World Also to beseech him to encrease it in us That Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith And by that Faith we may overcome the World and all Temptations And gain comfort and assurance to our immortal souls against that day of sorrow when all our Friends and Enjoyments shall be useless and we shall be refresht and supported by nothing but our Christian hopes and the belief of things not seen That as the Apostle speaks we may be kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation To be fervent and assiduous in these requests is a contending for the Faith in a way acceptable to God profitable to our selves more likely to secure us from a change than a blind Zeal and ignorant Declamations against the errors of others That Religion can never perish which God appointed to save Souls If we affectionately embrace ours which is certainly the most pure and primitive in the World If we use and profess it to that purpose to make our selves eternally happy it will secure us from the fears and from the danger of its being corrupted or Destroyed and it will recommend it to the acceptance of others when they see it makes us the Friends and devout Worshippers of God A great Zeal against those that dissent from us may proceed from ill nature or from ill designes But a great Zeal for our own Souls diligent care to endeare our selves to God and secure his mercys to us that 's liable to no suspicion that well becomes the nature of our excellent Religion and is indeed the end of it So that we cannot contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints nor for our benefit or the conversion of others than by a devout attendance upon Acts of Worship and Piety and joyning hertily with our Church in those Religious dutys she requires from us Lastly This contention for the Faith includes that we should give it all that reputation and establishment in the World of which we are capable in our several places This is the most direct meaning and design of the Text according to some Translations which render the words by another construction That ye should assist and confirm the Saints in their Faith That is Edifie the Church do what ye can towards the enlarging and settlement of it We have had for these last ages much contending about the Faith but little hath been done for it Some have been very forward to pull down what they thought amiss but built up nothing They shewed a great aversion to some Religions but no love to any So their contention was only for War And the result of it was that the Church was neglected and spoilt its patrimony made a prey its discipline destroyed And Religion it self made contemptible by being depriv'd of its necessary maintenance and authority And that brought in at last Libertinism and a sad inundation of vice and irreligion For plainly all the World understands the sure way to keep out all false Religions is strenuously to mantain the true one to make it honourable and of force to restrain dissolute looseness and to provide it with supplies for the necessity of its ministrations We need not dispute and scuffle with all the errors that are broacht and have been in every age But embrace and assert the truth and support it with our might and interest in the World That 's a good way to shew our selves in earnest in contending for the Faith to be willing to contribute what we can with our credit and our substance to make it reverenc't and obeyed It was ever accounted an Act of Piety to God and Charity to human Souls to make pious foundations for the divine honour for to sound the praises of God in the Earth To provide for his Ministers that they may attend holy Offices without Distraction And to erect and adorne houses for divine worship that it may have as much solemnity and veneration as lies in us to procure Primitive Christians betimes even under poverty and persecutions were very Zealous in these and gave us a good exemple As miracles ceased and those extraordinary means which supported Religion they upheld and advanc't it in the ordinary ways of things here below with their abilities and their power and estates They thought no cost better spent no labour better bestow'd than what serv'd to promote Christianity and recommend it to the World They understood that our Christian Faith is a body of Divine Science and several Ordinances and administrations which to be learnt and taught and ministred as they should want the help and contributions of human piety and charity And that the Church was instituted by our Blessed Lord to preserve and propagate the purity of this Faith to be the ground and the pillar of truth as the Apostle speaks And Experience hath since approv'd the same that when the Church hath been expos'd to rapine and violence and trampled under foot by prophaneness and faction that swarms of Heresies and Schisms have sprung up and so much wickedness and folly and confusion that there was hardly any face or outward appearance of Christianity amongst us when within the remembrance of many God permitted it to be our case and our grief The purity and unity of the Faith never suffer'd more in any place in this World And in that miserable state of things much of our People have lost the sense of three or four of the most important of Christian duties Loyalty Church-Communion Reverence in Divine Worship and Justice Charity for its maintenance Notwithstanding what the laws of God and the laws of the Land command most expresly about our subjection and faithful obedience and service to the King Yet many as we have seen too lately think themselves at liberty to set up or take down a Prince as they please and to chuse whom they shall obey or whether they shall obey any body at all Many also as appears every where judg themselves in a state of freedom to be under the guidance of whom they please of such a Sect or of their own brains as they think most expedient How far and how long they shall be members of the Church and whether at all or no we see how many act in this without any scruple as their interest or fancies determine And as if nothing were said in holy Scripture of our submission to those that have rule over us in the Lord and our obligations to live in the bonds of Unity and incorporate our selves with that body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour How unseemly is the deportment of many in the house of God how little care is taken to make his service venerable and becoming his Greatness we can all witness The publick attendance upon Religion is in many places so unlike divine Worship so far from being the humble adoration of the Great King of Kings that it hath not in it so much as that common respect which we pay to our Superiors
A SERMON PREACH'D Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND THE Court of Aldermen At GVILD-HALL December the 27 th 1685. By LVKE BEAVLIEV B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord JEFFREYS Lord High Chancellor of England and one of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council Licens'd Z. Isham Jan. 7. 1685 6. LONDON Printed by T. Moore for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1686. Geffery Major Curia special ' tent ' die Dominica in festo Sancti Johannis Evangeliste xxvii o. die Decembris 1685. Annoque Regni Regis Jacobi secundi Angl ' c. primo This Court doth desire Mr. Beaulieu to print his Sermon this day Preached in the Guild-hall-Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable Sr. Robert Geffery Lord Mayor of LONDON My Lord THat wrangling and violence some have used for the Faith as they pretended hath been much to its prejudice and hath appear'd to be rather for a Secular Interest Fighting for the Gospel is as preposterous as if a man should fight to shew his meekness and patience It is that contention with God and our selves which I here recommend that hath had the approbation of the best Ages of the Church and been blest with success The state of things as they are at present doth severely admonish us of our former miscarriages and our present duty 'T is seen that a furious and ungovernable Spirit which some have miscall'd Zeal is of pernicious consequence God Almighty to keep us within the bounds of our duty and make us seek our safety in its performance would not permit unlawful means any ways to conduce to the preservation of his true Religion Long experience hath now shew'd us that to disturb the Peace in Church and State to break the ties of Allegiance and disobey the Church promotes nothing but Licentiousness and Irreligion So that 't is to be hop'd they that have lik'd and follow'd those methods are now sensible of the iniquity and the mischief of them and that the remembrance of their mistakes and misdoings will make them now the more humble and quiet and effectually persuade them to the Union and Obedience of this Church whose Doctrine is the Creed or Christianity it self whose Government is truly Apostolick and whose Rituals and Devotions are most Primitive and Pious An understanding man would blush to own himself before the Christian World to be of such or such a Sect and to confess that his publick Worship depends upon the abilities and extemporary effusions of a person not inspired besides the mischief of such divisions there is a shame that goeth along with them But the Church of England as now establish'd hath had many cheerful Martyrs and Confessors Many wise and good men glory to own Her for Mother and dare profess and justifie that according to that way She prescribes and some count Heresie so they worship the God of their Fathers God Almighty hath appointed that devout Prayers good Lives should at first propagate and ever after preserve the Religion of the Blessed Jesus If we but double our Zeal in these we shall infallibly secure its Purity and still make it flourish To excite us to this duty I preach'd the ensuing Discourse to the same end I make no doubt Your Lordship commanded it should be made publick Your approving the good Design made You pass-by the defects of its management My Lord I have obey'd much pleased that we have Magistrates who so much countenance and befriend Religion as to accept of such mean endeavours for the service of it May the succession of them still preserve Peace and promote Truth and Righteousness and may Your Lordship after a long and prosperous life in this World obtain the endless and perfect Bliss of a better So prayeth heartily Your Lordships Most Humble and Obedient Servant Luke Beaulieu A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor AND Court of Aldermen Epist of St. Jude v. 3. And exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints FOR the solemnity of this great Festival the Church appointed three sorts of Martyrs to wait on the Prince of Sufferings who at this time was born to die for Mankind St. Stephen who actually died for Christ and made it his choice so to do St. John whose memorial the Church observes this day who was willing to die and yielded up himself but was rescued by a miracle and the holy Innocents who unknown to themselves lost their lives for Christ and became his Martyrs without concurrence of their will An Exhortation therefore at this time to contend for the Faith may very well agree with the joyful celebration of His happy Birth who is the Author and the Finisher of it Especially having before our eyes the Example and the Memorial of those great Contenders who resisted unto blood and cheerfully gave up their lives for the cause of their Christian Faith To this St. Jude here exhorts us He is writing against those Hereticks who subverted the foundations of Christianity turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Men that would comply with any thing rather than expose themselves to Persecution and would accomodate the Profession of our Saviour's Doctrine to their lusts and to their safety Against these whom here the Apostle describes to be very bad and dangerous men he cautions those Christians who as yer adhered to the simplicity of the Gospel which he calls the Faith once delivered to the Saints Delivered first by our Blessed Saviour to his Apostles and by them preach'd to the world and committed to faithful men who should teach others And lest that oral Tradition should be corrupted written by the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the sure and certain instruction of after-ages This Faith profest by the Christian Church the Congregation of God's Saints he here exhorts them to maintain pure and undefiled Not to admit of those mixtures which evil men had devised to serve their lusts and their worldly designs not to shrink from their adherence to Christ and confessing him before men by obedience to his Laws and a constant profession of his true Religion but rather constantly own and keep the same against all oppositions and temptations whatever This is here call'd a contending for the Faith and this contention we may say consists as well now as in the Apostles time in these following particulars First In making an open and constant profession of the Christian Faith Secondly In conforming our lives to its Rules and Precepts Thirdly In a devout performing of those acts of Worship and Piety which are enjoyn'd by it And fourthly and lastly By giving it all that credit and establishment in the world of which we are capable in our several places Whil'st I insist upon these as briefly as I can I shall sufficiently explain
the sense of the Text and shew its design and reprove some mistakes about it First then to contend for the Faith includes the making an open and constant profession of it Not any ways to dissemble or detain the Truth in unrighteousness for any advantage in the World or for fear of Persecution like these false and dissembling Gnosticks who rather than venture any thing would say as others said and comply with false Religions sooner than expose themselves to danger The Apostle contrariwise would have Christians own what they were Confess Christ before men and not be ashamed for his Testimony As they believed in their hearts so to confess with their mouth as St. Paul speaks Or in words of St. Peter to be ready always with meekness to give an answer of the reason of the hope that was in them This is the duty of every man who is serious and upright in his Religion He is not to model it according to conveniences or to choose that which is most safe and profitable but as he is led by his conscience and his understanding so to act and declare himself For every one who doth not trifle with God and his own Soul doth believe that his Salvation depends upon his choice of the true Religion and that he must be faithful unto death to receive the crown of life And then upon this persuasion he never consults what is like to be the event but it is his Duty and his great Interest to embrace this Truth and to make profession of it and accordingly he acts and leaves the success to God But then hereupon we must observe these three things First That it should be the Faith once delivered to the Saints we so stedfastly adhere to That which hath the attestation of the Universal Church from the beginning and hath been accounted fundamental necessary to Salvation and so held universally as the Apostles Creed confirm'd and explain'd by the Primitive Councils That we should faithfully cleave to Rather affect to prove our selves Christians by our firm adherence to that Faith wherein we were baptized and which we profess living and dying together with the rest of the Christian Church I say rather lay the great stress upon this than upon others more uncertain and controverted Opinions which beget new denominations and much uncharitableness It is not our humours nor private fancies nor the Disputes of the Schools the Assertions of imperious Dogmatists nor the Decisions of latter Synods we are thus earnestly to maintain and to contend for but the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is never to change nor to increase and which good men hoped to be sav'd by for more than a thousand years together There is no new Revelation from God no new way to Heaven to be discover'd that which sufficed before Trent or Lateran or Dort is still sufficient That which hath been done or decreed in latter-ages is not the Faith of our common Salvation and not to be contended for with the same earnestness There are indeed Articles of Peace and terms of Communion in every particular Church the needs of Religious Societies and the Laws of Christian Magistrates make these useful and of great necessity a due regard is to be had to them and a good man is oblig'd to conform in every thing which God hath not forbidden But yet these are not of the same moment as Articles of Faith For instance That there is no Roman Purgatory although I firmly believe it as it is declared by our Church yet that cannot be so certain nor of so great an interest to me as what God himself hath revealed with the greatest perspicuity that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin And accordingly I am not to be so intent nor so concern'd in the denying of the one as in the professing and believing of the other Would Christians of different Communions thus distinguish between the Divine and saving Article which is a point of Christian Faith and the human decision and constitution it would much contribute to make up the breaches of Christendom and qualifie that mischevous and persecuting Zeal which lays a greater weight upon difference of Opinions than upon unity of the same Creed For the most part our loudest contentions are about that which is less material and more disputable contrary to St. Jude who would have us be earnest for what is essential the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is to be contended for not because it is ours and so to be maintain'd with anger and impatience of contradiction as we do those Opinions we are wedded to but because it is God's deliver'd by our Blessed Lord to the Primitive Saints for the common Salvation of Mankind Then if any deny and deprave that Faith they forfeit the benefits of it which are infinite and so are great losers and much to be pitied And if we our selves embrace and keep it stedfastly to the end we shall obtain the end thereof even the Salvation of our Souls And that 's enough to engage us to make a free and constant profession of it as long as we live Secondly This contending for the Faith by an open Profession is so far from including any thing of sighting or violence for the defence of Religion that it signifies the quite contrary the utmost meekness and patience in suffering for the Truth Many are very apt and forward to contend for their Faith or rather their Faction by a Zeal of opposition which is commonly violent and prompts men to clamour and rail to persecute and to shed blood Hatred Injustice Cruelty even Rebellion the most mischevous and worst of all Crimes are pretended to be all warranted when undertaken upon Religious accounts They think they may lawfully fight for what they call God's Cause and his quarrel But I say such men are not led by the Spirit of Christianity they follow the fierceness of their own and the dictates of their angry passions And this sort of Zeal hath ever been very pernicious to Mankind and destructive of Religion The Jews upon this Principle hated and destroy'd Christians with a mighty violence and in the same manner rebell'd against their Governours Their Zealots disturb'd the whole world and at last became a bloody scourge to themselves St Jude was too well acquainted with them and too well knew by his own experience the mischief of this sort of temper and of such proceedings to exhort Christian Converts to contend for Christ in that manner as the Jews did for Moses He knew that our Blessed Saviour would not let his Servants fight for him nor rescue him with the Sword from the hands of the Civil Magistrate That he told his Apostles they should not disturb nor oppose Princes but should be brought before Kings and Rulers for his names sake And that his promises of an Immortal Crown were not to fighting and martial courage upon his account but to meekness and patience and remaining
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