such as yet leave all to him to do so far that he were a Fanatic as to worldly interests who without endeavoring in the use of means should look that God would work out his ends for him give bread without sowing nourish without eating notwithstanding that Scripture dos ascribe to God the intire efficacy shall the like expressions in the order of grace leave nothing for the Christian to do especially when the same endeavors are commanded him too I know not whether these expressions made to us to turn our felves c. do make more Pelagians that deny all need of grace or else ascrib'd to God make more deny all need of our endeavors even of our praiers or of any thing but more dependance waiting for his season Whereas indeed we are to work because he works and gives means to enable us and not to use the means he gives us is to temt him 't is to refuse Salvation by the ordinary methods of his workings expect new miracle 't is to be that fanatic that dos look to live without food 'T is gospel truth to say it is not the direction of Gods laws can rule us nor his promises allure us nor his threats affright us but his Holy spirit must direct and rule our hearts Coll. 19. Sun aft Trin. and he must write his laws there Heb. 8. 10. and he must give us a heart to love and dread him To affirm the other is heresy and to say that a sinner can dispose himself for his conversion or that the outward means can by their own moral efficacy turn a sinner is an heresy against grace but grace where it hath not been too far resisted still accompanies the means Gods word is the ministration of the Spirit and of rightousness and his word and Spirit go together Acts 7. 51. for to resist one is to resist the other And if the heart be not by evil education bad converse and example great advancers these of reprobation deprav'd either hardened or made dissolute or overgrown with principles that choak all God's good seed that can be sown in it those means so assisted call attention work some disposition to regard them The ordinariest means are blest to that end Prov. 23. 14. thou shalt heal him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell Yea they do it tho the force of good education have been broken when these gracious means find congruous soft seasons lay hold on occasions of calamity or such like and they move the inclinations and so make soile prepar'd for God's husbandry And since experience shews us mere Gentile breeding and converse if there be but care and parts can temper take off at least moderate all insolence and passion make men generous and meek and humble decent as to all behavior towards God and man not one ill vicious habit in their practise but an universal probity upon the face of their whole life why therefore may not those beginnings of God's workings which he never fails to carry on for his part do as much And if they but keep off ill habits and by constant practise weaken inclinations to them here 't is plain that God's means of grace find not so much resistance and that which in another state of mind would not have been sufficient there becomes effectual especially when with them that work he works and as S. James says gives more grace to them that use it and diverts temtations enables to do all things thro Christ that strengthens O that the Christian would but try and strive to use his means as heartily as the Child of this world It is because men are not so industrious for salvation answer not the motions of God's Spirit but neglect grace given when the worldly man is indefatigable in and therefore is wiser in order to his end Yet in relation to their proper means in order to their several ends I must confess the worldling does observe the rules of prudence better the true child of this world for the most part chuseth the prescribed known waies to his end and do's use the general means and methods of the world gets into a profession or a place in which if he use false arts they are trades now mysteries well taught and known there are few adventure on untrodden paths Projectors seldom thrive But the generality of Christians who would gladly reconcile God and this world life hereafter with the being well here do not therefore acquiesce in Gods means only but make Principles by-Rules of Conscience which they guide themselves by on occasions and have taught themselves to think they are safe waies and such as do not lead them from salvation It is too well known what one sort of men have attemted in this case how by new-rais'd principles of Probability and directing the intention they have reconcil'd all villany with Christian life made it safe yea meritorious to lye forswear and bear malice to defame revenge by either force or treachery rebel massacre drown whole Nations in their own bloud depose or murder Kings But passing these as monsters in Religion honest heathen humanity there are pretenders to some tolerable regard of God and vertue who on occasions fit their conscience to their convenience Besides S. Pauls good Conscience void of offence to God and man there is one of gentility of Politics of Honour of friendship and a conscience for persons times and places one of compliance and one of the mode one for the interests of a Profession and the like I might have nam'd some quite the other way the Conscience that is rul'd by rouling changeable Principles which play fast and loose now strains at Gnats and now can swallow camels or a Conscience of caprice that sets it self strong suddain heats of nice observances somtimes in little things somtimes in greater but is firm in nothing But waving these and that for Politics too which is govern'd wholly by reasons of State which is too nice and high for my consideration the man of honor makes himself a Principle which will allow him to require reparations for the least affront so call'd for otherwise what Gentleman would be of Christ's Religion he can right himself with sword and pistol and with a good Conscience The conscience for friendship is like that of Chilon whom I mention'd to you hath a by-rule And indeed who is there almost that hath the same sentiments or laws for equity and justice in his own cause or the cause of those he is most concern'd for as in others They mesure not by the same standard do not think in conscience the same case is like when it makes against as when it serves a turn As for persons so for times We have one conscience for the time of health and one for sickness Things do not equally seem good or evil in their different seasons And as for places ut vestitum sic sententiam aliam domesticam aliam forensem saith the
they did receive from their immediate Forefathers as of Faith and saw their practice of For if this Principle were their Rule always and if it be now it must they say have bin so then the Faith of each succeeding Age must needs have bin the Faith of the preceding and by consequence there having bin no change the Faith of this Age must needs be the same with that of Christ and his Apostles Now since in the resolution of our Faith we proceed not by this Rule upon this Principle we have no Rule of faith nor certain resolution of it and by consequence no Faith Now it appears at first sight fully evident that this Rule of theirs does supersede and quite evacuate those Doctrines that maintain either the sayings of the Fathers or Decrees of Councils or the Definitions of the Popes or the infallible Autority of the Church whatever that Church signify hath any part or interest in the Rule of faith and very justly so for Fathers are but eminent Members of the Church Popes can pretend to be but Heads of that Church Councils but the Representatives and what infallible Autority soever can be in the Church that Church being the Congregation of the Faithful and those onely being Faithful that hold the true Faith therefore till it be known which is the true Faith it cannot be known who are the ture Faithful nor by consequence which is the Church nor therefore which is Head Member or Representative of it or hath that Autority and therefore before all those men must have a Rule for their Faith whereby they may try which is the true But when we say we have God's own Revelation of his will what he would have to be believ'd his Word the Scriptures they add that since we cannot know which is the Scripture but by the continued testimony of those that recommended it from the beginning neither can that be the Rule which needs another Rule to establish it nor can that which is believ'd upon that other Principle of universal testimony be any part of the Rule since what is believ'd is the Object of Faith and so presupposes the Rule of Faith and therefore we who make that to be the onely Rule have no Rule no not a part tho the Trent Council do allow the Scriptures to go shares with Tradition 'T is easy to reply that that which is the Object of that Faith whereby we assent to it as a book written by such inspir'd men or as a true historical Narration of which Testimony does assure us may yet be the Rule of that Faith whereby we assent to Doctrines as reveal'd from God which we believe those are that we find there recorded And it were as easy to retort that if this arguing were good men could not know that the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles orally deliver'd to them was from God but by the testimony of the Miracles they taught therefore neither could Christ's or the Apostles oral tradition living voice be a Rule of Faith to those Ages since they were the Objects of belief and presuppos'd those Miracles as the Rule by which men did believe what Doctrines came from God nor can the Succession of Doctrine be the Rule for we know not the whole Succession but by the living voice of the present Church that does deliver Doctrine by the foresaid Rule or Principle But not to reply to this Scholastically but suppose for their sakes that Scripture could be known to be the word of God no otherwise than by testimony yet that it might be the Rule one short familiar instance shall evince irrefragably to the meanest understanding We know the Books of Scripture are entituled Books of the Old and New Testament both Scripture it self and Fathers giving cause for that expression Now in making a man's testament the Testator's last bequests or that which he last of all wills as to the disposal of his goods and possessions is the primary rule we know by which they are to be disposed off and when that disposition and will of his is put into writing sign'd and seal'd that writing or that Instrument is secundarily the rule by which Legacies must be demanded and upon performance of conditions the Inheritance entred upon Now possibly they that either demand Legacies or the Executors yea the Heir indeed himself it may be know not either hand or seal however that the writing was in good deed honestly subscrib'd and sealed by the deceased party none can know but who were present and saw or heard him declare and publish it and if any are concern'd to be assur'd whether it be a true will neither forg'd nor alter'd or deprav'd they can no otherwise be satisfied than by their testimony It is on that account that men give credit to that will from thence it is of force and afterwards continues to be so as to all ends and uses of a Will by being witnessed and sworn to that is prov'd and then enrolled and layd up in an Office for that purpose and by that becomes a firm Record and as such is there conserved Now certainly no man is so far destitute of common sence to say either the Witnesses or their Testimony or the Office that conserves the Instrument or the Clerks and Registers or Judg of that Office is the Rule by which the man's goods must be distributed or the Rule of those things that the Heir or the Excecutors must perform for the man's last Will I shew'd you was the prime Rule that Will put into writing sign'd and seal'd that is that Instrument the secondary Rule of all that and the Testimony Office Clerks and Judg are but onely means of bringing that Will to the knowledg of all such as are concern'd the way of assuring the truth and uncorruptness of the Instrument and of conserving it entire for after uses The Application of this to Christ our Savior's Testament is easy If by Penmen which himself inspir'd he caus'd his last Will in disposing the Inheritance of Heaven to be written and what things he would have believ'd what don all which he seal'd with his own God's Seal with Miracles and if those Penmen and the other Witnesses before whom he declar'd and publish'd it did attest it and gave it to the Church to be conserv'd there and her Pastors are perpetual successive Conservators of the integrity of these Records 't is plain our Lord's Will here is primarily the Rule of Faith and Action and secondarily the Testament that authentic Instrument is so and the Testimony is no more that Rule here than in the man's Will nor yet than the prerogative Office nor the Pastors or the Head if such an one there were than the Clerks the Judg of that Office nor all nor any of these are the Rule it self The Testimony is but the means of conveying down to us the knowlege of that Testament and of the uncorruptness of it and as far as that Conveyance and that
coersively as a King with his Iron Rod to execute his threats on the rebellious those that will not have him reign over them This coming also was considered in my Text for in the parallel place of S. Matth. it is said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand for this is he of whom it was spoken by the Prophet Isaias saying the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare yet the way of the Lord. For each of these in order I shall shew you what prepares his way beginning with the first His coming as a Prophet appearing in the World to reveal his Fathers ' Will the Gospel Now the Preparative for this Appearance is discovered easily we find both in this Chapter and the parallel places that John came to make way for it by the Baptism and Preaching of Repentance and it was Prophecied of him that he should go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the Fathers with the Children and the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just to the minding of just things so to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke i. 17. And this is a preparative so necessary that the Nation of the Jews affirm it is meerly for the want of this that he does yet defer his coming And though the appointed time for it be past yet because of their sinfulness and impenitence he does not appear adding If Israel Repent but one day presently the Messias cometh And it is thus far true that though it hindred not his coming yet it hindred his receiving although it did not make him stay it made him be refus'd I may lay all down in this Proposition Where there is not the preparation of Repentance where there are not inclinations and desires for Virtue if Christ come with the glad tidings of the Gospel He is sure to be rejected his Religion disbeliev'd If the Word of the Son of God might be taken in his own case this would be soon evinc'd for when He came unto his own they were so far from preparing his way that they received him not but did reject and would not entertain him as one sent from God of all this he onely gives this account that he found no other opposition but from vicious humours John viii 43 44 45. Why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my Word Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do and because I tell you the truth ye believe me not As if he should have said the reason why you do not regard me or my Doctrine but reject us both is not because my Doctrine hath not means to convince your understandings but 't is not agreeable to your inclinations The Works that I have done to make my person be received and my Words credible are such as no heart how hard or blind soever can withstand but the Doctrine I bring along is most unwelcome ye cannot abide to hear it Now as he that shuts his Eyes or turns away his Face because he hates to look upon an object may not see it though it be all cloath'd with day as visible as Sunshine so your blindness proceeds hence that ye hate the light because your deeds are evil Neither do you love to hear that which you have no mind to practise and you will not be persuaded to believe that is your necessary duty which you are not willing to perform but will rather choose to think I do my Works by a confederacy with Belzebub the Prince of Devils although it be apparent that those Lusts which you will do and which my Works and Doctrine come to drive out of the World they are Lusts of the Devil and I because I tell you the truth truth I confess somewhat severe and not so agreeable therefore you will not believe me And is it not strange when nothing can be acceptable to the Understanding but as it hath appearance of Truth and when Truth comes with evidence and demonstration though it be but speculative useless truth yet it does seize and force aslent that yet Christ's truths which did not want conviction for they came to them with that infallibility which Miracles can give should be therefore not believ'd because they were truths not strange at all for his truths were not for their turns nor humours And therefore he says to them Mat. xxi 32. Ye repented not that ye might believe them As if they assented not with their Understandings but their Appetites And we our selves have seen too much unhappy evidence of men whom Libertinism hath made Antimonians whom a desire of being loose from duty hath made Solifidians of them whom sensuality hath made Atheists men that become Proselytes to their Lusts the converts of their base affections And we cannot expect it should be otherwise For certainly that men who are averse to the duties of Christianity and cannot bend their minds to the observance of that which Christs commands should not care to believe they are his Precepts or their duty is but very natural they were unwise should they do otherwise it being far more reasonable to deny the duty and obligation than granting both to trample on that obligation which they do acknowledg and to renounce that Duty which they do confess Is it not far more prudent to believe that there is not a God that does regard our foolish actions here below which are not more worthy or more likely to enter into his considerations than the buzzings of flies into the notices and observations of a Statesman than if we do believe one does severely mark will take a strict account of execute a vengeance for them yet not incline our minds to leave them if we did suffer this belief to creep into our minds to lie close unto our hearts sure it would fret off our aversness to Piety and inclinations to sin we durst not entertain them both together these thoughts would prove very ill company they would distract and tear the mind our Souls would tremble and disjoint and we be sure to put one of them off Covetous and Adulterous Felix when he began to think that S. Paul's Sermon of a Judgment to come might be true straight be began to shake and then immediately to turn the Sermon off bid S. Paul depart till another time Nor can there any other reason be assigned for this for in the Systeme of Christs Religion there is not any thing but is so suited to the very Constitution of a natural being that the Soul would instantly imbrace and suck in if the prepossessions of Vices which the mind will not resolve to part with and repent of did not infect taint the Palate with prejudices did not keep out the belief For the morality which it injoyns did long before the birth of this Religion make its way into the Tenents and the Faith of every Sect of whole
demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had pointed out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confess Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples press the inconveniences that will happen If the case of Man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determin how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise it appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover thing above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unless there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant â—isi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give such deference for however the modern Doctrines dare assert that Christ hath given the very same infallibility which himself had to all S. Peters successors as often as they speak ex Cathedrâ and that in matters both of right and of particular fact yet not to countenance this monster by admitting combate with it nor to put my self into the circle which these men commit who talk of the Authority of the Church to which they require us to resign our Faith I shall not stay to rack them on that their own wheel This I dare affirm it is impossible for any person or assembly to produce a delegation of authority in more ample terms then the great Councel of the Jews could shew sign'd both by God and Christ. According to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the Judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalâ— not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left faith God Deut. 17. 11. compar'd with 2 Chron. 19. 8 9 10 11. And our Saviour says They sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Mat. 23. 2. Let them of Româ— produce you a better and more large commission Yet did not this suppose that Councel was infallible either in the interpreting the Law or in attesting of tradition or in judging of a Prophet or that the Jews were blindly to give up their assent and their obedience to their sentence God did not mean the people should imagin that when he prescrib'd a Sacrifice for expiation of their errors in their Judgment when they found it out Lev. 4. 13. As their own Doctors do expound it Therefore God suppos'd that they might err and we know that their Traditions did evacuate the Law Mat. 23. 15. They judg'd and slew true Prophets v. 37. They declar'd the Messiah an impostor Mat. 27. 63. and blasphemer and for that condemn'd him Mat. 26. 65. and decreed what the Apostles told them they must not obey Act. 5. 25. But though there be no such Authority that 's absolute over the Faith of Men now upon Earth yet if this Jesus did acquire such by his Works if by the Miracles he wrought his raising others from the Dead his own Death and his Resurrection he sufficiently justified the Divinity of his Doctrine And if those Miracles were true they were not doubt sufficient and if those that did pretend they were eye witnesses and ministers of all this his Apostles and the Seventy Disciples and those others that accompanied him who conversed with him continually and could not therefore be deceived if they profess they heard and saw all this and Preacht it in the face of those that would have contradicted if they could and rather than their lives have proved all false yea Preacht it every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following If they consign'd that Word in Writing also which they Preacht to be a measure and a Standard of that Doctrine to fnturity which Word so Preacht and Written by agreeing would in aftertimes give mutual illustrious evidence to one another and if any Heter â—â—â—â—ies should at any time creep by degrees into the Articles or the external practice of the Church they might he easily discovered by those Records And if the multitudes that heard and saw and did receive all this and which were grown extreamly numerous almost in every Nation of the then known World while those Apostles and Disciples liv'd if these deliver'd what they must needs know whether 't were true or not deliver'd both that Doctrine and those Books of it as most certain truth by Preaching and by Writing and by Living to it and by Dying for it and engaging their Posterity to do so and they also did that to all Ages if all this I say be true then it is easie to conclude that we are to receive the Doctrine of that Jesiâ— and this Book the Records of it with the resignation of a little Child and absolutely to submit our Faith to them But that it was thus first as sure as any of us here who have not seen the thing can be that Christianity is now profest the Bible now received in all the Regions round about us throughout Europe or indeed that there are â—â—ch Regions and places so sure we may be for we have the testimony of the World that for example in the days of Dioclesian 't was over the World profest both with their mouths and lives owned in despite of Spoyl of Torments and of Death and they did value the Records of this Doctrine so much dearer than their Lives or their Estates that in prosecution of those Edicts wherein the Christians were required to deliver up
and throwing great stones from his knâ—e as from an Engine say his followers which yet could not scare the Souldiers neither did the Roman Eagles which were true-bred fear those flames he spate but destroyed some millions of them Now 't is evident by the comparison of the several signs that Christ and this Barchocab wrought the onely reasons that gave efficacy to that sleight imposture and did make it over-power Christs mighty works was their earthly desires and affections which Christs severe Doctrines could not gratifie and therefore they receiving not the love of the truth but having pleasure in unrighteousness gave themselves up to delusions to believe a lie yet still those delusions went for reason with them Once more Tertullian challenging the Heathen says Produce before your judgment-seats some whom you will of those who are inspired by any of your Gods when gaping ore the Altar they have in its fumes according to their custom taken in the Deity 'till they are great with it ructando conantur while they are in travel with him as it were have belching throws that they burst almost 'till they are delivered of the inspiration while it is thus let but any Christian adjure them by the name of Christ and if the spirits that they are possest with do not presently confess that they are Devils ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite let the sawcy petulant Christian lose his life He speaks of this as a known frequent trial And Minutius Felix says their chiefest Gods have been forced out of their Votaries and acknowledged they were evil spirits Now here was reason and experience the miracle was so evident that Tertullian braging says do not believe it if your eyes and ears can suffer you and the reason was more pressing then the fact Nec enim Divinitas deputanda est quae fubdita esthomini it being most impossible that that should be a God which a man could rule and triumph over so imperiously manage him as with a bare command to force him from his hold and make him shame himself so villainously before both his adorers and his enemies as to say He was a Devil Yet the Heathens still found colours to do out all this conviction and their old acquaintance with their Gods together with the Custom of their vicious Worships had more force with them then miracle and reason And while the Christian dispossest their Deities he was himself turned out of all his own possessions and although he made their God confess himself a Devil yet still poor he was made to suffer as a malefactour And 't is not strange if men now stick as closely to their vices as those did to the Gods that patronized them and it be as hard to exorcise the Devil out of their affections and practices as it was then out of Heathen Votaries or Temples They are as fierce against the Christian Religion for their lusts sake as those for their Venus and the very same account that made those Heathen Customs or the lying wonders of false Christs or Pharaoh's Magicians sings be more persuasive then the other more real miracles namely because they sided with their inclinations and interests This very account makes little difficulties which Almighty God hath left in our Religion as he suffered signs and lying wonders heretofore for trials yea makes cavils mere exceptions pass for reasons most invincible be disputed urg'd with great concern and passion against all those methods of conviction which God hath afforded Christianity Now if this be to receive Religion as a little Child 't is with the frowardness of Children when they are displeas'd or ill at ease who resist and quarrel with the thing that is to make them well or please them and return the Parents cares to ease and quiet them with little outrages and vexing And do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32. 6 7. Now have Children any other way to know their Parents then to let their Father shew them and their Elders tell them Or should we cast off the relation and renounce all the obedience due to it because we are not sure of it our selves For ought we know those may not be our Parents we have only testimony for it Thus we serve our God on that account and yet Hath he not made thee and established thee As he began us so did he not nurse and bear us in his arms and carry us in all our weakness and difficulties 'till he brought us up to a full strength 'Till by a miraculous and signal providence he had establisht settled us and after all these cares bestowed upon us do we prove a generation of vipers onely such as do requite the bowels that did bear and nourish them by preying on them and consuming them Or like the of-spring of a Spider who when he hath spent himself with weaving nets and working of them into labyrinths to be the granaries and the defences of his brood to catch them prey and to secure them then the strongest of his young ones when he is by these his cares establisht and grown ripe to destroy makes those threads fatal to his parent which he spun out of his bowels to be thread of life to him And shall we be such Children to our Father that establisht us Make all his plenties turn to poison in us and invenome us against himself make his miraculous mercies furnish us for the abuse and provocation of him His blest Providence serve only to afford us arguments against it self help to confute it self because it hath so prospered doth still suffer us but after all this is he not thy Father that hath bought thee who to all his titles to us his endearing obligations notwithstanding our despites and provocations of them yet did give the life of his own Son to purchase o're again the same relation to us that we might have right to the inheritance of his Kingdom And then however we have hitherto affronted let us be content now to be bought and hir'd to receive that Kingdom of God as his Children for if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ who died to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father To whom be glory c. A SERMON PREACH'D IN St PETER's WESTMINSTER ON SUNDAY January vi 1660. AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE Right Reverend Fathers in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of Bristol EDWARD Lord Bishop of Norwich NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of Hereford WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Glocester By RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplains LONDON Printed by John Playford in the Year 1683. Right Reverend Father in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of London and Dean of His Majesties Chappel