but too fatally succesful for Many says he shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of Truth shall be evil spoken of And in the next Chapter he goes on to foretel the near approach of those Judgments which our Saviour Christ had so often denounced against the Jews and in which those complying Christians were in like manner to be involved And by both these Considerations he finally in the Close of all stirs them up both to a Care of themselves and to a Constancy in their Profession Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to Him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Such was the occasion of these words and the prosecution of them at this time will engage Me to explain the nature and to exhort you to the practice of two Duties than which I know none more proper for our serious Consideration Growth in Grace and Stedfastness in Religion and from both which there are but too many Seducers on every hand to turn us aside I shall pursue both in this following Order I. I will shew you what the true nature of that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text here exhorts us II. By what Motives especially it was that the Apostle stirr'd up the Christians to whom he wrote and that I would now crave leave to exhort you to such a stedfastness III. How highly both necessary in its self it is but especially how advantageous to this great End that we should all of us endeavour what in us lies to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And first I. What the true nature of that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text exhorts us and which I am from thence to recommend to you For 't is not every firmness that deserves the name of a true and rational stedfastness and a man may as well exceed by a perverse unwarrantable resolution not to hearken to any Motives tho' never so reasonable to change his Opinion as by an unfix'd and irresolute temper abandon himself to every wind of Doctrine that shall come to turn him aside from it Constancy in Religion is a Vertue that like all others must be regulated by Prudence It must be firm but it must be well-grounded too And he who would go about at all adventures to recommend a perseverance in that Faith whatever it be in which a man has been born and bred without allowing a just enquiry to be made into the Grounds of it and even a liberty to forsake it too should they prove less solid than they ought to be He may indeed provide for their security who chance to be already in the right way but shall render it utterly impossible for those that are not ever to come to the knowledge of it It is not therefore such a blind stedfastness as this a constancy in our Religion whether it be good or bad that either the Apostle here means or that I would now recommend to you This would be to make a plea for Obstinacy rather than Constancy whil'st by such a Rule it would be the duty of a Jew to remain a Jew a Heathen a Heathen for a Papist or Socinian to continue all their lives Papist or Socinian no less than for One of the Church of England to be firm and stedfast to the Faith and Communion of it That which I understand by a true stedfastness is this When a man is upon rational and good Grounds evidently perswaded of the Truth and Purity of his Religion then to resolve to stick close to it and not suffer any base unworthy Motives to draw him aside from it Our Religion must first be well grounded and then it will be true stedfastness to adhere to it And therefore to give such necessary directions as may suffice for the practice of this Duty I must distinctly consider it in both its respects and as it stands in the Middle between the two Extremes of a blind Obstinacy on the one hand and of a weak Instability on the other and by either of which the true nature of it will become equally destroy'd First then He that will be truly stedfast in his Religion must take heed that he does not mistake Obstinacy for Stedfastness This is an Error so much the rather to be remarked on this occasion in that a daily experience sadly shows us at once both the danger and easiness of such a mistake It is a strange perverseness in some men that they make it no less than a mortal sin to have any doubts though never so reasonable of any the least Doctrine they have once been taught to profess And there is hardly an Immorality so heinous and provoking so contrary to the Honour of God and so destructive of Salvation which their Spiritual Guides will not sooner overpass than such a Scruple Insomuch that by the express Order of the Church which I am now speaking of 't is made a part of mens solemn reception into their Communion the very condition of being admitted into a state of Proselytism with them not only to abjure for the present all those Tenets which they are pleased to call Heretical but also to imprecate upon their heads all the miseries of Eternal Torments if ever they suffer themselves BY ANY OCCASION OR ARGUMENTS WHATSOEVER to be hereafter better instructed This is in good truth to make a Faction of Religion 't is a Combination rather than a Constancy And what wretched effects it has upon the minds of those unfortunate deluded men that have once suffered themselves to be thus engaged appears in this That no rational Motives no Arguments though never so clear are almost able to work upon them The sad Vow they have made recurs continually upon their minds They have sworn to continue where they are gone at all adventures and therefore they now as obstinately resolve never to return to the Truth as they once weakly suffered themselves to be seduced from it To avoid such an unhappy Obstinacy as this and be constant in our Religion upon such rational Grounds as may justifie us before God and Man from the charge of a pertinacious firmness we may please to observe these following directions 1 st Let our Religion be founded in Knowledg i. e. Let us be clearly and evidently convinced of the Truth of that to which we do adhere and then we may be sure we cannot be justly charged with Obstinacy for our adhering to it He who takes up his Religion upon trust that receives all the Articles of his Creed by wholesale believes as his Church believes but it may be knows not either what that is or wherefore he does so 't is evident that such a credulous Disciple as this may be blindly
person both to consider and if it may be to prevent the enduring of them And however men may please to put the Evil Day far from them and hope that it shall not because it is their Interest that it should not too soon overtake them yet neither can any of us say how soon it may come upon us and were it at never so great a distance yet let us but remember that when it does come it brings an Eternity along with it and we shall be forced to confess That no present Considerations how great soever they may seem to be are yet fit to stand in competition with it He must be a very foolish or a very necessitous man indeed that would part with the certain reversion of a Thousand Pounds a Year for the obtaining a present Peny And yet such or rather God knows infinitely greater is the folly of that man who for any secular advantages whatsoever sells his Soul and thereby not only loses his title to all the Joys and Glories of Heaven but exchanges them for a dreadful Portion of Fire and Brimstone for ever Blessed Saviour What is there in all those little Enjoyments men here pursue with so much greediness that for the sake of them We should deny Thee and that Faith which must save us when we appear before thee in Judgment Behold yet a little while and there We must stand to render a strict Account of all our actions and receive according to what we have done in the body whether it be good or evil And what then will all these Interests and Advantages avail us What profit shall we then have tho' we could have gain'd the whole World when we shall have lost our own Souls for the doing of it How will it then please us that we have renounc'd our Faith to preserve those little Enjoyments that are now no more but the sad punishment of the soul Apostacy to which they have tempted us will continue for ever Certainly were the complying Hypocrite but capable of reflecting what shall be the end of his Apostacy could he but once think with the Prophet Who can dwell with everlasting burnings he would need no other motive to convince him of the folly of such Courtly compliance and to keep him from falling away from his own stedfastness 3 dly But the Apostle adds yet another Motive and which having mention'd I shall conclude We have seen the sad the unspeakable and what is yet more the eternal misery of him that falls from his stedfastness Could I now represent to you the as infinite Reward of the constant Christian could I delineate to you but a small part of those Joys which are prepared for such an One what an illustrious Crown of Glory shall adorn his triumphant Head to all Eternity I might then hope to have fully accomplish'd the design of this Exhortation and to have effectually secured you against falling away from your stedfastness But this is an Argument above my Capacity to illustrate Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor does it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for them that love him We have neither thoughts to imagine any thing comparable to its greatness much less words to express it And methinks even this should be enough to recommend it to us that we are not able to express it That its Excellency so far surpasses whatever experience we can pretend to of any felicity in this life that we cannot so much as found upon it any tolerable apprehensions of the Joys and Glories of the other At least this I am sure that it ought to be more than enough to convince you how incomparably more worthy our desires and pursuits such a reward of our firmness is than whatsoever can be offered to draw us aside from it And now having shown you both what it is to be truly stedfast in our Faith and how great an Obligation there lies upon us so to be what remains but that I briefly close all with the last particular I proposed to speak to III. How highly necessary in its self but especially how advantageous to this great end it is that we should all of us endeavour what in us lies To grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I could wish I had some longer time to improve as I ought this great and useful Exhortation But I have insisted too long already and therefore may not enlarge upon it The duty in short recommended to us is this That we should seriously endeavour according to our several opportunities to encrease every day in our Knowledg and Vnderstanding of the Gospel of Christ and in a suitable practice and performance of it And he who truly makes it his business to do this need never fear falling away from his stedfastness His Knowledg will teach him what is the right way and the Grace of God rooted in his heart will establish him that no unworthy Considerations shall ever be able to draw him aside from it 1. For what concerns the former of these Knowledg he must understand but very little of the true Spirit of Christianity that is not able at the first sight to discover the illusion of those false Teachers that are at present the most busie amongst us * Christianity is a Gospel of Peace and Charity It commands us to love and to do good to all men even our very enemies To bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for those that despitefully use us and persecute us And can those be its Disciples who scatter nothing but hatred and malice confusion and disorder whereever they come and make it a matter of conscience to root out and destroy from off the earth all those that differ from them The very foundation of whose Religion consists in a Maxim of the most detestable uncharitableness That all must be damned that are not of their Persuasion * Christianity is a wise and reasonable Religion a Religion becoming a most wise God to plant and rational creatures to embrace But our new Teachers are for a blind and unreasonable Piety They are for a Faith and a Worship full of the greatest contradictions And esteem the true Character of a thorough-pac'd Believer to be to believe not only without any just grounds but even contrary to the common Sense and Reason of mankind * Christianity is an honest an upright a sincere Religion a Religion that requires the greatest plainness and simplicity in all our words and actions And can those be Christians who are wholly made up of Fraud and Dissimulation who palliate the very Doctrine they profess deny the very Articles of their Faith when it is requisite thereby to seduce men to their Party and plainly show that they value not what they do or say as often as the mother-interest of their Church requires them to deceive * Christianity teahces us to worship
dangerous mistake we are apt to make in this affair is That Men are wont to think they do very well consider these things when in truth they do not consider them to any purpose at all For indeed what is that which men now a days to call Considering If they are sometimes a little serious if they reflect now and then upon the business of Religion If they go to Church on Sundays and are not scandalously wicked the week after If they receive the Holy Sacrament in its seasons and when they do so sit down a while and reflect a little a day or two it may be the week before upon their Sins and their Vanities and then Sigh and are Sorry and resolve to Sin no more this they call Considering and this I fear is what makes up the Religion of a very great number amongst us But alas this is as far distant from that true Consideration I would now recommend to you as the little imperfect Effects of it are for the most part inferior to that excellent Piety that would be the certain consequence of the other 'T is not every light reflection upon the business of Religion that is worthy the name of a true Consideration He that will do this as he ought to do must resolve to do it throughly He must search to the very bottome of his Soul Not a Sin so secret not a Lust or Interest so dear or profitable to us but what to the best of our power must be enquired into Now all the danger of Sin in General all the black circumstances and heightning Aggravations of our own Sins in Particular must seriously be consider'd The Hopes and Terrors of Eternity be throughly weigh'd What the Goodness of God is if we will yet repent What his Judgments will be if we shall continue to despise the Riches of his Mercy and Treasure up to our selves Wrath against the day of Wrath. In a word whatever may serve either to convince us of our Sins and of our Danger or to engage us to forsake the one that so we may escape the other must all be laid before us till finally by God's Grace we are brought in the bitterness of our Souls to such a sense of our Condition as shall engage us to a sincere Repentance of our Sins and Obedience to God's Commands And so work in us that change of Life which alone is able to save our Souls for ever He that gives off before he has done this He may have thought of his Duty if you will but he has not yet consider'd as he ought to do He may have prepared the way but he is yet to run In short He may have consider'd of Religion as many now a days do who read the Holy Scriptures run through all the various Sects and Parties of Christians who suffer not the least Controversie to escape them nor a Dispute to arise in which they do not interest themselves and yet when all is done have not one jot of real Piety in their Souls but after a great deal of pains get only that knowledg which puffeth up and are yet to learn that Charity which Edifieth This is the first and perhaps one of the most fatal Cheats men commonly put upon their Souls They flatter themselves that they do very well Consider these things when indeed they do not consider them to any purpose nor as they ought to do it 2. A Second Cause of mens Inconsideration and but little inferior to the foregoing either in the danger or the univerâ—ality of it is That our Consideration is for the most part totally turned another way It is a long time since the generality of Mankind seem to have fallen under a very dangerous mistake That Religion ought not to be looked upon as their Business but only as a thing by the by somewhat to entertain their thoughts with upon solemn times and in their Melancholly hours but which 't were unreasonable to expect amidst so great a plenty of other affairs as the world now abounds with should ordinarily be made the subject of their thought and their Consideration Thus have we utterly reversed the Maxim of our Saviour and made not our Salvation but the business of this World our Imployments and our Interests nay Good God! our very Vices and our Sins the Vnum Necessarium the great thing to be taken care of by us and we are so wholly taken up and engaged with these that we have no leisure to think at all to be sure not to any purpose and as we ought to do of that And now what wonder if when this is the Case we see such very sad 't is true but yet such very natural Effects of it Whilst men reckon the concerns of this present life to be the main of their business we ought not to be surprised if they consider no more of what may make for a better Till this mistake be rectified we may be troubled indeed to see men so Inconsiderate but sure we ought not to admire it We may with Moses wish O that they were wise that they would understand this But till that be done we cannot expect they should very much Consider their latter End But 3 dly Another Cause and which I believe has kept very many from considering as they ought to do is That 't is Vneasie to them and therefore they do not care to enter upon it It is a great disadvantage to Religion that tho there be really nothing in the World more pleasing or more agreeable to our Rational Natures than the practice of it yet has it something that is rough and uneasie in the first setting out and which the habitual Sinner cannot without pains and difficulty get over He that thrives by Sin that grows Rich or Great or Honourable in the world by Injury and Oppression by Fraud and Flattery will no doubt be very uneasie to embrace a Religion that requires a Justice and Integrity in all our actions that forbids all Violence and Rapine all Artifice and Dissimulation i. e. all those Methods by which he has been wont to encrease and flourish heretofore Again If a man has been used freely to indulge himself in all that his heart desired to gratifie his Passions in their wildest irregularities he will no doubt find it a matter of no small difficulty to deny himself and resist and do violence to those appetites which he has been so accustomed to comply with heretofore So that in effect whether out of a prevailing interest or a real fear whether out of an unwillingness to forsake sin or a mistaken apprehension of the impossibility of overcoming it Many I believe content themselves to go on without ever considering at all and hate to reflect on what they are resolved never to reform Or if perhaps this does not carry them so far as to make them totally lay aside the thoughts of Religion yet at least it renders them unwilling to set about it and so
the Former of these the Consideration I st Of those Devices whereby the Devil is wont to hinder us in the discharge of our Duty And here I shall not insist on those common and obvious Methods which every one knows tho' few are so careful as they ought to be to prevent them such as carelesness and indifference in the concern of our Salvation The Love of this World and of the Honours and Pleasures and Interests of it and which upon this account St. Paul calls the root of all evil 1 Tim. vi 10 And St. James plainly tells us is Enmity with God James iv 4 The Devices I shall now consider are such as have more of Subtilty and Contrivance in them and which by a shew of somewhat that seems to be Good seduce men many times into a neglect of that Duty which alone really and truly is so Now four things especially there are by which the Devil is wont to discourage and hinder weaker Minds in the discharge of their Duty viz 1 st By throwing Prejudices in their way against it 2 dly By instilling into their Minds False Principles whereby to corrupt the Practise of it 3 dly By filling them with Doubts and Scruples to discourage them in their Piety 4 thly By engaging their Zeal in vain and fruitless Strifes and Disputes about Religion which ought to be imployed on the Practice of it 1 st It is none of the least of the Devices of the Devil to hinder mens Piety by throwing of false Prejudices in their way against the Practice of it I need not say what a frightful thing many look upon a Christian course of Life to be and how difficult and sometimes even impossible they think it to fulfil that Duty which God requires of us They regard him as a hard and severe Task-Master that lays intollerable Burdens upon his Servants and has prepared Eternal Punishments for the least defailure under them All their thoughts are taken up with those Strict Commands of Mortification and Self-denyal of taking up the Cross of forgiving and loving Enemies of despising any losses shame or other difficulties they may at any time be exposed to for the Sake of Christ and the Preservation of a Good Conscience Thus they look upon Christianity to be a Religion made up of nothing but Melancholy Fears and amazing Dangers that allows of no Pleasure suffers not the least Appetite to be gratified but denies even the most Innocent and Reasonable Enjoyments nor promises any Happiness in another World but upon the severe Condition of being Despised and Miserable in this And now when such are Mens Apprehensions of Christianity what wonder if we see so few care to enter on the Practice of it But Blessed be God who has not thus dealt with us Straight indeed is the gate and narrow the way that leads to Heaven but by the Grace of God it is not Impassable From the very first entring it dilates its self and in a little while becomes no less pleasant but much more secure than that High Road which so many prefer before it To be plain I dare affirm That a State of Religion is so far from being that four disagreeable State men commonly apprehend it to be that on the contrary 't is the only State that is attended with a real Pleasure and Satisfaction Godliness is its own reward even in the present practice of it It has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come And whosoever will but seriously apply himself to the discharge of it will soon be convinced upon how good Grounds the wise man once pronounced concerning it That her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace As for that frightful Idea which so many entertain of Religion it is wholly founded on their own mistakes of the true Nature and Design of it For 1 st It is utterly false that Christianity denies us any of those Enjoyments which a Wise man would even desire to Indulge It allows whatever is truly fitting for us and restrains only those brutish excesses which even Natural Reason and the Principles of Common Morality forbid us to pursue Nor 2 dly Do men any more truly represent God than they do his Religion They look upon him as one who requires great things of us but they forget that he who requires these things does also Promise that if we are not wanting in our own Endeavours he will give us Grace and Strength and Ability to fulfil them They consider him as a most severe and Just Judge But they do not consider that his Mercy is as Infinite as his Justice and that he is as ready to make allowances for our Infirmities and Pardon those Sins we unwillingly Commit as to Punish those Offences which our Malice and our Negligence expose us to That for this He has sent his own Son into the World to be Himself the propitiation for our Sins and to open the way to Heaven by a Gospel of Repentance seeing we could not attain to it by any way of a Perfect and unsinning Obedience So that now then let a Christian be but upright and sincere let him but love God and delight in his Service and strive and labour as far as he is able to fulfil it If he Sins let him Repent of it let him confess his Wickedness and be sorry for his Sins and humbly Implore God's Mercy to forgive him and then how Weak and Impotent soever he be He shall certainly find not only Pardon but acceptance too with his Blessed Saviour for ever And then 3 dly For what concerns those severe Duties of Christianity and upon which the strongest prejudices are commonly raised against it Besides that they are things infinitely excellent in themselves and by a divine assistance far from being burdensome to us nay when put in the balance with the reward of Eternal Glory not worthy to be compared with it 't is Evident that these Duties are not required either of all Christians or at all times How few are there for instance now a days that have any occasion to put in practice that severest precept of all which our Religion Requires of us viz To deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow Christ These are the Tryals only of some singular Persons and at some certain Seasons And whenever God sees fit to call any good men to them He never fails upon their earnest Prayers to Him to furnish them with Strength and Grace proportionable to bear them So that upon the whole it appears that all these Prejudices are only the Devices of the Devil to discourage Men from their Duty and by the false apprehension of I know not what imaginary difficulties in the Practice of Religion now to precipitate them into Real and Eternal Miseries hereafter But 2 dly A Second way whereby He hinders men's progress in Piety is by instilling such Principles into them as
all hot and furious for their several particular Opinions as if the whole Gospel of Christ and all the Hopes of Eternity depended on them but for the Practice of a Gospel-life for that Devotion that Charity that Humility and Integrity which were once the great Care and Ornament of the Christian Church these God knows are but little regarded by the most of us If 1 st We consider the Publick Effects of these Controversies to a decay of Piety What a desolation shall we find too often occasion'd by them I need not tell you how many Countries have been ruined what Kings and Princes have been murthered and banished and deposed by their own people what Blood has been spilt what numbers of honest and innocent people men women and children have been lost and undone by them And by a strange Metamorphosis Cruelty and Oppression Falseness and Dissimulation Deceit and Perjury all the vilest and most scandalous sins by the Sacred Power of the Churches Interest consecrated into Christian and Heroical Virtues And to compleat the astonishment the Holy Martyrs and Confessors have been damned to Hell whilst their Persecutors have been Sainted and placed in Heaven If 2 dly We look upon these Disputes in themselves only without regarding any such desperate effects of them I wish I had no occasion to say how prejudicial they have even thus been and without God's Infinite Mercy might have been much more to our common Christianity Whilst by the means of these not only Schisms and Heresies and even those too St. Paul reckons among the works of the flesh Gal. v. 20 which whoso are guilty of cannot inherit the kingdom of God have crept into the Church but Some from these Contests have concluded all our Religion to be uncertain and esteem'd it the wisest way not to join with any of us till we can somewhat better agree to which of us they ought to go Others considering the manner how these Controversies have of late especially been managed and carried on have with some colour of reason been tempted to believe all our Pretences to be only Deceit and Vision for that surely did those who stand up in the defence of Religion believe it themselves they would never defend their Faith in such a manner as utterly contradicts all the Morality of it Which of the great Articles of Christianity have not our modern disputes call'd in question It is but a very little while since the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity and the Glorious Incarnation of the Son of God have again been struck at by those who plainly shew they care not what becomes of Christianity if they cannot make their Popish Heresie prevail with it And that if not in so plain and direct a manner as the Arians and Socinians of our days do yet in another no less repugnant to the belief of them For if the contradictions as they say be indeed as great in these as 't is plain they are in that other Mystery or rather as one of their own great defenders of it truly called it That MONSTER of Transubstantiation to which they are compared I doubt all considering persons will resolve from the self-evident falseness of the one to conclude against the others rather than from their belief of those to give up their assent to this If we look to the Morality of the Gospel let the Heat and the Passion the Bitterness and the Evil-speaking shall I add and even the fraud and dissimulation which have appear'd in these debates be a sad evidence how destructive such disputes are of true Piety and Religion Whilst to lessen an Adversary or to be thought to get the better in an Argument men value not how or what they write but seem resolved at any rate to maintain their point thô for the doing of it they are forced to such shifts as without God's Infinite Mercy must lose them their own Souls What shall I say to that Epidemical Vncharitableness that is from hence diffused into the several Parties of Christians Whil'st every one seems to reckon his Enemy no better then a Heathen and a Publican and having by their uncharitable censures cut him off from the hopes of God's Mercy hereafter think themselves afterwards disengaged from all obligations even of common humanity towards him now I speak not this as if I meant to accuse those of our Church who have so generously stood in the Gap and sacrificed their Peace their Quiet and their Interests to the defence of an excellent Cause and a truly Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church And much less would I be thought hereby to discourage you from being as zealous for the Faith and as constant in its defence as both your duty requires and as I bless God you all of you are this day and I hope and am persuaded will ever be so But I speak this to deplore the sad state of Christianity and to bewail â—â—â—se divisions than which nothing ha◠〈◊〉 â—ore destructive to the practice of Religion I speak it earnestly to beseech and exhort you even by the Bowels and Mercy of Christ Jesus that you will be careful to add to your Faith Works To adorn your holy Profession by a suitable Conversation To live to the Honour of your Church as well as to dispute for it And seeing ye know what danger these Controversies are apt to bring to the decay of Piety that you would be careful to prevent them and not suffer your Zeal for your Faith ever to carry you to any unchristian or unwarrantable measures in the defence of it And thus have I set before you some of those devices whereby the Devil is wont to hinder our Piety I have but just time to mention a very few of the other kind viz. II dly Those by which he is wont to draw us into the commission of Sin It has been an ancient Remark and the reason whereof is so deeply rooted in our very Natures as may justly make it a first principle in this Enquiry That Evil as such is not desirable No Man ever commits a sin for sinning sake but upon the account of some good or other which he either really does or at least thinks shall accrue to him thereby Now 't is upon this the Devil founds all his devices to deceive us He observes our Interests our Tempers and Inclinations what it is that either our Condition or Circumstances or Designs in the World render us the most apt to be caught with and accordingly offers his Temptations to us in such a manner as may be most like to prevail with us So that then to arm our selves against those Artifices by which he is wont to draw us into Sin we shall need no long search no laborious enquiry into his particular Temptations Only let us turn our eyes into our own Souls there let us consider what sins they are we are the most apt to fall into what passions the most command us to what irregularities our
to be seduced from the right Faith he may deserve indeed to be pitied now but I fear he will hardly be hereafter excused But it is not sufficient to secure our selves against this danger He that will be constant in his Religion as he ought to be must see 2 dly That he be not too apt to entertain an ill Opinion of it For if it be Obstinacy on the one hand not to admit of any Conviction thò never so clear and reasonable it is certainly a great Weakness on the other to be affrighted at every shadow of an Argument and to put it in the power of every little Disputer to prejudice us against our Religion because one who is its professed Enemy rails against it and pretends it is a very ill One He would I believe be thought a very credulous person indeed who should begin to stagger and fall into a trembling thô he saw himself upon plain and even Ground because a bold and fanciful man is very positive that 't is a precipice And doubtless that Man is no less to be pitied that is frighted for fear he should be in the wrong thô he has the undoubted Authority of Scripture and Antiquity nay and even of Sense and Reason too on his side as often as every Common-place Trifler shall think fit to run over his division upon the Church the Antiquity Succession Infallibility of it and without either Modesty or Proof call us Hereticks If Men have Reason on their side if they have Scripture for what they say let them on God's Name produce it We are always ready to consider and to submit to such convictions But otherwise to think to perswade us that we are in utter darkness when we see the Sun shining in our faces That we must be damned for not believing that what we see and tast and know to be but a bit of Bread is not the Body of a Man That they are not Infallible who are actually involved in the grossest Errors In a word That our Church had no being before Luther every Article of whose Faith is founded upon the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and has been professed in all Ages of the Church from the Apostles to this day this is certainly one of the most unreasonable things in the whole World and what ought not by any means to stagger our stedfastness And now having secured our selves on both these sides it only remains to preserve our Constancy 3 dly That if at any time any Arguments should be offer'd to us that may deserve our regard we then be sure to give them that due and wise Examination that we ought to do It is a very great Weakness and indeed a very great fault in many persons that if at any time they begin to doubt in their belief of any part of their Faith which they have been taught to profess they presently abandon their own Guides and run for satisfaction to those who are the professed Enemies of their Religion From henceforth they hear nothing but what is ill of their Church they are taught more and more to suspect the way that they are in and then 't is odds but a very little examination suffices to make them leave it This is certainly a very great fault and will one day prove of very dangerous consequence What such persons may think of changing their Religion I cannot tell but sure I am our greatest Charity will hardly enable us to entertain any very comfortable Opinion of them Nor are they such as those that we either say or believe may be saved notwithstanding the errors and corruptions of that Church with which they Communicate He that will make a safe change from one Religion to another must not think it enough to enquire into one or two points and having received a satisfaction in them embrace all the rest at a venture for their sakes but he must pass distinctly through every Article in debate He must enquire not only whether the Church of which he is at present a Member be not mistaken in some points it may be there is no Church in the World that is absolutely free from all kind of Error But whether those mistakes be of such a consequence that he cannot communicate any longer with it on the account of them When this is done the greatest difficulty will still remain to examine with the same diligence every Article of that other Church to which he is tempted For else thô he should have reason to forsake his own Church he will yet be but little advantaged if he goes to another that is as bad or it may be worse than that If there he should find the most part well yet so that there are but any One or Two things so Erroneous as to oblige him to profess what he thinks to be false or to practice what is unlawful even this will be sufficient to hinder him from reconciling himself to it And in all this there must be a serious and diligent and impartial search There must be no prejudice in favour of the One or against the Other no desire that the Truth should be on this side rather than on that In short nothing must be omitted whereby he might reasonably have got a better Information And to all this Care there must be added fervent Prayer to God for his assistance He who falls away from his first Faith on any lesser convicton than this can never excuse himself from a criminal lightness in a matter of such concern And for him that sincerely does this I shall for my part be content that he should leave the Church of England whenever he can be thus convinced that any other but especially that the Church of Rome is a safer way to Salvation And this may suffice to have been said to the first particular What that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text exhorts us I go on 2 dly to shew II. Upon what Motives it was that the Apostle here stirred up the Christians to whom he wrote and that I am now in like manner to exhort you to such a stedfastness Now these our Text reduces to this One General Consideration That they both understood their danger and were expresly forewarn'd by his Epistle how careful it would behove them to be to arm themselves against it Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before Beware And doubtless it is not only a great security but ought to be also a great engagement to such a vigilance to be thus expresly forewarned of our danger And he who either neglecting or despising the Admonition suffers himself to be seduced from his own stedfastness must certainly be utterly inexcusable both in the sight of God and Man for his Inconstancy But that which will aggravate this neglect yet much more is the consideration of those Motives by which the Apostle here cautions them to Beware and which therefore I must lay a little more distinctly before you Now such
but One God and one only Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus But our New-Masters are not thus content They set up if not more Gods yet I am sure more Objects of their Religious Worship more Mediators than one and teach men to address their Prayers more frequently through the Merits and Intercession of their new Advocates to whose Patronage they have committed themselves than through His who is the true Christians only Advocate Christ blessed for ever * Christianity forbids us to make any graven Images the likeness of any thing in Heaven above to Bow down before it and worship it These false Prophets set up their Images in every Church and bow down to the work of their hands For this end they consecrate them with many Abominations And however some think fit to dissemble it yet others speak it boldly out as the Doctrine of their Church That the very same Religious Worship is to be given to the Cross of Christ that is paid to Him that suffered upon it * Christianity commands us to pray in a tongue which the Church understands that so the unlearned may be able to say Amen at our giving of thanks Our New Guides direct men to pray in a tongue which to be sure the people do not and which sometimes even the Priest too that officiates understands as little as they * Christianity is a Religion that teaches men to be meek and humble not to think of themselves above what they ought to think but when they have done all to say they are unprofitable servants But our new Teachers have not so learnt of Christ. They know a little better how to value their own performances Instead of saying they are unprofitable servants they teach men to value themselves on the account of their Merits to look upon Heaven to be but an equal recompence of their Piety nay yet more that they may live so as to make God a Debtor to them beyond all the Glories of Eternity and to merit a Crown both for themselves and others * In short for there is indeed no end of the contradiction Christianity commands us to take bread to bless it and break it To take Wine bless it and pour it out and eat and drink at the Holy Table in remembrance of that Death and Passion which our Blessed Saviour once for all underwent upon the Cross for us But what now do our new Instructors They tell us here is neither Bread nor Wine to be eaten or drunk that they are I know not how converted into the very Natural Substance of Christ's Body and Blood That he was not offered up once for all but is here again as truly offered as ever he was upon the Cross That thereby a new Expiation is made for the Sins both of the dead and the living and thô our Saviour has as expresly commanded both kinds as either yet they declare that one is sufficient for the people to partake of and accordingly they give no more to them Thus you see how very little a Knowlege of our Lord and his Religion will suffice to show that there cannot be any just cause for any one to forsake the Communion of our Church to plunge himself into such an abyss of Error and Superstition as this And then if he be but equally advanced 2 dly In Grace too this will certainly secure him that no base motive no danger or Interest shall be able to prevail with him so to do Let the Seducer display all the seeming advantages of such a change Let him with his Master the Devil set us up upon the high mountain of our own vain imaginations There let him shew us all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glories of them and to compleat the Parallel let him if he can add too All these things are mine and to whomsoever I will I can give them if thou wilt therefore renounce thy Faith and fall down and worship me all shall be thine By Grace we shall learn to despise them all This will convince us that there can be no true honour in dissembling a mans conscience and prostituting his Soul his Religion and his God to a little present advantage That the Riches of this world are but vanity that the true treasure is in Heaven In a word That the favour of the greatest Monarch is not worth the purchasing if to obtain that we must lose the favour of God for ever Let him shift the Scene instead of all these advantages let him set forth all the dangers that either the Devil can suggest or his own more furious Zeal invent By Grace we shall be able to despise even those too This will teach us that there is a God in Heaven who shall laugh them to scorn and whose Counsel it is that when all is done shall stand That if he pleases to protect us 't is not all their malice that can do us the least injury But that should he either for our Punishment or our Trial expose us to their rage yet still we ought with Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ beyond all the treasures of Egypt and chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season This was the brave resolution of the Saints of old They were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection When Nebuchadnezzar commanded the three Children in Daniel to worship the golden image which he had set up they regarded neither the Majesty of the King nor the Threats of his fiery furnace They told him plainly That they were not careful to please him in that matter that their God if he pleased both could and would deliver them out of his hand But if not yet Be it known to thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up And the same has been the spirit of our forerunners in the Faith they have overcome all the fiery darts of the Devil whilst that Blessed Saviour who first gave the Command has ever since inspired his followers with strength and resolution to fulfil it Fear not them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who can cast both soul and body into hell-fire yea I say unto you fear him Here then let us exercise our selves Let us be stedfast to our Faith and that we may be so Let us grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Seducers amongst us are many they are diligent and watchful by any means to draw us into their Nets and God knows both their Religion and their Arguments are but too much adapted to our Passions and our Interests and may therefore be but too likely to prevail upon us But Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware Behold I have
so wise or it may be is wiser than I am and sees farther than I do and therefore is not exactly of my Opinion in every thing Now if this be so as both the Principles of Reason conclude it very well may be and the common Experience of Mankind not only in the particular concern of Religion but in most other things assures us that it is That Men's Understandings are different and they will argue different waies and entertain different Opinions from one another about the same things and yet may nevertheless deserve on all sides to be esteemed very good and wise Men for all that How vain then must that Argument be which a Late Author of the Church of Rome has with so much Pomp revived against us from our Differences in a few lesser Points of our Religion to conclude us to be Erroneous in the greater and that because we are not exactly of the same Opinion in every thing that therefore we ought to be credited in nothing that is to say That because Protestants when they differ are mistaken on One Side therefore when they agree they are mistaken on Both 1 st It is certain that amidst all our other Divisions we are yet on all sides agreed in whatsoever is Fundamental in the Faith or necessary to be believed and professed by us in order to our Salvation There is no good Protestant but what does firmly believe all the Articles of the Apostles Creed and embraces the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God and Rule of his Faith and readily acknowledges whatsoever is plainly revealed therein and is at all times disposed to submit to any thing that can by any necessary and certain Consequence be proved to him thereby In short Our Differences whatsoever they are I will be bold to say They do no more nor even so much concern the foundations of Christianity as those of the Judaizing Christians here did If their differing therefore with one another was no Prejudice to the Truth of their common Christianity then I would fain know for what Reason our Differences which are lesser shall become so much a greater Argument against our common Christianity now But Secondly If our differing from one another in some Points be an Argument that we are not certain in any How shall we be sure that those of the Church of Rome are not altogether as uncertain as we are seeing we are sure that they do no less differ among themselves and that in Points too much more considerable than we do For to take only one Instance instead of many and that so considerable that Card. Bellarmin once thought the Sum of Christianity he meant the Sum of Popery to consist in it viz. The Prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome both in and over the Church of Christ. * Some there are who hold the Pope to be Head of the Church by Divine Right Others the contrary * Some That he is Infallible Others That he is not * Some That the Pope alone without a Council may determine all Controversies Others That he cannot Now if in these and many other points of no less importance they themselves are as far from agreeing with one another as they can possibly pretend us to be what shall hinder us but that we return their own Inference upon them That seeing they differ among themselves in such things as these they are so far from that absolute Infallibility they set up for that in truth they have not so much as any certainty among them even in those Points wherein they do agree Is it that in their Church tho there be indeed as many differences as in ours yet this makes not against them seeing they have a certain Rule whenever they please for the composing of them viz. The Definition of the Pope and of the Church This indeed I find is commonly said by them But then certainly if they have such a ready means as they say of Agreement among them 't is the more shame for them that they do not agree he being much more inexcusably guilty in the omission of any duty who having a ready means to fulfil it neglects so to do than he who has none or which is the same thing does not know that he has any But indeed they have no means of Ending their differences any more than we have The Holy Scriptures we both of us acknowledg to be the Word of God and an Infallible Rule of Faith but for any other direction they are not yet agreed where to seek it And sure that can be no very good means of Ending all their other Differences which is it self one of their chiefest Controversies Or is it That they agree in matters of Faith and differ only in those things that do not belong to it Because if they differ about any Point they for that very Reason conclude it to be no matter of Faith But besides the Impenitence of this Answer which amounts to no more than this that they do agree in what they do agree and differ only in those things in which they differ This is what we say for our selves concerning our Differences We agree in all those things that are necessary to a Sound and Saving Faith and if we differ in matters of lesser moment 't is no more than what all other Christians have ever done and what those of the Church of Rome it self at this day do So that still it must remain either that those Differences which were among the Christians of old and which are among us now are no Prejudice at all to the common Truth which we profess or if they be the Consequence will fall upon those of the Church of Rome no less that I do not say and more severely than upon us and be of the same Force against Their Religion that it can be against Ours But I must carry this Reflection a great deal farther for Thirdly If once this Principle be allowed That because Men differ in some things they ought not to be credited in any what then will become not only of the Protestant Religion as it now stands in Opposition to Popery but even of Christianity it self For might not a Turk or a Jew if he were minded to give himself so much trouble to so little purpose as this late Author has done draw out a large HISTORY of the VARIATIONS of Christians among themselves from the Controversie of the Text unto this day and then by the very same Principle conclude against us all That we have none of us any certain Grounds for Our Religion because the differences that are among us plainly shew that some of us must be deceived And to go yet one step farther Might not a Sceptick by the same Rule argue against all Religion and even against all Reason too That the disagreement of mankind in these and many other Points of the greatest Importance clearly proves that there is no certainty in any thing and therefore that
we ought not to rely either upon the one or upon the other It remains therefore that unless we will overthrow all the measures of Christian Charity towards our Neighbour and the common Truth I do not say both of their Faith and of our own but even of Christianity it self nay and of all Religion and Reason in general We must conclude That good Christians may differ from one another in matters of lesser moment without any just Reflection either upon themselves or their Religion But here therefore I must desire not to be misunderstood For when I say that Christians may without any danger to themselves or disparagement to the Truth of their Religion differ with one another I mean only as the Terms of my Proposition expresly shew in lesser matters such as do not concern the Fundamentals of Faith nor destroy the Worship of God nor are otherwise so clearly revealed but that Wise and Good Men after all their Enquiries may still continue to differ in their Opinions concerning them For otherwise if Interest and Prejudice blind men's Eyes and they err because they resolve they will not be convinced and so by their own Fault continue in Mistakes contrary to the Foundation of Faith and destructive of Piety If for instance Men will profess to believe but in One God and yet worship Thousands If they will read over the second Commandment and nevertheless both make and bow down before Graven Images in despite of it If whilst they acknowledge Christ to have instituted the Blessed Eucharist in both kinds they command it to be administred but in One and pray in an unknown Tongue tho' S. Paul has spent almost a whole Chapter to shew the Folly and Unreasonableness of it These are Errors in which I am not concerned and tho I should be unwilling even here at all adventures to pronounce any Sentence against the Men yet I must needs say That Religion cannot be very sound which stands corrupted with so many and such fundamental Abuses And this makes the difference between those Errors for which we separate from the Church of Rome and those Controversies which sometimes arise among Protestants themselves The former are in matters of the greatest consequence such as tend directly to overthrow the Integrity of Faith and the Purity of our Worship and therefore such as are in their own nature destructive of the very Essentials of Christianity Whereas our Differences do not at all concern the Foundations either of Faith or Worship and are therefore such in which Good Men if they be otherwise diligent and sincere in their Enquiry may differ without any Prejudice to themselves or any just Reflection upon the Truth of their common Profession Which being thus cleared in answer to the little Endeavours of one of the latest of our Adversaries against us upon this Account I go on Secondly to shew Secondly That such differences as these ought not to hinder such persons from agreeing together not only in a common Charity but if it be possible in a common Worship of God too This is what S. Paul here expresly exhorts these dissenting Christians to and earnestly praies to God that he might see accomplished in them That when they came together to the publick Offices of the Church to offer up their common Prayers and Thanksgivings to Him they might do it not only in the same Form of Words but with the same Affection of Mind too both towards God and towards one another Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such was their Duty to one another then and we ought certainly no less to esteem the same to be our Duty towards one another now And 1. As to the business of Charity God forbid that any Differences in Religion whatsoever much less such little ones as those we are now speaking of should ever make us deny that to our fellow Christians 'T is true indeed our Saviour Christ once foretold to his Disciples That there should rise up Men from among their Brethren who should upon this account not only put them out of their Synagogues but even think that it was a matter of Religion to kill them But they were Jews not Christians who were to do this and He expresly adds That 't was their ignorance of Him and his Religion that should carry them on to so furious and intemperate a Zeal For these things saies he shall they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me. And we must confess it to the scandal of our Holy Religion that there are a sort of Men who call themselves Christians now that still continue to fulfil this Prophecy in the very Letter of it who not only cast us out of their Synagogues that we should not much complain of and as far as in them lies cut us off from all the Hopes of Salvation too but to compleat the parallel openly arm the whole World against us and teach Men to believe that 't is a Work of Piety to root us out of it and therefore that whosoever killeth us does do God service But in this as well as in the rest of their Errors they give us but the more effectually to understand how little they have in them of the true Spirit of Christianity for sure such things as these they could never do but only that as our Saviour in that other case before said they have not known the Father nor Him And I hope I shall need no Argument to perswade you not to be mis-led by that which we all of us so justly lament as one of the most deplorable Corruptions even of Popery it self Christianity commands us to love our Enemies and sure then we cannot but think it very highly reasonable not to hate our Brethren but especially on such an account as if it be once admitted will in this divided state of the Church utterly drive the very name of brotherly Love and Charity out of it seeing by whatsoever Arguments we shall go about to justifie our uncharitableness to any Others they will all equally warrant them to with-hold in like manner their Charity from us There is no honest sincere Christian how erroneous soever he may be but what at least is perswaded that he is in the right and looks upon Us to be as far from the Truth by differing from him as We esteem Him for not agreeing with us Now if upon the sole account of such Differences it be lawful for us to hate Another we must for the very same Reason allow it to be as lawful for Him also to hate Us. Thus shall we at once invert the Characteristick of our Religion By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another and turn it into the quite contrary Note
few Exceptions that have sometimes been offer'd to justifie the doing of it This is a work both too large for such a Discourse and besides the design of my present Undertaking And that one Concession of many of our Brethren themselves who tho' they continue ordinarily to separate from us yet nevertheless freely allow of what they call Occasional Communion with us I think sufficiently shews how little real ground there is for those Scruples that have so long detain'd them in an unjust aversion to our Worship Blessed be God who has abundantly justified both the Purity of our Doctrin and the Innocency of our Worship not only by the general Approbation of the Reformed Churches abroad who both freely communicate with us in our religious Offices and have often given Testimony in favour of them but in the happy Conviction of many at Home who were once Enemies to our Constitution but who now go with us into the same House of God as Friends And indeed the things for which some forsake us now are no other than what they were in the Beginning of the Reformation when yet there was no such thing as Separation from our Communion But on the contrary the old Non-Conformists themselves tho' they disliked some things in our Worship yet freely declared they thought it a Crime to divide the Church on the account of them And they who at this day separate from us for the sake of those few Constitutions that have been made for the Order and Decency of our Publick Worship must for the same reason have separated from all the Churches of the Christian World for above 1500 years in none of which they might not have found as great that I do not say and much greater occasion of Offence than they can in Ours But yet since Mens Scruples are unaccountable and after all that can be said they will still differ even about indifferent things and be afraid many times where no Fear is and a too long Experience has already shewn us That if ever we mean to accomplish that Union so much recommended to us by our Apostle so advantagious to the Church at all times but especially at this time so necessary to our Peace and our Establishment that it seems to be the only way that yet remains to settle and to secure us and upon all these accounts so much to be desired by all Good Men we must seek it by that Rule which St. Paul here proposed to the Dissenting Christians of my Text We then that are strong in the faith ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves I cannot but think it a Reflection becoming every good Christian among us but in a more especial manner worthy the Consideration of such an Auditory as this Whether somewhat may not yet be done for the sake of Peace and to bring things to such a TEMPER that both Order and Decency may still be preserved and yet our Vnity no longer broken And for Exhortations to so Good and Christian a Work shall I set before you the Example of our Blessed Saviour recommended to us in the Text with what a mighty condescension he has treated Us how he came down from Heaven and took upon Him the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of a sinful man humbled Himself even to the Death upon the Cross for us How He still bears not only with our Infirmities but with our Sins too and by all these wonderful instances of his Love to us teacheth us says St. John How we ought also to love one another Or rather shall I shew you how far such a Blessed Vnion as this would conduce to the Glory of God to the Security of our Religion and to the Promotion of Peace and Charity and Piety among us I need not say what a dishonour our Divisions have already brought to the Reformation nor what a stop they have put to the progress of it Great to be sure is the Advantage which our Enemies either have or at least hoped to have made by those Contests which they have taken so much pains both to bring in and to keep up among us And methinks there should need no other Argument to stir up every true Friend to the name of Protestant to endeavour all he can to compose our Differences than this one thing That we are sufficiently convinced who they are that we please and whose Interests we serve by the continuance of them Let us add to this what great Obligations our Holy Religion lays upon us to follow after those things that make for peace and whereby we may edifie one another How our Saviour has set it down as the very Badge of our Discipleship By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another What Exhortations his Apostles have given us If it be possible as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men But especially with reference to the differences about Religion To mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learnt and avoid them With what a scrupulous care did St. Paul manage himself between the dissenting parties in my Text What admirable Rules did he lay down for them to walk by And with what an affectionate earnestness did he enforce them If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one Accord of one Mind And may I not beg leave tho' not with the Authority yet with the Charity of St. Paul to apply all this to those unhappy Divisions that at this day rend in pieces the Church of Christ among us and beseech you by all these endearing Considerations to pursue those things which may make for our Peace and for the closing of those breaches which the malice of our Enemies too successfully begun and our own weakness has too fatally kept up among us Never certainly was there a time since the name of Separation was first heard of among us in which we had greater reason to consider of such a Vnion or I hope a fairer opportunity to promise our selves an Accomplishment of it Only let us be on all hands as careful to improve it as I am persuaded we have all of us not only seem'd to desire but have indeed earnestly long'd for it Let us shew the sense we have of that wonderful Deliverance God has given us out of the hand of our Enemies by uniting our selves in the strictest League of Friendship with one another Hitherto we have defended our Church by our Arguments let us now by our Charity settle and establish it against the like Dangers for the time to come This will indeed render both our selves and our Religion Glorious to the World and may be a Happy Augury
that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroyed true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antepast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun among us and establish that Love and Vnity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other Parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho' in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5 th 1689. Being The FAST-DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN'S Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon Their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689. Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. OF THE Nature and Benefit OF A PUBLICK HUMILIATION JOEL ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable Account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jews for their Sins But that which is yet more surprising is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Allarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of glooâ—iness a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho' they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before
not well see how they will be able to clear themselves altogether of those Follies which they so readily encourage and not only neglect to correct themselves but will not suffer those who would to do it Nay but we must not stop here They have given a yet greater encouragement to the dishonour of our Saviour than this If we look into their Churches and there view their Pictures and their Images those Books of the Ignorant as they are pleased to call them what can be either more wretched in it self or more apt to seduce unthinking Votaries than every where to see Holy MARY with our Saviour still an Infant in her Arms as if he were never to get out of the state of his Pupillage And this were yet tolerable if they thereby took care to call back their Minds to the condition of his Infancy once when on Earth But alas I must add what exceeds all Extravagances besides that they set him out still as a Child in Heaven Nor is there any thing more common in the Lives of their Saints in the Records of the Miracles of the VIRGIN and even in their Offices and Books of Devotion than to hear of the Son of God brought down in the Arms of his Mother and still behaving himself as a little Child towards her Votaries And what mean and low Opinions such things as these must needs create in Superstitious and Ignorant Minds of the Saviour of the World is very natural to conceive and the Devotion of the People towards the Blessed VIRGIN compared with their Notions and Zeal towards the Holy JESVS does but too fatally demonstrate But Secondly This Consideration is not only thus important in it self but of a more especial concern with regard to us Were the Votaries of the Blessed VIRGIN content with a Speculative Opinion of her Excellencies or would they be satisfied to pay her what Homage they thought fit themselves without forcing others to joyn in it this Matter though very Scandalous to our Religion yet would not so much concern our Practice But now that the very Publick Devotion of the Church is wholly over-run with this Abuse so that 't is impossible to pray to God with them unless you will be content to pray to Holy MARY too it was certainly very necessary for us to understand the danger of such an Error which is thus combined with the most publick and solemn Piety of a whole Body of Christians And then Thirdly This is a Point not only of very great moment in it self and of a particular concern to us but very plain too and easie to be understood In other things though our Arguments are strong to those that comprehend the force of them yet many times the Subject is obscure and the Disputation past the Capacity of the ordinary Christian. Thus in their Doctrines about the Church the Authority Vnity Infallibility and other either real or pretended Privileges of it The Argument is nice and easily perplexes an uninstructed Capacity But here the Advice is evident and the whole Subject easie The only hardship is to bring them to own their Doctrine but afterwards the most Vulgar Christian is able to discern the falseness of it Those first Rudiments of Christianity Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus and the like being abundantly sufficient to shew how impossible it is that those should not have departed from their first Faith who give Religious Honour to the Virgin MARY and set her up as a Mediatrix in Heaven Now this being once proved it will from hence presently follow Fourthly That all the Pretences of the Church of Rome against us are vain and that we not only had sufficient Reason but that it was our Duty to reform as we did from them For to consider this Argument in one word If the Church of Rome be actually and undoubtedly Erroneous in this Point then let her fancy what she please 't is plain she can Err and is not what she says Infallible If she be not Infallible then there can be no Obligation to believe and follow her at all Adventures without examining what she teaches whether it be true or false If we may examine her Doctrine then the End of all Examination being to find out the Truth and to cleave unto it it must follow that when upon the Enquiry we had discovered her to be involved in grievous Errors it was our Duty to abandon her Corruptions and to declare against them And thus this one Point alone being well cleared does in the Consequence of it plainly prove a Vindication of the whole Work of the Reformation and is alone sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced Mind what just Cause we had for it And let us then Bless God who has opened our Eyes to discover such Abuses as these and which had almost subverted the very chief Principles of Christianity And let us as we ought value nothing so much as that Purity of Religion in which we have the happiness to exceed most Christians in the World Let our Adversaries if they please revile us let them call us Hereticks and Schismaticks Despisers of the Church and Haters of the Blessed Virgin let them fill Heaven and Earth with their Anathema's against us because we will not joyn with them in these and the like Abominations But let us stand fast in the Lord and in the Religion which we have received knowing from whom we have received it and what is the rule and measure of it And that though I do not say They or We or any other Church or Society of Men whatsoever but though an Angel from Heaven though St. Peter himself should come to us and preach any other Gospel he is to be accursed I shall conclude all with those excellent words of an Ancient Father of the Church against some who began in his time to Honour the Blessed VIRGIN though not with any part of that excess that these Men now do yet more than he supposed was fitting for them 'T is true says he MARY was Holy but she was not therefore God She was a Virgin and highly honoured but she was not set forth to us to be worshipp'd And therefore the Holy Gospel has herein arm'd us before hand our Lord himself saying Woman what have I to do with thee Wherefore does he say this But only left some should think of the Blessed VIRGIN more highly than they ought He called her Woman as it were foretelling those Schisms and Heresies that should arise upon her account But God permits us not to worship Angels how much less the Daughter of Anna Let MARY be held in Honour but let the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Worshipped Let no one Worship MARY for though she were most fair and holy and honourable yet she is not therefore to