difficulty ariseth partly from the general nature of habits indisserently considered whether they be good or bad or indifferent partly from the particular nature of evil and vitious habits and partly from the natural and judicial consequences of a great progress and long continuance in an evil course By the consideration of these three particulars the extreme difficulty of this change together with the true causes and reasons of it will fully appear 1. If we consider the nature of all Habits whether good or bad or indifferent The custom and frequent practice of any thing begets in us a facility and easiness in doing it It bends the powers of our Soul and turns the stream and current of our animal Spirits such a way and gives all our faculties a tendency and pliableness to such a sort of actions And when we have long stood bent one way we grow settled and confirmed in it and cannot without great force and violence be restored to our former state and condition For the perfection of any habit whether good or bad induceth a kind of necessity of acting accordingly A rooted habit becomes a governing Principle and bears almost an equal sway in us with that which is natural It is a kind of a new nature superinduced and even as hard to be expelled as some things which are Primitively and Originally natural When we bend a thing at first it will endeavour to restore it self but it may be held bent so long till it will continue so of it self and grow crooked and then it may require more force and violence to reduce it to its former streightness than we used to make it crooked at first This is the nature of all habits the farther we proceed the more we are confirmed in them and that which at first we did voluntarily by degrees becomes so natural and necessary that it is almost impossible for us to do otherwise This is plainly seen in the experience of every day in things good and bad both in lesser and greater matters 2. This difficulty ariseth more especially from the particular nature of evil and vitious habits These because they are suitable to our corrupt nature and conspire with the inclinations of it are likely to be of a much quicker growth and improvement and in a shorter space and with less care and endeavour to arrive at maturity and strength than the habits of grace and goodness Considering the propension of our depraved nature the progress of vertue and goodness is up the hill in which we not onely move hardly and heavily but are easily roll'd back but by wickedness and vice we move downwards which as it is much quicker and easier so is it harder for us to stop in that course and infinitely more difficult to return from it Not but that at first a sinner hath some considerable checks and restraints upon him and meets with several rubs and difficulties in his way the shame and unreasonableness of his vices and the trouble and disquiet which they create to him But he breaks loose from these restraints and gets over these difficulties by degrees and the faster and farther he advanceth in an evil course the less trouble still they give him till at last they almost quite lose their force and give him little or no disturbance Shame also is a great restraint upon sinners at first but that soon falls off and when men have once lost their innocence their modesty is not like to be long troublesome to them For impudence comes on with vice and grows up with it Lesservices do not banish all shame and modesty but great and abominable crimes harden mens foreheads and make them shameless Were they ashamed saith the Prophet when they committed abomination nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush When men have the heart to do a very bad thing they seldom want the face to bear it out And as for the unreasonableness of vice though nothing in the World be more evident to a free and impartial judgment and the sinner himself discerns it clearly enough at his first setting out in a wicked course Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor He offends against the light of his own mind and does wickedly when he knows better yet after he hath continued for some time in this course and is heartily engaged in it his foolish heart is darken'd and the notions of good and evil are obscured and confounded and things appear to him in a false and imperfect light His lusts do at once blind and byass his understanding and his judgment by degrees goes over to his inclinations and he cannot think that there should be so much reason against those things for which he hath so strong an affection He is now engaged in a Party and factiously concerned to maintain it and to make the best of it and to that end he bends all his wits to advance such principles as are fittest to justifie his wicked practices and in all debates plainly savours that side of the Question which will give the greatest countenance and encouragement to them When men are corrupt and do abominable works they say in their hearts there is no God that is they would fain think so And every thing serves for an Argument to a willing mind and every little objection appears strong and considerable which makes against that which men are loath should be true Not that any man ever satisfied himself in the Principles of Infidelity or was able to arrive to a steady and unshaken persuasion of the truth of them so as not vehemently to doubt and fear the contrary However by this means many men though they cannot fully comfort yet they make a shift to cheat themselves to still their Consciences and lay them asleep for a time so as not to receive any great and frequent disturbance in their course from the checks and rebukes of their own minds And when these restraints are removed the work of iniquity goes on amain being favoured both by wind and tide 3. The difficulty of this change ariseth likewise from the natural and judicial consequences of a great progress and long continuance in an evil course My meaning is that inveterate evil habits do partly from their own nature and partly from the just judgment and permission of God put men under several disadvantages of moving effectually towards their own recovery By a long custome of sinning mens Consciences grow brawny and seared as it were with a hot iron and by being often trampled upon they become hard as the beaten road So that unless it be upon some extraordinary occasion they are seldom awakened to a sense of their guilt And when mens hearts are thus hard the best counsels make but little impression upon them For they are steel'd against reproof and impenetrable to good advice which is therefore seldom offered to them even by those that wish them well because they know it to be both unacceptable and unlikely to prevail It
urge and encourage them to a vigorous resolution of a better course And this accompanied with a powerfull assistance of God's grace which when sincerely sought is never to be despaired of may prove effectual to bring back even the greatest of sinners 1. There is left even in the worst of men a natural sense of the evil and unreasonableness of sin which can hardly be ever totally extinguished in humane nature For though the habits of great vices are very apt to harden and stupifie men so that they have seldom a just sense of their evil ways yet these persons are sometimes under strong convictions and their consciences do severely check and rebuke them for their faults They are also by fits under great apprehension of the danger of their condition and that the course which they are in if they continue in it will prove fatal to them and ruine them at last Especially when their consciences are throughly awakened by some great affliction or the near approach of death and a lively sense of another World And the apprehension of a mighty danger will make men to look about them and to use the best means to avoid it 2. Very bad men when they have any thoughts of becoming better are apt to conceive some good hopes of God's grace and mercy For though they find all the causes and reasons of despair in themselves yet the consideration of the boundless goodness and compassions of God how undeserved soever on their part is apt to kindle some sparks of hope even in the most desponding mind His wonderfull patience in the midst of our manifold provocations cannot but be a good sign to us that he hath no mind that we should perish but rather that we should come to repentance and if we do repent we are assured by his promise that we shall be forgiven He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Who knows what men throughly rouzed and startled may resolve and do And a mighty resolution will break through difficulties which seem insuperable Though we be weak and pitifull Creatures yet nature when it is mightily irritated and stir'd will do strange things The resolutions of men upon the brink of despair have been of an incredible force and the Soul of man in nothing more discovers its divine power and original than in that spring which is in it whereby it recovers it self when it is mightily urged and prest There is a sort of resolution which is in a manner invincible and hardly any difficulty can resist it or stand before it Of this there have been great instances in several kinds Some by an obstinate resolution and taking incredible pains with themselves have mastered great natural vices and defects As Socrates and Demosthenes who almost exceeded all mankind in those two things for which by nature they seemed to be least made and most unfit One in governing of his passions and the other in the mighty force and power of his eloquence Some that by intemperance have brought themselves to a dropsie which hath just set them upon the brink of the grave by a bold and steady purpose to abstain wholly from drink for a long time together have rescued themselves from the jaws of death Some that had almost ruined themselves by a careless and dissolute life and having run themselves out of their estates into debt and being cast into prison have there taken up a manly resolution to retrieve and recover themselves and by the indefatigable labour and study of some years in that uncomfortable retreat have mastered the knowledge and skill of one of the most difficult Professions in which they have afterwards proved great and eminent And some in the full carriere of a wicked course have by a sudden thought and resolution raised in them and assisted by a mighty grace of God taken up presently and made an immediate change from great wickedness and impiety of life to a very exemplary degree of goodness and vertue The two great encouragements to vertue which Pythagoras gave to his Scholars were these and they were worthy of so great a Philosopher First Chuse always the best course of life and custome will soon make it the most pleasant The other was this that Power aad Necessity are Neighbours and never dwell far from one another When men are prest by a great necessity when nature is spurr'd up and urged to the utmost men discover in themselves a power which they thought they had not and find at last that they can do that which at first they despaired of ever being able to do 4. The grace and assistance of God when sincerely sought is never to be despaired of So that if we do but heartily and in good earnest resolve upon a better course and implore the help of God's grace to this purpose no degree of it that is necessary shall be wanting to us And here is our chief ground of hope For we are weak and unstable as water and when we have taken up good resolutions do easily start from them So that fresh supplies and a continued assistance of God's grace is necessary to keep up the first warmth and vigour of our resolutions till they prove effectual and victorious And this grace God hath promised he will not deny to us when we are thus disposed for it that he will give his H. Spirit to them that ask it that he will hot quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed untill he bring forth judgment unto victory All that now remains is to apply this to our selves And we are all concerned in it For we shall all find our selves comprehended under one of these three Heads Either we are of the number of those few happy Persons who by the influence and advantage of a good education were never engaged in a bad course Or of those who have been drawn into vice but are not yet far gone in it Or of those who have been long accustomed to an evil course and are grown old and stiff in it The first of these having great cause to thank God for this singular felicity that they were never ensnared and intangled in vitious habits that they have not had the trial of their own weakness under this miserable slavery that they never knew what it was to be out of their own power to have lost their liberty and the Government of themselves When we hear of the miserable servitude of the poor Christians in Turkey we are apt as there is great reason to pity them and to think what a blessing of God it is to us that we are not in their condition And yet that slavery is hot comparable to this either for the sad nature or the dismal consequences of it or for the difficulty of being released from it And let such Persons who have been thus happy never
pretended Demonstration of Reason against plain Experience and matter of Fact This is just Zenoe's Demonstration of the impossibility of motion against Diogenes walking before his Eyes For this is to undertake to prove that impossible to have been which most certainly was Just thus the Servants in the Parable might have demonstrated that the tares were wheat because they were sure none but good seed was sown at first and no man could give any account of the punctual time when any tares were sown or by whom and if an Enemy had come to do it he must needs have met with great resistance and opposition but no such resistance was made and therefore there could be no tares in the field but that which they call'd tares was certainly good wheat At the same rate a man might demonstrate that our King his Majesty of great Britain is not return'd into England nor restor'd to his Crown because there being so great and powerfull an Army possess'd of his Lands and therefore obliged by interest to keep him out it was impossible he should ever come in without a great deal of fighting and bloudshed but there was no such thing therefore he is not return'd and restor'd to his Crown And by the like kind of Demonstration one might prove that the Turk did not invade Christendom last year and besiege Vienna because if he had the most Christian King who had the greatest Army in Christendom in a readiness would certainly have employed it against him but Monsieur Arnauld certainly knows no such thing was done And therefore according to his way of Demonstration the matter of fact so commonly reported and believed concerning the Turks Invasion of Christendom and besieging Vienna last year was a perfect mistake But a man may demonstrate till his head and heart ake before he shall ever be able to prove that which certainly is or was never to have been For of all sorts of impossibles nothing is more evidently so than to make that which hath been not to have been All the reason in the world is too weak to cope with so tough and obstinate a difficulty And I have often wonder'd how a man of Monsieur Arnauld's great wit and sharp Judgment could prevail with himself to engage in so bad and baffled a Cause or could think to defend it with so wooden a Dagger as his Demonstration of Reason against certain Experience and matter of Fact A thing if it be possible of equal absurdity with what he pretends to demonstrate Transubstantiation it self I proceed to the Third pretended Ground of this Doctrine of Transubstantiation and that is The Infallible Authority of the present Church to make and declare new Articles of Faith And this in truth is the ground into which the most of the learned men of their Church did heretofore and many do still resolve their belief of this Doctrine And as I have already shewn do plainly say that they see no sufficient reason either from Scripture or Tradition for the belief of it And that they should have believed the contrary had not the determination of the Church obliged them otherwise But if this Doctrine be obtruded upon the world merely by virtue of the Authority of the Roman Church and the Declaration of the Council under Pope Gregory the VII th or of the Lateran Council under Innocent the III. then it is a plain Innovation in the Christian Doctrine and a new Article of Faith impos'd upon the Christian world And if any Church hath this power the Christian Faith may be enlarged and changed as often as men please and that which is no part of our Saviour's Doctrine nay any thing though never so absurd and unreasonable may become an Article of Faith obliging all Christians to the belief of it whenever the Church of Rome shall think fit to stamp her Authority upon it which would make Christianity a most uncertain and endless thing The Fourth pretended ground of this Doctrine is the necessity of such a change as this in the Sacrament to the comfort and benefit of those who receive it But there is no colour for this if the thing be rightly consider'd Because the comfort and benefit of the Sacrament depends upon the blessing annexed to the Institution And as Water in Baptism without any substantial change made in that Element may by the Divine blessing accompanying the Institution be effectual to the washing away of Sin and Spiritual Regeneration So there can no reason in the world be given why the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper may not by the same Divide blessing accompanying this Institution make the worthy receivers partakers of all the Spiritual comfort and benefit designed to us thereby without any substantial change made in those Elements since our Lord hath told us that verily the flesh profiteth nothing So that if we could do so odd and strange a thing as to eat the very natural flesh and drink the bloud of our Lord I do not see of what greater advantage it would be to us than what we may have by partaking of the Symbols of his body and bloud as he hath appointed in remembrance of him For the Spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received supposing we receive what our Lord appointed and receive it with a right preparation and disposition of mind but upon the supernatural blessing that goes along with it and makes it effectual to those spiritual ends for which it was appointed The Fifth and last pretended ground of this Doctrine is to magnifie the power of the Priest in being able to work so great a Miracle And this with great pride and pomp is often urg'd by them as a transcendent instance of the Divine wisedom to find out so admirable a way to raise the power and reverence of the Priest that he should be able every day and as often as he pleases by repeating a few words to work so miraculous a change and as they love most absurdly and blasphemously to speak to make God himself But this is to pretend to a power above that of God himself for he did not nor cannot make himself nor do any thing that implies a contradiction as Transubstantiation evidently does in their pretending to make God For to make that which already is and to make that now which always was is not onely vain and trifling if it could be done but impossible because it implies a contradiction And what if after all Transubstantiation if it were possible and actually wrought by the Priest would yet be no Miracle For there are two things necessary to a Miracle that there be a supernatural effect wrought and that this effect be evident to sense So that though a supernatural effect be wrought yet if it be not evident to sense it is to all the ends and purposes of a Miracle as if it were not and can be no testimony or proof of any
SERMONS AND DISCOURSES Some of which Never before Printed BY JOHN TILLOTSON D. D. Dean of Canterbury Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary The Third Volume The Second Edition LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVII The Texts of each Sermon SERMON I. LUke IX 55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Pag. 1 SERMON II. John XIII 34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Pag. 37 SERMON III. 1 John IV. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World Pag. 69 SERMON IV. Hebrews VI. 16. And an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Pag. 113 SERMON V. Luke XX. 37 38. Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead but of the living For all live to him Pag. 157 SERMON VI. 2 Cor. V. 6. Wherefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Pag. 215 DISCOURSE VII A Perswasive to Frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament On 1 Cor. XI 26 27 28. Pag. 251 DISCOURSE VIII A Discourse against Transubstantiation Pag. 305 SERMON IX X. Joshua XXIV 15. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve Pag. 373 405 SERMON XI Jeremiah XIII 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Pag. 441 SERMON XII Matthew XXIII 13. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Pag. 469 IMPRIMATUR C. Alston November 17. 1685. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons Novemb. 5. 1678. LUKE IX 55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them AMONG many other things which may justly recommend the Christian Religion to the approbation of mankind the intrinsick goodness of it is most apt to make impression upon the Minds of serious and considerate men The Miracles of it are the great external evidence and confirmation of its truth and Divinity but the morality of its doctrines and precepts so agreeable to the best reason and wisest apprehensions of mankind so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our natures and the sweetning of the spirits and tempers of men so friendly to human Society and every way so well calculated for the peace and order of the World These are the things which our Religion glories in as her crown and excellency Miracles are apt to awaken and astonish and by a sensible and over-powering evidence to bear down the prejudices of Infidelity but there are secret charms in goodness which take fast hold of the hearts of men and do insensibly but effectually command our love and esteem And surely nothing can be more proper to the occasion of this Day than a Discourse upon this Argument which so directly tends to correct that unchristian spirit and mistaken zeal which hath been the cause of all our troubles and confusions and had so powerfull an influence upon that horrid Tragedy which was designed now near upon fourscore years ago to have been acted as upon this Day And that we may the better understand the reason of our Saviour's reproof here in the Text it will be requisite to consider the occasion of this hot and furious zeal which appeared in some of his Disciples And that was this Our Saviour was going from Galilee to Jerusalem and being to pass through a Village of Samaria he sent messengers before him to prepare entertainment for him but the People of that Place would not receive him because he was going to Jerusalem the Reason whereof was the difference of Religion which then was between the Jews and the Samaritans Of which I shall give you this brief account The Samaritans were originally that Colony of the Assyrians which we find in the Book of Kings was upon the Captivity of the Ten Tribes planted in Samaria by Salmanassar They were Heathens and worshipped their own Idols till they were so infested with Lions that for the redress of this mischief they desired to be instructed in the worship of the God of Israel hoping by this means to appease the anger of the God of the Country and then they worshipped the God of Israel together with their own Idols for so it is said in the History of the Kings That they seared the Lord and served their own Gods After the Tribe of Judah were returned from the Captivity of Babylon and the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt all the Jews were obliged by a solemn Covenant to put away their Heathen Wives It happened that Manasses a Jewish Priest had married the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan and being unwilling to put away his Wife Sanballat excited the Samaritans to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim near the City of Samaria in opposition to the Temple at Jerusalem and made Manasses his Son-in-law Priest there Upon the building of this new Temple there arose a great feud between the Jews and Samaritans which in process of time grew to so violent a hatred that they would not so much as shew common civility to one another And this was the reason why the Samaritans would not receive our Saviour in his journey because they perceived he was going to worship at Jerusalem At this uncivil usage of our Saviour two of his Disciples James and John presently take fire and out of a well-meaning zeal for the honour of their Master and of the true God and of Jerusalem the true place of his worship they are immediately for dispatching out of the way these Enemies of God and Christ and the true Religion these Hereticks and Schismaticks for so they called one another And to this end they desire our Saviour to give them power to call for fire from Heaven to consume them as Elias had done in a like case and that too not far from Samaria and it is not improbable that their being so near the place where Elias had done the like before might prompt them to this request Our Saviour
Father hath not one God created us And are we not in a more peculiar and eminent manner Brethren being all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ Are we not all members of the same Body and partakers of the same Spirit and Heirs of the same blessed Hopes of eternal life So that being Brethren upon so many accounts and by so many bonds and endearments all united to one another and all travelling towards the same heavenly Country why do we fall out by the way since we are Brethren Why do we not as becomes Brethren dwell together in unity but are so apt to quarrel and break out into heats to crumble into Sects and Parties to divide and separate from one another upon every slight and trifling occasion Give me leave a little more fully to expostulate this matter but very calmly and in the spirit of meekness and in the name of our dear Lord who loved us all at such a rate as to die for us to recommend to you this new Commandment of his that ye love one another Which is almost a new Commandment still and hardly the worse for wearing so seldom it is put on and so little hath it been practised among Christians for several Ages Consider seriously with your selves ought not the great matters wherein we are agreed our union in the Doctrines of the Christian Religion and in all the necessary Articles of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints in the same Sacraments and in all the substantial parts of God's worship and in the great Duties and Vertues of the Christian life to be of greater force to unite us than difference in doubtful Opinions and in little Rites and Circumstances of worship to divide and break us Are not the things about which we differ in their nature indifferent that is things about which there ought to be no difference among wise men Are they not at a great distance from the life and essence of Religion and rather good or bad as they tend to the Peace and Unity of the Church or are made use of to Schism and Faction than either necessary or evil in themselves And shall little scruples weigh so far with us as by breaking the Peace of the Church about them to endanger our whole Religion Shall we take one another by the throat for an hundred pence when our common Adversary stands ready to clap upon us an Action of ten thousand talents Can we in good earnest be contented that rather than the Surplice should not be thrown out Popery should come in and rather than receive the Sacrament in the humble but indifferent posture of kneeling to swallow the Camel of Transubstantiation and adore the Elements of Bread and Wine for our God and Saviour and rather than to submit to a Set Form of Prayer to have the Service of God perform'd in an unknown Tongue Are we not yet made sensible at least in this our Day by so clear a Demonstration as the Providence of God hath lately given us and had not He been infinitely merciful to us might have proved the dearest and most dangerous Experiment that ever was I say are we not yet convinced what mighty advantages our Enemies have made of our Divisions and what a plentiful harvest they have had among us during our Differences and upon occasion of them and how near their Religion was to have entred in upon us at once at those wide breaches which we had made for it And will we still take counsel of our Enemies and chuse to follow that course to which of all other they who hate us and seek our ruine would most certainly advise and direct us Will we freely offer them that advantage which they would be contented to purchase at any rate Let us after all our sad experience at last take Warning to keep a stedfast eye upon our chief Enemy and not suffer our selves to be diverted from the consideration and regard of our greatest danger by the petty provocations of our Friends so I chuse to call those who dissent from us in lesser matters because I would fain have them so and they ought in all reason to be so But however they behave themselves we ought not much to mind those who only fling dirt at us whilst we are sure there are others who fly at our throats and strike at our very hearts Let us learn this wisdom of our Enemies who though they have many great differences among themselves yet they have made a shift at this time to unite together to destroy us And shall not we do as much to save our selves fas est ab hoste doceri It was a Principle among the ancient Romans a brave and a wise People donare inimicitias Reip. to give up and sacrifice their private enmities and quarrels to the publick good and the safety of the Common-wealth And is it not to every considerate man as clear as the Sun at Noonday that nothing can maintain and support the Protestant Religion amongst us and found our Church upon a Rock so that when the rain falls and the winds blow and the floods beat upon it it shall stand firm and unshaken That nothing can be a Bulwark of sufficient force to resist all the arts and attempts of Popery but an establisht National Religion firmly united and compacted in all the parts of it Is it not plain to every eye that little Sects and separate Congregations can never do it but will be like a Foundation of sand to a weighty Building which whatever shew it may make cannot stand long because it wants Union at the Foundation and for that reason must necessarily want strength and firmness It is not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment but I think we have no cause to doubt but the Governors of our Church notwithstanding all the advantages of Authority and we think of reason too on our side are Persons of that Piety and Prudence that for Peace sake and in order to a firm Union among Protestants they would be content if that would do it not to insist upon little things but to yield them up whether to the infirmity or importunity or perhaps in some very few things to the plausible exceptions of those who differ from us But then surely on the other side men ought to bring along with them a peaceable disposition and a mind ready to comply with the Church in which they were born and baptized in all reasonable and lawful things and desirous upon any terms that are tolerable to return to the Communion of it a mind free from passion and prejudice from peevish exceptions and groundless and endless scruples not apt to insist upon little cavils and objections to which the very best things and the greatest and clearest Truths in the world are and always will be liable And whatever they have been heretofore to be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with
so false a Doctrine and to lay open the monstrous absurdity of it And in the handling of this Argument I shall proceed in this plain method I. I shall consider the pretended grounds and reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine II. I shall produce our Objections against it And if I can shew that there is no tolerable ground for it and that there are invincible Objections against it then every man is not onely in reason excused from believing this Doctrine but hath great cause to believe the contrary FIRST I will consider the pretended grounds and reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine Which must be one or more of these five Either 1 st The Authority of Scripture Or 2 ly The perpetual belief of this Doctrine in the Christian Church as an evidence that they always understood and interpreted our Saviour's words This is my body in this sense Or 3 ly The Authority of the present Church to make and declare new Articles of Faith Or 4 ly The absolute necessity of such a change as this in the Sacrament to the comfort and benefit of those who receive this Sacrament Or 5 ly To magnifie the power of the Priest in being able to work so great a Miracle 1st They pretend for this Doctrine the Authority of Scripture in those words of our Saviour This is my body Now to shew the insufficiency of this pretence I shall endeavour to make good these two things 1. That there is no necessity of understanding those words of our Saviour in the sense of Transubstantiation 2. That there is a great deal of reason nay that it is very absurd and unreasonable to understand them otherwise First That there is no necessity to understand those words of our Saviour in the sense of Transubstantiation If there be any it must be from one of these two reasons Either because there are no figurative expressions in Scripture which I think no man ever yet said or else because a Sacrament admits of no figures which would be very absurd for any man to say since it is of the very nature of a Sacrament to represent and exhibit some invisible grace and benefit by an outward sign and figure And especially since it cannot be denied but that in the institution of this very Sacrament our Saviour useth figurative expressions and several words which cannot be taken strictly and literally When he gave the Cup he said This Cup is the new Testament in my bloud which is shed for you and for many for the remission of Sins Where first the Cup is put for the Wine contained in the Cup or else if the words be literally taken so as to signifie a substantial change it is not of the Wine but of the Cup and that not into the bloud of Christ but into the new Testament or new Covenant in his bloud Besides that his bloud is said then to be shied and his body to be broken which was not till his Passion which followed the institution and first celebration of this Sacrament But that there is no necessity to understand our Saviour's words in the sense of Transubstantiation I will take the plain concession of a great number of the most learned Writers of the Church of Rome in this Controversie (a) de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. Bellarmine (b) in 3. dis 49. Qu. 75. Sect. 2. Suarez and (c) in 3. part disp 180. Qu. 75. art 2. c. 15. Vasquez do acknowledge Scotus the great Schoolman to have said that this Doctrine cannot be evidently proved from Scripture And Bellarmine grants this not to be improbable and Suarez and Vasquez acknowledge (d) in Sent. l. 4. dist 11. Qu. 1. n. 15. Durandus to have said as much (e) in 4. Sent. Q 5. Quodl 4. Q. 3. Ocham another famous Schoolman says expresly that the Doctrine which holds the substance of the Bread and Wine to remain after consecration is neither repugnant to Reason nor to Scripture (f) in 4. Sent. Q. 6. art 2. Petrus ab Alliaco Cardinal of Cambray says plainly that the Doctrine of the Substance of Bread and Wine remaining after Consecration is more easie and free from absurdity more rational and no ways repugnant to the authority of Scripture nay more that for the other Doctrine viz. of Transubstantiation there is no evidence in Scripture (g) in canon Miss Lect. 40. Gabriel Biel another great Schoolman and Divine of their Church freely declares that as to any thing express'd in the Canon of the Scriptures a wan may believe that the substance of Bread and Wine doth remain after Consecration and therefore he resolves the belief of Transubstantiation into some other Revelation besides Scripture which he supposeth the Church had about it Cardinal (h) in Aquin 3. part Qu. 75. art 1. Cajetan confesseth that the Gospel doth no where express that the Bread is changed into the Body of Christ that we have this from the authority of the Church nay he goes farther that there is nothing in the Gospel which enforceth any man to understand these words of Christ this is my body in a proper and not in a metaphorical sense but the Church having understood them in a proper sense they are to be so explained Which words in the Roman Edition of Cajetan are expunged by order of Pope (i) Aegid Conink de Sacram Q. 75. art 1. n. 13. Pius V. Cardinal (k) de Sacram l. 2. c. 3. Contarenus and (l) Loc. Theolog. l. 3. c. 3. Melchior Canus one of the best and most judicious Writers that Church ever had reckon this Doctrine among those which are not so expresly found in Scripture I will add but one more of great authority in the Church and a reputed Martyr (m) contra captiv Babylon c. 10. n. 2. Fisher Bishop of Rochester who ingenuously confesseth that in the words of the Institution there is not one word from whence the true presence of the flesh and bloud of Christ in our Mass can be proved So that we need not much contend that this Doctrine hath no certain foundation in Scripture when this is so fully and frankly acknowledged by our Adversaries themselves Secondly If there be no necessity of understanding our Saviour's words in the sense of Transubstantiation I am sure there is a great deal of reason to understand them otherwise Whether we consider the like expressions in Scripture as where our Saviour says he is the door and the true Vine which the Church of Rome would mightily have triumph'd in had it been said this is my true body And so likewise where the Church is said to be Christ's body and the Rock which followed the Israelites to be Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 They drank of that Rock which followed them and that rock was Christ All which and innumerable more like expressions in Scripture every man understands in a figurative and not in a strictly literal
man but all the while keeps him ignorant of his trade in order to his being rich and with the strictest care imaginable conceals from him the best means of learning that whereby alone he is likely to thrive and get anestate Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites By what hath been discoursed upon this Argument you will easily perceive where the Application is like to fall For the Woe denounced by our Saviour here in the Text against the Scribes and Pharisees falls every whit as heavy upon the Pastours and Teachers of the Roman Church They have taken away the key of knowledge with a witness not only depriving the people of the right understanding of the Scriptures but of the very use of them As if they were so afraid they should understand them that they dare not suffer them so much as to be acquainted with them This Tyranny that Church hath exercised over those of her Communion for several hundreds of years It grew upon them indeed by degrees For as by the inundation of Barbarous Nations upon the Roman Empire the Romans lost their Language by degrees so the Governours of that Church still kept up the Scriptures and the service of God in the Latin tongue which at last was wholly unknown to the common people And about the ninth and tenth Centuries when by the general consent of all their own Historians gross darkness and ignorance covered this part of the world the Pope and the Priests took away the key of knowledge and did as I may so say put it under the door for several Ages till the Reformation fetched it out again and rubbed off the rust of it And I profess seriously that hardly any thing in the world was ever to me more astonishing than this uncharitable and cruel usage of the people in the Church of Rome And I cannot tell which to wonder at most the insolence of their Governours in imposing upon men this sensless way of serving of God or the patience shall I call it or rather stupidity of the people in enduring to be so intolerably abused Why should reasonable creatures be treated at this rude and barbarous rate As if they were unworthy to be acquainted with the will of God and as if that which every man ought to do were not fit for every man to know As if the common people had only Bodies to be present at the service of God but no Souls or as if they were all distracted and out of their wits and it were a dangerous thing to let in the light upon them But to speak more distinctly There are two things we charge them withall and which they are not able to deny Their performing the publick service of God in an unknown Tongue and depriving the People of the use of the Scriptures And I shall first tell you what we have to say against these things and then consider what they pretend for them 1. As for their performing the service of God in a tongue unknown to the People And I begin with St. Paul who in his first Epistle to the Corinthians hath a whole Chapter on purpose to shew the unreasonableness of this thing and how contrary it is to the edification of Christians His discourse is so plain and so well known that I shall not particularly insist upon it Erasmus in his Annotations upon this Chapter breaks out as well he might into admiration at the practice of the Church of Rome in his time Hâc in re mirum quam mutata sit Ecclesiae consuetudo It is wonderfull says he how the custom of the Church is altered in this matter St. Paul had rather speak five words with understanding and so as to teach others than ten thousand in an unknown tongue Why does the Church doubt to follow so great an Authority or rather how dares she to dissent from it As for the practice of the ancient Church let Origen bear witness The Grecians saith he in their prayers use the Greek and the Romans the Latin tongue and so every one according to his Language prayeth unto God and praiseth him as he is able And not only in Origen's time but for more than the first six hundred years the service of God was always performed in a known Tongue And this the learned men of their own Church do not deny And Cardinal Cajetan as Cassander tells us said it was much better this Custom were restored and being reproved for saying so he said he learned it from St. Paul And Bellarmine himself confesseth that the Armenians Egyptians Ethiopians Russians and others do use their own Language in their Liturgies at this day But it is otherwise now in the Church of Rome and hath been for several Ages And it seems they lay great stress upon it not only as a thing or great Use but Necessity For Pope Gregory the VII forbids the Prince of Bohemia to permit to the People the celebration of divine offices in the Sclavonian Tongue and commands him to oppose them herein with all his Forces It seems he thought it a cause worthy the fighting for and that it were much better the People should be killed than suffered to understand their prayers But let us reason this matter a little calmly with them Is it necessary for men to understand any thing they do in Religion And is not Prayer one of the most solemn parts of Religion and why then should not men understand their Prayers as well as any thing else they do in Religion Is it good that people should understand their private Prayers that we thank them they allow and why not the publick as well Is there less of Religion in publick prayers is God less honoured by them or are we not as capable of being edified and of having our hearts and affections moved and excited by them Where then lies the difference The more I consider it the more I am at a loss what tolerable reason any man can give why people should not understand their publick devotions as well as their private If men cannot heartily and devoutly pray alone without understanding what they ask of God no more say I can they heartily and devoutly join in the publick prayers which are made by the Priest without understanding what they are If it be enough for the Priest to understand them why should not the Priest only be present at them unless the people do not meet to worship God but only to wait upon the Priest But by saying the Priest understands them it seems it is better some body should understand them than not and why is not that which is good for the Priest good for the people So that the true state of the Controversie is whether it be fit that the people should be edified in the service of God and whether it be fit the Church should order things contrary to edification For it is plain that the service of God in an unknown tongue is useless and unprofitable to the
covetous man heaps up Riches not to enjoy them but to have them and starves himself in the midst of plenty and most unnaturally cheats and robbs himself of that which is his own and makes a hard shift to be as poor and miserable with a great Estate as any man can be without it According to the design of nature men should eat and drink that they may live but the voluptuous man onely lives that he may eat and drink Nature in all sensual enjoyments designs pleasure which may certainly be had within the limits of vertue But vice rashly pursues pleasure into the enemies quarters and never stops till the sinner be surrounded and seized upon by pain and torment So that take away God and Religion and men live to no purpose without proposing any worthy and considerable end of life to themselves Whereas the fear of God and the care of our immortal Souls fixeth us upon one great design to which our whole life and all the actions of it are ultimately referr'd ubi unus Deus colitur saith Lactantius ibi vita omnis actus ad unum caput ad unam summam refertur when we acknowledge God as the Author of our Being as our Sovereign and our Judge our end and our happiness is then fixed and we can have but one reasonable design and that is by endeavouring to please God to gain his favour and protection in this World and to arrive at the blissfull enjoyment of him in the other In whose presence is fullness of Joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore To Him Father Son and Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power now and for ever Amen JEREMIAH XIII 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil COnsidering the great difficulty of reclaiming those who are far gone in an evil course it is no more than needs to use all sorts of Arguments to this purpose From the consideration of the evil of sin and of the goodness of God and his wonderfull patience and long-suffering towards us in the midst of our infinite Provocations From his great mercy and pity declared to us in all those gratious means and methods which he useth for our recovery And from his readiness and forwardness after all our Rebellions to receive us upon our repentance and to be perfectly reconciled to us as if we had never offended him And from the final issue and event of a wicked life the dismal and endless miseries of another World into which we shall inevitably fall except we repent in time and return to a better mind And lastly from the danger of being hardened in an evil course past all remedy and hopes of Repentance And yet I am very sensible that to discourse to Men of the impossibility or at least the extreme difficulty of rescuing temselves out of this miserable state seems to be an odd and cross kind of Argument and more apt to drive people to despair than to gain them to repentance But since the Spirit of God is pleased to make use of it to this purpose we may safely rely upon infinite Wisedom for the fitness of it to awaken sinners to a sense of their condition in order to their recovery For here in the Text after terrible threatnings of Captivity and desolation to the People of the Jews who were extremely wicked and degenerate thorough an universal depravation of manners in all ranks of men from the highest to the lowest so that they seemed to stand upon the brink of ruine and to be fatally devoted to it to add to the terrour and force of these threatnings God by his Prophet represents to them the infinite danger and extreme difficulty of their case to see if he could startle them by telling them into what a desperate condition they had plunged themselves being by a long cuâ—â—om of sinning so far engaged in an evil course that they had almost cut off themselves from a possibility of retreat so that the difficulty of their change seemed next to a natural impossibility Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye also do good that are accustom'd to do evil The Expression is very high and it is to be hoped somewhat Hyperbolical and above the just meaning of the words Which are I think only designed to signisie to us the extreme difficulty of making this change which is therefore resembled to a natural impossibility as coming very near it though not altogether up to it And that this Expression is thus to be mitigated will appear more than probable by considering some other like passages of Scripture As where our Saviour compares the difficulty of a rich Man's Salvation to that which is naturally impossible viz. to a Camels passing thorough the eye of a Needle Nay he pitcheth his expression higher and doth not onely make it a thing of equal but of greater difficulty I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go thorough the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God And yet when he comes to explain this to his Disciples he tells them that he onely meant that the thing was very difficult how hard is it for those that have riches to be saved and that it was not absolutely impossible but speaking according to humane probability with Men this is impossible but not with God And thus also it is reasonable to understand that severe passage of the Apostle Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for them that were once enlightened if they fall away to renew them again to Repentance It is impossible that is it is very difficult In like manner we are to understand this high Expression in the Text Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil that is this moral change of men settled and fixed in bad habits is almost as difficult as the other From the words thus explained two things will properly fall under our Consideration First The great difficulty of reforming vitious habits or of changing a bad course to those who have been deeply engaged in it and long accustomed to it Secondly Notwithstanding the great difficulty of the thing what ground of hope and encouragement there is left that it may be done So that notwithstanding the appearing harshness of the Text the result of my discourse will be not to discourage any how bad soever from attempting this change but to put them upon it and to perswade them to it and to remove out of the way that which may seem to be one of the strongest Objections against all endeavours of men very bad to become better I. First The great difficulty of reforming vitious habits or of changing a bad course to those who have been deeply engaged in it and long accustomed to it And this