefully avoid all Vnworthy Motives of changing our Religion 2 dly That we be not too apt to entertain an ill Opinion of it 3 dly That if any Arguments shall at any time be brought against it that may deserve our considering we then be sure to give Them that due and diligent Examination that we ought to do I st He that will be stedfast in the Faith must above all things take heed to arm himself against all unworthy Motives of changing his Religion It is very sad to consider what unchristian means are made use of by some persons to propagate their Religion And a Man need almost no other assurance that it cannot be from God than to see the Professors of it pursue such methods for the promoting of its Interest as most certainly never came down from above Thus if a Man's fortunes be mean or his ambition great If Religion has not taken so deep root in his Soul as to enable him to overcome the flatteries and temptations of a present Interest and Advantage then there shall not be wanting a seducer presently to shew him that he must needs be out of the right way because it is not that which leads to preferment And 't is great odds but a good Place or an Honourable Title will quickly appear a more infallible mark of the true Church than any that Scripture or Antiquity can furnish to the contrary If this will not do and Interest cannot prevail then the other governing passion of our Minds mens fears are tried Instead of these allurements the False Teacher now thunders out Hell and Damnation against us Nothing but Curses and Anathema's to be expected by us if we continue firm in our Faith And it shall be none of the Prophets nor his Churches fault if all the Horrors and Miseries of this present life be not employ'd against us in charity to prevent our falling into the Everlasting Punishments of the next The Truth is I am ashamed to recount what unworthy means some have not been ashamed to make use of to promote their Religion and draw us away from our stedfastness France and Savoy Hungary and Germany The Old World and the New have all and that but very lately been witnesses what ways it is that Popery has and does and if ever it means effectually to prevail must take to propagate its interest Animus meminisse horret luctúque refugit Now he that shall be so unhappy as to suffer himself by any of these motives which a constant Man might and ought to have overcome
Justice and Continence had by the help of one Simon a Magician gain'd the Affections of Drusilla the Wife of Azis King of the Emisseni and lived in a state of Adultery with her Now this being the Case of Felix 't is plain that the Subject of St. Paul's Discourse was to remonstrate to him his Injustice and Intemperance and let him freely know That however he might carry it out by his Power and Authority now yet there was a time coming a future Day of Judgment when he should be called to a severe Account for all his Wickedness This was indeed an Address becoming the zeal of an Apostle and the Spirit of St. Paul And too plainly shews how little we have left in us of that Primitive warmth which inflamed this Holy Man by our different management on the like Occasions There can hardly be imagined any greater discouragement to such a freedom than what our Apostle here labour'd under To touch an Vnjust Governor in the point of his Violence and Injustice a lustful Adulterer in the business of his Incontinence this one would think should have been a pretty bold undertaking for any One But for Saint Paul a Prisoner one that was to appear as a Criminal before him for him instead of flattering this great Man as his Adversary Tertullus had done Verse 2. Instead of Applauding the great quietness which the people enjoy'd under his government and the very worthy deeds that had been done by his providence to call him to repent of his Rapine and Cruelty of his Intemperance and Adultery and this too in the presence of that very Woman whom he much loved and for whose sake he had done so many vile things this was an Honest freedom and plainness becoming an Apostolical Age but which I fear in these days of ours would be censur'd as rudeness and indiscretion any thing rather than a commendable Zeal for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls But alas St. Paul had not learnt that tender Application that is now a-days made to Great Persons He had no Interest of his own to pursue and therefore did not address himself after the manner of those who are more afraid of offending Men than of displeasing God and of disparaging their Character He knew the Doctrine to be seasonable to Felix and that if he pleased to make a good use of it it might be profitable too And he never stood to consider whether Felix would like it or no or whether it might not perhaps provoke him to run to any Extremities against him for his freedom In short He had an Vnjust Adulterous Man to preach to and he knew nothing so fit to reason of before him as of Righteousness Temperance and the Judgment to come And had we but the same honest Courage and Indifference that he had we should speak not only with the same freedom that he did but by the Grace of God with the same efficacy too And poor and despicable as we are thought by many yet in the power of that Divine Truth which we are sent to preach to the World make the greatest Sinners tremble to think That for all these things God will bring them to judgment And that this is the Case is the first thing I am to shew I st That the Doctrine of a Judgment to come is so highly reasonable that the greatest Infidel cannot but acknowledge the probability of it In pursuance of which Point it is not my Design to shew what Grounds the Holy Scriptures give us for the belief of a future Judgment which we all of us every day profess as an Article of our Faith and therefore cannot be supposed any of us to doubt of it What else do we meet with almost throughout the New Testament but Exhortations to live well upon this Ground That God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Acts xvii 31 That we must all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ Rom. xiv 10 That we must All appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ Every one to receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done whether it be Good or Evil 2 Cor. v. 10 What Revelation has there ever been more clearly made I do not say than this That there shall be a final Judgment but of the manner and Circumstances of it How the Trumpets shall sound and the dead arise and those that are alive be changed How the just shall be caught up into the air and the sinners lie groveling below in vain crying out to the Mountains to fall upon them and to the Hills to cover them How the Judgment shall be set and the Books open'd and every man judged out of the things contained in those Books according to his works Then shall the Son of Man come in his Glory and sit down upon the Throne of his Glory And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them the one from the other as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set his Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his left And he shall say to them on his right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World But to those on the left Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And these shall go away into Everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal In a word So particular is the Account which we here find of all the Circumstances of this great Audit that I scarce know any thing left unrevealed to us but only the Day and Hour when this Judgment shall be And which indeed God has in Mercy kept up from us that so we might always live in Apprehension of that which we can never tell how soon it may arrive But this is not that which my Text leads me to consider And indeed however it may be useful enough to call upon the most faithful Christians to think sometimes on this future Judgment yet it would certainly be a very needless undertaking to reason with such Persons concerning it and use any long Arguments to convince them of the futurity of it That which I have now to do is of a quite different nature 'T is to offer such Reasons for the belief of a Judgment to come as may convince the Greatest Infidel of the probability of it And shew them that whether they will believe us in other things or no yet here at least they cannot with any reason doubt of the Truth of our Doctrine but must resolve to become Good Men if they will not be persuaded to become Faithful Christians And indeed in this Sceptical Age in which we now live it may not for ought I know be altogether unseasonable to argue sometimes with Men upon their own Principles To shew them that Religion is not a
so wise or it may be is wiser than I am and sees farther than I do and therefore is not exactly of my Opinion in every thing Now if this be so as both the Principles of Reason conclude it very well may be and the common Experience of Mankind not only in the particular concern of Religion but in most other things assures us that it is That Men's Understandings are different and they will argue different waies and entertain different Opinions from one another about the same things and yet may nevertheless deserve on all sides to be esteemed very good and wise Men for all that How vain then must that Argument be which a Late Author of the Church of Rome has with so much Pomp revived against us from our Differences in a few lesser Points of our Religion to conclude us to be Erroneous in the greater and that because we are not exactly of the same Opinion in every thing that therefore we ought to be credited in nothing that is to say That because Protestants when they differ are mistaken on One Side therefore when they agree they are mistaken on Both 1 st It is certain that amidst all our other Divisions we are yet on all sides agreed in whatsoever is Fundamental in the Faith or necessary to be believed and professed by us in order to our Salvation There is no good Protestant but what does firmly believe all the Articles of the Apostles Creed and embraces the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God and Rule of his Faith and readily acknowledges whatsoever is plainly revealed therein and is at all times disposed to submit to any thing that can by any necessary and certain Consequence be proved to him thereby In short Our Differences whatsoever they are I will be bold to say They do no more nor even so much concern the foundations of Christianity as those of the Judaizing Christians here did If their differing therefore with one another was no Prejudice to the Truth of their common Christianity then I would fain know for what Reason our Differences which are lesser shall become so much a greater Argument against our common Christianity now But Secondly If our differing from one another in some Points be an Argument that we are not certain in any How shall we be sure that those of the Church of Rome are not altogether as uncertain as we are seeing we are sure that they do no less differ among themselves and that in Points too much more considerable than we do For to take only one Instance instead of many and that so considerable that Card. Bellarmin once thought the Sum of Christianity he meant the Sum of Popery to consist in it viz. The Prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome both in and over the Church of Christ. * Some there are who hold the Pope to be Head of the Church by Divine Right Others the contrary * Some That he is Infallible Others That he is not * Some That the Pope alone without a Council may determine all Controversies Others That he cannot Now if in these and many other points of no less importance they themselves are as far from agreeing with one another as they can possibly pretend us to be what shall hinder us but that we return their own Inference upon them That seeing they differ among themselves in such things as these they are so far from that absolute Infallibility they set up for that in truth they have not so much as any certainty among them even in those Points wherein they do agree Is it that in their Church tho there be indeed as many differences as in ours yet this makes not against them seeing they have a certain Rule whenever they please for the composing of them viz. The Definition of the Pope and of the Church This indeed I find is commonly said by them But then certainly if they have such a ready means as they say of Agreement among them 't is the more shame for them that they do not agree he being much more inexcusably guilty in the omission of any duty who having a ready means to fulfil it neglects so to do than he who has none or which is the same thing does not know that he has any But indeed they have no means of Ending their differences any more than we have The Holy Scriptures we both of us acknowledg to be the Word of God and an Infallible Rule of Faith but for any other direction they are not yet agreed where to seek it And sure that can be no very good means of Ending all their other Differences which is it self one of their chiefest Controversies Or is it That they agree in matters of Faith and differ only in those things that do not belong to it Because if they differ about any Point they for that very Reason conclude it to be no matter of Faith But besides the Impenitence of this Answer which amounts to no more than this that they do agree in what they do agree and differ only in those things in which they differ This is what we say for our selves concerning our Differences We agree in all those things that are necessary to a Sound and Saving Faith and if we differ in matters of lesser moment 't is no more than what all other Christians have ever done and what those of the Church of Rome it self at this day do So that still it must remain either that those Differences which were among the Christians of old and which are among us now are no Prejudice at all to the common Truth which we profess or if they be the Consequence will fall upon those of the Church of Rome no less that I do not say and more severely than upon us and be of the same Force against Their Religion that it can be against Ours But I must carry this Reflection a great deal farther for Thirdly If once this Principle be allowed That because Men differ in some things they ought not to be credited in any what then will become not only of the Protestant Religion as it now stands in Opposition to Popery but even of Christianity it self For might not a Turk or a Jew if he were minded to give himself so much trouble to so little purpose as this late Author has done draw out a large HISTORY of the VARIATIONS of Christians among themselves from the Controversie of the Text unto this day and then by the very same Principle conclude against us all That we have none of us any certain Grounds for Our Religion because the differences that are among us plainly shew that some of us must be deceived And to go yet one step farther Might not a Sceptick by the same Rule argue against all Religion and even against all Reason too That the disagreement of mankind in these and many other Points of the greatest Importance clearly proves that there is no certainty in any thing and therefore that
the Morning and our righteousness as the Noon-day God shall come and shall not keep silence He shall save us from our Enemies and put them to shame that hate us He shall arise and all our Adversaries shall be scatter'd they also that hate us shall flee before us Like as the smoak vanisheth so shall we drive them away terror and dread shall fall upon them Thus shall all our Mourning be turned into Laughter and our Heaviness into Joy and we shall yet sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb when he shall have given us rest from all our Enemies round about us Salvation and Glory and Power and Praise and Thanksgiving be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for Ever and Ever Amen OF Contending Earnestly for the Faith Which was once delivered to The SAINTS A SERMON Preached at MERCERS-CHAPEL January 8. 1687 8. JUDE iii. 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 deliver'd to the Saints IT is generally agreed by Learned Men that this Epistle was written by St. Jude upon the same Occasion and to the same Persons to whom St. Peter had not long before address'd his Second whose Thoughts he pursues and whose very Words he seems in some places to have transcribed And the Subject and Design of both we have here express'd to us in the words of my Text viz. to exhort the Christians dispersed abroad among the Jews neither to sink under those Persecutions that were brought upon them for their Faith nor to suffer that holy Doctrine which had been so fully and purely deliver'd to them by the Apostles to be corrupted by the Errors of those pernicious Hereticks who even already began to creep in among them Great was the danger of these Christians and great the concern of our Apostle for them To persevere constantly in the Faith at a time when the severest Tryals were made use of to affright them from it and to preserve it in its Purity when so many subtile Hereticks made it their whole business by any means to corrupt the Truth of it And no wonder if St. Jude thought it not only becoming that Character our Blessed Lord had honour'd him with in his Church to write unto them but even necessary for him so to do and to exhort them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to strive with all their might and as our Translation has very well rendred it To contend earnestly for the Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints For the due prosecution of which words as they lye before us in the Context I shall consider these Four things I. What that Faith is which the Apostle exhorted them to contend for II. How they were to contend for it III. The great reason they had at that time more especially so to do IV. By what means he advised them to contend for it that so they might secure their Faith in those dangerous times I. What that Faith is which the Apostle here exhorted them to contend for Now this the Character here given of it in our Text will clearly shew 'T is the Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints That Faith which the Holy Apostles had once for all instructed them in and which therefore both they and all succeeding Ages in the Church were both faithfully to retain and earnestly to contend for for ever So that here then we have a plain account what the true Christian Faith we are to profess is and where we are to seek it 'T is not the Faith of this or that Church or Party 'T is not the Faith of this or that Country or Century Let Men and Times make what Changes and Alterations they please in it The Faith that was once delivered to the Saints is what we are to contend for not for any Inventions or Additions of Men that have since been brought into it I shall not need to tell you whither you are to go for this Faith The Spirit of God by providing us a rule of it and assisting and directing those holy Men who first preach'd the Gospel to the Saints that then lived to send it down in writing to all the other Disciples that were to follow after to the end of the World has sufficiently directed us both whither we are to go for it and indeed where it is that we can alone be sure to find it And however Interest has made some of late the better to defend their Errors and to maintain an usurped Authority over Mens Consciences to pretend to some other Directions Yet since it is confess'd that the Holy Scriptures were written for that very purpose that they might be the Rule of our Faith and St. Paul has expresly told us That they are able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation and throughly furnished to every good work we shall have little reason to seek to any other Rule till some good Account can be given why this is not sufficient or by what Authority it is that they pretend to impose any other of their own inventing upon us and who gave them this Authority But however be the Rule of this Faith what it will that is not my business at present to dispute Let it only be resolved that the Faith it self must be no other than what was once delivered to the Saints and then I am sure it will be our duty not only readily to receive it but earnestly to contend for it be the means of its conveyance what they will This is the next thing to be considered by us II. How we are to contend for this Faith And here if the Question be concerning the manner of the Contention I have already observed that the Original Expression is very emphatical and implies a great vigour and earnestness in the doing of it To teach us with what zeal we ought to adhere to the Truth and defend it against all such as would endeavour either to affright or to seduce us from it Indeed whosoever shall consider the great value of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and what our concern is in the preserving of it will be forced to confess that we can never be too earnest in our contending for it Truth is in all things so worthy and desirable that a generous Spirit will think he can never prize it enough We see the greatest Men have made it the whole business of their Lives to pursue it even in the smallest instances and have thought their labours worthily rewarded if with the greatest Application and it may be with some danger and loss too they have but been able to find it out at the last Much more certainly ought that Truth which the Son of God himself came down from Heaven to discover and which had he not revealed it to us
it would have been impossible for us ever to have come to the knowledge of it to be most dear to us and not upon any account to be forsaken by us But when to this we shall add That these Truths are not matters of meer Speculation only to employ the Mind and exercise the Soul in the Contemplation of them That the concern here is not a useless Theoreme which whether we believe or not we are neither at all the worse now nor shall be ever the less happy hereafter but such by our keeping or betraying whereof we shall finally be Happy or Miserable for ever That therefore to give up these Truths is to become the vilest Traditors the Betrayers not only of our Religion but of our Souls too and that to all Eternity we cannot certainly but think it to be very much our concern to take the advice of the Apostle and earnestly contend for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints Such is the necessity of this Contention And two things there were wherein St. Jude here exhorted them to the Practice of it proportionable to the two great dangers to which I have before said these Christians were then exposed For First The Christians to whom he wrote were at this time actually under a Persecution for their Faith and by consequence under great Temptations to Apostatize from it And this danger was by so much the more to be apprehended for that a sort of Hereticks were crept in among them who the better to preserve themselves from those Evils which Christianity then brought upon all the faithful Professors of it had among their other Errors set up this for one That it was lawful in such Tryals to dissemble their Faith and to escape Persecution for it Now in Opposition to this base Cowardise of these Men we must first interpret the Contention here spoken of to imply a firmness and resolution of Mind to undergo any Evils rather than to deny their Religion That they should not like those vile Hereticks seek by unworthy Compliances to preserve themselves from danger and ruine their Souls in the other World to save their Lives and to preserve the little Interests of this And the same should be the resolution of every good Christian now Persecution ought to be so far from affrighting him from his Faith that he ought then most firmly to adhere to it when he sees others the most violent in opposing it What tho' he should be called to suffer for it Death ought never to amaze that Man who is able to look forward into Heaven beyond it and there see that Crown of Glory which these light afflictions that are but for a moment shall place upon his Head for all Eternity A true Christian is never greater than when he is under the Cross Nor can any thing be more glorious to the Faithful Disciple than to follow his dear Master not only in Well-doing but if the Will of God be so in patient Suffering too What shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us But Secondly This was not the only danger they were then likely to run nor it may be the greatest And the hazard of corrupting their Religion by the Artifices of those Hereticks who were unawares crept in among them was yet more to be apprehended than their total Apostatizing from it And therefore St. Jude here exhorts them to contend earnestly for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints i. e. to be very wary and circumspect to maintain it in that purity in which they had received it and not suffer any little Sophistry or Insinuations of their Enemies to lead them into any Errors contrary to the truth of it And indeed whosoever shall look into the Annals of the Church will find this to have ever been the more fatal danger of the two And that the Devil has in all Ages gain'd more by the secret cunning of his false Teachers than by the open violence of his Persecutors There 's many a Christian who has carriage enough to Die for his Faith that yet has not Skill enough to defend it And those whose business it is to deceive never fail to set most upon such as they think are the least able to do so And therefore it cannot certainly but be very advisable in us all and especially for those who are the most ignorant to be very careful of themselves as to this matter Not to hearken to every little Pretender that will but undertake to lead them but if any such offers himself to them to draw them away from the right Faith either absolutely to reject him or rather to bring him forth unto the light to refer him to their Teachers who instruct them in the Truth and who are therefore the fittest to defend the Interests of it And so maintain that wise indifference which ought to be the resolution of every good Man in the search of all but especially of divine Truth neither obstinately to refuse a better Instruction whenever it shall indeed be offered to him much less to be cheated out of his Religion by Noise and Confidence by high Pretences and no Arguments and so by his easiness betray that Faith which our Apostle here calls us so earnestly to contend for And this is a Caution that cannot be unseasonable at any time But yet some times there are wherein 't is more especially to be recommended to Christians And such was that wherein St. Jude wrote this Epistle Which therefore brings me to my next Point III. Of the reason which the Christians at that time had more especially thus to contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints I shall not now say any thing of that general Obligation which lyes upon all Christians thus to contend for the Faith viz. the Eternal Salvation of their Souls according as they are careful or not in so doing though this ought certainly to have always its weight too with us both because I have already said somewhat to this before and because I am now only to consider the particular Reasons which those to whom St. Jude here wrote had at that time so to do And those whethersoever of the two things we consider which I have before shewn they were herein exhorted to are such as ought very much to have engaged their care in this Contention For First As to the renouncing of their Faith They were actually under a Persecution for it Their Interests their Ease their Inclinations all sollicited them so to do And as if all this were not enough some who called themselves Christians among them not only encouraged them by their Example but even maintainâ—d it
their hands to bid them Receive Power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass for the Living and for the Dead I shall need say very little to shew the falseness of this Interpretation which many of their own Doctors notwithstanding all their Definitions concerning it yet are not themselves very well satisfied withal They freely allow that this Command of our Saviour when he bids them Do this cannot be so restrain'd to his own Act of Consecrating the Holy Eucharist as not to have an equal respect to the Peoples Act of Receiving it And by consequence that all that can hence be gathered is that our Saviour has hereby obliged his Church to the continuance of this great Memorial of his Death both by the Consecrating and Distributing of the Priests and by the Receiving and Eating and Drinking of the People and which is no other Account than we our selves give of the Words before us 'T is from hence that Aquinas concludes that all Christians are obliged as far as they have opportunity to communicate in this Holy Sacrament not only in Obedience to the Commands of the Church but as a thing which our Saviour Christ himself required when he said in our Text This do in Remembrance of Me. But Estius is more express He tells us that by Do this our Saviour plainly intended the whole Action both of his Consecrating and Distributing and of their Receiving these sacred Elements As if he had said What you have seen now done by me and you that do you and your Successors henceforth in Remembrance of Me. And that this is clearly the meaning he shews from the Context of St. Paul in the following Verses where repeating the very same Command after the Distribution of the Cup that he had mentioned in my Text upon the delivery of the Bread he expresses himself in this plain manner This do ye says he as oft not as ye shall Consecrate or Offer but as ye shall drink it in Remembrance of Me. And then immediately subjoins a Reason which clearly refers to the Peoples Eating and Drinking and not to the Priest's offering any pretended Sacrifice in this Celebration For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death till he come that is ye do by this Action of yours fulfil the Command before us ye set forth the Memory of Christ's Death and Passion and do this in Remembrance of Him And even Bellarmin himself tho' he supposes these words to have been spoke in a peculiar manner to the Apostles as those who were hereby to be consecrated to the Priestly Office yet cannot but own that they must refer as well to the Action of their Eating as to those of our Saviour's Blessing and Distributing the Holy Elements Nay he says yet more that it is most agreeable both to the Context of St. Paul and to his Design of repeating the History of this Institution to apply them rather to the Disciples action of Eating and Drinking than to our Saviour's of Consecrating and Offering the Error of the Corinthians which he design'd to correct consisting not in their Consecrating but in their Receiving of the Holy Eucharist in that they did not do it with that due reverence which they ought to do Tho' how to reconcile this not only with the Opinion of his Church before mention'd but even with his own Interpretation of Aquinas's Argument from this place to prove the necessity of all Mens Receiving this Holy Sacrament where it may conveniently be had viz. that St. Thomas did did not intend to collect this immediately from this Command as if it had been given to All but only by consequence as our Lord must be understood to have commanded the People to Receive what he commanded the Priests to Consecrate and Distribute I cannot easily understand The truth is both the Opinion of our Saviour's making his Apostles Priests by these words and the Paraphrase which they now give of them in order thereunto are a meer Invention of these later Ages sought out to support that other great Corruption of this Holy Institution the Communicating of the Laity only in One Kind When being pressed both with the Example of our Blessed Lord in his Institution of this Holy Sacrament who gave the Cup as well as Bread to his Disciples and with his positive Command to do that to Others which Himself had done to Them The nice Masters of the Schools Men who never wanted a subtilty to elude what they could not otherwise fairly answer first found out this admirable Secret unknown to the Church for above a Thousand Years before viz. That our Saviour here Consecrating the Holy Eucharist and giving a Command to his Apostles to Do likewise did invest them thereby in their Priestly Office and so intitule them to a Right of Receiving the Cup from him which neither they therefore had any Right to before nor have the People by consequence any more Right to at this very day But however such an Evasion as this might well enough become the School-Errantry and serve to amuze a barbarous Age wherein it was first invented yet was it certainly too great a presumption in the Council of Trent in such inquisitive Times as these to impose it upon Mens Consciences as an Article of Faith and to think by the vain Terror of an ungrounded Anathema to secure it against all Opposition For not to insist First On the many gross Absurdities and even blasphemous Consequences of the very Doctrine of the Mass it self That there should be a true and proper Sacrifice and yet nothing truly and properly sacrificed A Propitiatory Offering and yet no Propitiation made by it That Christ was but once offered for our Sins and yet that he should be offered again ten thousand times every day That by that One offering of Himself he should have perfected for Ever them that are sanctified and yet that those that are sanctified should not be perfected without many of these New-Mass-Offerings made for them To say nothing Secondly Of the inconsistency there is in the very Supposition That our Saviour Christ should ordain Priests of the New-Covenant in his Church before he had yet so much as sealed that Covenant by his Death or establish'd his Church To pass by Thirdly That we have another plain and evident Account both when and after what manner and with what words our Blessed Saviour did ordain his Apostles to the Ministry of his Church namely in the Twentieth Chapter of St. John where we are told how after his Resurrection he thus gave them their Mission ver 21 22 23. Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you And then he breathed upon them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And which are at this day own'd by the