A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL November 5. 1667. By the Right Reverend Father in GOD GEORGE Lord Bishop of Winton WHILEST He was Dean of the CHAPPEL-ROYAL LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome 1683. A SERMON ON 1 COR. Cap. XIV Ver. XXXIII For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace THAT there is a God and that this God was the Maker and is the Preserver and Disposer of all things is a Truth generally consented to by all Mankind Again that this God who made us and preserves us and provides for us is to be Worshipped and Adored and Obeyed by us no Man that acknowledgeth there is such a God can be so unreasonable as to deny Lastly that there can be no Way of Worshipping or of Serving God so Fit so Safe or so Acceptable unto him as that which himself prescribes I presume there is no considering Person but he must needs grant And therefore all Wise Men that ever took upon them to teach Religion or the Way to serve God howsoever they have differed in the Matter of their Doctrine they have always agreed in the Manner of proposing or Tradition of it whilest either they pretended falsly or professed truly some Divine Revelation or other to authorize and countenance whatsoever Religion it was which they taught the People Thus Numa Pompilius though he himself devised all that ridiculous rabble of Superstitious Ceremonies with which he taught the Pagan Romans to Worship their false Gods yet he pretended a Divine Revelation from the Goddess Egeria for them all And thus Mahomet that impious and impure Impostor pretended an Inspiration from the Holy Ghost by the whispering of a Dove into his Ear for all that Farrago or Hotch-potch of lies and blasphemies in his cursed Alcoran whereby so great a part of the World hath been so grosly abused and so strangely seduced for above a thousand years together To conclude there never was any Religion in the World whosoever was the Deviser or Teacher of it but it was always fathered upon God whereby it plainly appears that even those men that taught others to Worship God falsly did themselves believe that none could be taught to Worship God truly but by God himself or by such as were taught of him what they were to teach others And therefore what the Devisers and Teachers of all false Religions pretended falsly the very same did the Teachers of true Religion profess truly namely that they were sent from God and that the Doctrine which they taught others was neither more nor less than that what God himself had taught them Thus Moses the Lawgiver of the Old Testament was but Gods mouth whereby he spake unto the Jews as Aaron was his mouth when he spake unto Pharaoh nay thus even our Saviour Christ himself the Law-giver of the New Testament tells us that he spake not of himself but as he had heard of his Father For my Doctrine saith he is not mine but his that sent me Joh. 7. 16. Now as the Doctrine which Moses and the Prophets at first taught the Jews so the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles at first taught the Christians was evidenced to come from God or to be the Truth of God by their doing of such things for the Confirmation of it as none could do but God or could not be done but by the power of God But then as in the Jewish Church after Moses and the Prophets were dead and gone there were some that sate in Moses Chair who did in the name of Moses and the Prophets teach the People to believe and do such things as never were taught either by Moses or any of the Prophets so in the Christian Church likewise after Christ and his Apostles were gone there were some that succeeded them in the Governing and Teaching of the Church especially some of those that pretended to sit in St. Peter's Chair who in the name of Christ and his Apostles have introduced such Doctrines and Practises into the Christian World as never were taught by Christ or any of his Apostles nay such as are quite contrary to the Belief and Practise of the first Christians Again as some of those who sate in Moses's Chair perceiving there was nothing in the Writings of Moses or the Prophets rightly understood to countenance them in their own Ambitious and Covetous Designs and yet not daring in terminis or point-blank to contradict the Doctrine of Moses or the Prophets for fear of the Jews they did either wrest what Moses and the Prophets had written to their ownsense by false Glosses and Interpretations as the Scribes did witness Christs Sermon upon the Mount to convince them of it or they did pretend to unwritten Traditions successively derived to them from Moses and the Prophets and consequently of equal Authority to the Prophetical Writings themselves as the Pharisees taught the People and thereby did not only teach them to Worship God in vain by teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of men Matt. 15. 9. but to make the Word of God it self of none effect Mark 7. 13. The former when by some of their Traditions they made more than God had commanded by Moses or the Prophets to be necessary the latter when by other of their Traditions they made that which God had commanded by Moses and the Prophets not to be necessary even so or just in the like manner and to the same ends there be some that pretend to be the true nay the only true Successors of Christ and his Apostles who not finding in the Gospel of Christ as it is recorded by the Evangelists and the Apostles enough to serve their turns in order to their own Ambitious and Worldly Designs and yet not daring openly to avow any other Gospel for fear of St. Paul's Anathema and of discovering themselves to be Antichrist or at least the fore-runners of Antichrist they make men believe that to be the Doctrine of Christ which indeed is not partly by interpreting the Apostolical Writings in their own sence and partly by pretending Apostolical Tradions for that which cannot by any Interpretation be wrested from the Apostolical Writings And by this means in process of time they have made Christ's Kingdom which he himself tells us is not of this World to be of this World and themselves to be the Governours of it and whosoever will not be Perswaded must be Compell'd to believe it And thus the Evangelical Dove is made a prey to the Roman Eagle whilst Maxims of Humane Policy are taught for Articles of Divine Faith and men are made to believe that God is the Author of such Doctrines and Practices as are contrary not only to the Truth of his Word but to the Holiness of his Nature I mean such Doctrines and Practices as tend to the Distraction and Destruction of Kingdoms and States as if Christ came not to save the World as he saith he did but to destroy it which he saith he did
not or as if God were not the Author of Peace as St. Paul saith he is but the Author of Confusion which St. Paul says he is not But let God be true and every Man a lyar And God as St. Paul tells us in my Text is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace In which Words we are to consider 1. The Occasion 2. The Sense or Meaning 3. The Intention or Scope 4. The Use or Uses which by Way of Application we are to make of them First then as to the Occasion of these Words it is implied in the first of them in the Word For which being a Note of connexion must needs argue that the Words following have a relation to something spoken of before as the Occasion of them Now that which S. Paul had spoken of before and whereunto this Saying of his doth relate was the dangerous condition which those of that Church of Corinth were then in by reason of certain erroneous and seditious Doctrines which under the notion of Apostolical truths were cunningly infused into them and credulously entertain'd by them as appears by many Passages in this and the precedent Chapters especially the first where the Apostle tells them he had heard there were Divisions amongst them some saying they were of Paul others of Cephas and others of Christ and each of every sort exclusively to all the rest thereby excommunicating one another by appropriating Christ and his Apostles and the Apostolical Doctrine unto themselves as if all that did not believe in Christ just as they did were no Christians Besides some of them to gain Proselytes unto themselves and to increase and strengthen their own Party were content to dispence in point of Practise with those that were or would be of their Faction by permitting or at least by conniving at Incestuous Marriages Cap. 5. 2. as likewise with the departing of Wives from their Husbands and à fortiori with departing of Husbands from their Wives Cap. 7. 10. and of Servants from their Masters Vers. 20 and 21. of the same Cap. and by the same reason of Children from their Parents and of Subjects from their Soveraigns also Now certainly the Teaching of such Doctrines and the Allowing of such Practises as these must needs tend to the disturbance of the publick Peace and to the introducing of Disorder and Confusion not into Churches only but into States also Now this being then the State of Corinth whereunto it was brought by such as pretended to be Apostles or to be as infallible at least as the Apostles themselves were nay and were believed to be so by those whom they had seduced and who being seduced could not chuse but adhere to their seducers and to the Doctrines they were taught by them until they were convinced of the falshood of those Doctrines and consequently of the fallibility of their Teachers by some such argument as neither they nor their teachers themselves could disprove or deny therefore St. Paul to prove those Doctrines to be false he proves them to be inconsistent with Peace as evidently and undeniably appeared by the Divisions and Factions that were at that time in Corinth and which St. Paul ascribes to the aforesaid Doctrines as the natural necessary and unavoidable Effects of them And this being experimentally and apparently true it follows of necessity that either those Doctrines which caused those Factions and Divisions and Confusions were false and consequently that the Teachers of them were Seducers and false Apostles which was that whereof St. Paul was to convince the Corinthians or else that such Doctrines as are naturally and necessarily the cause of Contention and Confusion are true Doctrines which if either the Seducers were so Impudent as to affirm or the Seduced so Foolish as to believe they must needs affirm and believe likewise that such Doctrines notwithstanding their being the cause of Faction and Confusion must be from God or that God must be the Author of them because God is the Author of all Truth and consequently such Doctrines supposing them to be true must needs be supposed to come from God as the Author and if as the Author then as the Approver of them also But this Supposition is impossible to be True nay it is blasphemously False as being indeed a contradiction not only to the Word or revealed Will of God but even to Gods very Nature and Essence it self as St. Paul demonstratively proves by this Theological Principle or Aphorism in my Text when he tells us that God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace which being a Theological Principle as I said before needs no Proof it being self-evident to any one that believes there is a God and considers what God is and what is meant either by Confusion or by Peace and what it is to be the Author of the one or of the other And therefore having shewed you what was the Occasion of these Words I am now in the second place to give you the plain Sense and Meaning of them And here I do not intend to ingage my self in a Discourse either of Confusion or of Peace in the general Latitude or Extent of the Words and much less by way of Common-place to give you a Catalogue of all the blessed Effects of the one or of all the mischievous Consequences of the other but only to tell you First What is meant by the word Confusion and what is meant by the word Peace in the Text. Secondly To shew you how and in what sence God may be said to be the Author of the one and not the Author of the other First then by the word Confusion here in this place is meant the unsetling disordering and disturbing of any Society Civil or Ecclesiastical whether it be by force or fraud by Words or Actions and consequently by the word Peace as it is here opposed to the word Confusion is meant neither the Internal peace of Grace nor the Eternal peace of Glory though God be the Author and the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of peace in both these notions also but only an External peace here in this World as it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the well-ordering or happy Constitution of a Church or State And this is that which St. Paul in my Text means by Confusion and Peace when he saith that God is not the Author of the one and is the Author of the other But then Secondly If by Peace be meant Order and Settlement and by Confusion be meant Disorder and Disturbance in Churches and States how can God be said to be the Author of the one and not of the other seeing there be so many places of Scripture wherein the putting down as well as the setting up the overturning and overthrowing as well as the supporting and establishing the dissolution and desolation as well as the safety and preservation and consequently the Confusion as well as the
People may be incouraged either to despise the one or to resist the other And this indeed is the peculiar Glory of the Church of England that she and no other Church but she hath plainly and positively declared unto the World without Iffs or And 's or any other clause or words of exception or reservation that It is not lawful for Subjects severally or joyntly or in any capacity whatsoever to take up Arms or to joyn with any that do take up Arms either offensive or defensive against Sovereign Authority or without Commission from Sovereign Authority in any case for any cause or upon any either pretended or real provocation and least of all upon the account of Religion because that were in terminis or in plain terms to contradict the Apostle in my Text by making God the Author of Confusion and not of Peace For what Peace could there be among Christians if it were lawful for Subjects to rise up or to conspire against their Sovereigns for defending or introducing of that which they call or think to be the true Religion For every man and Sect of men takes their own Religion to be the truest otherwise they would not nay they could not in earnest be of it themselves so that if it were lawful for Subjects to take Arms or to attempt any thing against the State or present Government for that which they think to be the true Religion all States and Kingdoms must needs be always embroyled in Civil Wars because there is no State or Kingdom but it hath some I am sure ours hath many of several Religions in it who might all as well as any take Arms upon this account against their Sovereign who can be but of one Religion himself If it be replied that though the Sovereign can be but of one Religion himself yet there may be a Toleration given of all the rest I confess there may be so but not without extreme hazard as I humbly conceive both to the Religion and Person of the Sovereign 'T is true that all of all Religions cry out for Liberty of Conscience until they themselves are in possession of the Sovereign power and then they will give none to others Witness the practise of those of the Church of Rome during Queen Maries Reign here in England and at this day in Spain and Italy and wheresoever else the Romish Religion is in its full power Witness likewise the practise of the several Sectaries in their several turns of governing in the late Changes here at home when there was none of them that did not or would not have suppressed all other Sects but their own as much as they did if it had been in their power The best and safest way therefore for Prince State and People is to profess protect cherish and allow of that Religion and that only which allows of no rising up against or resisting Sovereign Power no not in its own defence nor upon any other account whatsoever which most Christian and most Orthodox Profession if those of the Romish and those of other Perswafions that live among us but are not of us would make as frankly and as ingenuously and as sincerely as we do though it would not presently reconcile all other Differences betwixt us and them yet it would perhaps be enough to make us live peaceably and charitably and securely together without Fear or Jealousie of one another which would be a good step towards an Accommodation of all other Controversies betwixt us in time also which is all that I have to say at this time upon this Occasion only let me intreat you all to joyn with me in this short Prayer to God the Father That all who are called by the name of his Son all Christians may through the powerful inspiration and operation of his Holy Spirit be brought to agree in the Truth of his Holy Word and to live together in Unity and Godly Love That there be no more Heresies nor no more Schisms no more Sects nor no more Factions no more Controversies nor no more Scandals nor no more Wars Seditions Conspiracies or Rebellions amongst Christians but that all of us in our several Places and Stations may indeavour to adorn our holy Profession by an holy Life and Conversation that so we may be no longer Christians in name only but in deed Amen FINIS The Occasion The Sense or Meaning The Scope or Intention Obj. Answ. The Application Use 1. * Bell. de Concil lib. 2. c. 17. * August Steuch Anton de Rosellis Convenit inter omnes posse Pontif. Max. Haereticos Principes jure deponere Tort. Tort. p. 325. Quòd Reges possunt deponi à Subditis ob multas causas Bellar de Pontif lib. 5. c. 10. Bellarm. in Recog lib. 3. Quaest. de Laicis Regis Jacoli monitio ad Principes Christianos p. 333. Tortura Torti p. 11. Use II. Use III.