STAFFORD CHURCH. A TEMPLE to the living God That leads, my gracious Lord, to thee. O come to me and bless and own: The golden palace of my God And lead me through sins darksome night, My Saviour and my God!' R. H. REV H. A. SIMCOE, (Penheale-Press,) Cornwall. 'And in like case as the above mentioned holy men, though they in their days were counted to be heretics, seditious, and disturbers of the whole world, (for unto John Baptist it was said, John i., "Wherefore baptizest thou, if thou be not Elias, nor that Prophet," &c. As who should say, Thou hast no such authority to begin a new ceremony in the church. For we be in ordinary possession of the church, and of us thou hast received no such power: we abide by our circumcision): and the like could I declare of James, and of all the Apostles and Prophets, and of our Saviour Christ himself, that were all condemned as heretics and blasphemers of God, and disturbers of the whole world. Paul and Silas, Acts the sixteenth, heard like words of the Phillippians: K These men trouble our city, seeing they are Jews, and preach institutions which are not lawful for us to receive, seeing we be Romans. And in the seventeenth, in Athens, the wise men of this world, and such as give their endeavour to wisdom, said of St. Paul, What will this prater (as my Lord Chancellor said to me, Shall we suffer this fellow to prate? when I would fain have said that thing that I have here written), trifler, news carrier or bringer, that telleth whatsoever men will have him for gain and advantage, that will for a piece of bread say what ye will have him, &c.? And another said in the same place, He seemeth to be a preacher of new doctrines, &c. And Acts xxi. the Jews said by Paul, (laying hands on him) Help, O ye Israelites, say they; this is the man that teacheth all men every where against the people (meaning the Jews), and the law of this place (meaning Jerusalem); and yet was never a word of And Acts xxii. the same Jews said of Paul, Out of the earth with that man, or away with him. For it is not lawful for him to live, or he is not worthy to live. this true. 6 And how many more of these examples are there to be found in the Bible? Although, I say, these men were in their days taken for heretics of them that were in authority, and of the great multitude of the world, yet it is now well known, yea, and very shortly after their deaths this was known, (yea, and even in their lives also unto the true catholic church,) that they were not only the chief and special members of the true catholic church, but also the founders and builders thereof (notwithstanding the sinister judgment thatthe wise and mighty men, and the great multi tude of the world had of them), and in their consciences they were always assuredly certified of the same. Even the same shall the world find true in us, shortly after our deaths, as also there be at this hour (the Lord be thanked therefore) not a few that already know it, as we ourselves also are by God's grace assuredly certified in our consciences, that we are no heretics, but members of the true catholic church; and that our adversaries, the bishops and Popish clergy, which will have that title, are the members of Satan's church, and their antichristian head of Rome with them. 'But here will they cry out, Lo! these men will be still like John Baptist, the Apostles, and the Prophets, &c. 'I answer, we make not ourselves like unto them in the singular virtues and gifts of God given unto them, as of doing miracles, and of many other things. The similitude and likeness of them and us consisteth not in all things, but only in this, that is that we be like them in doctrine, and in the suffering of persecution and infamy for the same. We have preached their very doctrine, and none other thing; that we are able sufficiently to declare by their writings, and by writing (for my part) I have proffered to prove the same, as I have now often said, And for this cause we suffer the like reproach, shame, and rebuke of the world, and the like persecution, losing of our lives and goods, forsaking (as our Master Christ commandeth) father, mother, sister, brethren, wives, children, and all that there is, being assured of a joyful resurrection, and to be crowned in glory with them, according to the infallible promi ses made unto us in Christ our only and sufficient Mediator, Reconciler, Priest, and Sacrifice, which hath pleased the Father, and quieted and pacified his wrath against our sins, and made us without spot or wrinkle in his sight, by imputation; although we, of and in ourselves, are besotted and beblotted with many filthy sins, which, if the great mercy granted in Christ did not put away by not imputing them unto us of his measureless unspeakable mercy and love to save us, they would have brought us to everlasting damnation, and death perpetual. 'Herein, and in no other, do we affirm ourselves to be like unto our head Christ and all his apostles, prophets, martyrs, and saints. And herein ought all Christian men to be like them; and herein ought all true Christian men and women to be like them, every one according to the measure of the faith that God hath dealt unto them, and the diversity of the gifts of the Spirit given unto them. But let us now consider that if it be God's good will and pleasure to give his own beloved heart, that is, his beloved church, and the members thereof, into the hands of their enemies, to chasten, try, and prove them, and to bring them to the true unfeigned acknowledging of their own and natural stubbornness, disobedience towards God and his commandments, as touching the love of God and of their brethren or neighbours; and their natural inclination, readiness, and desire to love creatures, to seek their own lusts, pleasures, and things forbidden of God; to obtain a true and earnest repentance and sorrowfulness therefore, and to make them sigh and cry for the forgiveness of the same, and for the aid of the Spirit daily to mortify and kill the said evil desires |