what to believe and what to hold and retain with a firm resolution nor exposed us without any help for it to be carried away by the errour of the wicked but abundantly provided us with all things necessary for the knowledge of the Truth and for our improvement therein unto a state of stedfast belief Which is the third thing III. We are not left by God without the means of being settled in the Faith notwithstanding the Blasts of contrary Doctrine which may be in the Church and notwithstanding the cunning and craftiness whereby they may be managed For it is the very Scope of the Apostle in this place to convince the Ephesians that God had taken such care and made such provision that they might not henceforth be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine c. There was a remedy then against this lightness and inconstancy it was possible to discern truth from falshood the Christian Faith from the vain Doctrines which troubled the Church and if they did not continue Children they might continue stedfast in that Faith and not be moved from it by the violent Blasts of contrary perswasions God did not think fit as you have heard to lay such a restraint upon mens Spirits that none should be able to contradict the truth preached by the Apostles but permitted false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ for the tryal and exercise of the faithful whom he furnished with sufficient means to preserve themselves in a settled constant belief What those means were I shall briefly lay before you as I find them partly here and partly in other places of the Apostolical Writings and shall treat of them with a particular respect to our selves that we may be established in the truth of his holy Gospel First Nothing is to be admitted without good Proof Secondly In the Proof we make of Doctrines the holy Scriptures must be the Rule whereby we judge Thirdly In the use of this Rule we must take direction of our Spiritual Guides and Governours And Lastly We must live in the sincere practice of all other Duties of Christian Piety First The first Direction is that of this Apostle St. Paul to the Thessalonians 1 v. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good Which is the same with that of St. John 1 iv 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World From whence it is likely Dionysius of Alexandria formed that Precept which he calls an Apostolical voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye skilful Bankers able to distinguish between good and bad Silver * Euseb L. VII Hist Eccles Cap. 7. Children indeed having not the faculty of discerning take all upon trust but it is a shame if being arrived at the state of Manhood we do not prove and try and examine as the word signifies every thing that is offered to our belief which we ought not to receive merely because confident men would impose it upon us by their Authority And if it will not abide a proof nor stand a tryal we may be certain it is deceitful Ware which they would put off in the dark and not have brought into the light Now in this proof we must be very serious for nothing can be examined thoroughly without an attentive mind Which we must awaken to ponder and consider every thing in the use of the best reason we have and whatsoever appears upon examination and proof to be agreeable to the Faith once delivered to the Saints that we must hold fast and not suffer our selves to be carried from it by any importunities of contrary affections For as we must receive nothing without good reason so we ought not lightly to forsake that which we have good reason to believe When I speak of Reason I do not mean bare natural Reason without the guidance of God's Grace For which we must heartily pray and He no doubt will readily vouchsafe unto all those who seriously seek for it with a desire to be led by it in the ways of truth and holiness For having given us his Son and by him revealed his mind and will unto us it is infidelity to think that he will not guide us by his Grace to understand his mind and will in all things necessary to our salvation Far be such a thought from our hearts which ought to rest satisfied that he will give us his Grace to direct us as freely as he hath given us his Son Christ to inlighten and instruct us He is as little sparing of his Grace as the visible Sun is of its Beams which shine into the eyes of all those who do not by wilful winking shut it out and thereby make themselves not the Sun guilty of their blindness If we love darkness rather than light or will not be at the pains to open our eyes and let it in but instead thereof give up our selves to be led about by others as they shall please to conduct us it is but just with God to deprive us of the power of judging aright and not to let us see when we would because we would not when we might He hath given us the use of Reason which if we will blindly resign to any pretended Authority what is it but to shut our eyes when we should open them or suffer our selves to be hood-wink'd when we should look about us that we be not deceived We can give no account of this to God who did not give us this talent that we should give it away to others but that we should faithfully employ and improve it our selves He never intended that we should let others judge for us but requires us to examine and judge our selves whether there be reason to receive that which is propounded to us by others This is so great a Truth that they who receive things without examination upon mere trust yet have some reason for what they do For no man trusts another till he hath reason to think he is an honest man and will not deceive him He doth not take his bare word for it that he will not deceive him but hath some ground or other to think he will be as good as his word Insomuch that they who seem least to trust to their own reason do really trust it in the weightiest matter when they trust it to chuse one for them whom they may trust They of the Roman Church I mean who would have us give up our Reason to their Authority do not pretend to perswade us to submit to that Authority without some reason for it And to be perswaded by reason as hath been long ago said that to their Authority we ought to submit our Reason is still to follow Reason and not to quit it and blindly resign it And if we must follow Reason in that why not in all things whatsoever Why
than the Lord Christ's was Can the Disciples convince men more than their Master did If that be a hopeless thing then there will be Controversies even about this Infallibility Which leads to the Third thing III. It appears plainly from hence that God never intended all errors should be kept out of the Church by an Infallible Authority No directly contrary St. Paul saith 1 Cor. xi 19. There must be heresies that they who are approved may be made manifest That is God thinks it just that men should be permitted to follow their own foolish conceits when they will not be guided by the plain directions of his holy Gospel By which means sincere and upright men are discovered and all men are tried whether they will obey the truth or turn aside unto unrighteousness There must be a tryal made of men and therefore such order must not be taken as to make it impossible there should be any heresies No God hath left it more than possible there should for there must be Heresies that there may be approbation made of Believers whether they will sincerly adhere to the plain truths of Christian Religion or part with them for pleasing and gainful errors Besides if God had intended to prevent this by establishing an Infallible Guide to whom all should resort He would have declared this intention the most plainly of all other things And have told us also where to find such an Authority and not have left this to be controverted and disputed which was intended to be the end of Controversies More especially if any one particular Church was to have this authority over all other Churches it would have been most needful that this should have been so clearly taught as to have put it out of all doubt For we can see no reason not so much as that of convenience why one Church should have it and all others want it but in reason every Church should have it if it were to be had that men might not be put to the trouble of going far for Infallible direction And as for that Church which now pretends to it there is the clearest evidence that no Church anciently thought it to have more Authority than other Churches who lookt upon themselves as her equals I speak of the Church of Rome whose Determinations and Traditions in matters of Doctrine were rejected by St. Cyprian Firmilianus and the rest of the African Bishops who write to the Pope as every one knows who reads St. Cyprian's Epistles not as their Superiour but as their good Brother their Collegue their fellow Priest rebuking him with much sharpness taxing him for pretending vainly * V. Epist LXXII LXXV Edit Oxon. to Apostolical Authority where he had none and for not conforming himself to the rule of Truth and Peace delivered by the Apostle and in downright terms affirming that every Bishop in the administration of his Church hath power to act according to his own judgment and that none could impose Laws upon another And as for matters of Ceremony all the Bishops of the East refused to submit to him challenging as much Authority from St. John as the Roman Bishop did from St. Peter This is notorious in the famous Question about Easter and sufficient to show the truth of what Aeneas Sylvius could not but confess before he came to be a Pope that little respect was had to the Roman Church before the Council of Nice And that Council expresly decreed the ancient Customs should be every where observed By which Antioch and Alexandria claimed the same Authority over the Churches subject to their Jurisdiction that the Roman Bishop did within his Diocess And thus it continued for many years after nor do the greater part by far of the Christian World at this day own any such Authority over them as the Bishop of Rome now challenges Let us not therefore be shaken by this Wind of doctrine no more than by any other wherewith this Church hath been troubled For there is no such Infallible Authority left in the Church for the deciding all Controversies much less can that Church lay the sole Claim to that Authority there is left in it or if it could justly pretend to the highest it would not be able to do what a far more miraculous Authority could not effect and there are other means of unity and peace prescribed by God which if men will not embrace there must be discords and dissentions whereby the integrity or falseness of every mans heart will be discovered What Means those are you shall see anon when I have spoken a few words of the Second Observation which now follows II. It is a childish thing to be unsettled in Religion because of this difference or contrariety of Doctrine wherewith the Church is at any time troubled So the Apostle might well call it because there being as I have lately shown you a form of wholsome words left by them in every Church which they planted a Summary of Sound Doctrine called the Faith once delivered to the Saints there could be no reason that any men who had this deposited with them should be unresolved what to believe and unsettled by the Preaching of other Doctrine but their instability proceeded merely from the weakness of their understanding and the strength of their passions These two things are remarkable in little Children as their understandings are weak so their passions are strong and their desires violent From whence it comes to pass that they are not only credulous but fickle and new-fangled as we speak delighting in that to day which they throw away to morrow These make them rash and hasty apt to quarrel one with another about little differences and dispose them to be taken with empty shows and pageantry with things that affect the senses and have a glistering appearance though void of all inward goodness and solid worth and usefulness In short while we are Children in understanding we are naturally injudicious and consequently inconstant We do not judge aright of things that differ and so are carried uncertainly to and fro as the Apostle here speaks from one thing to another and many times from better to worse especially when we meet with confident people who easily impose upon us This is a very dangerous estate and therefore it highly concerns us to get out of it by growing in knowledge and wisdom imitating little Children only in our endeavours to be without guile but labouring as the Apostle speaks in understanding to be men and to have a thorough knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus This St. Peter prescribes as a remedy against unstedfastness in the conclusion of his second Epistle Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things beware lest ye also being carried away by the errour of the wicked fall from your stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who it is most certain hath not left us in doubt
Imprimatur Joannes Battely RRmo Patri ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep Cantuar. à sacris domesticis Ex Aedib Lambeth Maii 17. 1686. A SERMON PREACHED ON Saint MARK 's Day MDCLXXXVI IN THE PARISH CHURCH of St Paul's Covent Garden BY SYMON PATRICK Rector there LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1686. A SERMON PREACHED On St MARK 's Day 1686. EPHES. iv 14. beginning That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine c. THese Words which are part of the Epistle for this Day contain a principal reason why God furnished his Church with such variety of Gifts and so many Ministers of the Gospel of his Grace as you read of in the foregoing Verses Where the Apostle observes ver 8. that after our Blessed Lord was raised from the lower parts of the Earth and ascended up into Heaven He gave gifts unto men and filled all things ver 10. And some he proceeds to shew were made Apostles who were the chief Ministers of Christ the Witnesses of his Resurrection the great Luminaries of the World by the laying on of whose hands the Holy Ghost was given unto others And next to them he placed Prophets who were inspired persons that had an excellent faculty of expounding the old Scriptures which prophesied of Christ and foretold the things that they now preached and did also in some cases foretell like the Prophets in antient time what was to come to pass hereafter in the Church of Christ After whom followed Evangelists of which Rank was St. Mark whose Memory is this Day celebrated They were men who accompanied the Apostles and went about with them in their travels to be sent by them as they were by Christ either to preach the Gospel where they could not go themselves or to confirm and strengthen those in the Faith whom they had already converted Thus St. Mark attended upon St. Peter whose Disciple he was as not only Eusebius and St. Hierom but Irenaeus himself who was more antient assure us He is thought to be the person mentioned by St. Peter in the latter end of his first Epistle v. 13. where he calls him Marcus my Son And is said by the Authors before mentioned to have written his Gospel at the request of the Converts of St. Peter from whom they say he went to Alexandria and there founded a Church of which he himself was the first Bishop Now after all these Apostles Prophets and Evangelists last of all there were Pastors and Teachers Who were Apostolical men setled and fixed in those Churches which had been gathered by the Apostles to be their constant Governours and Instructers when the Apostles could no longer stay with them All these were indued with Divine Gifts according to the measure that Christ pleased to bestow upon them as you read ver 7. And he bestowed these Gifts on them for three ends which are named ver 12. First for the perfecting of the Saints That is to compleat those who were already called into the state of Christianity to supply their defects and to make up what was wanting which is the meaning of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly For the work of the Ministry that they might bring others into the Church who were not yet made Christians which seems to be the proper work of the Ministry as it stands here distinguished from the former and from what follows Which was Thirdly for the edifying of the Body of Christ the building up the whole Church together in knowledge and piety till they all came into the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and grew to be such perfect men as not to be carried about any more like children with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive This in short is the coherence of my Text in which I shall observe to you these three things I. That this Apostolical Church of Ephesus was disturbed with variety of Doctrines and with Controversies in Religion II. That it was a childish thing to be unsettled by this variety or contrariety of Doctrines III. That God did not leave his Church without the means of being settled and stedfast in the true Faith of Christ notwithstanding those Blasts of contrary Doctrines and notwithstanding the cunning and craft wherewith they were managed I. First I say these words suppose that the Church to which the Apostle writes was disturbed by variety of Doctrine and by Controversies in matters of Religion For when he saith that henceforth they should not be tossed to and fro c. it suggests that they had been wavering and unsettled apt to be moved away from the Faith of the Gospel by the impetuous assaults that were made upon them by some cunning Deceivers I call them impetuous because these Doctrines which were different from or contrary unto the Faith of the Gospel were pressed with such earnestness that the Apostle compares them to a Blast of Wind and not barely to a Blast but to a Storm or Tempest Which is the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tossed to and fro as a Ship is in a furious Storm for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence it is derived literally imports signifying here that the false Teachers who disturbed the Church were very vehement or rather violent making up in confidence what they wanted in truth Such were the Jewish Deceivers whom the Apostle in the iii. Philip. 2. compares to Dogs who impudently assaulted the faithful and endeavoured to rend and tear the Church all in pieces Such were the Philosophical Pretenders by whom the Colossians were in danger to be forcibly carried away from the Faith and made a prey to a Company of Thieves and Robbers 2 Coloss 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit Which last word as well as my Text gives you the reason why I said the Church was troubled with the impetuous assaults of some Deceivers For they added much craft subtilty and juggling to their violence and zealous confidence Which is compared here in the latter part of this Verse to that sleight of hand wherewith cunning Gamesters cogg the Die and is further illustrated by a second word importing such subtilty as we have no one English word to express and therefore render it by two cunning craftiness and that thirdly so artificially managed that it was according to a method of deceit or an orderly proceeding in their Cheats as the last words are in the Greek which we translate Whereby they lye in wait to deceive I note these things very briefly only to shew what manner of men they were who troubled the Church of Christ in the Apostles days They were bold and they were crafty confident and cunning busie and boisterous and withal very subtil and insinuating So busie they
and passions be mortified and we shall not fail to know the truth nay all our differences will be at an end or if any remain they will not be destructive either to Charity or that blessed Unity which all good Christians desire to see in the Church of Christ If all will not take this course yet they who do shall stand as unmoveable as a Rock though there be never such strong Winds and violent Gusts of Doctrine abroad that would blow them about For it is only Chaff and Straws and such like light or loose things which are carried about with the Wind Solid and well-built Houses stand firm and unshaken And so will all they who are deeply grounded in holiness and humility They will be stedfast and unmoveable and never be perswaded to follow any other Doctrines than those they have received in this Church though pressed with never so much earnestness because no Doctrines whatsoever can make them better than they are and by the Grace of God intend to be And this truly is a plain Direction whereby to judge of those Doctrines which trouble the Church Do they tend to make men at all the better if they do believe them Will their hearts be more purged from all bad affections Will they become more holy more humble more meek more modest more dead to this World more kind loving and charitable to all men by entertaining those Doctrines which are superadded to the Christian Faith into which we were baptized Or on the contrary Do they not give mens vices greater liberty Do they not puff them up as all windy knowledge doth Will they not dispose us to be more highly conceited of our selves more arrogant more angry more impatient of contradiction more uncharitable and censorious more loose in our conversation more unpeaceable and ungovernable If we find these to be the Fruits of such Doctrines we are assured thereby that they are not the true Christian Doctrines which have the quite contrary effects and make men of another Spirit To conclude There is one piece of Christian piety wherewith all our works must be begun continued and ended and that is earnest Prayer to God whom we must constantly beseech to pour the Grace of his holy Spirit upon us that we may not fail to follow all these Directions and that they may be effectual for our preservation To him let us address our selves with all humility and fervent affection imploring his gracious presence with us at all times to inlighten our minds to guide us in judgment according to his promise to give us understanding in his holy Word to bestow upon us a spirit of discerning that we may clearly perceive the difference of things and not take evil for good falshood for truth but the way of lying may be removed from us and he may grant us his Law graciously But above all things let us beseech him to give us honest and good hearts unbiassed by any carnal or worldly affections Let us pray with David in the Psalm now mentioned cxix 36. that he would incline our heart unto his testimonies and not unto covetousness turn away our eyes from beholding vanity and quicken us in his way For where the love of the World prevails any gainful errour may easily find entertainment And whensoever we find our selves begin to be unsettled in the belief of that which upon the most serious and deliberate consideration we have judged to be the truth whensoever the resolution we took upon that judgment begins to waver and shake let us remember that we are under a temptation and that every temptation is a deceit and would put a cheat upon us for every man is tempted saith St. James when he is drawn away by his own lust and inticed and thereupon let us apply our selves to God with the greater diligence and earnestness for his Grace to purifie our hearts that we may not be seduced by any bad affections but building up our selves in our most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost we may keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life S. Jude 20 21. Finally the Church it self hath put a Prayer into our mouths in the Collect for this Day in which let us not cease to make our humble and hearty requests to Him saying O Almighty God who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly Doctrine of thy Evangelist St. Mark Give us Grace that being not like Children carried away with every Blast of vain Doctrine we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS