in humane reason they can by no other means be remedied than by the special hand of Heaven Which we come therefore here to implore in a particular blessing upon the consultations and endeavours of the great Council of the Kingdom and in defeating the wicked counsels and devices of our enemies and uniting the hearts of all his Majesties loyal Protestant Subjects But these great Blessings we cannot reasonably hope to obtain no not by our Fasting and Humiliation and Prayers unless we endeavour a true reconciliation with God by being unfeignedly penitent and resolving to forsake those sins which we our selves confess have brought us into such distresses and perplexities as nothing else can remedy Now in order unto this As I excited you on the last Day of solemn Fasting and Prayer to a serious and speedy Repentance by such Arguments as I found in those words of our Saviour to another of the seven Churches of Asia ii 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight against thee with the sword of my mouth so at this time I shall direct you a little in the way and method of repentance and point at some things of which you are to repent from these words which I have read out of our Saviour's Letter to the Church of Sardis with whom we of this Church have too manifest a resemblance For as our blessed Lord complains ver 1. we have a name that we live i. e. are good Christians but alas in deed and truth are dead for we produce not the fruits of Christian vertue There is a great deal of bustle and stir about Religion for which we seem to be mightily concerned but the inward life and power of it is generally wanting which we do not love to be troubled withal Nay we can scarce say so much of our people as God doth of Judah in the first Lesson for Evening Prayer lviii Isai 2. They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God c. which alas we have most openly deserted though this was far short we find in that Chapter of making them an acceptable Nation to him At the best we must confess we are fallen asleep and grown very slothful as our Saviour here supposes ver 2. them of Sardis to have been and there is so great and universal a decay of true piety and goodness among us that we are in apparent danger to lose the small remainders of it Something good there is still left in this Church as there was in that but far from that intire and compleat obedience which our Lord expects from us as will appear by considering what is to be done by us for our recovery to a better condition And there are three things which our Lord here requires of them in my Text and are incumbent upon every one of us as our necessary Duty if we would be saved from our present danger First To remember what they had received and heard Secondly To hold it fast Thirdly To repent of their forgetfulness I suppose their looseness and indifferency in their Religion I shall treat of them all in the order wherein they stand and consider them both with respect to the condition of that Church to whom they were first delivered and then with respect to ours who have no less need of such admonitions I. The first of them supposes That they had been taught some Doctrin which they had received and entertained with belief and had heard it also often since inculcated and pressed so I understand the words by those Pastors who were set over them by the Apostle or those who first delivered the Truth unto them Which was nothing else but the Christian Religion of which I must not here speak at large but only tell you It is that way of serving God which is prescribed by Christ and his Apostles in the Books of the New Testament Wherein we now read what they then received by word of mouth from the Apostles and understand fully what we must believe and do to be saved Now as there is no cause to which God more frequently ascribes the sins and particularly the Idolatry of the Children of Israel than their forgetfulness of Him and of his Law and of what He had done for them so this very thing stupid forgetfulness and neglect of what Christ and his Apostles delivered by Signs and wonders and mighty deeds introduced that deadness in Religion of which our Saviour complains in the beginning of this Chapter and He foresaw would bring in all the corruptions which afterwards followed in the Church and began very early to appear in the Christian World For there arose false Apostles and false Prophets nay direct Antichrists as this very Apostle Sr John tells us men who denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ that brought in damnable Heresies sleighted the authority of the Apostles turned the Grace of God into lasciviousness nay brought back the old Idolatry as you read in the foregoing Chapter of this Book vers 14.20 And though this Church of Sardis is not charged with so deep a degree of Apostasie as those of Pergamus and Thyatira yet there was great danger of falling into it unless they took this advice of our Saviour to remember better than they had done what they had received and heard Which is the very same with that which God himself had given of old to the Israelites to prevent their defection from Him in many places of the Book of Deuteronomy viii 1 2 18 c. and which his Prophets were wont to give in after times as the first step to their recovery when they had revolted from God their Saviour xlvi Isai 8 9. vi Mic. 5. Who here calls upon his Church in like manner to bring to remembrance and think again and again till they had fixed it in their mind what they had received and with what affection also they had embraced the Gospel of God's Grace for that may be implied in the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how you have received and heard as the only means to preserve them from lapsing farther into a worse condition and losing that good which was still remaining but ready to dye among them This the Apostles afterward endeavoured with great care and diligence and promised as we read in St. Peter 2. i. 12 13 15. to endeavour that after their decease they might have those things in remembrance always which they had been taught But for want of the like diligence and watchfulness in the people who did not take such heed as they ought to have done to these admonitions the Christian Religion in process of time was so adulterated that a great part of the Church fell into that lamentable apostasie which is foretold and described in this Book of the Revelation and which we see now fulfilled too plainly in the Church of Rome and those of its
they intended if they had prevailed to have whipt us Hereticks to death This he answered in a bold manner and being further asked what they would have done with our young Children replied as boldly All above seven years old should have gone the same way with their Fathers the rest should have lived only we would have branded them in the Forehead with the Letter L signifying Lutheran and reserved them for perpetual bondage This the Relator Dr Sharp takes God to witness he received from two of the greatest Lords of the Council after his Examination with a Commandment to publish it to the Queens Army which lay at Tilbury in his next Sermon It may be objected indeed that this was only an insolent rant of one of those huffing Foreigners who intended as he professed not only to subdue our Nation but to root it wholly out and there cannot be you may fansie any so barbarous among our selves that design such a total destruction of us they call Hereticks To which I have nothing to say but this That the ordinary Discourse of Papists here in former times hath been as bloody and cruel as can be imagined and we have little reason to think they have less venome now that they have more power by the encrease of their numbers For I find these words in an Exposition upon 2 Thess ii printed fifty years ago * John Squire Serm. V. Page 138. by a famous Preacher in the City of London Know we not their common threatnings What they whisper among the Common People what they will do when their day doth come Christ grant that their day may never come When it shall come do they not whisper that they will no more hew down the branches but tear up the very roots of the reformation rooting out every Professor thereof Which agrees too plainly with what we read in a late Traitors Letters concerning their hopes now to extirpate that pestilent Heresie as they miscal our holy Religion which hath spread it self through these Northern Parts of the World Nor have their practices been unsuitable as the Irish Rebellion alone sufficiently testifies wherein three hundred thousand souls were sent to the other World as not fit to live in this for no other cause but their Religion and it is manifest they then intended to have left none remaining in that Countrey but themselves if they could have satisfied their blood-thirsty desires Which things I remember for no other end but to awaken you to a serious repentance of those sins which have brought us near the brink of the like destruction lest the Lord deliver us at last into the hands of these Tormentors Whose tyranny is so insupportable that should they prevail the Posterity of them who now wish for that woful day would sadly repent of it in future times and curse the memory of those who brought them into such slavery Let them but read the complaints and hearken to the groans of their Forefathers under the Roman bondage before the Reformation of Religion and they may be convinced of their folly or madness rather in desiring and indeavouring to return unto it All the World sighed for deliverance from it particularly France and Germany and Poland as we find in the publick Acts of those Countries who said of the Bishop of Rome's tyranny as St. Peter did of the burthen of Jewish Ceremonies that it was a yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear And among all the authentick Records to use the words of him that set out the Review of the Council of Trent in our language which there are of the Popes Usurpation there are not to be found more woful Tragedies of his tyranny than such as were acted upon our Stage No higher Trophees erected to his ambition than here in England No more rare examples of devout abused patience than among us Till extream necessity made us despair into courage and fortitude when the avarice and exactions of Rome having left us nothing else at last robbed us of our patience All our Histories are full of proofs of this which may ease me of the labour of relating any of them nor is this a place so proper for it II. Let me pass rather to the second thing and turn towards you the other edge of this Sword which my Text speaks of which is the executing his threatnings against the souls of the impenitent and sending upon them spiritual judgments Which if we have any sense and feeling we must think are the most grievous of all other And here I might represent to you what a dismal thing it would be if you should have your eyes put out once more and be buried again in the darkness of ignorance and Popish Superstition being robbed of your reason and made to believe the groffest absurdities and having no liberty left to examine any thing be forced to follow blindly whithersoever your blind Guides will lead you For this is the least you can expect if our inveterate enemies prevail over us Suppose they should be so kind as not to kill us nor torment us nor so much as imprison us yet they will undoubtedly exercise the greatest severity against our Religion and endeavour to destroy that though they should spare us The holy Scriptures must be imprisoned your understandings and spirits inthralled the Worship of God prophaned and corrupted the Idolatry of the Mass erected the very Doctrine of repentance poysoned and all other ways of serving God but according to their Superstition absolutely prohibited We may suffer our selves to be abused if we please with fair words and plausible speeches wherewith they deceive the hearts of the simple but whatsoever they say and petition for themselves when they are under Hatches they are resolved when they have power to give no toleration to any Religion but their own Thus Ribadeneir a the famous Writer of the life of Ignatius the Founder of the Jesuits labours to prove at large in his Book of a Christian Prince That it is impossible for Catholicks to unite with Hereticks in a firm bond of Society and to agree to live together in a peaceable quiet Body of a Commonwealth which is worthy our notice and remembrance and so are his Reasons For how can one carry a Serpent in his bosome saith he and not be ulcerated by his bitings or touch Pitch and not be defiled c. Or are there more innate and inbred enmities between the Wolves and the Lambs than there ought to be between Catholicks and Hereticks No saith he the Council of Toledo determines That no King hereafter should reign but before he ascended the Throne he should swear among other things that he would permit no man who was not a Catholick to live in his Kingdom c. And if this be not sufficient to shew what these Fathers would be at who now are the ruling men in that Church I might cite others who make it equally dangerous to have two Religions in
hatred and detestation of the wickedness of their Brethren After which pattern Christ expected the Church of Pergamus should be severe against all those among them who were seduced from the Christian purity in Doctrine and in Manners by the like artifice of the Devils Agents Whereby he knew he should put them out of Christs favour and if they continued in those wicked courses quite unchurch them and bring them again under his vassalage This is the Repentance which Christ here calls for in my Text and which He requires of all Governours and those in Authority Civil or Spiritual that they should not be slack in punishing sin and suppressing all false Doctrine and especially those leud opinions which lead men to all manner of loosness and wickedness For if you observe it the Church of Pergamus had been stedfast in the Faith in the time of persecution and when Antipas his faithful Martyr suffered were a commendable people in many things as we likewise in this Church at least our Forefathers may be commended for this that in the days of Fire and Faggot many chose to dye rather than to change their Religion But there were a few things which Christ had against them First Because they had those among them who held the Doctrine of Balaam c. and Secondly Those who held the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans who were another sort of filthy people giving themselves over unto promiscuous lusts of uncleanness When He saith They had such among them He means they connived at them and did not eject them For it was not their fault that those men held such opinions but that they suffered them without the censure of the Church And then immediately He addes Repent or else I will come against thee quickly c. As much as to say You must suffer these men no longer among you that was their repentance at that time or if you do I will not endure it but will come and punish you for this indifference in Religion Now I leave you all to judge whether the Factors of the evil one have not taken this very course to unchurch us and we by our negligence be not in the way to unchurch our selves They have infused poysonous principles into mens minds and taught them for instance to decry Marriage as a foolish slavery to think Fornication an innocent thing and so to give up themselves to commit all uncleanness with greediness that so forgetting all respect to our Religion they may in the issue make them Romanists and proselyte them to their Idolatrous Services that is make them ten times more the Children of the Devil than they were befoee And what other way is there to be saved from the destruction which these and other vices will bring upon us but that which we are not willing to take for every man to repent of his own wickedness and turn to God and then for those who have authority to set themselves with all their might to punish and to root out such wickednesses with all the principles that lead unto them together with the Abettors and Supporters of them And here it may be fit to observe That a few things if very destructive to Religion may provoke the Divine severity against a Church For they were no more that Christ charges this Church of Pergamus withal and yet if they did not amend He threatens to come and fight against them with the Sword of his mouth What will become of us then whom He hath so many things to charge withal if we go on still to provoke Him with them to jealousie I doubt we cannot clear our selves from such filthinesses as are here mentioned nor from foul Doctines leading to them which too many have entertained nor from coldness and indifference in Religion if not plain infidelity nor from a disposition of heart in some to turn back to Rome the spiritual Egypt again nor from conniving at the defection which so many have made from Christs true Religion here established and not endeavouring to suppress all those that seek to destroy it And which is still more we are foully guilty of slighting that Authority which should call men to an account for all their wickedness and not only reprove and rebuke but censure and chastise and exercise Christs Discipline upon notorious Offenders This is a thing not only laugh'd at and despised but hated and scorned nay the Ministers of Christ themselves are but lightly esteemed For which if there were nothing else we may be sure Christ will reckon with us Reckon with us did I say He hath done it in part already and yet we are not cured of this malignant humour which makes me fear the saddest part of the reckoning is still behind Take the Prognostication in the words of a great Doctor of this Church * Dr Jackson on the Creed Book II. Chap. 9. who thus denounced God's Judgments against this Nation a good while before the late Wars upon this very account That he saw the people running headlong into this great sin which is marvellously encreased since that time Questionless saith he this open malapert scoffing disobedience to all Ecclesiastical Power now openly professed by the meanest and countenanced by many great ones of the Laity is the sin which to all that know Gods Judgments or have been observant to look into the days of our visitation cries loudest in the Almighties ears more loud by much than the Prayers of Friars Monks and Jesuits do for Gods vengeance upon this land For vengeance to be executed by no other than our sword inveterate malicious enemies by no other grievances than by the doubled grievances of the long-enraged Romanists iron-yoke which is now prepared for us ten times more heavy and irksome than that was which our Forefathers have born I pray God this do not prove a true Prediction If it do we cannot say but we were forewarned and that Gods Watchmen discharged themselves and told us beforehand of the danger Which we had better prevent by becoming more obedient to their godly admonitions by submitting to their just censures by esteeming them very highly for their works sake and giving them all due encouragement to do their duties sincerely And though some be negligent and idle or ignorant let not either the baseness or the leudness of any of their persons tempt you to despise their office For that 's the reason in that Doctors opinion why God sends no better men in many places God knows saith he for whose fake it is but we may at fear it is especially for the infidelity and disloyalty of this people towards Him and for their disobedience to his Messengers that He sends them such idle foolish and lewd Pastors as they have in many places Because the Laity of this Land are so prone and head-strong to cast off Christs yoke and to deny due obedience to his faithful Ministers He therefore sets such Watchmen over them in many places as they shall
method of our Lord Christ who threatens before He strikes His sword at first is only in his mouth that is He declares his vengeance which He will take against the rebellious and makes Proclamation that He will come and destroy them if they do not repent But if these threatnings and denunciations of vengeance do not prevail if notwithstanding all his declarations they contemn His authority and will not stand in awe of Him as their Lord and their Judge He will proceed to do as He hath said and fight against them as He tells us here in my Text with this sword which before He threatned should come upon them to cut them off Now no man fights with a sword but it is in his hand and therefore these words can signifie nothing less than that the punishments He had threatned and solemnly denounced should fall upon hardened Sinners and that He would execute what He had resolved and make good his word if they took no heed to the warnings He had given them Know then all ye that go on fearlesly in your evil ways notwithstanding all that we can say from God unto you that you shall not always hear the mere thunder of terrible words the sound and noise of wrath and damnation hereafter of blood and war of plagues and tumults and subversions of Churches and Kingdoms here that is the sword will not always be in his mouth but you shall feel in the conclusion the strokes of his heavy displeasure and He will make you know by dismal effects that His words are not light and vain which vanish into Air but they remain in everlasting force and shall all be fulfilled Now this Sword being two-edged which cuts on both sides his fighting with it may denote the execution of his threatnings both upon the Bodies and upon the Souls of his Enemies whom He punishes oftimes in their outward as well as in their spiritual estate I. For the first of these Those words are very terrible which you meet withal in our Saviours Letter to the next Church ver 21 22 23. of this Chapter I gave her space to repent of her fornication but she repented not Behold I will cast her into a Bed and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds And I will kill her Children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Which if we apply to our selves we cannot deny but that we have been already in great tribulation and what further punishments the righteous Lord hath reserved for us except we repent we are not able certainly to tell but this is sure that it is not likely there should be any peace to such a wicked people Our sins are so crying that they will not suffer us to be quiet but give us further disturbance till they have utterly confounded us unless we will part with these troublers of our Israel and become more obedient Christians There have been innumerable Sermons preached and Books printed to demonstrate this truth That all those sins which are now so rife among us sloth and negligence luxury and excess whoredom and adultery perfidiousness and dishonesty infidelity or indifference in Religion contempt of all Government Civil and Spiritual c. naturally tend unto and can end in nothing else but the subversion of those Families and that Kingdom and Church wherein they reign besides that the Divine Justice is concerned to punish them and will be avenged as the Prophet speaks of such a Nation as this And who is there that doth not see there are instruments of Divine Justice ready at hand bloody instruments that offer themselves to be employed and are prepared to do the execution if our repentance do not move Him by some miraculous Providence to prevent it The Papists I mean the sworn Enemies of our peace and settlement who as they want no will so have behaved themselves as if they thought they did not want power to destroy us Men of as wicked principles as the Father of mischief can invent of no Faith no Justice no Charity no Moderation if they be spirited by them who now rule in that Church but inflamed with a false zeal for God and Religion which will let them stick at no Cruelty no Butchery no Treachery or treasonable attempt to compass their desired end We may say of them as David doth of his enemies v. Psal 9. There is no faithfulness in their mouth their inward part is very wickedness their throat is an open Sepulchre though they flatter with their tongue And xxxviii 19. Our enemies are lively and strong they that hate us wrongfully are many in number So many and so industrious and desperately bent to seek our ruine that if the Lord had not been on our side they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us And we may be sure it is not quenched but rather more incensed by this disappointment So that we had need with serious repentance earnestly beseech Him in the words of David elsewhere xvii Psal 13. Arise O Lord disappoint them and cast them down deliver my soul from the wicked which is a Sword of thine Which words teach us That the wicked are one kind of Sword which my Text may speak of wherewith the Lord fights against impenitent Sinners whom He punishes very often by other Sinners like themselves And there is no sort of punishment that doth such dreadful execution as the fierceness of man if the Lord do not restrain it We have reason therefore to cry in the words of Jeremiah which we may apply to this business O Sword of the Lord how long will it be e're thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy Scabbard rest and be still xlvii 6. Let us see no more wars no more bloodshed no more sheathing our Swords in one another Bowels But then we must add as it there follows How can it be quiet if the Lord have given it a charge against us and if here He hath appointed it If He resolve this way to punish us there is no way to escape it but by repentance and we cannot imagine how sore a punishment it may prove for the tender mercies of the wicked saith Solomon xii Prov. 10. are cruel Which was never more verified of any sort of wicked men than of those Jesuited Zealots who are now inraged against us and hate us as David speaks xxv Psal 19. with cruel hatred We cannot tell yet how they intended to have treated us now but we know what they intended and what they did in former times Particularly in the Year 1588. when Don Pedro de Valdez a great Commander in the Spanish Invasion confessed to the Lords of the Council who examined him after he was taken What meant those Whips of Cord and Wire wherewith their Ships were stored that
have no lust to obey in any thing that they shall propose to them but harden their hearts in infidelity and disobedience Which I have shewn you already is one of the most fearful Judgments that God can inflict upon us and which we ought to dread more than the enraged Romanists iron-yoke which he saith is prepared for us It hath been preparing many years and it seems now to have been very near to be clapt when we thought not of it upon our necks It is a Miracle of Gods mercy that it was not But let not that make us too confident that it shall never be laid upon us nor fansie it is quite broken in pieces because we are slipt from under it at present For if our shameful disobedience to the Gospel and contempt of its Ministers still continue notwithstanding that they are acknowledged to be much better now in most places than when that Doctor wrote I fear we do but feed our selves with vain hopes of an absolute deliverance Or suppose He will not let them be the Instruments of that punishment which our sins deserve because they of that Church are so exceeding wicked so void that is of all faith truth and honesty so perfidious malicious and cruel and all under a colour and pretence of Religion which warrants all these things and makes them the more abominable yet assure your selves He will find some other way to execute the Judgments He hath threatned to the impenitent There is some likelihood He will take them in their own craftiness but let not the hope of that tempt you to be secure for He will destroy us too in our impudent disobedience and hardness of heart which will not be moved by any thing to come to repentance No not when we our selves acknowledge that we expect mercy and deliverance from Him upon no other terms For so we constantly pray in the Collect for deliverance from our enemies where we first acknowledge that to Him it justly belongs to punish Sinners and to be merciful to them that truly repent and then desire Him to deliver us from the hand of our enemies to abate their pride asswage their malice and confound their devices Unless we repent we here confess that we have no reason to expect his salvation but rather such punishments as He justly inflicts upon such Sinners as will notwithstanding go on still in those trespasses whereby they see they are in danger to perish inevitably Let me once more therefore beseech you as you love your souls as you love your Religion your Lives your Liberties and all that is dear to you examine and search and try your selves by the infallible test of God's most holy Word lay your hearts to that Rule while you have it and resolve by God's gracious assistance to bring them to a sincere conformity with it Especially let all good men whatsoever the rest are pleased to do apply their endeavours to purifie themselves more perfectly to walk more circumspectly to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation and to cry mightily unto God for his sparing mercy It is possible they may be saved though He punish others Nay by their importunate cries unto Him and sollicitous prayers day and night for this poor Church and Kingdom they may obtain some respite of his Judgments and prevail for the putting them off till a further time if they cannot quite avert them Ahab's humiliation you know procured this favour And therefore if all both King and people did this day imitate him so far as with great sorrow and affliction of Spirit to acknowledge their offences earnestly beg pardon cry for mercy with strong and constant importunity and reform some notorious sins though not all of which we are guilty it might prove a prolonging of our tranquillity Nay it is possible as I said that though others continue still insensible and negligent yet if all good people would make it their business every day to grow better and to pray to God incessantly that He would at least forbear us and have patience with us expecting still longer if we will bring forth fruit worthy of his Gospel it is likely they might obtain this mercy of enjoying truth and peace in our days Let me speak to you therefore in the words of a pious and learned man before the late wars All ye that fear God and tremble under the expectation of his wrath give Him no rest stand up in the breach make a strong assault as I may say upon Heaven with your Prayers give not over till you have received a gracious answer till the sins of our Nation be pardoned his imminent Judgments averted his antient favours recovered till He have rebuked Satan and trodden Him under our feet till He have frustrated the bloody hopes and desires of the enemies of his Truth till He build up the breaches raise the ruines and bind up the wounds of his Sion Saying with Daniel O Lord God we have sinned and committed iniquity c. yet compassion and forgiveness is with Thee O Lord and therefore we beseech Thee hear the Prayers of thy Servants and their Supplications and cause thy face to shine upon this Church for thy Names sake O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord consider and do it defer not for thy own sake O our God for thy Name is called upon us and we are thy people THE END A SERMON PREACHED On the Late FAST DECEM xxii 1680. Afternoon Rev. III. beginning of the third Verse Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent THE sad and calamitous condition of this once most happy Church and Kingdom is so great and so visible that it can be no longer dissembled but we must confess with the Prophet Isaiah in the first Lesson for this Morning Prayer i. 5. that the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint c. which hath moved his Majesty by the desire of his Parliament to cause it to be proclaimed to all his people that we may be awakened to look about us and see how we may prevent the dreadful Judgments which are now impending over us That which hath occasioned this deplorable state of things is as we are told in the Proclamation which called us hither the impious and horrid Conspiracies of a Popish Party who have not only plotted and intended the destruction of our Sovereign the subversion of the Government and Religion established among us but still obstinately prosecute their intentions notwithstanding Gods most wonderful discovery of their wickedness And one of the ways whereby they carry on this design being as we are there also informed by fomenting divisions among our selves these are no less to be bewailed by us than any other thing whatsoever both as a calamity and as one of those sins those most grievous and many sins which must be acknowledged to be the main cause of all our dangers And they are so great that
Communion Which have so far degenerated from the primitive Christianity such is the mischief of not reflecting perpetually upon what was first delivered and received that their Religion looks more like the old Paganism revived in a new shape than that good old way of worshipping God which our Saviour taught when He came to destroy the works of the Devil And they were still plunging themselves further into such gross Superstitions as endangered the very Being of Christianity by magnifying the Blessed Virgin and St. Francis to such a degree that they were regarded more than Christ himself that a Reformation became absolutely necessary and was generally desired as it were easie to shew by men of the greatest note in these parts of Christendome for choise learning and piety Nay in that very Council which they themselves packt to hinder the Reformation that of Trent I mean Ten several Kingdomes and States desired both by their Ambassadors and Prelates That the Cup in the holy Communion might be restored to the people from whom it had been sacrilegiously taken to the manifest violation of the Christian Religion which had instituted it in both kinds And many pressed for Divine Service in a known tongue the want of which was another palpable corruption and shameless abuse in the Roman Church Which many desired might be reformed in other Particulars but nothing could be obtained from them who were resolved to baffle all these pious endeavours In order to which they took such a course that there were more Italian Bishops in that Council who would vote as they were directed sometime more by twenty sometime by an hundred than there was of all the World beside So that in effect all these Parts of Christendom would have reformed had not Italy opposed it and craftily combined by all manner of artifices to hinder these honest intentions Which blessed be God prevailed notwithstanding in this Church and were so zealously and yet so prudently prosecuted that we were happily purged by the singular Grace of God to us from all those corruptions which had infected the Body of Religion without the loss of any part of that Truth which was anciently and at first received For when we reformed we did not set up a new Religion as they falsely and foolishly accuse us but only cast out their novel errours and reduced all things to the ancient Standard or Rule of Faith and Worship which was once delivered to the Saints that is to the Church of Christ As will appear by applying all this to our selves and remembring you as briefly as I can what it is that we received and have often since heard to be the true Doctrine of Christianity as it stands reformed from the corruptions and abuses of the Roman Church 1. Which is no other than that which the Church of Sardis and all the rest at first received The fundamental Principle of our Religion being this That all things necessary to be believed and done for the obtaining salvation are contained and plainly enough expressed in the holy Scriptures A Compendium of which as to matters of Faith is drawn up in the Apostles Creed as it is explained by the famous Council of Nice which comprehends all things that are necessary to be believed in order to eternal life 2. Yet we acknowledge that it is not sufficient as you have often heard to believe but though our sincere profession of Faith according to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures and comprehended in the Creed do enter us into the state of Justification yet the fruits of Faith in a godly life are absolutely necessary to continue us in it For that very Faith which justifies us doth imply and include in it a purpose and is accompanied with a promise of holy obedience Which if it be not performed we cannot be accepted with God nor claim the promise of eternal life This is another Principle which we have received 3. And among the rest of the duties which are required of us by our Faith the holy Scriptures teach us this as plainly as any whatsoever That Christian People ought to have a great regard to their Pastors the Guides and Conductors of their Souls in the way to Heaven whose spiritual authority over them is to be reverenced though not as infallible yet as most valuable not to be followed blindfold but fit to be consulted on all occasions and most to be relied on in dubious cases There is no principle of the Reformation more undoubted than this That a Pilot is not more necessary in a Ship or a Shepherd to watch over the Flock than such spiritual Shepherds and Guides are to teach direct and govern Christ's Church and that among other means and helps which Christian people should use to understand the Scriptures the direction of their Guides is the chief To whom it belongs as to receive men into the Church by Baptism so after they are thus born again to breed them up in their Religion as their spiritual Parents to expound and interpret to them the holy Writings and out of them to instruct the ignorant convince Gainsayers correct the peoples mistakes reprove their sins stir them up to all the Duties of a holy life satisfie the scrupulous censure the contumacious absolve the penitent and administer comfort to dejected Spirits The people indeed ought to examine whether the things they deliver out of the Scripture be so or no as the Beroeans did and are commended for it xvii Acts and conscientiously to discern between truth and falshood between the right faith and rule of life propounded to them by their Pastors and the poysoned Doctrine of Hereticks and Deceivers But they must not judge alone without their direction and guidance nor hastily conclude their Teachers to be in the wrong nor rashly dissent from them and refuse to follow their direction but rather suspect themselves and enquire further when they think they ought not to assent to them and in the issue if the things they deliver be not plainly against the holy Scriptures to suspect their own judgments rather than contradict those whom God without all doubt hath appointed to be their Instructors and Guides By which principle we have quite shut out the Roman tyranny on one hand who would lead the people blindfold whereas we endeavour to make them see and require them to open their eyes and show them that we do not mislead them and avoided also on the other hand the wild frantick liberty of those who will not be led at all but go alone and guide themselves by their own private judgment As by the other principle also of sticking to the Scriptures in all things necessary to salvation we have cut off all the fond Traditions of the Roman Church which they have equalled with the Scriptures and yet have retained many things of ancient observation which were not absolutely necessary but not sinful for peace and decency sake Because we would not seem to have undertaken
the work of Reformation out of any desire of novelty but merely to discharge our duty to God in avoiding all things contrary to his Word and doing all according to it Which made our Reformers for the preservation as much as was possible of peace and unity which the holy Scriptures so much commend and enjoyn to take great care not to depart any further from any practice of the Church than it had departed from Christ the Founder of it and from the holy Scriptures whereby it ought to have governed it self Thus I have in as few words as I could told you what it is that we have received From whence we may learn both how happy we should have been had we always stuck to it and never deviated from it so happy that we should neither have had the Divisions that are among us nor any thing else which we come this day to bewail And also how foully the Roman Church hath prevaricated and departed from the simplicity of the Christian Religion First By adding many other Articles of Faith to those which were at first received and Secondly By forbidding the people to look into the holy Scriptures which contain the foundation and rule of Christian belief Let me touch a little upon these two leaving the consideration of our own condition till afterward First I say It is apparent they have highly offended God and abused his people by making a new Creed and that contrary to a known Decree of the third General Council that at Ephesus which they pretend to reverence For It ordained that it should not be lawful for any person to bring forth write or compose any other Faith than that which was defined by the holy Fathers gathered together in the Holy Ghost at the City of Nice and that whosoever should dare to compose or offer another Faith or propound it to such as were desirous to be converted to the knowledge of the Truth either from among the Gentiles or the Jews or from any Hereticks they should if they were Bishops or Clergy-men be deposed from their Office if Lay-men be anathematiz'd And yet they of Rome have not feared to violate this Decree by making a new Faith not in words merely but in sense about the adoration of Images of Saints of the Eucharist and concerning the Authority of the Pope the Doctrine of Purgatory and the rest of the Articles of the new Creed presumptuously made by the Council of Trent Some of which are of such dangerous practice that learned men among themselves Gerson Espencaeus and others have confessed it among the vulgar to be no less than Idololatrical and others doubt not to adde that it is no better among the learned And others again are so far from being Articles of Faith that for ought we can find in the Scriptures or true Antiquity they are not so much as probable opinions For instance the Authority of the Pope and the Monarchy as now they fear not to call it which he pretends to over the whole Church is founded merely in pride and ambition and as it was acquired so it hath been supported and enlarged and is still maintained by rebellion treason murthering of Princes wars dispensing with perjuries and incestuous marriages spoils and robberies of Churches and Kingdoms worldly craft and policy force and falshood forgery lying dissimulation and gross hypocrisie as may easily be made good in every particular to the satisfaction of all those who have not their eyes blinded by the God of this World Who by such villainies hath mightily disgraced Christianity which for many Ages was wholly unacquainted with any such Faith And there are also common opinions that pass among them uncontradicted as strongly believed as any Article of Faith which notwithstanding their seeming zeal for good works utterly overthrow any necessity of them For it is the avowed Doctrine of the greatest Teachers in that Church That though a man live and dye without the practice of any Christian Vertue and with the habit of many damnable sins unmortified yet if he have sorrow for sin and joyn Confession with it and receive absolution in the last moment of his life he shall certainly be saved And accordingly we see that if the lewdest persons among us will but be reconciled to the Roman Church on their death-bed they abuse them with the hope of salvation telling them there is no salvation in our Church though they were never so good but in theirs there is though they are never so bad Which is a clear demonstration That all their discourse about good Works is a mere show and that Faith alone among them is thought sufficient to do the business and that it is their Priests not Ours who teach men to rely upon a naked Faith and presume to be saved by it The cause of all which is their neglect of the rule of Faith the holy Scriptures which are so much against them that they dare not trust the people with them Secondly That 's the second thing I noted as a manifest declaration of the corruption of the Roman Church that they will by no means consent the people should look into those Books which contain the Doctrine at first received but upon the severest penalties forbid without a special Licence obtained their perusal of them as if these were the most suspected or dangerous of all other Books or as if it were reason the people should believe the Church without knowing what the Church ought to believe There is not a more evident token of their guilt than this For that it is done on purpose to keep the people in ignorance not to preserve them within the bounds of sobriety which may be done by other means is apparent from hence that even those select portions of Scripture which they have chosen to be read in the Church publickly they will not let the people hear in a language which they understand For which no reason can be alledged but that now mentioned they are loth the people should be acquainted with any thing that may enlighten their eyes to see the errours of that Church For Latine Prayers indeed wherein they speak to God they have this excuse That God understands all languages but for Latine Chapters of the Bible wherein God speaks to men there is nothing to be said the end of speaking to others being that we may be understood Why then should God be as a Barbarian to his people speaking to them in an unknown tongue And why should those things which in other cases would be held ridiculous and contrary to common sense be esteemed good and convenient in Religion Without all doubt such things as these are the sport of the Devil who hereby hath exposed Christianity to scorn and both kept the people from being instructed by God their Saviour and delivered them up to be most grosly abused by evil men For this mischief is not single but hath bred and brought forth another they having set up the
device of entertaining the people with Images which they call the Books of the Ignorant and are the means of keeping them in ignorance instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise to salvation For all which the holy and reverend Name of the Church and its infallibility is used for a colour By which they mean only the Roman Church which being but a particular Church not the universal is become Judg in her own Cause and maintains she does well nay cannot erre because she says she cannot do otherwise There is no man who will take the liberty to consider that can think this the way of salvation No it is the manifest method of perishing without remedy for any thing that the people of that Church can know For they being taught simply to believe in the Church of Rome and to depend wholly upon its authority without any other enquiry can never be satisfied whether this Church wherein they believe teaches the true and pure Doctrine of Christ Jesus the Lord and Spouse of the Church For they are deprived of all means to find this out being forbidden to look into the holy Scriptures where Christ hath delivered his mind unto us All the Faith therefore of the poor people of the Roman Church is no other than a humane Faith being grounded wholly on the authority of men and of all humane Testimony they rely upon the most uncertain viz. that which they give of themselves For they believe their Church to be good merely because She says so that is make her judge in her own case which is like to produce the most partial Judgment of all other But it is time to leave the consideration of their faults in this thing and as the duty of this Day requires to reflect seriously and impartially upon our own Which we shall the better do when I have a little opened the second general part of my Text wherein we shall see how happy we of this Church might have been if we had held fast that which we have received II. For that follows you see in the Charge given to the Church of Sardis Remember what thou hast received and heard and HOLD FAST or keep to it observe it and take care to do accordingly For that 's the end of calling things to mind that we may not depart from them if they be of consequence to our happiness Such was the Doctrine at first delivered by Christ and his Apostles and to apply it wholly to our selves such is that which we have received being the very same as you have heard with that at first delivered Which we ought therefore to keep most sacredly and to stick to it stedfastly never in the least warping from it nor turning aside either to the right hand or to the left from the principles and rules of a Religion which is so well grounded that it stands upon the undoubted word of God our Saviour For as I have shewn you the Religion which we have received and heard is no other than what the holy Scriptures which all acknowledg to be the word of Truth teach us to believe and practise And is a Religion so sincere that it teaches the people to read the holy Scriptures because it is not afraid they should therein read its condemnation And for that end propounds the Scriptures to them in their own Language because it is not in the least ashamed of any thing it bids them believe nor unwilling to be laid to that rule of righteousness and examined by it A Religion also which in reading the holy Scriptures bids the people content themselves with that which they find there clearly and evidently delivered for that it assures them is sufficient for their salvation leaving things obscure for the exercise of the learned and things not drawn from thence but from uncertain Traditions or private Inspiration to superstitious and fantastical Persons A Religion which doth not make Faith consist in ignorance but in knowledge and yet to keep this knowledge within the bounds of sobriety directs and enjoyns all private persons to take heed to the publick Ministry of the Church and all publick Ministers to study the Scriptures diligently and to teach nothing to be religiously held and believed as one of our ancient Canons is * 1571. Tit. Concionatores but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and which the Catholick-Fathers and the ancient Bishops have collected out of that very Doctrine It is a Religion also which doth not teach us to rely upon Faith alone but presses the necessity of good works far more than the Roman Church doth whatsoever they falsely pretend only it teaches that God rewards all the good we do out of his own free mercy without any desert And therefore instead of framing and fashioning Wood and Stone into the Images of men and setting them up for the people to worship it exhorts men by all means possible to study to frame themselves after the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness and to conform themselves to those excellent patterns of Vertue which the Saints have left us for imitation Instead also of worshipping the Sacrament it teaches us to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy and reverend use of the Sacrament not using it to make Jesus Christ but to honour Him not to make His Body descend from Heaven to us but to lift up our hearts to Him in Heaven not to turn the Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Blood of Christ but into the spiritual nourishment of our Souls For it doth not think that Christ and the Devil both entred into Judas together or that our Saviour did eat Himself or hath ordered matters so that He may be carried away by a Mouse and eaten by his greatest enemies It teaches none of these or any such like absurd and incredible things nor doth it intrench upon any man's civil Rights But though it bid men reverence and obey their spiritual Pastors yet doth not place any of them above Kings nor exempt them from their jurisdiction much less ascribe a power to them of deposing them from their Thrones giving away their Kingdoms and exposing them to be murthered which the proud Bishop of Rome challenges but humbly and meekly declares as St Paul doth That every Soul even the greatest Apostle as St. Chrysostome interprets him must be subject to the higher Powers What shall I say more It is a Religion which acknowledges no other supreme Head of the Church but Jesus Christ no other rule of Faith but his Word no propitiatory Sacrifice but his Death no Purgatory but his Blood nor any merits but his obedience to God in all things A Religion therefore which hath little of outward pomp and show but much of inward substance life and power which ordaineth few Ceremonies but ministers abundant instructions and consolations which attributeth little to distinction of meats but prescribes fasting and
abstinence from all meats whatsoever and that for an exercise of humility and other Christian Vertues without any opinion of merit or satifaction And it may be added That it is a Religion to which the very Papists themselves are indebted several ways for their ease from many burthens For it is our Religion which hath quite spoiled the Trade that was driven by Indulgences which was so shamelesly exercised before the Reformation that Sellers of Pardons went like Pedlars from house to house and for half a Crown offered to let any man have a remission of all his sins and the delivery of a Soul out of Purgatory Which was the thing that first stirred up the just indignation of Luther to whose honest zeal they are beholden for deliverance from that imposture They are not abused neither as formerly with new lying Miracles and Apparitions which are seldom pretended now thanks be to our Religion for it in comparison with the many illusions of this kind in former times They are free also from being perpetually pillaged by divers grievous exactions which their Forefathers in this Kingdom I could shew you complained of as insupportable Nor do their people run with Offerings from one Image to another so fast as they did before our Religion let them see their follies To say nothing of their Crusado's and other things which it is not easie for the Pope himself now to gull them withal Which is to be put intirely upon the account of our Religion which hath opened many of their eyes to see more errours among them than they are willing to confess Have we not reason then to hold fast such a Religion as this so as neither to part with it nor to depart from it If truth had the same power over the will that it hath over the understanding we could never suffer our selves to be guilty of either Nay the Papists themselves would condemn their own madness for endeavouring to disturb this Religion and to bring back that authority hither which made such Fools of them But alas it is too notorious how little hold our Religion hath taken on our hearts There being so many who have revolted if not openly yet in their hearts and affections we have too much reason to fear unto the Romish delusion And others I am afraid the most who have retained what they received only in part but let go a great deal of it to the open disgrace manifest damage and almost undoing of our Religion Which is the thing I must now admonish you of in the last part of my Discourse upon these words wherein our Saviour calls upon the Church of Sardis to REPENT of their not holding fast that is what they had received And so must I now call upon you with all earnestness it being the particular business of this Day and the only thing that can save us from perishing in the Pit which is digged for us by our Romish Adversaries who have been long plotting and now have almost effected our destruction Yet I shall not expatiate through the whole Doctrin of repentance but confine my self only to such things as relate to what hath been already spoken III. You are not now to learn what it is to repent but only what it is you should repent of that is be heartily sorry for and amend And this also is soon known if in obedience to this admonition you will but reflect upon what you have received and heard and then consider what conformity your practice holds therewith And here let me deal as plainly with you as becomes my Office and the solemn business of this Day and the present distress of this Church and Kingdom which should awaken all men of sense to examine themselves upon these three Heads First What esteem is remaining among us of the holy Scriptures in which are contained as you have heard all our Religion Secondly What fruits our Faith hath brought forth which the holy Scriptures tell us God expects from us and are so necessary that we cannot be saved without them Thirdly more particularly What the behaviour of the people of this Church hath been and is towards the Pastors and Guides of their souls with whom God hath principally intrusted his holy Oracles If all the Members of this Church would thoroughly examine themselves upon these Heads they would find I fear too much matter for Repentance I. For the first of these I shall omit the disrespect to use no harder word of one whole Sect of men to the holy Scriptures which they have in a manner laid aside and only accommodated the Phrases of it to that which they call the light within them and touch upon such things only as are common to all Parties among us In which 1. We cannot but fear and with grief of heart it ought to be spoken and considered there are great numbers who have no value for the holy Scriptures at all but have quite forsaken even Christianity it self which is therein delivered some the very belief of it and others the profession This is one of the fearful sins of this Age which cries for vengeance against us and hath encouraged this Plot to bring in Popery that is Idolatry and Tyranny among us Which durst never have shown their heads here again if they had not been emboldned by our Irreligion And though now we seem to be stirred up to oppose them yet no Religion will be found an unequal match for some Religion which though a very bad one is better than none at all 2. And secondly It cannot be denied that abundance of those who still blessed be God believe the holy Scriptures yet have lost that high esteem and affection which our pious Ancestors had for them Or if they have any it doth not appear by their diligent reading of them which many have laid aside Time was when they were read and studied with great care and fervent desire in the beginning of the Reformation when every Body that could read had them in their hands and some had a great deal of them by heart as the Jew now generally have the principal things in the Old Testament But alas this ardour soon remitted and now is in a manner extinct Musculus I remember complains heavily of it in his Preface to the Book of Genesis many years ago and we are not grown better but much worse I fear since his days And what other cause saith he can we give for it but this That the greatest part of those who seemed to have given up themselves to the Truth of God busied themselves in the Scriptures not that they might be better by framing their lives according to that rule but that they might be able to dispute and to carp at the old errours and superstitions And so some ran into all manner of wickedness others lickt up their old vomit others leaving the manifest Truth turned to new Sects which sprang up and others became neutral and fell into perfect indifference
much more to revile and rail at their Authority And yet some have proceeded thus far in their opposition to them nay deny they have any Authority at all The woful effects of which we see as in other things so in the Divisions that are among us which have opened a Gap for Popery and we all fear will bring it in But we will not see as we ought to do that all those Divisions have sprung from this other Cause and still are maintained and widened by the general contempt of those whose Guidance ought to be religiously observed which if we will not regard as God commands us we shall inevitably run our selves out of our Religion For our Divisions which this Day we come to lament we all confess will do the business if they be not cured And of all the ways of Cure which are now thought of we seem resolved to wave the principal if not the only way of Gods own prescribing The method of which I shall faithfully and plainly lay before you that thereby you may judge what is like to become of us if it be neglected We all grant I believe that the right means to avoid or to remedy Contentions and Divisions in the Church are as clearly set down in the holy Scriptures as any Rule of life whatsoever For otherwise they would be extreamly defective in that thing which is most necessary for the preservation of the Religion which they teach 1. Now if you search the holy Scriptures with never so little diligence you cannot but observe there is a Duty frequently inculcated of reverence and obedience to Christs Ministers which if the people will not pay according to the evident meaning of such places as I shall mention anon it is impossible that the Society of the Church should be kept in unity but must necessarily break in pieces and be dissolved 2. We must add indeed That the Ministers of Christ ought also to take special care to be such wise and faithful Stewards in Christs houshold that the people may be inclined with the greater forwardness to obey their directions For which end their Duty is no less plainly and amply set down in the holy Scriptures and such extraordinary caution is given by Saint Paul about the admission of persons into holy Orders that were his directions sincerely followed and did the people as He enjoins adhere unto them in hearty love and esteem of them for their works sake there would be a marvellous encrease of Christian knowledg and goodness without that strife and contention which now blasts them both 3. But if Princes do not make such good choice as they ought of spiritual Governours or if those spiritual Governours by their negligence ordain worse inferiour Ministers yet the Authority of ordering or reforming things doth not by devolution come to the people nor will this justifie their disobedience to them But their Christian Duty is as manifest in this Case as in any other which lyes in these two things First They ought to fall the more earnestly to their Prayers both for their King and for all in authority under him especially their spiritual Pastors The Scripture enjoyns both and the gross neglect of both is one cause things are no better among us What other meaning is there of those words of the Apostle 1 Tim. ii 1 2. I will that supplications c. be made for all men for Kings and for all in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And why doth the same Apostle frequently desire the Church would be helping by Prayers for him who needed them less than we do but to teach all Christians how earnestly they should recommend those to Gods guidance who are to guide them Read 2 Cor. i. 11. vi Ephes 19. and other places And if they find that their prayers are ineffectual there being no amendment in those that should take care of them their Duty Secondly is to examine seriously and lay to heart the cause why they cannot prevail and a little consideration will teach them that in all likelihood it proceeds from their own sins who deserve no better Governours and Pastors For as the Prophet speaks in the next Chapter to the second Lesson for Evening Prayer lix Isai 1 2. The Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot save neither his ear heavy that He cannot hear but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that He will not hear And for what sins do you think it is more probable that God is angry with us in this Nation and will not hear the prayers of this people than their disesteem of Christs Ministers even of the best of them their contempt of their Office their proneness to disobedience nay their scurrility and scoffing at all spiritual Authority and such like sins expresly forbidden in Gods holy Word With which this Church alas abounds a great deal more than with supplications and prayers to God for them All are more forward to find fault if not to rail and revile than to beseech God of his infinite mercy to give them Pastors after his own heart or to examine their own Consciences how they have provoked God by their unprofitableness at least under the best means of Grace that He hath bestowed upon them 4. But let us suppose further That the Governours and Pastors of the Church are not only negligent but exceed the bounds of their Authority as it seems to the people by enjoyning things which they take to be unlawful yet this will not warrant their contempt of their Authority and their casting off all obedience to them But two things are to be considered Whether they be certain the Commands of their Governours are unlawful or they only fear they are In the first Case indeed they ought not to be obeyed in such things but by the peoples care to obey in all others which they judge to be lawful they ought to demonstrate that it is only respect to God which makes them not comply in things which seem to them to be apparently unlawful And so unity in most things being preserved they will be the easier brought to see their errours on one side or other But in the other case when they are not certain the things commanded are unlawful which is the common cause of all our Divisions but only suspect them to be so it seems to be reason that the people should not disobey a certain Command of God which requires them to submit to their Governours when they are not certain there is a cause for their refusal The most that can be allowed them is humbly to desire those Laws may be altered or if the Rulers of the Church who are the proper Judges of such matters cannot think it safe to make such alterations as are desired then barely to suspend their obedience in what they fear is unlawful till they can be better
satisfied but fearing withal it may prove a sin not to obey to use all means for satisfaction not absolutely denying obedience much less reviling their Injunctions or making violent oppositions to them which commonly ends in wresting all authority out of their Pastors hands but merely not doing for the present what is enjoyned modestly entreating their forbearance in such matters or if it cannot be obtained peaceably and patiently submitting to their censures Which sure would not be heavy upon such humble modest and truly conscientious Christians if they should God would judge such Governours for their unreasonable severity but there would rather be ways found out to make up the difference without taking their Pastors power from them and governing themselves as they please For God I am confident would enlighten the one or the other to see either their errour in enjoyning or in not obeying 5. And this that I have said is the least that can be meant in such places of Scripture as these 1 Thess v. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know that is to love them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among your selves Which they could not fail to be as long as they kept close to their spiritual Instructors and Governours And xiii Heb. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. And 1 Pet. v. 5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves unto the Elders Where first observe the name given to the Pastors of the Church viz. Elders which imports an Office and Authority in the language of all Nations and here in St. Peter implies so high an Authority in the Rulers of the Church that the Apostle supposes more danger of its growing too imperious than of its being slighted and disobeyed For he requires the Elders to feed that is govern as well as teach the Flock of God not as Lords of Gods heritage but being ensamples to the Flock ver 2 3. Which Caution against domineering and Lording it as we speak had been idle if the power of the Pastors and the obedience due and paid then to it had not been so great that it might easily grow extravagant such was the reverence they had to their Persons and deference to their Judgments and submission to their Authority For the word submit you may observe further is the very same whereby he expresses in the second Chapter ver 13. the obedience he would have them give to Kings and those in Authority under them And therefore cannot signifie less than that their directions ought to be followed and the Flock ruled by their Orders in all things where God hath not ordered otherways and that they should be afraid to offend them by disobedience and much more by shaking off subjection to them and denying their Authority 6. Which includes in it a power of ordaining and constituting the manner of performing the Service of God according to His Word which requires that all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. xiv 40. The things themselves to be done which that place speaks of are many of them specified in that very Chapter and the rest in other parts of the holy Scripture but the decent manner form and order how they shall be done is no where particularly defined there And therefore though by virtue of this Precept no Body hath power to form new Articles of Faith new Objects of Worship new Sacraments c. wherein the Church of Rome hath abused her power yet the substance of Religion being thus prescribed in His Word the order disposition form and manner of doing the Duties of Religion is left hereby to be determined by the wisdom of the Governours of the Church according to the general Rules of the holy Scripture Which they cannot indeed enact into Laws binding by civil penalties yet no Christian Magistrate to whom that power belongs ever denied them a directive power in making Rules for the Government of the Church or at any time made them without them but always took their advice in such matters For who so well able to tell as they what is most consonant to the Scriptures profitable for their Flock and agreeable to what hath been practised in the Church of God Which always taught and it is as undoubted a principle of the Reformation as any other That where the holy Scriptures have not given particular directions for the decent performance of the Duties they call for as it was impossible they should for all Cases Times and Countries there the Ministers of Christ whom the holy Scriptures appoint to be the Governours of His Church are to draw up Orders and Rules agreeable to the general Rule which the people ought to observe And it is very reasonable to interpret the place of the Apostle before mentioned in this manner Let all things be done first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently or honestly after a comely beseeming fashion with such Rites as will procure veneration to holy things at least secure the service of God from contempt and promote devotion in the people and the way to have things done with such gravity as this word imports is next to do them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to order or by the deliberate appointment of those who have authority to ordain such Rites as will become holy actions An example of which we have in that very Chapter ver 32. where even such as had extraordinary spiritual gists are required to submit to this Order For the Spirits of the Prophets he saith are subject to the Prophets That is there was such a subordination in that Order of men that when one was prophesying he was to cease if a superior Prophet commanded him silence Which among other places of Scripture might silence those who question the authority of the present Governours of our Church because of their superiority over other Ministers Or it might be sufficient to make them modest in this thing to say only this That Christ sure did not leave His Church without a Government which had been to leave no Church and that it is incredible the whole Church Pastors and people should agree to change His Government without any contradiction that we can find into this which we have if this be not it which He left And that I think hath been as little nay less questioned as any Point of Christianity which must needs weigh much with all considerate minds 7. Who likewise cannot but grant that things being thus ordered and appointed by the Authority of Christs Ministers those Constitutions in all reason ought to be obeyed by those who are subject to them and not left at liberty whether the people will observe them or no. This is most judiciously handled by Mr Calvin in the Tenth Chapter of the Fourth Book of his Institutions which is well worth the
Eaggot that will not be ruled nor kept in concord by the wisest and holiest and most self-denying Ministers upon Earth Which is an ingenuous Confession of the guilt and the danger we have all run our selves into by this sin and that though all the blame is now laid at the door of the Rulers of this Church yet it is so unjust a Charge that were they in all points such as those that accuse them there would be no end of our troubles and confusions unless the people even they that think themselves most religious will grow less conceited and submit to be ruled by their proper Governours It hath been said indeed that they do follow such Guides as they think fit to lead them but here is one that contradicts it and complains of their unruliness And besides I must add that such Guides ought not to be followed as will not submit to be governed by their Superiours there being nothing as I said before so little disputed in the Christian Religion as the Authority which the Bishops exercise over the Presbyters in the Church And if they will not so much as give us leave to tell them of this without incurring their censure nor patiently bear with those reproofs which we think necessary it is impossible they should repent of this sin and then our destruction is unavoidable This part of my Discourse indeed may seem unnecessary in an audience where I hope all of you are better affected but it hath its use even among such as hold fast what they have received and heard concerning this Duty Who should endeavour by their brotherly reproofs and prudent admonitions to stop the progress of this Disease in those whom they find infected with it Desire them to consider things calmly and to study this part of their Christian Duty Pray them not to be so passionately bent against the means of their safety And that they would at least hear what Christs Ministers can say for themselves and the Authority he hath left them Tell them it is impossible any wound should be healed while the inflammation continues And that as when a house is on fire they that speak and give the best advice cannot be heard by reason of the noise and cries of those who are gathered about it so we shall never understand one another as long as we are clamorous nay have our minds violently inflamed with rancour and hatred even against those that would cure us of it The study of Gods truth requires a quiet and peaceable Spirit which deliberates and weighs things without carping at persons and doth not presently conclude we plead our own private interest when we plead the Cause of Christs Ministers Who do not merely bear testimony to themselves as they of the Church of Rome do but appeal to the holy Scriptures where these things are as plainly delivered as any part of Christian Religion God of his infinite mercy touch every heart in this Nation with a sense of them that we may not shut our eyes against the things that belong to our peace nor while we endeavour an union make the most dangerous rent that ever was But all so truly repent of this sin that it may be a happy step to the reforming all other that have sprung from this Then we need not fear any evil that the Devil or man can plot against us but while we walk in that godly order which Christ hath appointed the people being ruled by their Guides and their Guides ruled by God may triumphantly say as it is in one of the Psalms appointed for this Day xlvi We will not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though tumults and hurliburlies should arise we will not be afraid for God is in the midst of this Church She shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early Amen FINIS