Private Life that Charity towards men that humble Devotion towards God in which we can only say we have heard our Nation once excell'd 'T would be a melancholy employment to search into the causes of this unhappy change but whatever other occasions may have contributed to the continuance and increase of it certainly the chief cause of the beginning of it was Spiritual Pride and Hypocrisie the want nay the contempt of an humble and docible Spirit The different effects of this disposition and of that which is contrary to it have been abundantly tried in all Histories in all States Civil and Ecclesiastical especially Ecclesiastical Those Countries and Societies of men have ever most flourish'd where men have been kept longest under a reasonable Discipline those where the number of Teachers have been few in comparison to the number of Learners There was never yet any wise Nation or happy Church at least never any that continued long so where all have thought themselves equally fit and have been promiscuously admitted to be Teachers or Law-givers What can be the consequence of such a head-strong stiff-necked over-weening unmanageable Spirit can any thing be more destructive to Church and State than such a perverse humor as is unteachable ungovernable it self and yet over-hasty to govern and teach others where Children get too soon out of the government of their Parents and Masters where men think it a Duty of Religion to strive to get out of the Government of their Magistrate and Prince where Christians shall think themselves not at all bound to be under the Government of the Church must not all domestic and Politic and spiritual Relations soon be dissolv'd must not all order be speedily overthrown where all the true ways to make and keep men orderly are confounded And what in time would be the issue of such a confusion what but either gross ignorance or false knowledge which is as bad or worse what but a contempt of virtue and prudence under the disgraceful titles of pedantry and formality what but a looseness of tongues and lives and at last mens taking pride in and valuing themselves on such looseness what but a disobedience to the Laws of man in a pretence of the Kingdom of God but in truth a neglect of all the Laws both of God and man In short what but mad Enthusiasm first and then licentious Atheism for very near is the distance very easie the passage from one of these extremes to the other Wherefore for these most pernicious distempers the great prevention the best remedy is this in my Text that we all receive the Kingdom of God as little children that children be carefully instructed in Religion as children whilst they are so that our grown men our wise men especially our witty men should not disdain to be as children in respect of spiritual instruction that the same modesty of opinions and duty to Governours and submission to Instructors which children have by nature without any experience they would strive to have by choice as the main end of and best means to improve their greatest wit and experience 'T is good for a man that be beareth the yoke in his youth 'T is good for him that beareth it not only for human society 'T is good to bear the yoke the severest direction the hardest restraint much more to yield to the tenderness of counsel the easiness of instruction the wholsom severities of Discipline First then in the name of God may the means of Education the times of Institution the rules of Discipline the Laws of Government the distance and duties of Inferiors to Superiors of all degress be most seriously regarded that our men may be brought up to business to professions fitted for the world for Heaven by the laborious methods of virtue and knowledg and obedience by an exact Rule by sure degrees no matter how slow so they be but sure better too slow than too precipitate And lastly may our men of ripe years our men of business our great men be intreated to revive and restore the antient simplicity and integrity of manners to practice an inward humility and lowliness of mind an outward innocence towards all condescension to Inferiors observance of Superiors submission to Teachers subjection to Rulers and to practise all these excellent virtues not only as so many moral or political Duties but as indeed they are as some of the most Christian most Spiritual and most Evangelical Graces Thus for us all to become as Children is the surest way to preserve where it is to recover where it was lost private virtue public honesty and a national piety And by the words of our Saviour in my Text I am impowred to promise to this blessed Temper an eternal Reward For if whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter therein Hence we may well conclude that whosoever shall receive it as a child shall enter therein For of such says our Saviour is the Kingdom of God Of which I beseech Almighty God to make us all partakers Amen FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of London to 1675. COmber on the Common-Prayer in two Volumes A Guide to Eternity By John Bona Octavo Dean W. Lloyd's Sermon before the King about Miracles His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester 6d His Sermon before the King in Lent 1673. 6d The Seasonable Discourse against Popery in 40. 6d The Defence of it 40. 6d The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome 40. 6d The Papists Apology to the Parliament answered 6d Mr. Naylor's Commemoration Sermon for Colonel Cavendish 6d Mr. Sayer's Sermon at the Assizes at Reading 6d Mr. Tho. Tanner's Sermon to the scattered Members of the Church 6d Mr. Stanhop's four Sermons on several occasions 80. bound 1 s. 6d Papal Tyranny as it was exercised over England for some Ages with two Sermons on the fifth of Nov. by Dr. Du Moulin 40. 1 s. 6d His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury 6d Bishop Laney's last Sermon before the King Dr. Duport's three Sermons on Nov. 5. Jan. 30. May 29. The Reformed Monastery or Love of Iesus The History of the Charterhouse with the Life and last Will of Thomas Sutton Esq S. James 4.6 Ver. 13 14. Heb. 12.1 1 Pet. 2.2 Rom. 12.2 Luke 11.41 Tit. 2.14 Mat. 10.16 1 Cor. 14.20 St. Chrysost. on St. Matth. 19.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 3.27
A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL Decemb. the 24 th 1676. By THOMAS SPRAT D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Published by his Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West end of St. Pauls 1677. A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL St. MARK X. ver 15. Verily I say unto you Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein THese are the words of our Blessed Saviour on occasion of his Disciples forbidding little Children to be brought to him which it may be supposed they did in zeal for the reputation of their Master believing it to be far below the dignity of so great and wise a Teacher to spend time in instructing of Children whilst his chief adversaries the Pharisees appear'd in their Synagogues and most public Assemblies and there with much pompous ostentation of profound Wisdom taught their men those that thought themselves in that Nation their wisest men But Christ himself understood better the interest and power of his own Religion He knew that the design of his coming into the world was not to continue that Pharisaical falsly-grave formality of life and worship which was then in use but to introduce a rational moral spiritual Doctrine and a plain unaffected saving way of teaching it He knew that his Doctrine so taught was able to convert the most specious worldly wisdom or to confound it if it would not be converted And therefore he took a course quite contrary to the Pharisees practice and to his own Disciples expectations He taught in the meekest manner and refus'd not the meanest Scholars He resisted the proud but he gave grace to the humble The Scribes and Pharisees he often sharply contradicted the multitude he always mildly instructed By his different behaviour to the one and the other he gave evident proof that all false pretences and affectations of knowledge are more odious to God and deserve to be so to men than any want or defect of knowledge can be In prosecution of this most plain and familiar way of teaching whereas his Disciples here would have rejected little children he rebuked them he took the children in his arms he blessed them for the innocence of their age he gave it many testimonies of his extraordinary favour The first benefit he did to mankind in this world was his becoming a child The first sign he shewed of his own Divine Wisdom was his disputing with the Jewish Doctors in the age of a child The first example he gave of obedience and that even to the Jewish Law was his being circumcised when a child And here also when he would prescribe a pattern of Evangelical purity and humility he declares that little children and those men who most resemble their nature are not only capable but most capable of his heavenly Kingdom The Kingdom of God and Heaven in the New Testament is either taken for that Eternal Reward prepared for those that believe and obey the Doctrine of Christ or else for that Doctrine it self revealed in the Gospel so nearly are the Joys of Heaven and the Laws of Christ united so surely shall the possession of the one follow the practice of the other that in the Word of God they are often both comprehended in the same phrase of the Kingdom of God This expression of receiving the Kingdom of God as a child is best interpreted by our Liturgy in the Office of Baptism where it is said that By these words our Blessed Saviour exhorts all men to follow the innocence of little children Whosoever therefore shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child that is Whosoever shall not entertain and practice the word of God with a true child-like simplicity and innocence shall not enter therein that is shall not partake of the blessings of everlasting life The whole sense of my Text may be contained in two Propositions The first That for the right apprehending of the Doctrine of our Saviours Kingdom the Gospel there is required an ingenuous plainess an unfeigned simplicity of mind and understanding The second That for the sure inheriting of the joys of that Kingdom we are all commanded to practice an undissembled integrity of life and manners Of these the first that I am to recommend to you is that simplicity of mind which is necessary for the right receiving of Divine Truth All wise Masters and Teachers especially if they profess any Art that is deep out of the way and of great use are wont to expect in their Followers some praeparatory skill in other lower Arts before they will proceed to teach them those that are higher And here you see our Blessed Saviour also requires his praeparations in those whom he will inlighten with his heavenly Doctrine But in a way how much different how much more condescending than that of the Teachers of all worldly and Humane Arts For towards the attaining of the most profound Wisdom as is the knowledg of God in the most useful study as is the salvation of our own souls what praeparations does he exact Only the docility the innocence the simplicity of children But before we proceed farther this Christian Simplicity must first be rightly stated and well understood For it has been often mistaken on both extremes Some make it to consist in a blind Faith as the Enthusiasts some in a blind Obedience as the Papists The first conclude from hence for their wild illuminations and groundless Inspirations and deny all manner of use of their natural understandings and judgments in Divine things The other build on it the necessity of an absolute slavery of their understandings and Consciences to their Spiritual Governours whereas the true Evangelical simplicity should keep the sober middle way between both these It is so to temper'd as neither to extinguish the mans true natural light nor invade the Christians just spiritual liberty First I say by this child-like simplicity of mind there is not intended any defect of the natural or acquir'd abilities of our understandings or any neglect of employing our understandings in examining the most spiritual Doctrines of the Gospel As God did never require an entire perfection of Divine knowledge in any Christian so much less did he ever injoyn an imperfection of natural knowledge in any Saint 'T is true the things of God must be spiritually discern'd But how so not that they must be discern'd by other faculties of the soul quite different from those by which we discern natural Truth but by the same faculties only those rais'd and more spiritually exercis'd Does not the Gospel tell us that Gods is a Reasonable Service It is our most reasonable duty we being his Creatures it is most conformable to right reason it is the most noble object of it it consists in sound sober intelligible Doctrines in plain practicable rational Precepts Of all the Creatures none that we
how much more is it so in Divine things in which the instruments the helps the objects the benefits of our knowledg are infinite In Divine things to be always teachable to be always learning is not only the most certain way to Divine Wisdom but even a good degree of Divine Wisdom it self The third part of such a true simplicity of understanding is a sincere desire and unwearied endeavour to use and improve our divine knowledg in a right manner and to a right end And what is the great substantial saving use and end of all spiritual knowledg Is it not to use it as children do their meat to desire the sincere milk of the word as new born babes that we may grow thereby That we may grow thereby And they who receive their spiritual food in such a manner what they may want in a delicate appetite they have in a wholesom if they come short of others in the curiosity of their tast they as much exceed them in the strength of their digestion which in a spiritual life as well as a natural is a greater sign of a healthful constitution whilst all other knowledg in Religion only serves to make a shew and flashes away in discourse this endures and is solidly beneficial for sanctification here for salvation hereafter Such is that simplicity of understanding which is necessary for the right reception increasing and improving of our knowledg in the truths of the Gospel I am next to consider that simplicity of manners which should always accompany the sincere entertainment and practice of the precepts of the Gospel This indeed has a very near connexion with the former The head truly enlightned will presently have a wonderful influence in purifying the heart and the heart really affected with goodness will much conduce to the directing of the head The beginning of this blessed work is most commonly in the head the perfection in the heart but neither of them can be perfected without the other And what now is meant by the true unfeigned Christian simplicity of life and manners and conversation we ought to be exceeding cautious on what kind of men we fix this character for we live in an age wherein of all others hypocrisie has put on the best counterfeited vizors the most holy disguises First then as I did before in the simplicity of understanding so I must now do in this simplicity of heart I must try to vindicate and separate it from the mistakes and extremes of it And therefore I affirm that it does not consist in any sullen separation or affected purity or demure contempt and omission of the common customs and usages and fashions of this world For most certainly with such common things a Christian may comply without danger with true innocence and piety and he may abstain from them out of the greatest spiritual pride Is not a morosity and singularity in such things often made a veil and cover of licentiousness in greater things have we not known it frequently us'd as an opportunity of the greatest moral dishonesty Must a Christian by the obligations of his holy profession differ from and abhor all the customary forms of civil life how then could St. Paul become all things to all men would he have conform'd universally to all sorts of men if all manner of civil or spiritually conformity had utterly been unlawful Must I with unmannerly freedom affront Authority despise the public Formalities of Government live in a different way put on another face and garb than the rest of my Country-men and alledg the Christian simplicity to justifie this my rudeness what then will become of the Christian liberty which in other cases these men so much magnifie If this be Christian simplicity was not the Mosaical severity a much lighter yoke Did not our Blessed Saviour himself abolish all such Judaical reservedness and separation at the very first founding of the Catholic Church which it is probable had never been Catholic so soon if he had distinguished his Disciples from all the rest of mankind as the Jews were in every little circumstance or custom of humane life For whilst the true Religion it self was straitned by the Jewish severe spirit the Church of God was narrow in compass confin'd almost to one Country despis'd by all the world besides It was the honest freedom and universal charity of the Christian spirit that first rent the veil and enlarg'd its bounds and spread its authority to the utmost ends of the earth so that next to the Almighty Power of God one of the chief occasions of the prodigious swiftness of the Churches first progress was that the Primitive Christians asserted the just liberties of humane nature and set men free from the Jewish unreasonable sowerness and harsh impositions 'T is true we are commanded not to be conform'd to this world But in the very next words we have the true interpretation of that command For it follows Be ye transform'd by the renewing of your mind It is a new mind and the transforming of the heart not new looks or habits or gestures that Christianity requires To the indifferent things of this world we may be to the decent things of it we should be conformable only to the wickedness and corruptions of it we should not No Christian is forbidden the honest skill and practice and prudence of this world rather some are commanded it all are allow'd it only none must be perverted by it all must use it for higher and more spiritual ends So far is the true Religion from obliging all its professors either to withdraw wholly out of the world or in conscience to avoid all the usual observances and manners or even the innocent delights of it whilst they are in the world that perhaps none are more capable as of bringing more benefit to mankind so of doing more service to God or exercising more Evangelical Graces than those men that are of the most practical lives and engag'd in most secular business Greater will be their victory over the world if they shall converse in it without being defiled by it If they shall labour to perform well all their natural moral political and Religious Duties in it most instructive will be the example of that Piety most diffusive that Charity which is set on a hill so eminent and plac'd in so good a light Were a Christian to be the Disciple of Iohn the Baptist he might then indeed think himself bound to follow the solitary rigid life of his Master in the Wilderness But seeing he is to be a Christian he may be a Citizen of this world as well as of the New Ierusalem He ought certainly to imitate a greater example than of Iohn the Baptist that of our blessed Saviour himself who though he too had his time of retirement in the Wilderness yet liv'd not there but was frequently in the Temple convers'd generally in the City with all sorts of people went about every
the same eternal life simple in the means that conduce to that end which are but two and those always the same Faith and Obedience And so simple should be the practice of all that would use those means in a right manner and expect thereby the benefit of that end Nothing shews a nearer resemblance to the Divine Nature than a mind that is pure unmix'd and undefil'd nothing manifests a greater conformity to the Divine Laws than a life of plain innocence nothing more expresses that free and generous disdain which all true Christians have or should have of these earthly transitory things nothing declares a more magnanimous confidence in the Divine Providence nothing a more submissive resignation to the Divine will nothing a more stedfast and assured hope of future happiness nothing can keep us safer from dangerous mistakes in all matters of eternal concernment The plain fair even candid mind of which a right measure may soonest be taken is best prepar'd to take a right measure of spiritual things That mild and innocent disposition which least of all deceives others is least of all capable of being dangerously deceived it self in the ways of everlasting salvation Have not more bold venturous artificial wits fallen into errors than they who have been content with the steddy constant firm motion of meek and humble Christians Whilst those presume all on themselves they trust to the most fallible guide whilst these wholly suspect themselves and implore most the grace of God they never fail of a certain assistance and direction And what has been generally the success of both the humble teachable temper of the one has produc'd many real Saints the proud presumptuous subtle spirit of the other has prov'd a fruitful soil for the production of Heretics or Atheists Give me leave therefore most humbly to advise and beseech you all as you would be esteem'd the true Disciples of Christ to labour for this blessed temper which is most proper for Disciples this humble and sincere practice of what you do know this humble willingness to be taught what you do not know and submission to those that do I do not by this in the least plead for the gross blindness and implicit Faith of the Laity which is one of the chief Artifices of the Church of Rome No we that are Ministers of the Church of England may be content nay we may really wish that all our Laity had as much true solid understanding in Religion as our Clergy We can get no advantage by your want of knowledge no more than you can do by ours We have no spiritual cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand in need either of darkness or of a false light We have nothing in our public profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not outwardly practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not inwardly to believe We know and are well assur'd that the only reason why our Church is not more generally embrac'd and admir'd is bycause the purity of its Doctrine the sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially and calmly examin'd more generally understood Our Church in its Spiritual State as you are Christians is most conformable to the Rules of Christ to the Apostolical practice to the Primitive Institutions In its Rational state as you are men its Doctrines are very agreable to the reason of mankind its Precepts most becoming the purest and the strictest laws of Nature and Virtue and Morality In its Political state as ye are Englishmen its Interest is inseparable from the Interest of our Nation and Government We are therefore so far from being jealous of your most curious and exact search into the Practices and Principles of our Church that we desire it nay we most earnestly beseech it We are in no danger from mens most subtle inquiry into it we may be from their utter carelesness and indifference towards it We are not against any mans seeing Spiritual Truth only we would not have the blind presume to teach others to see we would not have men think they see when they do not which is the most certain way for them never to see at all We would have you know as much as you can only we would have you believe that both you and we may know much more than we do We intreat you to strive to know all in a right way by sober degrees for right purposes and uses and ends Most seasonable is this advice and I wish it could be most effectually recommended For to speak plain truth a meek humble teachable Spirit and by consequence a devout peaceable and obedient Spirit are almost quite gone out of the world whereas all things in Religion should be plain scarce any thing will now please that is so Whilst so many strive to be Teachers and place most of their Religion in that how many censurers have we of others how many Reformers of the public how few learners how much fewer practisers themselves Alas is it not apparent that ever since so many of the Laity have so much invaded so many have so much despised the Office of the Clergy Pride has evidently prevailed over Humility Faction over Unity ill Nature over Charity Though I am not willing to make a Satyr on any Religious Party nor do I think that the best way to reclaim them our Consciences should convince their Consciences our Lives should confute their Lives else 't is not enough only to employ our tongues and our fancies against their Consciences yet for Truths sake this I must say that of all the Sects amongst us who contemn the Authority of the Church who separate themselves from the great things of our Religion on a dislike of some small things and amongst whom all think themselves gifted Brethren alike Whatever other virtues or shadows of virtues they may seem to have whatever sobriety of Life or strictness of Conversation or freedom from some scandalous sins they may pretend to For which yet I cannot but say that if they are really such as they pretend I wish they were ours yet may they not generally be observ'd to be exceedingly defective in the two principal Fundamental Graces of Christianity which are Humility and Charity Humility of looks or habit they may have but have they as much of heart or life Charity of Good Works do they not too much despise as a low legal way to Heaven Charity of Opinions have they any at all It cannot be denied but in this last Age in most of our memories our Nation has manifestly degenerated from the practice of former times in many Moral Virtues and Spiritual Graces which should teach us to render to God the things that are Gods and to Caesar the things that are Caesars Where is that integrity of Manners that truth of Conversation that dutiful observance of Order that modestly of