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A59576 The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe ... Sharp, John, 1645-1714. 1674 (1674) Wing S3003; ESTC R9975 18,272 41

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Hooker Mayor Jovis xxvii die Augusti 1674. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angliae c. xxvi ORDERED by this Court That Mr. Sharpe be desired to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City at the Guild-Hall Chappel WAGSTAFFE Imprimatur Sept. 11. 74. Guliel Wigan Rev. in Ch. Pat. ac D o. D o. Humf. Episc. Lond. in Sac. Dom. The Things that make for Peace DELIVERED IN A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND THE Court of ALDERMEN AT GUILD-HALL CHAPPEL Upon the 23. of August 1674. By JOHN SHARPE Chaplain to the Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England LONDON Printed by Andrew Clark for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church Yard 1674. To the Right Honourable S r William Hooker LORD MAYOR of LONDON And to the COURT of ALDERMEN Right Honourable THe following Discourse was never designed to go further than your own Chappel otherwise it had not been left so Imperfect but since you have thought fit to Order it should be more Publick it would ill become me who do in it so earnestly Press Obedience to Superiors to dispute your Commands Such therefore as it is I humbly Present it to you heartily wishing it may in some degree Minister to the Promoting Peace and Unity and Brotherly Love among us which is the onely thing therein aimed at by RIGHT HONORABLE Your most Humble and Obedient Servant JOHN SHARPE ROM xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace THE Apostles design in this Chapter is to perswade the Roman Christians to live Peaceably one with another notwithstanding all their different Perswasions in matters of Religion He doth not so much set himself to Resolve their Controversies to Determine which Side held the Truest Opinions as to Silence their Disputes to allay those Bitternesses and Animosities with which the several Parties prosecuted each other to oblige them to embrace one another in Christian Charity and though there could not be an Unity of Judgment among them which certainly is a thing can never be expected mens apprehensions concerning things being necessarily almost as various as are their Tempers and Complexions yet nevertheless they should so order the matter that there might at least be an Unity of Affection and an amicable communication one with another He represents to them that they had nothing to do to Judg or Censure their Brethren for they were Gods Servants and to Him only they stood or fell that though they were mistaken in their Notions as to the Points in Controversie yet nevertheless if what was done upon those mistaken Principles was done out of a pure heart and as in obedience to the Commands of God it would be accepted of him He is so far from countenancing their Religious Quarrels that he adviseth even those that held the true side of the Question to submit for Peace sake and rather to recede from their right to forbear doing that which they might lawfully do than by undue use of their Liberty to cast a Stumbling-block before the weak uninstructed Dissenters and be a means of their forsaking Christianity And the more to enforce this discourse he assures them that however they might pretend Religion for their present differences yet in truth That was of all other things the least interessed in them They were much mistaken in the nature of it if they took it to consist in such small inconsiderable external things as they made the matter of their Dissensions Christianity was not much concerned whether they ate such kind of Meats or whether they did not eat them whether they kept Sabbaths and New-moons holy to the Lord or whether they esteemed every day alike That was a more inward and a more noble thing It was the hearty practice of Righteousness and Peace and Rejoycing to do good These were the things that made a man a Christian and in These things saith the Apostle he that serveth Christ is indeed acceptable to God and approved of men And then at last from these several Particulars he draws this general Inference by way of Exhortation Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace I have given you a brief account of the Apostles discourse in this Chapter and I could heartily wish that I had no occasion to deal any further upon this Subject Happy were it for Christians if things were in that posture among them that they were no further concerned in these Discourses of Scripture than only to be instructed in the sense of them But alas whoever understands any thing of the state of Christianity now for these many Ages in the World will easily see that no one Point of our Religion has been in all times more necessary to be daily preached to be earnestly pressed to be loudly sounded in the ears of Christians than this of Peace and Love and mutual sufferance under their different apprehensions of Religion It has fared as one hath observed with Christianity in this matter as it did with the Jewish Dispensation of old The great and principal Commandment which God gave the Jews and which as they themselves teach was the Foundation of all their Law was to worship the God of Israel and Him only to serve yet such was the sottishness and perverseness of that People that This was the Commandment that of all others they could never be obliged to keep but they were continually runing a whoring after the Gods of the Nations notwithstanding all the various ways and methods that God made use of to reclaim them from that sin What the Worship of one God was to the Jews that Peace and Love and Unity is to the Christians even the grand distinguishing Law and Character of their Profession and yet with sorrow and to our unspeakable confusion it may be spoken There is no Religion that ever was known in the World hath given Birth to so many Heresies hath been intituled to so many needless Disputes and Quarrels hath been crumbled into so many Sects and Parties hath been prosecuted by all the several Pretenders to it with so much heat and fury and implacable animosity hath been made the occasion of so much Tumult War and Bloudshed as this excellent this innocent and gall-less Religion of ours To go no further than our selves and the posture we stand in at this day if ever any Society of Christians could be obliged to live in Brotherly Love and Communion with one another we certainly are the Men. For besides the engagements of our Religion common to us with other Christians we have all the external advantages which a wise and well temper'd Settlement of Church-affairs a mild and just Government and excellent Laws can give to the promoting thereof Religion is established among us in as great Purity as ever perhaps it was since the Apostles times The Government we