the State See how St. Paul brands those who cause Divisions and deters us from them Now I beseech you Rom. 16.17 mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrin which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive them that are simple And the same Apostle tells us of some that withstood Moses and Gods Institution among the Jews as Jannes and Jambres 2 Tim. 3.5 to 9. and he parallels the Christian Schismaticks with them who having a shew of Godliness but not the power of it creep into houses and lead silly Women captive Lev. 10.2 We read also of some that usurped the Priests Office under the Law as Nadab and Abihu but their false Fire provoked God to burn them Nemb 16. and Korah doing the like the Earth opened and swallowed him up and Fire burnt his Companions Let this deter all from Schism and usurping of the Priests Office who are not called to it as God under the Law and Gospel appoints called by God Heb. 5.4 Exod. 28. and consecrated by Men in Authority to do it as Aaron was Yea Christ himself tho' endowed with a greater measure of the Spirit than any now can pretend to yet took not on him that Office without a Commission from his Father 1 Joh 3.1 2. as Nicodemus grants And as God sent him he sent his Apostles ordaining them to the Work of the Ministry 1 Joh. 20.21 and they ordained others 1 Tim. 5.22 and appointed Bishops over Churches and charged them to lay hands suddenly on no man and to ordain them whom they found fit for the Ministerial Office Titus 1.5 Let the black Mark St. Paul as is premised sixeth on the Schismatick deter from it and surely none can be fond of becoming their Proselytes whenas twice St. Paul stiles all such simple People and silly Persons Titles with which few are pleased And as the ill Consequences of Schism in the Church may incite us to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and oblige us to unite among our selves so surely the Danger and Fears of a Civil War in the Nation the usual Effect of Schism in the Church will enforce us to the Duty Methinks that dreadful Account of the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey Lucan l. 2. v. 102.3 Lucan gives us may affright us Stat cruor in Templis multaque rubentia caede Lubrica saxa madent nulli sua profuit aetas Non senis extremum pinguit urgentibus annis Praecipitasse diem ne primo in limine vitae Infantis miseri nascentia rumpere fata Infandum Domini per viscera ferrum Lucan lib. cit v. 145. Exegit famulus Gnati maduêre Parentis Sanguine certatum est cui cervix caesa parentis Cederet V. 180. Avulsae cecidere manus exsectaque lingua Palpitat muto vacuum ferit aere motu Hic aures alius spiramina naris aduncae Amputat c. But we need not go so far for sad Instances of the Effects of Civil Wars if we look back into our late Times might we not find our Church a Chaos and the Nation an Aceldama when Persons out of a pretended Zeal against Popery murdered their Lawful Soveraign and were imposed on by Popish Emissaries in their several Conventicles What Person was then so sacred What Place so secure but it was profaned and injured The Royal Diadem and Sacred Mitre trod under-foot and no tye of Religion or Nature hindred them from Sacrilege and Murder From which Wounds our Church and Nation yet retain Scars and the Original of all our late or present Fears may be thence dated Let then the fiery Zeal of those of the Roman Communion whose most cogent Arguments are Sword and Faggot make us abhor that Religion which the Christian World grows weary of and I hope will in short time throw off Let the Commotions in Germany the sad Catastrophe of our Royal Martyr and the dreadful Effects of those times disswade us from being imposed on by such Incendiaries and oblige us to pray for and to our utmost power endeavour the Peace of Jerusalem Because Lastly of the Motive in the Text They shall prosper that love thee Buxtorf Bithner â—ansenius Prosper where the original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the Radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which fignifies Tranquilli erunt faelices erunt they shall be happy both in Mind and Body all inward Contentment all outward Felicity shall be enjoyed by them that are at Unity with and uniform to our Jerusalem our Church of England which I am consident will be continued and preserved by God as long as he hath a Church upon Earth Let then all Dissenters from us I beseech them see the design of their and our Enemies of Rome whose grand Endeavour is to divide us and so destroy us by our selves and let it influence them to unite with us against a common Adversary Let them lay aside that unreasonable and unjust Prejudice against our Church of being Popishly affected by asking themselves seriously What Party of Dissenters did or dared to speak or write against Popery a few years since when they at the same time did apprehend it coming in like a Deluge Nay they rather then closed with and are now fond of a Liberty of Conscience whereby Popery is most probably to be promoted and the Dissenters imposed on in their own Meetings by Popish Emissaries It was as must be confess'd the Church of England Men alone who from their Pulpits and the Press as they had no Reason to be ashamed to own their Religion so were not afraid to defend it and have shewn that 't is our Church which is the greatest Bulwark against Popery by daring rather to suffer for it than betray it to arrive at the greatest Honours or keep the grandest Priviledges And would our dissenting Brethren but unite with us which they have just cause to do 't would free them from the Trouble and Distracting of halting between divers Opinions this would free the Nation and Church from Schism and Faction cause both to enjoy peace make us all happy at home and formidable abroad This would in a word prepare us for Gods Spirit and its Graces in the Church where all its Members were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 2.1 of one mind when the Holy Ghost descended on them and would entitle both Church and State to Gods protection that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us And therefore with the words of my Text let Tongue and Heart of every one of us pray earnestly for and let all our Endeavours be to the promoting of the Peace of our Jerusalem and we need not doubt but the God of Mercies who ever took care of his Church amongst us will grant us the gracious Answer of the next words They shall prosper that love thee To which God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and one God be ascribed of us and all the World all Praise and Thanksgiving now and evermore Amen FINIS
So our Church of England allows of nothing for Doctrin but what is plainly made known in Scripture or may be genuinely deduced from it Our Faith is founded on the Sacred Word of God epitomized in the Apostle and explained by the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds confirmed by the Writings and Decrees of the Primitive Fathers and Counsels and sealed with the Blood of Martyrs Our Church in her Articles adores the holy and undivided Trinity without any Rivals of Saints or Angels receives the Faith of Christ without any thing that destroys his Divinity as Images and Pictures or that nulls his Humanity as Transubstantiation and owns all his Offices without the Doctrins destructive to them of the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility of Merits and Purgatory and so Believers of the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost as to be free from Enthusiasm or Prophaneness She admits of no Doctrin concerning many States of Creation Apostacy Grace and Glory that any way ecclipseth God's Glory and Mercy and Christs Merits and Satisfaction but all things in her Articles and Homilies are so proposed as may most set forth Gods goodness and Mans vileness our Misery by Sin and Happiness through a Saviour and all this in so plain and familiar a Stile and in our own Language that no Member of her can justly plead a cause of Ignorance of her Principles Let us then be Unanimous in our Doctrins and have a care of basely betraying or denying her or Apostatizing from her It becomes not us to prostitute our dear Mother to the pleasure of every Malecontented Adversary to substract from her Ancient Catholick Principles or to add to their new Opinions as this or the other Party pleaseth whose Zeal against our Church outruns their Knowledge of her Doctrins And when I earnestly beg to lay aside prejudice and heat and employ that Liberty of Conscience granted them in searching impartially and seriously weighing our Doctrin in the 39 Articles and Book of Homilies I doubt not but they would soon find Reason and Religion perswading them to repent of their past Folly and Sin of Schism and to unite with us and pray for the Peace of our Jerusalem Our Church of England which is the envy of all Dissenters and the Glory of the whole Christian World For us Ministers in publick or private to detract from the Doctrins of our Church is Judas like to kiss and betray her And let us but seriously ask the Dissenters or consider with our selves should we recede from our Received Principles where should we center Are our Adversaries agreed what to ask And if we should grant what they now desire would they adhere to their present Proposals or oblige their Congregations to unite with us How indeed can this be thought on when there are so many Sects contrary to us and to one another amongst us The Papists deny the Truth of our Church because of their Multitude The Dissenters separate from us because we are so many and not selected Congregations The one upbraids us with Novelty the other dislikes our Antiquity and would have us change our Religion as often as they please To gain some we must part with the Apostolick Regimen of our Church by Bishops and instead of one have every one to Lord it over us To bring in others we must throw away Infant-Baptism and reduce the Church to Heathenism again and make it always gathering never gathered To engage a third Party we must deny all Christianity in a manner Christ's Incarnation both Sacraments the Resurrection of these our Bodies and must own an Infallibility in every one whenas now but one pretends to it and he grandly mistaken in it too To reconcile the Papist we must disown almost all the Articles of our Church and not only them but of our Creed also and receive Twelve new ones on necessity of Salvation tho' of no longer Date as such than the Trent Conventicle Nor is this all to unite with them we must not only lay aside Christianity but our Humanity also and must deny our Reason and Senses to believe Transubstantiation For tho' we see smell taste and feel Bread and Wine yet must we believe it to be Christs Flesh and Blood the same he had of the Virgin Mary And now consider where we should stop or what a Chaos our Church would thus be Jerusalem would become a Babel and it would be a strange Reformation in order to our being purer and better reformed to lay aside Religion Reason and our Senses and turn any thing but Christians and Men. The Heathens had a Form of Doctrin delivered down to them to which they so adhered that one saith * Cotta in Cicero de Nat. Deorum l. 3. Opiniones a majoribus acceptas defendam defendi semper nec me ex ea opinione quam a majoribus accepi de cultu Deorum immortalium ullius unquam oratio aut docti aut indocti movebit Much more reason surely have we to keep to our Religion which is truly Apostolical was that Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Rev. 2.10 and in which being constant to Death we may expect a Crown of Life Let us then not be wheedled or frighted to recede from Antiquity or be imposed upon by Novelty We have subscribed the Thirty Nine Articles and they include the Book of Homilies Let us not then against our Judgment our solemn Profession and serious Subscription of them turn from or be ashamed of the best of Churches 1 Tim. 7.20 Such Persons may remember that Hymeneus and Philetus are stigmatized for their Apostacy to all Posterity Let us rather propagate this Faith by Catechising that the People committed to our Care when Men may not be Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrin Eph. 4.14 and after some years preaching among them Heb. 5.12 have need to be taught again what are the first Principles of the Oracles of God The Heathens own the necessity of instructing Youth * Theog v. 1001.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Roman Orator †Cicero l. 4. ad Heren accounts it a great piece of Wisdom and the greatest Service we can do in our Generation God calls for it and our Church enjoyns * Can. 59. it Prov. 22.6 punishing its continued neglect with Suspension and Excommunication most if not all Dissenters practise it And shall they be industrious to propagate Error and we not careful to train up our People in the true Faith God forbid Let our past remisness make us more zealous in this Practice Our Church injoyns a Catechism which contains the Summ of the Christian Religion the Credenda in the Creed the Agenda in the Ten Commandments the Petenda in the Lords Prayer and the Recipienda in the Doctrin of the Sacraments and she explains them all concisely obliging her Members to their performance from their Vow in Baptism and the Benefits they receive
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ And he useth also the same Form of Blessing at the end of them The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen 1 Cor. 16.23 Phil. 4.23 1 Thess 5.28 2 Thess 3.18 Philemon 25. And since the Apostles days 't is easie to prove Forms of Prayer have been used by the Christian Church all along in the publick Worship of God And since the Church of God always used Forms of Prayer Dr. Cumber Dr. Falkner why should not we be uniform in our Worship A Worship serious and devout Dr. Hamond concise and pathetical a Service suited to all Occasions of Prayer or Thanksgiving for the Church in general or private Christians in particular Fox Acts vol. 3. A Liturgy compiled and reformed from Popish Errors by those who died Martyrs for it and did especially recommend it to Posterity Our Worship blessed be God Oracles of God a Christ Birth-right by the Author of the Whole Duty of Man p. 183.4 is not concealed from the people in unknown Tongues as the Popish is and must be where Popery prevails for in our time some of the French Bishops and Clergy having translated the Roman Mass-Book into the French Tongue that that People might understand it The then Pope Alexander VII damned the Book and Translators as Heretical orders the Book to be burnt and the Translators to be excommunicated So great a Crime is it for poor Souls in that Communion to understand their Prayers who only say them as Parrots who are taught to prate they know not what But thanks be to God our Service is in the known Tongue of the Nation so that every Member of our Church may as St. St. August on Psal 18. Augustine saith a man ought serve God not chattering like Birds but with the Reason and Understanding of a Man Every person of our Communion may know what Petition or Thanksgivings are to be put up to God and so joyn them with suitable Affections And indeed our Devotions are accompanied with such Zeal and Fervency by all true Members of our Church that as Tertullian stiles it Tertul. Apol. c. 39. We offer holy Violence to God besieging him by Prayer And like those Devotions in St. Basil's time through the Unanimity Uniformity and Zeal of the Devotees she thunders out Prayers and Praises each Member striving to exceed other in this holy storming of Heaven for Mercies wanting and in returning Praises for Blessings received and all this without any expectation of our Prayers being heard or answered for our Merits but through the Merits and Mediation of the ever-blessed Jesus alone Let us Ministers then be uniform in our Worship we have all declared our unfeigned Assent and Consent to all things in our Service Act of Uniformity 12 Car. 2. before our Respective Diocesans at our Institutions and before our several People soon after our Inductions and t would be a shame to us and a Scandal to the Church for us to act otherways And as for our Brethren of the Laity What can they desire better and more edifying than our Divine Service where they know what to petition and to bless God for and may joyn both with suitable Affections and are not confined to the Extemporary Prayer of a Minister with any of whose Petitions they know not whether they can joyn till heard and too many may upon good grounds probably not say Amen The Minister being the Mouth of the People to God in Prayer as he is the Mouth of God to them in preaching ought to pray what the people understand may be most affected with and may heartily say Amen to which surely is best done by a Form of Prayer understood by them before This would prevent that Consusion the Church and Congregation would be in if every one was left to his private Devotions and Petitions St. Paul rejoyced to see the Order in the Church of the Colossians for by their Uniformity in Worship an awful Reverence would be gained to Religion and its very Enemies could not but think them the Servants of the God of Order whenas should one come into a Congregation that is not uniform but one hath an Hymn another an extemporary Prayer a third a Form every one as he thinks fit at his Devotion would not a Man think that Congregation mad as St. Paul infers 1 Cor. 14.23 26.33 and however grants such a Course unedifying and not of God who is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints Yea was the greatest Pretender to or Pleader for Extempore Effusions against Forms of Prayer but to speak to his Landlord a great Man or however to the King I am confident he would a little consider and premeditate what Form of Words he should express himself in much more ought we to do when we who are but Dust and Ashes are to speak in our Prayers to the great God Solomon's Advice surely is very necessary That we take heed when we go into the House of God Eccles 5.2 and be not rash with our Mouths or let our Hearts utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and we upon the Earth therefore let our words be sew And indeed to avoid the Battology of the Pharisees Mat. 6. our Saviour taught us that Compendium the Lords Prayer And let any Opposer of our Forms consult but their Directory and they will find almost as great a Formality and as strictly enjoyned tho' with less Piety and Devotion Directory Preface p. 8. And the very Compilers of that Book in its Preface declare for Uniformity in Divine Worship for two Reasons 1. To answer the Expectations of other Reformed Churches and 2. To perform what they were obliged to by their Promise in their Solemn League and Covenant Now how can they be uniform without a Form Or can their Directory which they established when they threw away the Churches Liturgy shew their Uniformity when every Minister is left to pray as he pleaseth 'T is true indeed it prescribes and injoyns the Matter and Pattern of Prayer why then may not fit words to express that Matter in be injoyned Is not the prescribing the Matter for Prayer as much formal and as great a stinting of the Spirit as to injoyn fit words Or can the Spirit dictate Words and not the Matter to their Pastors If they be for Uniformity why not pious Matter in suitable Expressions as our Liturgy injoyns If not for Uniformity Why do they pretend to it Ludovicus Capellus Thes Theolog de Liturgia p. 656 ad 670. and by their Reasons for that pretence grant what is easily proved That all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea whether from Calvin or Luther and also the Assembly of Divines themselves did see the Necessity and Advantage and did use Forms of Prayer and that with great Reason For surely the Prayer put up by the whole
Congregation with which all Congregations of our Church through the Nation joyn must be more acceptable to and prevalent with God than the private Prayer of a single person that hath scarce another in the whole World joyning with him But however they please to act let us the Ministers and Members of the Church of England adhere to our Liturgy and Uniformity in Worship Let the Ashes of our Reformers and its Compilers warm us with Zeal for it and make us ashamed to disown that for which they died Let us shew our selves the Tribes of the Lord Psal 122.4 as the Text imports by our Uniformity of Worship in our Jerusalem that our Prayers may be prevalent for its peace And let others that will not do so answer it at their perils the Text implying they are not nor do belong to the Tribes of the Lord that neglect this uniform Worship of him as St. Prosper remarks on that Verse St. Prosper in loc 3. A third thing tending to the peace of Jerusalem is Impartiality of Discipline The People of the Jews had God himself for their Legislator and had both Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws to punish Sin by and so have we Christians from the same God and Christ in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament the just and holy God endeavouring in them by Threats of Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Misery to deter the Wicked from the evil of his way and by Promises of Felicity for both Soul and Body here and hereafter to encourage the Good in the way of Holiness But alas such is man's stupidity that he is led more by Sense than Faith and is more afraid of temporal Mulcts and Punishments from the Civil and Ecclesia stical Magistrates than of the Frowns and Threats of Eternal Vengeance from the great God And therefore as the Philosopher observed Arist l. 5. c. 5. de Moribus T. 3. p. 79. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of Nature commanding us to live according to every Vertue and forbidding every Vice All Nations have provided Laws for the punishment of the one and the encouragement of the other And were the Statutes and Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical of our Nation impartially executed we should soon see Sin disgraced the Sinner ashamed the Sabbath better kept our Churches fuller and have greater hopes for the peace of our Jerusalem Let not then those to whom the Executive Power of them is committed connive at or partially punish sin lest we incur the Censure we cast on the Church of Rome too justly of selling Pardon of Sins for Mony I would gladly hope the Concern of our Religion Letter to Bishops 1689. the Danger we are in the late Request and Command of our Governours will engage the impartial procedure of Justice to punish Vice where-ever But this being not mine but the Civil and Ecclesiastical Magistrates Province I shall leave it and only beg they would endeavour by such a good Administration the Peace of Jerusalem to which nothing can more conduce than it as what would promote what I shall urge in the last place for Jerusalem's Peace and that is 4. Integrity and holiness of Conversation in all its Members Plautus Persa Act 4. Sc. 4. The Comedian's Observation is very true Oppidum si incolae bene sint morati pulchre munitum arbitror But if Vice abound in a City or Nation Centuplex murus rebus secundis parum est And the sacred Writ affords as many sad Instances of persons whose sins cried for Gen. chap. 6 7. and pulled down Vengeance on the places of their Habitations witness the Inhabitants of the old World and of Sodom and Gomorrha Gen. chap. 18.19 Sin disturbs inward Peace hinders outward Comforts and exposeth to inevitable Ruin no wonder then every of Gods People the Jews were charged to be Holy Lev. 11.44 as their God was Holy and we Christians are commanded if we dare to name the Name of Christ to depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Titus 2.11 12 14. And if we expect Salvation through him hereafter to be a peculiar People to him in serving him here And if the sins of common Christians add to the sins of the Nation and Church and call for Vengeance on both much more will the sins of Ministers be provoking The Learned Dr. Dr. Cave 's Introduct to vol. 2. L. Fathers p. 32. Cave tells us the very Heathen Emperor Julian commanded the Heathen Priests to abstain from all vile and wicked Actions to study and live strictly performing Religion with a great care We are sure the great God forbids all Natural much more Moral Deformities in his Ministers under the Law Lev. 21.23 and charged them to bear on their Breasts Vrim and Thummim Learning and Sincerity Exod. 28 30 36 39. c. and on their Foreheads or Conversation Holiness And Christ under the Gospel expects no less The Charge St. Paul gives to St. Timothy and in him to all Ministers is great 1 Tim. 4.14 To be an Example in Conversation as well as Doctrin in Purity as well as Faith And no Church can more strictly injoyn her Ministers an Holy Life than ours doth Can. 75. But since the best of men on this side Heaven have their failings and as St. Rom. 7.18 to 24. Paul himself found reason to complain of his sinfulness I shall turn my Advice to you into Prayer to God for us all Prayer for Ernber Week in our Church's Words for all her Ministers That God would so replenish all of us called to this holy Function with the Truth of Doctrin and Innocency of Life That both by Life and Doctrin we may set forth the Glory of our God and set forward the Salvation not only of our selves but of all men And I promise my self that all of us will endeavour effectually to answer Amen And thus have I considered the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that make for the Peace of Jerusalem which we ought to pray for and endeavour after Vnanimity in Doctrin Vniformity in Worship Impartiality in Discipline and Integrity in Conversation And to incite to the practice of these I shall very briefly add a few Motives 1. The Zeal the Heathens had for their Religion For tho' by our Apostacy we depraved Gods Image Rom. 3.23 in which we were created yet the very Remains of that Image in fallen Man did dictate to him the Being of a God and that he ought to be worshipped Cicero l. 2. 〈◊〉 Nat. Dâ—oruâ—… so that the Roman Orator brings in one Saying Omnibus innatum est in aninto quasi insculptum Deos esse esse Deos ita perspicuum est ut id qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem And the Orator himself saith Cicero l. 1. de Legibus In hominibus nulla Gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem