as it will make every rational not to mention pious man to live holily so it will be a great allay to his temporal sufferings to consider that he shall have joy in the morning of his Resurrection for the heaviness he endured in the night of this life This was the ground of St. Paul's free and publick confession of his Faith And thus I come to speak of the last particular in the Text namely the effects in these words and herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Whence we may observe that the end of all Religious Knowledg is practice for Christianity is an active life it is not to make a wry Face and to put on a serious look and to talk piously and to breath nothing but Scripture that denominates a man a true Believer but it is an exercising of ones self so as to keep a clear Conscience towards God and Man And therefore it is that St. Paul elsewhere exhorts to press forwards and so to run as to win and not to beat the Air. And our Saviour bids bring forth works meet for repentance Mat. 3.8 And that we may do this we must live unblameably towards God our Neighbours and our selves If we be defective in the last two we must also be faulty in the first because though there are some offences more directly and immediately committed against God than other yet all are against him For as much as they are transgressions of his Laws And therefore we must make it our chief business First to give him his due which is honouring and invocating his name acknowledge all we have to proceed from his free Grace and make him as far as we are able suitable returns of Praise and Thanksgiving And as we must behave our selves thus towards God so we must deal uprightly with our Neighbours we must carry Honey in our mouths that is not injure them with false reports nor provoke them with bitter language and we must carry Charity in our hands that is relieve them to our power when their necessities require it not wrong them by Violence or Fraud not exact upon their necessities and we must carry a good example in all our actions And lastly as to our selves we must take heed that we abuse not those parts and indowments which God gave us to be instrumental to his service by any kind of excess riot or intemperance we must keep our sences well governed in great equality The Tongue under the rule of discretion and the Heart in a firm peace free from all sensual distracting thoughts this is the true end of believing Otherwise our assenting to a divine Truth is no more than such a faith as the Devils have who believe and tremble and are never the nearer happiness but our believing must include doing and must carry along with it a conscience or knowledge void of offence both towards God and towards Man And thus I have spoken what I designed at this time on this Subject and shall conclude all with one word of application You have heard St. Paul's Confession of Faith I beseech you examine your selves try whether you be of his Religion or not if you be I entreat you practise it 2. If you have a clear Conscience you need not regard the false reports of others for though it be a misfortune to be undeservedly ill spoken of yet it is a comfort that it is undeservedly The Bird in the Breast makes sweeter Musick than the Praises of a thousand Flatterers I am grieved saith a Father that they speak ill of me and asperse me falsly because they injure themselves and not me by their uncharitableness for they cannot rob me of the pleasure which a clear Conscience continually administers to me Lastly That all of us may have this clear Conscience let us be sure with St. Paul to walk by the Rule the Word of God Psal 119.105 that will be a Lanthorn to thy feet and a Light to thy paths and therefore do not imagine that the carrying of your Bible to Church and turning over the leaves and reading it carelesly is all that is required of you but be sure you practise what you read and compare your actions with that Rule and make them conformable to it this will make you not only Professors of St. Pauls Faith but also partakers of his Happiness where we shall see the Face of the living God clearly and at the full where the Beauties shall have no Veils to hide them from our eyes our Beings shall have no end our Knowledge shall not be subject to error nor our Loves to displeasure O! what an excess of Happiness will it be to enjoy all and to desire nothing to be a King without an Enemy to be rich without Covetousness and to be ever living without fear of Death all which God of his infinite Mercy vouchsafe unto us all through the merits of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS
S. PAULS CONFESSION OF FAITH OR A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HIS RELIGION IN A SERMON Preach'd at St. Warbroughs Church in Dublin March 22. 1684 5. By William Lord Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh The Second Impression Dublin Printed by Joseph Ray at Colledge Green for William Norman Bookseller in Dames street 1685. PREFACE TO THE READER SInce the Preaching of the ensuing Sermon I find that both it and the Author have undergone various Censures some object Vnseasonableness against it and others Disloyalty and for this reason being not willing to lie under that Imputation and being conscious to my self that I never entertain'd so much as a disloyal thought I am resolved the Sermon shall shift for it self But I am a little more concern'd to satisfy the World as to its seasonableness because even some of my Friends seem unsatisfied What needed you say they meddle with such a Subject why at this time Could you not let things run quietly and be content to preach if you must be preaching the Principles and Motives of and to a good Life without medling with Controversies and Disputes I must confess if those Principles against which I preach'd had no influence on mens Lives or were not pernicious to their Souls I should be of their Opinion but being convinced of both this alone is sufficient for justifying what I have done But I am resolved to be ingenious with the World and discover the true Motives that put me on this Subject I found that one of the Clergy of Dublin though a very loyal person for his imprudent medling with the State had been justly suspended by his Diocesan and that the People who seldom know or consider the true causes of things thought this Punishment was imposed on him for arguing for our Religion the tender sense they have for that put them into mighty Fears and Despondencies and made them reflect upon the Clergy as if they must either decline the Defence of the Truth which they value above their Lives or be silenc'd I easily saw what ill effects such Surmises might produce and although several private Clergymen said enough to satisfie the people of the falseness of the Conclusion they drew from that accident yet seeing them still dissatisfied I consider'd to remove their Jealousies was a work proper for one of an higher Degree in the Church and being invited to preach at St. Warbroughs where there is generally a very full Auditory I was glad of the opportunity of discharging my Duty and satisfying the People and convincing many Roman Catholicks who were then present to spy out our Liberty that we had and would take the same liberty as ever to defend our own Religion and to shew the Falshood of theirs and I have some reason to believe that what I then delivered had a good effect on their minds both as to the Government and the Clergy But I must further tell these Gentlemen That whatever policy may seem to be in being silent at this time it is too mean and has too much of the World in it ever to be expected from a Clergyman especially it cannot from a Bishop whose very Consecration obliges him to preach and drive away all Erronious and False Doctrine contrary to Gods Word and both privately and openly to call upon and incourage others to the same such we believe the Doctrines of the present Church of Rome to be and while we do so it is not to be expected that any worldly consideration should prevail with us to be silent our Vows oblige us to the contrary and the Charity which we owe to the Souls of Men is a farther tie upon us to warn them of the danger they bring on themselves by listning to such Doctrines or persevering in them though they have embrac'd them We are perswaded our silence in this case would prejudice our own People against Vs and the Truth and flatter our Adversaries with hopes of our going over to them and so confirm them in their pernicious Errors Let who so will hold such Errors Truth is Truth and must be defended And if the Romanists will but do as they would be done by they cannot take this ill at our hands especially while we have not only the Law on our sides but also the Word of that King who is famous for having never broken it to defend our Religion and if they be angry for this we cannot help it Truth is dearer to us then their favour We look on the Supremacy of the Pope and his unjust Vsurpation over Kings and his fellow Bishops as the fundamental Article of Popery and it is required by the second Canon of the Curch of Ireland of every Preacher to the utmost of his Wit Knowledge and Learning to preach against it four times a year And the twelfth Canon further requires That the Ministers in all their Preachings c. shall teach the People to place their whole trust and considence in God and not in Creatures neither in the Habit or Scapular of any Frier or in Hallowed Beads Medals Relicks or such like Trumperies And while these Canons stand in force we will we must do our duty according to them and the Government would have just reason to take notice of us if we should omit it And till I seer better reasons then I have yet heard I must think my Sermon a very seasonable intimation of our resolution of being true steady to our Laws Oaths and Duties and that it will be impossible to withdraw us from those Principles of Religion which we profess and upon strict and diligent examination know not only to be true but necessary also even in such a degree as to concern the Salvation of Mankind And let the Romanists take it as they please they must expect a great many such and blame themselves that this does now appear in print Because the false representation they made of what was then said hath made this publication of it necessary and these two following Letters written to me on that occasion hath convinced me of that necessity My very good Lord YOur Lordships late Sermon preach'd at St. Warbroughs Church in Dublin has given me an occasion of representing the several Censures upon it to your Lordship and withal of freely communicating my thoughts to you concerning it The Gentlemen who would pass for the only Catholicks in the world censure it as disloyal and tending to Sedition the Phanaticks are offended because you boldly tell them the truth and lay the blame of our present misfortunes where 't is justly chargeable at their doors and there is a third sort of men whom I may call the Politicians of the age that do not condemn but only censure some things in it as unseasonable and not fit to be spoken in these times It was my misfortune not to be present at the Delivery of it but however upon the experience of above thirty years acquaintance with your Lordship I can vouch as much for your
for their Sheep Eulogius for their Horses and St. Anthony for their Pigs 4. In Paganism several Prosessions had several Gods to pray to as Scholars Apollo Souldiers Mars Smiths Vulcan and Hunters Diana So in Popery Scholars have St. Gregory Souldiers St. George Smiths St. Loy and Shoomakers St. Crispin 5. In Paganism they had several Gods to pray to in several Diseases as Apollo for the Plague Hercules for the Falling Sickness and Lucina for Women in Childbirth and so in Popery St. Roch for the Plague Petronella for the Ague Apollonia for the Tooth-ach Anastacis for the Head-ach Lastly To these both Pagans and Papists build Churches erect Altars ordain Priests appoint Festivals set up Statutes and burn Candles as Musculus observes they did not learn this from our Apostle Comm. in Psal 16. the sole Object of whose religious Worship was the God of his Fathers that is the God whom his Fathers worship'd There can be nothing more opprobriously objected in Religion than Novelty there are a People who have made Laws of their own said Haman of the Jews Esth 3.8 and the Areo pagites of St. Paul let us hear what new Doctrine this is Acts 17.19 for Innovation diminishes the venerable Authority of Religion and therefore it is the Politicians Rule not to remove an ill custom when well setled the very Names of our Fathers and Predecessors sway much for the Woman of Samaria you know alledged the example of her Fathers against Gods Commands Our Fathers says she Joh. 4.20 worship'd in this Mountain but our Saviour tells her Salvation is of the Jews And the Gentiles excepted against Christianity because they would not condemn the ways of their Fathers but keep to and preserve those Rites which descended to them from age to age and the Hereticks themselves to gain credit to their Tenents were used to say so I have received so I have been taught by the Fathers And the Romanists do not object any thing more maliciously and falsly to the ignorant amongst us then that we had our Religion only from Luther and Calvin which they themselves cannot but know in their Consciences to be otherwise and that we swerve from the Judgment of the Primitive Fathers and exclude our Predecessors from all hope of Salvation But notwithstanding that they brag the Fathers are all theirs like the Madman that challenged all the Ships that came into the Harbour for his own yet it is evident to any one that is but meanly conversant in reading their Authors that they esteem the Fathers but as Counters which at play are sometimes placed for Pounds and sometimes for Pence for where they seem to favour them they commend and admire them and where they are clear against them they decry and despise them Otherwise if the Fathers are theirs and if they would have us believe they are their principal Witnesses why do they cut out their Tongues with their false glosses and expurgations of what they do not like 2. The Examples of our Progenitors or Predecessors are no infallible rules for us to follow for we must not with the Pharisees transgress the Commands of God by the Tradition of our Fathers Mat. 15.3 We must not with the Jews offer Sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 44.17 because our Fathers did so and it was well with them Jer. 9.14 Why did the Land perish and was burnt up like a Wilderness But because the people walked after Baalim which their Fathers taught them Therefore the Prophet says Ps 49.19 walk not in the ways of your Fathers and they follow the Generation of their Fathers which shall not see the light 3. We do not make the case of our Fore fathers that lived in Popery so desperate as they represent it for we do not question but many of them held firm the Foundation though much Hay and Stubble was built upon it for though they might be forc'd by terror or induced by sleight to partake of the common errors of the Church of Rome yet they might be free from its Heresy and hold the Faith implicitly in preparatione animi that is be ready to embrace it when God should reveal it to them 4. God might illuminate whom he pleas'd by his Spirit in those times of darkness when the means of Knowledg was wanting which is not now in this Sunshine of the Gospel to be expected as he enlightned the world by an expanded Light before he created the Sun which is since the ordinary way of giving Light and as he fed the Israelites with Manna in the Wilderness which he withdrew assoon as they came into the Land of Promise For when ordinary means are afforded extraordinary must neither be expected nor relied upon So that you see there is a vast difference between the case of our Forefathers and the case of the Papist now who wilfully shut their eyes against the Light offered to them When the ordinary means fail'd God was able to save and did save in the midst of that Blindness those that belonged to the Election of his Grace But it cannot be therefore safe for us to neglect so great Salvation as is now offered to us upon pretence of our Forefathers being otherwise principled If my Predecessors says St. Cyprian have not taught Cypriant Ep. 63. p. 156. Edit Oxon. Si quis de Antecessoribus nostris vel ignoranter vel simpliciter hoc non observaverit c. or held either through simplicity or ignorance that which our Lord has taught them by his example or Authority the Mercy of God might pardon them but we cannot rely upon the like Mercy who have so clear a proposal of those Truths which were concealed from them It is indeed good manners and charity to think hope and speak well of our Fathers but it is both Wisdom and Divinity to look well to our selves I wish the Dissenters from our Church would seriously apply this to themselves if they did they must find their case much worse than their Predecessors because they at once tread out of their ways and walk not in ours I am sure this disorderly tumultuous way of serving God which the Separatists use was never practised by any considerable party in the primitive times And thô I will not deny but several National Churches might differ from one another in their Forms of Worship yet I never read nor heard of any who had not a Form by which they did worship until our modern Presbyterians This one instance I fancy That they cannot pretend the custom of their Fathers for what they do unless they will own none for such that lived above sixty years agon might be sufficient to make them at the same instant to leave off and forsake their folly And I am perswaded that there are not any considerable persons amongst them but if they did seriously reflect and calmly consider how great a sin it is to make a schism in and separate from