of Faith whose Discipline whose Manner and Rites of Worship are more correspondent to Antient Tradition and Catholick Doctrine and Practice Is there any Protestant Church in Europe wherein the Word of God has been taught more sincerely and more to the edification of the people than among us Is there any Protestant Church that has more comfortably lived under their own Vines and their own Fig-Trees has more freely enjoyed all the benefits and privileges that either Religion or their Birthright could Intitle them to than we have done Is there any Protestant Church that has been preserved so miraculously that hath received so many wonderful deliverances from Enemies of all sorts Enemies of the Hills and of the Vallies and yet notwithstanding all notwithstanding the contrivances of false Brethren within ourselves and the assaults of the Publick Adversaries abroad does still not only continue in Being but Flourisheth also as God be thanked we do at this Day The care that God hath taken of this Nation hath been wonderful his Providences towards us are to be admired for the Rareness and the Graciousness of them â—…mnd therefore justly may the Lord of the Vineyard after all this Care all these Providences expect some good Fruit from us proportionable to his Kindness to us And long has he waited for it But what Fruits have we produced after all these great opportunities and this great patience Can we really say that we now are Better than our Fore-Fathers of the Reformation who perhaps had not more light certainly had not that experience of Gods Mercies and Deliverances that we have I am affraid our Hearts will give it Against us Can we say that we are not worse than they That we have at least made as good an use and improvement of the Talents that have been committed to us as they did It is to be feared we shall be cast upon this Point also Our own experience will tell us if we have lived any considerable time in the world That even since our remembrance Though God hath more and more both heaped his Favours and his Severities upon us yet we have grown worse and worse His Mercies have not Melted us His Judgments have not Reclaimed us He hath done all that is Possible both by Gentle and Severe Methods to bring us to a sense of our Duty but We like the Deaf Adder have stopped our Ears and have not hearkned to the voice of the Charmer though he charmed never so wisely What therefore these things considered can we expect but that God should pass the same Sentence upon this Unthankful this Irreclaimable People of England that the Lord of the Vineyard passed upon the Fig-Tree in the Parable Cut it down why doth it cumber the ground Or If you will take it in the words of the Prophet what should hinder or what can we expect but that God should speak to us that is decree upon us what he did to his beloved people in the fifth of Isaiahs Prophecy O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judg I pray you between me and my Vineyard What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore then when I looked that it should bring forth Grapes brought it forth Wild Grapes And now go to I will tell you what I will do with my Vineyard I will take away the hedg thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down and I will lay it wast it shall not be pruned or digged but there shall come up briers and thorns This is the Judgment that is here threatened in the Text which I now come in the Second place more particularly to consider A grievous Judgment without doubt it is and the greatest that can fall upon any Nation For so much as our Souls are of greater concernment to us than our Bodies So much are Spiritual Mercies to be preferred before Temporal And so much the greater misery is it for any people to be deprived of them than of the other For that Nation that was once Gods own peculiar people to be abandoned by him and to be layed in common with the rest of the world that are under the Prince of the power of the Air For that Nation that once enjoyed the influences of Gods presence and the Light of the Truth and the benefits of his Ordinances now to be stript of all these To be without God without Light without the Ordinary means of saving their Souls O what more deplorable condition can be imagined And yet thus severe hath God been with many Nations thus when their sins have cryed loud and the sinners have been impudent and all Methods of amendment have been ineffectual God hath in anger Removed their Candlestick from among them The Church of Ephesus which Christ thus threatens in the Text Nay all the other six Churches of Asia to which the Epistles are sent are sad instances of this Once most flourishing Churches they were even the very Paradise of the Lord but now they lie wast and desolate over run with Ignorance and Barbarity and Mahometanism That Africa which is not now more fruitful of Monsters than it was once of excellently Wise and Learned men That Africa which formerly afforded us our Clemens onr Origen our Tertullian our Cyprian our Augustine and many other extraordinary Lights in the Church of God That Famous Africa in whose soyl Christianity did thrive so prodigiously and could boast of so many Flourishing Churches Alas is now a Wilderness The wild Boars have broken into the Vineyard and eaten it up and it brings forth nothing but briers and thorns To use the words of the Prophet And who knows but God may suddainly make this Church and Nation This our England which Jeshurm-like is waxed fat and grown proud and has kicked against God such another example of the Vengeance of this Kind It is true in all appearance there is no danger of having our Candlestick removed from us in the same sense or manner that those Churches I have instanced in had theirs We have no apprehensions that either Mahometanism or Paganism will come into these Kingdoms At least not in our days It is another kind of removal of our Candlestick that we have reason to fear It is another Religion nigher at hand that is most likely to displace our Candlestick You all know what Religion I mean It is Popery that most threatens us It is that restless busie Religion that has made so much disturbance in Christendom that has always been and is still so active by all means just or unjust by fraud or force to insinuate it self into all places It is this we ought to have the most apprehensions of It is true those that are of this Religion do profess the Name of Christ and we do not deny them the Title of a Christian Church But of all sorts of Christianity this seems to be the worst and
next to the being of no Church it is the least desireable to be of This. And for all the specious Titles of Visible and Perpetual and Catholick and Infallible which they would amuse us with If we did seriously consider what a kind of Religion we now enjoy and what a kind of Religion will come in the place of it if ever they get their will of us we should sadly reflect upon the Change And for all we continued a Christian Country Yet we should lament over ourselves that our Candlestick was removed out of its place I believe there are few here but sufficiently understand what a kind of Religion this is and what you are to expect from it But yet I will beg leave to give a brief account of some of the Articles of it Not to instruct you but to give you occasion to consider how well it will sute with us of this Kingdom or indeed with Any that would be Christians after the way of Christs Institution It is a Religion whose avowed Principles are to keep their people in ignorance as much as they can For with them Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion And if you do but blindly Believe as the Church Believes and blindly Obey what is imposed upon you you are good Catholicks It is a Religion in which you will not be allowed to have any Prayers in public that you can understand When you come to Church you may entertain yourselves with saying over your Rosary which is a solemn set of Praiers containing Ten addresses to the Virgin Mary for One to our Lord and other Private Prayers if you have them But joyn in the Publick Service with the Minister you cannot unless you understand Latin It is a Religion into which as soon as you enter you must give up your Bibles For the people must not read the Scripture without especial Licence and not at all of that Translation you now have of it It is a Religion that Robs you of half the Sacrament For you must never be allowed to receive the Cup in the Lords Supper Notwithstanding the Institution of our Lord in express words And notwithstanding the Practice of the Primitive Church to the contrary It is a Religion in which you are so far from being permitted to try all things and to hold to that which is good according to the Apostles Command That you must wholly submit your reason and understanding to the Dictates of an Infallible Judg even so far if one of their greatest Authors say true to be bound to believe Virtue to be Bad and Vice to be Good if it shall please his Holiness to say so Nay It is a Religion in which you shall not be allowed to believe your very Senses For though four of your five Senses tell you that one of the Consecrated Elements in the Sacrament is a piece of Bread yet you are obliged under pain of Damnation to believe that it is not so But the very Body of Christ that was Crucified at Jerusalem and is now in Heaven and which upon this supposition must be Actually and Separately present in a thousand distant places at once every day It is a Religion that will bring you back to the Old Paganish Idolatry Or to that which is as near it as can be For as the Old Heathens had their inferior Deities their Daemons and Hero's to be Mediators between God and them So will you have your several Saints and Patrons of the like nature which you must apply to for the recommending your Prayers to the Divine Majesty And as they had the Images of their Gods and Mediators to worship and fall down before So will you also for the same purpose have the Images of the blessed Trinity and the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints It is true the Pagans were mightily reproved for these things both in the Scripture and by the Primitive Christians And they made several Defences and Apologies for their Practices And the very same doth the Church of Rome now make for her Invocation of Saints and Image-Worship But if the one were guilty of Idolatry there is little doubt but the other are so also For there is not an hairs breadth difference between the Pleas and Apologies that each party makes for it self Nay It is a Religion that will engage you in a more Unnatural Idolatry than ever the Pagans were guilty of Cicero that was a Heathen himself and knew as much of that Religion as any man living did Yet affirms that there was none so mad in any of the Religions of his time as to pretend to eat his God But yet this you must do in that Religion every time you Receive the Sacrament And the Priest does it every day when he says Mass. For he eats that which himself and you all must worship And you are taught to believe that what you worship in the Mass is God that is the very Humanity of our Saviour united personally to his Divinity It is true In this Religion there are many advantages and conveniences pretended that you cannot really have in the Religion you now profess But look you to them whether they will prove so in the event The easie ways they have to reconcile sinners to God even after the most Vicious life by the means of the Sacrament of Penance as it is commonly Taught and Administred in that Church Together with the liberty you may take in the choice of such a Confessor as you think will be most favourable to your Case Add to this The Virtue of Indulgences and Masses for the Dead As also the efficacy of Pilgrimages Reliques and Holy Garments c. For the purging of Sins All these things put together may perhaps rid you of a great many Uneasinesses and Scruples and Pangs of Conscience with which you might otherwise be troubled and which would not be so easily Cured in the Way that you are now in There is little doubt but upon the Commonly received Principles of that Religion you may go to Heaven upon much easier Terms than you can upon ours But yet for all that in a business of such consequence as the Salvation of a mans Soul is It is good to make a serious enquiry whether of the two Ways is the safer But there is one thing in this Religion which will not so easily go down with Englishmen And that is That you cannot therein be any longer good Subjects to your Prince than his Holiness will give you leave If his Majesty should be a Heretic as it is certain his present Majesty is in their account Nay In other Cases besides that of Heresie the Pope has power to Depose him and Absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance And that not only in the judgment of their most famous Casuists and by the Established Rules of their Canon Law but by the Decree of an Infallible General Council And it has been a frequent Practice of the Pope to make use of
spoke of us at this day we are not much degenerated from the purity of Christianity as to Doctrinals Our Church may vie with all the Churches in the world for Orthodoxy and Conformity to the Primitive Church in matters of Faith And blessed be Gods Name this Light is not put under a Bushel There is perhaps no Church since the Apostles time wherein the Divine-Truth hath been more publickly and more purely taught or the Sacraments more rightly and duely Administred than among us and no Church wherein Knowledg has more abounded among all the members of it than it does now in Ours But the thing that is charged upon the Church of Ephesus is their corrnption in Manners and this is the point we are now concerned in and which t is fit the whole Nation should examine themselves upon and deeply lay to heart Though we still keep up the form of Godliness yet have we not in a great measure lost the power thereof Though the Principles which our Church Owneth and Professeth be excellently good Yet do not many of us horribly contradict them in our Practices Is there not a visible decay of Christian Piety to be observed among us and a Deluge of Vice and Wickedness of all sorts overspreading the face of the Land I speak not here of the faults of this or the other particular person for we know there was never any Age nor any Religion that was free from such but I speak of the National sins the reigning Vices of the Times the miscarriages that are so prevailing and so common that a publick guilt is contracted by them and the whole people may justly share in the punishment of them I must confess to speak strictly the Degrees and Proportions in which any Age grows better or worse than those that went before it are not easily to be measured unless we could live the space of several Ages and out of our own experience make observations and remarks upon them All that we have to make our estimate by is the Histories and Records that are left us of the state of former Ages with which we may compare our own But yet this way is often very fallacious because it is the common humour and custom of men even of those that transmit the Memoires of their own Times to Posterity still to complain of their own Times most and to prefer the former Ages before that in which they live Upon this consideration I shall not be forward to draw a comparison between the former times and ours in order to the shewing how much greater our sins are than of those that went before us and consequently how much riper we are now for Judgment Most certain it is That God as he has done to the Sea so has he to every Nation set its bounds of wickedness beyond which they shall not pass and when their iniquities are at full he will not fail to repay vengeance into their Bosom The Canaanites the Jews and many other Nations I might name have been said instances of this kind of proceeding But when a Nation is come to that Fatal Period none knows but God and whether we are not already very near it we cannot tell but we ought infinitely to fear Too evident it is that things are in a very bad posture among us and our sins are grown to that height that it is a Miracle of the Divine patience and long-suffering that we are not already consumed Let us be more particular If the prevailing of Atheism in a Land and the contempt of God and Religion If open Lewdness and Debauchery and Immorality of all kinds If the turning Religion into a mere piece of Formality and outward profession If Schisms and Divisions and Factions in a Church And lastly if our general Unthankfulness for and Unprofitableness under the means of Grace and the many mercies and privileges that have been vouchsafed us If any or all of these sins can provoke God to forsake a Nation and give it up to ruin and yet these sins are both in the Scripture and by the ordinary course of Gods providence especially markt out for such then are we of this Nation at this time in a very deplorable condition and are to expect Judgment without Mercy unless it be prevented by a speedy Reformation For first of all was there ever more Atheism and Irreligion in a Christian Nation at least in a Protestant Christian Nation or more countenance given to such Doctrines and Opinions as directly tend thereto than now among us There are not many perhaps that dare in express terms affirm That there is no God because they know it is not safe so to do But many affirm it by consequence by asserting such Principles from whence it must necessarily be concluded For what is the consequence of such Doctrines as these That there is nothing but Body in the world and that the very Notion of a Spiritual Incorporeal Being implies a contradiction That there is nothing Just or Unjust Virtuous or Vitious in itself but as it is made so by the Laws of the Kingdom That all things come to pass by a Fatal Necessity and that no man is so free and Agent as to be capable of Rewards and Punishments for his Actions What is the result of these Doctrines but the necessary introducing of Atheism and the banishing Religion from among men It being upon these Principles not only a needless impetinent but an absurd contradictious thing And yet are not these the avowed Principles of too many among us and those too that are the great pretenders to Reason and Philosophy But what has been the effect of such Philosophy Why suitable enough to the Notions of it You may meet with those that make no scruple to scoff at God and every thing that relates to the other world and to turn into Ridicule every thing that is Sacred And he is accounted the Great Spirit that thinks freely and dares speak boldly what he thinks And if a man will set up for a Wit he cannot take a more effectual course to gain him that Reputation in many Companies than to be confident and peremptory in contradicting the common Sentiments of men as to Religion To be able to Burlesque the Scriptures humorously To be dexterous in imploying Religious Phrases to Scurrilous Purposes and to Baffle and Droll out of countenance those that stand up for the Reputation of Sacred things As the world goes it is a piece of virtue to believe a God and Providence and future Rewards and Punishments with the other Principles of Natural Religion They do very well that go thus far But as for Instituted Reveald Religion for instance Christianity How many are there that think themselves no way concerned in it but hold it in the same rank with Judaism and Mahometanism And if they profess that rather than either of these it is only because they were born and bred up in it It is the Religion of the Country
A SERMON Preached on the Day of the Public Fast April the 11 th 1679. AT St. Margarets Westminster BEFORE THE Honourable House of Commons BY JOHN SHARP Rector of St. Giles in the Fields and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch Lord High Chancellor of England Published by Order of the House LONDON Printed by M. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. A SERMON ON REVEL ii 5. I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent WE are this day met together to humble ourselves for our sins before God and to implore his mercy to this Nation in the Preserving our King our Laws our Religion and our Lives and in Blessing the present Publick Counsels in order thereunto And never was a work of this nature more seasonable or more necessary than at this time and to us of this Kingdom For as our sins were never greater never cried louder to Heaven for Vengeance so the Judgments they deserve did never more visibly threaten us than they do at this Day Insomuch that if our circumstances be duly considered we may have just reason to apprehend that our Saviour in the way of his Providence does now speak to the People and Church of England the same words that he ordered St. John by the way of Letter to speak to the Church of Ephesus Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent This Church of Ephesus as also the other six Churches of Asia to each of which St. John by the command of our Saviour doth here address a several Epistle were at the time when these Letters were dictated very flourishing Churches favoured as much with the especial presence and influence of Christ as ever any Churches were This appears from the Preface to this Epistle in the first Verse of this Chapter wherein Christ the Author of the Epistle is described as holding the seven Stars in his right hand and walking in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches as he himself Interprets them that is according to the sence of all Antiquity The Bishops the Presidents the Governours of those Churches His holding them in his hand is his supporting and directing them for the good of the people The seven Golden Candlesticks in the midst of which he walked are as he himself likewise expounds them the seven Churches themselves as being the places where those Stars those Lights did shine And his walking among those Candlesticks is his presence in those Churches Encouraging or Reproving Rewarding or Punishing the members of them as there was cause having the power in his hands either to continue those Lights among them or to remove them to another place I insist on the Explication of this passage because it lets us in to the meaning of the phrase that we meet with in the Text of removing the Candlestick out of its place which from hence we plainly see to be the Un-Churching any people the withdrawing the Light of the Gospel from them Well But this Church of Ephesus to which the Epistle I am now concerned in was written how much soever Christ had done for them had it seems made but a bad requital of his kindnesses At first indeed they had walked very worthily and are much commended by our Saviour for their Zeal and Piety and Labour in Religion but now they were fallen to a great degree of negligence and remissness It is true they at this time continued Orthodox in their Doctrines and Opinions they did both know and profess the true Religion and were Zealous against false Doctrines which also our Saviour takes notice of and commends them for This saith he thou hast That thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate but yet notwithstanding so offended was he with the Loss of their first Love the decay of Devotion and Charity among them that he threatens them solemnly in the Text That if they did not repent and do the first works he would remove their Candlestick out of its place that is as I said he would withdraw from them his presence and the Light of his Gospel This is a brief account of my Text as to the first design and litteral meaning of it that is as it concerns the Church of Ephesus I now desire leave to make such Application of it to ourselves as may be subservient to the ends designed in the Solemnity of this Day And we have warrant enough to make such an Application for let us not flatter ourselves what is here Reproved and what is here Threatened hath not such a peculiar respect to the particular Church of Ephesus but that it doth equally concern all Churches so far as they fall under the same Character Which whether we at this day day do or no it is fit we should seriously examine ourselves about Here are three things considerable in the Text. First a great Sin and Guilt supposed Secondly a great Judgment denounced for that Guilt no less than the Un-Churching of that people that had contracted it Thirdly the means prescribed for the averting that Judgment viz. Repentance My Application of the Text shall proceed upon the same Heads that is I shall first desire leave to enquire whether we of this Nation at this day for our manifold sins and guilt may not be judged to be in as bad or worse circumstances than the Church of Ephesus in the Text and consequently have not just reason to fear the same Judgment that they are here threatned with Secondly I shall consider the Judgment here threatened how grievous a one it is and consequently how great an argument the consideration of it ought to be to us all to Repent Thirdly I shall speak somthing of this Repentance how it ought to be exprest if we would thereby prevent the Judgment I begin with the first of these points which concerns our sin and our guilt to make some representation of the Spiritual Maladies and Diseases that this Nation groans under those publick grievances by which the Holy Spirit of God is provoked to withdraw himself from us and to give us up to the Power and Dominion of other Masters This I must confess is a very melancholy and unpleasing Argument but yet very necessary to be insisted on and that very freely too especially upon such an occasion as this and most of all when I speak to those whose Concernment and whose Care it is to inspect these Matters and from whom we hope for a Cure of our Distempers It is here taken notice of the Church of Ephesus to her commendation that she retained the truth of the Christian Doctrine in opposition to the Heresies of those times and this God be thanked may be
where they live but if either of the other should be set up in the place of it they would as willingly conform to that One would think that such men as these should not be found in a Country that calls itself Christian much less in a Christian Country that calls itself Reformed And yet such is the infelicity and the fault of ours that men of these Principles and Practices do abound among us O Blessed God! Whither shall we come at last if timely care be not taken of these things But Secondly If to the Atheism and Infidelity that reigns among us we add the open Prophaneness and Debauchery that is every where to be observed in our days how much blacker will our guilt appear Where is that Antient Seriousness and Reservedness and Modesty that heretofore has been thought not only essential to the Spirit of a Christian but Natural to the Temper of an Englishman Alass We seem to have changed not only our Religion but our Climate too And may for Dissoluteness and Luxury for Pride and Vanity and Idleness compare with the antient Asiaticks and do perhaps out-strip several of our present neighbour Nations though of a worse Religion But this is not all so much are we degenerated from the antient strictness of Christianity That those things that would not have been named among the first Christians without horror and banishing out of their Society all those that did them are frequently practised among us And those Vices that even in the worse times of Christianity the Actors were affraid or ashamed to own are now made a matter of Sport and Merriment a Trick of Youth a Humour or a Frolick What was then a deed of darkness is now too often done in the face of the Sun and the persons concerned in the wickedness are so far from blushing at their guilt that they relate their own actions as a pleasant entertainment for their Company O the Riots and Drunkenness the Frauds and Cousenage the Filthy and Lewd speeches the Whoredoms and Adulteries the Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations that are dayly without any regret any sense of shame practised among us We seem to have lost not only the virtue of Modesty but of Hypocrisie too if so bad a thing may be called by so good a name Those Vices and Lewdnesses which heretofore sought corners and wore a Mask do now appear with a naked Face It is true It is to be hoped That the greatest part of us are not guilty of such Crimes and Immoralities as we speak of But this does not wholly excuse us For we are all faulty in this That these kind of Vices are not sufficiently branded and put out of countenance They pass under easie not to say Creditable names And so little a sense have we of them that a man may keep his Reputation among us though he be never so Vicious supposing that his Vices be of the Mode of the Country This very thing without our personal guilt makes the sin a National sin and God will Visit these things upon us except we Repent But to make up the measure of our Iniquities we can in the Third place live after this dissolute rate and yet at the same time many of us think ourselves Religious we increase the guilt of our Prophaneness by joyning Formality with it If we would disclaim all Religion when we led such wretchedly careless and sensual lives it would in some respects be more tolerable For then Christianity would not suffer by us It would get no Odium no Ignominy in the world It would not be an occasion to men to turn Atheists But to live un-Un-Christian lives and yet to call ourselves Christians Nay to make our Religion a Sanctuary for our Vices and to think that we may the more freely Indulge ourselves in them because we are of the Right Religion This is intolerable and extremely aggravates the iniquity of our practices And yet this is a fault that we of this Nation are notoriously guilty of We often make Religion to consist in Opinion and outward Profession If we have but once joined ourselves to that party of Christians which we think is the Right and do Espouse all their Controversies and are Zealous in the observance of their particular Forms and Rites whereby they are distinguished from the other Sects that are in being among us we think we are true Saints let our Morals be what they will This is the Religion that is every where too much in Fashion If for instance I have Listed my self a Member of some Church of the Separation as there is great variety of them If I be but true to the Principles of my Church and vigorous in opposing those that are not of my Way and constant in my attendance upon the Brethren at their Assemblies This Zeal of mine will excuse a multitude of my other Failings And though I now and then use indirect ways of Dealing in my Calling Though I be Uncharitable and Censorious Though I affront Authority and live in a constant Disobedience and Contempt of the Laws of it yet my fervour for that which I take to be the True Religion and the Relation I stand in to the people of God will bear me out as to these matters On the other side If I be a Member of the Church of England I am too often apt to think my self in a fair way to Heaven if I be but Stout for the Church and Zealous against the Sectaries and punctual in observing the Ceremonies of the Liturgy and now and then come to the Sacrament Though it may be I have nothing of the True Life and Spirit of Christianity in me nothing of that Sobriety and Meekness and Charity and inward Devotion that our Saviour doth indispensably require of all his followers Nay so far from that it may be I think'tis no matter how I live if I be but a good Subject to the King and a true Son of the Church Nay it is well if don 't go further it is well if I don't make Vice and Debauchery an essential Character of a man that is right in his Principles it is well if I don't brand seriousness of Conversation and a care of ones words and actions with the name of Fanaticism and reproach every one as a Puritan that will not Swear and Drink and take those un-Un-Christian Liberties that I do You know there are such men as these frequently to be found in all the several Sects and Ways of Religion among us But O! What is become of Christianity all the while This sure cannot be thy Religion O Blessed Jesus since it is so unlike both thy Actions and thy Doctrines Thou never placedst any virtue or praise in Knowing but in Doing In being of this or the other particular external Mode of Religion but in believing thy Gospel and following thy Example in Mortifying our Lusts and leading a life of Peaceableness and Obedience and Humility and all manner of inward