Watchmen the dumb Dogs the greedy Dogs Isa 56. the Idol Shepherds Zech. 11.17 and we should consider that all the severest rebukes given by the Prophets to the wretchedly sensual ignorant proud covetous and careless Priests in the Old Testament which are very many and all the sharpest reproofs of the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewish Priests that were delivered by Christ himself and recorded in the New are constantly thrown upon and applyed unto us by some or other of our Dissenters as though we had been the very Persons they were at first levell'd against But every Eye that is not bloudshed with Envy and Malice or some other like distemper must needs see the gross injustice of such dealing as this Howbeit we should know and well weigh these things and also who they be that represent us as Carnal Gospellers formal Guides unedifying Teachers Hirelings c. not that we might retaliate these injuries upon any of our Adversaries but that we might behave our selves so unblameablely in all respects that we may not give the least cause for such kind of Censures and that with St. Paul we may cut off occasion from all those that seek and desire occasion against us and indeed that according to St. Peter's advice they may be made ashamed who falsly accuse our good Conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3.16 We should not aim to vye with great ones in outward Pomp or secular Glory but our Honour and Ambition should be to excel in those Graces which truly adorn a Christian of the highest rank and that may bring the most immediate glory to God and benefit to his Church and in a word for I must not run out into any more particulars we should study to approve our-selves unto God and according to the Pattern of our Great Master to do the will of him that sent us to let our Conversation be in all points as becometh the Gospel of Christ and the faithful Ministers of it and not to seek our own but the things of Jesus Christ in the first place and then all men would quickly see that we were the Ministers of Christ indeed the Watchmen of God and the Remembrancers of the Lord of Host set upon the Walls of Jerusalem to cry day and night for the guiding of his People into the paths of truth and peace Isai 62.6 And if the Clergy would thus unanimously Zealously and Prudently seek to promote the honour of God and the things of Jesus Christ 't is not to be doubted but God would wonderfully bless them and all their endeavours of that kind and it might yet be hoped he might heal our breaches and make all our Enemies to be at peace with us that this Church as 't is the best in its frame and constitution so it it might become the happyest in all the World FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. of the Preface line 17. read in the truth In the Sermon p. 7. l. 26. r. advantageous p. 11. l. 12. r. surprizing accidents without a Comma p. 18. l. 28. r. function for fountain p. 22. l. 7 8. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also l. 32. for our r. the. Books Printed for Walter Kettilby THE Christian Life Part I. from it beginning to its Consummation in Glory together with the several Means and Instruments of Christianity conducing thereunto with directions for Private Devotion and Forms of Prayer fitted to the several States of Christians Octavo The Christian Life Part II. Wherein the Fundamental Principles of Christian Duty are Assigned Explained and Proved Vol. 1. The Christian Life Part II. Wherein the Fundamental Principle of Christian Duty the Doctrine of our Saviour's Meditation is Explained and Proved Vol. 2. The Christian Life Part III. Wherein the Great Duties of Justice Mercy and Mortification are fully Explained and Inforced Vol. 4. All four by John Scott D. D. late Rector of St. Gile's in the Fields Of Trust in God or a Discourse concerning the Duty of casting our Care upon God in all our difficulties together with an Exhortation to patient suffering for Righteousness in a Sermon on 1 Pet. iii. 14 15. By Nathanael Spinks M. A. a Presbyter of the Church of England A Discourse concerning Lent in two Parts The first an Historical account of its Observation The second an Essay concerning its Original this subdivided into two Repartitions whereof the first is Preparatory and shews that most of our Christian Ordinances are derived from the second Conjectures that Lent is of the same Original By Geo. Hooper D. D. Dean of Canterbury Mysteries in Religion Vindicated or the Filiation Deity and Satisfaction of our Saviour asserted against Socinians and others with Occasional Reflections on several late Pamphlets By Luke Milbourn a Presbyter of the Church of England An Enquiry into New Opinions chiefly propagated by the Presbyterians of Scotland together also with some Animadversions on a late Book Entituled a Defence of the Vindication of the Kirk in a Letter to a Friend at Edenburgh By Alexander Monro D. D. The Principles of the Cyprianic Age with regard to Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction asserted and recommended from the Genuine Writings of St. Cyprian himself and his Contemporaries by which it is made Evident that the Vindicator of the Kirk of Scotland is obliged by his own Concessions to acknowledge that he and his Associates are Schismaticks In a Letter to a Friend By J. S. Bishop Overal's Convocation Book 4to The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man 12. Mr. Halywell's Defence of Revealed Religion in Six Sermons 8vo Dr. Gregory's Doctrine of the Trinity not Explained but asserted 8vo Dr. Templer's Treatise relating to the Worship of God divided into Six Sections 1. The Nature of Worship 2. The Peculiar Object of Worship 3. The True Worshippers 4. Assistance Requisite to Worship 5. The Place of Worship 6. The Solemn Time of Worship An Impartial Account of Mr. John Mason of Water-stratford and his Sentiments By H. Maurice Rector of Tyringham Bucks A Letter to a Gentleman upon occasion of some new Opinions in Religion
Concio ad Clerum A SERMON Preach'd to the CLERGY AT THE Arch-Deacon's Visitation Held at Huntington May 19. 1696. Publisht at their Request To which is added a PREFACE to the CLERGY By SAM SAYWELL B. D. and Rector of Bluntsham in Huntingtonshire and sometime Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1696. To his Reverend Brethren of the Clergy and more especially to those who are under the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Deacon of Huntington and were Auditors of the following Discourse THE Christian Church began and was established in all its Essentials by that Authority which Christ himself gave to his Apostles his first Commission-Officers and 't was by the care and faithfulness of them and their Successors together with the special presence of Christ with them and his undoubted blessing upon their honest Endeavours that it shall last to the end of the World Though therefore we are sure the Church shall never utterly fail or be destroyed so long as the Heavens and the Earth which are now shall endure yet it may ebb and flow decay and flourish loose its strength and comeliness and recover them again and under go innumerable changes and alterations in the several parts and branches of it But I think it may truly be said that no particular Church so well constituted as ours is can turn to decay much less can it die and be extinguished where the Clergy are Learned and Prudent Sincere and Diligent Vnanimous and Zealous in the discharge of their several Offices And this Consideration gives us great reason to hope that the days of the prosperity of this Church may not be so short as too many do wish they may and many others are ready to Prophesie they certainly will be For no Church of the same extent can shew so many Learned Wise and Industrious Clergy-men as ours can do at this day Now if all these were also truly unanimous in their Counsells and firmly united and unfeignedly zealous in their Endeavours for the promoting the common Cause of Christianity amongst us they might so far influence animate and direct the whole Body of the Clergy as to make them the Instruments of Curing the most dangerous distempers of this Church and of bringing of it likewise to great beauty and perfection And that all sorts and degrees of the Clergy whether they be high or low may be truly serviceable to the Church and instrumental towards the healing her breaches and making up of her defects they should take great heed unto themselves that they may have right and clear spirits within them i. e. Neither distorted with Vice nor polluted or sowred with any kind of peccant humour They should not be envious peevish or malignant against any and much less should they be so against one another They should not be of lofty morose covetous or selfish Spirits but of minds really generous loving humble meek tractable and charitable towards all ever rejoicing in truth and in that which is good what ever condition themselves are in And in a word they should above all men look not every man on his own things but every man amongst them especially also on the things of others Phil. 2.4 and as it follows in the next Verse to let this mind be in them which was also in Christ Jesus c. and let me add That was in his most noble heroical and most faithful Servant St. Paul as 't is partly set forth in the following discourse And then they must needs be blessings to the Church let their own stations in it be what they will For if we observe matters narrowly and will judge according to righteous judgment 't will appear that 't is mens seeking their own and not the things of Jesus Christ that makes them they are not always serviceable to the affairs of the Church For if men were of right Spirits they would ever be of pure minds and also peaceable modest and humble in all their behaviour and if they could not serve the cause of true Religion in one kind they would not fail to do it in another and 't is the doing what we can in our Capacities that makes our services acceptable to God and Men. And if any see it necessary to advertise or reprove their Brethren for some dangerous slips they may have made or for some pernicious Errours they may unawares have fallen into they should undoubtedly do it in the most friendly manner and they ought not to exceed the bounds of Charity nor the Laws of the spirit of Meekness in a work of so nice and difficult a nature And if all the sacred Tribe had duly regarded the great Apostles advice Gal. 6.1 we should not have heard of such snarlings and bitings and opening of Mouths amongst them as if they would devour one another For it is not to be told in Gath nor published in the streets of Askalon what bitter Satyrs and invectives some Clergy-men have of late published against their Brethren But if they who should teach all Mankind and be Exemplary to them in every grace of the Spirit shall give themselves the liberty to chasten one another at such a rate we may easily guess what sort of Persons they will make sport for and what the consequences of such kind of doing will be And that we may not help to destroy our selves when we have so many Enemies that are seeking our ruine we should deeply consider that the Spirit which dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy and that the best and wisest of all are but Men subject to many passions failings and infirmities and we should often remember what the Scriptures of truth do witness concerning those who would be accounted the wisest when their Wit and Wisdom proceeds not from the Spirit of Wisdom or descendeth not from above 1 Cor. 3.19 20 21. and Jam. 3.13 14 15 16. And knowing the manifold distempers of the late times and under what different prejudices Persons have been bred up it is great injustice for men to be over-severe in censuring and judging one another and if we can but agree in all the parts of our present Constitution according to our Oaths and Subscriptions that should be enough to make us all Friends and should be accounted the only sure bond of Vnity that is fit and able to hold us together and if all can be brought by gentle methods to be conformable to the Rules of the Church and to submit their Doctrines to the Judgment of their Superiours as every sound Member of a true Church ought to do all Names of distinction amongst our selves should be wholly laid aside And seeing the Sentiments of Men are and ever will be various according to the several prejudices they have imbib'd in a distracted time and finding the nature of Mankind is so frail and touchy 't is greatly to be hoped that the Reverend Fathers of the Church
in us as the Apostle speaks And therefore 't is no wonder if the work of a Christian be represented in holy Scripture as a hard and difficult work and that we are therein commanded and exhorted to watch to run to fight to strive to give all diligence to contend earnestly to use violence to take diligent heed to walk circumspectly to do all that in us lies to take to our selves the whole Armour of God that we may stand to and acquit our selves like Men in the great work we took upon us at our Baptism And Men have ever found That the slipping into any sinful or evil habit is easy and natural to them 't is like sliding down the Hill and swimming with the stream But the attaining any new degree of Grace and the encreasing in any habit of Piety doth require our special care pains and watchfullness Now hence we may all be sensible of the difficulty of duly and constantly minding the things of Jesus Christ and that 't is no strange thing to see good men to fail and to come short of their best purposes and resolutions Because 't is hard for them to attend stedfastly at all times to such things as are irksom and opposite to their strongest natural inclinations For Men must have something or other to please and delight themselves in or else they cannot be easy or happy in any measure Therefore till persons can arrive to such a pitch of Religion and Piety as to take delight and pleasure in the Exercises of it it must needs be difficult to them and they will so long be in immediate danger of degenerating from their holy Calling and Profession Nay of falling into grievous Sins and carelessness of living Therefore till our hearts be loosen'd and pretty well weaned from all the things that can be enjoyed in this life and until we have escaped the corruption that is in the World through the lust after worldly things as St. Peter hath it and till we are delivered from the inordinate love of whatsoever is in the World as St. John expresseth it and till with St. Paul we can count all things here as dung that we may win Christ we shall not be able so duly and stedfastly to mind and seek the things of Jesus Christ as we ought to do 2. Considering this exceeding great difficulty of always preserving so exact an innocency so fervent a zeal and so prudent a deportment in all respects as could be wished for in every Minister of Christ and remembring that there were great failings and defects amongst the Clergy even in the Primitive Times of all The World should learn to make allowances unto them and to overlook their failings as they do those of other men For they are made up of the same flesh and blood and are Men of like Passions with others They have the same lusts and corruptions to fight against that other Men have and therefore it must not be thought strange if they are Conquered sometimes though their business be to lead and teach others how to fight For you know the Commanders and Captains are often Conquer'd and slain as well as the Souldiers of common rank The Priesthood was never exempted from the fatal disasters that befal men in the spiritual Warfare nor was it ever able to preserve those that bore it from every moral blemish Though no one of the Seed of Aaron who had any obvious defect or blemish in his body was capable of the exercise of it under the Law Lev. 21. We all know what that Law aimed at and what it was to signifie to us But however in the event it was but like the rest of God's most perfect Laws rather shewing men what they ought to be than what they really are or ever have generally been And seeing by the experience of all Ages it cannot be hoped that any order or small Society of Men will continue long in this World without their remarkable defects and failings it is therefore great injustice to bespatter and deride whole Orders and Bodies of Men on the account of the personal miscarriages of some particular Members and from the faults of some Ministers and Instruments of Religion to argue against and condemn Religion it self But they are commonly bad Logicians and worse Moralists that make use of this and such like Arguments against our holy Profession And it should especially be remembred that the circumstances of the Clergy in our days are vastly different from theirs in the Primitive Times For they were to travel from place to place and we are fixed to our stations They had their maintenance provided for them quietly by the Charitable Care and Piety of the Church whereas we have to do with many untoward and unreasonable Men for the procuring of ours The very first Preachers had not Families about them to burthen and distract them as they more generally have had who have lived in the setled times of the Church They had to do with those that dreaded their spiritual Authority and highly reverenced and valued their sacred Functions we have to deal with many such as little regard the holyness of our Office or the infinite benefits that may accrew unto them by our Ministry or the dreadful Censures which Christ hath empowred his Deputies on Earth on good occasion to denounce against them They had their Divine Wisdom and Knowledge in the Mysteries of the Gospel immediately taught them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and we gain ours only by the ordinary blessing of God upon our hard studies Prayers and tedious Meditations In their days the zeal of the Church was fresh fervent and burning whereas we live in the latter and perillous times wherein the love of many is waxen luke-warm and cold and when Men are become lovers of themselves more than lovers of God In those days both Pastours and People did generally profess the Christian Religion out of Choice love to God and Principles of Conscience but now 't is to be feared too many may do it out of Custom and Interest and meerly in complyance with the fashions of the World Then the Pastours and Ministers of the Church were chosen for their extraordinary gifts and zeal above others Now through the Corruptions that creep into the Church by little and little they are too frequently put in not for their worth but according to the Interest and Friends they can make amongst the great Men of the World be they better or worse They were to deal with a select Company of Persons who were nearly and deeply concerned for the honour of their Lord and the success of his Ministers labours But now we since the World is come into the Church especially in the loose state of affairs that we are at present in have to deal with a multitude of formal Professors of the Christian Faith whereof few have a sincere Zeal for the thriving of it and many are secret Enemies to the Establishing of it
be of one mind bating the most unhappy breach which hath lately happen'd amongst us and we should do all we can to make it up again But 't is their acting together unanimously in all respects their teaching the same things and their keeping strictly to the same rules which the Church hath given them to walk by and which they are all equally bound to observe that can make them strong and impregnable against all the assaults of their Enemies For as the greater differences amongst the Clergy drew after them those most pernicious Schisms and Heresies that are now so flagrant amongst us so the smaller differences in modes and manners of Administration and almost any swerving from our common rules do give some kind of secret wound unto the Church and 't is the perfect Unanimity and Uniformity of the Clergy that must help to cure those evils which have grown I say from the differences that first began among themselves For all men know that what is done by common consent and by a unanimous agreement carries strength and authority with it whereas any thing done of private motion or by following irregular Examples is ever liable to be censur'd and carpt at and 't is a sad thing when the very observing of the rules of the Church must be lookt upon as a singularity and almost most an occasion of offence and that meerly for want of that uniform acting which our common duties oblige us unto And it should be especially taken notice of that we are to do all we can to make men sensible what the Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline of our Church really are for not one in a hundred either of our Dissenters or of our own Members rightly understand our constitution but this can never be done effectually but by a constant and uniform repetition and exercise of them for 't is remarkable to observe how suddenly Papists and the Members of all other Parties among us shall learn to know and give an account of the main points of Doctrine manner of Worship Government and Discipline as they are held and practised in their several ways and yet very few of our common people rightly understand these things as they are better taught and used in our Church I have not time to tell all the reasons of this difference but 't is certainly the reducing the main points of Religion to a narrow compass and the frequent repetition and uniform practice of them that must make common people understand so much of it as 't is necessary for them to know Unless therefore the Reverend Bishops are Unanimous in directing the rest of the Clergy in matters already established and watchful in guiding of them likewise in all Emergencies of moment and they in teaching and directing of the people this Church can never rightly thrive and prosper But the greatest Unity and Uniformity without a true Christian Zeal in the Clergy also can never make us a happy Church and People neither For the holy fire must be always kept alive upon the Altar and be ready to be fetcht from thence or else the Sacrifices of God's People will be crudely and coldly offer'd and they which are to season others must have salt in themselves or else the Body of the Church will quickly prove unsavoury and be ready to turn to Corruption And the truth is a Clergy-man without Zeal for carrying on the work he hath taken on him is really one of the greatest hinderers of it and if they who are Ministers and Officers in the Church look more at the advantages and benefits that are annexed to their places than to the good work that is expected from them it makes the loose World to think their Calling is but a Trade to live by like those of others and not a sacred Function appointed by Christ himself and necessary for the keeping up of true Religion and Virtue among Men and for the winning of Souls to God We should remember what Pastours they are that love the Great Shepherd of the Sheep even those only that are careful to feed every part of his flock as may be gathered from his own words Joh. 21.15 16 17. We are set to profit many to all Eternity and 't will be the worst kind of Robbery in us if we seek only to benefit our selves for a little time in this World We are in the places of those that should be publick Benefactors and Blessings to Gods Church and People and if we are not such we are injurious to God to his Church and perhaps to those that would be so and it must not be thought strange if the People go about to rob God and us too of those dues which God himself and our pious Ancestours gave for our Maintenance if we rob them of that necessary instruction those constant Prayers and good Examples which we owe unto them and if we are not Careful and truly Zealous for the Salvation of their Souls that are committed to our care 't will not be wonder'd at if they run away from us and harken to those who take them chiefly by their Zeal and which is indeed the most commendable quality that is in them and we find by sad experience that all we can do is little enough and too little to keep the Sheep within the fold I do not aim God knows by any thing of this to lay a heavyer burthen on my brethrens shoulders than is there already nor to deprive them of any liberty that 't is fit for Persons of their Profession to enjoy much less to debar them from taking a moderate care of their temporal concerns and for the providing things honest and convenient for themselves and Families for I know it highly behoves them to have an Eye unto these things but it infinitely behoves them also to manage their Worldly matters so that they may be as small a hinderance as 't is possible to their greater Spiritual Concerns And when all is done we should consider that honesty is the best policy in all professions and the faithful discharge of our Offices as we are the Ministers of Christ is the readyest way to win the favour of God and Man and to bring temporal as well as eternal blessings upon us and ours 't was the singular Piety and Devotion of the Clergy that first won so much Wealth unto the Church and 't was the Pride Tyranny Looseness and other defaults and neglects of some of their Successors that occasioned the loss of it again and there is nothing but a true and unfeigned Christian Zeal that God throughly blesseth in all times and Ages and if any thing do generally mend the temporal condition of the Clergy in this Land it must be their Spiritual and more universal Zeal for the benefit fit of those that are committed to their care And 't is this also that must redeem us from that contempt that hath too visibly fallen upon us of late years I fear 'tas been the