conquered the world Thus the Fathers and Prophets of old obtained a good report Thus fought the noble Army of Martyrs And thus must all the Professours of Christianity behave themselves in their several combates with the world For This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith That I may then proceed Methodically and speak distinctly to the several parts of my Text. I must shew what this Faith is which overcometh the world What are the necessary Qualifications to render it victorious That this Faith so Qualified is the surest and best way of overcoming the world What this Faith is which overcometh the world I need not go far to seek The next words to the Text resolve the doubt 'T is the Believing that Jesus is the Son of God that he is the true Messias and consequently the Believing all his Threats and Promises the obeying all his Precepts and Commands But because we live in a sceptical Age an Age which is apt to strike at the very Foundation of all Religion and with Celsus that Drolling Atheist to object against the Christians that which makes them so their very Faith as if the Doctrines of Christianity were received without due examination Though this Objection might very well be retorted upon themselves For who I pray are greater Dictatours then the Opposers of Religion And must not their followers be strangely credulous who embrace the Prescripts of fallible men in opposition to the Word of eternal Truth Yet I shall briefly endeavour to shew that Christ the second Person in the Trinity whom we adore in expectation of eternal salvation was the true Messias Taking then for granted the Divine authority of the Scriptures the Writings of the Old and New Testament Though this must not be thought a Begging the Question since there are better Arguments to prove them so then can be produced for the truth of Salust Livy or any the most Authentick Historians This granted 't is manifest that immediately upon the fall of Adam the Messias was promised The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head and consequently raise his posterity to an higher pitch of preferment than the integrity of his Creation entituled them to That Christ born in the fulness of time was the then promised Messias is manifest since in him were fulfilled all the Prophesies relating either to the Birth Life Person or offices of the Messias To begin with the First The coming of Elias foretold by the Prophet Malachi Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Was not this accomplished by his forerunner Saint John Baptist who by preaching repentance by an extraordinary severity and gravity suitable to that Doctrine prepared the ways of the Lord and made his paths strait And are not the Jews most sottishly barbarous who will needs fetch Elias from Abrahams bosom that place of Rest and so make him a second time undergo the miseries of this life for the fulfilling this prophesie since whatsoever benefit they expected from him they might have reaped from the strict pattern of the holy Baptist whose life did so exactly resemble if not outdo the Austerities of Elias that unless they were wilfully blind they must needs conclude him to be but a type of Saint John Baptist As for the Prophesie of Isaiah Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son He that denieth such to have been the miraculous Birth of Christ doth him a greater outrage then his most malicious enemies the Jews ever offered him though they had most severe Laws against Adulterers and means sufficient to prove that he was not born in marriage for which they might have had the Confession of Joseph his reputed Father and Mary his Mother The place of his Nativity was expressly appointed by the Prophet Micah to be Bethlehem in Judea And is it not manifest that Christ born there was the very person designed by the Prophet as well by the answer which Herod gave to the wise men after he had enquired of the Doctours of the Law where he should be born as by that unparallelled murther when he found himself mocked by them of about fourteen hundred infants that so he might be sure to cut him off whom the Jews at that time most earnestly expected for their Deliverer So horrid a Massacre that nothing but a cursed jealousie of loosing his usurped power could have made the bloudy Tyrant guilty of it Then as for the manner and condition of his life foretold by Isaiah that he should be despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Were not all these doleful passages verified in Christ Did he not spend about thirty years of his Life in a solitary abject condition When he made himself known unto the world was he not upbraided with the meanness of his parentage Is not this the Carpenters Son Was he not a man of sorrows when in his Agony he complained that his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto Death And was he not acquainted with grief when he uttered those Tragical words upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Those words of David they pierced my hands and my feet apparently specifie the manner of his Death And they must relate to Christ since in Davids time there was no such punishment in fashion among the Jews And were not all the other circumstances of it fulfilled to the least Punctilio For what could make those rude souldiers who pierced his Sacred Side that the scripture might be fulfilled They shall look on him whom they have pierced so civil as not to break his legs also was not this done that another might be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken Was not likewise his Resurrection foreshewn by the same holy Writer Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption David could not speak this of himself since he was laid unto his Fathers put to bed in the dust and suffered the corruption of the grave But it had its completion in Christ who according to his promise rose again from the Dead in spite of all the attempts of the Jews to the contrary their sealing the Stone and setting a strict Watch For it was impossible that the Conquerour of Death should be detained Prisoner by the Grave Were not all the miracles which were to be wrought by the Messias fully performed by him He gave eyes to the blind ears to the deaf speech to the dumb feet to the lame restored the dead to life These were such stupendious things as surpassed the power of Nature for their greatness exceeded the slight of Magick for their reality and were directly contrary to any Diabolical design for as much as they aimed at the good and benefit of mankind And 't is very observable that when the snarling Pharisees
A SERMON Preached before the KING AT NEW MARKET April 24. 1670. By MILES BARNE Fellow of St. Peter's College in Cambridge Printed by His Majesties special Command POCULA SACRA HINC LUCEM ET ALMA MATER CANâ—â— BRIGIA CAMBRIDGE Printed by John Hayes Printer to the University 1670. And are to be sold by Edw. Story Bookseller in Cambridge 1 St. John Chap. 5. ver 4. And this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith THe Church of Christ here below is justly stiled the Church Militant not onely in distinction to that which is Triumphant above but likewise upon the score of those many enemies which she encounters in the world and consequently every member of the same at his first entrance into it his initiation into Christianity doth solemnly denounce war against the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked world Our life is termed a continual Warfare Christ is called the Captain of our Salvation his Apostles acquaint us how much they suffered because they would not deny the Faith nor turn Renegadoes from Him particularly His stout Champion Saint Paul gives in a large account of the several Conflicts which he had with the world And how he came off more than Conquerour through Christ that strengthned him when he was in danger of suffering Martyrdom at Rome he made it his pious boast that he had fought the good fight that he had kept the Faith And when he would render his Christian impregnable against the assaults of the world he commands him to put on the whole Armour of God otherguise weapons then those which either Homer armed Achilles with or Virgil his Aeneas But above all he bids him take the shield of Faith wherewith he boldly assures him that he should be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the wicked For This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith I cannot do greater right to the Text then if I should awhile insist upon and recount to you the several Trophies and noble Atchievements of Faith How that not onely the Authour and Finisher of it for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and was therefore set down at the right hand of the Throne of God But moreover how its first embracers obtained a good report as well by the greatness of their sufferings as the strangeness of their conquests Their sufferings were as great as either wit or malice could make them And yet their courage was far greater for they did not onely triumph over their most exquisite torments but oftentimes conquered their most obdurate tormentours As for their conquests they were carried on by no humane force they used no open Hostility the stratagems of war were as much against their simplicity as upon this score they were contrary to the express words of their betrayed Master Peter put up thy sword it is enough There was but one single blow given and that too upon the justest occasion that ever presented it self in the world For it was to rescue the very Lord of Life out of the hands of that miscreant who betrayed Him to Death And yet he that gave it received a severe check for his pains They that take the sword shall perish by the sword Let Mahomet propagate his senceless Alcoran by force of Arms let him by the same power he tyranniz'd over the bodies of his vassals captivate their souls and so at once betray both to utter ruine Let Enthusiasts and Fanaticks dictate the whimsies of a cras'd Brain those slavish Doctrines which are but the necessary result of a morose temper for the immediate Oracles of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gifts and Graces of his free and Princely Spirit And if they be not presently received let them betake themselves to open violence commit the most horrid Outrages upon their fellow creatures as they have done in several parts of the world when once they got the sword into their hands But the Gospel of Peace knows no such boysterous methods Christs Souldiers for the Propagation of his Doctrines never drew any sword but that of the Spirit They used none of those cruel Engines by which the Chieftains of the world carried on their bloudy Conquests Their weapons were spiritual The Victories which they aim'd at were over mens minds They had no defence but the Breast-plate of Faith And yet they fought not against flesh and bloud onely but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against Spiritual wickedness in high places And as they fought against them so they overcame them By their Faith they spoiled Principalities devested the evil spirits of their usurped power over the minds of men threw them out of their Temples silenced their Oracles beat down their images making shew of them openly and triumphing over them And as the Romans to magnifie their Conquests were wont to lead their captived Enemies in Triumph through their Cities so the Apostles by the might of Christ carried the powers of Hell in open triumph as those whom they had victoriously taken captive Thus by the light of Faith was the Prince of darkness vanquished and all his strong holds cast down And as they thus conquered him so did they all those whom he had made Enemies to the Faith Neither the greatness of the Romane Empire on the one side nor the malicious practises of the Infidel Jews on the other neither the wit crafty wiliness of the Philosophers who decried the Disciples for so many credulous Fops nor yet the Harangues which the Oratours made against the meanest of Christs Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as containing nothing in them either Great or New were able to disparage or withstand the Faith Insomuch that notwithstanding the great opposition it met with in the world The despicableness as to all outward appearances of the Apostles who first promulged it the great prejudices which the generality of men had taken up against it as concerning this Sect we know that it is every where spoken against and that most forcible tie of interest which hindred many from becoming Christians I say notwithstanding these great disadvantages it grew mightily and prevailed And the Sect of the Nazarens as Tertullus maliciously called the Christians was in a short time more numerous then any Sect whatsoever the Doctrines of Christ more universally received then the Dogmata the Opinions of any the most renowned Philosophers In sum the Disciples by believing on the name of the Lord Jesus from silly cowardly persons became valiant and wise conquering the strong confuting the learned baffling the wits and overpowring the great ones The Faith which they had received they valiantly maintained in spite of bonds and imprisonments threats and intreaties through honours and dishonours cruel mockings and scourgings In a word In spite of all the various and most affrighting shapes which Death could present it self in Thus the Disciples and Primitive Christians
the serenity of his Being so will the Solifidian be found to be the truest Infidel who allowing Faith to be necessary to salvation most perfidiously strips it of all those enlivening Properties which might fit and adorn it for so great an attainment Our Faith must be Uniform and Undivided For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism and one onely name under Heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved even the name of the Lord Jesus So long as the Christians continued together and were of the same mind so long as they maintained simplicity and liberality being solicitous for nothing but an Holy life when all the gain they studied was Godliness when all the strife and emulation they had was to out-vie each other in the Practise of Piety when there were no Divisions but of Goods and Possessions to be parted among the Needy Then did the Church flourish and a daily Addition was made of them that should be saved But when instead of these lovely Qualities there arose Sects and Schisms when once that unhappy Distinction was made of Paul and Apollo of Christ and Cephas when men began to be lovers of themselves more then of God when the old strife was renewed which of them should be the greatest when the loss of a Preferment was cruelly revenged upon the Church by the setting up of an Heresie when the wits began to deride the simplicity of the Gospel and the learned were divided about points of Faith Then did the Church truly suffer and sustained more damage by these intestine broyles then by the hottest persecutions of the Heathen Emperours Of the truth whereof we have too sad an instance in the fourth Century when the tares of Arianism had almost quite choaked the wheat when the gates of Hell were so near prevailing against the Church that the Catholick Faith seemed to have but one Confessour the Church of Christ to be no where visible but in Athanasius his Temple if that common saying be true The whole world against Athanasius and Athanasius against the whole world So much it concerns us to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For as a Kingdom so a Church divided within it self cannot stand And since this cannot be effected by the sole Threats and Menaces of the Gospel though most severe against Schismaticks nor yet by the utmost power Christ hath committed to his Church the dreadful sentence of excommunication by Saint Paul defined to be the delivering up to Satan For what will they care for the Power of the Keys who account it their priviledge to be without the pale of the Church Therefore is it that God hath ordained Kings to be Nursing Fathers And from hence arises another way as ancient as Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour of dealing with obstinate Dissenters the enacting and executing Penal Laws against them And may we not yet hope that they whom forbearance made dangerous and Toleration it self at length rendred intollerable may at last be reclaimed however the danger prevented by a late Renowned Act An Act worthy the Royal Fiat of him who justly weareth the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith and becoming the greatness of its establishers who could never have done God and their Country the Church and State better Service than by preventing and suppressing Schismatical and Seditious Conventicles 3. Our Faith must be stedfast and well grounded For if it be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine it must of necessity at last suffer Shipwrack They that have itching ears open to every Novel Teacher are in danger of forfeiting the Ancient Catholick Faith Thus if instead of relying upon the Authority of Primitive Fathers and Councils we admit of every upstart Writer will not this at length invalidate the commands of the Apostles If we receive our Religion from the Tribunal of the Civil Magistrates may not this at last bring us under the condemnation of the Pharisees of rendring the Word of God of none effect through their Traditions And as it must be stedfast so it must be well grounded That is we must be well assured of the truth of it our selves and able to convince the gain-sayers For our own assurance 't is enough that we have the same Faith which was once delivered to the Saints That they had the honour to converse with the Authour of it that they were Persons of the greatest Integrity and therefore would not deceive others that they were Persons very inquisitive and circumspect and therefore would not be deceived themselves that it was confirmed by miracles attested and sealed by their Bloud that it prevailed in spite of all opposition and hath been kept entire in all Ages of the Church According to Christs own Promise That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it And now I might very well challenge our Modern Infidels to produce half such convincing Arguments for the certainty of any thing which they believe as these which the Christian hath to assure him of the truth of his Faith But the prosecution of this Topick though very pleasing would carry me beyond the limits of a Sermon The best way to convince gain-sayers is to hold fast the faithful word as it hath been taught or as the Greek renders it which is according to Doctrine not according to Fancy private Interpretation or the Pretensions to an extraordinary Light For the constancy of the Christian in his Profession hath always been found one of the best Arguments to confute Hereticks Faith thus qualified that hath good works for its Life-Guard that is at unity with its self that is built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone shall stand like an impregnable Fortress against all the Batteries of the World The last thing to be considered 3. That Faith thus Qualified is the best and surest way of overcoming the World What is here meant by the World let Saint John determine The Lusts of the flesh the Lusts of the eye and the Pride of Life to which we may add evil Examples Persecutions and in a word whatsoever Bait the great Adversary of Mankind throws in our way to seduce us from our Religion and consequently as he dispossessed our First Parents of a Terrestrial so to prevent our arrival at a Celestial Paradise And are these the strongest Forces which the World can muster up and bring into the Field against us Impar congressus The Flesh against the Spirit The members against the mind impotent Earth against the Powers of Heaven all of them in open Rebellion And may they receive a Doom answerable to their Crime 1. Then Faith bids you consider the baseness and weakness of your Enemies Lusts and Pride Things which the common consent of Mankind hath branded with a note of Infamy He that makes his Belly his God hates to be counted a Glutton
The covetous wretch though he detesteth the virtue courts the title of a liberal Person He that is most addicted to vain-glory would not be thought ambitious He that is seduced by every little temptation thinks he is disparaged when you count him one of an easie facil temper Can any thing then be more ignoble than to be led captive by such vices which proclaim their baseness by disowning their name was it not a strange oversight in Esau to sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage A prodigious piece of folly in Judas to betray his Master for a few pence In Lucifer to forfeit Heaven to gratifie his pride And yet of this rank are all those who surrender their Faith into the power of such mean adversaries 'T is highly against the points of Honour for a Person of Quality to enter the field and engage with a Peasant How much more dishonourable is it for an high and Heaven-born Soul to be overcome by the low and baese temptations of the World 2. Faith bids you consult your own strength and gives you power to exert it The Apostle could do all things through Christ which strengthned him and if we cannot do so too 't is not because Christ is wanting to us but we to our selves The flesh indeed may war against the Spirit The members may mutiny against the mind But 't is at their own peril if they do for the one is weak and unwieldy the other ready and active and if the members ever prevail it must be through the consent degeneracy or inadvertency of the mind We disparage our faculties and dishonour God who gave them when we think all the freedom left us consisteth in a liberty to sin It were better for us if we had no wills at all than that they should lye under such a fatal doom We may if we please exercise that dominion which is the undoubted right of our Supreme Powers A manifest proof whereof is that there are very few who are totally captivated by sin And they who are have taken more pains thus vilely to enslave themselves than they need have been at in asserting the glorious liberty of the Sons of God 'T is far more difficult to conquer the checks of Conscience than to keep it void of offence both towards God and towards man 3. Faith propounds to you the joys of Heaven and assures you that you shall be partaker of them if you continue faithful unto the end And shall the fading riches of this World be preferred to the immortal treasures of the other The transient dull nauseous delights of sense to those vigorous unallayed pleasures which are at Gods right hand for evermore Shall the ambition of being great here hinder us from being so hereafter Shall the unconstant blast of popular applause prevent us of the joyful acclamations of Angels Shall an earthly be more valuable than an Heavenly Crown Shall light afflictions which are but for a moment make us forfeit an eternal weight of Glory These are such Considerations as have hitherto prevailed in the World and they must do so still unless we can dethrone the King of Kings murther the immortality of the Soul cancel the immutable laws of Good and Evil banish the reward which belongs to the one and take away the punishment which is due to the other And therefore in the last place That you may neither be overcome by the temptations of the World nor think the joys of Heaven unattainable Faith propounds to your imitation a whole cloud of witnesses of Apostles and Prophets of Martyrs and Confessours who acquitting themselves valiantly received a Crown for their recompense And as Faith is the means of overcoming the world so is it the victory it self For after it hath fought the good fight here below and reigned till it hath put all its enemies under its feet then it begins to offer a kind of sacred violence to the Regions above seeth Heaven open and Christ standing at the right hand of God and so never ceaseth to be victorious until it be overcome in an abyss of Glory and swallowed up in the beatifical Vision To conclude Let not this Faith which heretofore subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness be it self overcome by the iniquity of Christian divisions This Faith which fought with beasts at Ephesus let it not be conquered by any brutish passion Let not this Faith which hath hitherto silenced the Disputer of this World be now drolled out of the Church by the Atheist This Faith which stopped the mouths of lions let it not be devoured by the Leviathan of our age In a word Keep this Faith which renowneth Kings and maketh Princes famous which enobleth Nobility and keepeth the people in due subjection which causeth a nation to flourish which will render our lives happy here and crown us with bliss hereafter FINIS Page 12. lin 3. for hundred read thousand Acts 28.22 * Orig. cont Cel. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * Vide Socin de Aut. script Mal. 4.5 Isa 7.14 Deut. 22. v. 23 24. Mic. 53 3. Isa 53.3 Mat. 27.46 Psal 22.16 Zech. 12.10 Psal 16.10 * He casteth out Devils through the Prince of Devils S. Mat. 9.34 Isa 2.4 Zech. 9.9 S. John 18.36 Mat. 23.27 S. John 7.46 1 S. Pet. 2.22 1 S. Joh. 5.7 S. Luk. 8.28 S. Jude 6. S. Jam. 2.26 Eph. 4.5 Acts 4.12 1 Cor. 5.5 Mat. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 1 S. Joh. 2.16 Phil. 4.13