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And to have done otherwise, had neither been zeal nor discretion, but a kind of ridiculous and morose partiality. But,

2. The other instance of the wisdom given by our Saviour to his apostles, was their resolute opposing all doctrines and interests whatsoever, so far as they stood in opposition to the gospel. They would not so much as hold their peace in such a case, but their proceeding was absolute and peremptory, (Acts, v. 29,) "We ought to obey God rather than men.' And when a point of Christian liberty was endangered by the judaizing brethren, (Gal. ii. 5,) "We gave place to them," (says the blessed Saint Paul,) "no, not for an hour." And we know how "he withstood Saint Peter himself to the face" upon the like occasion. We read also how the same apostle preached of justice and temperance before Felix, who he notoriously knew lived in a lewd, incestuous marriage, and was equally infamous for bribery and extortion.

And this undoubtedly was his wisdom, his high and apostolic wisdom; though had he indeed lived in such an age as measures conscience by latitude, and compliance and wisdom by what a man can get, much another kind of character would no doubt have attended him, and he would have been taxed as a weak, hasty, and inconsiderate person, for reflecting upon and provoking the governor, who had used him fairly and civilly; so that if he had been but less free of his tongue, and a little more free of his purse, he might in all likelihood have been very easily released, and perhaps preferred too; but now, poor man, he has quite lost himself.

Such would have been the descants of our modern politics upon this occasion; but after all, if the word of truth itself may be heard, that, we shall find, knows no wisdom in an apostle, but what makes him bold and fearless in the cause of the church and of religion, and ready to discharge a rebuke upon any of the highest rank of right worshipful or right honourable sinners, where a scandalous guilt shall call for, or make it necessary; the contrary practice being incomparably the grossest of follies, and such as will be sure to lay a man low enough in the next world, whatsoever preferment it may raise him to in this.

And thus we have seen here the full compass of our Saviour's promise to his ministers and disciples, even the two most valuable perfections of man's nature, and the very top of the wisest of the heathens' wish, " sapere et fari, - a mouth and wisdom," a sagacity of mind, and a command of speech. And he bestows them also in their proper lustre and greatest advantage, that is to say, united, and like two stars in conjunction; many indeed being able to bring mouth enough to the ministry, though as for wisdom, that may even

shift for itself: but still those two stand best by mutual support and communication, elocution without wisdom being empty and irrational, and wisdom without elocution barren and unprofitable. "Præstat eloqui, modo cum prudentia, quam sine eloquio acutissime cogitare," said the great master of eloquence. A faculty to speak properly, and to act wisely, was a legacy fit to be left by the Saviour of the world to those, by whom he intended to instruct the world. And so much for the first general thing proposed from the words, to wit, the thing promised. I proceed now to the

2d, The person promising, who was Christ himself: "I will give you a mouth and wisdom." I lay a peculiar stress and remark upon this, because Christ seems by this very thing to give his disciples an assurance of his resurrection. He knew that it would not be long before they should see him crucified, killed, and laid in the grave, and so under all the umbrages of weakness and mortality that human nature could undergo; but when again, in the midst of all this, they should remember, that there was still a promise in store, not yet fulfilled, and withal not capable of being fulfilled by a person dead and extinct, they must needs from thence have concluded that he could not abide in that condition, but must irresistibly triumph over the grave, ascend and enter into a state of sovereignty and glory. Every tongue which sat upon the apostles at the day of Pentecost, spoke aloud the resurrection and ascension of him who had promised, and then gave the same. surely they could not expect to receive gifts from above, while the giver of them was under ground. And so I proceed to the

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3d, And last thing proposed from the text, which was, to shew by what means Christ conferred those gifts upon his disciples and apostles; and that, we find, was by the effusion of the Holy Ghost, the author and giver of every good and perfect gift, ministerial gifts more especially. Those were endowments too great to spring either from the strength of nature or the force of industry. The conferring of which we have eminently set forth in Matt. x. 19, 20. "Take no thought" (says our Saviour) "what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." They were surely the first, and perhaps will be the last, who ever did or are like to speak so much sense and reason extempore. But the cause is assigned in the next verse," for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you." And this glorious day, we know, informs us, that it spoke at length with a witness, with fiery tongues, and a flaming eloquence, and such an one as bore down all contradiction before it. was the inspiration which filled and raised them so much above themselves, for their

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work was too big for a mere mortal strength; and therefore, as God himself was to send, so he was also to furnish out his own ambassadors at the cost of heaven, (as I may with reverence express it.) The apostles, we find, were not (and that by our Saviour's particular order) to stir out of Jerusalem till the Holy Ghost was come upon them, and then they went forth armed at all points, to encounter either Jew or Gentile, and they did it both with courage and wisdom, and consequently with triumph and success.

And accordingly we are to carry it in perpetual remembrance, that while the work of preaching the gospel continues in the world, (as he, who is truth itself, has assured us it ever will,) the Spirit will never be wanting to the faithful preachers of it in a suitable assistance of them, though not in the same measure, we own, in which the apostles were assisted by it, whose work being peculiar and extraordinary, their assistance was to be so too. Infallibility was in the apostles a real privilege, but nowadays an insolent, or rather impudent pretence. And yet nothing is more confidently and constantly laid claim to, both by the papist and the enthusiast, than the Spirit; but none certainly ever yet ventured to speak lies and nonsense by the Spirit but themselves. To some of which persons indeed the world may allow a sort of wisdom, but far from "the wisdom which is from above;" and a mouth too they are well known to have, but a mouth never so open to speak as to devour. Christ defend his church from such inspired impostors, and vouchsafe his mighty presence to all the true (though too much despised) ministers of it, according to the measure of that glorious promise, and the last uttered by him here on earth at his victorious ascension into heaven. "Go, teach all nations; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

To whom, therefore, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty, and dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.

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church of Galatia (then but newly planted) could pass into so corrupt and degenerate a condition as this epistle represents it in, let none be surprised to find the very grossest errors sometimes got into the very best and purest churches, but wonder rather, that, after so many centuries since passed, there should still be (what our Saviour foretold there should scarce be at his second coming) such a thing as “faith upon earth," or indeed any church at all.

As for that of Galatia, the subject of the text before us, and consisting of great numbers both of Jews and Gentiles, just converted to Christianity, there arose a very early and fierce dispute amongst them, whether the Jewish customs and ceremonies were to be joined with and adopted into the Christian profession; and consequently, whether the converted Gentiles ought not to be circumcised according to the law of Moses, as well as they had been baptized according to the institution of Christ? The Jewish converts, whose education had made them infinitely fond of the Mosaic rites, and who, though they had the substance, still doted upon the shadow, even after they had given up their names to Christ, eagerly contended for the continuance of circumcision, and that not amongst themselves only, but for obliging the converted Gentiles also to the same. And in this their error they chanced unhappily to be the more confirmed by a temporizing practice of Saint Peter himself, the great apostle of the circumcision; who yet, (as great as he was,) | by judaizing in some things, and that even contrary to his own judgment, as well as to the truth of the gospel, (the text itself telling us, in verses 12, 13 of this chapter, that it was indeed no better than downright dissimulation,) he spread and carried the infection much farther by the authority of his example; so that, by this his insincere dealing and compliance, he mightily fixed these half Christian Jews, not only in a confident persistance in their error, but gave them heart also to expostulate the matter very insolently even with Saint Paul himself, who, being by divine commission no less the apostle of the Gentiles than Saint Peter was of the Jews, with a courage equal to his sincerity, both_taught and practised quite otherwise than that his brother apostle. Nay, so high did their judaizing impudence work, that they began to question the very truth of his doctrine, as Saint Paul not obscurely intimates in chap. 1st of this epistle, verse 9. To all which they add their no less rude reflections upon his apostleship, extolling Saint Peter and others as pillars, but undervaluing Saint Paul, as nothing in comparison of them. And lastly, to complete these scurrilities, we have their vilifying reproaches of his person, their ridiculing his bodily presence as mean, and his

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speech as contemptible; and, in a word, himself also as by no means so gifted a brother, forsooth, so powerful an holderforth, nor of such edifying lungs and loudness, as some of their own schismatical tribe.

This, I say, was the language of a set of schismatics in the church of Corinth, mentioned in 2 Cor. x. 10; and the like, no doubt, of the brotherhood in Galatia; and not of them only, but so long as there shall be governors and government in the church, the same, we may be sure, will be naturally the cry and virulence against them of all schismatics, sectaries, and dissenters whatsoever.

But as to Saint Paul's case now before us, he, in his apostolic circuit or visitation, coming to visit these hopeful converts in Galatia, accompanied with his beloved Titus, (not indeed then circumcised,) finds himself very vehemently pressed by them, and that with an importunity next to compulsion, to have him circumcised also, according to the false persuasion they had conceived of the necessary and perpetual use of circumcision. Nevertheless, as false and confident as this persuasion of theirs was, and as positively as it stood condemned by Saint Paul, it wanted not for several arguments, and those, seemingly at least, not inconsiderable, to give colour to the defence of it. As, to instance in some of them, might not these Galatians have pleaded for the continuance of circumcision, that Christ himself declared, that he came "not to destroy the law of Moses, but to fulfil it ;" and if so, was not circumcision one of the most considerable parts of that law? and indeed so considerable, as to be the grand obligation to bind men to all the rest? Did not also Christ command his own disciples to "hear and to do whatsoever the Scribes taught them out of Moses's chair?" And did those Scribes teach or own any thing as more necessary than circumcision? Moreover, did not Saint Peter, who was the proper apostle of the circumcision, (as we have shewn,) agree and concur with these men in this practice, or, at least, not dissuade them from it? Nay, and did not Saint Paul himself cause his beloved Timothy to be circumcised? And if in this matter there should be any difference between these two apostles, would not the advantage be clearly on Saint Peter's side, who, having conversed with Christ in the flesh, might rationally be presumed to know the true sense and design of the gospel more exactly than Saint Paul, who had not so conversed with him; and consequently, that it must be much safer to adhere to the former, in this controversy, than to the latter? And, lastly, besides, and above all this, might they not plead themselves extremely scandalized, grieved, and offended at the practice of such brethren as should lay aside circumcision, which they were sure was at first commanded,

and never since (for what they could learn) forbidden by Christ; but rather so much the contrary, that to countenance, and, as it were, even christen this ceremony, Christ submitted to be circumcised himself?

Now surely these things could not but carry some more than ordinary show of reason with them; and I frankly declare, that I cannot but own them for arguments much more forcible against the abrogation of cir cumcision, than any that I could ever yet find our nonconformists were able to bring for the abrogation of the ceremonies of our church. And yet, as forcible as they were, or seemed to be, they had no other effect upon Saint Paul, than that with an inflexible steadiness he rejects both the arguments themselves, and those who urged them; and upon a full cognizance of the merits of the whole cause, he peremptorily withstands those judaizing trimmers, and without the least regard either to the occasional communion which Saint Peter himself had lately vouchsafed them, or fear of his depriving power for doing so, (if he had any,) this high-church apostle (as we may worthily call him) resolves neither "to give place to him nor them, no, not for an hour."

This historical account of the occasion of the words here pitched upon by me for my text, I thought necessary to premise, for the better clearing and handling of them; in order to which I shall consider in them these five particulars:

1. A fierce opposition made by some erroneous Christians in the church of Galatia against Saint Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, and consequently of prime authority in that church.

2. The cause of this opposition; which was their importunate and unreasonable pressing of him to the practice of a thing as necessary, which neither was in itself necessary, nor so accounted by him.

3. The way of their managing this opposition, which was by bespattering his doctrine, and detracting from the credit and authority of his person, for withstanding these their encroaching demands.

4. The way which the apostle took to deal with such violent encroachers, and that was by "not yielding, or giving place to them, no, not for an hour."

5. and lastly, The end and design driven at by the apostle in this his method of dealing with them; and that was no less than the very preservation of the gospel itself, in the truth and purity of it, in those words, "that the truth of the gospel might continue with you."

The sum of all which five particulars I shall gather into this one proposition, which shall be the subject of the following discourse; namely, That the best and most apostolical

way to establish a church, and secure to it a lasting continuance of the truth and purity of the gospel, is, for the governors and ministers thereof not to give place at all, or yield up the least lawful, received constitution of it, to the demands or pretences of such as dissent or separate from it, though never so urging and importunate.

This, I say, is a most plain, natural, undeniable inference, from the words and practice of Saint Paul himself; and that in a case so like ours in the church of England, that a liker can hardly be imagined. And accordingly I shall manage the prosecution of this proposition under these three general heads:

1. I shall examine and consider the pretences alleged by dissenters for our quitting, or yielding up, any of the rites, ceremonies, or orders of our church.

2. I shall shew what are naturally like to be the consequences of such a yielding, or giving them up. And,

3. And lastly, I shall shew what influence and efficacy a strict adherence to the constitutions of our church, and an absolute refusal to part with any of them, is like to have towards a lasting settlement of the same, and of the truth and purity of the gospel amongst us. But before I enter upon a more particular discussion of any of these, I must premise this observation, as the ground and rule of all that I shall say upon this subject; namely, that the case is altogether the same of requiring, upon the account of conscience, the forbearance of practices in themselves lawful, out of a pretence of their unlawfulness; and of imposing upon the conscience practices in themselves not necessary, upon an allegation and pretence of their necessity: which latter was heretofore the case between Saint Paul and those judaizing Galatians, as the former has been, and still is, between the church of England and the nonconformists. Now both of these courses are really and equally superstitious for though amongst us loudness and ignorance have still carried the charge and cry against the ceremonies of our church, yet (as a very learned divine* of our own has fully proved in a sermon of his at a visitation) this charge truly recoils upon our dissenters themselves, in the very point and matter now before us. For, as to urge the practice of a thing in its nature really indifferent, as a part of God's worship, and for itself necessary to be practised, (which the church of England never did, nor does, in the injunction of any of its ceremonies,) is properly superstitious; so, on the other side, to make it necessary to abstain from practices in themselves lawful and indifferent, (as the dissenters do, by alleging them to be sinful and unlawful, and consequently that to abstain from them is part of our obedience to Almighty God,) this Bishop Sanderson.

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is altogether as superstitious as the other, and as diametrically opposite to and destructive of that Christian liberty, which Christ has invested his church with.

Which observation being thus premised, I shall now enter upon the first general thing proposed, to wit, to examine and consider the several pretences alleged by dissenters for our quitting or giving up any of the constitutions or customs of our church: and here I shall not pretend to recount them all in particular, but only at large, and as they are derivable from, and reducible to, these three particulars:

1. The unlawfulness; 2. The inexpediency; and 3. and lastly, The pretended smallness (as they word it) of the things excepted against by them. Each of which I shal touch very briefly upon. And,

1. For their leading plea of the unlawfulness of our ceremonies, grounded upon that old, baffled argument, drawn from the unlaw fulness of will-worship, and the prohibition of adding to or detracting ought from the word or worship of God, no other answer need or can be given to it, than that which has been given over and over, namely, that our ceremonies are not looked upon either as divine worship, or as any necessary essential part of it, but only as circumstances, and external appurtenances, for the more decent performance of that worship: for that men should of their own will impose or use any thing as the necessary worship of God, or add any thing to that worship as a necessary essential part of it, this questionless (as the forementioned allegations sufficiently prove, and nobody, that I know of, denies) must needs be sinful; but if from hence it be affirmed also that no circumstance is to be allowed about the divine worship, but what is declared and enjoined by express Scripture, the consequence of that is so insufferably ridiculous, that it wil extend to the making it unlawful for the church to appoint any stated place or hour for God's public worship, that it will reach also to the very taking away of pulpits, reading desks, fonts, and every thing else circumstantially ministering to the discharge of divine service, if not expressly mentioned and commanded in the written word of God; and let these men, upon the foregoing principle, avoid the absurdity of this consequence, if they can. But it has been well remarked, that the truth is, those men do not really believe themselves, while they thus plead against the ceremonies and orders of our church. For when a late act of parliament required all persons in office, or designing to qualify themselves for any office in the state, to receive the sacrament according to the use and order of the church of England, (which we all know was to receive it kneeling,) we find not that those men, in such cases, refused the doing of it, (how idolatrous soever both now and then

they pretended it to be,) rather than quit the least office of gain which they actually had, or miss of any which they were in pursuit of; which practice of theirs, had it been unlawful, surely men of such tender consciences, as they own themselves to be of, would never have been brought to; forasmuch as not the least unlawful thing ought to be done for the greatest temporal advantage whatsoever though it may be quite otherwise, I confess, with those new lights, whose humour is their law, their will their reason, and their interest their whole religion. And so to pass from hence to their

Second plea, to wit, of the inexpedience or inconvenience of the said ceremonies in the divine worship; to which I answer these two things:

1st, That expedient or inexpedient being words of a general, indefinite sense or signification, and upon that account determinable chiefly by the several fancies, humours, and apprehensions of men about one and the same thing, (so that what is judged expedient by one man is often judged as inexpedient by another;) the judgment of expedient or inexpedient in matters to be passed into law, ought in all reason to rest wholly in the legislators and governors of any community; and consequently, that no private persons whatsoever ought to be looked upon as competent judges of the inexpedience of that which the legislative power has once enacted and established as expedient. But, 2dly, I affirm also, that what is not only in itself lawful, but likewise highly conducible to so great a concern of religion, as decency and order in divine worship certainly is, and that to such a degree conducible to the same, that without it neither order nor decency could possibly continue or subsist; that surely cannot, ought not to be reckoned inexpedient upon any contrary account, considerable enough to be compared with, and much less to overbalance that great one of order and regularity in our addresses to Almighty God; which I affirm the ceremonies used by our church are most properly subservient to. For since the outward acts of divine worship cannot be performed, but with some circumstances and postures of the body, either every man must be left to his own arbitrement to use what circumstances and postures he pleases, or a rule must be fixed to direct these things after one and the same manner: the former of which will of necessity infer great diversity and variety in the discharge of the divine worship; and that, by as great a necessity, will infer such a disorder, indecency, and confusion in the same, as nothing but a uniformity in the behaviour and circumstances of all persons joining in that worship can possibly prevent: an argument, no doubt, worth the consideration of all, who must needs

know, that God will not be served by halves, but be honoured by body as well as soul, (the whole man being less than enough, for all our solemn acts of devotion.) And so we come now to the

Third and last of their exceptions, grounded upon the smallness of the things excepted against: to which also my answer is twofold:

1st, That these things being in themselves lawful, and not only so, but also determined by sufficient authority, their smallness is so far from being a reason why we should refuse and stand out against the use of them, that it is an unanswerable argument, why they should, without any demur, submit to and comply with authority in matters which they themselves confess to be of no very great moment. For it ought to be a very great and weighty matter indeed, which can warrant a man in his disobedience to the injunctions of lawful authority in any thing whatsoever. And that which is a reason why men should comply with their governors, I am sure can be no reason why their governors should give place to them. But,

2dly, I add farther, that nothing actually enjoined by law is or ought to be looked upon as small or little, as to the use or forbearance of it, during the continuance of that law, nor yet as a sufficient reason for the abrogation of that law; since, be the thing never so small in itself, yet being by great deliberation first established, and for a long time since received in the church, and contended for with real and great reason on the one side, be the reasons never so plausible (which yet hitherto does not appear) on the other, yet the consequence of a change cannot be accounted small, since it is certainly very hazardous at best, and doubtful what mischief such a change may occasion, how far it may proceed, and where it may end; especially since the experience of all governments has made it evident, that there was hardly ever any thing altered in any settled estate, which was not followed by farther and farther alterations, and several inconveniences attending those alterations, unforeseen indeed at first, but such as, in the event, made too great impressions upon the public to be accounted either small or inconsiderable.

These exceptions therefore being thus stript of their plausibility and force too, and returned upon the makers of them, it follows that notwithstanding all the late harangues concerning our differing in lesser things, (as the phrase still goes,) and our contending about shadows, and the like, made by some amongst us, who would fain be personally popular at the cost of the public, and build themselves a reputation with the rabble upon the ruins of that church, which by all the obligations of oaths and gratitude they are bound to support, as (I am sure) that supports them; it follows,

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