Doctrine are variously understood and disputed about but in the practical part of Religion that which concerns a good life all men are agreed That it shall be well with them that fear God That to take heed unto the thing that is right shall bring a man peace at the last And that good Works shall have a good Reward The living by these measures is that whereby a Christian glorifies God in the world justifies the sincerity of his Faith separates himself from Hypocrites and Unbelievers and confirms his own heart in the sure comfortable belief of the Christian Doctrine nay and recommends it to others The true way to build up our selves in our most holy Faith and to propagate it in the World is to shew its excellency and efficacy by the fruits of it in our lives This way the Apostles confuted false Religions and converted even those that persecuted the Gospel By their bearing the Yoak of Christ and by their Obedience to him they brought under his subjection the Kingdoms of the Earth It was neither by false or fearful dissimulation nor by violence they made Proselytes but by approving themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God That way will ever be effectual to preserve the credit of true Religion and persuade men to embrace it and will be the lasting happiness of every faithful Believer Tit. 3.8 This I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works These things are good and profitable unto men Thirdly We ought to contend for the Faith by a devout attendance upon those acts of Worship and Piety which are enjoyned by it Nothing contributes more to the increase and establishment of true Religion than the earnest Devotion of its Professors It is the way to strive together for the Faith of the Gospel as St. Paul exhorts And it is the complement of that Spiritual Armour wherewith he would have us fight against the great Enemy of our Salvation Ephes 6. after the Shield of Faith c. v. 18. Praying alway with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watchining thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Few were the Books of Controversie and few the Disputes of Christians amongst themselves in the Ages of fervent Devotion but great was their Piety They daily received the Blessed Sacrament to express their thankfulness to God for the Mercies of our Redemption and to tie themselves to Obedience and Virtue And they offer'd to God continually the Sacrifice of Praise They brought them that were in error to the Worship of the true God by their assiduousness in the doing of it themselves A Zeal against different Religions where it is not guarded with a due care to love and to serve God according to our own degenerates commonly into cruelty and uncharitableness So it did with the zealot Jews so with the persecuting Heathen and so it hath prov'd amongst too many Christians to the no small prejudice of true Religion Whereas in all Ages of the Church there hath been always so much of substantial goodness as there hath been of true Devotion in any hearts Cornelius thoug uncircumcised Simeon and Hannah who were Jews they are represented as very devout People and great Exemplars of Vertue But in Contentions and Disputes for the most part men will speak their Passions more than their Piety It is a dangerous deceit to rest in Negatives be they never so true and to make Religion consist in clamouring against errors though never so palpable whil'st we neglect Christian duties So to be very fierce against Transubstantiation and neglect to receive the Blessed Sacrament to make loud invectives against Prayers to Saints and offer none to God or but very cold ones and very seldom as hath been here too much in use amongst us that shews only that some men are great enemies to one Party and to some Opinions and no friends to Christianity For if it were love to the Truth they are seriously concerned for they would be at least as zealous in attending the true Worship of God as they are against the errors of some about it Indeed errors should be reprov'd and the truth asserted by good and able men But the noise of others is not like to signifie much nor will demonstrations alone They that dissent from us on either hand have long enough been bafled by unanswerable Arguments But these are above the leisure and the capacity of many who observe your deportment better and may be warm'd with the Zeal of your Devotion and perswaded by your Example So that now they that are not of our Communion may sooner be gained by our wrastling with God than by our contending with them Such are our Offices of publick Religion so excellent and so divine that no sincere Christian though not of our Church but must approve them might joyne with us The great Objection is our own neglect of them If we remove that by a more assiduous and devout attendance upon Divine Worship we shall find that the best way to win others to use and approve more and more our form and most pious Liturgy And if we rescue it from our own prophaness and indevotion we need not fear any opposition from without should ever prevaile against it But thus to contend with God in humble and earnest Supplications and Prayers requires a very earnest contending with our own selves It is one of the great Infilicities of our Nature that we are very backward to Pray Either our sins make a separation betwixt God and Us Or the Cares and Solicitudes of this World keep our Souls groveling here below So that although we know that God is ready to hear Prayers and Commands us to ask that he may have and Opportunity to give yet we can hardly lift up our Hearts unto him We are dull and untoward and our thoughts are apt to scatter when we come to Petition and to Worship in his Holy Presence And a man must have labour'd with himself very seriously to bring his Soul to a Praying temper and to keep it in such a frame as to be habitually dispos'd to converse with God To keep upon his Heart a fresh and lively sense of Religious Thoughts and Affections a man must keep his passions in subjection to reason and strictly watch over himself That fervent Prayer which St. James saith availeth much can not be offer'd up to God without the utmost striving and endeavours of a Christian It is a very earnest and effectual contending for the Faith once delivered to the Saints to recommend it devoutly to his Blessing and Protection who is the Author and the Finisher of it to be pressing with him to maintain his own Cause To bring all Infidels to the knowledg and all Christians into the Unity of that saving Faith to make it triumph over all errors and vices that it may flourish and bring forth fruit in all the
And so it fares with the maintenance of Gods sanctuary and those that wait in it The free bounty of our Ancestors made large Provisions for this the laws in that respect now made cannot keep a great part of the people within any bounds of Justice Altho God complains of it as a Sacriledg ye have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings and requires the paying of them as an acceptable peice of service which he promiseth to reward Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of thine encrease so shall thy barns be filled with Plenty thy presses shall burst out with new Wines Notwithstanding all this we see how many wilfully transgress as much against the lawful Right as against the Piety of this Duty The neglect of these I have now mention'd and many more Evils Destructive of our Christian Faith was the necessary consequent of the destroying our Ecclesiastical Orders and Constitutions So that it well becomes every man who wisheth Religion and Vertue to Flourish to endeavour and contribute what he can to the well being and preservation of this Church which certainly maintains and teacheth the Primitive and truly Christian Faith and recommends all duties to God and the King to our Neighbours and our selves and leads her Children the plainest and safest way to true Vertue and Happiness Our appearing concern'd for such a Church the like to which we should not find in all all the World should God for our Sins suffer it to be destroyed I say our Affection and care for such a Church is a good demonstration of our love to God and a Christian contending for the Faith To help to build up and preserve our Jerusalem that in her peaceable and prosperous settlement in the use enjoyment of all means of grace we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty Christians our Faith was once deliver'd to the Saints and it was by Gods great Mercy progagated to us to make us Saints also that by it we may be now Sanctified and Glorified hereafter The more we do now for our Religion in time of health and prosperity the more it will do for us hereafter in time of sickness and sorrow What we now labour or spend for our Christian Faith is sure to be repaid us in Spiritual improvements and joys and comforts If by a good life we justifie it before men it will justifie us before God This is a rule will ever hold that Faith is to be shew'd by works accordingly let us contend for ours By an open and constant profession of it by conforming our lives to its rules and precepts by devoutly attending upon those Acts of Worship and Piety which are enjoyn'd by it and by giving it in the World all that reputation and establishment of which we are capable in our several places That 's the way to fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life According to the exhortation of our Apostle wherewith I conclude having told them v. 18. That there would be mockers in the last times walking after their own ungodly lusts men that would scoff at believers and deride their credulity Then it follows But ye beloved build up your selves in your most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercies of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life To which God of his infinite mercy bring us To him Father Son and Holy Ghost One God Blessed for ever be ascrib'd c. ERRATA Pref. p. 1. l. 9. before selves add own Sermon p. 8. l. 13. Athletes p. 9. l. 25. before relation add our p. 12. l. 16. after sure add and p. 17. l. 17. 〈…〉 dâ—â—igent add a ib. l. 23. for nor read more p. 18. l. 23. after understand 〈…〉 FINIS
faithful unto death He that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it So here this Apostle who had the Example and the Words of our Saviour and knew full well his mind in this exhorts his afflicted Disciples not to follow the steps of those Hereticks who in time of trial fell away and as he saith would denie their Saviour rather than suffer for his sake but to persevere unto the end contending earnestly for the Faith they had received A Zeal of adherence to Christ to confess and own him before men which is here recommended doth not beget fierceness or wrangling contention in the mind but a peaceable constancy a resolution to be firm and unmovable in passive Graces As the greatest Victory of a Christian is to die for his Saviour so the noblest contention is to suffer for him Accordingly 'tis said of those Christian Conquerours whom St. John saw with Palms in their hands that they loved not their lives unto the death In the language of the Church certamina Martyrum the combate of Martyrs was their enduring patiently the pains and reproaches of their Martyrdom They were called the Athleaes or Champions of Christ and the constancy of their passions upon his account was their Victory Hence the sign of the Cross came to be so venerable and so frequently used amongst Primitive Christians in those days of severe trial They would by that token before Christ's greatest Enemies and Persecutors own themselves to be his Servants who for them had died on the Cross and declare that they were ready cheerfully also to lay down their lives for his sake He must labour hard with himself to overcome Flesh and Blood that would arrive to this resolution And therefore this is the most earnest contention a Christian can undertake for the Faith to lay down his life for it and sign and confess it with his blood And then thirdly we may observe as a consequent from this That if this be a duty and here enjoyn'd by St. Jude much more is it an incumbent duty openly to profess the Faith of Christ crucified when the doing of it is not attended with any such Persecutions or Dangers If under Heathen Emperours when Christianity was opposed and every-where spoken against yet its Professors were obliged freely and sincerely to declare themselves and own their relation to Christ though they died for it much more are they bound to this that live under Christian Princes under Laws that enforce their Obligations to confess that true Catholick and Apostolick Faith which was once delivered to the Saints If we are bound thus to contend for it in a way so difficult even by Death as the Moble Army of Martyrs if God should make it our case much more are we to profess it when we can do it with safety nay and have many encouragements and advantages in the world in the performance of this great duty God of his special favour to us hath made it our Interest even in this life We may now dwell in Churches and exercise our selves to all Godliness and be as virtuous and as devout as ever any Christians were without incurring any inconvenience We need not fear for our Faith lest it should be supprest if we our selves betray it not by our lukewarmness and indifferency for it We are even subject to the inflictions of our Magistrates for neglecting the duties of our Christian Worship And so we lose and suffer much more for not being faithful to Christ than for owning relation to him So that now when Divine Providence makes it so easie and so profitable we ought very seriously to mind this exhortation to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints by an open and constant profession of it And in the second place also by conforming our lives to its Rules and Precepts That mightily conduceth to the establishment of the Faith and requires a very serious Application and Endeavour of our side We must hold the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience as the Scripture saith and our hearts are to be purified by Faith It is a very preposterous Zeal to be earnest against the errors of other mens understandings whil'st the depravations of our own wills are unreformed A man shall raise loud clamours against anothers mistake not known to the person guilty of it whil'st he himself transgresseth knowingly in things which his own conscience checks and which are expresly forbidden by his Religion This looks very odd and such Zeal is to be suspected not to be so much for God as for a temporal design For our Faith laieth the great stress of our duty and of our hopes upon our own Works the choice we make of doing good or evil If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Neither the Vnrighteous saith the Apostle nor Fornicaters nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God They that believe this and remain impenitent in any of these sins they may dispute for their Opinions but they contend not for the Faith rather as much as in them lies they confute it with their own works For so St. Paul joyns together Faith and a good conscience and tells us that they that put away the one soon make shipwreck as to the other 1 Tim. 1.19 The seeds of Infidelity are in Vice it corrupts the very dictates of Reason Vile and vicious affections raise Objections against those Divine and Holy Truths which reprove and condemn them An ill Life and a good Religion sincerely profest are inconsistent So that in some cases it may be said of a Christian who grosly and wilfully prevaricates against his Rule in the words of St. Paul He hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Therefore when a man hath learned the Fundamentals of Religion and knows his Duty the great stress of his endeavours must next be laid upon the performance of it That he should fight under Christ's Banner against his own evil inclinations against all sin and immorality This contention St. Jude here recommends by describing those Hereticks against whom he writes as very impure in their lives and factious and ungovernable in their deportment They walked after their own Lusts filthy Dreams who defiled the flesh despised Dominion and spake evil of Dignities By exhorting Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith in opposition to these he means not only their false Doctrines but also their evil deeds against which he is most vehement And indeed it requires a more earnest contention for a man to subdue his own corruptions than to assent to a revealed Truth It is a thing of more difficulty to obey the holy Commandment than to embrace an Article of Belief Withal This Obedience to Divine Precepts is that which our primitive Faith most of all recommends that which is universally assented to by all sorts of Christians there is no controversie in this Points of