Three Practical Essays, Title page – Errata
Three Practical ESSAYS VIZ.
On Baptism, Confirmation, Repentance.
CONTAINING Instructions for a Holy Life: With Earnest Exhortations, especially to young Persons, drawn from the Considerarion of the Severity of the Discipline of the Primitive Church.
By Samuel Clark, M. A. Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Norwich: And Fellow of Cains College in Cambridge.
LONDON, Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1699.
To the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Norwich.
My Lord,
AS the many undeserved Favours, with which Your Lordship has already been pleased to honour me, oblige me not to omit any Opportunity of testifying publickly the grateful Sense which I ought always to have of Your Lordship's Kindness; so they encourage me to presume further upon Your Lordship's Candour, in publishing these short Discourses under the Patronage of Your Lordship's Name.
The singular Zeal which Your Lordship has shown in making frequent Confirmations, gives us reason to hope, that if the Directions which Your Lordship has formerly given for the preparing Persons to be Confirmed, be as strictly observed, as the regular and pious Use of that excellent Institution seems to be a most probable means of promoting true Religion and Holiness; that Part of the Church, over which God has placed Your Lordship, may become exemplarily eminent for the Restoring of Primitive Piety and Order: To which State that it may effectually arrive; and that Your Lordship may long see it continue therein; and that these short Discourses may contribute their Mite towards the promoting so Noble and Excellent a Design, is the Prayer of,
My LORD, Your Lordship's most Dutiful Chaplain and most Obedient Servant, S. Clarke.
THE PREFACE.
ST. Chrysostom observes concerning the ancient Hereticks, that though their Opinions were never so widely different both from the truth and from each other, yet every one pretended that his particular Opinion was agreeable to the Scripture and founded in it, and that all different Opinions were discountenanced by it, and might be confuted out of it: He observes also further, That the true reason of this their Confidence was, because every one picked out of the Scripture all those Passages, which according to the letter and sound of the Words seemed to favour his particular Opinion, without at all regarding their cohaerence and connexion, or the occasion and design of their being written. Thus from those Passages which speak of Christ as a Man and in his state of Humiliation, some were so unreasonable as to collect that he was but a meer Man, and so denied his Divinity: Others on the contrary from those Passages which speak of him as God and in his state of Exaltation, did as weakly take occasion to deny his Humanity, asserting that the humane Nature was wholly swallowed up by the Divine.
I wish the same Observation might not too truly be made, of most of the later Disputes which have arisen among Christians in our Days. For thus I believe, if we search on the one hand into the ground of many of those Mens Assertions, who love to aggravate the Corruption of humane Nature, and the natural Misery of Mankind, we shall find the true Foundation of them to be the applying those places of Scripture to the whole bulk of Mankind, which are evidently and expresly spoken of some of the worst of Men: On the other hand, the reason why others have so magnified the natural Faculties of Men, as to diminish and detract from the Grace of God, is because they applied those Texts to the generality of Men, which are meant only of the most perfect Christians. Again, the Foundation of those Mens Opinion, who have extolled some one particular Virtue, in opposition to, or as an equivalent for, all other Duties, is their having interpreted those places of Scripture concerning some one particuler Virtue, which are plainly meant of the whole Christian Religion; and the reason why others have thought no moral Virtues at all, necessary to be practised by Believers, is because they have applied those Texts to the most Essential and Fundamental Duties of the Christian Religion, which were intended only of the Ceremonial Performances of the Jewish Law.
And thus, to come to the subject of our present Discourses, in the great Business of Repentance and Conversion, the reason why some Men have attributed the whole of Mans Conversion to such an extraordinary and uncertain Grace of God, as has given Men occasion to sit still in their Sins, in expectation of the time when this extraordinary Grace should be poured down upon them; is because they have fixed that Assistance of God's Grace to an uncertain Period, which God himself has constantly annexed to his Ordinances, and which he certainly bestows upon Men at their Baptism, or at their solemn taking upon themselves the Profession of Religion. And the reason why others have made Repentance so short and so easie a business, is because they have too largely applied those great Promises in the Gospel, to the circular and repeated Repentences of Christians, which are, at least in some measure, confined to the great Repentance or Conversion of Unbelievers.
My design in the following Essays, is to endeavour briefly to set this great and most important Matter in its true Light; from the Analogy of Scripture, and from the Sense of the purest Ages of the Primitive Church: To show that at Baptism God always bestows that Grace, which is necessary to enable Men to perform their Duty; and that to those who are Baptized in their Infancy, this Grace is sealed and assured at Confirmation: That from henceforward Men are bound with that Assistance to live in the constant practise of their known Duty and are not to expect (except in extraordinary Cases) any extraordinary, much less irresistible Grace, to preserve them in their Duty or to convert them from Sin: That if after this they fall into any great Wickedness, they are bound to a proportionably great and Particular Repentance: And that as the Gospel hath given sufficient assurance of such Repentance being accepted, to comfort and encourage all true Penitents; so it has sufficiently shown the difficulty of it at all times, and the extreme danger of it when late, to deter Men from delaying it when they are convinced of its Necessity, and from adding to their Sins when they hope to have them forgiven.
There is nothing with which the Devil more effectually imposes upon Men in these latter Ages of the World, than with false notions of Repentance: And if it must be confessed that many in the Primitive times were too severe in their apprehensions concerning it, 'tis certain there are many more in our Days not severe enough: At least I am sure there is no Man who has a true Sense of Religion, and a just apprehension of the vast concern of eternal Happiness or Misery, but will be much more desirous to know the utmost strictness of the Conditions upon which so mighty a Stake depends, than to run the hazard of being mistaken in judging too loosly of them.
THE CONTENTS.
Essay the First. Of Baptism.
CHap. I. Of Baptism in general.
CHap. II. What was required of Persons to be baptized in the Primitive Church, in order to fit them for Baptism.
CHap. III. In what manner Persons converted to Christianity were Baptized; to what Privileges they were admitted; and to what Duties they were engaged, by their Baptism.
CHap. IV. What was required of Persons after Baptism.
CHap. V. Of the Baptism of Infants.
CHap. VI. Of the Duty of God-Fathers and God-Mothers.
Essay the Second. Of Confirmation.
CHap. I. Of the Nature, Design and Use of Confirmation.
CHap. II. What is to be done before Confirmation, Of Faith; Of the Necessity of Religion; Of the Necessity of Revelation; Of the Evidence of the Christian Religion; and of Consideration.
CHap. III. Of right Notions concerning Religion in General.
CHap. IV. A Digression concern the Doctrine of Faith and Works, delivered by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, and in that to the Galatians.
CHap. V. Of the Duties of Religion in Particular.
CHap. VI. What is to be done at Confirmation: Of solemnly renewing the Baptismal Vow.
CHap. VII. Of the Certainty of God's Grace, and the Assistance of his Holy Spirit.
CHap. VIII. What is to be done after Confirmamation. Of Perseverance; and of the danger of Apostacy.
CHap. IX. Of Innocence, and an early Piety.
CHap. X. Of making Religion the Principal Business of our Lives.
CHap. XI. Of the Contempt of the World.
CHap. XII. Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins, to which we are most in danger to be tempted.
CHap. XIII. Of Growth in Grace, and of Perfection.
Essay the Third. Of Repentance.
CHap. I. Of Repentance in General.
CHap. II. That God allows Repentance even to the greatest of Sinners.
CHap. III. That true Repentance must be Early.
CHap. IV. That true Repentance must be Great: And of Penance.
CHap. V. That true Repentance must be Constant and Persevering in its Effects: And of the One Repentance of the Ancients.
ERRATA.
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