A SERMON Preached at the Triennial Uisitation OF THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD SETH Lord Bishop OF SARUM Held at Reading Sept. 6. 1683. By JOHN BARROW Canon of Windsor and Vicar of New-Windsor Berks. LONDON Printed by Ralph Holt for John Gellibrand at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1683. TO THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD SETH Lord Bishop OF SARUM My Lord I Had not ventured to expose this Discourse in the way I now do but for your Lordships Encouragement of it and under such Patronage I shall have the less Apprehensions of those People who may find themselves too much concerned in the Case to be any thing pleased with a Subject of this nature However it may affect them I have still the Satisfaction of having indeavoured as well as I could the Explaining and Vindicating a Text very difficult and liable to be turned to very ill Constructions And if it any way serves to confirm the Friends of our Church or to rectifie those who are in lower Degrees of Prejudice against it it is as much as can be hoped by My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Most Faithful and most Humble Servant John Barrow PHILIP I. 15 16 17 18. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife and some also of Good-will The one preach Christ of Contention not Sincerely supposing to add Affliction to my Bonds But the other of Love knowing that I am set for the Defence of the Gospel What then Notwithstanding every way whether in Pretence or in Truth Christ is preached and I therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce AMong the other Texts which have been so ill used by those that maintain the Divisions of our Church there is none more likely to be urged in the behalf of the Dissenting Preachers nor any with greater appearance of strength than That I have now read For granting us all we may possibly think we have Cause to believe thô they never will that such Pastors as they are unsent and unqualified all the ill and contentious Preachers in the World Yet since they preach Christ they may press us still that we ought to be so far from Discouraging of them that after the Example of St. Paul in the Text we ought to Rejoyce that the Doctrine of Christ is any way preached And how can such Rejoycing consist with the usual Prosecution of them Or if We thus prosecute or otherwise think fit to appear against them how little do we shew of the meek and Heavenly Temper of St. Paul whose Successors we would yet pretend our selves to be Nay farther they may not be wanting to tell us that if we do not Rejoyce in their assisting us it is We that envy the Success of the Gospel and must be content to take the worst Character in the Text to our selves For the satisfying which Plea I shall take the whole Force of it into Consideration in the following Discourse and the better to do it shall propose three Inquiries I. Who those were of whom St. Paul here pronounces That they preached Christ out of Strife and Contention II. How far we are to understand he rejoyced in their Preaching III. Whether the Case of the Contentious Preachers in the Text and those of our Times be so much the same that the Governours of our Church should by Virtue of this Place or St. Paul's Example in it be so obliged to Rejoyce in their Ministry as not to indeavour the Suppressing of it And if in managing these any Right be done to the Sense of the Words and the present Methods of the Government with respect to these Men I shall hope it may be thought not altogether improper in this Assembly since 't will be the impleading of Preachers before Preachers of those that say they can understand and teach Christianity before those that do and rightfully do it We shall First then inquire who Those were of whom St. Paul here pronounces That they preached Christ of Strife and Contention The resolving of which will very much depend upon our determining whether they were Jews remaining still such or Judaizing Christians or some other Christian Converts of which he was now speaking The Learned Grotius who would have the Jews here meant gives this Account of them That to put a stop to the Doctrine of Christianity they every where rumoured of what sort it was by what Arguments supported That so the greater Recourse might be had to St. Paul to know the whole of the matter from Himself And all such Resort in the Place and Circumstances that He now was they knew would be dangerous and might wish Fatal to him Which is indeed a very full account of the Strife and Contention with which they were acted But with all Submission does not seem so fairly to answer for what the Apostle mentions no less than three times in the Text Their preaching of Christ For their spiteful Noising what the Christian Sect held cannot be called but very abusively a Preaching of Christ. Besides that he opposes them in this very place to Those that preached Christ out of Truth and Good Will From which it should seem that the Gospel on both Hands was fervently preached and the difference only that it was not done from the same pious Principle In short that they were not Unbelieving Jews I am farther confirmed from the Verse immediately foregoing where St. Paul tells us Many Brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my Bonds are much more bold to speak the Word without Fear And then it follows Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife It is evident therefore that they were Brethren of the Family of Christ thô none of the greatest Sincerity among them If next it be said They were Judaizing Brethren and under these we must comprehend the Gnosticks 't will be hard to say with any Propriety that they preached Christ for they preached Christ and Moses and the latter Doctrines very distant from either And if farther it be urged that supposing they did so the Apostle might rejoyce that they preached Christ any ways since 't was better that the Gentiles who lived in gross Idolatry should have some knowledg of Christ thô with mixtures than know nothing at all of him 'T will be plausibly said but not on a sudden so easy to reconcile this Apostles Rejoycing in such sort of Preachers with the repeated Cautions he gives against these very Men and with the plainest Reference to them Beware of Dogs Beware of Evil Workers Beware of the Concision At the third Chapter of this very Epist. v. 2. Pressed therefore with these Difficulties I shall rather conceive this Place neither refers to the Unconverted Jews nor Judaizing Christians nor among those to the Gnostick Teachers But to such as indeed preached pure Christianity thô from no pure Mind Preaching Christ but out of Strife with Design to create Strife and Division in the Church such as was when one said I am
of Paul another of Apollos and another of Cephas And out of Envy Envying this great Apostle of Christ the Glory of his Success And out of Contention Contending with him for the number of Proselytes By this means supposing to add Affliction to his Bonds supposing because Vain-glorious Themselves that he might be of a Temper like Theirs and so grieved and afflicted to be rivalled in Fame and to be outvyed in the multitude of Converts And those Preachers thô still Christians who could go thus far in Envy may not ill be supposed to advance to such a Height of That and of Contention as to wish St. Paul was taken out of their way For one Vice admitted is not only an Inlet to another but a greater and from hence to his Bonds they might desire the Addition of more and of worse and even of the last of all temporal Afflictions So that when we departed from the excellent Grotius it was not so much for assigning a Wrong Cause for they certainly were bad Friends of the Apostles as for his pitching upon the wrong Men The Unbelieving Jews when the Context is so plain They were Brethren in the Lord. Having therefore considered who these Preachers might most probably be We come 2 ly to inquire How far we are to understand the Apostle here rejoyced in their Preaching In proposing of which I cannot forbear observing by the way that those who may urge this Passage for the countenancing the disorderly Preachers abroad in our days will never be able to make it appear that it solely refers to the Subject of Preaching which yet this Plea supposes it to do For if they make a Comment from the Verses preceding to the Sense we have heard and press that the Apostle more than once rejoyced that Christ was preached in any sort whatever and that therefore those that succeed him should be of the like mind I think I may with great safety tell them That at least some part of this Rejoycing relates to a matter of a quite different Consideration I rejoyce says the Apostle yea and will rejoyce For as he adds in the very next words I know that this shall turn to my Salvation through your Prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. So that 't is plain some share of his Rejoycing is to be given to the Blessed Hopes and Assurance he had that his patient bearing the Malice of these Enemies would at length redound to the Augmentation of his Glory and Happiness If therefore they press us with what went before by way of Abatement we might take in what follows which they must allow to be no unfair way of Interpretation unless they will incur the Censure of St. Chrysostome who observes in his time some Men perverted this very Text Not understanding what preceded or what followed But omitting this and to answer more directly how far the Apostle rejoyced in the Preachers he was now speaking of it may not be amiss to consider what the Success of their preaching Christ Eventually proved And what the Real and True Purpose was from which they took this Office upon them Accidentally it proved the means of propagating the Knowledg of the Gospel and 't was very consistent with the Piety of St. Paul to rejoyce that since himself now in Bonds could not do it others were industrious to diffuse the Doctrine of his Saviour in the World Which still might be without his being satisfied with the Motives of their Diligence in which he could no more express a Complacencie than he would have done in Strife or Envy or Contention it self However says he whether in Pretence or in Truth Christ is Preached Whether by Occasion as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies by Accident only Or whether by Truth from the true Design of those that undertake it the Gospel was declared And in this He rejoyced yea and would rejoyce Not that they preached from any ill Inducement But that by this means the Providence of God bringing Good out of Evil great numbers were brought to the Knowledg of Christ who were before in Ignorance of Him From whence we now proceed in the third place to inquire Whether the Case of the Contentious Preachers in the Text and Those of our Times be so much the same that the Governours of our Church should by Virtue of this Passage or St. Paul's Example in it be so obliged to Rejoyce in their Ministry as not to indeavour the Suppressing of it To which I answer 1. That it would be remembred There is nothing in this Passage that is any Approbation of such sort of Preachers as those the Apostle had occasion here to mention All that he does and it is indeed with great Gentleness he does it is to take Notice that there were some of the Christian Name who preached Christ of Envy and Strife and not from the true and sincere Intention which was to have bin so much wished among them But this however is very far from a Commendation of them He does not says Erasmus encourage that any should preach Christ unsincerely but out of things that were not well done collects what was best and contemns their Personal Hatred to himself so long as it any ways promoted the Gospel And how calmly soever the Apostle here reflects upon such sort of Preachers it is manifest in the very next Chapter He exhorts the Philippians That nothing be done by them out of Strife and Vainglory which are the very Things for which these Men are particularly mark'd If therefore our Dissenters shall think fit to tell the Governours of the Church They ought with St. Paul to rejoyce in their Success they may withal consider St. Paul expresses little Likeing to the Men or the Principles upon which they set Themselves to work And from his Example they can consequently build little Kindness to Themselves which notwithstanding is that they are most supposed to mean But 2. Were this Passage allowed to be a Temporary Forbearance of such Unsincere Preachers yet 't is no Direction to the People to hear them 'T is observable to this Purpose that those to whom the Apostle here writes were no Hearers of such Preachers but of St. Paul and of those that like Himself preached Christ out of Truth being planted under Bishops as appears by v. 1. Not that there were more Bishops than one in Philippi it self but that there were more in the Territories of this Metropolis And those under their Charge are advised and directed in this very Chapter as much as the most fervent Prayers in the Case could be instructive to them That their Love might abound yet more and more in Knowledg and in all Judgment that they might approve things that are excellent that they might be sincere which it is evident those Preachers were not and without Offence till the day of Christ at 9 and 10. vers That they would stand fast in one Mind striving together for
hence with all tenderness recommend their impartial Considering the great Evil of preaching Christ if they should truly preach him from Strife and Contention and from unsincere Ends. If they say they have considered this already and do not take themselves to be concerned in it I would pray them as Casuists to resolve us whether supposing a third sort of Men should begin a Separation in the Church without any just Cause afterwards refuse all reasonable Terms of Accommodation and farther take all the Courses they could think of to perpetuate the Difference they would not believe they were something influenced by a Spirit of Contention They must thus pronounce if they think there are such things as Contention or Strife in the World and if they do so at the very same time they pronounce against themselves For that they begun the Breach without any just Cause there can nothing be more evident than their separating from us not as we did from Rome from the ever justifiable Cause of its having corrupted the Substantials of Religion But for Things in their own Nature Harmless and Indifferent For the sake of things which they never did and never will be able to oppose but by so many Cavils as will argue more plainly a Desire of Contention than any just Exception they have to them That they refuse all reasonable Terms of Accommodation they have put beyond all Question since the little fruit of all Conferences held with them and the absolute Stiffness with which they insist to this very day that the Government should yield all to them without any due Complyance on their Parts And that they indeavour to perpetuate the Difference as much as in them lies what more convincing Arguments can we have than their raising new Academies For by this they do not mean the Controversie shall die with them What more convincing Arguments can we have than the Universal Cry of their Leaders till then never heard of against the very Doctrines of our Church for some time before the Expiration of the Act for renouncing the Covenant By which what could they mean but that this which at first they said to be so great a Snare to their Consciences being now taken away they must either honestly come over to our Church or start some new Difference to keep on foot their Separation from it But leaving this with them from a Contentious I am next to pass to an Unsincere End of preaching the Gospel And here again I would calmly ask them if themselves were to assign the marks of Sincerity in the serving of Christ whether one would not be a proposing at first to serve him aright so that men should not run before they were sent or serve the God of Order in disorderly ways Which yet they must give us leave to fear themselves do till we have from them a better account than has hitherto been given of the lawfulness of their Call to the Work of the Ministry I would have them ask themselves if they preach so sincerely as they pretend what they mean by their designed and affected clouding the simplicity of the Gospel with mysterious and set Phrases Whether they do not justly give occasion to think they have some bad Ends to serve upon their Hearers when they thus artificially cast a Mist before their Eyes create Depths where there are none and obscuring plain Truths amuse and confound instead of instructing or enlightning their Followers I would have them ask themselves if they only mean the Honour and Success of the Gospel of Christ why they chuse so observably to preach in such Places where there are great Presumptions they may rather consult their own Profit and Advantage Why in Market-Towns in populous and rich Places but to get more Proselytes that is more Benefactors rather than in Finland or the steril parts of Norway where Preaching is more scarce and the Maintenance more low For I cannot imagine but that were their zeal for the Glory of God the yearning of their Bowels for the Souls of Men so great as they say they would give their first Care to the Souls that most need it and exercise their zeal in a barren and dry Land as well as that which flows with Milk and with Honey And since they don't do this I know not how to name the Principle that guides them but I am not very sure that it is the Sincerity from which this Apostle told the Corinthians I seek not yours but you If therefore these amount to Proofs of their Contention and Unsincerity in preaching the Gospel it is plain they live in two as ill Vices as can belong to any Christian Preachers If they only amount to so many strong and vehement Presumptions it is yet a mighty scandal they give to Christianity and if they are the Ingenious the Knowing and Conscientious Persons they would be taken for they cannot but consider the Advantages they give by this means to the common Enemies of all Religion Not omitting that whatever turbulent Practices their Followers may be guilty of are very justly to be charged upon themselves whose very preaching contrary to Law first brought the Law in Contempt with their Hearers and if afterwards they run into greater Enormities it is but Proficiency still in that Contempt of Government which the Example as well as the Doctrines of their Leaders had taught them And now if after all the dissenting Preachers will shift this from themselves and say we have taken all along for granted their being Contentious and Unsincere Preachers which is more than they think they have reason to acknowledg themselves to have bin I shall only add that they cannot notwithstanding say this urged improperly to them since both they and we agree that the Faulty and the Criminal may be pressed with Considerations suitable to their Case thô we are not sure we shall always convince them We pass next to the second general Inference to our selves who have the Honour of being of this Clergy And under this I would first humbly offer the great Care we ought to take as at the first Entrance upon our Holy Office so thrô the whole course of it to preach the Gospel in Truth and Sincerity For we see the best things eaven the preaching of Christ is not to be undertaken but from a Pure and Sincere Mind We are therefore not only to deliver what is Truth but to do it from a True and Unfeigned Intention of promoting the Glory of God in the World and setting forward the Salvation of Men in comparison of this despising the other considerations of worldly Advantage Honour or Respect which yet are due to us for our Work-sake and much more detesting the Exercise of so Holy a Function as ours from the Unholy Ends of Strife Vainglory Envy or Ambition It will be hard to convince Gainsayers that we preach the Gospel out of Good will if we give them cause to think that we only preach
the Faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by their Adversaries at 27 and 28. vers And more particularly he commends them in Chap. 2. As those who had always obeyed not as in his Presence only but now much more in his Absence v. 12. So that here are Prayers that they might and Commendations that they did stand fast in the Doctrine he had planted among them or of those that himself had appointed in his Absence But not one word to recommend this other kind of Preachers to the Hearing of his Converts He only tells them such Preachers were gone abroad in the World And safely he might tell them as those that were not likely to be drawn aside either from himself or those that preached the Gospel out of Good Will and from unfeigned Sincerity But it must be a very odd Deduction from this if the Dissenting Preachers among us will from hence conclude That our Rulers are obliged to let the World run after them from St. Paul's Example of Not giving the People the least hint in the World to be Followers of such Preachers 3. 'T would be farther added that a great Difference is to be put between preaching the Gospel from what Principle soever to a People Unconverted and gathering a Church from out of a Church already rightly setled That those who here preached Christ of Envy and Strife did not so much intermeddle with Persons Converted before as indeavour to make new Converts to the Doctrine of the Gospel seems very clear and evident from the Contentious end of their Preaching which was to add as the Apostle here tells us Affliction to his Bonds They very well knew as St. Chrysostom observes that he was already obnoxious to Nero for publishing a Doctrine so contrary to his Vices and therefore they preached the same Doctrine St. Paul did that so this Persecutor hearing from his Enemies the vast Progress of it might be the more exasperated against him But thus to exasperate him their readiest way was not so much to confirm the Disciples this Apostle had made as to add more to them and by winning over as many as they could both of Jews and Gentiles to spread the Gospel of our Saviour the more that the Adversaries of it might the easier be induced to the utmost Rage and Severity against him as being esteemed the Head of the Party But all this while they taught those who had not learned before the Gospel of Christ which cannot be the Case of the bold and Contentious Preachers of our Times They do not pretend to teach a People already untaught or to carry the Gospel where 't was never heard but obtrude themselves upon those that were before instructed in the Faith set up a Church within a Church already committed to the Care of Lawful and Competent Guides And thus putting their Sickle into other mens Harvest they have so little share in St. Paul's Rejoycing that they have his own Practice expresly against them So have I strived says he to preach the Gospel Not where Christ was named lest I should build upon another Mans Foundation But as it is written to whom he was not spoken of they shall see and they that have not heard shall understand 4. And lastly it would farther be observed that a vast Difference is to be made between preaching Christ from Contention or Envy to a Particular Person and preaching up a general Contention in the Name of Christ. It has already bin mentioned that those here took notice of were such as preached the Gospel out of Envy to St. Paul such as looked with a very ill Eye upon the glorious Success of his Ministry and therefore out of Emulation and Strife contended with him for the number of Disciples and the multiplying those they supposed but vainly might add Grief of Mind to his Bodily Confinement might add new Griefs and fresh Dangers to him from his Enemies at Rome where he was now set for the Defence of the Gospel or for his having defended and maintained it A Design in those that carryed it on widely different from the very Spirit of Christianity But yet they preached Christianity still for 't was Christ whom they preached and when it is said they did it not of Truth and Sincerity it does not refer to the Matter of their Doctrine as if they taught what was false and unfound but to their Intention which was not so truly to advance the Knowledg of Christ in the World as to grieve this Blessed Apostle and to create him more Hardships and ill Usage He does not says the Father before mentioned and after him Theophylact and both confirmed by Tertullian and St. Cyprian where it falls in their way to consider this place He does not speak of such who taught Heretical Doctrines but of those who rightly taught Christ but did it from no right Purpose of Mind So that whatever the Motives were to themselves of undertaking the Ministry it appears what they taught was no other than Orthodox But as for our present Contentious Preachers 't will be difficult for them to make it appear that they preach the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus 'T will be hard for them to show that they do not preach up a National Contention in the Name of Christ which was more than these did Why else do we hear from them so many Doctrines tending not only to lessen but destroy the very Being and Authority of that Church which is established upon the Foundation of Prophets and Apostles Why else do we hear from them so many Positions destructive of Monarchy and so dangerous to Kings for whom this very Apostle exhorts us especially to make Supplications and Prayers and Thanksgivings And if thus they preach another Gospel than his whatever Favour this Passage may afford them I do not know how it can relieve them from Another wherein the same Mouth pronounces That thô he or an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Gospel than what he had preached let him be accursed If therefore upon the whole the Preachers now such in defiance of the Laws instead of carrying on a Personal Contention promote and have effectually promoted a most Dangerous and most Universal Disturbance I cannot but conceive the Difference is so wide between those the Apostle refers to in this place and those we meet with in the present Age that if our Governours as the Government has ever been kind to its cost should still think it safe and prudent to forbear the suppressing of them it is more than these Men can reasonably expect from any thing this Text can oblige them to do And this being done I shall now think of closing the whole with such Reflections upon what has been said as may either concern I. The dissenting Preachers or II. Our selves of this Clergy or III. The People that are Hearers of Them or of Us. And To the dissenting Preachers I would from