A SERMON Preached at Blandford-forum IN DORSET-SHIRE December the 19th 1682. AT THE Lord Bishop of BRISTOL's VISITATION By RICHARD RODERICK B. D. Student of Christ-Church in Oxon and Vicar of Blandford-forum LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for Henry Clements Bookseller in Oxford 1683. A SERMON Preached at BLAND FOR D-FORUM IN DORSET-SHIRE December the 19th 1682. ACTS 2. 42. And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers IT is too too observable that when Men have once wickedly complyed with discover'd or weakly given up their Assent to unsearch'd Errours their main business afterwards is right or wrong to justify the Principles which they have imbibed The Care that should have been taken to prevent is laid out to hide their Deformity and disguise their Shame Hence the Writings of Fathers and perhaps the Decrees of Councils are entituled to them Scripture is wrested and Antiquity raked into to give Patronage to the foulest Misdemeanours Thus of old St. Origen was made use of to defend the Heresie of the Arians St Cyprian of the Donatians St. Ambrose St. Jerome and St. Austin of the Pelagians And of late the uncommissioned Zeal of Gregory Nazianzene and the Stories of Theodoret have been cited to excuse Disobedience to Princes and to null the rights of their next Heirs Thus Schism has always fled for Sanctuary to the Altar and from those who most constantly attended upon it especially in the first Ages of Christianity has endeavoured to gain Credit and Success Thus also too many in our Days though God be praised their number decreases and was never such as they boasted of too many for the defence of their Separations plead that Liberty in which they suppose the Primitive Christians stood fast and renounce that indispensible Communion which the Church enjoyns upon pretence that from the beginning it was not so Whereas indeed we are assured that the early Fore-runners in the Faith did not make or follow separate Congregations and divided Interests but They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The Words are a Character of the Primitive Christians of the Church in the times of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred Fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breaking of Bread however taken by some learned Men the former for that most liberal distribution and wonderfull Charity conspicuous in those Days the latter for breaking of common Broad according to the custom of the Jews in the beginnings of their Feasts Yet by others of great Authority This is supposed to denote the Eucharist which the Apostles blessed That the Communion which they were the chief Members of Without any farther Explication of the Text. I. I shall endeavour to shew that the Primitive Christians not onely such as were contemporary with the Apostles but those also that succeeded them were united in Judgment and Practice as to Matters of Religion and the Worship of God They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers II. I shall examine what Means were used in the Primitive Church thus to unite Men in Judgment and Practice as to Matters of Religion and the Worship of God III. I shall enquire how far now-a days the Magistrate and those in Authority under him may proceed in order to the uniting Men in Judgment and Practice as to matters of Religion and the Worship of God IV. I shall conclude with an Exhortation to what is here said to have been the Practice of the Primitive Christians and ought to be ours that we also be united and continue stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers I. I am to shew that the Primitive Christians were united in Judgment and Practice as to Matters of Religion and the Worship of God they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers At the time when that prodigious effect of Omnipotent Mercy was express'd in the Incarnation of our Redeemer the distracted World not keeping any regularly traced Path towards Salvation wandred in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death The Jews had made the written Law give way to the oral they had prostituted their Understandings to the Direction of those blind Guides which taught for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and by magisterial Confidence and precise Hypocrisie Qualifications which often come together so far enslav'd the Judgments of their Proselytes that if two of them held contradictory Opinions each notwithstanding was thought infallible The Heathens though the Light of Nature would not suffer them to be ignorant of what was good yet could not come to the knowledge of the Lord much less of what he required in the acts of Devotion The Jews had lost their way the Gentiles never knew it But after his coming whom the Father sent to be a Light to lighten These and to be the Glory of Those the Partition-Wall betwixt Jew and Gentile was broken down and both united into and made Members of one Body whereof Christ is Head Our Saviour having thus gathered and constituted his Church and setled an orderly Government in it the Primitive Christians knew it to be their Duty and accordingly held Communion with the one and submitted to the other They rejoyced to be of one Fold under one Shepherd not loosely scattered abroad as Sheep having none They heard and obeyed his Voice when he spoke by them whom the Holy Ghost made Overseers of his Flock They contended earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints and Christ having provided for his Service in a regular way came together in Unity to the House of the Lord to offer Prayers and Thanks-givings jointly to the Almighty and Violence to Heaven with united Forces When the Disciples were but few These all continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication Act. 1. 14. And when the Word of God mightily grew and prevailed The multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul Acts 4. 32. No foolish Prejudices uncharitable Surmises or fruitless search after sarther Purity excluded them from the Fellowship of their Brethren from a common Participation of the Sacraments and Prayers and carrying on the designs of Christianity with joint Endeavours and Affections They kept the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace of outward Communion endeavouring to walk worthy of that Vocation wherewith they were called in one Lord one Faith one Baptism They knew that the Lord had always even before the times of Christianity been jealous of his Honour and manifested his Jealousie by requiring an awefull Observance and punishing the least neglect of the Place where his Honour dwelt An immediate stroke from Heaven was sent upon the Men of Ashdod of Gath and of Ekron for detaining the Ark of God upon the
However the forementioned troubled and this last Pestilence very much overspread the Roman Empire yet in many places of Persia India and Ethiopia of Egypt France and Italy the Orthodox Religion obtained And they that held it especially when restored to its former Lustre censured the others for being through zealous perverseness guilty of Heresie and Schism Heresie that most dangerous denial of the Catholick Faith Schism than which some of the Fathers thought that Idolatry others that Sacrilege was not worse which St. Ignatius took to be the original of Evils St. Cyprian to be a Sin of so heinous a Nature that Martyrdom it self could not expiate for it What was done to obviate or disperse the fatal Influence of such Offences my second General now to be considered will discover Wherein II. I am to examine what means were used in the Primitive Church to unite Men in Judgment and Practice as to matters of Religion and the Worship of God to keep them stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The great Universal Architect all the Works of whose Hands join together to doe him Service not having put Enmity but requiring agreement among themselves the early Professours of the Gospel the first-Fruits of Christ thought the Members of his Mystical Body more especially concerned to maintain Unity and Concord in the Church now newly establish'd Hence the many affectionate Entreaties to enlarge and secure its Borders the many servent Exhortations to convince and win the froward to come into and hold fast Communion with it But the Congregation of Believers once gathered if the soft still Voice would not awaken lethargick Sinners and keep them watchfull nor the Shepherd's gentle call bring back the wandring Flock these mild Methods failing harsher were tried yea gradually advanced to the utmost Severity When notwithstanding the most ardent Persuasives to Peace and Unity Dissentions sprung up as Acts 15. it seemed good to lay upon the Brethren necessary things not all of them as appears from the 29th verse necessary antecedent to the Command and therefore such and so to be esteemed by virtue of it because the Governours of the Church in their discretion thought fit to enjoin them But not to insist upon these and other Injunctions of the Apostles to keep Men in the true Faith and Orthodox Worship or upon their extraordinary power of punishing those which abused or forsook either Not to tell of St. Paul's striking Elymas with Blindness St. Peter's speaking Ananias and Saphira dead and such like miraculous Inflictions let us observe the ordinary regular Discipline used in after-times to engage Men to be tenacious of the Doctrine and have regard to the Communion of the truly Apostolical Church To this end were frequent Penances and sometimes Excommunications inflicted not onely upon immoral but also upon heretical and schismatical Persons Indeed none of these Offenders could be restrained without authority to punish all For Men will be apt to run on blindly in the way to Hell if they do not hearken to such as God has appointed to be their Guides towards Heaven and will soon become vitious in their Lives when they leave off being found in Faith or being orderly in Worship And the Church will not long retain her Purity if she cannot be severe to the Disturbers of her Peace Some of the greatest Troublers whereof have kept up their Reputation in despite of and justified their Separation from her by making a shew of Reformation and greater Purity than others notwithstanding which Pretences her Censures have fallen heavily and justly upon them As a Community she must needs have this inherent Power to correct the Members of her Society that offended against the Laws of it Without the right exercise of such Authority Christ's Religion would in its Infancy have been buried in Weakness and have had no hopes of ever imitating him by rising again in Glory But the Influence of the forementioned Severities made the Christians that lived under a due awe of them to shine as Lights in the midst of a wicked and perverse Generation to be exemplary Instances of Holiness in their Lives lest they should be such of Terrour in their Punishments To weak-sighted Men who could not be so heartily affected with the Reversion of Joy or Misery present Penalties were and always will be the chief Sanctions of the Evangelical Law most strongly fence and secure it from Violation In the nonage of the Gospel when they that embraced it came with a true sense of Religion to publick Prayers and the Sacraments then to be banish'd from them to be thrown out of the Church as the Laodicean Synod to be wholly cut off from Communion as the Apostolick Canons to be delivered over unto Satan as Scripture styles it this stampt upon their Minds melancholy frightfull Reflexions and swallowed them up with Horrour and Confusion The excommunicated were overwhelmed with such anguish of Soul that to be freed from the intolerable Distress no penitentiary Humiliations were tedious to them With Tears Sighs and Groans that cannot be utter'd they constantly begg'd and at last gain'd Absolution in the end of the appointed time this was seldom shortned except when danger of Death great Persecution the Number Dignity or Infirmity of Criminals induced the Church to mitigate her Sentence towards them The most scandalous Ossenders Hereticks and Apostates upon a thorow Repentance were admitted to publick Penance and the Sacraments and the Novatians condemned who would have them excluded from both By impartial Severities and charitable prudent relaxations of them Christianity was propagated in Purity and Holiness and often without disturbance became victorious and triumphant over the Temptations of its Spritual and the Rage of its Temporal Enemies 'T was then as much as now morally impossible that all Men should be of the same Mind as to Faith and Worship yet the open avowing of their Dissent was thought necessary to be restrained Really he that from the moral Impossibility of an universal Agreement concludes no Laws should be made against Apostasie and Separation may as well say that because all Men will never be vertuous and religious Liberty should be granted for Immorality and Profaneness Not that I affirm these later are Crimes in themselves of no deeper a dye than those former yet this will follow that both being mightily destructive to the good of the Community ought to be suppressed as far as may be though there be no hopes of totally rooting them out This will be farther evidenced in my third General next to be spoken to Wherein III. I am to enquire how far now-a-days the Supreme Magistrate and those in Authority under him may proceed in order to the uniting Men in Judgment and Practice as to matters of Religion and the Worship of God to the keeping them stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers It must be acknowledged that the
Bethshomites for looking into and upon Uzzah for rashly supporting it When that wandring Seat of his Glory was at length after above a thousond Years fixed in Mount Sion thither the Tribes were bound in Duty to go up to give Thanks unto the Name of the Lord. And since such antiquated Shadows being ceased God has chosen him a more lasting Habitation built him a Church and cemented it with the Bloud of his Son and promised that shall be his Rest there will he dwell for ever certainly to it shall the Gentiles seek All are invited yea obliged to come in that his House may be filled The Members hereof who ought to be a Body fitly joined together and compaited by that which every joint supplyeth dishonour their Head and make him the Authour of Confusion when they do not approve themselves of the Household of Faith by a common profession of it and united Endeavours to shew forth and advance it This Union in Judgment and Practice was zealously observed by the Primitive Christians They continued dayly with one accord in the Temple Justin Martyr calls their Devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Prayers Upon the first day of the Week and this constantly as Ecclesiastical History assures us the Disciples came together to break Bread that is to partake of the Lord's Supper Nay it is said that the Lord added to the Church such as should be saved intimating the Difficulty not to say the Impossibility of Salvation out of the Pale of it in a State of Non-communion with it The truth is there remain but slender hopes of Glory to such as live and dye unacquainted with or in the neglect of the Means of Grace It was then thought an indispensable Duty not to forsake the publick Assemblies At first the Temple the Place set apart for religious uses was their House of Prayer And when they were driven thence and Divine Providence had ordered the Malice of Men which scattered abroad the Professours to enlarge the Borders of Christianity how distant soever in their abode they that embraced the same Truth still preserved Unity and Concord An external Fellowship in the Word and Sacraments with their Brethren with all their Brethren as occasion presented it self was judged necessary this transient Communion never to cease 'till swallowed up by that which shall be to everlasting in the Heavenly Jerusalem in the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven No care was neglected to prevent or reconcile Divisions These were seldom known it being by no means accounted a sign of Grace and Holiness to fly off upon every dislike and forbear Society And when they did break out the Churches Peace was for the most part secured Men laying aside their private Animosities in Religious Concerns as Marcus Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius in Civil in order to the common Good and allowing that Communion was necessary whenever not sinfull and that difference in Rites and Ceremonies in things in themselves indifferent was never sufficient to excuse the breach of it When that great irreconcileable Controversie arose about the keeping of Easter Polycarp being sent from the Eastern Churches to Anicetus chief Patriarch of the Western though they could not agree as to the matter in hot Dispute yet all other Endearments passed between them they received the Blessed Sacrament together and mutually consented in behalf of the Parties for whom they treated that however the Business they met about could not be composed Peace and Communion should not withstanding be religiously maintained Such was the Unity of the then Christian World even among those of different Denominations and Interests and that were independent upon one another Such from the beginning was and continued to be the practice of all except that now and then that fretfull humour called Zeal which when not according to Knowledge is at best but a well meaning Phrenzie or else Ambition carried on or defeated made Men forsake the Communion of the Church and disturb its Peace Let the present Troublers of our Israel assign which they please perhaps it would be hard to excuse some of them from either of these Incentives to Separation By the impulse of the former the Catharists in the East the Novatians in the West and the Donatists in the South all Types of modern Zealots with a Pharisaical Haughtiness thank'd God that they were not as other Men and concluded themselves too Holy to join in Prayers and Sacraments with their Brethren To the later to wit Ambition Eusebius refers the Heresie of Montanus Tertullian that of Valentinus When Aerius had in vain aspired to a Bishoprick the disappointment moved him after the barbarous usage of that Tyrant who cut on stretch'd others to the Proportions of his own Stature to deny the Distinction of Order and shrink a Bishop into a Presbyter And however the Lord Bacon and other learned Men thought Arianism took its rise from an aversion to Pagan Dotages precipitant Zeal against many Gods hurrying on to acknowledge but one Person in the God-head yet Theodoret affirms that Alexander's being preferred before Arius incensed the rejected Competitour to set on foot and propagate his detestable Doctrines 'T is true indeed many all along apostatized from the Truth or held it in unrighteousness the Enemy presently sowed Tares in Christ's Wheat There was a Judas among the Apostles And when the number of Professours encreased to an hundred and twenty there were half Christans that durst not openly own false that soon forsook the Gospel Among the seven Deacons Nicholas was the Founder of an abominable Heresie Six of the seven Asian Churches are accused of deadly Sin In succeeding Ages sundry Heresies arose St. Austin reckons eighty eight Bellarmine about two hundred Nay once Christ's Promise of being with his Church unto the end of the World seem'd to be forgotten by him and the Gates of Hell to prevail against the truely Apostolical Religion while Arianism that subtile Serpent which crept before and flyly insinuated it self now slush'd with Success raised its Head and threatned ruine to all that durst oppose its Reception For after the famous Battel where the Cross was first the Banner on each side and Christians first fought against Christians Constantlus having totally defeated Magnentius freed the Eastern Empire and gain'd the Western Valens an Arian Bishop as Numa to establish his Idolatry Mahomet his Impostures pretended a secret Message from Heaven and easily persuaded the Conquerour to owe his Victory and therefore afford all imaginable Protection to that Doctrine which he had espoused and the Almighty was judged in so signal a manner to approve Hence that blasphemous Heresie secured in the Favour and assisted by all the Power of the Emperour mightily encreased and its Title to Universality like that of an Usurper's Race to Soveraignty seem'd to be unquestionable when the onely one and without a Rival But to return