Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
For are we not brothers after all? Has not God made us of one
blood, English men, with English hearts? Has not Christ redeemed us
with one and the same sacrifice? Has not the Holy Spirit given us
one and the same desire of doing good? And shall we not use that
spirit hand in hand? Look, look at the opportunities of doing good
which are around you; look at God's field of good works, white
already to the harvest; and the labourers are few. Shall these few,
instead of going manfully to work, stand idly quarrelling about the
shape of their instruments, and their favourite modes of using them?
God forbid! True, there are errors against which we are bound to
protest to the uttermost; but how few? The one real enemy we have
all to fight is sin--evil-doing. If any man or doctrine makes men
worse--makes men do worse deeds, protest then, if you will, and
spare not, and shrink not: for sin must be of the Devil, whatever
else is not. And therefore we are bound to protest against any
doctrine which parts man from God, and, under whatsoever pretence of
reverence or purity, draws again the veil between him and his
Heavenly Father, and denies him free access to the Throne of Grace,
and the feet of Jesus, that he may carry thither his own sins, his
own doubts, his own sorrows, and speak (wondrous condescension of
redeeming grace!) speak with God face to face, and yet live. For
this we must protest; for this we must die, if needs be; for if we
lose this, we lose all which our reforming forefathers won for us at
the stake, ay, we lose our own souls; for we lose righteousness and
strength, and the power to do the will of God.
For to shut a man out from free access to God and Christ is to make
him certainly false, dishonest, cowardly, degraded, slavish, and
sinful; as modern Popery has made, and always will make, those over
whom it really gains power. This is the root of our hereditary
protest against Popery; not merely because we do not agree with
certain of its doctrines, but because we know from experience, that
as now taught by the Jesuits, with whom it has identified itself,
its general tendency is to make men bad men, ignorant, dishonest,
rebellious; unworthy citizens of a free and loyal state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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