to seduce me to Sin But besides my renouncing the World thus understood I am also to forsake and withstand its Pomps and Vanities that is all Pleasures Pride and Wealth when they become injurious to Religion and divert or stop me in my Exercise of Piety Which they will certainly do if my Affections towards them are inordinate immoderate or unseasonable And because Worldly Vanities only gratifie my Carnal Part and Sensitive Appetite I am also bound to renounce that which they gratifie I mean the Flesh or my unmortified Corruption which is Enmity against God and doth not only hinder me from doing Good but doth also incline and spur me on to do Evil. For I find that from this unmortified Corruption there springs up in me many inordinate Affections and evil Concupiscences which are called the Lusts of the Flesh By means whereof until they are mortified I am brought to entertain the Temptations of the Devil and to abuse the good things of the World to Sin And though the renouncing of these Lusts of the Flesh together with the Devil and the World be made an Article of my Christianity and a Condition upon which the Priviledges of Baptism are bestowed upon me yet seeing they are my sorest Enemies and continually endeavouring not only my present but my eternal Ruine without any other tie Self-preservation prompts me to withstand them The Second thing promised in my behalf when I was baptized is my Belief of the Doctrine of Christianity summ'd up in the Apostles Creed My Faith of which if it be not more than either barely Historical and Temporary I shall not surpass the very Devil and wicked hypocritical Men in believing for the one believes alway Historically and the other only hypocritically for a time But the Faith I vowed in Baptism is a firm and constant Assent unto the Word of God and Gospel of Man's Salvation and an unshaken Reliance upon the same So that the whole Scripture is the General and the Articles of the Christian Faith summ'd up in the Creed is the Particular Object of my Belief And I look upon this Faith to be so necessary for me and every Christian that I forfeit that Title without it For a Believer is but another Word for Christian But still I know that how necessary soever Faith is to the Salvation of my Soul yet it is not to be got by my own Power for it is the Gift of God and the Gracious Work of the Holy Ghost which doth enable me to assent unto and rely upon the Holy Scriptures But because Faith will not profit to my Justification without Works of Obedience to the Commands of Christ therefore my Sureties undertook that I should keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my Life So that I do acknowledge my self bound to pay Obedience to the whole Will of God revealed in his word And I cannot think my self fit to come to the Lord's Table unless I am resolved to keep God's Law and have regard unto all his Precepts and that too with my whole Heart or sincerely and always without intermission or discontinuance But when I profess this to be my Duty it is not as if I thought I were to be saved by the Tenor of the First Covenant the Condition whereof was perfect Obedience for this I am no way able to perform But because I hope to be saved by the Second Covenant called the Covenant of Grace I think my self bound to perform the Condition thereof namely Obedience or Faith fruitful in good Works which good Works are the genuine Off-spring of my Faith and do flow as naturally from it as Fruits from their Tree and without which my Faith is dead And you have ever taught me to set a peculiar value upon good Works because through means thereof I glorifie God edifie my Neighbour and justifie and declare my Faith before Men. And according to my present Sentiments of Religion I look upon Faith and good Works to make up my whole Duty as a Christian And these I hold are not to be seperated in my Practice because Faith without Works is dead and Works without Faith cannot please God And tho' it is my firm Resolution to observe them both and to believe and do as my Sureties have promised for me yet I know I cannot do so but by the assistance and help of God and therefore I will by diligent and humble Prayer beg a continual supply of Grace to enable me to believe and do all things which at Baptism were stipulated anâ— promised in my Name And will also daily offer up my unfeigned Thanks unto God that hâ—â— hath called me to the knowledgâ— of the Truth that he hatâ— brought me out of my naturaâ— State of Sin that he hath admitted me into the Church and that there he doth vouchsafe me the appointed Means of Holinesâ— and Salvation And I humbly pray God by his preventing Grace to incline my Will by his assisting Grace to give me Strength and by his consummating Grace to bring me actually to perform all those Duties which in Holy Baptism my God-fathers and God-mother under ook in my stead And as you ever minded and made me sensible how greatly I was bound to my Sureties for what they did for me at Baptism so you likewise have let me know the Obligation I had to take up their Bond as soon as I was able and so to discharge them And this I did at Confirmation when I solemnly took upon my self to believe and do all that my Baptismal Sureties had vow'd and promised I should believe and do But now alas being conscious to my self that I have broken my Baptismal Covenant it is my earnest desire to be admitted to the Lord's Table on purpose to renew it But before my admission to that Heavenly Entertainment I am of opinion that I ought to have a competent Understanding of the more eminent Parts of Christianity which you have taught me and they are these Four namely Faith Obedience Prayer and the Sacraments And to you who are to admit me I think my self bound to give an Account of my Knowledge in each of these and to desire your Judgment whether or no it be sufficient in order to my Admission I begin with Faith as thâ— without which all the rest are no only insignificant but sinful which being considered as my Aâ— of Believing I have already said that it signifies my Assent unto and relying upon the Word oâ— God's Truth and Gospel of Man Salvation So that I take the Scriptures to be the general Object oâ— my Faith and the Creed to contaiâ— the main Particulars to be believed by me I mean that Creed which bears the Name of the Apostles as its Compilers and which I suppose to be that Form of sound Words to the Profession whereof Paul exhorts Timothy to keep constant and teach others And because before my Admission to the Holy Communion I think I
Opinions by which the Devil withstands the Power of Truth and restore Christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their Understandings to Scripture only and as Rivers whose Passage is not interrupted run all to the Ocean so it may well be hoped by Gods Blessing that Universal Liberty thus moderated may quickly reduce us to Truth and Unity These thoughts of Peace may come from the God of Peace to whose Blessing I recommend them And that this may not be looked upon for some singularity in my own Perswasion I have transcribed the Words out of Mr. Chillingworth and he out of another and enclosed them in a Parenthesis But taking no delight to travel further in search of those Distempers which I am unable to remedy the only comfort is that they cannot be looked upon as the Issues of our Religion nor any way be charg'd upon the Principles we profess And therefore we must seek elsewhere to lay the Imputation and I shall go no further than to what I mentioned in the Introduction even the Omission or Luke-warm use of Catechising And here in the First place it cannot be denyed how that the generality of the People of this Kingdom have for many Years at least during the time of our Intestine Wars either been destitute of all Catechising or have been Catechised only in such Principles as were good for nothing but to establish the Elder in a cursed Schism and Rebellion and to infect the Younger with the same Contagion The sad effects whereof are still visible in the unpeaceable Tenets of some and in the want of a due understanding of Religion in most In respect of which we have need to be taught again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God being become such as have need of Milk and not of strong Meat The greatest part of the common People being so far unable to reap any benefit from the handling of abstruser Mysteries in Eloquent and Elaborate Discourses which is so studiously pursued by our Junior and Florid Theologues that they want instruction in the plainest parts of Catechistical Doctrines For notwithstanding that we boast much of our Knowledge of Christ and that our Proficiency is so great in Religion that we conceive our selves wiser than our Teachers yet if the Tree may be judged by its Fruits we shall be found shamefully ignorant of what we assume to know and to have little of that Wisdom which descends from above which Christ came to teach and infuse and which is Pure Peaceable Gentle easie to be entreated merciful without Hypocrisie and Wavering In the Second place we cannot but with deep Resentments observe that since the time God turned again our Captivity and restored this Church to the free use of his Ordinances Catechising has met but with cold Entertainment even from those by whom it ought to have been most lovingly caressed For in most places it has been looked upon rather as a Foreigner than a Native of the Church and as Fruits of their Mouth never in Season but for a few Days in Lent And even then too the Church-Catechism is generally taught without any such explanation as is needful in respect of those slender Capacities to whose instruction it is chiefly devoted And if in the Third place we consider who those are which on the one hand hinder the progress and settlement of Unity Peace and Concord in this Church by an undutiful froward resisting of her Laws Or who they are that on the other hand Apostatize and utterly forsake her Communion it will be found upon due examination that we have laid the ground of the Disobedience of the one and of the defection of the other in a want of a timely and diligent Catechising And as for the First sort namely the disobedient and refractory who are now known by the very candid Name of Dissenters they cannot pretend to a more plausible excuse of their Undutifulness than that they were never duâ—y Catechised to the contrary For granting them to be Persons not totally forsaken of all Ingenuity and right Reason we cannot imagine that they should so foully violate their bounden Duties both to God and Man had they ever been fully taught or did clearly retain any thing but an imperfect and prejudicate knowledge of those Duties as they are plainly set down in the Church-Catechism And as for the Latter sort to wit those who have Apostatized and faln from ours to the Roman Perswasion they have been so far from having their first Tinctures and Foundation in Religion according to our publick Catechism that they might say thereof as those in Acts 19.2 did of the Holy Ghost But we must limit this Observation chiefly to those who had the unhappiness to be born in this Church when she was under the Cross and wore the Marks of her great Master And as for those who had been instructed in our Church Catechism yet before they left us they had so far unlearnt it as that they had retain'd of that System of our Religion such loose rambling and incoherent Notions as if it were wholly Enthusiastick or had been compiled by Persons deeply Hypochondriacal And for closure of this Paragraph I shall only add That none could ever be met with who for Ends truly Spiritual and Religious did ever abandon this for the Roman Church who had been throughly grounded in her Catechism And there will want no Reasons to â—upport this Assertion if it be duly conâ—idered how the very Frame and Conâ—exture of the Catechism doth obviate and oppose all the main Errors of Poâ—ery as they relate either to Faith or Practice to Prayer or Doctrine And First he that has been duly Caâ—echised in the Apostles Creed will not only be armed against a spurious Explication of the Old Articles of our Faith but also against a needless addiâ—ion of New ones For he will find that the first Twelve contain such a perfect Summary of all saving Truths simply necessary to be believed that those Articles added thereunto by the Council of Trent ought to be rejected upon the account of being Superfluous And â—t the same time he will find ground enough to explode that Implicite Faith so much relyed upon in the Romish Church who considers the necessity of a personal Belief as it is clearly required in the â—irst Word of the Creed which in Laâ—ine gives name to the whole And in the next place as to those Errors of Popery that concern our Practice they will be certainly discovered and refuted by a right understanding of the Decalogue which by all is granted to be a clear and perspicuous Rule of what we are to do both toward God and our Neighbour And a Man that is well grounded in the Doctrine of the First Commandment knows that he must reserve all Divine Honour Trust Devotion to God alone and that he may bestow no part thereof upon the Creature and therefore cannot but avoid and abhor those Romish Doctors
answerable to the number of Weeks in the Year that the whole Law in that space might be read over correspondent to which Lessons out of the Law there were others out of the Prophets one of which the Holy Jesus took for his Subject at Nazareth when after the manner of the Jewish Doctors he made his Exposition St. Luke 4.16 And he did the like St. Mat. 9.35 where he is said to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Synagogue which might be done without any pretension to such Authority as was supposed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Preaching which in the Christian use of the word in the New Testament differs from Teaching Christ did both St. Mat. 9.35 He taught the Law and preacht the Gospel At Thirty years old he expounded Moses as a Doctor before which time the ancient Church made none Presbyters and at the same time he preacht the Gospel of the Kingdom But still the matter is plain enough that the bare reading of Moses in the Synagogues is Preaching in the proper meaning which sort of Preaching is still practised in the appointed Lessons of the Church The former out of the Old Testament being derived like many wholesom things from the Synagogue and the Second Lesson out of the New Testament which was appointed as most suppose by the 16th Canon of the Council of Laodicea celebrated in the year of Grace 364. Albeit Justin Martyr who lived in the Second Age seems to give the Lessons an elder date For in his second Apology he tells us how all those who abide in Cities and the adjacent Countries meet in one place on the day called Sunday and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Memoires and Records of the Apostles together with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Writings of the Prophets are read unto them as far as the time and occasion serves And that the Reader ceasing the President in a Speech makes an Exhortation that they would imitate those good things which had been read From which it is evidently to be concluded that the Church in the first and best Ages of Christianity preacht as a Witness when she read and thereby attested the truth of the Holy Scriptures And all men are in some degree capable thereby to be edified For there is none understands the Scriptures so well but he may improve by hearing them read in the Church And if we look into the Efficacy of the Word it is wonderful that it should be less as it is read than as it is expounded seeing that the one is the Word of God as it was inspired by the Holy Ghost and the other can no farther be so accounted than as it keeps close to the sense and meaning thereof which is not so easie so long as Men are subject to Errors and Mistakes and have base Ends to serve and carnal Circumstances to be accomplished 2. But because all men ought to have such a knowledge in God's Word as may be sufficient to Salvation and because all will not attain to so much by bare reading thereof therefore the Church Preacheth as an Expositor by discovering and explaining what in Sacred Scripture is mysterious and obscure and by a seasonable application of those things which are more obvious and evident And in this sense Preaching is an Office in our own Church which cannot be too highly magnified nor too frequently celebrated if it be agreeable to those Homilies which were intended not only to supply those who have not the Gift of Preaching sufficiently to instruct the people committed to their Cure but also to be a wholsom Rule by which even those who are able to preach should guide themselves in that publick Ministry But if Discourses at this day made in Pulpits ought only so far forth to be accounted Preaching as they are agreeable to the Churches Sermons then all is not Preaching which bears that name and takes up the Circumstances thereunto allowed In the pious Sermons of the Church we find Principles of Christianity solidly explained Rules and Motives of honest and holy Life clearly laid down and Perorations and Perswasions to continue therein devoutly and charitably directed and applied I shall not draw this into comparison but only say That I hope there is none need think it any diminution or disparagement to his Parts and Learning to write after such a Copy And however the Homilies may be decried through popular Ignorance Prejudice and Passion yet no doubt but they are still necessary upon their first design which was to help the Inabilities of some to restrain the Indiscretions of others and to take away those strifes about what is fitting to be preacht caused by the variety of Mens Judgments the extravgance of their Fancies and the Byasses of several Interests And as for the Homilies of this Church they deserve a much better esteem than generally they receive and would need no elaborate Vindication if duly considered in their circumstances For in the first place they are be to looked upon as popular Sermons fitted unto the Capacities and Conditions of the Vulgar who being more led by Passion than Reason have need of such Discourses as will rather regulate their will than inform their judgment They standing in more need to have their Hearts and Consciences wrought upon for good Life and Conversation than their understanding and apprehension with any curious piece of Learning or Science And that the greatest share of the Church-Homilies deals herein there will need no other proof than their diligent perusual In the Second place The Church-Homilies are not to be looked upon as her Dogmatical Resolutions and Positions but as they contain godly and wholesom Doctrine Teaching and necessary for the times when they were composed For so much we are taught in the 35. Article And therefore I humbly suppose that every passage in the Homilies is not to be pressed for the Faith and Doctrine of the Church but that the whole ought to be considered as confronting the evil Opinions and Manners that at their composing were held and practised and if ought of either be remaining the Homilies may still be needful upon their Primitive account In the last place the very time in which the Homilies were compiled may excuse many a Period therein For our Ancestors were lately come out of Popery and conversed daily with Persons of that Perswasion and therefore severe dehortations were requisite to preserve them from Apostacy into those Practices out of which they had so lately been recovered which makes it no wonder if Enforcements and Exhortations to that purpose c. are sometime too hardly stretched And as for mine own part I am so far from undervaluing the pious Sermons of the Church that considering their circumstances I greatly esteem them for their own Worth and respect them above any other for their Authority And as to those who reject Homilies upon the account that Apochryphal Writings are not to be used in the Church it may
Hearers of Sermons have proved wavering and unconstant in their judgments for want of a timely and through Catechizing so likewise upon the same ground they have been very erroneous and Opiniative For this want of a plain Institution in the Principles of Truth hath left them destitute of a proper Test whereby they might be able to explore and try what is preacht and to separate the pretious from the vile Through the want whereof they as greedily imbibe a false as true Doctrine and are ready to change their Opinions according to the impression which the affectionate noise of the last Sermon has made upon their Senses Nor are they happier in their reading Holy Scriptures than in hearing of them thus preacht The Un-catechized run upon the same Rock in both For albeit the Divine Word is in it self the pure Fountain of all saving Truths yet persons not trained up in a competent apprehension of Catechistical Principles make it a sink of pernicious Errors sucking Contention from the Breasts of Peace turning the sincere Milk of Gods Word into the Poyson of Asps and perverting the Scripture to their own destruction while they make the Oracles of God not to speak their own but such a Sense and Language as may best adjust their Designs and Interests And as no malice proves more implacable than that which ariseth out of the Ashes of an Apostate love So no Errors are more dangerous than those which proceed from a wrong interpreting and application of the Word of Truth And as those whose fancy has been playing with sounds think every thing they hear is tunable to their fancy So those whose minds are once infected with evil Opinions think every Text speaks according to the Opinions wherewith they are infected And it is an Hypothesis will meet with few Adversaries That Men who are prejudiced and prepossessed with Errors in Religion cannot be reduced but by getting them therein rightly principled which was never yet attempted but by solid and perspicuous Catechizing it being by this that Men prove in Religion like the House in the Gospel founded upon a Rock which by no force of storms and winds could be subverted And therefore if this ground-work be not surely laid all superstructures in Religion lie upon the loose Sand and are easily washt away by the insinuating suggestions of false Teachers And what is yet further to be considered we see the rest of the Building sink with the Foundation if that be shaken all will go to ruine And Christians not well grounded in the Elements of Truth and Holiness will quickly be perswaded to give themselves up to any wild Opinion or loose Practice and turn Schismatick or Traytor to the great hazard and confusion both of Church and State But if it be objected that Catechizing is a Plaister too narrow for our Sore because it cannot reach those whose Age or some other Circumstance excludes them the number of those for whom this sort of Instruction is appointed notwithstanding they have no less need thereof than others To this it will be enough to return the succeeding considerations viz. 1. That the Church obviated this Scruple when in the last Edition of the Liturgy she appointed the Catechism to be learned of every person And in her Fifty ninth Canon enjoyn'd the Clergy to instruct all the ignorant Persons of their Parishes in the publick Catechism And that those who bear the heavy load of many years might not decline this way of Institution they may see it founded in the Apostolical practice which was to Catechize the adult as before was observed 2. To be duly instructed in the Principles of Christianity is a duty incumbent upon all who by the Knowledg and Practice thereof hope to be eternally saved And therefore if the Aged be therein ignorant they have more reason to blush at their ignorance than to be thus instructed and with diligence and humility to wait at this Gate of Knowledge rather than with scorn to disdain it 3. If the Elder sort have either not been taught at all or have forgot the chief Heads and Catechetical Fundamentals of Christianity they now meet with a fair occasion boâ—h to learn and call them to mind For by beiâ—g present and attentive in hearing the Younger Catechized the Ancient and all may be brought to know what they do not understand to remember what they have forgot and to be inform'd in what they have erred So that at the same time Catechising will instruct the Ignorant remember the Forgetful and inform the Erroneous and therefore administer a Physick proper and sutable to our several Maladies which cannot be pretended to by those other Methods that have hitherto been so eagerly pursued CHAP. XIII The Benefits of Catechizing 1. In respect of the Civil State 2. The Clergy 3. The People The Mischiefs of private Schools Objections against the constant practice of Catechizing removed BUt besides what has been discoursed there are other good Effects of Catechising which at least may be as so many motives to enforce its practice And in the first place Catechising is in an eminent manner conducive to the Peace and Welfare of the State because it takes care that the Younger sort who are the hopes of a Nation be duly educated in those Principles on whose practice the safety and happiness of a State depends For to sowe in the pure minds of Youth the Seeds of Vertue and Truth before the Tares of Vice and Error and the Weeds of the World have canker'd and spoiled the Soil is by the consent of all wise men a point of incomparable force and moment for the well ordering and Government of all kind of Societies and for making Common-wealths ever flourishing and happy For by the means of Catechising the Younger sort will be planted and grow up in a due Conformity and Obedience to the Laws in being which is undeniably a proper expedient to uphold States in the Terms wherein they are and to free them from the danger of being so easily obvious to alteration and change For the Opinions of what nature soever wherewith we are first season'd are of double force to any second Perswasion and Usages And this makes the Spanish Nation early and careful in Catechising their Children by which Method ever since its use they have not suffer'd the least disturbance and alteration in Church or State That serious people having largely experienced the Truth of their own saying No es menos importante el ser de la Doctrina que el de la Naturaleza And in confirmation of this remark it were easie to load the Margin with a numerous Quotation and the Line with a tedious recital of many excellent Passages out of Plato Aristotle Socrates Seneca Tacitus Agell and almost all the learned Heathen Plutarch's Education of Children doth abridge them all But we need not go sharpen our Tools with the Philistines seeing an Israelite can do it better For Solomon is plain That the way to
has an Vnion with Him as being the Head of it so I believe there is a Common Vnion among the Members both those that are glorified in Heaven and those that in some degree are sanctified on Earth And this is called the Communion of Saints and is the first Priviledge of the Christian Church And by vertue of this all true Christians communicate in all Offices of Piety and Charity in doing good to one anothers Bodies and Souls And this they do upon the account that they have in common One God one Christ one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism one Hope ARTICLE X. The Forgiveness of Sins As the Communion of Saints genuinely ariseth from the Nature of the Vniversal Church so Pardon of Sins follows from both For none shall have their Sins forgiven but those who live and die in the Communion of the Church For unless I abide in this Ark I shall certainly perish Now Sin as I have been instructed is of two sorts the one Original which is the sin of my Nature the other Actual which is the sin of my Conversation The former I brought with me into the World the latter I commit while I live therein And both these sorts of sin deserve Eternal Death and can only be pardon'd by the Merits of Christ For sin being a Transgression of the Law of God it can only be forgiven by him whose Law it transgresseth For Remission of sins is the second Priviledge of the Church which is preached to all in the Name of Christ and sealed in Baptism wherein I believe my Original Sin is presently pardon'd and that my Actual Sins committed after Baptism shall be pardon'd if I truly repent me of the same Now this my Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins supposes that I believe That God graciously and freely without any Desert on Man's part gave his Son to die for the World and That for the sake of his meritorious Death he remits the Fault absolves from the Guilt and acquits from Punishment all truly penitent and believing Sinners And I do further believe That he imputes to them the Obedience of his own Son and his Righteousness and by means thereof accounts them just in his sight I believe That all who are justified and thus acquitted have Holiness in some degree according to the Condition of this Life Which Holiness tho' it cannot altogether discharge them from sin yet it doth not suffer it to reign over them So that a justified Person is not under its Dominion nor yields himself a Vassal to it but resists its Commands and makes it die daily And for the greater security of the Forgiveness of sins God hath committed to his Ministers an indispensible Power and Charge to preach Faith and Repentance as the Condition of this Forgiveness He hath likewise appointed them to pray and intercede and also to baptize for the Forgiveness of sins and to administer the Lord's Supper in memory of that Blood which was shed for the Remission of Sins And indeed all that God hath left in the Hand and Power of his Ministers especially tends to make Men capable of receiving what they believe namely the Remission of sins ARTICLE XI The Resurrection of the Body It was the Hope of the Fathers under the Old Testament as well as it is of Christians under the New That there shall be a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust And if it were otherwise Christians of all Men would be most miserable and all that I have learn'd and you have taught me concerning Christianity would be in vain But I firmly and truly believe That my Mortal Body shall be raised from the Corruption of the Grave by Vertue of the Resurrection of Christ And this my Belief is founded upon the Power and good Pleasure of God who both can and will raise from the dead the very same Body that died ARTICLE XII The Life everlasting The Enjoyment of Everlasting Life is the last Christian Privilege and that which crowns the rest And I have learned to understand by this Life the Enjoyment of all true Happiness in Soul and Body For I believe that the Faculties of the Souls of just Persons shall be perfectly enlightned and sanctified and that their Bodies shall live after the manner of Spirits and be exceedingly glorified And opposite to this Life everlasting I believe there is an everlasting Death which is the Portion of the Wicked And that as Life everlasting consists in the Fruition so I believe everlasting Death consists in the Loss of God's Presence and all other Comforts and is the enduring of the sting of Conscience and Torments of Hell for ever But as my believing all the Articles of the Christian Faith as they are summ'd up in that which is called the Apostles Creed supposes that I am to learn not only the Words but likewise the Sense of the Creed so it also implies that I should live like them that do believe for otherwise my consenting to the Truth of the Articles will stand me in no stead And therefore not medling with remote and learned Inferences I will draw such from each Article as are near and familiar short and edifying As for Example From my believing that God created me I infer I am bound to be obedient and subject to him By my believing that Christ redeemed me I think it my Duty to yield up my self to him as his Purchase and to be wholly disposed by him and employed only in his Service My believing Christ's Conception by the Holy Ghost and his Birth of the Virgin should make me diligent to fit my Heart for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and for Christ to be born in it My belief of Christ's Crucifixion should teach me to crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and to destroy the Body of sin My belief of his Death and Burial should make me content to die for the sake of Truth being assured that if I suffer for Christ I shall also reign with him It should also keep me from being disheartned by Death seeing that Christ by dying hath taken away the Stinâ— of Death which is Sin and maâ— it an Entrance into Life My bâ—lieving the Resurrection of Chrisâ— should make me actually rise froâ— Sin to a New Life and utterlâ— to forsake my Sins as Christ diâ— the Grave to which after â— was once risen from it he returned no more My believinâ— Christ's Ascension and sitting â— the Right-hand of God shoulâ— teach me to set my Affections oâ— things above and not on thing on the Earth The believing Judgment to come should makâ— me careful so to walk as that may not be condemned in iâ— My believing the Holy Catholick Church and Communion oâ— Saints should render me mightâ— circumspect to preserve Charity which is the Bond of Peace and to avoid all things destructive oâ— Catholick Unity The Remission of sins which I believe should make me highly to esteem all those Ways and Means which
publick Audience and Judgment and the offer of open Disputation greatly assured the People of the soundness of their Cause when they saw they were ready to put it upon publick Tryal And more may be supposed to have followed the first Essays of the Reformation out of an Opinion that it was good and true being defended with such freedom simplicity and assurance than by the strength of those Arguments which were at first brought to assert it But then it is to be considered that the Reformers offer'd this kind of tryal to those with whom they began to be at no less distance than with members of a distinct and different Communion and in places where they were in hope to gain but in no danger to lose Proselytes For they wisely invaded the Adversary in his own Country and challeng'd him to a Dispute in his own Cities and in the throng of his Adherents But upon how different Terms Disputes can now be managed either with Dissenters or the common Enemy I leave the truly considerate to determine But since we are resolved to fight I could wish our valour were more discreet than to encounter the Enemy within our own Bowels to controvert our Religion in the place where it is legally established A thing not heard of in other Countries where there is a greater Peace and more outward Religion But I shall close up this Topick with setting down what is usually observed upon this Subject viz. 1. That Religion is like neither to get nor save by Disputes 2. That Disputes on this subject may have the ill-luck to make some suspect the truth of all Religion because it is so much controverted For weaker Heads seeing the Roof totter are apt to suspect there is no firmness in the foundation and to conclude nothing is certain if any thing be question'd 3. That in so great a mist of Disputes many may grow halting and luke-warm and think it their only safety to stand still or sit down in Neutrality 4. That for one sin Disputes have cured they have begot innumerable 5. That the strength and practice of Religion have been sensibly impaired since by the distemper'd heats of Mens Spirits it hath been rarified into subtil Controversies 6. That suspence of Judgment and exercise of Charity were safer and seemlier for Christian men than the hot pursuit of those Controversies wherein they that are most fervent to dispute are not always the most able to determine But what is more natural to the present purpose it should seriously be considered That the People are neither to be confuted of their false nor established in the true Notices of Religion by Doubtful Disputes but plain Catechistical Doctrines And as to our selves of this Church seeing there can come nothing of our Contentions but the mutual waste of the parties contending till a common Enemy dance in the Ashes of us both I shall ever wish and most heartily pray that the strict commands of Peace and Unity so frequent in the Gospel may at the last so prevail in this Nation to the burying and utter oblivion of strife together with the causes that have either bred or brought it up That things of small moment never disjoyn them whom one God one Lord one Faith one Spirit one Baptism bands of so great force have linked together That a respective Eye towards things wherewith we should not be disquieted make us not unable to speak peaceably one to another Finally that no strife may ever be heard of again but who shall hate strife most and pursue peace with the swiftest paces CHAP. XI Preaching what it is the several ways thereof used by the Church What kind of Preaching among the Old Jews and Primitive Christians The Homilies considered HAving in the antecedent Chapter discharged Disputes and Controversies from being any suitable and proper means of reducing the Dissenters of our own Church or winning the Members of the Roman The next thing pretending to our healing is Preaching which I here take to be An open solemn and Authoritative publication of Divine Mysteries And this the Church doth two several ways 1. As a Witness 2. As an Expositor And first The Church Preacheth as a Witness by publick reading the Sacred Scriptures and by relating and testifying the Divine Truths which God in the inspired Volumes hath consigned her And that this is no spurious sense of Preaching we have him to assure us who well understood the sense and importance both of the Word and Thing For in Acts 15.21 the reading of Moses in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day is by St. Paul in the genuine and native signification of the Word styled Preaching That this Preaching of Moses was a naked reading of his Law we have a whole cloud of Expositors to attest it besides the clearness of the thing it self But I cannot be of their judgment who assert That neither the Ancient nor Modern Jews had any such thing as weekly Preaching upon any part of the Law of Moses and that upon this ground solely conclude the preaching of Moses to be meer reading For we find that the Old Jews had divers Men among them who used to contribute their Talents to the Exposition of the Lesson that was read and these in ordinary course were the Sons or Schollars of the Prophets who were trained up in learning of the Law and at the age of Thirty received the Title of Doctors and till they obtained the Grace of immediate Inspiration or the Spirit of Prophesie they continued to expound the Scriptures not by Revelation but according to that knowledge which the ordinary blessing of God upon their Studies was able to compass Answerable whereunto as some think was that custom among the Christians mentioned 1 Cor. 14.29 And also those Disciples of the Prophets of the New Testament called Doctors because they were admitted to teach in the Church But for mine own part I rather understand the Word Doctor in St. Paul of all such Presbyters as had abilities of Preaching and Teaching the People in their Assemblies And that Presbyters and Doctors were all one we may conclude from Tertull. de Prescript c. 3. Quid ergò si Episcopus c. What then if a Bishop if a Deacon if a Widow a Virgin if a Doctor if even a Martyr shall fall from the Rule In this Catalogue of principal Ecclesiastick Orders Presbyters must be understood by Doctors unless we will deny them to have any room among the chief Ranks of the Church which were both false and absurd And that incestuous person with an Opinion of whom the Corinthians were puft up was as is observed out of Chrysostom and Theoderet one of their Doctors that is one of the Presbyters of that Church that exercised the Office of Preaching and by that means bore a great sway among the People But to return to the reading of Moses which began with the Moral Service of the Synagogue when we find that the Mosaical Law was distinguished into Divisions