that Church with which they own they agree in Doctrine and is established by Law for they know not what reason but because they will I say if they did think on this and sadly reflect that whatever the Church of England either has already or may hereafter suffer through Popery is wholly due to themselves for having murdered the best of Kings and forc'd his Royal Issue to seek for safety under great necessities in Popish Countries and thereby exposed them to the dangers and temptations of the Romish Clergy who never fail to improve all opportunities for the advantage of the Church or rather Court of Rome I say if they did think on this they would now at least being so very obnoxious for their own preservation close with us in our Communion and not separate from that manner of Worship which we give to the God of our Fathers with the Apostle here in the Text which was the object and the second thing I was to speak of and leads me to the manner of his Worship which is the third particular in these words after that way which they call Heresie Whence we may first observe that it is no new thing for Religion and the Professors thereof to be traduced for Christ was scoft at as a Carpenters Son and Christianity is called Heresie and Christians Gallileans and this proceeds from the innate Malice and Ignorance that every Man has in him since the Fall which as the Spider extracts Poison out of the sweetest Flowers makes the worst interpretations of the best things and actions 2 Sam. 6.14 15 16. so that if David dance zealously before the Ark he shall not want a Michol to laugh at him and if Ezekiah destroy Idolatry some Rabshekah will not stick to say Is not this the God whose Altars Ezekiah broke down If Mary Magdalen pour a little Oil on the Head and Feet of our Saviour some Judas will be ready to say what needs this waste Constantine Joh. 21.4 for his bounty to the Church shall be called Pupillus one that needs a Guardian and Theodosius for his Piety Imbellis a Coward But as the Moon goes on silently in her course thô Dogs do bark at her so let us go on in our Religious Worship without regarding the Calumniations of our Adversaries 2. Observe That if we be morally certain that what we profess is true and according to Gods Word it matters not that the Papists call us Hereticks and the Separatists call us Papists Truth will justifie it self St. Paul you see is not offended that they call his Religion Heresie And this brings me to the fourth thing in the Text namely the Rule in these words believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets God who requires man to worship him has prescribed a Rule for his Direction and least this Rule might be forgotten or corrupted in tract of time by a bare oral Tradition of it from age to age he committed it to Writing for though the Word spoken be more efficacious yet the Word written is more durable therefore it was that Moses was commanded to write the moral Law in two Tables and that the Spirit in the Revelation says write and here St. Paul makes the Rule of his Faith all that is written in the Law and the Prophets It would not be proper now to dispute whether it be necessary to Salvation for a man to believe all that is written in the Old and New Testaments and therefore I shall only for resolving this Doubt and many other Objections that may follow thereupon offer these few particulars 1. That every distinct Sentence of the holy Scriptures does command and require our Belief as much as the whole or any part of them 2. That though a man may be saved without knowing all that is conteined in the Scriptures yet if he refuse to give credit to any part of them when it is revealed to him as such he cannot be saved 3. That every man is not only obliged under pain of Damnation to believe all that is Scripture when revealed to him but he is also bound to believe what is not revealed to him in preparation of mind 4. That we may and ought to infer from St. Pauls words in the Text that the Scriptures are a sufficient Rule of Faith and that there is enough conteined in them without any other additions both for our Direction and Practice Yet I deny not but that an undoubted Tradition if we were so well assured of the Truth of it by a general consent of all Ages as we are of the Truth of the Scriptures has the same Authority with Scripture for until the means of Salvation was fully perfected and the Scriptures committed to Writing Tradition was the Rule For St. Paul bids Timothy to take heed to all that he had received either by Word or Writing And though we do not with the Romanists allow Tradition to supplant the Scriptures by giving it equal Authority with them yet we allow much to an Apostolical Tradition because it may be necessary though not absolutely so to the clearing and better understanding of some intricate and mysterious passages in Scripture And this leads me to the fifth particular in my Text to wit the principal ground of his Confession in these words and have hope towards God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust From which we may first observe That Prudence and Wisdom are consistent with true Religion for you see St. Paul says which they themselves also allow that is the Pharisees who did believe a Resurrection that by this means he might gain their favourable Opinion and so divide them and the Sadduces who did deny a Resurrection For God never gave a man Religion with design to deprive him of the use of his Reason and to make him a meer Natural He that charges his Disciples to be as innocent as Doves bids them be as wise as Serpents Mat. 16.10.17 and bids them to beware of men that will bring them into their Councils which shews that we must not with the Donatists of old and the Quakers now court the Lash and the Prison and seek for occasions of Trouble He only is the resolute Champion for Christ that will neither for fear of suffering weakly betray his Cause nor out of an ignorant Zeal run into needless dangers 2. We may observe from hence that the Hope of the Resurrection of the dead is a most powerful Argument to persuade men to believe and embrace and practise the Christian Religion For when a man seriously considers that he is not only to give an account here of what he has done and that this life does not set a period to his sufferings or rejoycings but that he shall rise again and undergo a new and impartial tryal and be for ever determined to live in eternal bliss or misery This consideration I say
which is the next thing I will only remark this to you that St. Paul first clears himself from being a Rebel against the State before he attempts to prove the Orthodoxy of his Faith or the Purity of his Religion From whence I desire you to observe that those men that profess never so much of Religion with never so much of Zeal are to be lookt upon as false Teachers so long as they continue their rebellious and seditious practices against the State and therefore let our dissenting Brethren take notice that while they in contempt of Authority oppose the establish'd and known Laws by their riotous unlawful Assemblies that their Religion and Profession of Faith is false and erroneous and quite contrary to St. Paul's here in my Text which is the next thing I am to handle in these words I worship the God of my Fathers c. And in this I shall first speak of the Act Worship and in doing thereof I will not spend time in consulting that frivolous distinction of the Papists of Latria Dulia and Hyperdulia the first they say is that Worship which is proper to God the second which is due to the Creature and the third of a middle nature less than what is due to God and more than is due to the Creature and this they say is only due to the Virgin Mary I know they have borrowed this distinction from St. Austin but have much wrested it from his sense For as they have added a third member to the distinction to wit Hyperdulia so it is certain that St. Austin by Dulia did not understand any religious or spiritual Worship which is only due to God but an external civil Worship such as men give to Princes Masters and Pastors * Servitus corporis non animâ— de vera Relig c. 55. ibidem a service of the Body but not of the Mind as he speaks The Saints indeed are to be honoured for Imitation but not to be adored for Religion Neither does that Father say that Saints are to be worshipt with an inferior kind of religious Worship called Dulia but they express contrary for we honor them Honoramus eos Charitate non Servitute ibid. says he with the honor of Love and Fellowship as our Brethren and Friends but not with Service as our Masters and Commanders We do not deny that there are degrees of Honor but to attribute the least degree of the Service of the Spirit to any Creature we abhor because that is solely due and proper to God who only in all times places and things sees guides and disposes of all us and ours God is not mocked and therefore will not suffer his own express Word to be eluded with such frivolous distinctions But as one complained that the Law were like Spiders Webbs wherein the little Flies are taken but the great ones break through so we may say of these Popish Subtilties because that though they cannot cast a mist before the eyes of God and rational considering men yet they may deceive the poor simple Lay Papist who goes on roundly to work in his blind Devotion he poor man must needs remain intangled in gross Idolatry And therefore these Popish Ringleaders are not unfitly compared to Bawds it is King James his expression in the like case who though they do not actually pollute their own Bodies yet are a means of prostituting others to all filthiness But I leave them and return to our Apostles I worship the God of my Fathers This Worship is twofold 1. External 2. Internal The external Worship is principally threefold 1. The preaching and hearing of Gods Word 2. The invocating of his Name 3. The reverend use of the holy Sacraments 1. As to the preaching and hearing of Gods Word he requires nothing more earnestly than that the People be taught the knowledg of themselves of God and of Religion Isa 58.1 Son of man saith God cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and Go and teach all Nations saith Christ Matt. 28. 1 Cor. 1.16 2 Tim. 4.1 2. and Wo is me saith the Apostle if I preach not the Gospel and he charges Timothy before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg both the quick and the dead that he preach the Word and be instant in season and out of season And as preaching is the Ministers Duty so it is the Peoples to hear Rom. 10.14 Prov. 29.18 for how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard and where there is no Vision the people perish Faith is like the Lamp and the preaching of the Word like Oil and as the Lamp without a fresh supply of Oil does go out so Faith does decay without preaching wherefore it is written of our Saviour that when he found a multitude without a Pastor he was moved with compassion towards them Mark 6.34 The second part of this external Worship is Invocation of his Name and this is so natural to us that we usually lift up our eyes to Heaven in any suddain exigence even before we consider the danger or consult our reason and God commands us to call upon him in the day of trouble and he will hear us Pâ— 50.15 This is so prevalent that it binds up the hands of the Almighty â—â—od 32.10 Let me alone saith God to Moses that my wrath may wax hot against them No marvel then that St. James 5.16 James says the Prayer of the Faithful availeth much if it be fervent In a word he that does not pray Ps 53.2 is an Atheist for David saith that only the Fool who saith in his heart there is no God doth not call upon the name of the Lord. I sear if measures were taken of our being or not being Atheists by the frequency of our Prayers there are too many amongst us that could scarcely free themselves from that imputation unless to come to this place once or twice upon a Sunday and that too more out of custom than Devotion and never to think more of their Duty till Sunday come again does acquit them from that charge But remember God will be called upon or he will not deliver The third part of this external Worship is the reverend use of the Sacraments and let me tell you they are not indifferent things which we may use or not use at our pleasure as Esther said If I perish I perish There is a more Christian If in the case that is Matt. 28. If we obey the Commands of Christ we must use them for he says Go teach all Nations baptising them and take ye eat ye Matt. 26.2.27 drink ye Licurgus the Lacedomonian Lawgiver to oblige them to a more strict observance of his Laws made the Lacedemonians take an Oath to observe them till his return and then took a journey with a resolution never to go back again and caused his Ashes to be thrown into the
as it will make every rational not to mention pious man to live holily so it will be a great allay to his temporal sufferings to consider that he shall have joy in the morning of his Resurrection for the heaviness he endured in the night of this life This was the ground of St. Paul's free and publick confession of his Faith And thus I come to speak of the last particular in the Text namely the effects in these words and herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Whence we may observe that the end of all Religious Knowledg is practice for Christianity is an active life it is not to make a wry Face and to put on a serious look and to talk piously and to breath nothing but Scripture that denominates a man a true Believer but it is an exercising of ones self so as to keep a clear Conscience towards God and Man And therefore it is that St. Paul elsewhere exhorts to press forwards and so to run as to win and not to beat the Air. And our Saviour bids bring forth works meet for repentance Mat. 3.8 And that we may do this we must live unblameably towards God our Neighbours and our selves If we be defective in the last two we must also be faulty in the first because though there are some offences more directly and immediately committed against God than other yet all are against him For as much as they are transgressions of his Laws And therefore we must make it our chief business First to give him his due which is honouring and invocating his name acknowledge all we have to proceed from his free Grace and make him as far as we are able suitable returns of Praise and Thanksgiving And as we must behave our selves thus towards God so we must deal uprightly with our Neighbours we must carry Honey in our mouths that is not injure them with false reports nor provoke them with bitter language and we must carry Charity in our hands that is relieve them to our power when their necessities require it not wrong them by Violence or Fraud not exact upon their necessities and we must carry a good example in all our actions And lastly as to our selves we must take heed that we abuse not those parts and indowments which God gave us to be instrumental to his service by any kind of excess riot or intemperance we must keep our sences well governed in great equality The Tongue under the rule of discretion and the Heart in a firm peace free from all sensual distracting thoughts this is the true end of believing Otherwise our assenting to a divine Truth is no more than such a faith as the Devils have who believe and tremble and are never the nearer happiness but our believing must include doing and must carry along with it a conscience or knowledge void of offence both towards God and towards Man And thus I have spoken what I designed at this time on this Subject and shall conclude all with one word of application You have heard St. Paul's Confession of Faith I beseech you examine your selves try whether you be of his Religion or not if you be I entreat you practise it 2. If you have a clear Conscience you need not regard the false reports of others for though it be a misfortune to be undeservedly ill spoken of yet it is a comfort that it is undeservedly The Bird in the Breast makes sweeter Musick than the Praises of a thousand Flatterers I am grieved saith a Father that they speak ill of me and asperse me falsly because they injure themselves and not me by their uncharitableness for they cannot rob me of the pleasure which a clear Conscience continually administers to me Lastly That all of us may have this clear Conscience let us be sure with St. Paul to walk by the Rule the Word of God Psal 119.105 that will be a Lanthorn to thy feet and a Light to thy paths and therefore do not imagine that the carrying of your Bible to Church and turning over the leaves and reading it carelesly is all that is required of you but be sure you practise what you read and compare your actions with that Rule and make them conformable to it this will make you not only Professors of St. Pauls Faith but also partakers of his Happiness where we shall see the Face of the living God clearly and at the full where the Beauties shall have no Veils to hide them from our eyes our Beings shall have no end our Knowledge shall not be subject to error nor our Loves to displeasure O! what an excess of Happiness will it be to enjoy all and to desire nothing to be a King without an Enemy to be rich without Covetousness and to be ever living without fear of Death all which God of his infinite Mercy vouchsafe unto us all through the merits of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS