Christ is that which is by Divines called a saving and justifying Faith a Faith that works by love and is the fulfilling of the Gospel-condition a Faith that receives and submits to the Lord Jesus in all his Offices and as he is offered in the Gospel This is an usual and frequent meaning of the word Faith in the New-Testament and that which we should by all means Contend and endeavour to preserve entire That neither the pleasures of this life nor the inclinations of a Corrupt mind neither the sly insinuations of lewd Companions nor the interest and Grandeur of this present World divert us from it That neither to comply with the Lusts of the Flesh nor to form or promote an Intrigue or design we should violate the Rules of a good conscience or make bold with the Laws of Jesus Christ In short that neither Debauchery nor Dishonesty nor Knavery should make us forget our obedience to the Gospel or in any thing depart from the Principles of that Religion which we profess This is a Faith thus to be Contended for and preserved but this is not the Faith here meant in the Text. For besides this there is 2. Fides quam Credimus And by that is meant the Gospel And the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and his Apostles the Message they brought the Rules they gave the Means they prescribed in order to eternal Salvation are very frequently in Scripture called the Faith This Acts 6. 7. And the word of God increased or got ground and the number of the disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Faith So Galat. 1. 23. He that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed And so again 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure conscience And to name no more so it is in this place That ye should earnestly Contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints Where it is not the Faith whereby they believe but the Faith which they believe the Faith delivered to the Saints to be believed received and kept that is meant Not an Assent to the Revelation but the Revelation it self to which we give Assent The Faith here then is the Truth the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Doctrines of Salvation and those Rules and Means that guide us to eternal life or in one word the True Religion And this is further set out 2. By a considerable distinguishing Circumstance once delivered to the Saints Every Doctrine is not to be Contended for and every Religion is not worth the keeping and every thing that hath by men been delivered to men is not too tenaciously to be adhered to The Faith the Religion which Saint Jude proposeth to our Care and endeavours to keep is described by this which distinguisheth it from all that are false and sets the true and currant stamp upon it it is the Faith the Doctrine the Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once delivered to the Saints And this being the Mark and distinguishing Character of that Faith and Religion which we must Contend for it must the more carefully be enquired into that we may not miss our Mark and Contend for what we ought to avoid There are therefore two things to be explained in these words and we must enquire who are the Saints and what is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. 1. Who are the Saints here to whom the Faith was delivered And here I think the Answer is plain and easy enough that by Saints he means no other than those to whom the Gospel was first preached and who did receive it and believe Sanctos says one usitato Scripturae modo vocat Credentes he calls the Believers Saints according to the usual Language of the Scriptures And thus Saint Paul calls the Believers and Embracers of the Gospel the Saints and faithful brethren which are at Colosse and Philip. 1. 1. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi But then considering that it is Saint Jude the Apostle of our Lord that writes thus as is evident by the first verse of this Epistle where he styles himself Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James and by the Inscription of the Epistle which though it be not Canonical Scripture yet is the sense of the Ancient Church which entituleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Epistle of Jude the Apostle This Epistle then being written by him and calling the Doctrine of the Gospel the Faith delivered to the Saints that which in his time was delivered and received was preached and believed To us it sets the Mark and stamp of Antiquity upon that Faith and Doctrine which he calls upon us to Contend for And if we ask what is the Doctrine we ought to receive what the Faith we ought to Contend for the Answer is in Saint Jude the Doctrine the Apostles preached and the Faith the Ancient and Eldest Christians received This directly opposeth all Novel Doctrines and all Religions that are late and upstart Whatsoever is not derived from these Ancient and uncorrupt Fountains we are no ways obliged to maintain or Contend for as being none of the Faith delivered to the Saints And yet this is the quarrel between the Church of Rome and us She hath notoriously and visibly corrupted the Faith and departed in numerous instances from the true and old Religion We desire to adhere to it and to separate the Precious from the Vile and in Reforming our selves have done no more than returned to what was truely Ancient and have onely recovered out of the Rubbish of their Novel Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints For this they Charge our Doctrines with Novelty and call our Faith a New Religion but to whom that Charge most justly belongs will be no hard matter to the impartial and unbiassed mind to discover Athanasius wittily derides the Arrians that when they produced their Confession of Faith in the Council of Rimini they set down in the stile of it the Day and the Month and the Consulls when it was made as from thence dating the Beginning of their Faith and fixing the first Original of their Heresy and shewing thereby that their Faith was Late and upstart But what would he have said to the Church of Rome had he lived now And how smartly would he have rebuked their Novel Encroachments the Body of whose Religion as it is now embraced bears date from the Counsel of Trent and there is not one Article in their Faith wherein they differ from us but we can shew and prove it to be of a late foundation Late I mean in comparison with the Truth and the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints What Christ and his Apostles preached and what the first and eldest Christians believed and received we own and adhere to but other things that
guilty of disturbing the State by Sedition and Rebellion Nor was all this a Patience per force their Numbers were neither so small nor their Courage so low but they might have created Disturbance enough had they thought it Lawful so to proceed Tertullian tells the Emperor Severus in that excellent Apology he presented to him in the behalf of the Christians that their Numbers and Courage were sufficient to have stood upon their Defence and to make their Party good against their Enemies if they thought it Lawful so to do Sâ—… enim hostes apertos non tantum vindices occultos agere vellemus deesset nobis vis Numerorum Copiarum c. For if we had a mind to proceed by open Hostility could we want either Numbers or Forces sufficient we are but of yesterday and yet we fill all Places your Cities Islands Castles Corporations Councils your very Camps and Tribes and Companies your Palace Senate and Courts of Justice Sola vobis Templa relinquimus onely your Temples are free from us Qui Bello non Idonei c For what War should we be unfit or unprepared though our Forces were inserior who so willingly lay down our lives if in our Religion it were not more Lawful to be killed than to kill Nay he says that without a Rebellion they could Ruin their Persecutors only by with-drawing from them and if so great a number of men should retire into some remote Corner of the World their very Recess would be a punishment to them Proculà ubiâ—â—…â—xpavissetis ad Solitudinem vestram ad silentium reâ—â—â—â— et Stuporem quendam quasi mortuae Urbis Doubtless says he you would be astonished at the Solitude we should leave you in at the silence and stillness of your City as if it had expired at our departure But Christian Fortitude in those days ran in a stream quite contrary to Violence and Resistance and the Honour and Advantages of suffering for Jesus Christ and the Testimony of a good Conscience were then thought to be so great that no dread of Death nor probability of Prevailing could tempt them to such a Course And of this we have an eminent Instance in the Thebean Vid. Grot. de jure Bell. lib. 1. cap. 4. Legion which consisted of six thousand six hundred and sixty six men all Christians who in the Reign of Maximian laid down their Arms and were every man cut off and Martyred rather then they would sacrifice to Idols at the Emperours Command And when the Empire was now turned Christian and their Numbers mightily encreased when all Offices and Employments and all places of Trust were happily lodged in Christians hands Julian comes to the Throne a professed Apostate one that renounces the Faith he had early imbibed and openly declares for Paganisme and sets up their horrid Rites and Superstition again and yet no man opposeth him by Violence and Armes no Sedition nor Mutiny is raised against him though the strength of the Empire was then in Christian hands Prayers and Tears to GOD and earnest Entreaties and humble Apologies to the Emperours were the Ways and Methods of the Defence of the Faith in Ancient times and till the Popes had debauched the Minds of men and for their own Interest taught them to despise the secular Power we never heard of a Rebellion raised in the world upon the account of Religion nor of the Defence of the Faith by Force and Arms. This is a way which the Religion of the Holy Jesus abhors and this is not the way that Saint Jude here Exhorts us to Contend for the Faith in For though he useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does undoubtedly refer to those Exercises which were so famous and so much in use among the Grecians and are called by them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting of those manly Exercises of running wrestling and Combating yet it is as evident that in the use of the word he does not refer to the Force and external Violence used in those Cames but to the Diligence Industry Patience and Sufferance of the Combatants Thus it 's plain Saint Paul useth the word to signify the Patience and Phil. 1. 30. â— Tim. 4. 7. Constancy of the Saints in their spiritual Race and Combat in their sufferings and endurance of Labour and Persecution and thus our Saviour applyes it Luk. 13. 24. And I believe it will no where be found in the New Testament to signify the Resistance or Contention of external Force and Violence Not but that I think it Lawful for the Magistrate to draw the Sword in defence of the True Religion For he is the Minister of God and beareth not Rom. 13. 4. the Sword in vain If the Pope as he hath formerly done should give away this Kingdom to him that can catch it or set any Prince a work as he loves to do to force us into a Subjection to him no doubt the King may Lawfully oppose Force with Force and defend his Kingdom from every Invasion God hath put the Sword into his hand to manage for the Defence of Religion as well as of the People But then this is the Case of the Magistrate whose the Sword is and makes nothing to those who have none of that Power committed to them To these the Practice of our Saviour who refused to be rescued by Saint Peter's Sword and the Command he gave with the Reason of it Mat. 26. 52. Put up again thy Sword into its place for all they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword is a sufficient direction and Rule what they have to do and shews them how dangerous and unlawful it is to be meddling How then must we Contend for the Faith Surely in the head of all our Endeavours our Prayers and Tears ought first to be placed as the Ancient Arms of the Primitive Church and those most successefull Weapons with which they Encountred the Rage of the Enemy and by which their Patience and Constancy triumphed in the end Our Faith is from God and to whom therefore should we go for its Defence but to him who can with ease defeat the Designes of the Enemy and infatuate the Counsels of their best Contrivance who as the Prophet saith Frustrateth the tokens Isa 44. v. 25. of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backwards and maketh their knowledge foolish If he be among us we need not fear all the Efforts of Rome or Hell but if he forsake us our Defence is gone and our Glory departed and Ichabod may be written upon all our pleasant places But other Means are to be added to these also And every one in his several Sphere must employ the Talent that God hath given him for God loves not the Lazy Suppliant nor will hear the Desires of those that will always lye still and Cry God help The Magistrate must Contend in his Sphere for the Defence of the Church as well as the
A SERMON Preached July 17. 1681. at the Assizes at Huntingdon Before the RIGHT HONOURABLE the Lord Chief Baron Mountague And Mr. JUSTICE WINDHAM Judges of the Assize By Benjamin Smith Rector of Boxworth in Cambridge-Shire London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Three Crowns and Bible near Mercers-Chappel in Cheap-side 1682. ERRATA PAge 8. Line 6. for concern Read concerns ibid. l. 15. r. This is a dubious term p. 9. l. 22. r. This f. Thus. p. 10. l. 33. r. the Saints Colos 1. 2. To the Saints and faithful Brethren which are at Colosse p. 24. l. 32. f. Qui r. Cui Jude ver 3. It was needful for me to write unto you and Exhort you that ye should earnestly Contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints THere are no Contentions any wayes so smart and severe as those that are raised about Religion and among those it is observable that none are so inhumanely cruel desperately malicious or unnaturally mischievous and spiteful as those that are raised against the true Religion and the Professours of it For false Religions have no better defence or security to themselves than to persecute the true and if they could remove that out of the way there would then be none to detect their Error or Convict them of falsehood As Herod burnt all the Genealogies of the Jews that none might be left to shew that his Lineage was defective Besides as the true Religion improves mens minds and teacheth them not only true courage and inspireth them with a greatness and generosity of Spirit but also makes men more gentle and kind and advanceth Charity and Love to our Neighbour to an excellent height So on the other hand all false Religions one way or another debauch the minds of men and introduce the seeds of surliness and pride of a contempt of others and a disdain to be opposed and rivets in their minds a mercyless regard to those that differ from them Hence it follows that if power and opportunity fall in successfully with those Principles they embrace that force and violence and all the inhumane wayes of Compulsion are taken up as the proper and peculiar Methods either to defend and propagate their own Tenents or to undermine the Articles and Practice of the contrary Religion For that Religion that wants the solidity and loveliness of Truth to defend or promote it and cannot by its own native vertue and beauty maintain its ground and infinuate it self into th◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others must necessarily have recourse to the 〈…〉 Methods of Force and Rage of Bloodshed an◠〈…〉 that it may aw and scare men into a Complâ—… 〈…〉 subdue the Timorous and take those out of the 〈◊〉 whose minds being endued with more generous Principles know not how to truckle and submit to Falsehood Thus the Turk hath turned his Swords into Plough-shares but in a sence far different from that Evangellical promise and prepares the Soyl and plants his Religion by the point of the Sword and the dint and demonstration of Force and Violence And from hence it was that the Christian Religion in all Ages found such opposition both from Jew and Pagan not by Reason and Arguments but by Rage and Persecutions by Racks and Geobits by Fire and Faggot and by all the Arts and means that malice and fury that spight and inhumane Cruelty could invent or devise not to Convince but to Ruine and Destroy men Hence was that continued series of those dreadful Persecutions that raged so horribly against the Christians whilest the Empire was in the hands of Pagan-Princes they being hated as our Saviour foretold of all men for his Names sake And if any Famine or Mortality or any Evil occurrent had befallen the Empire the common Cry was Christianos ad Leones as if these had been the certain cause of every common Calamity or the Wrath of their Gods could only be appeased by the Blood and Ruine of innocent men But we need not go so far off to make instances nor search the Annals of Heathen or Turkish stories for a proof of what I say The Fraud and Force the Spight and Cruelty that Rome Christian-Rome hath alwayes persecuted us with abundantly shews with what Arts a false Religion is to be established and gives us as great an evidence as any that the Religion which they so propagate is not from God Historians tell us that Romulus layed the foundation of those Walls in the Blood of his Brother Remus and the humour of it Cleaveth to those walls still and though Rome be now called Christian she still goes on to Found her Walls and establish her dominion in the Blood of her Brethren And though old Rome advanced her Empire over the world by Sword and Slaughter by a forcible Conquest and the invasion of other mens Rights yet it was by Prowess and Valour and the Generous Methods of an open War And in this indeed Rome is Rome still that she usurps and encroacheth that she battens in Blood and thrives by Confusion and Slaughter but yet she is much departed from the Generosity and Gallantry of old Rome in that they scorned to proceed but by open Defyance and gave an Enemy warning to look to himself but these thrive by Treachery and Baseness and steal upon us like a Thief in the night and are ashamed of no Arts and baulk no Methods how dirty and indecent how mean or unmanly soever that may but any wayes tend to promote their designes and advance as they call it the Catholick cause Hence an inhumane Cruelty where-ever they get an advantage does constantly attend their Successe the certain signe of a cowardly and degenerous mind of which the Parisian Massacre the Irish Rebellion and their Butcheries in the valley of Peidmont are lasting and undeniable Monuments And all the advances they have made and the ground they have gotten hath most-what been by Base and Treacherous Plots by Fire and Poison and Daggers wayes that God beyond Dispute never appointed his Church to rise by or to defend her self with and a Method of proceeding that the Christian Religion does utterly abhor and disown And all these and more too we have by experience found to be practised by them upon our selves in this Nation If not all in Effect no thanks to them who laid their Traines and did their utmost yet all this they have endeavoured to do and would certainly have done if the infinite mercy and good Providence of God had not been our defence to their confusion It was out of this Shop that all those Treacherous and Trayterous attempts against the Life of that excellent Princess of ever blessed Memory Queen Elizabeth first proceeded From Rome they derived both their encouragement and first formation From hence Lopez was set on to Poison her Parry Sommervile and others to Stab her A Practice that Heathen-Rome scorned to use or own but Rome called Christian makes these the chiefest of her Arts and relyes on
are not found among these Doctrines or are repugnant to them we justly renounce as New and Erroneous though they have contracted a venerable Rust by their Age and seek to impose upon us under the mask of Antiquity and by the descent and length of their Pedigree Primum quodque verissimum is Tertullians Rule and we desire to stand and be tryed by it and would have nothing imposed upon us that the Scriptures the true and Authentick Records of Antiquity do not mention nor own The Doctrines which the Apostles preached the Rules of Life and Salvation which they gave is what we Contend for for this is the Faith delivered to the Saints Let us now consider 2. What is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Once delivered in the Text. There are two Senses given of it by Interpreters both which may be taken in as being both indeed implyed in the word 1. Once may carry the sense of Conjunctim and so the learned and judicious Hammond paraphraseth it preached uniformly to all by the consent of all the Apostles This was that Doctrine that was One and the same though preached by different persons this the Apostles all agreed in and observed in their preaching through the world that though they were so far distant one from another yet they all preached the same thing and made no Difference in the Doctrine they Preached in the Faith they delivered to the Saints How happy had it been for the World and how much had it conduced to the peace and Purity of the Church and to the safety and security of the Souls of men if the Missionaries of Rome had observed and proceeded by the same Rule and kept to the Doctrine that was once delivered and had taught none other things then what the Apostles by Common consent and Harmony of mind had preached Then had they never imposed so much False Doctrine upon the world nor ever preached things so vastly different from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Then might the Church in a great measure have retained her Virgin-Purity still and had not been defiled nor the world been disturbed by the insolent Encroachments of Rome Then might Images a very Fornication in Religion have kept their place among the Batts and Moles and in holes and Brambles where the Prophet sayes the Is◠2. 20. Jews upon their Reformation should throw theirs and had never crept forth to see the light to be adorned and admired nay to be set up and worshipped by Foolish men Then might the Church have been left to pray and say Amen with understanding and to go to the Throne of Grace in a way where all knew what they were doing and the Scriptures those Fountains of living waters had never been sealed up under an unknown Tongue from the eyes and use of those whose Duty as well as Interest it is to peruse and understand them Then might the Church have enjoyed the Sacraments as they were first instituted for her use and as our Lord appointed they should be received and the Cup had neither been taken away nor the Bread been made a God and a Prodigious Idol to be worshipped and eaten Had they followed the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostles they would never have dared to Alter what our Saviour had Ordered nor have presumed to deprive the People of the Cup when our Saviour at the first institution of that Ordinance said Drink ye all of it Mat. 26. 27. Then might Princes have enjoyed their Rights and neither have been questioned nor molested in their Thrones by those who ought to be subject to them and then might the People have led their lives under them peaceably in all godliness and honesty and had never felt the effects of those Fire-brands which the Pope hath thrown abroad in the world nor ever been taught to rebell against God and the King In short then had that Mass of Corrupt Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines that have with so much confidence been broached so highly to the dishonour of Religion and to the danger of Souls never seen the light nor defiled the Church had they kept to the Faith that was once delivered that is delivered conjunctly by all the Apostles one and the same 2. Once delivered carries in it the sense of Immutably Once for all as we say not to be changed or altered any more God gave his people the Jews a Law and Ordinances of his own appointment but these were not to hold but till the Fulness of time was come and then that dispensation was to cease and be done away to make room for one more perfect and lasting one to be so Once delivered as not to be delivered again in another way or with any addition or amendment And in this sense the Scriptures use the word elsewhere Psal 89. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Once have I sworn in my Holiness that I will not lye unto David That is certainly immutably and without alteration And this way both Grotius and Beza go Semel Quia de ea Doctrina nihil sit imutandum Once Because nothing was to be changed in that doctrine And therefore every Substraction or Addition to this Faith thus Once delivered is a notorious Wrong to it a Corruption of the Doctrine and an Encroachment upon the Authority of God Almighty in whose power alone it is to make and establish an Article of Faith And therefore do we appeal to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and desire to stand and be tryed by that for since it was Once delivered so as not to be altered the Church of Rome having made both Additions to it and Variations from it stands justly charged with that Novelty which she would fix upon us When our Saviour reproves the corrupt Practices and Glosses of the Jews he reduceth them to the true and Ancient standard and tells them from the beginning it was not so And upon many of the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome we may write the same Remark and shew that from the beginning it was not so We can tell by what steps the Papal Grandeur advanced and by what unjust Encroachments and undecent huffs and insolencies they enlarged their dominions and enslaved the Church and imperiously trampled upon Princes We can tell them the Time and prove it when they please that the Bishops of Rome were more tractable and humble and that the world did not take them to be such uncontroulable Pieces as afterwards they grew up to be Gregory the Great ownes the Emperour Mauritius for his Lord and Master and declares him to be the Forerunner of Anti-christ that desires the Title of Oecumenical Pastor or universal Bishop And he held the Chair in the end of the Sixth Century But the world is much altered with them since as to both these points and now they assume a power of deposing Princes and to dispose of the Kingdomes of the earth at their pleasure
Government of the State the Preservation of the true Religion as well as the Peace is within the exercise of his Authority and ought to be part of his Care He Contends for it by a tenderness and Care over all its Concerns and by Restraints upon the Petulancy and Unruliness of men who would either Corrupt the Doctrine or disturb and interrupt the Peace of the Church And here is also Your Sphere to Act my most Honourable Lords to whose Wisdom and Skill the Execution of those Laws are Committed by which our Religion hath hitherto been defended and so happily flourished I Shall not presume to direct or advise or Exhort you the Knowledge we have of Your Love to Religion and of your Faithfulness in Your Trust will not suffer us to fear that You will be negligent in the Defence of that Religion which you Love so well or let those Laws which are so great a part of Your Trust be baffled or buried on which the Safety and Peace and Security of our Faith at this time so much depends The Minister must Act in his Sphere and he Contends for the Faith by declaring the mind of God in Truth and expounding sincerely the Oracles of GOD. By opposing and convincing Gain-sayers and defending the Truth from Heresy and Error and the Sophistical Tricks of those who lye in wait to deceive and as the Apostle says Lead Captive Silly women laden with 2 Tim. 3. 6. sins And All men as Christians must Contend in a way suitable to them as such by Knowledge and Practice by Love and Sufferings and all the Methods that are Proper and Lawfull and suit with Christians considered as such in their private Sphere and Capacity And to these in this Circumstance it is that Saint Jude directs his Exhortation and perswades them to Contend for the Faith That is exhorts them to an earnest and immutable Adherence to it so as not to forgo it for all that the Enemy can do Neither to be scared out of it by Dread â—r Danger by Violence or Death nor to be cheated and wheadled out of it by the Insinuations of those that lye in wait to deceive and Creep in unawares that deprave the Faith and corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel and turn the grace of God into Lasciviousness or exchange the Truth of God for a Lye And thus to secure our standing in the Faith and to preserve that Religion and Purity of Doctrine that God hath blessed us with no Ways are more Suitable and Proper or likely to be more Successfull than these 1. To understand well and be throughly informed in the Principles and Fundamentals of that Religion which we profess For the greatest and most successfull Conquests that in any age the Enemy hath obtained have ever been upon those that are weak and Unstable in the Faith the Wavering mind hangs trembling in an equal Suspence between Truth and Falshood and these hardly escape the Assaults or stand the Shock of those who lye in wait to deceive And therefore the Methods of the Enemy have usually been to pick out those to subvert whom they see Ignorant and Unstable as knowing these to be the most liable and likely to be brought to their Lure And indeed how should it be otherwise for they that are not well informed in what they profess may easily enough be perswaded that their Profession is Erroneous and the Best Religion may Easily be disparaged to them that do not understand its Nature and have not enquired far enough into it to discern the Beauty and excellency of it And doubtless this hath given the Church of Rome a vast Advantage against us who know well enough how to improve it in that so many are strangers to the Principles of that Religion which they profess as having never been Instructed in them nor taken the pains to Examine what it is they pretend to believe Too many have satisfied themselves with being of that Profession in which they were born and brought up without taking the trouble to understand what that Profession is or to have any other Argument for it than their Education And therefore when I reflect upon that Ignorance in Religion that is growing up and that little Concern or Regard that men have to be well versed or informed in the Fundamentals of it instead of wondring that Rome hath gained so many from us I onely wonder that they have gained no more And I very much fear that if the time should ever come that men might with Safety or advantage change the Church of England for that of Rome there are too many that would need but little Perswasion and all because they so little Know the Truth the Beauty and Excellency of that Religion which now they profess 2. To Practise seriously and Conscientiously what we profess To hold the True Faith in Notion and to deny it in Practice is to pull down with One hand what we erect with the Other and to subvert and betray the Faith that we seem to Contend for And indeed it is not easy to suppose that a man should be resolute to Suffer for any Religion nor stand any ways Vigorously in the Defence of it who will not submit to the Power of it nor will let his Life be regulated nor his Lusts be mortified by it To the Profane person all Religions are alike and that which bids fairest for his Interest or is most suitable to his Inclinations Carries it with him It is the Practice of Religion that renders it Truely sweet and pleasant to the Professours of it and none but those can heartily love the Faith and be Zealously concerned for its Defence that have Experienced the Power and Influences of it in themselves To Practise therefore what we profess is a considerable means of Defence for the Religion we own for this engageth God on our side and lets the Enemy see it is in vain to Tamper or be meddling For to live up to the Principles of our Profession and to adorne our Religion with a suitable Conversation is to bring forth Fruit and to glorify GOD and where these are found the End is answered for which the Gospel is bestowed and so long the Candlestick shall not be removed while People rejoyce and walk in the Light And therefore it is observable that the Removal of the Means of Grace and an Eclipsing the Light of the Gospel hath ever in all places been preceded by a Decay of Piety and an Inundation of Profaness This pulls down the Wrath of GOD and that makes the Cunning and Malice of men effectual God will walk no more among them that walk contrary to him and they that will Practise no Religion may easily enough be perverted to Any how irrational or absurd soever it be God grant that that Coldness Looseness and Profaness that so universally over-spreads this Nation be not too sad a Prognostick and preparatory to the Departure of the Gospel from among us