us authentic testimonies and evidences, notwithstanding the barbarism and violence of several ages against the truth! Nay, it might be shown that God hath not left us without a lamp of testimony to the most material points, even here in Britain: but that it would arise to a little chronicle, not proper for this place and time, but obvious to be observed, in the several hints and reflections upon what they called "errors" in several public synods in this island; even till the time of Wickliffe, when the truth broke out more gloriously, and still shineth in great lustre, blessed be His most holy name!

COROLLARY IV.

Hath Almighty God, of his infinite goodness, so graciously hitherto preserved his church; and bestowed upon the Reformed countries his most Holy Bible, translated with great care and diligence out of the sacred originals into our mother-tongues; and poured out that grace to endeavour to reform, according to his heavenly directions therein recorded? Let us "give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip;" (Heb. ii. 1;) and "hold fast" that which we have received from heaven, “that no man take away our crown.” (Rev. iii. 11.)

Let us take heed of wantonness; of resisting or abusing the blessed gospel; or any way walking unworthy of it; lest God, provoked by our unholiness, should remove the golden candlestick into corners or to other nations. Let us take great heed of creeping corruptions, and of those communions that err in faith, departing from the Head, from the scriptures, from the doctrine of the apostles, from purity of worship; lest, if we partake of their sins, we be involved also in their plagues. "Come out of her, my people," says the Lord: (Rev. xviii. 4 :) and having been obedient to the heavenly vision, let us keep our garments unspotted, that men see not our shame; (Rev. xvi. 15;) as we love the salvation of our souls and the glory of "the Son of the living God," the only true Basis and Rock of his church. Let us heartily pity and earnestly pray for such as are yet judicially hardened to believe a lie. (2 Thess. ii. 10, 11.)

COROLLARY V.

Since our blessed Lord hath built his church upon himself, who is a Rock flowing with milk and honey; then all true believers, being fixed upon this amiable and lovely "Foundation laid in Zion," should sweetly unite in holy love together, being "rooted and built up together in him." (Col. ii. 7.)

Let not these living marbles, polished for Solomon's palace, dash against one another. Let not the sheep of Christ push each other.

- Quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos ?—VIRGILII Bucolica, ecl. iii. 103.* "Who hath bewitched you, O foolish Galatians?" (Gal. iii. 1.) These unnatural buttings (as shepherds observe) presage very stormy days. Shall roses that grow in Sharon gash each other's tender sides, and the church's vines turn brambles? When some troops in an army fight not against the enemy, but give fire at their own regiments, is it not a noto• "What magic has bewitch'd the woolly dams,

And what ill eyes beheld the tender lambs ?"-DRYDEN'S Translation.

rious sign of infatuation, or conspiracy against their native prince? Shall a few externals engage spirits in mutual heats and conflicts, to the laughter, scorn, and hope of the adversary? who will join with one part for a while, that they may devour both at last; and blow up those intestine heats into a flame, at which they will joyfully warm their hands. Mildness and meekness is the glory of a Christian; and the way to gain brethren to our opinions is by ponderous arguments and sweet affections. Naturalists observe, that fish will never be taken by a bloody net; and when sheep bring forth lions, it is portentous of tyranny.* It is utterly impossible, in our lapsed estate, to make all of a mind; and a most improper means, to propagate opinions by violence. Socrates, treating of the diversities about Easter and other rites, in an excellent chapter tending to Christian union, says, Ουδέποτε προς ἑαυτους διεφώνησαν,† that they by no means dissociated from one another; and that those who consent in the same faith, may differ in rites and ceremonies; ‡ and that the apostles gave no precepts about such matters, but left all to their free liberty: § and again, bewails such as in his time counted whoredom indifferent, but strove for such feasts as for their lives. Neither may we forget those golden sayings of blessed Austin: Interminabilis est ista contentio, generans lites, non finiens quæstiones: sit ergò una fides, &c., etiamsi ipsa fidei unitas quibusdam diversis observationibus celebratur, quibus nullo modo quod in fide verum est impeditur : ¶ "This contention is endless, gendering to strife, not putting an end to questions: let the faith therefore be one, &c., although the unity of faith be celebrated with certain diverse rites, by which that which is true in the faith is no ways hindered." All the glory of the queen is within: those outward rites are only the embroidery of her garments, which may be of various colours. (Psalm xlv. 13, 14.) The dove of the church may have her "wings covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." (Psalm lxviii. 13.) The same army may have diversity of banners; and yet fight unanimously and victoriously under one and the same general. We agree in the main; and "whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing: " and if any be otherwise minded, God may in time reveal even that unto them. (Phil. iii. 15, 16; Gal. vi. 16.) There will never be peace in the Christian world, so long as scrupulous externals are by proud and foolish persons pressed with equal rigour to many substantials and fundamentals.

So far are some pious spirits from this fiery temper, that they are not without hope of several in far different communions. But if any among ours speak or write more mildly, favourably, and softly, of some of theirs, it is not to be understood of such as finally persist in the high and fundamental points of difference; but of them that privately whisper and sigh among their friends, Sic dicerem in scholis, sed tamen (maneat inter nos,) diversum sentio, &c.; non potest probari de sacris literis, &c. : ** "So I speak in the schools, but yet (let that be kept private) I think otherwise, and that it cannot be proved out of holy scriptures:" of such as sincerely cry out with the cardinal, Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in solá

Dei misericordia et benignitate reponere: "It is safest to cast all our confidence on the mercy and benignity of God only; "to adhere to the precious blood of Christ alone, without works: (there be some even in Babylon of His people, to be called out in the day of vengeance: Rev. xviii. 4) such as are in heart ours; and, as to the cardinal point of justification, die in the Reformed religion: such as Pighius, (though otherwise bitter,) as Vergerius, Gerson, Ferus, Jansenius, and father Paul the Venetian, and many others.†

COROLLARY VI.

In the sixth and last place: All the true living members of the holy church of Christ may be greatly comforted from this text and doctrine.

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For though the church will never be fully quiet and at rest while the gates of hell stand undemolished; but will be still exposed to furious assaults, to boisterous waves, tempestuous storms, direful persecutions, and secret undermining heresies, to their molimina and blandimenta; sometimes to "fierce oppositions' and " flattering enticements," and sometimes to both together: yet herein stands "the faith and patience of the saints." (Rev. xiii. 10; xiv. 12.) Therefore all gracious Christians must be content, and resolved to exercise themselves in this spiritual warfare, and by fervent prayer call down auxiliary help from heaven; whereby the invincible and omnipotent God is humbly implored, and legions of holy angels sent in for assistance. Yet,

1. Let holy souls be comforted in this,-that "no weapon formed against Mount Zion shall" finally "prosper." (Isai. liv. 17.)-" The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised them, and laughed them to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at them.” (Isai. xxxvii. 22.) For, as the "golden-mouthed" preacher expresses it, Ty βελοθηκην αυτού εξεκενωσεν ὁ διάβολος, την δε εκκλησίαν ουκ εβλαψε. † "Satan hath emptied his quiver, but hath not hurt the church." By how much the more the enemies rage against her, by so much the more the true professors of piety and faith increase: not unlike the vine, that grows the more fertile by pruning; or as the palm, that rises the more erect after weights and pressures; and although in time of trouble like some plants that shut up their flowers upon a storm, yet afterward display their lively and lovely colours more oriently to the face of the shining sun. The church of God, though she be not always so openly visible as that all the world shall cry, "Hosanna" to her splendour and glory, yet she grows more numerous, holy, and stable, by her troubles. Her enemies may seem for a time oxvev, valere; but shall not xariσXue, prævalere, as it is promised in the text: [they may seem] "to be potent and strong;" but shall never "subdue and vanquish They might believe Christ, and spare their trouble. They may vires exerere, put forth their utmost power; " but "the gates of hell," (adov, portæ mortis,) "of death and the grave," shall never attain to or compass so deadly a stroke as shall extirpate the church in any age. Nay, the wisdom of God hath ever turned their policies into folly, and their

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her.

BELLARMINUS De Justif. tom. iv. lib. v. c. 7, p. 276, Col. Agrip. 1628. † OSIANDER, cent. xvi. p. 501. 1 CHRYSOSTOMI Serm. i. in Pentecost. tom. v. p. 979, ed. Æton.

puissance into cowardice. They have often been forced to suck up the cockatrice-eggs that they have laid, and felt the keenness of their own recoiling arrows. They may open [their mouth], but shall never be able to swallow the church: they may cast out floods, but shall never drown her: (Rev. xii. 15, 16:) as he said of ancient Rome, Mersa profundo, pulchrior evenit: * "Cast her in the sea; she dives, and rises again with her face washed from spots, and looks more beautiful." The church may be pressed for a while, but suppressed never. "The archers may shoot sorely at " her but her "bow shall abide in strength." (Gen. xlix. 23, 24.) God will have a church to endure to the world's end, in spite of all the privy leagues and confederacies that are contrived in, or all the forces and powers that issue from, the gates of hell. Her "place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; (Isai. xxxiii. 16;) and "all the nations that fight against Ariel shall be as the dream of a night-vision.” (Isai. xxix. 7.)

2. The church, after all assaults and conflicts, in fine shall be completely victorious and triumphant; she will joyfully survive her enemies, and behold their funerals.-Let holy souls rely upon this promise in the text, and improve it in prayer for their comfort and sustentation; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: "The nations shall see" it, " and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of him." (Micah vii. 16, 17.) There is a time, and it hastens,-that this rock shall dash them in pieces, and they shall "become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind shall carry them away, and no place be found for them." (Dan. ii. 35.) There is a glorious time a-coming, (rumpantur ut ilia Roma,†) when the stones of this temple shall be "laid with fair colours, and her foundations with sapphires, her windows with agates, her gates with carbuncles, and all her borders with pleasant stones; (Isai. liv. 11, 12;) when the false rock of the pretended Peter shall, like a millstone, be flung into the depth of the sea; and her gaudy edifice shall melt into foam, and be dissipated among the waters. Then shall one of their own prophecies (I mean, of the Irish Malachi †) be surely fulfilled Civitas septicollis diruetur, et Judex tremendus judicabit populum suum : "The seven-hilled city shall be ruined, and the terrible Judge shall judge his people." Or rather, that of Obadiah: "Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's." (Obad. 21.)

3. In the mean time, let the church of God be comforted also in this, -that the bread of support shall be given her, and the water of consolation shall be sure. (Isai. xxxiii. 16.) Out of this Rock of ages flows a river of living waters, "the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." (Psalm xlvi. 4.) Nay, "with honey out of the rock" shall they be satisfied, (Psalm lxxxi. 16,) while wandering in the wilderness toward

HORATII Carm. lib. iv. od. iv. 65. †This quotation is altered from a line of VIRGIL, Bucol. ecl. vii. 26. WARTON thus translates the original :"Till Codrus' heart malign with envy break."-Edit.

MESSINGHAM, Florileg. Hiberniæ, p. 378.

Canaan; and at last transported to the city of the New Jerusalem, which is above; where there is "fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore; (Psalm xvi. 11;) where "they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness" of that heavenly temple, and shall drink-in the rivers of the celestial Eden, 772 Edenis tuæ. (Psalm xxxvi. 8.)

SERMON X. (XV.)

BY THE REV. RICHARD MAYO, A. M.

THE PAPISTS DANGEROUSLY CORRUPT HOLY WORSHIP, BY THEIR SINFUL PRAYERS TO SAINTS AND ANGELS.

INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS UNLAWFUL.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ?— Romans x. 14.

My business being to show the sin and folly of the Papists in praying to angels and saints departed, I thought this scripture would be a fit introduction to it. This text alone, in the learned Usher's opinion,* will put an end to this controversy amongst those that list not to be contentious. I shall not dilate upon the context; let it suffice to tell you, that the scope of the apostle is to prove, that there was a necessity of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. He had showed before that there is no difference betwixt them; that "the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him;" that the Gentiles calling upon him should be saved by him: (verses 12, 13:) hence, therefore, he infers that the gospel must needs be preached to them; for, as it follows in the text, "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?"

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His way of arguing is such as logicians call "sorites; " rhetoricians, "a gradation :" and it is very forcible and demonstrative. So also is his manner of speaking, which is by way of interrogation; which is the more convincing, because it carries with it a kind of an appeal to the persons spoken to. The interrogation here is equivalent to a negation: "How shall they call upon him?" that is, They cannot call upon him; it is not possible nor practicable. "In whom they have not believed: the original is, "On whom," Eis ov oux ETIσTEUσay there must be a believing on him, as well as in him, whom we invocate; that is, there must be a fiducial trusting and relying upon him. All supplication is founded on faith: none implore his favour on whom they have not some reliance; we petition no others here on earth, we must direct our prayers • In "Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuit in Ireland," p. 377. VOL. VI.

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