OF THE Rule of Faith A SERMON At the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Lincolne holden at Bedford August 5. 1674. By William Iackson D. D. CAMBRIDGE Printed by Iohn Hayes for Henry Dickinson in Cambridge And are to be sold by R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S t Pauls Churchyard in London 1675. S t Iude verse 3. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints OF how fatal consequence to the Peace of the Church and the Purity of our Christian Faith the Licentious Preaching of Dissenters hath been we have had a late and a wofull experience Warning enough surely not to trust them again Having seen not onely the Government and Discipline of the Church broken down and all the Articles of our Creed batter'd by whole Legions of Heresies But also the first Article the very foundation of all Religion taken away too That it hath been by wise men of late thought a necessary work to prove that there is a God and to resume the Primitive Employment of writing Apologies and defences for the Truth and Excellency of Christian Religion as if we had been reformed into the Heathenism of our Fore-fathers And though by the mercy of God and the presence of his Anointed we have for some years had the Government of the Church restored and the Solemn Worship of God returned to our Publick Assemblies yet we do not see that the minds of the People generally are resetled upon that firm basis of the Ancient Catholique and Holy Faith from which they were once so tumultuously removed Those contrary winds of Doctrine that raised that heavy storm are not yet laid and so long as men take so much liberty of Indulgence God knows when they will But till then it can never be unnecessary or improper especially in such an Assembly as this to make use of this verse of St Iude with the variation of one word onely Beloved when I gave all diligence to preach unto you of the common Salvation it was needful for me to preach unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints The Text is plain enough to the meanest capacity onely some that think they have a peculiar interest in the word Saints may be mistaken for by that word is meant in plain English Christians those that are baptized into the faith of Christ for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of persons in this life generally signifies in the new Testament and in the Text being used in the plural number seems to denote the Collective body of them the Church And then faith being taken Objectivè for the matters or things to be believed The faith once delivered to the Saints is those Doctrines which it pleased God in one set time to reveal and to deposite as a standing Rule of Faith in the Church for ever There are in the words three things generally observable I. The nature and immutability of the Rule of Faith the Faith once delivered unto the Saints II. The way and means to preserve this as it was first delivered that ye should earnestly contend III. The Importance and necessity of so doing Beloved when I give all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you 1. For the Rule of Faith This must needs be the word of God in what manner soever revealed by what means soever made known to us to be such as might easily be proved to any that do believe there is a God And therefore it is 1. A word that is some Doctrine or Divine truths that we are to believe For it is an Intellectuall Rule or a Rule to the understanding which is to suspend or give assent to the Doctrines of Religion so far as they disagree or accord with this Rule Now seeing there is no belief but of something that is affirmed or denied there can be no Rule of this but onely some Doctrines or propositions presupposed as true and taken for granted before hand And this is the way of all Arts and Sciences which contain such diversity of objects for our belief and understanding Every one of them hath some fundamentall Maxims or Propositions upon which the whole body is afterward raised and in Contradiction to which nothing is to be taken for true in the respective science Now the Doctrine of Christian Religion being the most reasonable Doctrine in the world is questionless also the most regular and Methodicall hath in it as much certainty and evidence of a regular Method as is in any science and more and would so appear to us had we as clear a comprehension of it as we have of other doctrines And therefore agreeably this Phrase The Rule of Faith is not to be taken Causally or Formally as if we sought for a Measure antecedent to the fundamentall points of our Belief to try them by but it is to be taken SubIectivè or Materially that is a Rule consisting of the fundamentall points of Faith and a formall Rule to determine controversies and to condemn Heresies by This was the sense of it both name and thing when it came first into use among the Fathers in the Primitive Church as may be seen by Irenaeus Tertullian S t Austin Epiphanius Nazianzen Leo and the rest of them that treat of the Christian Faith Till of late upon the Popes pretensions to an infallible Iudicature the words have been wrested from their primitive sense to signifie the arguments and motives that perswade us to entertain the Christian Doctrine it self in gross or more especially the chief parts of it for this seems to be the meaning of them in the Controversie at this day But these Arguments or Motives whether from Reason or Authority are antecedent to this Rule the ground and means of coming to it not the Rule it self otherwise we should have as many Rules of Faith as we have arguments from reason or authority why we believe Indeed if we take the word Faith for our Act of believing a Christians Faith hath this in Common with all other belief that the Rule and the object matter of it are the same thing For the immediate limit and measure of all belief is and must be the apparent truth of the thing proposed beyond which our assent cannot go without Error or believing a falshood nor can it fall short of it without infidelity or want of due belief these two properties make a Rule in the most adaequate and exact sense But then nothing can have this apparent truth rightly and Regularly farther then as it is consonant to those propositions on which the truth of it depends and
Print in the frequent Meetings of Dissenters and other ways Opinions so repugnant to the Christian Faith and destructive of true Piety will now have the same malignant influence and effect upon both which heretofore they used to have And will diffuse a venom too strong for any help but that Power which planted the Faith in its first Purity And withall it is to be feared that the great dishonour done to the Majesty of God the injuries done to our meek and most blessed Saviour and to the most holy and sanctifying Spirit by these blasphemous opinions and by that wanton liberty they have of walking abroad with Publick connivence will bring upon us a guilt and wrath from God not to be expiated by another twenty Years suffering VI. The sixth means to defend the Faith is by a dayly and constant confession of it in all times and trials even of death and Martyrdom We are taught to profess our Rule of Faith twice a day in our publick prayers And upon good reason For as all truth desires nothing more then that beauty that is native to it to commend it to our belief and best defends it self against all contradiction when it appears most naked So certainly truths of so illustrious a magnitude as the Articles of our Creed cannot be better preached and maintained then by an open hearty and constant profession of them The most difficult service which they require of us in the greatest opposition is then but to own them with which alone we gain an absolute Conquest over all the World 1 Iohn 5. 4 5. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Who is he that overcometh the world But he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God Our Faith is the purchase of His exinanition and therefore the Cross the inseparable badge of it not to be laid aside when God puts it upon us without certain loss of those Heavenly Ioys that attend patient suffering for the truth and Martyrdom which as it is of peculiar benefit to those that faithfully wade through it sanctifying that death which we owe to Nature for sin and raising it as a gift of Faith and Patience offered up acceptably to God So it did of Old and always will give the greatest renown to the Christian Faith and Name being next the Miracles wrought by God himself the most pregnant and visible testimony of the Power of the Holy Ghost going along with the Faith And of this the first ages of the Church are a sufficient proof These are some of the proper and direct ways of contending for the Faith There are others that come in as Auxiliaries and serve onely by consequence The chief of which are these two 1. Holyness of life Purity of mind and conscience This is the proper vehicle of true Faith 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience Cap. 1. 19. Which some having cast away concerning Faith have made shipwrack Long gathered habits of vertue or vice insensibly cast the Soul into a setled state of good or evil respectively In which case from the dictate of self-preservation as all things else it naturally seeks and adheres to such principles as will make good and maintain the condition it is possest of If the condition be good it appeals to Faith as the author and refuge of it in the strength whereof it stands and in the encrease of it doth triumph and glory If the condition be evil then Faith appears as a witness against us and a tormentor and the Soul cannot contemplate it without horror but must turn aside and betake it self to the refuge of lies some doctrines however false yet plausible that may help it at present to silence the fear of a Iudgement to come Which Article and severall others as remission of sins the resurrection and eternall life are absolutely inconsistent with a continuation and security in evil courses It is true Faith is supernaturall Grace infused into our Souls by God himself from above Yet it is liable to be disturbed yea and ejected too by the strength of our own corruptions and the powers of darkness raigning in us These stifle and extinguish those motions and illuminations whereby the holy Spirit doth usually work Faith in us Who though he delight to dwell in Tabernacles of Clay in the hearts of the Sons of Men yet abhorrs and flyes from the tents of the wicked especially the proud and the sensuall And it is notorious in the history of the Church that the great Heresies that troubled it of old had their birth from one of these either the Ambition or Debauchery of their first Broachers 2. The next means Is to preserve the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel who are the Dispensers of this Faith Did Christians generally found their belief and practice upon those rules and principles by which they are to be measured there would be the less need of this But it is obvious to be observed that men commonly begin with the esteem of a Person or Party and then raise their Faith according to the dictate of that Person or Party This the Hereticks of all ages have seen and therefore made it their first business to worm themselves into vogue and credit being sure they must needs be Masters of their Faith whose understandings their reputation had first blinded And indeed we cannot reasonably expect that our Doctrine should gain much upon the minds of those that despise our Persons or Callings which God be thanked at present is not nor lightly can be done by any but such in whom Atheism or Fanaticism hath smothered if not destroyed the power of Religion All Nations not wholly barbarous have lookt upon it as both the security of their Religion and Glory of their Countrey to have the estate of their Priesthood maintained in honour and plenty And it were much to be wished that the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been in this point more sordid and sacrilegious then all other Christians not to say Nations in the World We have seen verified in England what was upon this miscarriage in the Reformation foretold by the most learned and Iudicious Writer of his rank among the Protestants That the time of Religion and the Service of God would likely fall as the age of Man within seventy or eighty years and what followed would be small Ioy to them that beheld it And we are yet to pray and hope that the little that remains may escape if possible all fears and Iealousies from the luxury and profaness of the Age The naturall issue of which vices in conjunction is the devouring of holy things and then an open Apostafie from the Faith Unless Gods mercy make them childless as unlawfull embraces often prove I have now sufficiently tired you with a lame account of some things in the right management whereof the continuance of our Faith is greatly concern'd And had we hearts to make use
written word if they have it is surely a sufficient Basis for any or all the Articles of their Faith and tradition or the voice of the Church being but an humane testimony cannot cause a Divine infallible Faith Yes The testimony of the Church say they is divine and infallible But here they lie cross one to another For by the voice of the Church some of them mean a traditional delivery of the Faith from age to age without writing as the Roman Catholick writers of England especially Others mean the voice or sentence of the present Pope or Church as the great Pontiff and Court of Rome with the Iesuits and other their close Adherents And these are as profest adversaries to one another as they are to us Those laying the stress upon the indefectibility of Oral and Practical tradition These upon an infallible assistance given to the present Pope or Church And so far hath the opposition between them proceeded that our Countreymen have been about twelve years since condemn'd at Rome of Heresie by a solemn censure of the Inquisition for their stiff maintaining tradition in opposition to the present Infallibility And on the other side they of Rome have been condemn'd by them in England for their illimited Pretences to Infallibility And which is worst of all both have forsaken the Faith of their Trent-Fathers For they profess to receive the written word and unwritten traditions pari Pietatis affectu Reverentiâ with equal devotion and submission But our assertors of Tradition are for it alone in opposition to the Scripture and the pretenders to a present Infallibility think themselves able to overrule both Scripture and Tradition Whereby you may see that since they have quitted the old foundation they have not been able to fix any that all their members can agree in And withall may be seen how necessary an implicite Faith is for those that will be of the Romish Communion since did they use but half an eye they must needs discover instead of A Guide in Controversies an endless Maze wherein it is no wonder that many even of the greatest Wits lose all Religion and take up in Atheism But we have many and greater arguments for this point more and more convincing then for any one point either in Reason or Religion except it be for the Existence of a God It will be impossible to speak to all and it will be too great an ingratitude to the goodness of God to omit all I shall therefore mention two or three of them I. This book alone contains a Doctrine and institution without error and which therefore by vertue of that qualification can alone be an infallible Rule of our Faith It is strange to consider that for so long a time as it hath been in the world so much read and canvass'd and written upon more then any other book whatsoever nay I might say but that it would look like a solaecism more then all other books put together so many Commentaries Annotations Paraphrases Versions Animadversions Scholia critica Anticritica Collationes Lucubrationes Diatriba Exercitationes Myrothecia Antitheses and a hundred more sorts of disquisitions and discussions of the truth of it Yet not the least error or misprision of error hath been found in it An abundant proof that there is none in it that it is the dictate of an infallible understanding which could not be put forth into the world for any other end then to be a standing and infallible Rule to Mankind who is of their naturall condition confessedly overrun with Error II. The Scripture contains the onely doctrine that ever could prevail upon Mankind in that way which the Rule of Faith onely doth and can prevail And that is by the strength and power of the light and truth that shines in it and by the assistance of that Almighty arm which never vouchsafed to give the Testimony of a Miracle to any thing but to Truths of the greatest Consequence Did it not think you seem strange to those that lived in the times when it was first published and did observe a doctrine so unlikely to take either with the weakness and humour of Mankind in Generall or with the pomp and powers of the world in Particular as the worship of a poor beggerly Iew which was our Saviours condition while he lived and a crucified and derided Malefactor which were the terms whereon he suffered That this weak and creeping pretender unarm'd and unattended by any but poor and ignorant men that in worldly respects were indeed as they confess'd of themselves the very refuse of Mankind like Master like Apostles That it should notwithstanding in less then fifty years obtain so great and universall an Interest in all parts of the world as to shake and in few years after to overthrow all Religions that had had so long undisturbed and unquestioned possession Maugre that multitude of Priests and Daemons by which they were maintained and all that might and opposition which the supream Powers of the world the malice and cunning of the devil yea the very bent and inclination of all Mankind could set against it And this without any humane helps but onely the bare preaching and proposall of it Which from the mouths of such ragged and forlorn Commissioners as were employed must and did much prejudice the promotion of it Especially considering what absolute obedience it required of bringing down even every imagination and what hard terms is propos'd of mortification taking up the Cross and forsaking all that was before counted dear in this world and which is hardest of all requiring self condemnation and that in instances of greater and more pungent concernment then the world had before been acquainted with What could any sober man in those days Iudge from these things and many more of the like Nature but that it was a Doctrine given by the Supream Lord and Lawgiver of the World to be an absolute Rule both of Faith and practice to all the World III. The Scripture contains that doctrine which alone of all doctrines that ever were publish't doth entirely agree with the Soul of Man and with the principles of reason within him And which consequently can alone be an infallible help to his understanding and propose a Rule of Faith to him It teaches us the same lessons that we learn from the light of Nature that there is a God that he made the World and governs it that he punishes the Evil and rewards the Good It instructs us in the knowledge and belief of these and many more such doctrines more clearly and convincingly then all the Philosophy in the World so fully and undeniably as force the Soul to have what arguments and discourses she drawes from her own bottom and to betake her self to this word as the onely safe and impregnable rock and hold of Truth It informs and extricates our Souls from those errors and perplexities concerning our own nature and condition which
reason makes us sensible of but can neither remedy nor clearly discover In all the infinitely various and entangled Cases wherein men are concerned it never so much as once crosses their reason or understanding but always helps it forward It is the onely Doctrine that ever taught mankind to abstract from the world to disengage Religion from worldly designs and temptations without which it is impossible that our understanding should attain the full liberty of Iudging or the true measures of believing It calls up the mind to those sublime and heavenly contemplations to that divine and inflaming ardour as force reason to stand at a distance and acknowledge that her most refined and studied wits her most severe Stoicks and Recluses had not so much as the husks of that fruit which this Tree of knowledge and life affords That the strength of all her productions were they never so genuine cannot enrich her votaries with so true and solid learning with so pure and charming a holiness with so firm and delicious a happiness as the meanest of the students of this Book are enabled to attain It propounds mysteries of so high and glorious a nature with so much Naifvetie so much clear native perspicuity and so much commanding and dreadfull Majesty as cannot be communicated any whence but from that infinite and eternall Wisdom who is alone able as to discover and reveal so to comprehend fully the Mysteries contained in the Scripture Mysteries so much above our weak reason so attractive of it and so healing to it as may from their own nature and merit claim and exercise the Energy and Authority of a Rule of Faith IV. Lastly Scripture contains the onely doctrine that ever could obtain to give law to all the world and the first that ever pretended to so large a Iurisdiction But the Rule of Faith as it is absolute admits of no appeal so the extent of it is illimited and universall over all Persons to whom it is made known of what nation age quality or pretence soever And that both in respect of the contents of it which are of a like importance to all to receive and believe as of that power by which it stands which is a like Soverain over all Now call to mind what was done in the world for the first 4000 years at the end whereof this Doctrine was revealed and you will find as many Lawgivers and Masters of Religion almost as Countries Nor have there been since any pretenders to an Universall Monarchy in Religion besides his Infallible Holiness of Rome and the Seraphick Author of the Alcoran But S. Iude tells us this Faith was delivered when he wrote his Epistle and therefore both these are cut out by a far elder claim And the Ancients made use of this very Topick viz. The universall extent of the Gospel to prove that main point of Faith on which the rest depends namely the Divinity of Christ the Author of it No Book ever came neer that high pitch of historicall credit that this hath had ever since it was publish't And he that brings but that belief with him to the reading of it cannot upon reading but believe it is Divine and look for a Rule of Faith in it In a word it hath the two Essentiall properties required in a Rule Certainty in it self and Evidence to us both which appear a Posteriori from the constant Consent of all Churches in one abstract of things fundamentall to Salvation taken out of it And we have as much proof that it is to be such as we can possibly have suppose it were so And now surely it may seem a strange presumption in flesh and blood to attempt to put down this Oracle from that praeeminence and power over the Faith of Christendom wherein the Almighty did at first place it and wherein it hath by undoubted possession prescribed for so many ages since An attempt that could not have entred into the hearts of men if extream and overgrown corruption both in Faith and manners had not first thrown out all fear of him who hath threatned utter excision to all them that dare add to or detract from his word To him we must leave them who will stand by his own word and bring to light the hidden things of dishonesty and consider what returns of duty become us and they are especially three I. The first is that which is to appear in us in the first place upon the receipt of any mercy or blessing whatsoever and that is thankfulness and gratitude that we offer up a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and that for this it be a dayly sacrifice because this word is of more necessary and frequent use to us then our dayly bread II. A chearfull and absolute resignation of our Faith and Understanding to it III. A zealous and unwearied endeavour to keep and maintain this Faith whole and untainted in all trialls and oppositions The third we are now to speak to expressed by S. Iude in these two words Contend earnestly which Iointly imploy these two things 1. The use of all means necessary to attain so noble an end 2. Zeal and perseverance in the use of them I. The means most likely to preserve our Faith are I conceive these that follow 1. The Preservation of the letter of Scripture intire and uncorrupt and a diligent study of the literall meaning of it For we do not by the Scripture understand the bare characters abstracted from the sense as a bold SerIeant of the Church of Rome is pleased to say of us but by what Authority appears not Possibly it may be some remnant of his weak Faith before his defection which by his defection seems to have gone no farther then the bare characters never to have been well grounded in the true sense and meaning of it We mean by Scripture the literall sense of it especially in the points fundamentall to Salvation which are the very points of Faith not as he saith of which this Rule of Faith is to ascertain us but of which it consists which make it up as the parts make the whole These we say are contained in the first and most obvious sense of the words of Scripture God being graciously pleased to lay them open to all capacities and so making it a common Salvation as S. Iude here calls it As common reason will teach us that any Writer that would be understood will endeavour to deliver the main parts and substance of his discourse most plainly and expresly And therefore it is no wonder that the mysticall exposition of plain Scripture prov'd so mischievous to the Faith of the Ancient Church But so long as we have the letter of Scripture whole and understand the literall meaning of it so long we have our Rule of Faith safe I shall not need to tell you how both the one and other are best done by a study of the Originals of both Testaments by comparing the severall