satisfied but fearing withal it may prove a sin not to obey to use all means for satisfaction not absolutely denying obedience much less reviling their Injunctions or making violent oppositions to them which commonly ends in wresting all authority out of their Pastors hands but merely not doing for the present what is enjoyned modestly entreating their forbearance in such matters or if it cannot be obtained peaceably and patiently submitting to their censures Which sure would not be heavy upon such humble modest and truly conscientious Christians if they should God would judge such Governours for their unreasonable severity but there would rather be ways found out to make up the difference without taking their Pastors power from them and governing themselves as they please For God I am confident would enlighten the one or the other to see either their errour in enjoyning or in not obeying 5. And this that I have said is the least that can be meant in such places of Scripture as these 1 Thess v. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know that is to love them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among your selves Which they could not fail to be as long as they kept close to their spiritual Instructors and Governours And xiii Heb. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. And 1 Pet. v. 5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves unto the Elders Where first observe the name given to the Pastors of the Church viz. Elders which imports an Office and Authority in the language of all Nations and here in St. Peter implies so high an Authority in the Rulers of the Church that the Apostle supposes more danger of its growing too imperious than of its being slighted and disobeyed For he requires the Elders to feed that is govern as well as teach the Flock of God not as Lords of Gods heritage but being ensamples to the Flock ver 2 3. Which Caution against domineering and Lording it as we speak had been idle if the power of the Pastors and the obedience due and paid then to it had not been so great that it might easily grow extravagant such was the reverence they had to their Persons and deference to their Judgments and submission to their Authority For the word submit you may observe further is the very same whereby he expresses in the second Chapter ver 13. the obedience he would have them give to Kings and those in Authority under them And therefore cannot signifie less than that their directions ought to be followed and the Flock ruled by their Orders in all things where God hath not ordered otherways and that they should be afraid to offend them by disobedience and much more by shaking off subjection to them and denying their Authority 6. Which includes in it a power of ordaining and constituting the manner of performing the Service of God according to His Word which requires that all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. xiv 40. The things themselves to be done which that place speaks of are many of them specified in that very Chapter and the rest in other parts of the holy Scripture but the decent manner form and order how they shall be done is no where particularly defined there And therefore though by virtue of this Precept no Body hath power to form new Articles of Faith new Objects of Worship new Sacraments c. wherein the Church of Rome hath abused her power yet the substance of Religion being thus prescribed in His Word the order disposition form and manner of doing the Duties of Religion is left hereby to be determined by the wisdom of the Governours of the Church according to the general Rules of the holy Scripture Which they cannot indeed enact into Laws binding by civil penalties yet no Christian Magistrate to whom that power belongs ever denied them a directive power in making Rules for the Government of the Church or at any time made them without them but always took their advice in such matters For who so well able to tell as they what is most consonant to the Scriptures profitable for their Flock and agreeable to what hath been practised in the Church of God Which always taught and it is as undoubted a principle of the Reformation as any other That where the holy Scriptures have not given particular directions for the decent performance of the Duties they call for as it was impossible they should for all Cases Times and Countries there the Ministers of Christ whom the holy Scriptures appoint to be the Governours of His Church are to draw up Orders and Rules agreeable to the general Rule which the people ought to observe And it is very reasonable to interpret the place of the Apostle before mentioned in this manner Let all things be done first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently or honestly after a comely beseeming fashion with such Rites as will procure veneration to holy things at least secure the service of God from contempt and promote devotion in the people and the way to have things done with such gravity as this word imports is next to do them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to order or by the deliberate appointment of those who have authority to ordain such Rites as will become holy actions An example of which we have in that very Chapter ver 32. where even such as had extraordinary spiritual gists are required to submit to this Order For the Spirits of the Prophets he saith are subject to the Prophets That is there was such a subordination in that Order of men that when one was prophesying he was to cease if a superior Prophet commanded him silence Which among other places of Scripture might silence those who question the authority of the present Governours of our Church because of their superiority over other Ministers Or it might be sufficient to make them modest in this thing to say only this That Christ sure did not leave His Church without a Government which had been to leave no Church and that it is incredible the whole Church Pastors and people should agree to change His Government without any contradiction that we can find into this which we have if this be not it which He left And that I think hath been as little nay less questioned as any Point of Christianity which must needs weigh much with all considerate minds 7. Who likewise cannot but grant that things being thus ordered and appointed by the Authority of Christs Ministers those Constitutions in all reason ought to be obeyed by those who are subject to them and not left at liberty whether the people will observe them or no. This is most judiciously handled by Mr Calvin in the Tenth Chapter of the Fourth Book of his Institutions which is well worth the
sure will be acceptable to Your Lordship not only because you have a due respect to Gods Ministers but because I present them as a token of my gratitude and of the honour I have for Your Lordship being My LORD Your most humble Servant S. PATRICK A SERMON PREACHED ON THE FAST-DAY APRIL xi MDCLXXIX REVEL II. 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth WHAT our Saviour had said unto the Jews before his death in the Second Lesson for this Morning Prayer xiii Luke 3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish He saith here in effect after his ascension to Heaven unto the Gentile Christians Repent or else I will come quickly and will fight against them with the sword of any mouth This is a Lesson for all Nations and for all Ages in which the Church of England is as much concerned now as the Church of Pergamus was then Though this Letter was not particularly directed unto us no more than to the rest of the Christian World yet the next words tell us that our Lord expects every body should take notice of it consider it and take warning by it as much as if it had been addressed to them by name ver 17. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches We all herein read our own doom and ought to understand the words as if our Lord had enlarged them in such a general Admonition as he gives in another case about watching xiii Mark ult And what I say unto the Church of Pergamus I say unto all Repent Repent or else I will come quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth In which words you may easily discern An Exhortation to a most necessary Duty which is To repent and a Commination in case the Exhortation be not obeyed which is A denunciation of war against such obstinate Offenders who provoke him to sharpen against them the sword of his mouth The Exhortation is so frequently pressed and as frequently explained that I cannot think it fit to spend the time in telling you what it is to repent For you all know well enough that it is such a godly sorrow for what we have done amiss as makes us not only afflict our selves for our sins but utterly renounce and forsake them If you know your Baptismal Vow as who is there that can be unacquainted with it unless he affect a stupid and brutish ignorance it is easie to understand that nothing less than this can pass with God for Repentance If we had never broken that Vow there would have been no need of Repentance which is the repairing of that breach and the making it up again And how shall we make all whole but only by observing that Vow better which we have violated and broken No man of sense can think there is any other way of being reconciled to God after we have offended him but only by becoming more dutiful to him Performing that is those engagements which we always had to him and from which we can never be absolved because beside our natural obligation we have tyed and bound our selves by a solemn and most sacred Vow to be his faithful Servants When we do not keep this Vow we sin and bring a heavy guilt upon our selves From which sin and guilt if we would be freed we must Repent that is keep our Vow better forsaking the Devil and all his works heartily believing God's holy Word and obediently keeping his Commandments If we be truly sorrowful and afflicted that we have not done thus in which Repentance begins we must resolve and seriously endeavour to make this our business hereafter in which Repentance ends and is compleated I shall say no more in so plain a business which hath been urged upon you a thousand times not by one alone but by all God's Ministers that ever you heard preach about it And what Theme is there more common that comes oftner into the Pulpits I wish the perpetual sound of it without due regard have not made it become so ineffectual that now men turn a deaf ear to such Discourses as beaten and thredbare Subjects to which they need not give any attendance But if any man have an ear still open let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches here in this Book Let him hear at least what a desperate course he runs if he continue to neglect a Duty which is so well known that he thinks he need not hear of it any more For our Saviour threatens such as would not repent that he would come unto them quickly and fight against them with the sword of his mouth The first Motive you know to a change is commonly an apprehension of the danger of that course wherein a man is at present engaged This is apt to put a stop unto him in his way and bring him to a stand The very first sight of it when it smites his Soul is wont to repress the violence and heat wherewith he pursues his sinful desires A new scene of thoughts begin to appear in his mind and he is led to consider with himself Whither am I going What mischief is this which threatens me Whither will this course carry me and what will be the end of these things And if the danger be very great and pressing and his apprehension of it also be great and proportionable to the danger this strikes the greater fear and dread into his Soul And fear of what will insue disposes him to a change and alteration of his course of life that he may escape those miseries which he sees he is drawing upon himself Especially if he be perswaded as you have often heard that no terrours or affrightments no entreaties or prayers no crys or tears no sadness or affliction of Spirit no outward humiliation or abasements no purposes no promises will prevail for his deliverance from that danger without an effectual reformation and forsaking those wicked ways that necessarily lead to death and destruction And it is no hard matter one would think for men to convince themselves of this Truth For suppose you were in a journey and you should be told of nay should see a great Pit or Precipice to which and no whither else that Road did directly lead would you think of any other means to avoid it but only by turning into another path Though you should quiver and tremble like a Leaf when it is shaken with the Wind though you should conceive the greatest horrour and offer never so many Prayers and Vows nay though you turned your faces about and looked the contrary way yet if still you should proceed and go forward in that Road you would most certainly hurle your selves though you turn'd your backs of it and were loth to see it into inevitable ruine This is exactly the case of every Sinner who besides that his way
device of entertaining the people with Images which they call the Books of the Ignorant and are the means of keeping them in ignorance instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise to salvation For all which the holy and reverend Name of the Church and its infallibility is used for a colour By which they mean only the Roman Church which being but a particular Church not the universal is become Judg in her own Cause and maintains she does well nay cannot erre because she says she cannot do otherwise There is no man who will take the liberty to consider that can think this the way of salvation No it is the manifest method of perishing without remedy for any thing that the people of that Church can know For they being taught simply to believe in the Church of Rome and to depend wholly upon its authority without any other enquiry can never be satisfied whether this Church wherein they believe teaches the true and pure Doctrine of Christ Jesus the Lord and Spouse of the Church For they are deprived of all means to find this out being forbidden to look into the holy Scriptures where Christ hath delivered his mind unto us All the Faith therefore of the poor people of the Roman Church is no other than a humane Faith being grounded wholly on the authority of men and of all humane Testimony they rely upon the most uncertain viz. that which they give of themselves For they believe their Church to be good merely because She says so that is make her judge in her own case which is like to produce the most partial Judgment of all other But it is time to leave the consideration of their faults in this thing and as the duty of this Day requires to reflect seriously and impartially upon our own Which we shall the better do when I have a little opened the second general part of my Text wherein we shall see how happy we of this Church might have been if we had held fast that which we have received II. For that follows you see in the Charge given to the Church of Sardis Remember what thou hast received and heard and HOLD FAST or keep to it observe it and take care to do accordingly For that 's the end of calling things to mind that we may not depart from them if they be of consequence to our happiness Such was the Doctrine at first delivered by Christ and his Apostles and to apply it wholly to our selves such is that which we have received being the very same as you have heard with that at first delivered Which we ought therefore to keep most sacredly and to stick to it stedfastly never in the least warping from it nor turning aside either to the right hand or to the left from the principles and rules of a Religion which is so well grounded that it stands upon the undoubted word of God our Saviour For as I have shewn you the Religion which we have received and heard is no other than what the holy Scriptures which all acknowledg to be the word of Truth teach us to believe and practise And is a Religion so sincere that it teaches the people to read the holy Scriptures because it is not afraid they should therein read its condemnation And for that end propounds the Scriptures to them in their own Language because it is not in the least ashamed of any thing it bids them believe nor unwilling to be laid to that rule of righteousness and examined by it A Religion also which in reading the holy Scriptures bids the people content themselves with that which they find there clearly and evidently delivered for that it assures them is sufficient for their salvation leaving things obscure for the exercise of the learned and things not drawn from thence but from uncertain Traditions or private Inspiration to superstitious and fantastical Persons A Religion which doth not make Faith consist in ignorance but in knowledge and yet to keep this knowledge within the bounds of sobriety directs and enjoyns all private persons to take heed to the publick Ministry of the Church and all publick Ministers to study the Scriptures diligently and to teach nothing to be religiously held and believed as one of our ancient Canons is * 1571. Tit. Concionatores but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and which the Catholick-Fathers and the ancient Bishops have collected out of that very Doctrine It is a Religion also which doth not teach us to rely upon Faith alone but presses the necessity of good works far more than the Roman Church doth whatsoever they falsely pretend only it teaches that God rewards all the good we do out of his own free mercy without any desert And therefore instead of framing and fashioning Wood and Stone into the Images of men and setting them up for the people to worship it exhorts men by all means possible to study to frame themselves after the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness and to conform themselves to those excellent patterns of Vertue which the Saints have left us for imitation Instead also of worshipping the Sacrament it teaches us to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy and reverend use of the Sacrament not using it to make Jesus Christ but to honour Him not to make His Body descend from Heaven to us but to lift up our hearts to Him in Heaven not to turn the Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Blood of Christ but into the spiritual nourishment of our Souls For it doth not think that Christ and the Devil both entred into Judas together or that our Saviour did eat Himself or hath ordered matters so that He may be carried away by a Mouse and eaten by his greatest enemies It teaches none of these or any such like absurd and incredible things nor doth it intrench upon any man's civil Rights But though it bid men reverence and obey their spiritual Pastors yet doth not place any of them above Kings nor exempt them from their jurisdiction much less ascribe a power to them of deposing them from their Thrones giving away their Kingdoms and exposing them to be murthered which the proud Bishop of Rome challenges but humbly and meekly declares as St Paul doth That every Soul even the greatest Apostle as St. Chrysostome interprets him must be subject to the higher Powers What shall I say more It is a Religion which acknowledges no other supreme Head of the Church but Jesus Christ no other rule of Faith but his Word no propitiatory Sacrifice but his Death no Purgatory but his Blood nor any merits but his obedience to God in all things A Religion therefore which hath little of outward pomp and show but much of inward substance life and power which ordaineth few Ceremonies but ministers abundant instructions and consolations which attributeth little to distinction of meats but prescribes fasting and