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work till then. It is true indeed, when it is come to this, and a finner finds himfelf going out of the world, if he have been fo foolish, and fo cruel to himself, as to put things upon this last hazard, repentance is now the only thing that is left for him to do. This is his last remedy, and the only refuge he has to fly to; and this is that which the Minister in this cafe ought by all means to put the man upon, and earneftly to perfuade him to. But when we speak to men in other circumstances, that are well, and in health, we dare not for all the world encourage them to venture their fouls upon fuch an uncertainty. For, to speak the best of it, it is a very dangerous remedy; efpecially when men have defignedly contrived to rob God of the service of their best days, and to put him off with a few unprofitable fighs and tears at the hour of death. I defire to have as large apprehenfions of the mercy of God as any man; but, withal, I am very fure that he is the hardest to be impofed upon of any one in the world. And no man that hath any worthy apprehenfions of the Deity, can imagine him to be fo eafy, as to forgive men upon the leaft word and intimation of their minds, and to have fuch, a fondness for offenders as would reflect upon the prudence of any magiftrate and governor upon earth. God. grant that I may fincerely endeavour to live a holy and virtuous life, and may have the comfort of that when I come to die; and that I may never be fo unwife as to venture all my hopes of a blessed eternity, upon a death. bed repentance.

I will conclude all with those excellent fayings of the fon of Sirach, Ecclus v. 6. 7. xvi. 11. 12. and xviii. 21. 22. Say not, God's mercy is great, and he will be pacified for the multitude of my fins. For mercy and wrath are with him; he is mighty to forgive, and to pourout difpleafure and as his mercy is great, fo are his corrections also. Therefore make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day: for fuddenly fhall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in thy fecurity thou shalt be deftroyed. Humble thyfelf before thou be fick, and in the time of fins fhew repentance. Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vaws in due time, and defer not till death to be justified,

SER

189

XI.

SERMON

The hazard of being faved in the church of

T

Rome.

I COR. iii. 15.

But he himself fhall be faved; yet fo, as by fire.

'HE context is thus: According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wife mafter-builder I bave laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, Jefus Chrift. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, filver, precious ftones, wood, hay, fubble; every man's work fhall be made manifeft. For the day Shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire fhall try every man's work, of what fort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he fhall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burnt, he fhall fuffer lofs: but he himself shall be faved; yet so, as by fire.

In thefe words the apostle speaks of a fort of perfons, who held indeed the foundation of Chriftianity, but built upon it fuch doctrines or practices as would not bear the trial; which he expreffes to us by wood, hay, and Stubble, which are not proof against the fire. Such a perfon, the Apoftle tells us, hath brought himself into a very dangerous ftate, though he would not deny the poffibility of his falvation: He himself fhall be faved: yet fo, as by fire.

That by fire here is not meant the fire of purgatory, as fome pretend, who would be glad of any fhadow of a text of fcripture to countenance their own dreams, I fhall neither trouble you nor myself to manifeft; fince the particle of fimilitude as plainly fhews, that the Apoftle did not intend an escape out of the fire literally, but like to that which men make out of a houfe or town that is on fire: efpecially fince very learned perfons of the

church

church of Rome do acknowledge, that purgatory cannot be concluded from this text: nay, all that Eftius contends for from this place, is, that it cannot be concluded from hence that there is no purgatory; which we never pretended, but only that this text doth not prove it.

It is very well known, that this is a proverbial phrase, ufed not only in fcripture, but in profane authors, to fig nify a narrow escape out of a great danger: He fhall be faved; yet fo, as by fire; dia upos, out of the fire. Juft as Si udalos is ufed, I Pet. iii. 20. where the Apostle, fpeaking of the eight perfons of Noah's family who efcaped the flood, donar di sales, they escaped out of the water. So here this phrafe is to be rendered in the text, He himself fhall efcape; yet fo, as out of the fire. The like expreffion you have, Amos iv. 11. I have plucked them as a firebrand out of the fire. And Jude v. 23. Others fave with fear, plucking them out of the fire. All which expreffions fignify the greatnefs of the danger, and the difficulty of efcaping it; 66 as one who, when "his houfe at midnight is fet on fire, and being fudden"ly wak'd, leaps out of his bed, and runs naked out "of the doors, taking nothing that is within along "with him, but employing his whole care to fave his "body from the flames;" as St Chryfoftom upon another occafion expreffeth it. And fo the Roman orator, who it is likely did not think of purgatory, ufeth this phrafe: Quo ex judicio, velut ex incendio, nudus effugit, Tully:" From which judgement or fentence he efcaped naked, as it were out of a burning of the Greek orators tells us, That "to fave a man out of "the fire, was a common proverbial fpeech," Ariftides.

66

"And one

From the words thus explained, the obfervation that naturally ariseth is this, that men may hold all the fundamentals of Christian religion, and yet may fuperadd other things, whereby they may greatly endanger their falvation. What thofe things were which fome among the Corinthians built upon the foundation of Chriftianity, whereby they endangered their falvation, we may` probably conjecture by what the Apostle reproves in this epiftle, as the tolerating of inceftuous marriages, communicating in idol-feafts, &c. and especially by the doc

trine of the false apoftles, who at that time did fo much disturb the peace of most Christian churches, and whe are so often and so severely reflected upon in this epistle. And what their doctrine was, we have an account, Acts xv. viz. that they impofed upon the Gentile Christians circumcifion, and the observation of the Jewish law, teaching, that unless they were circumcifed, and kept the law of Mofes, they could not be faved. So that they did not only build thefe doctrines upon Chriftianity, but they made them equal with the foundation, faying, that unless men believed and practifed these things, they could not be faved.

In fpeaking to this observation, I fhall reduce my difcourse to these two heads.

1. I fhall present to you fome doctrines and practices which have been built upon the foundation of Chriftianity, to the great hazard and danger of mens falvation: and, to be plain, I mean particularly the church of Rome.

2. I fhall inquire, whether our granting a poffibility of falvation, though with great hazard, to thofe in the communion of the Roman church, and their denying it to us, be a reasonable argument and encouragement to any man to betake himself to that church.

And there is the more reafon to confider these things, when fo many feducing fpirits are fo active and busy to pervert men from the truth, and when we fee every day fo many men and their religion fo eafily parted. For this reason these two confiderations fhall be the subject of the following difcourfe.

First, We will confider fome doctrines and practices which the church of Rome hath built upon the foundation of Christianity, to the great hazard and danger of mens falvation. It is not denied by the most judicious Proteftants, but that the church of Rome do hold all the articles of the Christian faith which are neceffary to falvation; but that which we charge upon them, as a just ground of our feparation from them, is, the impofing of new doctrines and practices upon Chriftians as neceffary to falvation, which were never taught by our Saviour or his Apoftles; and which are either directly contrary to

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the doctrine of Chriftianity, or too apparently deftructive of a good life. And I begin,

I. With their doctrines. And becaufe I have no mind to aggravate leffer matters, I will fingle out four or five points of doctrine, which they have added to the Chriftian religion, and which were neither taught by our Saviour and his Apostles, nor owned in the first ages of Christianity. And the

Firft which I fhall mention, and which, being once admitted, makes way for as many errors as they please to bring in, is, their doctrine of infallibility. And this they are very stiff and peremptory in, though they are not agreed among themfelves where this infallibility is feated; whether in the Pope alone, or a council alone, or in both together, or in the diffufive body of Chriftians. But they are fure they have it, though they know not where it is.

Can any man

And is this no prejudice against it? think, that this privilege was at first conferred upon the church of Rome, and that Chriftians in all ages did believe it, and had conftant recourfe to it for determining their differences; and yet that that very church, which hath enjoyed and used it fo long, fhould now be at a loss where to find it? Nothing could have fallen out more unluckily, than that there fhould be fuch differences among them about that which they pretend to be the only means of ending all differences.

There is not the leaft intimation in fcripture, of this privilege conferred upon the Roman church; nor do the Apoftles, in all their epiftles, ever fo much as give the leaft direction to Chriftians to appeal to the Bithop of Rome for a determination of the many differences which even in those times happened among them. And it is strange they fhould be fo filent in this matter, when there were fo many occafions to fpeak of it. If our Saviour had plainly appointed fuch an infallible judge of controverfies for this very end, to decide the differences that should happen among Chriftians, it is strange that the ancient fathers, in their difputes with heretics, fhould never appeal to this judge: nay, it is ftrange they fhould not conftantly do it in all cafes, it being fo fhort and expedite a way for the ending of controverfies,

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