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A63919 A sermon preached before Sr. Patience Ward, upon the last Sunday of his mayoralty, Anno 1681 with additions / by John Turner ... Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50. 1683 (1683) Wing T3318A; ESTC R23557 54,614 86

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A SERMON Preached before Sr Patience Ward UPON THE Last SVNDAY of His MAYORALTY Anno 1681. With ADDITIONS By John Turner late Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae Intaminatis fulget honoribus Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aurae LONDON Printed for Walter Rettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1683. SUMMA PRIVILEGII Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical 1640. Artic. 8. WHereas the Preaching of order and decency according to St. Paul's rule doth conduce to edification it is required that all Preachers as well beneficed men as others shall positively and plainly preach and instruct the people in their publick Sermons twice in the year at least that the Rites and Ceremonies now established in the Church of England are lawfull and commendable and that they the said people and others ought to conform themselves in their practice to all the said Rites and Ceremonies and that the people and others ought willingly to submit themselves unto the authority and government of the Church as it is now established under the King's Majesty And if any Preacher shall neglect or refuse to doe according to this Canon let him be suspended by his Ordinary during the time of his refusal or wilfull forbearance to doe thereafter I. COR. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order THE unhappy breaches and differences among us in matters of Religion are at present the subject of universal Complaint and though nothing be more talked of than an Union among Protestants against the common Enemies of our Liberties as we are English men and of our Faith as we are Christians yet if we will believe mens Actions rather than their Words there is nothing that seems less heartily to de desired or if you will give me leave to speak a little plainer for it is not now a time to mince the matter with more solicitous Care and Industry to be avoided For my part I am not come hither to enflame those differences and if I were 't is twenty to one but I should lose my Errant for they are so great already that perhaps they are incapable of being encreased But if you will allow me that liberty which every man now pretends to as his birthright that is to spend my private opinion about the publick Concerns I will put you in a way by which this blessed Union can onely be effected and that is by keeping up strictly to the Discipline of the Church and by doing all things decently and in order We have almost every day many excellent Discourses delivered in the Pulpit to persuade us to mutual Charity and Forbearance with one another and indeed this is in a manner the whole design of Christianity to produce in us those calm and peaceable dispositions of mind which are best fitted to make us happy in this life and to prepare us for the blessedness of that other state whose very nature consists in perfect Charity and perfect Peace Wherefore Saint Paul tells us plainly that without charity which is the very bond of Peace and of all vertues all our pretences to Religion and all our attainments in it our proficiencie in spiritual knowledge and our super-errogation if that were possible in good works will signifie just nothing at all though I speak with the tongue of men and Angels saith he and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymbal and though I have the gift of prophecie and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing nay though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing And if to the Testimony of St. Paul you will add the greater Authority of our Saviour himself he makes reciprocal Charity and Love to be the distinguishing mark and character of his Disciples By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another If therefore this Charity which is so essential to a Disciple of Christ that he cannot be so without it if the Vnion of the spirit in the bond of peace can be preserved under differing denominations of different Sects and Parties notwithstanding the different external forms and circumstances of Divine Worship if all or any of those pious and learned Exhortations which have been made to persuade you to this Christian temper can have that good effect which is intended by them notwithstanding the various forms of Church Government and the diversity of all other outward appendages and ceremonies of publick Worship if we can fear God and honour the King and love one another as well and as heartily in the midst of these differences as if there were no such things to be found among us then by my consent let all the Ecclesiastical Enclosures be laid open and let every man worship God so he do but worship him in spirit and in truth and believe aright as to the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith according to his own particular humour and fancie because by gratifying such an harmless though unaccountable humour there can no inconvenience follow but by disturbing and crossing it there may and therefore the ends of Religion will be better served by a diversity in Worship than by an uniformity of it But now on the contrary if it should prove true as it will most certainly if either Experience or Reason can be heard amongst us that the onely way to Unity and Peace is by an Uniformity of Discipline and Obedience as to the external circumstances of Divine Worship then this great end being so necessary as it is for the procuring us all that Happiness which either this World or the next can afford us will justifie all the necessary means that can be used in order to the obtaining it Wherefore Uniformity being necessary as a means to Peace and yet being impracticable unless the Church be supposed to be invested with a Power of prescribing the external modes and circumstances of Obedience it follows plainly that the Church is actually invested with such a Power and that all its members are bound to obey its Prescriptions For the Topick of Experience it is not without some unwillingness that I mention it much less do I think it proper at this time and place to lay open the wounds of our late unhappy times or present you with a mournfull Scene of those Miseries and Distractions which neither can nor ought to be remembred without Amazement and Horrour But if you will every one of you retire into your own thoughts and ask your selves the question What it was that brought those dreadfull Calamities upon us that involved three flourishing and powerfull Kingdoms in Bloud and Slaughter and Confusion that made the Gods to dye like men and fall like one of the Princes while Slaves were set over