TRUE CHRISTIANITY;

OR,

CHRIST'S ABSOLUTE DOMINION,

AND

MAN'S NECESSARY SELF-RESIGNATION AND

SUBJECTION.

IN TWO ASSIZE SERMONS, PREACHED AT WORCESTER.

"For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living."—Rom. xiv. 9.

"But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."-LUKE xix. 27.

TO THE

RIGHT HONORABLE SERJEANT GLYN,

NOW JUDGE OF ASSIZE IN THIS CIRCUIT.

MY LORD,

COULD my excuse have satisfied you, this sermon had been confined to the auditory it was prepared for. I cannot expect that it should find that candor and favor with every reader, as it did with the hearers. When it must speak to all, the guilty will hear, and then it will gall. Innocency is patient in hearing a reproof, and charitable in the interpretation; but guilt will smart and quarrel, and usually make a fault in him that findeth one in them. Yet I confess this is but a poor justification of his silence that hath a call to speak. Both my calling and this sermon would condemn me, if, on such grounds, I should draw back; but my backwardness was caused by the reason which I then tendered your lordship as my excuse, viz. because here is nothing but what is common, and that it is in as common and homely a dress. And I hope we need not fear that our labors are dead, unless the press shall give them life. We bring not sermons to church, as we do a corpse for a burial. If there be life in them, and life in the hearers, the connaturality will cause such an amicable closure, that through the reception, retention, and operation of the soul, they will be the immortal seed of a life everlasting. But yet, seeing the press hath a louder voice than mine, and the matter in hand is of such exceeding necessity, I shall not refuse, upon such an invitation, to be a remembrancer to the world of a doctrine and duty of such high concernment, though they have heard it ever so oft before. Seeing, therefore, I must present that now to your eyes, which I lately presented to your ears, I shall take the boldness to add one word of application in this epistle, which I thought not seasonable to mention in the first delivery, and that shall be to your lordship, and all others in your present case, that are elected members of this expected Parliament. Be sure to remember the interest of your Sovereign, the great Lord-protector of heaven and earth. And as ever you will make him a comfortable account of your

power, abilities and opportunities of serving him, see that you prefer his interest before your own, or any man's on earth. If you go not thither, as sent by him, with a firm resolution to serve him first, you were better sit at home. Forget not that he hath laid claim to you, and to all that you have, and all that you can do. I am bold, with all possible earnestness, to entreat you, yea, as Christ's minister, to require you, in his name, to study and remember his business and interest, and see that it have the chief place in all your consultations. Watch against the encroachments of your own carnal interests; consult not with flesh and blood, nor give it the hearing when it shall offer you its advice. How subtilly will it insinuate! How importunately will it urge you! How certainly will it mar all, if you do not constantly and resolvedly watch! O, how hard, but how happy is it to conquer this carnal self! Remember, still, that you are not your own; that you have an unseen Master that must be pleased, whoever be displeased, and an unseen kingdom to be obtained, and an invisible soul that must be saved, though all the world be lost. Fix your eyes still on him that made and redeemed you, and upon the ultimate end of your Christian race, and do nothing, willfully, unworthy such a master, and such an end. Often renew your self-resignation, and devote yourself to him; sit close at his work, and be sure that it be his, both in the matter and in your intent. If conscience should at any time ask, Whose work are you now doing?' or a man should pluck you by the sleeve, and say, 'Sir, whose cause are you now pleading?' see that you have the answer of a Christian at hand delay not God's work till you have done your own, or any one's else. You will best secure the commonwealth, and your own interest, by looking first to his. By neglecting this, and being carnally wise, we have wheeled about so long in the wilderness, and lost those advantages against the powers of darkness, which we know not whether we shall ever recover again. It is the great astonishment of sober men, and not the least reproach that ever was cast on our holy profession, to think with what a zeal for the work of Christ men seemed to be animated in the beginning of our disagreements, and how deeply they did engage themselves to him in solemn vows, protestations, and covenants, and what advantages carnal self hath since got, and turned the stream another way! So that the same men have since been the instruments of our calamity, in breaking in pieces and dishonoring the churches of Christ, yea, and gone so near to the taking down, as much as in them lay, the whole ministry that stand approved in the land. O, do not, by trifling, give advantage to the tempter to destroy your work and you together! Take warning by the sad experiences of what is past; bestir you speedily and vigorously for Christ,

TO THE RIGHT HON. SERJEANT GLYN.

261

as knowing your opposition, and the shortness of your time. 'Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.' If you ask me wherein this interest of Christ doth consist, I shall tell you, but in a few unquestionable particulars. 1. In the main, that truth, godliness, and honesty be countenanced and encouraged; and their contraries, by all fit means, suppressed. 2. In order to this, that unworthy men be removed from magistracy and ministry, and the places supplied with the fittest that can be had. 3. That a competent maintenance may be procured where it is wanting, especially for cities and great towns, where more teachers are so necessary, in some proportion to the number of souls, and on which the country doth so much depend. Shall an age of such high pretenses to reformation and zeal for the churches, alienate so much, and then leave them destitute, and say, it cannot be had? 4. That right means be used, with speed and diligence, for the healing of our divisions, and the uniting of all the true churches of Christ at last, in these nations; and O that your endeavors might be extended much further! To which end, I shall mention but these two means, of most evident necessity. 1. That there be one Scripture creed, or confession of faith, agreed on by a general assembly of able ministers, duly and freely chosen hereunto, which shall contain nothing but matter of evident necessity and verity. This will serve, 1. For a test to the churches to discern the sound professors from the unsound, (as to their doctrine,) and to know them with whom they may close as brethren, and whom they must reject. 2. For a test to the magistrate of the orthodox to be encouraged, and of the intolerably heterodox, which, it seems, is intended in the 37th article of the late formed government, where all that will have liberty must profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, which, in a Christian sense, must comprehend every true fundamental article of our faith; and, no doubt, it is not the bare speaking of those words in an unchristian sense that is intended; as if a ranter should say, that himself is God, and his mate is Jesus Christ.

2. That there be a public establishment of the necessary liberty of the churches, to meet their officers and delegates on all just occasions, in assemblies smaller or greater, (even national, when it is necessary,) seeing, without associations and communion in assemblies, the unity and concord of the churches is not like to be maintained. I exclude not the magistrates' interest, or oversight, to see that they do not transgress their bounds. As you love Christ, and his church and gospel, and men's souls, neglect not these unquestionable points of his interest, and make them your first and chiefest business, and let none be preferred before him until you know them to be of more authority over you, and better friends