Christ is that which is by Divines called a saving and justifying Faith a Faith that works by love and is the fulfilling of the Gospel-condition a Faith that receives and submits to the Lord Jesus in all his Offices and as he is offered in the Gospel This is an usual and frequent meaning of the word Faith in the New-Testament and that which we should by all means Contend and endeavour to preserve entire That neither the pleasures of this life nor the inclinations of a Corrupt mind neither the sly insinuations of lewd Companions nor the interest and Grandeur of this present World divert us from it That neither to comply with the Lusts of the Flesh nor to form or promote an Intrigue or design we should violate the Rules of a good conscience or make bold with the Laws of Jesus Christ In short that neither Debauchery nor Dishonesty nor Knavery should make us forget our obedience to the Gospel or in any thing depart from the Principles of that Religion which we profess This is a Faith thus to be Contended for and preserved but this is not the Faith here meant in the Text. For besides this there is 2. Fides quam Credimus And by that is meant the Gospel And the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and his Apostles the Message they brought the Rules they gave the Means they prescribed in order to eternal Salvation are very frequently in Scripture called the Faith This Acts 6. 7. And the word of God increased or got ground and the number of the disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Faith So Galat. 1. 23. He that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed And so again 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure conscience And to name no more so it is in this place That ye should earnestly Contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints Where it is not the Faith whereby they believe but the Faith which they believe the Faith delivered to the Saints to be believed received and kept that is meant Not an Assent to the Revelation but the Revelation it self to which we give Assent The Faith here then is the Truth the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Doctrines of Salvation and those Rules and Means that guide us to eternal life or in one word the True Religion And this is further set out 2. By a considerable distinguishing Circumstance once delivered to the Saints Every Doctrine is not to be Contended for and every Religion is not worth the keeping and every thing that hath by men been delivered to men is not too tenaciously to be adhered to The Faith the Religion which Saint Jude proposeth to our Care and endeavours to keep is described by this which distinguisheth it from all that are false and sets the true and currant stamp upon it it is the Faith the Doctrine the Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once delivered to the Saints And this being the Mark and distinguishing Character of that Faith and Religion which we must Contend for it must the more carefully be enquired into that we may not miss our Mark and Contend for what we ought to avoid There are therefore two things to be explained in these words and we must enquire who are the Saints and what is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. 1. Who are the Saints here to whom the Faith was delivered And here I think the Answer is plain and easy enough that by Saints he means no other than those to whom the Gospel was first preached and who did receive it and believe Sanctos says one usitato Scripturae modo vocat Credentes he calls the Believers Saints according to the usual Language of the Scriptures And thus Saint Paul calls the Believers and Embracers of the Gospel the Saints and faithful brethren which are at Colosse and Philip. 1. 1. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi But then considering that it is Saint Jude the Apostle of our Lord that writes thus as is evident by the first verse of this Epistle where he styles himself Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James and by the Inscription of the Epistle which though it be not Canonical Scripture yet is the sense of the Ancient Church which entituleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Epistle of Jude the Apostle This Epistle then being written by him and calling the Doctrine of the Gospel the Faith delivered to the Saints that which in his time was delivered and received was preached and believed To us it sets the Mark and stamp of Antiquity upon that Faith and Doctrine which he calls upon us to Contend for And if we ask what is the Doctrine we ought to receive what the Faith we ought to Contend for the Answer is in Saint Jude the Doctrine the Apostles preached and the Faith the Ancient and Eldest Christians received This directly opposeth all Novel Doctrines and all Religions that are late and upstart Whatsoever is not derived from these Ancient and uncorrupt Fountains we are no ways obliged to maintain or Contend for as being none of the Faith delivered to the Saints And yet this is the quarrel between the Church of Rome and us She hath notoriously and visibly corrupted the Faith and departed in numerous instances from the true and old Religion We desire to adhere to it and to separate the Precious from the Vile and in Reforming our selves have done no more than returned to what was truely Ancient and have onely recovered out of the Rubbish of their Novel Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints For this they Charge our Doctrines with Novelty and call our Faith a New Religion but to whom that Charge most justly belongs will be no hard matter to the impartial and unbiassed mind to discover Athanasius wittily derides the Arrians that when they produced their Confession of Faith in the Council of Rimini they set down in the stile of it the Day and the Month and the Consulls when it was made as from thence dating the Beginning of their Faith and fixing the first Original of their Heresy and shewing thereby that their Faith was Late and upstart But what would he have said to the Church of Rome had he lived now And how smartly would he have rebuked their Novel Encroachments the Body of whose Religion as it is now embraced bears date from the Counsel of Trent and there is not one Article in their Faith wherein they differ from us but we can shew and prove it to be of a late foundation Late I mean in comparison with the Truth and the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints What Christ and his Apostles preached and what the first and eldest Christians believed and received we own and adhere to but other things that
needs such Arts and Methods to establish it The Apostles went about doing good and convinced the world of the Truth of what they said by the power of Reason and the evidence of Miracles from above But if any were so Obstinate as to resist the Evidence by which they spake and would not give heed to the Truth they delivered they shook off the dust of their feet as a witness against them and left them as a just punishment of their Obstinacy to perish in their Unbelief but we never read that they Cut their Throats or fired that house or City that would not receive them When they were in their State of Infancy as to their Faith and did noâ— understand Themselves nor the Nature of that Faith and Religion they were afterwards to preach they were once indeed for fetching Fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans that would not receive their Master but then they would not have made the Fireballs themselves but have used onely what God would have sent them from Heaven But how sharply does our Saviour repress their blind and ignorant Zeal Luk. 9. 55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of Man is not come to Destroy mens lives but to Save them But now how Contrary must that Religion be to that which they preached and our Saviour ordained which requires so contrary Methods to introduce and advance it Rome says Come to us for Salvation is onely with us and its necessary in order to it to be Subject to us and to Believe and receive all that we tell you but if we refuse as it is fit we should do till we see better Reason for Saint John bids us not to believe every 1 Joh. chap. 4. v. 1. Spirit but to try the Spirits they instead of convincing us by Reason or Scripture or any other sufficient Argument will dash out our Braines and fire our Towns and thus Contend for the Faith and plant their Religion not by the Bible but the Sword and use all the ways of Pagan and Turkish Violence and Cruelty to subdue us to their Opinions and make us believe Surely these are not of the temper of the Holy Jesus who was Meek and Merciful however they may call themselves by his Name and undoubtedly that Religion can be none of his which inspireth the minds of those who profess it with so much barbarous and bloody Cruelty Can that Religion be true which must be settled and propagated by Violence and Mischief and is that the Gospel which makes its Entrance by a direct Violation of all the Rules of Equity Honesty or Humanity Is this the Religion of the Holy Jesus which proceeds and advanceth it self by a direct Contradiction to his Practice and a perfect Violation of all his Laws and Precepts And is this the Way of Salvation for men to do all that for which God himself hath told us we shall be damned Is Murder and Treason is Sedition and Rebellion any ways consistent with the Sentiments of a true Piety Or is this a Religion of God's Appointment Undoubtedly these things make it manifest that such a Religion is not from God nor is the Spirit by which such men Act either guided or inspired by him The True Religion and the Faith once delivered to the Saints teacheth us to be Meek and Merciful and to endeavour the Good of all men To reclaim our Brother from the Error of his way by Patience Long suffering and Doctrine To bear with him and instruct him and not to dash out his Braines if we cannot Confute him It teacheth us to be Just and Honest Sober and Peaceable Obedient and Submissive to the higher Powers and not to Lye nor Equivocate nor to break the Bands of humane Society nor to disturb the Peace and Government of Kingdoms and to confound the world That Religion must not be good that must be thus advanced and therefore I said that it being our duty to Contend for the Faith it is considerable How we must Contend for it lest we should think it Lawful to Contend in such a way as the true Faith will not endure to be maintained and defended by and so either lose or at least disparage our Religion instead of preserving and honouring the Faith by our undue and irregular Contentions for it And to Answer this it must be considered that Saint Jude writes to men that were in no place of Authority in the State For as the Christian Religion was already under Persecution and hated by Jew and Gentile so were the Professours of it of no Esteem then in the world there was no Christian Magistrate who bare the Sword nay the Sword was in the hand of the Enemies of Religion and the Magistrates were those who opposed and persecuted the True Religion So that it cannot be supposed that the Apostle can here mean by this Contending for the Faith any opposing force with Force or a drawing the Sword for the defence of the Gospel for he writes to those who had nothing to do with the Sword and exhorts those who were Subjects and not Princes For we may assure ourselves that those who preached and wrote by the Inspiration of the same Spirit could not contradict one another and Saint Peter and Saint Paul having both expresly commanded a Subjection Rom. 13. 1 2. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. to the Supream Magistrates and Powers and those very Powers being at that time Enemies to the Gospel and Persecutors of the true Religion whom for all that they command so express a Subjection to it cannot be supposed that Saint Jude any more than they could think Religion a just pretence for Rebellion or when he bids the Christians Contend for the Faith could mean by it an Opposition to the Rulers and Governours that God had set over them And the constant Practice of the Primitive Christians which in this Case is the best Interpreter of Saint Judes Exhortation evidently shews that they did not thus understand it They loved and prized the Faith more than their lives and chearfully suffered and dyed for the Testimony of Jesus Christ but they never raised a Rebellion for the Defence of their Faith or disturbed the State or opposed the Government for its Advancement No History either Pagan or Christian gives any the least Hints of any Sedition they raised or any the least Opposition they made to the Civil Governours in all the time of the Pagan Emperours even when the Persecutions raged with the greatest Heat against them and they were Tortured and killed with the greatest Barbarity and Inhumanity onely for being Christians Justin Martyr in his Apology for the Christians to the Emperour Antoninus Pius and Tertullian in his to the Emperour Severus both mention the peaceable and quiet Deportment of the Christians under their Government which had been too weakly not to say impudently done if the Christians had been
Government of the State the Preservation of the true Religion as well as the Peace is within the exercise of his Authority and ought to be part of his Care He Contends for it by a tenderness and Care over all its Concerns and by Restraints upon the Petulancy and Unruliness of men who would either Corrupt the Doctrine or disturb and interrupt the Peace of the Church And here is also Your Sphere to Act my most Honourable Lords to whose Wisdom and Skill the Execution of those Laws are Committed by which our Religion hath hitherto been defended and so happily flourished I Shall not presume to direct or advise or Exhort you the Knowledge we have of Your Love to Religion and of your Faithfulness in Your Trust will not suffer us to fear that You will be negligent in the Defence of that Religion which you Love so well or let those Laws which are so great a part of Your Trust be baffled or buried on which the Safety and Peace and Security of our Faith at this time so much depends The Minister must Act in his Sphere and he Contends for the Faith by declaring the mind of God in Truth and expounding sincerely the Oracles of GOD. By opposing and convincing Gain-sayers and defending the Truth from Heresy and Error and the Sophistical Tricks of those who lye in wait to deceive and as the Apostle says Lead Captive Silly women laden with 2 Tim. 3. 6. sins And All men as Christians must Contend in a way suitable to them as such by Knowledge and Practice by Love and Sufferings and all the Methods that are Proper and Lawfull and suit with Christians considered as such in their private Sphere and Capacity And to these in this Circumstance it is that Saint Jude directs his Exhortation and perswades them to Contend for the Faith That is exhorts them to an earnest and immutable Adherence to it so as not to forgo it for all that the Enemy can do Neither to be scared out of it by Dread â—r Danger by Violence or Death nor to be cheated and wheadled out of it by the Insinuations of those that lye in wait to deceive and Creep in unawares that deprave the Faith and corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel and turn the grace of God into Lasciviousness or exchange the Truth of God for a Lye And thus to secure our standing in the Faith and to preserve that Religion and Purity of Doctrine that God hath blessed us with no Ways are more Suitable and Proper or likely to be more Successfull than these 1. To understand well and be throughly informed in the Principles and Fundamentals of that Religion which we profess For the greatest and most successfull Conquests that in any age the Enemy hath obtained have ever been upon those that are weak and Unstable in the Faith the Wavering mind hangs trembling in an equal Suspence between Truth and Falshood and these hardly escape the Assaults or stand the Shock of those who lye in wait to deceive And therefore the Methods of the Enemy have usually been to pick out those to subvert whom they see Ignorant and Unstable as knowing these to be the most liable and likely to be brought to their Lure And indeed how should it be otherwise for they that are not well informed in what they profess may easily enough be perswaded that their Profession is Erroneous and the Best Religion may Easily be disparaged to them that do not understand its Nature and have not enquired far enough into it to discern the Beauty and excellency of it And doubtless this hath given the Church of Rome a vast Advantage against us who know well enough how to improve it in that so many are strangers to the Principles of that Religion which they profess as having never been Instructed in them nor taken the pains to Examine what it is they pretend to believe Too many have satisfied themselves with being of that Profession in which they were born and brought up without taking the trouble to understand what that Profession is or to have any other Argument for it than their Education And therefore when I reflect upon that Ignorance in Religion that is growing up and that little Concern or Regard that men have to be well versed or informed in the Fundamentals of it instead of wondring that Rome hath gained so many from us I onely wonder that they have gained no more And I very much fear that if the time should ever come that men might with Safety or advantage change the Church of England for that of Rome there are too many that would need but little Perswasion and all because they so little Know the Truth the Beauty and Excellency of that Religion which now they profess 2. To Practise seriously and Conscientiously what we profess To hold the True Faith in Notion and to deny it in Practice is to pull down with One hand what we erect with the Other and to subvert and betray the Faith that we seem to Contend for And indeed it is not easy to suppose that a man should be resolute to Suffer for any Religion nor stand any ways Vigorously in the Defence of it who will not submit to the Power of it nor will let his Life be regulated nor his Lusts be mortified by it To the Profane person all Religions are alike and that which bids fairest for his Interest or is most suitable to his Inclinations Carries it with him It is the Practice of Religion that renders it Truely sweet and pleasant to the Professours of it and none but those can heartily love the Faith and be Zealously concerned for its Defence that have Experienced the Power and Influences of it in themselves To Practise therefore what we profess is a considerable means of Defence for the Religion we own for this engageth God on our side and lets the Enemy see it is in vain to Tamper or be meddling For to live up to the Principles of our Profession and to adorne our Religion with a suitable Conversation is to bring forth Fruit and to glorify GOD and where these are found the End is answered for which the Gospel is bestowed and so long the Candlestick shall not be removed while People rejoyce and walk in the Light And therefore it is observable that the Removal of the Means of Grace and an Eclipsing the Light of the Gospel hath ever in all places been preceded by a Decay of Piety and an Inundation of Profaness This pulls down the Wrath of GOD and that makes the Cunning and Malice of men effectual God will walk no more among them that walk contrary to him and they that will Practise no Religion may easily enough be perverted to Any how irrational or absurd soever it be God grant that that Coldness Looseness and Profaness that so universally over-spreads this Nation be not too sad a Prognostick and preparatory to the Departure of the Gospel from among us
are not found among these Doctrines or are repugnant to them we justly renounce as New and Erroneous though they have contracted a venerable Rust by their Age and seek to impose upon us under the mask of Antiquity and by the descent and length of their Pedigree Primum quodque verissimum is Tertullians Rule and we desire to stand and be tryed by it and would have nothing imposed upon us that the Scriptures the true and Authentick Records of Antiquity do not mention nor own The Doctrines which the Apostles preached the Rules of Life and Salvation which they gave is what we Contend for for this is the Faith delivered to the Saints Let us now consider 2. What is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Once delivered in the Text. There are two Senses given of it by Interpreters both which may be taken in as being both indeed implyed in the word 1. Once may carry the sense of Conjunctim and so the learned and judicious Hammond paraphraseth it preached uniformly to all by the consent of all the Apostles This was that Doctrine that was One and the same though preached by different persons this the Apostles all agreed in and observed in their preaching through the world that though they were so far distant one from another yet they all preached the same thing and made no Difference in the Doctrine they Preached in the Faith they delivered to the Saints How happy had it been for the World and how much had it conduced to the peace and Purity of the Church and to the safety and security of the Souls of men if the Missionaries of Rome had observed and proceeded by the same Rule and kept to the Doctrine that was once delivered and had taught none other things then what the Apostles by Common consent and Harmony of mind had preached Then had they never imposed so much False Doctrine upon the world nor ever preached things so vastly different from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Then might the Church in a great measure have retained her Virgin-Purity still and had not been defiled nor the world been disturbed by the insolent Encroachments of Rome Then might Images a very Fornication in Religion have kept their place among the Batts and Moles and in holes and Brambles where the Prophet sayes the Is◠2. 20. Jews upon their Reformation should throw theirs and had never crept forth to see the light to be adorned and admired nay to be set up and worshipped by Foolish men Then might the Church have been left to pray and say Amen with understanding and to go to the Throne of Grace in a way where all knew what they were doing and the Scriptures those Fountains of living waters had never been sealed up under an unknown Tongue from the eyes and use of those whose Duty as well as Interest it is to peruse and understand them Then might the Church have enjoyed the Sacraments as they were first instituted for her use and as our Lord appointed they should be received and the Cup had neither been taken away nor the Bread been made a God and a Prodigious Idol to be worshipped and eaten Had they followed the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostles they would never have dared to Alter what our Saviour had Ordered nor have presumed to deprive the People of the Cup when our Saviour at the first institution of that Ordinance said Drink ye all of it Mat. 26. 27. Then might Princes have enjoyed their Rights and neither have been questioned nor molested in their Thrones by those who ought to be subject to them and then might the People have led their lives under them peaceably in all godliness and honesty and had never felt the effects of those Fire-brands which the Pope hath thrown abroad in the world nor ever been taught to rebell against God and the King In short then had that Mass of Corrupt Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines that have with so much confidence been broached so highly to the dishonour of Religion and to the danger of Souls never seen the light nor defiled the Church had they kept to the Faith that was once delivered that is delivered conjunctly by all the Apostles one and the same 2. Once delivered carries in it the sense of Immutably Once for all as we say not to be changed or altered any more God gave his people the Jews a Law and Ordinances of his own appointment but these were not to hold but till the Fulness of time was come and then that dispensation was to cease and be done away to make room for one more perfect and lasting one to be so Once delivered as not to be delivered again in another way or with any addition or amendment And in this sense the Scriptures use the word elsewhere Psal 89. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Once have I sworn in my Holiness that I will not lye unto David That is certainly immutably and without alteration And this way both Grotius and Beza go Semel Quia de ea Doctrina nihil sit imutandum Once Because nothing was to be changed in that doctrine And therefore every Substraction or Addition to this Faith thus Once delivered is a notorious Wrong to it a Corruption of the Doctrine and an Encroachment upon the Authority of God Almighty in whose power alone it is to make and establish an Article of Faith And therefore do we appeal to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and desire to stand and be tryed by that for since it was Once delivered so as not to be altered the Church of Rome having made both Additions to it and Variations from it stands justly charged with that Novelty which she would fix upon us When our Saviour reproves the corrupt Practices and Glosses of the Jews he reduceth them to the true and Ancient standard and tells them from the beginning it was not so And upon many of the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome we may write the same Remark and shew that from the beginning it was not so We can tell by what steps the Papal Grandeur advanced and by what unjust Encroachments and undecent huffs and insolencies they enlarged their dominions and enslaved the Church and imperiously trampled upon Princes We can tell them the Time and prove it when they please that the Bishops of Rome were more tractable and humble and that the world did not take them to be such uncontroulable Pieces as afterwards they grew up to be Gregory the Great ownes the Emperour Mauritius for his Lord and Master and declares him to be the Forerunner of Anti-christ that desires the Title of Oecumenical Pastor or universal Bishop And he held the Chair in the end of the Sixth Century But the world is much altered with them since as to both these points and now they assume a power of deposing Princes and to dispose of the Kingdomes of the earth at their pleasure