diligence and add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity And then tells them in the two following verses that if these things be in them and abound they will make them that they shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ that is that they should not be idle empty formal Professors of the Gospel but true Christians indeed who evidence and justifie their profession by their conversation and on the other hand that he that lacketh these things hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins that is his Christianity notwithstanding his having been baptized and his having received the Gospel does him no good stands him in no stead nor so much as serves to distinguish him from other common men from ordinary Heathens but leaves him as it found him still in his sins and then v. 10. presses the practice of these things as the onely way to make their calling and election sure Before I go to treat particularly of these three several Vertues or Graces here recommended to us give me leave to give you some account of them first in the General partly from the Context as they are reckon'd up with other graces and partly from the Text it self as they depend upon and cohere with one another In the whole Context the Apostle hath set down as you have heard no less than eight distinct characters or qualifications requisite to constitute and denominate a man a sincere Christian one truly Religious to wit Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity as the Complement and Consummation of all From whence I draw this Corollary That true Religion is in its nature an Accumulative and Comprehensive thing that doth not consist in any one single Act or simple Habit but requires a Complex of Vertues a Constellation of Graces In the Text it self we find three of these Vertues or Graces in a more indearing manner joyn'd together Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity Hence I gather this Remark That Godliness that is Piety towards God is not a morose ill-natured and humorous principle as too many peradventure have taken it to be but that which requires to be accompanied with acts of Kindness and works of Charity to our Brethren and fellow-members especially those who stand in some nearer relation to us to whom therefore we have more particular obligations I. First for the Context that Religion is a thing of an Accumulative and Comprehensive nature appears by the Apostles reckoning up several Ingredients and Integral parts for the making up the Body of it I shall not dare to say that it was S. Peter's designe in this place to make an exact and compleat Enumeration of those Vertues which are to make up the truth of Religion as may be made out by those other Lists and Catalogues which his Brother S. Paul has given us Gal. V. 22 23. and elsewhere in which we shall find some of these here named by him omitted and others mentioned by him here not taken notice of It was enough for the ones and the others purpose to lay down some of the principal wherein the main of Religion lies However this is evident and plainly appears from them both that there is cumulus virtutum an accumulation of Virtues an aggregation of good things requisite to intitle a man to the truth of Religion to make him deserve the name of one truly Religious And thus is it in common Morality where they tell us that all the virtues are so inseparably linked together that where any one is wanting there is really no one of them Nay even in the performance of any single act of any one vertue there is that complex consideration of all the circumstances according to the Philosophers definition of them that it be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that manner and at such time and according to such proportions as it ought to be done to make it a vertuous act This also founded upon a general Maxim or Rule among the Moralists that Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quovis defectu that any Good action must proceed from an intire cause and that the defect of any one circumstance spoils the action and makes it to become Evil. If it be so in meer Moral practices much more is it so in Religious concerns since Religion is the Improvement and Perfection of Morality as Faith is the Directer and Accomplisher of Reason It is not then any one simple Habit any one single Act can intitle any one to the truth of Religion any more than to Morality which are either of them to be made up of a complex of Virtues that are as the Poets fancied of the Graces to go hand in hand and to keep their orderly rounds and to give their mutual assistances in the conduct and management of Humane or Christian life It is true he who hath Faith who believes Gospel-mysteries and professes this belief has upon that bare account a title to Christianity as to the external priviledge of it but that is not enough to denominate him a true Christian unless he go on and add to his faith vertue And he who is Vertuous who orders his conversation vertuously may in some sense be called an honest Good man but then he must add to his vertue knowledge And he who is a knowing man and has gotten a competent Theory of the Credenda and Agenda things to be believed and things to be done of the mysteries and duties of Religion may be said to be a Wise understanding man but then he must add to his knowledge temperance or else his knowledge will be no more than what the Gnosticks boasted of a sort of Hereticks who though so named from their pretended knowledge yet lived in all kind of impurities Again he who is Temperate and restrains his natural desires may so far be looked upon as a Sober person but then he must add to his temperance patience for the indurance of afflictions as well as the forbearance of pleasures And he who is Patient and humbly submits to the divine will in his chastisements or trials may be very well taken to be a Meek man which is one of the chief marks of a right Christian spirit but then he must add to his patience godliness Now he that is Godly that fears God and often comes before him in his private and publick addresses frequents his Church and Ordinances and orderly performs the duties of family and closet he surely has made a fair advance in Religion and may and must be thought a Pious man but then to his godliness he must add brotherly kindness And he that has a love for the Brotherhood is courteous and gentle and mild in his converse and well-meaning to all of the same Society may not improperly be
term'd a Good-natured man a thing which is so far from being a disadvantage or disparagement that it is a great ornament to Religion but then he must to brotherly kindness add charity And now we are come to the very topstone of this spiritual edifice to the very pitch of perfection Charity being the fulfilling of the Law both Moral and Christian. Here you find that to Faith is to be added Vertue to Vertue Knowledge and so on which rationally infers that not any one or more of these will serve turn without the other So then it is not enough to be a Believer to be Virtuous to be Knowing to be Temperate to be Patient to be Godly to be Brotherly kind to be Charitable I say it is not sufficient for a man to be any one of these but he must be all these if he will be a good Christian and mean to deserve the name of one truly Religious Thus much of the first general head the second is that which more nearly and immediately concerns us which is gathered out of the Text it self that 2. Inasmuch as the Apostle here requires Brotherly Kindness and Charity to be superadded to Godliness that Godliness is not a morose humorous ill-natured much less a cruel mischievous and bloudy principle but must to make it a true genuine godliness be attended with acts of Kindness and works of Charity So S. Peter himself in his 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 17. Love the Brotherhood Fear God and then Honour the King as Gods Vicegerent and Lord of the Community As if there could be no right fear of God without love of the brotherhood and neither one nor other without a due honour to the King the Head of the brotherhood In like manner S. Paul resolves all Religion into Faith and Love faith toward the Lord Jesus and love toward the Saints which make up his mystical body whereof we are all fellow-members for in this sense we profess to believe the communion of Saints And so the beloved Disciple tells us that this is Gods commandment that we should believe in the Lord Iesus and love one another Thus Christ himself hath stated the business of his Religion If ye continue in my Word that is keep my commandments then are ye my disciples indeed And how 's that in another place he says it over in these words By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another It seems then that our loving one another is the same thing as continuing in his Word as keeping his Commandments and hereupon it is said that love is the fulfilling of the law This was that new commandment Christ brought into the world that we should love one another This the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tryal of our love to God of our godliness it self that we love the brethren as he tells us For saies he he who loves not his brother whom he hath seen how can he pretend to love God whom he hath not seen Nor is this so a new commandment as himself acknowledges but that it was an old one too For our Saviour's Ancestor David in his short Catechism Psal. 15. has given much-what the same account of Religion Lord saies he who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill i. e. who has a right to the priviledges of the Church militant who has assurance of an everlasting possession in the Church triumphant He answers this question in the four following verses He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour and so on Which are all or most part of them expresses of brotherly kindness and charity and then in the close he tells us that He which doth these things shall never fall So then we are to love God with all our heart and strength that 's Godliness and our neighbour as our selves that 's Brotherly kindness and Charity as Christ himself hath summ'd up the duties of the Law And many other such passages there are in Scripture to evince this truth had I time to insist on them If this be so what shall we say to those who take up Godliness on other terms as if their strictness and zeal to God's service to his worship right or wrong excused them from all offices of love to their fellow-men their fellow-christians nay obliged them to be Vnkind to be Vncharitable and to persecute even to death those who not out of any evil meaning to them will not but out of conscience to God dare not comply with sinful conditions of communion with them This was foretold by our blessed Lord should be the lot of his followers that some such zealots there would be who would turn them out of the Synagogue excommunicate them for Hereticks and then kill them and yet by their so doing would think they did God good service Blessed Iesu where have these men who take thy holy Name in vain these Fellows of thine for so they stile themselves learnt of thee such principles such practices as these that it is lawful so cruelly and treacherously to deal with men who live quietly by them with S. Paul's Sword to destroy them from off the face of the earth and with S. Peter's Keys to lock the gates of Heaven against them to murder them in this world and to damn them in the next This Evangelium armatum this Sanguinary doctrine was no Gospel of thy making no doctrine of thy teaching Thy doctrine was sealed with no bloud but that of thy own who wast the teacher of it and that of thy Apostles and Martyrs who were the propagators of it and though thou saidst thou camest not to send peace but a sword yet that sword was not design'd to fight with but to suffer by it was a sword of a passive not of an active persecution as to thy Disciples by which they were to fall victims themselves and not to sacrifice the lives of others How contrary to thine and their meek innocent methods of converting souls are the traiterous contrivances and hellish conspiracies of those who for the advantage of Holy Church plot the murder of Kings the slaughter of Subjects and the ruine of States and rare Masters of Christianity as they are think it glorious to Proselyte whole Nations by baptizing them in their bloud May God ever preserve his gracious Majesty and Us the sinful people of this Land from such villanous Attempts of his and our Enemies I know the like Bigotries and Outrages are charged upon our Sectaries even at this time and that with great vehemence I am heartily sorry that any who delight to wear the name of Protestants as I think most of those people do should give a just occasion for such a charge But if it be so if
A SERMON AT A Solemn MEETING OF The Natives OF THE CITY and COUNTY OF Worcester IN The Church of St. Mary le Bow Iune 24. 1680. By Adam Littleton D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for William Birch and are to be sold by Iohn Crump at the three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-yard 1680. TO MY WORTHY FRIENDS AND COUNTRY-MEN Mr. Iohn Foley Capt. Tho. Hammond Mr. Richard Foley Mr. Robert Buggin Mr. Iohn Deacle Mr. Henry Vernon Mr. Thomas Hunt Mr. Sam. Lowbrige Stewards of the Worcester-shire-Feast 1680. GENTLEMEN IN Obedience to your Desires I here present you with that Discourse of Mine I lately entertain'd you with Mine I say such as it was as I then delivered it in the Pulpit but Yours now such as it is as it appears to the world from the Press I could not but look upon it as a Testimony of great Respect and I do with Thank-fulness acknowledge it that you should make choice of Me for opening the Scene of your anew-intended yearly Feast after the interruption of above twenty years Wherefore I thought fit to pitch my thoughts upon such a subject as might include most of those Ends for which such Meetings should be designed How well or ill I have handled it I must leave to the judgment of the Pious and Ingenuous Reader If others shall find any Satisfaction or Benefit in the perusal of This whatever it be they must owe it to You who Desired that is Ordered me to throw it into the Publick or if they meet with any thing that may Dissatisfie or Offend them they ought out of Charity to Excuse Me who could not but Obey Your Affectionate Country-man and Servant Adam Littleton Westminster Iuly 22. 1680. A SERMON Preached at a Solemn Meeting OF The Gentlemen and Natives OF WORCESTER-shire 1680. Right Honourable Worthy and Dearly beloved Christians and Country-men hear the Word of God as you will find it written in the II Epist. of St. Peter chap. 1. vers 7. And to Godliness add Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity THe Words I have now read unto you as they are very necessary and suitable to the general purposes of Christianity so are they no less seasonable and fit for the particular occasion and business of our present Meeting First Here is Godliness in a more especial manner to be practised by us at the Church where we are now met in our attendance upon the service of God and hearing his Word Then Brotherly Kindness to be shewn when we meet at the Table at our Entertainment by renewing our interrupted Acquaintances and expressing the mutual Offices of Love And lastly Charity at our Departure thence to be exhibited to those of our absent Brethren whether here or in the Country who may any way stand in need of our Assistance We begin this days work with Godliness we are to continue it in Brotherly Kindness and I hope to God shall make an end of it in Charity This Godliness to be exercised together with those our fellow Christians who come to joyn with us in the religious solemnity of the Day This Brotherly Kindness amongst Our selves according to the Appointment of our particular Meeting And this Charity to be handed to those of our Brethren whose wants are to be supplied that though they are not Guests yet they may be Partakers of our Love-feast that so leaving a Blessing behind us we may all of us carry away a Blessing with us to our several homes and habitations Now that this our Meeting may not be for the worse as St. Paul complains of his Corinthians but for the better let us Pray unto Almighty God that he would prevent us in all our doings with his most gracious favour and further us with his continual help that in all our works of Piety Kindness and Charity begun continued and ended in him we may glorifie his holy Name and finally by his mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose Name let us further pray for all our Brethren and Sisters throughout the world all the sons and daughters of Adam that God whose mercy is over all his works would have mercy upon all men More especially for all of the houshold of Faith for all our fellow-Citizens of the new Jerusalem for the whole Catholick Church Particularly for that part of it here planted among us that he would be favourable to our Sion that all that love her and her ways may prosper and that all counsels and all weapons formed against her may ever miscarry and come to nought as hitherto praised be his Goodness they have done that neither Popery nor Schism may ever prevail over Her And herein in a most especial manner for his most excellent Majesty CHARLES c. that he would with the choicest of his gifts and graces crown his Royal Head and Heart that he would preserve his Person establish his Government direct his Counsels and prosper his Vndertakings and that after a long long and happy Reign over us he would make his Glory great in his Salvation that he would bless him in his Royal Consort Queen KATHERINE in his Illustrious Brother JAMES D. of York c. Let us continue our prayers and enforce our requests for the whole Land and Nation to which we belong that he would pardon our Sins and heal our Breaches that neither our Vngodly provocations on the one hand nor our Vncharitable divisions on the other may ever forfeit or betray that Peace which we do at present enjoy Lastly let us beg a blessing upon our selves here assembled that he would grant us his grace so to order our lives with that Piety to God that Brotherly Kindness to one another and that Charity to the poor of our Brethren according to the ability he hath bestowed upon every one of us and that he would at this time so assist us both Me the unworthy dispenser of his Word and You his beloved People that both I may so speak c. These and all other our Desires and Acknowledgements let us again recommend unto our merciful Father in the Name and Words of his well-beloved Son saying as himself hath taught us to pray Our Father c. And to Godliness add Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity The Apostle having told his Brethren and Country-men the Convert Iews for those were they he writes to as being the Apostle of the Circumcision that through the knowledge of Christ they had all things given unto them that pertain unto life and godliness and that by those exceeding great and precious promises which were made out to them by him they might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust he puts them in mind what they are more to do in order to this end what further progress they are to make in their Christian profession that besides this they would give all