every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive And if we were thus affected on all hands we might yet be a happy Church and Nation if we would govern our selves by these Rules and walk according to them peace would be upon us and mercy and on the Israel of God Thirdly I shall conclude all with a few words in relation to the occasion of this present meeting I have all this while been recommending to you from the Authority and Example of our Blessed Saviour and from the nature and reason of the thing it self this most exellent Grace and Virtue of Charity in the most proper Acts and Instances of it But besides particular Acts of Charity to be exercised upon emergent occasions there are likewise charitable Customs which are highly commendable because they are more certain and constant of a larger extent and of a longer continuance As the Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy which is now form'd and establish'd into a charitable Corporation And the Anniversary Meetings of those of the several Counties of England who reside or happen to be in London for two of the best and noblest ends that can be the maintaining of Friendship and the promoting of Charity These and others of the like kind I call charitable customs which of late years have very much obtained in this great and famous City And it cannot but be a great pleasure and satisfaction to all good men to see so generous so humane so Christian a disposition to prevail and reign so much amongst us The strange overflowing of vice and wickedness in our Land and the prodigious increase and impudence of infidelity and impiety hath of late years boaded very ill to us and brought terrible Judgments upon this City and Nation and seems still to threaten us with more and greater And the greatest comfort I have had under these sad apprehensions of Gods displeasure hath been this that though bad men were perhaps never worse in any Age yet the good who I hope are not a few were never more truly and substantially good I do verily believe there never were in any Time greater and more real effects of Charity not from a blind superstition and an ignorant zeal and a mercenary and arrogant and presumptuous principle of Merit but from a sound knowledg and a sincere love and obedience to God or as the Apostle expresses it out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned And who that loves God and Religion can chuse but take great contentment to see so general and forward an inclination in People this way Which hath been very much cherished of late years by this sort of Meetings and that to very good purpose and effect in many charitable contributions disposed in the best and wisest ways and which likewise hath tended very much to the reconciling of the minds of men and the allaying of those fierce heats and animosities which have ben caused by our Civil confusions and Religious distractions For there is nothing many times wanting to take away prejudice and to extinguish hatred and ill-will but an opportunity for men to see and understand one another by which they will quickly perceive that they are not such Monsters as they have been represented one to another at a distance We are I think one of the last Counties of England that have entred into this friendly and charitable kind of Society Let us make amends for our late setting out by quickning our pace that so we may overtake and outstrip those who are gone before us Let not our Charity partake of the coldness of our Climate but let us endeavour that it may be equal to the extent of our Country and as we are incomparably the greatest County of England let it appear that we are so by the largeness and extent of our Charity O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of Charity the very bond of Peace and of all Vertues Without which whosover liveth is counted dead before thee Grant this for thy only Son Jesus Christ's sake Now the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL April 4th 1679. 1 JOHN IV. 1. Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World THIS caution and counsel was given upon occasion of the false Prophets and Teachers that were risen up in the beginning of the Christian Church who endeavoured to seduce men from the true Doctrine of the Gospel delivered by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour And these teaching contrary things could not both be from God and therefore St. John calls upon Christians to examine the Doctrines and Pretences of those new Teachers whether they were from God or not Believe not every Spirit â—hat is not every one that takes upon him to be inspired and to be a Teacher come from God But try the Spirits that is examine those that make this pretence whether it be real or not and examine the Doctrines which they bring because there are many Impostors abroad in the World This is the plain sense of the Words In which there are contained these four Propositions First That men may and often do falsly pretend to Inspiration And this is the reason upon which the Apostle grounds this Exhortation Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world therefore we should try who are true and who are false Secondly We are not to believe every one that pretends to be inspired and to teach a Divine Doctrine This follows upon the former because men may falsly pretend to Inspiration therefore we are not to believe every one that makes this pretence For any man that hath but confidence enough and conscience little enough may pretend to come from God And if we admit all pretences of this kind we lie at the mercy of every crafty and confident man to be led by him into what delusions he pleaseth Thirdly Neither are we to reject all that pretend to come from God This is sufficiently implied in the Text for when the Apostle says believe not every Spirit he supposeth we are to believe some and when he saith try the Spirits whether they be of God he supposeth some to be of God and that those which are so are to be believed These three Observations are so plain that I need only to name them to make way for the Fourth Which I principally designed to insist upon from these Words And
Graces and Virtues which concern our duty towards one another That it is the sum and abridgement the accomplishment and fulfilling of the whole Law That without this whatever we pretend to in Christianity we are nothing and our Religion is vain That this is the greatest of all Graces and Virtues greater than Faith and Hope and of perpetual use and duration Charity never fails And therefore they exhort us above all things to endeavour after it as the Crown of all other Virtues Above all things have fervent charity among your selves saith St. Peter And St. Paul having enumerated most other Christian Virtues exhorts us above all to strive after this And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfection This St. John makes one of the most certain signs of our love to God and the want of it an undeniable argument of the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen This he declares to be one of the best evidences that we are in a state of Grace and Salvation Hereby we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren So that well might our blessed Saviour chuse this for the badge of his Disciples and make it the great Precept of the best and most perfect Institution Other things might have served better for pomp and ostentation and have more gratified the Curiosity or Enthusiasm or Superstition of mankind but there is no quality in the World which upon a sober and impartial consideration is of a more solid and intrinsick value And in the first Ages of Christianity the Christians were very eminent for this Vertue and particularly noted for it Nobis notam inurit apud quosdam it is a mark and brand set upan us by some saith Tertullian and he tells us that it was proverbially said among the Heathen Behold how these Christians love one another Lucian that great scoffer at all Religion acknowledgeth in behalf of Christians that this was the great Principle which their Master had instill'd into them And Julian the bitterest Enemy that Christianity ever had could not forbear to propound to the Heathen for an example the charity of the Galileans for so by way of reproach he calls the Christians who says he gave up themselves to humanity and kindness which he acknowledgeth to have been very much to the advantage and reputation of our Religion And in the same Letter to Arsacius the Heathen High Priest of Galatia he gives this memorable Testimony of the Christians that their Charity was not limited and confin'd onely to themselves but extended even to their Enemies which could not be said either of the Jews or Heathens His words are these It is a shame that when the Jews suffer none of theirs to beg and the impious Galileans relieve not onely their own but those also of our Religion that we onely should be defective in so necessary a Duty By all which it is evident that Love and Charity is not onely the great Precept of our Saviour but was in those first and best Times the general practice of his Disciples and acknowledged by the Heathens as a very peculiar and remarkable quality in them The application I shall make of this Discourse shall be threefold 1. With relation to the Church of Rome 2. With regard to our selves who profess the Protestant Reform'd Religion 3. With a more particular respect to the occasion of this Meeting First With relation to the Church of Rome Which we cannot chuse but think of whenever we speak of Charity and loving one another especially having had so late a discovery of their affection to us and so considerable a testimony of the kindness and charity which they design'd towards us such as may justly make the ears of all that hear it to tingle and render Popery execrable and infamous a frightful and a hateful thing to the end of the World It is now but too visible how grosly this great Commandment of our Saviour is contradicted not onely by the Practices of those in that Communion from the Pope down to the meanest Fryar but by the very Doctrines and Principles by the Genius and Spirit of that Religion which is wholly calculated for cruelty and persecution Where now is that mark of a Disciple so much insisted upon by our Lord and Master to be found in that Church And yet what is the Christian Church but the Society and Community of Christs Disciples Surely in all reason that which our Lord made the distinctive Mark and Character of his Disciples should be the principal mark of a true Church Bellarmine reckons up no less than fifteen marks of the rrue Church all which the Church of Rome arrogates to her self alone But he wisely forgot that which is worth all the rest and which our Saviour insists upon as the chief of all other A sincere Love and Charity to all Christians This he knew would by no means agree to his own Church But for all that it is very reasonable that Churches as well as particular Christians should be judged by their Charity The Church of Rome would engross all Faith to her self Faith in its utmost perfection to the degree and pitch of Infallibility And they allow no body in the world besides themselves no though they believe all the Articles of the Apostles Creed to have one grain of true Faith because they do not believe upon the Authority of their Church which they pretend to be the onely foundation of true Faith This is a most arrogant and vain pretence but admit it were true yet in the Judgement of St. Paul Though they had all Faith if they have not Charity they are nothing The greatest wonder of all is this that they who hate and persecute Christians most do all this while the most confidently of all others pretend to be the Disciples of Christ and will allow none to be so but themselves That Church which excommunicates all other Christian Churches in the world and if she could would extirpate them out of the world will yet needs assume to her self to be the only Christian Church As if our Saviour had said Hereby shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye hate and excommunicate and kill one another What shall he done unto thee thou false tongue thou empty and impudent pretence of Christianity Secondly With relation to our seves who profess the Protestant Reformed Religion How is this great Precept of our Saviour not onely shamefully neglected but plainly violated by us And that not only by private hatred and ill-will quarrels and contentions in our civil conversation and entercourse with one another but by most unchristian divisions and animosities in that common relation wherein we stand to one another as Brethren as Christians as Protestants Have we not all one
SERMONS AND DISCOURSES Some of which Never before Printed BY JOHN TILLOTSON D. D. Dean of Canterbury Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary The Third Volume The Second Edition LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVII The Texts of each Sermon SERMON I. LUke IX 55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Pag. 1 SERMON II. John XIII 34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Pag. 37 SERMON III. 1 John IV. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World Pag. 69 SERMON IV. Hebrews VI. 16. And an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Pag. 113 SERMON V. Luke XX. 37 38. Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead but of the living For all live to him Pag. 157 SERMON VI. 2 Cor. V. 6. Wherefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Pag. 215 DISCOURSE VII A Perswasive to Frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament On 1 Cor. XI 26 27 28. Pag. 251 DISCOURSE VIII A Discourse against Transubstantiation Pag. 305 SERMON IX X. Joshua XXIV 15. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve Pag. 373 405 SERMON XI Jeremiah XIII 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Pag. 441 SERMON XII Matthew XXIII 13. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Pag. 469 IMPRIMATUR C. Alston November 17. 1685. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons Novemb. 5. 1678. LUKE IX 55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them AMONG many other things which may justly recommend the Christian Religion to the approbation of mankind the intrinsick goodness of it is most apt to make impression upon the Minds of serious and considerate men The Miracles of it are the great external evidence and confirmation of its truth and Divinity but the morality of its doctrines and precepts so agreeable to the best reason and wisest apprehensions of mankind so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our natures and the sweetning of the spirits and tempers of men so friendly to human Society and every way so well calculated for the peace and order of the World These are the things which our Religion glories in as her crown and excellency Miracles are apt to awaken and astonish and by a sensible and over-powering evidence to bear down the prejudices of Infidelity but there are secret charms in goodness which take fast hold of the hearts of men and do insensibly but effectually command our love and esteem And surely nothing can be more proper to the occasion of this Day than a Discourse upon this Argument which so directly tends to correct that unchristian spirit and mistaken zeal which hath been the cause of all our troubles and confusions and had so powerfull an influence upon that horrid Tragedy which was designed now near upon fourscore years ago to have been acted as upon this Day And that we may the better understand the reason of our Saviour's reproof here in the Text it will be requisite to consider the occasion of this hot and furious zeal which appeared in some of his Disciples And that was this Our Saviour was going from Galilee to Jerusalem and being to pass through a Village of Samaria he sent messengers before him to prepare entertainment for him but the People of that Place would not receive him because he was going to Jerusalem the Reason whereof was the difference of Religion which then was between the Jews and the Samaritans Of which I shall give you this brief account The Samaritans were originally that Colony of the Assyrians which we find in the Book of Kings was upon the Captivity of the Ten Tribes planted in Samaria by Salmanassar They were Heathens and worshipped their own Idols till they were so infested with Lions that for the redress of this mischief they desired to be instructed in the worship of the God of Israel hoping by this means to appease the anger of the God of the Country and then they worshipped the God of Israel together with their own Idols for so it is said in the History of the Kings That they seared the Lord and served their own Gods After the Tribe of Judah were returned from the Captivity of Babylon and the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt all the Jews were obliged by a solemn Covenant to put away their Heathen Wives It happened that Manasses a Jewish Priest had married the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan and being unwilling to put away his Wife Sanballat excited the Samaritans to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim near the City of Samaria in opposition to the Temple at Jerusalem and made Manasses his Son-in-law Priest there Upon the building of this new Temple there arose a great feud between the Jews and Samaritans which in process of time grew to so violent a hatred that they would not so much as shew common civility to one another And this was the reason why the Samaritans would not receive our Saviour in his journey because they perceived he was going to worship at Jerusalem At this uncivil usage of our Saviour two of his Disciples James and John presently take fire and out of a well-meaning zeal for the honour of their Master and of the true God and of Jerusalem the true place of his worship they are immediately for dispatching out of the way these Enemies of God and Christ and the true Religion these Hereticks and Schismaticks for so they called one another And to this end they desire our Saviour to give them power to call for fire from Heaven to consume them as Elias had done in a like case and that too not far from Samaria and it is not improbable that their being so near the place where Elias had done the like before might prompt them to this request Our Saviour