Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A57150
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The peace of Jerusalem a sermon preached in the Parliament House, Jan. 9, 1656 : being a day of private humiliation kept by the members thereof / by Edward Reynolds.
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Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing R1271; ESTC R22215
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20,052
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40
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case of the captivity of Iudah was their despising of the Messengers of God 2 Chron. 36.16.2 Because such sins do more exceedingly divide and unty the bonds of love and amity which Christian truth doth preserve then other more civil differences and so loosen the hearts of men from one another Lastly This Doctrine hath been m by our learned Writers maintained against n Doctors of the Roman Church for they are the men who to maintain Papal Supremacy and to keep all Ecclesiastical power within themselves have shut out the civil Magistrate from it which I onely name that you may consider what hands they are that sow such Doctrines amongst us with a purpose no doubt to make use of a boundless licence to instill corrupt doctrines into as many as they finde fit tinder to catch that fire Since therefore such a charge doth evidently lye upon Magistrates to use their power for the Peace and prosperity of the Church the Lord doth accordingly expect from them the discharge thereof Where he gives talents he will call for accompt But it may be objected Is not this to abridge and annul that liberty which ought to be indulged to the consciences of men I answer First in general and by way of concession God forbid that any should assume dominion over the consciences of men The Apostle himself said We are not Lords over your faith we are but helpers of your joy 2 Cor. 1.24 It would be a high and withall a vain attempt An high attempt for no man can give Law further then he can reward and punish accuse and convince But no man can either search or reward or punish the conscience therefore no man can give Law unto it And upon the same reason it would be a vain attempt for none but a divine eye can see the conscience therefore none but a divine Law can bind it If such words or such writings be blasphemous and subversive to Church or State or both and highly derogatory to the honor of Christ civil restraint can reach them But thoughts it cannot reach they are unsearchable by an humane eye and therefore unreducible to a humane power And again God forbid we should straighten liberty which Christ hath purchased for us Let every man stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free whom Christ hath made free cursed be that man who shall go about to intangle him in any such yoke of bondage as is contrary to that freedom Secondly In particular we say 1. Where men agree in the main fundamental Doctrines of truth and godliness in the Substantials of Faith Worship and obedience there ought to be a mutual love toleration and forbearance of one another in differences which are not subversive unto Faith godliness So long as we walk by the same rule and mind the same things wherein in other things we differ we are to wait upon God to reveal even the same unto us Phil. 3.15 2. We say Christ did never either purchase or permit to any man professing himself a Christian a liberty to subvert or endeavour to subvert by blasphemous heretical idolatrous or irreligious and impious Doctrine the foundations of Faith Worship and holy obedience which he hath laid in his Church or to remove if I may so speak the ancient Land-marks of Christian Religion The great Truths of God the great interests of the Gospel ought to be dearer to us then the liberty of any blasphemous or impious tongue or pen 3. Magistrates are wisely and cautelously to didistinguish between weak brethren and wicked malicious disturbers of the doctrines of salvation and peace of the Church as the Apostle doth between the bewitched Galatians and those that bewitched them concerning whom he saith I would they were even cut off that trouble you Gal. 5.12 Which imprecation he would not sure have uttered against them if in sowing their false Doctrines they had onely made use of a lawful liberty o 4. With the word such a lenity and moderation is to be used as first to reprove rebuke exhort them with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.2 to admonish them once and again and when they are found unreclaimable then to reject them Tit. 3.10 5. We are to distinguish between the conscience of the Seducer and the spreading and infection of his Doctrine p It belongeth unto the care of the Magistrate to endeavour the converting and reclaiming of him which though it cannot be effected yet further and principal care must be used to prevent the spreading of infection This was done in the Apostles time by rejecting an heretick refusing to have brotherly communion and society with him So an effectual means may be used to keep the leaven from the lump use what mercy and lenity you judge most consonant unto Christian meekness towards the persons themselves but above all things be zealous for the purity and peace of the Church wherein divisions and subdivisions exceedingly tend to weaken to distract to betray it We have to do with wise and vigilant with subtle and sedulous Enemies who formerly were and no doubt still are intent upon their design to shake this Nation from the true Protestant Religion wherein as the Duke of Roan gravely observed the interest thereof did stand And I believe if the new things which are broached were duly examined you would find in most of them if not legible characters as in the doctrines which deny or diminish Original sin and affirm free Will yet a secret aspect and tendency towards Rome They cry down our Ministers as no Ministers of Christ and so did Champney and Kellison and the Romanists heretofore They cry down our Ordinances as polluted and impure and not to be joyned in and so the Pope forbad the English Papists in Queen Elizabeths time to joyn in the same Worship and Ordinance with Protestants they cry down Learning and Schools of Prophets and what greater advantage can a learned Papist have then to have none but unlearned Adversaries to dispute withall They teach Adoration of Christ in a sinful man at his feet a plain manuduction to adoration of Christ in an hoast They tell you they dare not limit Christs body to Heaven an handsome step towards corporal presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation They press to follow a light within secretly intimating imperfection in the Scripture unto which why may not as well Ecclesiastical Traditions be added as an imagininary light They say we must follow the commands of that light a shrewd preparation to any desperate attempt when season and advantage calls for it The Lord give you wisdom to foresee evils they are better prevented then suppressed And for that purpose be pleased To encourage Orthodox godly and learned Ministers and the Schooles of learning vindicate and protect them from reproch and contempt When Alexander the Great sent Ambassadors unto Athens requiring them to deliver up their Orators into his hands Demosthenes in
shall never totally fail But particular Churches and Nations never had a Patent of perpetual preservation Rome boasts of it but the Apostle hath entred a caveat against that boast Rom. 11.20 21. But all Gods promises of not failing us are made to those who keep covenant with him otherwise he also will break with us The Lord saith the Prophet unto Asa is with you while you be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15.2 I said saith the Lord unto Eli That thy house and the house of thy Father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith be it farre from me for them that honor me I will honour and they that despise me shall he lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 The Lord marâ—ied his Church for ever Hos. 2.19 but when she committed adultery he gave her a Bill of divorce Ier. 3.8 He said he would dwell in his Temple for ever Psal. 132.14 yet he threatned to forsake it Ier. 6.8 and accordingly did so Ezek. 10.18 We should consider this and tremble at it as Iosiah did lest our mighty sins unthankfulness unfruitfulness animosities Heresies Blasphemies contempt of the Lords Messengers the sinne for which the Lord departed from Iudah when there was no remedy 2 Chro. 36.16 should provoke him to depart from us to take away his peace as he threatned Ier. 16.5 to shew us the back and not the face Ier. 18.17 And what a case is Gods own heritage in when he forsakes and hates it Ier. 12.7 8. If the way and the joy and the name of the Lord be the strength of his people what strength is left to them when they are gone out of his way and deprived themselves of his joy and cannot lay hold or lean upon his Name As therefore when men see the walls of their houses crack and open they hasten ro repaire them and set up Props and Buttresses to support them so when we see such vicissitudes of distractions war be land and then war at Sea again war at Sea and we know not how soon by Land again shaking shivering convulsion fits in the Church of God many a breach and hiatus in the walls thereof Truth corrupted Unity dissolved the Foundations out of cause it is high time to think of making up breaches repairing the waste places and raising up the Tabernacle of David to beg of God that he will lay our foundations and make our windows and set up our gates remove our fears rebuke our enemies calm our tempests that after so many shakings and concussions the Lord may at last be pleased to speak in a soft still voice unto us Secondly We are to pray for Brotherly Peace in the Church amongst the members thereof that as Christ is one so they may be one John 17.22 knit by Faith to him and by Love to one another as the Curtains of the Tabernacle were by loops and taches that as we are one City Houshold Family Assembly Ephe. 2.19.3.15 Hebr. 12.22 so we may have one heart and one soule Act. 4.32 In the body the head hath not one heart and the hand another the eye hath not one Soul and the foot another but one heart doth warm the whole and one Soul doth quicken the whole So should it be in the Church of God we should have one heart and one way Ier. 32.39 walk by the same rule and mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 gather up the stones remove every thing that offendeth Isai. 62.10 not prefer ends or interests above the publick peace of the Church of God apply our selves in all sweet ways of Christian correspondence and mutual condescension to make up the breaches and to pour oyl into the wounds of the Church of Christ It d cannot be but a joy to our adversaries a blemish to our profession a grief to good men a stumbling block to evil men to see brethren fall out in the way to see the Church crumbled into divisions and subdivisions and like a body which hath the itch to see one member tear and scratch and rub and gaul the rest and must needs give unspeakable advantage to our subtle and vigilant e adversaries both to reproach and to undermine us Thirdly we are to pray for external peace with all men which is as much as in us lies we are to follow walking wisely meekly humbly charitably obligeingly towards every one And in as much as the Church is as the Ark on the Waters Waves and Windes ready still to beat upon it we should pray for it that it may be delivered from the hands of strange children and that the Lord would still the raging of the Sea rebuke the enemy and the avenger the multitude of the Bulls with the Calves of the people and scatter those that delight in War We have tasted of War both domestick and forain but the Lord hath mingled it with much mercy If our eyes had seen the fruits thereof as other people have felt Cities burned with fire Children wallowing in blood Virgins perishing under the lust of Villains Widows mourning for their dead and dying for dareing to mourn Towns turned into heaps a Garden of Eden into a Wilderness no cattle in the Field no Flocks in in the Fold no Heard in the Stalls no Inhabitant in the City no child to the Father no Husband to the Wife no Money to the rich no cloathing to the delicate no Mercy in the Enemy no Liberty in the miserable to bewaile his misery Children howling for bread the honourable imbracing dunghils Death creeping in at Windows overtaking them that flie and finding out those that hide themselves we would learn to prize a recovered peace and to pray for the continuance of it Weighty are the Reasons in the Text to demonstrate and press this Truth upon us First The condition of the Church a City compacted and knit together by many strong bands one Father one Head one Family one Rule one Faith one Love one Baptisme one Spirit one Common salvation No where is peace so natural so amiable as in the Church Secondly The celebrity of Gods Worship which is the glory of a people let the Ark be gone and the glory is departed No so doleful a sight as the desolations of the Temple Psal. 74.3.79.1 Isa. 64.10 11 12. All our foundations and springs are here Psal. 87.1 7. the wells of salvation the Fountain of the Gardens the Graces and Comforts of Gods Spirit which make our souls like a watered Garden Thirdly The Thrones of David the Towers Bulwarks and seats of judgements in which things stand the externall happiness of a Nation Laws and Iudges are the foundations of the Earth Psal. 82.7 When they were corrupted with injustice and violence the Lord threatned that Ierusalem should become heaps Mich. 3.11 12. Great reason therefore to pray for Ierusalem that it may be a City of Righteousness