Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A47413
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A sermon preached at Lewis in the diocess of Chichester by the Lord Bp. of Chichester, at his visitation held there, Octob. 8, 1662.
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King, Henry, 1592-1669.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing K506; ESTC R17990
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15,047
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47
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and Cleanness To â—eep ones self unspotted from the world And whatsoever conduceth to This is that sound Doctrine St. Paul here means This is that Christian Building whose Foundation is Christ and his Apostles The Religion which stands not on these Bases is weak and false the Apostle testifying Aliud fundamentum nemo ponit The saving Truth never had any foundation but â—his This is the Genealogy of Faith whose extraction is the Sacred Scriâ—ture That Volume which reveals Him who came to do the will of God and instructs us to conform our Lives according to that Revealed Will. This Book hath too many Leaves now to read over but if you will have the Analysis and sum of all the Preacher hath gathered it Let us here the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements He who teacheth this Lesson teacheth Sound Doctrine And he who Learns it throughly hath all we can Teach To speak beyond this I cannot I may with Jonathan shoot Wide or Short or Over and by that a little better direct your aim not inform you better I may dissolve this Mass or melt this Ingot to make it more portable but I cannot alter the Metall or put any better Stamp upon it than Doctrina sana Sound Doctrine This Doctrine therefore 〈◊〉 Sound that is Pure not adulterated with Fables or mingled with Traditions which have imbased Religion and brought down the price of Truth in all those parts of Christendome where this false Coin is Current this Counterfeit Stuff vendable And their Practice allow'd who teach for Sound Doctrine Commandments of Men. The Doctrine of Christ is refined from this Dross Hear it from the Psalmist Thy words are pure like silver seven times tried in the fire This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sincere milk which the Children of God suck from the Breast of the Church their Mother Or Sound that is Wholesome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A word which heals the Soul yet not so as the Prophet complains of those Mountebanks who heal the hurts of the people with sweet words Popular Flatteries dâ—stilling from Sermons fall down upon the Congregation like Mill-dews whose unwholesome sweetness corrupts the Pasture and Rots those who feed upon it This Doctrine is no suppling Plaister no Balm to break the head with smiles No Reteining Divinity which takes Pension to serve any ones humour or is content to wait upon the â—hantasie of the Patron but free and open whose End is not to delight the Times or serve Turns but to Cure the Men. Or Sound that is Entire spun out of an even Thred which hath no Cross Opinions interwoven no Party-colour'd skeins of Faction no coarse Woollen made out of gross Fleeces shear'd from the Flock of Rome No Relicks nor wonder-working Rags torn from any Shrine and then patched to that White Robe of Truth which was the first Garment Christ gave his Spouse and hath ever since been the Church's Livery Such ill-fashion'd Attire puts Her forth as for Her Penance in a dy'd Coat and cloathes Her in that motly Habit which makes Her ridiculous to the Christian world Or Sound that is Plain and Perspicuous not muffled up in dark Conclusions The old Proverb tells us Via Plana est Via Sâ—na the Plain way is the Sound way And sure the Plainest Religion is the soundest as in Heraldry the Plainest Coat the best Wheresoever you find Obscure subtilties thrown over Truth it is to be fear'd that Curtain is hung before it for no good purpose but meerly to disguise somewhat which the Inventor could wish the world might not know As the true Church is seated on a Mount where it cannot be hid so it is built like Drusus his house All Window That by Her Tenets as so many Casements Each devout Eye may look clearly through and freely survey the simplicity of the Fabrick Or Sound that is Firm firm at the Foundation and smoothly laid The most firm Figure and Base for Building is the Plain A Complete Geometrical Building admits no Stones but what are hewn from the Rock and Squared If the Foundation be rugged or uneven full of pointed Scruples and craggy Doubts the Building must needs lean on one side And if once it leans it will be an hard matter by any new devised Distinction to skrew it up or set it right again When Curiosities are applyed to underlay a mis-treading foot they commonly cast it more awry Or Sound that is Solid at the heart And commonly the most solid is still most plain I know the Knotty piece of Wood is hard but that Hardness inclines to Brittleness which doth not prove it sound but hard to work upon But the heart of Oak as it is most sound and durable so most smooth This Soundness and this Plainess makes it both apt for Building and promise Strength Knots tied upon a Cord were devis'd for a scourge to Torture not for strength Hard and Intricate Riddles in Divinity have no use but to rack the Brain Not to Inform but to Pose the Understanding To deliver my full meaning The Plain Positive Catechestical Doctrine of the Church as it is most Easie and Familiar so most Sound and Orthodox How many by over-bold searches after the Abstruse Mysteries of Faith and Hid Decrees of God have quite blinded themselves and perplexed others How many in seeking to solve unnecessary scruples have raised doubts and tied knots in many a Conscience which they are not able to untie again How many have accounted it their glory to Trade in subtil Questions and preach Polâ—micks to the People when they might have Edified themselves and their Congregations better by a Catechism than a Controversie I have lived and shall die in this Opinion That there can be no greater danger to a setled Church than Liberty to dispute and call in question the Points and Articles of an Established Religion I grant Disputes amongst the Learn'd are sometimes useful Triturations which by the Flail of Argument separate Truth from Error But the pressing of those Arguments in the Pulpit in Popular Congregations oft-times suspend Religion and make weak Apprehensions stagger from their first Conclusions The Reason is Evident for when Arguments are press'd and Objections for the Other urged That which is most plausible sways the Hearer and commonly carries the Cause Nothing therefore could more conduce to the Peace of the Church and Confirmation of Religion than the laying Controversies asleep and silencing Disputes which hang so many doubts upon the Cause that like wrong Biasses they draw men from the Mark. 'T is piety to Believe what were not safe to Question And besides men would want cunning to suspect the Truth of their Religion who never heard Objections fram'd against it Those who are put to wade unto the Articles of their Faith through Disputes and Logick sometimes ingulph themselves in Depths which
in every dress An Egyptian Mantle or a Babylonish Garment were sin to an Israelite As every Light Tune would not go well with the Grave Dorick Harp so every Dialect would not fit the Church That Language which commends the Stage would misbecome the Pulpit Light conceits or flashes of unseason'd wit prophane that holy ground And again that bitter Style which in a Declamation were an ingenious Satyre translated into a Sermon might prove a Libel That Rule which St Paul gave the Church must be as well observed in the Pulpit Let all things be done decently and in order If you ask by what Rule we must measure this Decency Surely not by Theirs who condemn or laugh at all the world who are not in their fashion Decency was never measured by Singularity or Affectation Many have been more factiously proud and phantastical and therefore more ridiculous in an affected Plainness than others in their studied Curiosity Hierom says Superba Rusticitas was the garb of some in his time who had nothing but a rude Insolence to bear out their want of Knowledge for Ignorance and Boldness commonly go together The most unexcepted and safe Rule of Decency is Religious discretion When God's Messages want neâ—ther fit Ornament to set them forth nor Integrity to apply them I have it from the Prophet David This is that Beauty He loves and Holiness that He commends when he tells you both these conjoyning become the House of the Lord. For those therefore who quarrel with Learned Elaborate Sermons And are so Umbragious to boggle at any thing which is not presented to them in their Mother-Tongue Who give Sentence against a Preacher for a Latine Sentence or Authority out of a Father alleged in a Sermon I shall truly pity them for that they disallow what St Paul in his practice justifi'd Though that Spiritus Anabaptisticus Anabaptistical spirit that reigns amongst many in these latter days dares affirm Qui in Scholis Academiis Theologiam discunt tantum tenent Literam mortuam non etiam Spiritum vivificantem Quare nec possunt esse Ministri Novi Testamenti quos Paulus dixit esse Ministros non Literae sed Spiritus Those who in our Universities and Schools study Divinity grasp oâ—ely the Dead Letter attain not the Quickning Spirit and therefore cannot be Ministers of the New Testament who are styled by St. Paul Ministers not of the Letter but the Spirit Yet they may see that St. Paul Himself whom they dare not deny to be a Minister of the New Testament makes use of Human Learning and cites some Verses out of Epimenides Araâ—us and Menander which shewed that He had studied the Greek Poets as Moses the Learning of the Egyptians and Daniel the Wisdom of the Caldeans Moses disciplinas Egyptiorum Daniel sapientiam Chaldaeorum Beatus Paulus Epimenidis Arati Menandri carmina didicerunt ut his veram Religionem locupletiorem redderent supposing Religion to receive much advantage by the study of Human Learning For which cause Petrus Cunaeus writes that the Old Levites challenged as their right an universal knowledge of all Laws and all Sciences Humane or Divine Legum omnium â—erum Humanarum Divinarumque summam scientiam sub quodam sibi jure Levitae vendicabant Indeed St. Augustine invites us to the reading of Ethnick Authors upon this motive That they were Usurpers and unjust Possessors of Knowledge whereof Christians onely could make the best use This apprehension caused Porphyrius as Eusebius tells to complain of Origen That he had robb'd the Greek Philosophers of their Treasure to enrich his own Religion Therefore Julian the Apostate observing the great advantage Christians made by reading the Works of those Learned Heathens who in many things were by Them confounded and wounded by their own Pens peremptorily forbad all Christians the use or study of Human Authors How well doth this suit the humor of our late Levites quite differing from those Elder by me alleged who account Ignorance a mark of the Spirit and none so fit for the Ministery as those who never took Degree in the Schools I shall not trouble my self or you with more words in this Argument but onely say If there be any who so much dote upon their lack of Learning accounting it an Holy Ignorance to know nothing which belongs to worldly Science If there be any so wedded to their sudden Conceptions or praecipitate Barbarism that they cry down all Learning or Elegance in Pulpits Or imagine that the spirit of Elocution speaks best from the worst Interpreters As if Gods Messages could be delivered in too good Language God forgive them I have heard a woe denounced against Those that do the work of the Lord negligently but never against any who perform it with too much care Erasmus well said Eloquentiam non pugnare cum simplicitate Religionis Eloquence is not inconsistent with Religion And Severus Sulpitius gratulated the accurate and elegant Style of St. Augustine as an improver of that devout Subject whereon he treated Quicquid de ejus plenitudine ad nos usque redundat jucundius efficitur gratius per tuum elegantem famulatum Nay St. Ambrose is said to have converted St. Augustine then a Manichee to the Christian Faith by his great Eloquence which wrought so powerfully when he onely out of curiosity went to hear Him at Millain That taken by the bait of his Elocution this great Champion was drawn into the Net of the Church Nor is this strange As St. Paul told the Corinthians That he had taken them by deceit so oft-times it falls out that the Preachers Eloquence by perswasion wins the Auditory to the Confession of some Truths which plain reason or force of Argument could not before evince 'T is true David says The King's Daughter is all glorious within and yet in that place she is presented in Garments embroidered and wrought with the needle Indeed it had been an unsuitable mismatched Beauty had not Her outward Ornaments held some proportion with Her inward Perfections I apply it thus Good Matter and sound Doctrine were unfashionable Virtues if not set out so as Becomes Sound Doctrine This is our Issue and your Fruit That Fruit whose Leaves under which it grows are our Words For this cause is Paul a Planter Apollos a Waterer that the Congregation may gather the Blessings of this Husbandry And as the Tree whereon it grows hath many Branches so the Fruit hath many Species even so many as there be Virtues Moral or Theological This is the Treasure for which we dig whose Mine is the Scripture whose Mint the Church whose Stamp Christ Himself By whose Impression in our Baptism we are coined and become Current Christians As every Vein of Ore hath a Test to try it so this hath a Touch stone joyned to the Metall which warrants both the Value and the Truth St. James defines Pure Religion by Charity