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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79832	Seventeen sermons preach'd upon several occasions By William Clagett, D.D. late preacher to the Honourable Society of Grays Inn, and one of His Majesty's chaplains in ordinary. With the summ of a conference, on February 21, 1686. between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden, about the point of transubstantiation. The third edition. Vol. I.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.; Gooden, Peter, d. 1695. aut; Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4398; ESTC R230511	209,157	515

between the Prophets and Jesus so many hundreds of years after they were dead and before he was born Or are these Predictions and their Events to be imputed to Chance It is possible indeed that some one thing may be foretold and happen accordingly but that so vast a number of particulars should be foretold concerning one Person at all adventures and by strange luck come to pass afterwards is fit for them only to believe that can believe that the World was made by a casual hit of Atoms To name these things is enough to confute them 2. All that can be farther desired is to be well assured that these Prophecies were not forged by the followers of Jesus but that they were indeed contained in the ancient Writings that had been delivered down to the Jews of our Saviour's time by their Ancestors and the constant testimony of the Jews themselves who were most bitter enemies to Jesus and to his Doctrine were enough to satisfie us in this point 4ly And Lastly Whereas these Predictions are said to be a more sure word of Prophecy the meaning is this that they are a more convincing Testimony to Jesus than any other taken by its self they are indeed a more permanent Testimony and withal less liable to Cavil and Objection I cannot stand to shew this by making particular comparisons but shall only observe That Prophecy includes all other Testimonies and adds strength to every one of them It comprehends the Miracles of Jesus and of his Apostles his Resurrection and Ascension the Descent of the Holy Ghost and the excellency of his Doctrine because these were all foretold It includes all other proofs as well as the thing proved and those proofs are the more convincing because they also had been foretold by the Prophets From all this it follows That allowing the Scripture that Tradition which other good Histories have and which they have more of than any other ancient Writings in the World then the Prophecies of the Old Testament and the Accomplishment of them in the New do prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and this without the help of the Churches Authority and well is it for the Christian Religion that the Scriptures may be proved without the Authority of the Church for otherwise Christianity must never look an Infidel in the face since the Church hath no Authority at all till we are assured of the truth of the Scriptures themselves And I will make bold to add That when all those objections against the Authority of the Old Testament from the time wherein it was put into this form of Books from the light oversights of Transcribers from various readings and all the cavils upon any part of it are put together the word of Prophecy which runs through it all will bear all this reckoning and still remain an invincible argument that the first Authors were inspired that the Prophecy came not in Old time by the will of man but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Well therefore might St. Peter commend the Jewish Converts for taking heed to the word of Prophecy since this was the way to come to a well-grounded Faith indeed and to grow every day to greater assurance and stedfastness therein and for the same reason let us I beseech you be exhorted to like diligence in conversing with the Holy Scriptures that our Minds may be more enlightened with the knowledge of divine Truth and that every doubt if any there be that shakes our Faith may be removed And this Exhortation is so needful that I shall shew that there is no good reason in their Objection against it who have taken a great deal of pains to exclude all but the Clergy and those that have special License from reading the Scriptures the sum of what they say is this That the promiscuous Liberty of reading the Scriptures leads the People into Pride and Self-conceit makes them insolent and ungovernable and ready to throw off all Respect to their lawful Guides That almost all Heresies have proceeded from misinterpretation of Scripture and that there are so many obscure and difficult places in the Old and New Testament that to translate the Bible into vulgar Tongues and to encourage the People to read it is to betray them into the danger of infinite Errors which they are likely enough to fall into by mistaking the sense of the holy Text which therefore is to be kept out of the hands of the Laity as we would keep Children from medling with edged Tools and lay Swords out of mad-mens way Now if this Charge be true the Bible is a very dangerous Book if it be not true there is some other reason doubtless why they that pretend this have no kindness for the Bible I shall omit several advantages that may be taken against this Flourish because I think it may be shown very briefly that it pretends things that do by no means hang well together that it takes things for granted that are not true and that it concludes as strongly against the Scriptures being read by the Clergy as by the Laity It pretends some things that do not hang well together On the one side they tell us that the liberty of reading the Bible is apt to make the People throw off all dependance upon the Priest as to instruction on the one side that there are obscure and difficult passages in it by mistaking the true sense of which they will be led into Heresie and consequently into the way of Damnation Now indeed the Scriptures say this of themselves that there are divers things hard to be understood in them which ignorant and unstable men have wrested to their own destructien But if this be true the best way to keep the People in modest dependance upon the instruction of their Spiritual Guides is to lay the Bible before them and not to keep it from them since there cannot be a more convincing Argument of the necessity of attending to their Pastors in order to farther Instruction than the several difficulties that occur in the Scriptures and the warnings that the Scriptures themselves have given of the danger that unlearned and unstable Men are in of wresting them to their own destruction If it be said that experience shews the contrary and that neither this nor any other Argument can make people modest if they are generally permitted to have the Scriptures I add 2. That this arguing takes things for granted which are not true in point of fact all the Faithful anciently had the Scriptures but we find little complaint by the Bishops and Clergy then of the Wantonness and Insolence of the People so little in comparison of the frequent and earnest exhortations that all would deligently Read the Scriptures that it may be said to be none at all Christian People that had been trained up in the first Rudiments of the Faith were not only allowed them but required to Read the

very same Epistle he commends them all for taking heed to the words of Prophecy of the Old Testament in which there were some things as hard to be sure as any are in St Paul's Writings and I hope St. Peter was as wise a Man in this point as any that have come after him And now I beseech you let us not say That we are Believers already and therefore we need not trouble our selves with constant reading of the Bible Were not they so to whom St. Peter wrote Nay the Apostles were then alive to instruct them by Word as well as by Writing and moreover daily Miracles were wrought for confirmation of the Faith yet they did well in taking diligent heed to the Scriptures and shall not we do so too who can find Apostles and Miracles no where but there We believe already but have we all of us that stedfast Faith which the Gospel requires which is not grounded meerly upon Education and the Custom of our Country but upon the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Have we that Faith which will bear examination and encounter opposition If we have a very little Exhortation will serve the turn to make us persevere in reading God's Book whereby we shall be yet more strongly built up in our most holy Faith But if not our want of Faith will not be admitted at the last Day for an excuse of the badness of our Lives when we had the Scriptures laid before us the Holy Scriptures I say which if they had been diligently and honestly read by us would have furnished us with such an immovable ground of our Christian Belief as would have supported us in the Day of Temptation Nay if our Faith was grown never so strong yet the reading of the Scriptures would be necessary for us to make the Precepts and Rules of the Christian Life and the Motives and Reasons of practising them daily present in our Minds For the Temptations to sin are always present the Snares of Hell are still round about us we are ever in some danger and therefore we ought always to be strong in the Lord by having a constant sense of those Divine Truths upon our Minds which are our great defence and security And I see not how this can be if we neglect to have recourse unto that ever necessary Treasure of Divine Truth the Holy Word of God St. Chrysistom therefore doubted not to say and I wish we may all well consider that earnest saying of so wise and holy a Man as he was It cannot be says he It cannot possibly be that a Man should attain Salvation unless he be diligently conversant in Spiritual Reading Himself was so excellent and constant a Preacher that if any one Man not extraordinarily inspired could have made it needless for his Hearers to read the Scriptures at home he I should reckon was the Man and yet I observe he often complains to them that the reason why most of them gained little profit by what he said either as to improvement of Knowledge or good Practice was because they did not read the Scriptures he explained to them either before or after his Sermons And says he it is the neglect of this Reading that causeth all Heresie and corrupt Life Now I beseech you how much time do we spend in other things of little concern to us either as to our Health or Wealth or our wordly Callings And what a shame and a sin is it for us to find so little time as generally we do to furnish our selves with the knowledge of God's Truth and with pious Affections towards the doing of his Will out of God's Holy Book What a great matter were it if we borrowed some time for this purpose from our Recreations or even from our ordinary Business For what is this Life to Life Everlasting What is the Wealth and Pleasure of this World to our Salvation in the World to come And therefore the forementioned excellent Person argued with his Hearers in this manner Perhaps some may say That they are otherwise employed in their worldly Callings and others that they have not Money to spare to buy the Scriptures but says he what a ridiculous thing would it be for a Man of a Secular Employment to neglect it upon pretence that he has not time for it or that he has not wherewithal to purchase the necessary Tools of his Calling These things are seldom or never pleaded but by idle Persons And do you not all know that you are professed Christians and called to the hope of Eternal Life and that diligent reading and hearing the Holy Scriptures is as necessary to your Christian Calling as any thing can be to the successful management of your Secular Professions I shall add this one thing That besides that improvement in Knowledge and Vertue which is naturally consequent upon much conversing with God's Book they that do so have a peculiar Title to GOD's supernatural Blessing who is wont to reward a Pious and Reverend Use of Holy Things with greater Measures of his Grace In one word by other studies we may grow wise for this World but if we add this to the rest we shall yet grow wiser for this World by taking heed to those incomparable Instructions that the Holy Bible abounds with and which is something more we shall grow wise unto Salvation The Tenth Sermon 1 COR. XII 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit AFter the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles there was a continual Communication of Supernatural and extraordinary Gifts to other Believers for a long time To one was given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom To another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit To another Faith by the same Spirit To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit To another working of Miracles To another Discerning of Spirits To another Divers kinds of Tongues To another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will And this manifestation of the Spirit was given to every man to profit withal i. e. to profit the whole Body whereof himself was a Member For though that one Spirit which distributed his wonderful gifts amongst the Faithful could have given them all to the same Man so as that one and the same Person should have had the Word of Wisdom and the Gifts of Healing and the working of Miracles and a Prophetick Power and discerning of Spirits and divers kinds of Tongues yet to maintain a mutual dependance and a charitable serviceableness of the Members one amongst another he gave to one one Gift to another another dividing severally to every Man for by this means one would stand in need of another and each Member would be obliged to take care of the rest

Law yet they were delivered to Moses by God himself to Joshua by Moses to the Prophets by Joshua to Esdras by the Prophets and thence to the Masters of the Schools of whom they were the Successors And they being the Guardians of these unwritten Traditions which were to be had in equal or rather superior regard to that which the Scriptures were to be held in claimed also an absolute Obedience from the People insomuch that it was a saying amongst them If the Scribes say that the right hand is the left or the left hand the right you are to believe them Now the Charge of the Pharisees upon our Saviour's Disciples was not that they had transgressed any Tradition that appeared to have a Divine Original by the Books of Moses and the Prophets but that they had transgressed the Tradition of the Elders as they used to call them such Traditions for which they had no other pretence than that they were conveyed down by word of mouth from Father to Son amongst the wise Men and the Masters and the Scribes The particular instance to explain the general Charge was this That the Disciples did not wash their hands before they eat bread For one of those many Traditionary Doctrines for which they were so zealous was this That if a Stranger or an uncircumcised Person should but touch a Jew the Jew was forthwith defiled or if he had but touched any thing that a Jew afterward touched he was unclean and if the Jew should in that state take any meat to eat that Meat was rendred unclean and would defile his Mind for the preventing of which danger it was a part of Religion to wash before eating and thus for an idle fancy they invented an idle relief and placed so much Religion in it that says one of them He that eats bread with unwashen hands sins as much as if he had lain with a Whore And says another It is the highest point of holiness for a man to separate himself from the vulgar and that he doth not touch them nor so much as eat or drink with them and the next to this is to wash away the impurity that is contracted thereby You may see a more particular account of this senseless Superstition of theirs in Mark 7. The Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands oft eat not holding the tradition of the Elders And when they come from the market except they wash they eat not And many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots brazen vessels and of tables that is they did not only wash their own hands lest they should have touched some stranger or one less pure than themselves but lest some stranger should have touched the Cup in which they drank or the Dish in which their Meat was or the Tables upon which the Cups were to stand these were washed with all care not for cleanliness for that would not serve the turn but for holiness sake as if their Minds were made pure by washing their Hands and Cups and all things of this sort This was one kind of their Traditionary Doctrines for transgressing of which the Disciples of Jesus were accused by the Pharisees II. We may observe these Two things implied in the Charge 1. The concern which the Scribes had for their Traditions And 2. The reverence in which the People held them 1. The concern of the Scribes and Pharisees to have them observed It was so great that a man might with less danger from them break a plain Law of God than transgress one of their Traditions and they would sooner call him to an account for this latter than for the former If they could have charged our Lord's Disciples with breaking the Fifth Commandment as Jesus charged them with it presently after of this they would have said nothing But they were not able to bear the neglect of the Disciples to wash before eating for Conscience-sake And when he had given the Multitude a plain account of this neglect neither could they bear that but were offended at him v. 12. Hence in their Talmud a Book that pretends to have gathered up their Oral Traditions it is said That there is more in the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Law And we are not to think that the written Law is the Foundation but the unwritten and the words of the Elders are of more Authority and weight than the words of the Prophets So blind was their Zeal for their Traditions that one of the Rabbies being once cast into Prison and Water being given him to wash and to drink and the greater part of it being spilt he rather chose to wash his hands than to drink saying 'T is better to die than to transgress the Tradition of the Elders And no wonder that they were thus concerned when it was by these Doctrines that they kept up an absolute Authority over the People for if the People would be made to believe that the unwritten Law was of greater consequence than the written and that the Scribes were the Guardians and Oracles of the unwritten Law nothing could be better contrived to keep them in an absolute dependance upon the Scribes 2. The Charge doth likewise imply an universal regard of these Traditions in the People Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions i. e. Why do they only do it And we heard from St. Mark that the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands oft eat not Whatever became of the Commandments of God here was very good care taken that the Traditions of the Church should be kept Nay it was so fixed in the minds of our Lord's Disciples themselves that they were to be kept that it was not easy to set them right in these things presently for after our Saviour had told them Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out of the mouth v. 11. Peter asked him v. 15. to declare the meaning of the Parable or as he thought it hard saying And Jesus said v. 16. Are ye also yet without understanding And so he goes on shewing that he spake of cleanness of mind which was defiled by evil thoughts murders adulteries c. They had not yet got rid of those Superstitious Fancies that reigned amongst the People and were so prejudiced by them that they could hardly understand the plain truth on the other side Nay when after this he had occasion to say to them as you find in the next Chapter ver 6. Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saduces How do we think they understood this saying And they reasoned among themselves saying It is because we have taken no bread Which shew'd they were not yet cured of this Pharisaical Superstition inasmuch as they understood our Saviour as if he had forbidden them to eat any bread which the Pharisees had touched as the

in those Errors than it hath been and perhaps utterly impossible to maintain them amongst Christians without destroying the Bible out of the World But then by the same reason that such cautions had been necessary a thousand times as many more had been necessary too For so many Additions by way of caution must have been made as there are ways of eluding and perverting a Rule which are so many that to have provided expresly against them all would have made the Bible a more voluminous Book than any is in the World not to say the most odd and uncouth Book that ever was seen For whoever wrote or spoke in that manner as to provide against all possible ways of being mistaken or having his words perverted According to this rate a man must not expect to make an end of a sentence in an hour and when he has done all he can his explications may be perverted too And therefore we are not to wonder if God has not provided express Cautions against all possible Mistakes and Abuses of this nature but thought good to leave a Rule of Faith and Manners and Worship which would be sufficient to guide all honest Persons and lovers of Truth though not sufficient to exclude all Cavil and Abuse For this reason it was that our Saviour did not pretend that all who saw his Works and heard his Doctrines must necessarily believe in him but he required constantly a certain temper of mind consisting of Humility Sincerity love of the Truth and in a word A good and honest Heart in order to a Man's being his true Disciple Common Sense and Reason was not sufficient for this purpose but there must be also a peculiar Probity or teachable Spirit a Mind ready to believe all Truth and to do all Duty These were the Sheep that would hear his voice and the Ground that would receive his Seed and bring forth Fruit Such were the Men that would hear and understand and know of the Doctrine whether it were of God But as for others they would make a shift to reject it with some colour for so doing or to pervert it if they once admitted it This was the first things to be considered the temper and design of the Gospel which delivers Truth that does by no means gratify the Lusts of Men or please their Imaginations or serve the interest of particular persons to the disadvantage of all others and then that this Truth was delivered in that way which though it be apt to instruct and convince all honest Men yet will not infallibly bear down a spirit of Contradiction Now to this we must add 2. The consideration of the general temper of Mankind for whose sake the Gospel was made known viz. that it is very corrupt and exceedingly prone to Sin and therefore to Error impatient of true Virtue and Piety and therefore of true Doctrine Human Nature does affect a lawless Liberty and cannot well bear to be confined and it is so diseased that it doth not take it well to be healed it is therefore no wonder if the Remedy which God hath provided hath been so tampered withal by Men as to make it ineffectual for that purpose for which he hath sent it to us and Doctrines have been taught which give that liberty that Truth denies It was not to be expected but that if the Doctrine of Christianity should not effectually overcome those Lusts that reign in the World those Lusts would corrupt and pervert that Doctrine and bring in Heresies Ambition and Covetousness would bring in Heresies for the establishing of a worldly Power and Dominion in the Name of Christ Licentiousness would bring in Heresies for making void the Commandments of God Pride would bring in Heresies though for nothing else but a Man's satisfaction and glory in drawing many People into a Party and becoming the Head of it and when they were brought in the natural inconstancy and wavering of some would carry them away from the Truth the natural stiffness and inflexibility of others would detain them in Error the very desire and love of Novelty would at first help to bring in some and in process of time the pretence of Antiquity would be every day more and more able to gain others Finally the unwillingness of most Men to take pains in the search of Truth and the greater ease of depending upon the absolute Authority of others would give a farther advantage to Error which fears nothing more than an Examination and therefore discourages all Persons from giving themselves so needless a trouble since they have the word of those for their security who cannot possibly mislead them considering the diseases of Human Nature which the Doctrine of Christ doth not cure miraculously and irresistibly it could not be expected but there would be Factions and Heresies against the Truth If therefore it be thought strange that the Apostle should say there must be Heresies let us consider that this is no more than if he had said after all the care that God hath taken to restore Mankind there will be Pride and Ambition there will be Covetousness and Injustice and the Love of this World there will be Luxury and Licenciousness there will be both Inconstancy and Stiffneckedness there will be Laziness and Slothfulness and Unaptness for Instruction and therefore there must be Heresies for God hath provided no infallible Remedies against Sin and Wickedness and as certainly as the Vices of the World would break out in the Church so certainly would Errors get into it by degrees and usurp the Name and Authority of Truth 'T is true that God if he pleased could absolutely have hindred it by his over-ruling Power But in this saying it is implied that he would not do so and Experience has shewn that he has not done so and we have no reason to wonder at it since he is not pleased to make all Men good by an irresistible Grace and there was less reason to expect that he should make all Men Orthodox by an irresistible Illumination And so I come to the second point Which concerns the reason assigned why God is pleased to permit Heresies That they which are approved may be made manifest i. e. that it may most evidently appear who are sincere and honest and who are not so for opposition to the Truth and the ways that are taken to advance Error do prove what Men are at the bottom and distinguish between those that would appear all alike if the same Truth were equally professed by all The great difference that breaks out is that between the probity of some Men on the one side and the falseness and hypocrisy of others on the other side which appears in these instances 1. In a more diligent search after Truth which is the effect Heresies have upon honest and godly Men while they give occasion to Hypocrites to consider what is most for their ease their safety their advantage in this World whilst the several parties