A SERMON PREACHED AT A Visitation, HELD AT WARRINGTON IN LANCASHIRE May 11. 1669.  
By Ric. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick in Lancashire.  
IMPRIMATUR,  
June 18, 1669. Tho. Tomkyns, Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino, Dom. Gilb. Arch. Cantuar. a Sacr. Dom.  
LONDON, Printed for Rich. Royston, Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, 1669.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT A VISITATION.  Act. 20.28. 
Take heed to yourselves, and to all the Flock—  
IN the context we have S. Paul upon his Visitation at Miletus, vers. 17. And the Visitation, as this which is now holden with us, is Provincial, all the Clergy of the Province of Ephesus, being convened by this great Visitor, and appear before him, vers. 18.  
The Text presents you with a part, but 'tis the principal part of the Visitation Sermon, or as I may rather call it, The Visitors Charge to the Clergy of the Province. The first part of which charge is:  
1. Take heed to yourselves: To you my Brethren of the Clergy, is this Charge more strictly given, then to the Laity: For to the people God hath appointed Pastors who are commanded in the text to take heed to the charge committed to them: But who shall feed and Guide the Shepherds, who shall watch over the Watchmen, or Teach the Teachers? Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted, it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men, Mat. 5.13.  
2. Take heed to yourselves, is the first part of the Charge, And secondly to your Flock: The order observed in this Double Charge, is the next thing observable, which is the same observed by our Lord himself, in his charge to S. Peter, and in him to all Pastors of the Church, saying Luc. 22.32. When thou art converted, then afterward stringthen thy Brethren, and John 21.15. Simon son of Ionas; lovest thou me, and if so, it than follows, Feed my Sheep: Implicitly commanding all Pastors of his Flock: First to be themselves truly converted unto God, and their souls inflamed with the sacred fire of Divine Love, and then they may hope that their pains will be successful for the feeding and strengthening the Sheep of Christ: That rule of Righteousness and Charity which is the sum of the second Table of the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, commands this order to be observed, To love thyself aright in the first place, and then thy Neighbour as thyself: St. Be●nard thus bespeaks every Shepherd of fouls: Tu frater cui nondum est firma satis propria salus, cui Charitas adhuc nulla est, aut adeo tenera & arundinea, ut omni statui cedat, omni credat spiritui, omni circumferatur vento doctrinae, quanam dementia quaeso, aliena curare, aut ambis aut acquiescis? And upon Cant. 1.6. They have made me the keeper of the Vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept; he severely checks and reproves himself, that he had taken on him the Cure of other men's souls, having not sufficiently cared for and cured his own: Et miror— I do much wonder (saith he) at the Impudence of those persons, that thrust themselves to be Labourers in the Lord's Vineyard, whilst their own Vineyard is overgrown with Briars and thorns: The Leper under the Law was commanded to have a covering upon his upper lip, Leu. 13.43. ut non docere alios praesumat— saith Hesychius: that no man presume to open his lips in the Congregation, for the instruction of others, who is himself infected with the Leprosy, either of sinfulness or error: for non est cadentis alium erigere: Plutarch: It is not for a man that lies in the dirt, to raise up another thence; not for that a man that is a sleep in his sins, to awake others from that spiritual sleep of death; That Proverb remembered by our Lord, Physician heal thyself, Luc. 4.23.18. chief appliable to the Physician of souls, who must begin at home, if he will work any cure upon the Souls of others.  
3. But this is not all, for thirdly the Cure of a Pastor's soul, is a more difficult task; as being to be perfected in a higher degree, then ordinarily can be expected from any of his Flock: For as our office of Priesthood, is more high, more eminent, more holy, so should our Conversation be, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— St. Chrysostom, De sacerdotio, As Angels above men, as Shepherds above their flock, as Masters above their Scholars, so should a Bishop a Priest a Pastor excel and transcend the people in wholesome doctrine and holiness of life: so the great Gregory, Tantum debet actionem populi, actio transcendere praesulis, quantum distare solet a grege actio transcendere praesulis, quantum distare solet a grege vita Pastoris,— with much more to the same purpose, De cura Pastorali: A book which was once translated by the wisest and greatest of our Saxon Princes; King Alfred, and by him commended to the Clergy of this Nation; and a happy Clergy should we be, an holy Priesthood, if the Instructions in that Golden Book, were well observed amongst us.  
4. Take heed to yourselves and to all the Flock] and both these jointly and severally. To yourselves: As to the Innocence and Holiness of your Lives, as becometh good Christians: And to your Flock, as Shepherds & Guides of souls. Under the Law, the Priests and Prophets of the Lord are frequently called the Angels of the Lord of hosts, Jud. 2.1. Mal. 2.7. And under the Gospel, the Angels of the Church of Christ, 1 Cor. 11.10. Rev. 2.1.8.12.— And as we read of the Angels on jacob's Ladder, ascending and descending from heaven, Gen. 28.12. so the Priests of the Lord should first take heed to themselves by ascending with the Angels into heaven, having their hearts and affections, their meditation and Conversation in heaven, Phil. 3.20. And withal take heed to the stock, by descending with the Angels from heaven enriched with the word of Life, breaking unto them that bread which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world, John 6.33.  
But this joint charge is sadly disjoined and perverted, by such as take heed to themselves indeed, but 'tis not with the Angels to ascend, but descend, only grovelling in the dust, and wallowing in the mire of Luxury, Riot, and Excess, Pride and Covetousness, the Pomp's and vanities of the world, and the sinful lusts of the flesh, which every one, even the meanest of their Flock, hath solemnly abjured, when by holy Baptism admitted into the Fold of Christ. By such as take heed to themselves, but 'tis not in a spiritual but carnal sense; who will look narrowly to themselves, as to their worldly concerns, their Revenue and Income; but are too careless to the spiritual concerns both of themselves and their Flock, Who seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, Phil. 2.21. Caring more for their Families at home, then for the Family of Christ, more for their bodily then for their spiritual relations, providing better for their natural heirs, than their spiritual successors in their respective places: And in a word, by all such as mind more the Benefice, than the office, more the Fleece then the Flock: All such do falsely wrest, and wickedly pervert, this double charge of the great Visitor in the Text: Take heed to yourselves and to your Flock: To yourselves, by being examples of holiness to your Flock; And to your Flock; as Shepherds, to feed and guide them, as Fathers to admonish and reprove them, and as Mothers to nourish and cherish them: For these are the four Essentials of a faithful Pastor: Holiness of life, soundness of Doctrine, Christian courage, Christian Charity.  
5. To all the Flock] not to the flock at random, not to this, or that particular Sheep, that fawns upon the Shepherd, nor to this, or that Party or Sect, which agrees with his Humours and Opinions; but, To all the Flock impartially, and without Hypocrisy, and this first affirmatively, to instruct the Ignorant, to strengthen the weak, to confirm the wavering, to reduce the erroneous, to visit the sick, to comfort the afflicted, to bind up the broken in heart, to reprove the sinful, and to testify against the stubborn and disobedient: Secondly Negatively, not to break the bruised reed, and quench the smoking flax, Mat. 12.20. not to sow pillows under all Armholes, Ezek. 13.18. Not suffer them to settle with ease, and without reproof, upon the Lees of their sins, and the errors of their ways: Not to claw the scabbed sheep, and scratch the itching ears not to tickle and foment the petulant humours of the Factious, not to please those squeazy Palates, who nauseate the solid food of God's Public solemn standing worship, under the profane and scurrilous name of Porridge, and for no other cause, but because it is like itself, ever the same, constant to itself: Like the Glorious Sun in the Firmament, which shines every day the same; which renders it a worship acceptable, as being herein most agreeable to the Immutable nature of God, the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, Jam. 1.17. But the Itch after novelties in the Flock, and the Itch of popular applause or filthy Lucre in the Pastor, whilst the one scratches the Itch of the other: Hence the putrid Scabs of Schism and Heresy in the Church, of Disobedience and Rebellion in the Kingdom, are engendered.  
Against all such sinful Compliance, Take heed to yourselves, my Brethren take heed to yourselves, and to your vows and promises, Sacerdotal and Ecclesiastical, confirmed by your respective Subscriptions to the Articles and Canons of the Church, to the Injunctions of your Metropolitan and Diaecesan, to the Approbation and constant use of the Liturgy of the Church, and of that only in public: In which last particular, wherein the greatest part of the Ministerial Function consists, I cannot but testify in this Assembly, so much concerned therein: That there is utterly a fault amongst us; In that those Divine and excellent Prayers, and heavenly inspired Prayers of God, and that ancient and Constant way of God's worship in Public, is by many too much slighted and neglected, by many irreverently and indevoutly celebrated, by many mangled and maimed, curtailed, abbreviated, and by the Additions of others implicitly vilified: And generally almost by all secretly undermined; enervated and subverted by each man's private prayer in public: The which private prayer, whether before Sermon, or at any other time in the Congregation, doth not only secretly imply a defect in the Public Prayers of the Church, which must (forsooth) be supplied by men's private conceived prayers: but also, 'tis a disorder and confusion in the service of God; for thus public and private prayer are confounded, which our Lord Christ hath distinguished and commanded to be separately observed, to avoid Hypocrisy and vainglory limiting the private prayer to the private closet, Mat. 6.5, 6. and for avoiding Tautologies and impertinent babble after the manner of the heathen, he prescribes a set form to be used in public, vers. 8, 9 We are commanded when we call upon the Lord, to pay our vows to the most High, and then he will hear, Psal. 50.14. But can any man think it probable, that God will hear their prayers, who sacrilegiously break their vows when they pray, by praying otherwise then they have vowed and promised? those promises also being agreeable to the Commands of Christ, and the orders of his Church?  
And this undoubtedly amongst many others, is not the least cause, of so many stray and wand'ring Sheep in every Flock, of so many giddy headed and factious minded men in every Congregation, of so many separate Congregations or Conventicles in every Parish: one great cause hereof is the falsehood and treachery of the Shepherds, who in compliance with the noxious humours of the diseased part of their Flock, take no heed to themselves, nor to the vows and promises they have made in order to the right and regular execution of their Function, in feeding of their Flock: so for the iniquity and irregular carriage of the Priests, the sons of Eli in the sacrifices of the Temple; Men abhorred the offering of the Lord, 1 Sam. 2.17.  
6. But should not the Flock take heed to the Shepherd, as well as the Shepherd to the Flock? The duty of the one to the other (undoubtedly) is reciprocal, and the mutual Relation respectively binding. Take heed to thyself (said the Lord to his people) that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth, Deut. 12.19. and Chap. 14.27. Eccl. 7.30. There is nothing more plainly asserted and more punctually commanded in the book of God, then that the people should take heed to their Priests, the Flock to their Shepherds, especially such as are orthodox and holy, that they should hear and obey their voice, and make their Application and recourse unto them, in all cases of ignorance or doubting: For the Priests lips should keep knowledge, and they (the people) should seek the Law at his mouth, for he is the messenger (or the Angel) of the Lord of Hosts, Mal. 2.7. Haec sunt initia haereticorum, ut sibi placeant, & praepositum superbo tumore contemnant, Cypr. lib. 3. Epist. ad Florent. Hence the Rise of Heretics in the Church, when the people swelling with presumption of their own knowledge, and pleasing themselves in their fancies and opinions, proudly neglect and scorn to submit to their directions, whom the Lord hath appointed to be their Shepherds and Guides of their Souls: And thus even thus; the people of God fell into Idolatry, even that gross and infamous Idolatry of the Golden Calf, when slighting Moses, and over-awing Aaron the high Priest, they commanded him, who should have commanded them, saying, Make us Gods to go before us, for as for this man Moses, we wots not what is become of him, Numb. 22.1.  
When the same people were weary of the Government of Samuel the Prophet, and desired a King, the Lord said unto Samuel, They have not despised thee, but they have despised me, 1 Sam. 8.7. Whereupon St. Gregory: Quam neverendi sunt Pastores optimi Sanctae Ecclesiae— how reverendly to be esteemed are the Pastors of holy Church, who whilst they faithfully serve the Lord in the Execution of their function, they are so closely joined unto him in the bond of love, that the least slight disesteem or neglect, that is cast upon them, the Lord takes it as an injury to himself: So said the Lord to his Apostles, and in them to their Successors: He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you; despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me, Luc. 10.16. And this duty, that the people should take heed to their Priests, is commanded under a severe penalty, Deut. 17.8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in Judgement, thou shalt arise and come unto the Priests, the Levites, and that man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the Priest, that standeth to Minister— even that man shall die. And under the Gospel also the same command is given, Heb. 13.17. Obey them that have the Rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your Souls.  
But notwithstanding these and many more commands, in the sacred sheets of either Testament, yet is this Christian duty slighted and generally omitted, and especially by such as pretend most to the sole Authority of the holy Scriptures, without any Relation to the doctrine and Authority of the Church in the Interpretation thereof: There being many amongst us in every Flock; who presume to direct their Shepherds, guide their Guides, and teach their Teachers; who if they teach not, preach not, pray not, as they would have them, and consonant to their humours and opinions; they will censure their doctrines, contemn their directions revile their persons, scandalise their profession, and even snatch the holy Oracles out of their mouths, and separate themselves into Conventicles, where they may heap to themselves Teachers after their lusts, having itching ears, and they turn away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables; believing and delighting in lies, and vain empty prophesyings which profit not, as was foretold of such, 2 Tim. 4.3, 4.  
And having mentioned Conventicles, I cannot but add a word or two of the danger of them, not in order to the disturbance of the peace of the Nation, leaving that to the Secular Magistrate, but in order to the seduction of unwary and unstable souls into falsehood and errors in Religion; Verily verily I say unto you, he that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber, Joh. 10.1. 'Tis the practice of subtle thiefs when they seize on the honest Traveller to drag him out of the high roadway into hedges and by-places, the more securely and without interruption to rob and spoil him; so the spiritual thiefs, false Prophets, ringleaders of faction and sedition, do more easily seduce, and rob poor silly men and women of the in estimable treasures of truth and obedience, by drawing them from the open and Public Assemblies of God's people in his houses of prayer, into By-places and loan houses, where they may more securely breath forth the spiritual Infections, sow the seeds of Schism and Sedition, and whisper their irreligious Treasons, under the mask of Religion. In such places they may to their advantage vent and put off their counterfeit ware, their false glosses, and misinterpretations of holy Writ, and make their Apocryphal Comments upon Canonical Scripture, making the holy Word of God to speak not what the Spirit of God intends therein, but what their factious spirits and wild fancies would have it: That there should be such false Prophets in desert places and private houses, our Lord hath foretold, commanding all his disciples not to believe or follow them, Mat. 24.26. Wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert, go not forth; behold he is in the secret chamber, believe it not. St. Augustine observes of the man that fell among thiefs, and was rob and wounded, Luc. 10.30. Si non descendisset— If he had not been going down from Jerusalem, the place of God's Temple, to Jericho a profane and common place, he had escaped that sad disaster: To teach all people to beware how they leave the place which God hath chosen to put his name there, the Temple and house of God, to convene in any common or profane By-places, under pretence of Religion, and the performance of holy duties in such places: 'Twas otherwise with the man after Gods own heart, Psal. 5.7. As for me I will come into thine house even upon the multitude of thy mercies, and in thy fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple. And with him resolves the whole body of God's people, Psal. 132.7. We will go into his tabernacle, and fall low on our knees before his footstool: And not only this under the Law, but under the Gospel, Mark. 11.17. My house (not the houses of men) shall be called the house of prayer of all Nations: Not of the Jews as under the Law, but of the Gentiles also under the Gospel, and 'tis there especially in Gods own house, that he has promised to meet his people, to be in the midst of them, to hear their prayers and bless them, To teach them his ways by his faithful and true Pastors, and there (in a word) to dispense all the blessed means of grace and salvation to them, Deuteron. 12.5.6.11, 12, 13, 14. 1 Kin. 8.29, 30. Mat. 18.20. Luc. 19.46. 1 Cor. 11.20.  
7. But the grand excuse of the wand'ring sheep, and the cry of many Orthodox also, is, The division of the Shepherds, who being divided amongst themselves, do lead their flocks into several divided ways of divine worship: And the generality of the flock being not wise enough to know what way to take; or whom most securely to follow, they hereupon heap to themselves Teachers after their own Lusts, and with the Schismatical Corinthians 1 ep. 1 cap. 12. vers. Every one saith, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo's, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ, one man, or Sect of men, liking this man's way of preaching and praying, another another's way, and others none at all, but independently rely upon the immediate teaching of Christ by his Spirit. And thus Sects and Divisions are multiplied.  
This complaint is too true, and such sad effects thereof too evident, and if not stopped will prove bitterness in the end.  
But would you know who be these divided Pastors or Preachers, or Sect-masters rather, the corrupt springs from whom all our polluted streams of divisions flow? They are such (in a word) as first divide from the Church of Christ in general (wherein they all agree) and then divide amongst themselves, into particular Sects, and Factions, wherein they all differ: There is but one body and one spirit, Eph. 4.4. one mystical body of Christ, which is his Church, and one spirit of truth, quickening this our body, and its members, and them only: And as it follows, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all, vers. 5, 6. In you all, that are members of this one body, and quickened with this one spirit, and endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, which is the duty enforced from the premises, vers. 3. Contrariwise than such, that divide from this one body the Church, into several Sects and Factions, and (which necessarily follows) such as are not quickened with this one spirit, but each with the foolish Prophets follow their own spirit, Ezek. 13.3. which they mistake and mis-term the Spirit of God; such as worship, not this one Lord, as we are all commanded, with one mouth and with one mind, Rom. 15.6. Such as hold not the Articles of this one faith, with one joint unanimous consent of truth; Unto the unity of which faith, till we all come, we cannot be perfect men in Christ Jesue: but are like children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, Eph. 4.13, 14. Such are all false Prophets, treacherous Shepherds, or in the Language of Saint Paul, 2 Corin. 11.13, 14. Such are all false Apostles; deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light: I may call them according to the metaphor of the text, The Bellweathers of the Flock, the Ringleaders of those numerous Sects, and daily increasing divisions amongst us.  
And although each sect and division must necessarily be false and erroneous, because there is but one Truth, and one true way of Divine worship, which is ever constant to itself, yet hath each division its numerous followers of the divided Flock: as silly sheep when a gap is opened, follow one another to the breach to stray from their Pasture: So flock the people (if not restrained) into the ways of division and error, if any Sect-master but open a gap, and lead them the Byways of straying from the Sheepfold of Christ, which is his Church: For such alas, is the sad condition of man's corrupted and depraved mind, as naturally to be more affected with error, then with the Truth; more prone to believe lies, and more zealous in the maintenance of falsehood, then to believe and maintain the Truth: 'Twas ever so, When the Prophets prophesy falsely, the people love to have it so, Jer. 5. ult. but a sad question follows, What will ye do in the end thereof? When the Prophet's prophecy Lies, or (which is the same) do make and foment divisions, and the people withal are affected with their lying prophecies, and side with them in their respective divisions: 'tis easy then to prophesy and foretell the end thereof to be ruin and confusion: If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand, and if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand, Mar. 3.24, 25. Not the house of God, not the family of Christ, in what Kingdom or Nation soever established: All the Kingdoms and Nations in Christendom, ancient and modern, from the first to these last and worst of times, have felt, by sad experience, the bitter effects of divisions and errors in Religion; and none more than our own, so lately bleeding, even to the last gasp of death, and almost buried in her own confusions; which took beginning from the prophesying of Lies, and overspreading of mistakes and errors in Religion, sowing the seeds of Schism, Faction and Sedition, in separate and divided meetings, or Conventicles in private; joined with a sacrilegious vow-breaking performance of holy duties in Public: All which are now as much, if not more practised then ever; some of whose Factors and Followers, do really intent, all do certainly tend to involve this Church and Kingdom, into the sad condition of intestine war, blood and Confusion, from whence by the great mercy of God, we so lately escaped.  
And now to you, the Reverend persons, who are come to visit us in our distempers and infirmities, to you it belongs, as much as in you lies, to give stop to our overflowing Divisions: To restrain our licentious exorbitancies, both in doctrine and practice, in Praying and Preaching, and this, whether in the house of God, or in the houses of men: Et fiat Justitia, ruat coelum.  
FINIS.