Faith or Religion teaches him to set the Battle regularly in array confronting every Vice which shall assault him with the exercise of some contrary Grace or Christian Virtue and then it fares with these Combatants as it does with the contrary qualities in natural Bodies as one grows intense the other becomes remiss what one loses the other gains and at length one of them will and must expel the other Nor is it wanting if I may without affectation pursue a Metaphor in which St. Paul seems to delight and use upon all occasions in all the other arts and advantages of War by which Worldly Victories are gain'd For fear of surprizes it sets a diligent watch upon all the ways by which temptations can have access to the Heart to avoid disorder confusion mutiny in its own Camp it wisely holds the reins of our tumultuous Passions checks the host and violence of their Motions guides their Strength and directs their Force and applies it aright and where it may be most effectual By fasting and mortification it starves our Lusts and reduces those stubborn Enemies by cutting off all Provision from them It encourages us by the noble Example of those that have been Conquerours in this War before us especially recounting to us the great Atchievements of Christ Jesus the Captain of our Salvation the Author and Finisher of our Faith It fixes our Eyes upon the inestimable rewards laid up for those who couragiously fight this fight an Eternal weight of Glory a thing which in this Life we can apprehend no more than Infant-Princes can the greatness of the Empires they are born to Thus it is that Faith overcomes and the Victory which it obtains consists in this that it at last sets us above the World above fearing its Frowns or courting its Favours fixing us upon the sure Foundation of a good Conscience and a resolution to keep it by doing our Duty so that temptations of what sort soever may press in upon us but never move us from our Station It inspires us with Heavenly Wisdom Gratitude and Courage to answer all the sollicitations to Sin as once the virtuous Joseph did Gen. xxxix 9 How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against God But by the way we must not flatter our selves that our Victory can in this Life be perfect so that no Sin shall be left undestroyed to make head against us No we must go down into our Graves fighting and conquer dying and at the Resurrection our Victory shall be compleat and our Eternal Triumphs begin when Death our last Enemy shall be destroyed Thus have I endeavour'd briefly and plainly to show you the true meaning of the Apostle in these words namely That the main work and business of Faith is to make us first good and holy and then happy Men that the only end Religion was intended for is the saving of our Souls by subduing our Spiritual Enemies They who contrary to this interpretation of the Text make Faith to be nothing else but the perswasion of their own Party and its Victory nothing else but the prevailing of that perswasion over all other Religions in the World introduce a new Faith quite different from that which is truly Christian A restless troublesome Faith which will neither suffer the subject to live an honest and peaceable nor the Prince under whom it is profest a quiet and an easy Life A Faith apter to destroy Mens lives than to mend them A Faith debased with an unnatural mixture of Passion Prejudice Interest and I know not what other designs and practices to which true Religion is utterly a Stranger and has nothing to do with them Whereas the Faith in my Text is quite another thing its Victories are gain'd without Noise or Tumult without giving any the least disturbance to the State where 't is profest It s aim is to make men kind and good-natur'd Just and Temperate Meek and Humble Religious and Devout Loyal and Obedient to such a Faith Princes are beholden for its good Effects as That is to Them for their kind and gracious Protection And if we practise according to this Holy Faith besides the spiritual advantages we gain by it we shall most effectually second the generous designs and endeavours of a Prince who would make us Happy in this World We shall engage God the Almighty giver of Success and Victory on his side to preserve his Person to prosper his Arms and to bless him in all his just and wise Undertakings As we thus Profess and Believe God grant we may Do accordingly that our Church may never want this Faith nor this Faith such a King and Queen as it now enjoys and may it long enjoy them to be the Defenders of it Now to the Blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. VI. 15 16. the King of kings and Lord of lords who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no Man hath seen nor can see Be honour and power Everlasting Amen FINIS
Dr BATTELY's SERMON Before the QUEEN IN Christ's-Church Canterbury MAY vi 1694 A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN IN Christ's-Church Canterbury MAY vi 1694. BY JOHN BATTELY D. D. Archdeacon of Canterbury and one of the Canons of the same Church Publish'd by Her Majesty's Command LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN 1. John v. latter part of v. 4. And this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith VIctory is the happy Success of War a thing worthy the best and most serious Thoughts of a Christian whose Life is a continual Warfare and whose chief study therefore should be how he may conquer and that the rather because it is not here as in other Wars where a Man may hope to escape Misery if not by prosperous Success yet by a speedy and honourable Death No nothing here but plain overcoming will serve the turn for if once he be vanquish'd in the main Issue of this War there is no kind Sword to put an end to his Sufferings nor will the Grave it self shelter him from those Eternal Miseries that are coming upon him Well therefore I say do all the probable and possible ways that lead to this Victory deserve our Consideration but this of Faith should more especially be regarded by us because Divine Wisdom and Truth it self have marked it out as a certain and infallible one But alas these are things that Men generally little dream of being so far from thinking and contriving how they may conquer that they have in a manner forgotten that they are in a State of War the Conscience of their Baptismal Vow which engag'd them in it seeming as little to affect them now they are Men as the Ceremonies which it was accompanied with did when they were Infants and if you look into their Lives and Actions you will find as little of its Power and Efficacy there as you do of the Sign of the Cross upon their Foreheads both seem to be worn out and vanish'd away and what if their Godfathers and Godmothers did by making a rash or formal Promise in their Names entail this uneasie War upon them They see no reason why they should be bound to the trouble of prosecuting it The World and they are Friends and content so to continue however if for decency sake there must be at least some shew of fighting between them as Christians and the World against whom by professing Christianity they have denounced War yet they cannot but secretly think it a thing sweeter than Victory it self would be to be overcome by so charming an Enemy as they have to deal with There are too many who though they will not openly talk thus yet all the World may see that they live like Men who think thus and such will little care to hear a Warfare in which they are unwillingly engag'd and a Victory which they had rather lose than win discoursed of I can therefore with any hopes of being favourably heard speak only to such as desire to be what their Baptism made them and to do what that Vow obliges them who since they do profess a Faith that requires it of them are resolv'd in order to the gaining of this Victory to fight manfully under their Lord's Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Soldiers and Servants unto their Lives end What I have to say upon this Subject shall be confined to answering Three Questions which any one who has a mind to understand the Importance of these Words will naturally ask I. What this Victorious Faith is II. What is meant by the World which is to be overcome III. How that Faith overcomes and what kind of Victory it obtains for us I. What this Faith is the Apostle tells us in the Verse following the Text namely the believing that Jesus is the Son of God A cheap Victory will some say if the giving our Assent to so reasonable a proposition will purchase it for us If that will do we are all of us already Conquerours It was our Fate to be born such by being born of Christian Parents whose careful institution of us in this Faith in our tender years gave us then so deep a tincture of it that if we would we cannot quite wash it out The mighty Works which Jesus did the Testimony of his Miracles as they tell us who have been at the pains seriously to consider them are so convincing and demonstrative that they who read them cannot but believe them and therefore every Body amongst whom we live profess accordingly and what should we get by being singular and pretending to disbelieve that of the truth of which all the civiliz'd World seems fully satisfyed no body that we know of denying it but a Company of Jews Turks and Heathens People whose very Character is Ignorance and Obstinacy and therefore their Infidelity is not much to be wondred at So that say they if the giving our assent to so easie and plain a truth as this is be this Conquering Faith the day is Ours Victory no longer hovers over our heads but is lighted upon our Ensigns This is the gross Notion of Faith which I fear too many have namely that it is only the giving our Assent to a Proposition or two which we have all the Reason and Authority imaginable to think true and should but be laught at and despised by wiser Men than our selves for denying them But suppose we go further that we search and read the Scriptures and by their help unravel this close comprehensive Article and believe explicitly all the glorious truths concerning Jesus the Author of our Faith and Religion which are involv'd in it Such as are That his Generation is Eternal his Substance the same with that of the Father that he came into the World the true Messiah the very Christ our Anointed King Prophet and Priest to rule us to teach us and to offer himself a Sacrifice for us Suppose we be full and orthodox in our Creeds and Confessions of Faith able to confute all sorts of Hereticks out of Scripture and Tradition Fathers and Councels and to talk learnedly of all the Errors and Controversies which from Age to Age have sprung up in the Church of God This surely must do much and he that is thus qualifyed may well pass for a true Believer but even this Faith wants somewhat it may denominate a Man sound and orthodox it may help him to run down a Gainsayer or baffle a Disputer of this World but it cannot overcome the World it self and is not therefore that which my Text means But what if besides all this with a lively apprehension I can lay hold on Christ or make him mine What if with an undaunted Confidence without any care or consideration of my own Obedience I can rely wholly upon his for my Justification What if without any
regard to my actions let me live how I please I can apply all those gracious and glorious Promises to my self which are made only to the good and holy in a word what if I can account my self justifyed and in favour with God only because I strongly imagine that I am so Somewhat indeed very like this hath been taught for justifying Faith But can a Man's believing that he is justified be the cause of his justification A Proposition is believed because it is we think true but does not therefore presently become true because we believe it In a word let us not flatter our selves that God ever made natural assurance confidence or presumption the Conditions of our Salvation No if ever such a Faith as this renders us Conquerors 't is but just as a pleasing Dream makes us happy or as a strong but wild fancy may make Mad-men think themselves Princes That therefore by which we must conquer the World is none of these speculative aiery fanciful things but somewhat more real and substantial more strong and active Not a barren Assent like that which we give to Mathematical Demonstration whose influence reaches no further than the Judgment and renders not our Life more fruitful at all in good actions nor like the Historical Faith which the Devils have and yet continue Devils still No 't is the belief of an the wholsome Doctrines of our Christian Religion not lightly swimming and floating about in our heads but by the Grace of God and the Assistance of his Spirit so inwardly grafted in our hearts that it becomes a strong Principle of Action in us powerfully swaying us against the inclinations of our corrupt Nature and making us live at a quite different rate as if we were not the same Men that we were before we believed When we believe that Jesus is the Son of God that is when we so believe it that all the World may see a difference between us and those who do not When we walk faster and with more concern towards Heaven in the ways of God's Commandments than a little faint decay'd Morality would carry us and by that shew that a good Christian has somewhat more in him than an honest Heathen When we live in humble Obedience like Men who believe their Lawgiver to be the Son of God whose main business is Holiness and Devotion who adore his Divine Person reverence his high Authority obey his just and wise Commands and imitate his good and great Example When we heartily espouse his Interest and fight against the Lusts of the Flesh his declar'd Enemies resist the Devil whose works he came to destroy and trample upon the World which he in our nature and to encourage us by his Example overcame before us This is the Faith that must overcome the World even an active one for Heaven the reward of this Victory was never promis'd to them that did nothing What a vain thing therefore were it to think that bare believing will put us in possession of it that the Crown of Glory is expos'd as the prize not of those who run and fight but of such as idlely sit still and expect confidently that without any more ado it should at last drop upon their heads and that only because they fansie it will St. James tells us II. 26. That Faith without Works is dead How then shall its feeble lifeless hands weild all the mighty Weapons of our spiritual Warfare How shall it demolish the strong Holds of Satan disarm and bind that powerful one bring away the Spoils and set up the Trophies of its Conquests If in such a Faith only as this is we have hope we are of all Men most deceiv'd of all Men most miserable For this Victory will cost us labour and toyl and sweat nay and perhaps blood too as well as Worldly Conquests do none of which can be expected from a mere dead Belief Some are so spiritual and refin'd in their Religion that they are afraid that Works let them be never so good should marr their Faith and hinder its Efficacy And so indeed they may if we abuse them if we trust in them for Salvation and think to merit Heaven by them and justify our selves by their Righteousness The abusing them thus may but the doing them can never harm us No they give us good hopes and assurance that our Faith is alive and vigorous in us that it has or will at length if we thus persist conquer for us And this you may gather from the xi Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews which is nothing else but a lofty rehearsal of these Triumphs of Faith where the Apostle when he hath told you of Enoch's Faith which translated him an extraordinary way into the Regions of Life without so much as ever touching upon the Confines of Death subjoins as the cause of it his walking with God and pleasing hun with his good Conversation When he has told you of Noah's Faith he shews you immediately that it was such a Faith as set his hands on work about the Ark and making provision for the saving himself and his Family in the Deluge when he has mentioned Abraham's Faith the next things you hear of are its noble and wonderful Effects his leaving his native Country at God's Command going he knew not whither and making a foreign and strange Land his home how it enabled him in Obedience to God's Command to conquer the strong affection of a Father to an only Son and to lift up the Sacrificing Knife against the Fruit of his own Body the Object of his most passionate love Such a Faith therefore as will strengthen Men in doing what God would have them even when he commands the hardest things is the Faith here meant II. I proceed now in the second place to speak of the World which 't is here said to conquer And this like the visible World is of so large an extent that we cannot possibly view it all at one prospect it hath such a variety of dark and horrid Regions full of Labyrinths and Monsters that it is scarce possible to describe them and therefore it must be very hard to overcome them It hath its Depths and Abysses not to be fathom'd Rocks and Sands hardly to be avoided Storms and Tempests every where threatning us There is nothing in the Elementary World so full of difficulty danger and terrour but that this World of iniquity can shew somewhat far more dangerous and terrible If we will describe it plainly in its proper Colours which are black enough it includes all the evils and mischiefs that a Man who hath a mind to be good can reasonably be afraid of all allurements to what is bad and all discouragements from what is good all those innumerable temptations to Sin and Folly which on every side encompass us which meet us wherever we go like the air we breath in and as if they would seem like the Providence and Majesty of