now having given you this Account of the State of the Church of Pergamos as it was represented by our Lord himself I am much mistaken if from this Authority we may not be able to justifie the Reformation of the Church of England against the most specious and popular Exceptions which they of Rome make against our Reformation And this I shall endeavour to do under these three heads First That in this Church whilst it was in Communion with and Subjection to the Church of Rome there were notorious Abuses and Errours both in Doctrine and Worship added to the Profession of the Common Faith. Secondly That upon this Supposition we might and ought to reform our selves as we have done Thirdly That the main Objections which they of the Roman Church do bring and whereby they seek to stagger those of our Communion and to fright them into their own may by this instance of the Message of Christ to the Church of Pergamos be demonstrated to be vain and fallacious and therefore by no means fit to remove us from our stedfastness First That in this Church as in all others that were in Communion with the Church of Rome there were notorious Abuses and Errours introduced into the Faith and Worship of Christians And first as in the Church of Pergamos so in these Churches there were Doctrines and Practices leading to Idolatry I wish that were all but it is not all for Idolatry it self if it be possible for us to know what it is was practised and that practice not only connived at but encouraged and commanded and of this sort were the practices of Adoring the Host Praying to Saints to dead Men and Women and Worshipping of Images contrary to the whole tenor of the Scripture providing that we should worship the Lord our God and that him only we should serve And it is very observable that when we urge them with these things they defend themselves from Idolatry by the use of such distinctions as 't is impossible for the common People to save themselves by if indeed these distinctions would do the business As for Doctrines tending to licenciousness of Life and Manners what can be more evidently such than the easie terms upon which they promised forgiveness of sins and security from Hell Confession to a Priest with attrition being reckoned sufficient to receive a Pretorial Absolution which shall be valid in Heaven as also the invention of Purgatory and the Power of the Church to shorten the pains of it by Indulgences by applying the treasure of the Churches Merits by Masses and Prayers with a great many abuses of this nature And besides all these what shall we say to their Doctrine of Transubstantiation their Half Communion their Latin Service their Sacrifice of the Mass for which there is no President or Rule in the Scriptures or in Antiquity but plain and full consent there is both of the one and of the other against them But now to all this they make one general Reply and tell us that the Church meaning the Roman Church hath not erred in these points because she cannot err at all for she is the Mother and Mistriss of all Churches and the Standard of Catholick Unity and Faith she is that One Catholick Church which cannot fail to which Christ has promised his perpetual Presence and Assistance that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against her and of which St. Paul said that she is the pillar and ground of the Truth In a word that whatsoever is by her defined is infallibly true and therefore that these Doctrines and Practices are neither damnable errors and sins nor errors and sins at all Now if indeed such promises were made to that Church we should be brought into a very great strait and not very well know whether we should believe the Scripture speaking against the Doctrines and Practices imposed by that Church or the Scripture speaking to us to believe and do as that Church requires But first of all we say that whatsoever Promises were made to the Catholick Church they do not belong only to the Church of Rome which is but a part of it and that these Promises that the gates of Hell should not prevail against the Church and that Christ would be with his Church to the end of the world amounted to no more than this that she should be preserved from so much error as would utterly destroy the Being of a Church not from all Error whatsoever but that no Promise in particular was made to the Church of Rome so much as to secure her from fundamental Errors utterly destructive of the Being of a Church especially since St. Paul writing to the Church of Rome plainly supposes that it was possible for them to be quite cut off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.21 22. where speaking of the rejection of the Jews he hath these words For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off Which had been vain words if it had been impossible by virtue of any Priviledge conferred upon the See of Peter for the Church of Rome not to continue in God's goodness or it be an infallible truth that she shall not be cut off We do what we can to find the Infallibility of the Roman Church in the Scriptures but if we cannot find it there is much more reason to conclude that she hath erred because some of her Doctrines and Practices do seem to us apparently to contradict the Scripture than to believe she is infallible because she says so of her self But to this they say that we mis-interpret those Scriptures which seem to condemn what they profess and practise and in short that we cannot arrive to certainty of the true sence of Scripture without the Testimony of an Infallible Interpreter which the Church is Well for the present I will suppose this but then this will be the consequence of the Supposition that 't is impossible for that Church ever to convince me or any reasonable man of her own Infallibility by the Scriptures For when she tells me that Christ hath said Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth and Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world she supposes that the Promise of Infallibility to her self is so plainly made that every man who has a mind to understand the truth may be certain of the true sence of the words But if I may arrive at a certain sence of these Scriptures without the Testimony of an Infallible Interpreter then why may I not be as certain of the sence of other Texts as plain as these without such an Interpreter It
be disproved now he is dead And if the great Esteem I had for that Excellent Person and most useful Instrument of God's Service in our late dangerous and critical Times does not render me a very incompetent judg of whatever comes from his hand the Reader will find even in these short Notes enough to reward his Pains and to keep him from thinking the time lost that he shall please to spend in the perusal of them W. W. A Private Conference BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden ABOUT Transubstantiation c. FAther Gooden Proposed the Rule of Faith to be the Subject of the Conference but upon the Request of the Lady for whose sake they met the Question of Transubstantiation was taken And the Father desiring that the Doctor would be the Opponent the Question was Stated on both Sides Dr. That the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is salse Doctrine and That the Natural Body of Christ is not in the Sacrament but in Heaven Fa. That after the Words of Consecration the true Body and Blood of Christ are in the Holy Eucharist and that the manner is well exprest by Transubstantiation Dr. This is not all the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Church of Rome The Doctrine of the Church of Rome is this That the Substance of the Bread is chang'd into the Substance of Christ's Body and the Substance of the Wine is chang'd into the Substance of Christ's Blood which Change the Church of Rome does conveniently call Transubstantiation Now against this I thus argue If the Substance of Bread remains in the Eucharist then it is not chang'd into the Substance of Christ's Body But the Substance of Bread remains in the Eucharist Therefore the Substance of Bread is not changed into the Substance of Christ's Body Fath. I deny the Minor viz that the substance of Bread does remain Dr. If Bread remains the substance of bread remains But Bread remains Therefore the substance of bread remains Fath. If the Nature of Bread remains Bread remains but if only the Name of Bread and Species remain then Bread does not remain Dr. That Bread which is properly Natural Bread remains in the Eucharist is proved from 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lord's death till he come 1 Cor. 10.16 The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Now from hence we argue thus If that which is here said to be Broken and to be the Communion of the Body of Christ be properly natural Bread then that which is properly natural Bread remains in the Eucharist Fath. I grant the Major Dr. But that which is here said to be broken and to be the Communion of the Body of Christ is properly natural Bread Ergo Properly natural Bread remains in the Eucharist Fath. I deny the Minor. Dr. The Bread of which Saint Paul speaks is Bread that may be broken and therefore it is truly and properly natural Bread. Fath. I distinguish the Antecedent as to the Accidents and Appearance of Bread it may be broken as to the Nature of Bread it cannot because it is not there Dr. This is to beg the Question for the Question is whether Bread be there or not and the Argument to prove that it is there is Because Saint Paul speaks of Bread that might be and was broken but it is no sufficient Answer to this to say that the Accidents of Bread may be broken because the Bread is not there it self which is the thing that was disproved Fath. The Question to be proved was that the Nature of Bread was there therefore it is not a begging of the Question according to the Distinction given to say that the Nature of Bread is not there and consequently could not be broken For the Bread there spoken of is not meant of Natural Bread but of Bread which came down from Heaven and which is the flesh of Christ John. 6.41 I am the bread which came down from Heaven John 6.48 I am the bread of Life Ver. 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 58. From whence I infer my Answer to be good that though the H. Eucharist be called Bread and broken as to the Species of Bread yet it is not natural Bread but only in appearance of which St. Paul spoke for the same St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. speaking of the same bread saith He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself not discerning the body of our Lord. Christ also speaking of the same bread saith Take eat this is my Body Matt. 26.26 Also Luk. 22.19 speaking of the same Eucharist This is my Body which is given for you Dr. The Answerer forgetting the Part of a Disputant has pretended to prove largely by the sixth Chap. of St. John and other places of Scripture That St. Paul in the aforementioned places did not speak of Bread properly so called although he spoke of Bread that was to be broken All which places when it is my turn to Answer I will consider particularly But if that which is here said is to go for an Answer the force of it lies in this That by the Bread which St. Paul spoke of we are to understand the Bread which St. John spoke of namely the bread which came down from Heaven by which the Answerer understands the Natural and proper flesh of Christ But that the Bread which St. Paul speaks of cannot be the natural flesh of Christ I prove thus The Bread which St. Paul speaks of was broken But the Natural Body of Christ cannot be broken Ergo. The Bread which St. Paul speaks of cannot be the Natural body of Christ Fath. As to the Species and Appearance of Bread it was broken I grant it as to any Nature contained under those Species of Bread I deny it Dr. This Distinction does not avoid the Argument because if the Bread in St. Paul and the Bread in St. John are really and properly the same and the Bread in St. John be really and properly the flesh of Christ then what is affirmed of the one must be true of the other and therefore if the Bread be broken in St. Paul then the Natural body of Christ must be broken too which cannot be I add further That if by breaking of Bread St. Paul means breaking the Accidents of Bread onely and if the Bread that is broken be really that which is spoken of in St. John as aforesaid it follows also that the Accidents of Bread are properly the body of Christ Fath. That which St. Paul calls Bread had in it both the Accidents of Bread and the substance of Christs body As to the Accidents of Bread it might be broken as to the substance of Christ's body which is mentioned in St. John it is not broken unless you mean as Christ's Body was broken upon the Cross And if the bread which is broken be really that which is spoken of in St. John as aforesaid
Sermon of the Necessity Dignity and Duty of Gospel-Ministers 4º His Treatise of the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy 8º The Peaceable Christian A Sermon 4o. Bap. Nani's History of the Republick of Venice fol. Sterry's Freedom of the Will. Fol. Lord North's Light in the Way to Paradice 8º Molins of the Muscles With Sir Charles Scarborough's Syllabus Musculorum 8º A Collection of Letters of Gallantry 12º A new and easie Method to learn to Sing by Book 8º Erasmus's Manual for a Christian Souldier 12º A Book of Cyphers or Letters Reverst 8º Leonard's Reports in Four Parts The Second Edition Fol. Bulstrode's Reports in Three Parts The Second Edition Corrected with the addition of thousands of References 1688. Fol. The Compleat Clerk containing the best Forms of all sorts of Presidents 4º Sir Simon Deggs Parsons Counsellor with the Law of Tithes and Tithing in two Books The Fourth Edition 8º The Hind and Panther transvers'd 4º Mr. Gilbert's Answer to the Bishop of Condom with Reflections on his Pastoral Letter 4º The Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly represented c. By the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of St. Paul's 4º An Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists Protesting against Protestant Popery 4º An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer 4º A Sermon Preach'd at the Funeral of Dr. Calamy These Three by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Master of the Temple 4º A View of the whole Controversie between the Representer and the Answerer By Dr. Clagett 4º The Authority of Councils and the Rule of Faith With an Answer to the Eight Theses laid down for the Tryal of the English Reformation The First Part about Councils by Hutchinson Esq the rest by Dr. Clagett 4º An Answer to the eighth Chapter of the Representers Second Part in the first Dialogue between him and his Lay-Friend 4º The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared as to Scripture Reason and Tradition In a new Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist Two Parts by the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of St. Paul's 4º The State of the Church of Rome when the Church of England began as it appears by two Advices given to Paul 3. and Julius 3. By Dr. Glaget 4º The School of the Eucharist Translated and Published with an excellent Preface by Dr. Clagett Price 4º 1 s. in 8º 6 d. The absolute Impossibility of Transubstantiation demonstrated By Mr. Samuel Johnson 4º A Letter to a Friend reflecting on some passages in a Letter to the D. of P. in answer to the arguing part of his first Letter to Mr. G. 4º The Reflecters Defence of his Letter to a Friend against the furious Assaults of Mr. J. S. in his Second Catholick Letter In four Dialogues 4º The Protestant Resolv'd Or a Discourse shewing the unreasonableness of his turning Roman Catholick for Salvation 4º These Three by the Reverend Mr. Clement Elis. Some Dialogues between Mr. G. and others With Reflections on a Book call'd Pax Vobis By Mr. Linford 8º Francis Brocard Secretary to Pope Clement the Eighth his Alarm to all Protestant Princes With a Discovery of Popish Plots and Conspiracies after his Conversion from Popery to the Protestant Religion 4º Books lately Printed for William Rogers A Perswasive to Frequent Communion in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Price 3 d. 8o. A Discourse against Transubstantiation 8º Price 3 d. A Sermon Preach'd at Lincolns-Inn-Chappel on the 31st of Jan. 1688 Being the Day appointed for a Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God for having made his Highness the Prince of Orange the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power 4o. A Sermon Preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March the 8th 1689. 4º A Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court April the 14th 1689. 4º All Five by the Reverend Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury The Practical Believer Or the Articles of the Apostles Creed drawn out to form a True Christian's Heart and Practice In Two Parts 8º A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick-Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome 4o. A Preservative against Popery Being some plain Directions to unlearned Protestants how to Dispute with Romish Priests Part I. The Fifth Edition 4º The Second Part of the Preservative against Popery Shewing how contrary Popery is to the True Ends of the Christian Religion Fitted for the Instruction of unlearned Protestants Second Edition 4º A Vindication of Both Parts of the Preservative against Popery In answer to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran Jesuit 4º A Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church Wherein most of the Controversies relating to the Church are briefly and plainly stated Part I. 4º A Sermon Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London at Guild-Hall-Chappel Novemb. 4. 1688. All six by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Master of the Temple A Letter to the Superiours whether Bishops or Priests which Approve or License the Popish Books in England particularly to those of the Jesuits Order concerning Lewis Sabran a Jesuit By Mr. Gee 4º A Letter of Enquiry to the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus Written in the Person of a dissatisfied Roman Catholick By J. Taylor Gent. 4º The History of the Persecutions of the Protestants by the French King in the Principality of Orange from the Year 1660 to the Year 1687. 4º The Art of Spelling By J. P. M. A. A Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court May the 12th 1689. By Robert Brograve M. A. 4º A Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry in which a late Author's viz. the Bishop of Oxford's True and Only Notion of Idolatry is consider'd and confuted 4º An Exhortation to mutual Charity and Unity among Protestants In a Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court May 20. 1689. A Sermon Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margaret's Westminster June 5. 1689. being the Fast-Day 4º These Three by the Reverend Mr. Wake Dr. Clagett's Seventeen Sermons With the Sum of a Conference between him and Father Gooden about Transubstantiation 8º
there is a shorter and a surer way to determine this matter and that by comparing those Doctrines and Practices with the Scriptures For the Scriptures have a more certain Tradition than any of those Histories that give an account of the Revolutions of Church Affairs since the beginning and now what matter is it if I am assured that such and such Corruptions were brought into the Church sometime or other after the Apostles because they are contrary to what the Apostles taught and left in their Writings though I cannot tell just the Year when or the Person by whom they first crept into the Church I would very fain know of any Man that when our Saviour set himself to overthrow that wicked Tradition which we were speaking of before whether he could not if he had pleased have given an exact account of the Persons that began it in the Jewish Church and of the time when it began and of every circumstance that attended its entrance into the World and its growth and encrease afterwards But did he go this way to work It is certain that the Pharises pretended the Traditions which they taught the People were delivered from God to Moses and that through several Ages they were conveyed down to them successively by word of mouth And I grant that if our Lord had with many words shewn them that they were such and such men who first brought them in this had been a confutation of their pretence but for all that he was pleased to use a better and a shorter argument against them and told them what the commandment was in the Law which their pretended Tradition made void and this was instead of a thousand arguments that their Doctrine never came from Moses but was invented some time afterwards And I beseech you let none of us be ashamed to use that kind of argument which our Saviour thought fit to confute those People withal and which we have reason to think he used that he might shew us the best way to secure our selves from being imposed upon by unwritten Traditions and by a pretence of having received such Doctrines from the Apostles as they never delivered When therefore we are asked If Transubstantiation be an Error and not an Article of Faith when did it come in If Service in an Vnknown Tongue be an Innocation when did it come in If the Sacrifice of the Mass be a Corruption when did it come in Let us account it sufficient to answer for so our Saviour thought it in the like case That Transubstantiation makes void those places of Scripture which expresly affirm that by eating of Bread we shew forth the Death of Christ and are made partakers of his Body That Service in an Vnknown Tongue makes void the Fourteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians And that the Sacrifice of the Mass makes void the Seventh and the Tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews which expresly tell us that Christ can be offered no more and that there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins and therefore we are very well assured that they did come in sometime or other since the Apostles but whether they came in sooner or later is nothing to the purpose for certainly nothing ought ever to have come in that makes void any part of the Word of God but if any such thing hath got in there is all the reason in the World that it should be thrown out again They may well be ashamed that cannot bear this sort of arguing but most certainly we have no reason to be ashamed to use it since our blessed Saviour hath used it before us for when he set himself to overthrow the credit of these Doctrines for which they pretended a constant Tradition in the Church he thought it sufficient for his purpose to shew that they voided the Commandments of God and made his word of none effect 2. If there be one Traditionary Doctrine that notoriously contradicts the written Word of God 't is enough to overthrow the whole Credit of that Tradition which pretends to bring down unwritten Doctrines that are necessary to be received For thus we find that our Saviour by the single instance of that Tradition which voided the Fifth Commandment overthrew the Objection of the Pharises against his Disciples Why do thy Disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders i. e. their unwritten Traditions which was as much as to say that they ought all of them to be Religiously observed because they had all the same Authority Our Saviour therefore produces an instance of their Traditions that takes away all Authority inasmuch as it was a plain contradiction to the Law of God if therefore amongst their unwritten Doctrines and Rules there were any that had some kind of goodness and usefulness they were to be regarded upon their own account and not upon the Authority of Tradition But when he had utterly overthrown all that pretended Authority by an undeniable argument he then speaks to the case which themselves had propounded and lays down the truth concerning it They had a vast number of Superstitions for which they pretended Tradition and they tax our Saviour's Disciples for not observing one of them Now he with admirable wisdom first breaks the Authority of their Tradition shewing that one of them was plainly against the Law of God and then he shews how superstitious and foolish they were in the case which themselves chose to speak to In this also our Lord hath set us an example that if we are prest by a pretence to Tradition in favour of unwritten Doctrines and Articles we should in the first place shew that one or more of these is contrary to the Word of God and therefore that there is no reason to pretend Tradition for any of them since they are all said to have come down together Which being done in the first place it will be then seasonable to shew what is to be thought of the rest if they are judged of by the general Rules of Reason and Scripture 3. The Universal consent of some one or two Ages that such and such Doctrines were delivered by word of mouth many Ages before is no argument that they were so delivered The Pharises did pretend that their Doctrines and Interpretations of the Law had been conveyed down from Moses by Oral Tradition to that Age in which they lived and there were several of these Traditions universally believed in that Age to have been so conveyed and the Practice of the People was universally governed by them For instance that of Religious Washing before Meat and the washing of Cups and Pots as a thing in it self good and holy was universally received and practised as St. Mark tells us Now I would fain know whether they might not have reasoned in this fashion We in this Age received this Doctrine and Rule from our Forefathers who professed they received it from theirs and if they had not received it from theirs then
And because this Exhortation is also added to the Epistle sent to the Church of Pergamos part of which I have now read to you I may also exhort you to hear or rather I need not since our Lord Jesus himself hath required you so to do St. John who had been the Founder of the Church of Pergamos was now in the Isle of Patmos banished thither for the Testimony of Jesus as he witnesseth himself chap. 1. ver 9. I John who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ. But he had committed this Church to the care of a Bishop in his absence who is here called the Angel of the Church and to whom this Epistle was directed in behalf of the Church under his care and it consists of these three general parts I. Of a Commendation II. Of a Reproof III. A Warning to Repent I. A Commendation I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth Which Commendation consists of two parts 1. That the Church of Pergamos retained the profession of the Name of Christ in all points necessary to the being of a Church for if she had parted with any point necessary she must then have ceased to be a Church but a Church she was by our Lord 's own acknowledgment and therefore by holding fast his Name and not denying his Faith we must needs understand that she had kept intire that form of sound words the Apostolical Creed which St. John had left amongst them 2. That which heightned her praise was that she had done this in such a place where there was so great Temptations to Apostacy First Where Satan's seat was i. e. where there were so many Idol-Temples that no place in Asia could shew so many as if Pergamos had been Satan's Principal Court in that part of the World. Secondly Where by consequence there was likely to be and where indeed there was a great Persecution of the Gospel under which Antipas a faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ whose Zeal and Courage was an Example to the rest was slain This is the Commendation of the Church of Pergamos that in such a place and at such a time she had held fast the Profession of the fundamental Truths of the Gospel that she had held fast the Name of Christ and had not denied his Faith. But there follows II. A Reproof But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication So hast thou also them that hold the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate i. e. Although she had the foundation of the Faith yet within the Communion of that Church the Doctrine of Balaam and the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans was taught and practised She had suffered damnable Doctrines and wicked Practices to take place which were likely enough to endanger the subverting of the whole Christian Faith professed amongst them But more particularly 1. The Doctrine of Balaam was openly taught amongst them and that was the lawfulness of joyning with Idolaters in the Worship of their Idols for this was the Stumbling-block which Balaam laid before the Children of Israel not only drawing them to carnal fornication with the Daughters of Moab but spiritual fornication also with their Idols Now it seems there was such a grievous Persecution of the Church at Pergamos that some of that Communion to ease the Church from it taught that it was lawful to sacrifice to Idols and to have External Communion with Idolaters in their Worship to wit by eating things sacrificed to Idols pretending as we may gather from the Commendation given them in the former verse that if they did but still hold fast the Name of Christ and not deny any necessary point of his Faith their External Compliance with Idolaters in their Worship would not deserve any severe Reproof but that because they should still retain the Name and Essence of a true Church they should therefore sufficiently approve their fidelity to Christ notwithstanding their burning Incense and offering Sacrifice and giving Divine Honours by their outward Acts to that which is not God. 2. The Doctrine of the Nicolaitans was also held amongst them that is a Doctrine that tended to a licencious Life and the corruption of good Manners and it is called the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans from Nicolas the Deacon who being upbraided for doting too much upon his fair Wife to shew that he was not to be blamed upon that account made a prostitution of her to all Comers which lewd Example had it seems spread its Contagion into some of the Asian Churches especially at Pergamos where many of them held Community of Women to be lawful which was so vile and detestable a Doctrine that God is here said to hate it So that the Doctrines for tolerating of which the Church of Pergamos is here reprehended were such as grated very near upon the Foundations of Christianity the former leading to Idolatry the latter to an impure and vicious Life A very strange corruption of the State of that Church in so short a time from the first plantation of it Now III. We have in this Message of Jesus to the Church of Pergamos a warning to repent and to make haste to repent too Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth And what was she to repent of but of suffering those Coruptions in Doctrine and Practice to prevail in her Communion for which she was reproved before And how was she to repent but by reforming those Abuses and casting out of her Communion those that would not be reformed and returning to the Primitive Purity of her Faith and Worship and Manners And if she would not do this Jesus threatned that he would suddenly take the matter into his own hands and cut them off by the Sword of his mouth from being a Church at all who were so soon degenerated from a pure Church and it is reasonable to believe that upon this warning she did repent and reform for she was not speedily cut off as God had threatned she should be if she did not repent but continued a Church for many Ages afterwards till at length falling again into great corruptions of Doctrine and Manners she with all the other six Churches of Asia written to by our Lord fell to be no Church at all and the Temples wherein the Name of Christ was called upon are now become Turkish Mosques and so the burden of Pergamos was fulfilled And
seems to me that our Saviour said Drink ye All of this and therefore that you of the Roman Church may as well take the Bread as the Cup from the Laity It seems to me that St. Paul calls the Communion of Christ's Body Bread The BREAD which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and your Church says 't is Bread no longer after Consecration It seems to me that the same St. Paul speaks for a whole Chapter against Praying in an Unknown Tongue and yet your Church doth it It seems also to me that the Author to the Hebrews doth absolutely say That Christ was offered once for all and that he sat down thenceforth at the right hand of God but you pretend to fetch him down from Heaven and offer him a thousand times in a day It seems to me that God has forbidden the making of Images to worship them as absolutely and universally as words could do it and yet you picture God and make Similitudes of the Blessed Trinity and Images of the Saints and worship them when you have done I demand now why I may not be certain of the true sence of these places upon as reasonable grounds as you suppose I may be of those which in your judgment conclude for the Infallibility of your Church If I may then I am sure the Scripture condemns what you say and do in these points but if I may not be reasonably assured that I understand these in my judgment plain places of Scripture because I want an Infallible Judge to interpret for me then I demand again why do you urge me with those Scriptures that as you pretend prove the Infallibility of your Church for as yet I am not perswaded of the Infallibility thereof though I would gladly be perswaded of it If you say this is the interpretation of the Church concerning them which is Infallible and therefore you are to believe it I think any body but a Child would reply that that is the very thing in question and therefore that you cannot convince any man of your Infallibility unless he will take your word for it because he cannot infallibly know the true sence of Scripture giving testimony to it before he believes it without any testimony from Scripture at all So that it is to no purpose to go about to perswade any reasonable man that your Church is Infallible till he doth already believe it that is till it is a needless thing to do it because he does believe it already And therefore when all is done we must be content to understand the plain places of Scripture without an Infallible Judge and to find out the rest as well as we can and if the Scripture plainly condemns what you say and do we have more reason from thence to conclude that you have erred than to conclude that you cannot err because you say so of your selves And indeed I look upon this Pretence to Infallibility to be an Errour of the most pernicious consequence because it seals them up under all the rest and adds incorrigibleness which is the highest degree of obstinacy to all their other Errours and it is so much the more shameless because the whole World that was in Communion with them groaned for a Reformation before the Council of Trent One of their own Popes said We confess many abominable Abuses and Grievances have been for these many years last past in the Holy See and we look upon our selves concerned to endeavour a Reformation the more because we see the whole World doth most earnestly desire it At the Council of Trent the Embassadours of several Princes desired earnestly the Cup for the People the Marriage of the Clergy Service in a known Tongue and the Reformation of divers other matters in which Christendom would have reformed it self if Italy would have suffered it Italy I say who to hinder a general Reformation filled the Council of Trent with more Bishops than came from all the parts of Christendom besides Secondly Upon this Supposition the Church of England might and ought to reform it self as it hath done for we find that the Church of Pergamos which was not over-run with so many false Doctrines and corrupt Practices as those of the Roman Church I have mentioned was required by our Lord Jesus himself to remove those Errours and Corruptions which had crept into her and if she did not presently return to her Primitive Purity she was threatned to be cut off Indeed it had been a much more desirable thing that the whole Western Church and more desirable still that the East and the West had both united in a Reformation it had been a blessed thing if by a Free and General Council of all the Bishops in the Christian World an Universal Reformation had been made but the latter perhaps was improbable by reason of the vast distances of some Christian Churches from one another and the former was made impossible by the over-ruling Power of Italy which therefore was to be done upon particular Churches by common consent and perhaps there must never be a farther Reformation till the Day of Judgment It was very reasonable and very necessary therefore that Christian Kingdoms should proceed in Provincial and National Councils to reform themselves as this Church hath done under her Kings and Bishops Parliaments and Convocations that is by all that Authority which could be desired to make a publick Reformation within the limits of this particular Church And this proceeding has been authorized by the Examples of the best Ages of the Church when it was thought fit not always to tarry for General Councils but very often for particular Churches to proceed out of hand to the rooting out of Errour and Heresie and to the reforming of whatsoever they thought amiss amongst themselves and for this we are to appeal to the Councils of Laodicea Gangra Carthage and many others which are no General Councils To conclude Such Errours as had overspread the Church before the Reformation were in their own nature and in their consequences so pernicious that every Christian Man ought to reform himself from them inasmuch as it is better to obey God than man Much more might a publick Reformation be made by due Authority But we had no regard to the Bishop of Rome in this matter who was to be considered either as Head of the whole Church or the Patriarch of the West or as the Converter of the English Nation and we were not only in Communion with him but in subjection to him when the Reformation was made so that what cause soever there might be for it the Reformation was however schismatical To all which I answer in short 1. As to the Universal Supremacy it is a point to which Antiquity is wholly a stranger Scripture and the Fathers say nothing of it Ignatius who so often requires that nothing should be done of moment in the Church without the Bishop would have found out
some one occasion at least to have said Let nothing be done without the Bishop of Rome if he had known of any such Priviledge and Power conferred on him by our Lord. But if Pergamos were justifiable in removing those Corruptions which were crept into that Church without staying for the consent of the Bishop of Rome England in removing more Corruptions and of equal danger was to proceed also without his leave if it could not be had 2. As to his Patriarchal Power over this Nation it did not anciently belong to him he had it not when the Council of Nice confined him to his own Province nor when the Council of Ephesus decreed That no Bishop should presume to invade any other Province which from the beginning had not been under his or his Predecessor's Jurisdiction or if any do and make it his own by force that he should restore it And then the Church of Britain was free acknowledging no foreign Jurisdiction the Power that the Bishop of Rome gained here in after-Ages was got by fraud and held by force and was ever and anon disputed and gainsayed and over-rul'd and surely no injury was done him when that Authority was resumed which he had usurped 3. As to the Conversion of the Saxons by Austin sent hither by Pope Gregory I say it follows not if long since the Inhabitants of this Island received any benefit from Rome therefore they should in all Ages be exposed to the Usurpations of that place afterwards nor that because we once received true Religion from Rome therefore Posterity must receive also false Doctrines from thence when it should please her to send them hither But in truth Christianity had been planted here long before by St. Paul himself in all probability and that in the Reign of Tiberius before Rome her self had received the Christian Faith. And the British Bishops whom Austin found here would by no means submit to the Authority of the Roman Legate And so much for the right that this particular Church had to reform her self I come now Thirdly To consider some of those specious Pretences and Objections by which they go about to weaken the stedfastness of our People in the Communion of our Church and to draw them to theirs 1. They say How was it possible that Errours could creep into the Church of that nature with those which we charge upon them There must have been great Opposition made to any the least design of such an alteration in the State of Religion and we meet with no such account of things in History Therefore these are not Innovations but the ancient Doctrine and Practice of the Church To omit this that concerning most of their Innovations we can very nearly shew the time when they were brought in but can plainly shew that there was a time when they were not I answer It is much more easie to conceive that in a thousand years time Errour should creep into that Church by degrees and without noise than that in a Church planted by an Apostle as Pergamos was guarded by the Angel or Bishop placed there by an Apostle as Pergamos was should so soon tolerate the Doctrines of the Balaamites and Nicolaitans even while their Apostle was alive and therefore very soon after he departed from them 2. They say that the perpetual Succession of their Bishops from St. Peter is an Argument of the Succession of true Doctrine amongst them in the purity thereof but behold an Apostolical Church in which a Bishop succeeded an Apostle yet alive corrupted in her Doctrine and Worship Can they have greater can they have as great an assurance of a perpetual uninterrupted Succession after so many Ages as the Church of Pergames had before one Age was gone or does their Infallibility grow with their Succession or the farther they are removed from the beginning of the Church are they the surer still that they teach nothing but what was taught at first 3. They say we are departed from the whole Church of Christ that was visible every-where upon the face of the Earth when the Reformation was begun seeing there was then no Communion in the World nor had been long before that professed the same Doctrine in all points which the Reformation brought in Now in great liberality to admit for once that the whole visible Church had corrupted its way as the Church of Rome has done which yet is not true but I say admitting it what will then come of it That we departed from the whole Church of Christ No but that we departed from the general Errours and Corruptions of it and by that could not be said to depart from the whole Church whereof we our selves were a part unless we departed also from our selves Nay but say they this is to fall into another damnable Errour and that is that the whole Church of Christ had failed from the Earth and so that the visible Church had perished for some Ages till the Reformation brought it to life again Not so neither For we do not say that the Errours of the Church were of that nature as to make it cease to be a Church but that they were in themselves damnable and that they made the Salvation of all that were in it extreamly hazardous but yet that we hope well of those who believing the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity maintained in the Church and wanting means to discover her Corruptions served God according to their knowledge so that we do not say the Church had perished but that her Purity had been lost even as Pergamos was a Church and so acknowledged by our Lord himself because she held fast the foundation of the Creed while yet she was corrupted with notorious Errors To this according to their usual way of arguing they would reply that the case is not the same between a Particular Church as Pergamos was and the whole Visible Church from which Luther and those that followed him separated themselves But then I would answer That the case is the same as to the matter we are upon for if a particular Church though under great Errours may yet be a part of the whole Church by like reasons if the whole Church were over-spread with foul Errours it would nevertheless still remain the whole Church and there is as great an obligation to depart from those Errors in the latter case as in the former and a particular Church by departing from such Errors does no more depart from the whole Church than she did from her self 4. They pretend Antiquity for their Errors and are often asking that shrewd Question as they deem it Where was your Religion before Luther I would answer this Question with another That after the Angel of the Church of Pergamos had purged away the Corruptions of that Church Where was the Church of Pergamos before that Reformation Every one of common sence would answer It was where it is now and where it ever was since it was first a
has in store for all honest Minds and that instead of running cross to the Interests of Mankind either here or hereafter it shews an infallible way to single Persons and to Communities to be happy in this World and to all men to be for ever blessed in the World to come We would rather have expected it should have been foretold that no man in any Age would ever set himself to oppose the design of the Gospel either in whole or in part If likewise we observe what clear and undeniable Testimonies of Divine Revelation God approved and owned it by how highly reasonable the Principles thereof are and how those things which could not be known but by Revelation yet being once revealed do satisfie our Reason and approve themselves to it How evident the Design thereof is how plain the Precepts how few the positive Institutions of it are and how significant and profitable they are and how full of Instruction finally how manifest those necessary Doctrines are the belief whereof is necessary to make a man a Christian and what that Mystery of Godliness is which in the Apostles days was confessed and without Controversie If we look upon these things and no farther we should rather have expected that the Doctrine of our Saviour should never have been gainsaid never perverted never mingled with Errour never have given occasion to wrangling and discord and never have become the matter of nice and angry Dispute but onely of an unblamable Faith and Practice The Gospel of Christ is undoubtedly a faithful Saying or Doctrine clearly revealed and standing upon evident Testimonies of Divine Revelation it is also worthy of all acceptation Why then must it needs be that Offences come To which I shall give a plain answer in our Saviour's words to Nicodemus That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.18 and therefore it must needs be that Offences should come For the Religion of Christ is not sutable to the Spirit of this World and therefore the World hateth it and therefore no wonder if it hath one way or other always sought to obstruct the Progress and Design of it In a word it is not the defect but the exceeding excellence and purity of true Christianity that has given occasion to the World to oppose it to pervert it and to discourage the Profession or Practice of it For it is a Religion too wise and too good for them that have no mind to be wise and good themselves and therefore considering the great corruption of humane Nature which God would not over-bear by an irresistible power but cure by rational means and methods no wonder that Offences have come nay that our Saviour said it must needs be that Offences come To argue more particularly 1. The Doctrine of the Gospel is a Doctrine of Manners lays a severe restraint upon all the unreasonable Lusts of Men and makes a great many Liberties unlawful which they are for the most part violently inclined to take And therefore every carnal man while he so continues carries within himself a terrible prejudice a secret Enemy against the Truth as it is in Jesus and his Heart riseth with as much anger against that Doctrine of God that telleth him it is not lawful for him to pursue his worldly and fleshly desires as he would but to subdue and mortifie them as Herod when he took his Brother's Wife expressed against John the Baptist for saying It is not lawful for thee to have her Man's Nature affecteth a lawless Liberty and cannot endure to be confined it is diseased and cannot endure to be healed and it was therefore likely enough that very many would reject the Physician and be angry with those very Remedies that our Heavenly Father has sent The true and sincere Doctrine of Christ my Brethren if it be believed cannot but make us very uneasie and unquiet while we are conscious of sin and are not willing to be reformed because it reveals to us the Wrath of God against all our unrighteousness and ungodliness it forewarns us of a dreadful Sentence at the last day and of an everlasting Punishment which we are unwilling at the same time to venture in which we are unwilling to part with our sins and to reconcile our selves to God by Repentance And Men that are lovers of Pleasures and lovers of Gain cannot easily admit a Doctrine which gives them as much uneasiness and disturbance as if the point of a Sword were always turned toward their very Hearts For this Reason the Pharisees could not endure the Doctrine of Jesus and this was one Reason why the Heathens opposed it and persecuted it and is one Reason why Christians have corrupted it by finding out other ways to avoid Damnation than by a lively Faith and true Repentance and effectual Reformation and keeping the Commandments of God. It is this that hath made way for satisfactory Commutations Merits of others and the absolute power of the Keys and all those devices which are good for nothing but to reconcile a wicked Life to the hopes of Heaven and to entangle the plain sense of those words of Christ He that heareth these sayings and doth them not I will liken him to a foolish man that built his House upon the Sand and the winds blew and the rain fell and the floods came and beat upon that House and it fell and great was the fall thereof that is it suffered an irreparable Ruin. 2. If we consider the Doctrine of Christ as it is a Doctrine both of Faith and Manners it is no way framed to serve the ends of ambitious and worldly-minded men or to help them in pursuing those ends by a pretence of Religion and therefore it was not to be expected but in process of time it would be by some or others molded for that purpose when Opportunity should serve Our Saviour taught the World no other Principles of Morality no other Articles of Faith than what were equally for the Interest of all parts of Mankind to believe and follow a common good and an equal benefit was intended in them all For let them prevail without corruption and alteration the Honour and Safety of Soveraign Princes is secured and a quiet and peaceable Life to Subjects Neighbour-Nations shall give strength and confidence instead of creating Jealousies to one another the Master shall be better served and the Servant better used the Church by her Doctrine and Spiritual Authority will be a Guard to the State and receive at the same time Protection from it Here was no design in Christianity to set up any Nation or party of Men in opposition and to the disadvantage of all mankind beside but it plainly aimed at a general good and under its Penalties requires all its Professors to aim at the same too and condemns those who are lovers of themselves in opposition to all others amongst the greatest Offenders And this
Religion as Machiavel well observed was not calculated for the inspiring of Men with great Designs such I suppose as his Caesar Borgia aimed at It was too plain too Philosophical too Innocent and Charitable to raise an ambitious heat or to serve it And therefore it was very likely in process of time that it should be helped out by other Principles and Doctrines that would bring in the swelling of worldly Pride into the Church as the African Fathers in their Epistle to Celestine called it and advance one part of it to the depressing of all the rest But because true Christianity serves no such Design therefore was our Saviour opposed by the Rulers of the Jews his Doctrine did not tend at all that way viz. to make Hierusalem the Mistress of the World and that all should depend upon her it did not minister to their ambitious and worldly Hopes and therefore was not for their turn 3. If we look upon Christianity as a Rule of Worship it will still hold true that Offences must needs come because the Worship it prescribes is a Worship of great simplicity that has but two or three positive Institutions of Divine Authority viz. the two Sacraments and the Invocation of God through the Name and Mediation of his Holy Son Jesus Now this was not likely to be acceptable to the generality of Mankind who love rather a pompous number of Ceremonies and nice Observations than a grave and decent administration of Worship For the former does amuze the Senses and entertain the Imagination the latter does that but very little in Comparison and rather satisfies our Reason But most People are more apt to be affected with things that touch their Fancy than their Judgment And therefore it was hardly to be expected but in time their would grow very great excesses in this kind as there did even in St. Austin's days who complain'd of it not a little in his Epistle to Januarius Neither could it be doubted but such excesses would be accompanied with false Notions of Religion and of the way to please God For whereas the excellent design of our Saviour in appointing so small a number of external Observations leaving the necessary Rules of Decency to be determined by the Church was this to take Men off from all pretence of placing the weight of Religion in outward Ceremonies and by their very Worship to instruct them in Piety and Vertue and to shew them that God will not be pleased without those things whereas he did hereby effectually declare that God who is a Spirit would be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth that is with the Affections of a pious Heart and the Obedience that is expressed in a good Life The corrupt Nature of Man is as averse from this as 't is fond of the other and desires to please God by so easie a Religion as that which runs out into a world of Mysteries and Shews and Observations and seems to save them the labour of subduing their Lusts and Passions and of serving God by a righteous and holy Life And this was one thing that made the Primitive Christians contemptible and odious to the Heathens that they had so few Rites and Ceremonies so plain and simple a Form of Divine Service but one Altar but one Mediator no Tutelar Deities and Patrons no throngs of petty Gods but one or two Mysteries and those too plain and instructing without Pomp and Amuzement for such causes as these they reckoned the Christians little better than Atheists believing that a Religion which made no stately shew to be as good as none at all 'T is true that God himself appointed a Form of Divine Service to the Israelites that consisted of a vast number of Ceremonies but besides this that they were to be the Types to discover the Messias when he should appear There was another end of Divine Providence observable in that Constitution which was this that they having a stately and Mystical Form of Worship of their own might be less under a Temptation of learning of the Idolatrous Nations round about them whose numerous and gaudy Ceremonies in their Worship would have bewitched the Jews ten times more than they did if they had not been able to vye with them But God by his Prophet said That he gave them Statutes that were not good to be sure not the best in themselves but considering the time the best for them For when God sent his Son into the World who was to teach all mankind to Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth and to convert the Nations from Idolatry the Scheme of the Mosaic Worship was taken down and the Church was furnished with nothing but Prayers and Praises two Sacraments and one Mediator But by all this it appears that the design of the Gospel in this matter runs counter to the fond and foolish inclinations of mankind and therefore that Offences were ready to come upon this account also So that considering the temper and design of the Gospel it was a Religion too good for a wicked World too wise for a vain and foolish World I mean it was too good and too wise to escape Opposition and all change the World would either try to keep it out or when that was in vain to attempt any longer to square and form it better to its own purposes and inclinations It was upon this account viz. of the design of the Gospel which was exalted above a worldly Spirit that a peculiar temper was required by our Saviour in order to the embracing of his Doctrine A Spirit of Honesty and Sincerity of Humility and Teachableness love of the Truth willingness to learn patience of Reproof and the like without which Dispositions the common prejudices against Christianity would certainly hinder the efficacy of those Arguments and Motives by which it was recommended And therefore since God did not intend by an irresistible act upon the minds of Men to over-rule them into a compliance with the Gospel it was not to be expected but that it should be first of all greatly opposed as it was and afterwards insincerely handled as it hath been And this although the Doctrine of the Gospel is peculiarly furnished with means to infuse a wise and honest disposition into them that want it For those means are consistent with the liberty of Humane Nature and after all men may be the worse and not the better for them Nothing could in its own Nature be more fit to awaken Men to Consideration and to lead them to Honesty and Wisdom and to conquer all worldly and carnal prejudices than the promise of Eternal Life and the warning of a day of Judgment to come It is in this that the great power of the Gospel to mend the tempers of Men consists But when all is done in this kind that can be done Men may choose their Portion in this World because they will not hearken and consider And it well became Divine Providence
to permit those to resist the Holy Spirit and the means of Salvation who would not be reclaimed by any reasonable means and that for these three Reasons 1. That there might be a clear difference made between the good and honest heart on the one side and the insincere and incourigible on the other Which had been impossible if God had by his Omnipotence equally overborn all men into the Faith and Obedience of Christ But as the case stands the Gospel is a Touch-stone that distinguisheth between the Humble and Sincere and the Unteachable and Dishonest part of Mankind And the Offences which are given by those that do not receive the Truth in the love of it are a farther trial of the sincerity and ingenuity of men as St. Paul said of one kind of Offences There must be Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest And therefore notwithstanding Offences that remains true which our Saviour said All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 i. e. All sincere and humble persons who are committed to the special care of Christ to train them up to eternal Life will be sufficiently armed against Temptations and the Offences that are laid in their way shall but clear their sincerity and wisdom more to the World and turn to the encrease of their reward 2. As the sincerity of the Righteous so neither had the proper advantages and power of Truth been seen had God interposed his irresistible power to prevent all Offences and Endeavours against the Truth And therefore he was pleased to suffer Errour and Folly to appear upon the stage of the World even after the heavenly Wisdom of the Gospel was made known to Mankind that by its own strength it might struggle with all kind of opposition and prevail and be justified of her Children 3. By this way the Wisdom of Divine Providence and the truth of God's word and his care over the Church is seen more illustriously than if Offences had never been suffered That Promise that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against the Church of Christ nor the Faith lost from the Earth had lain in the Gospel unobserved we should have had no occasion for recourse to it no means of tryal whether we put our trust in it had the Truth been never opposed never corrupted we had wanted one notable reason to praise God that while the Offences are so rife in this World this Church gives no Offence in matter of Doctrine or in matter of Worship and that God may count us worthy to enjoy so inestimable a Blessing let us pray that we may give no Offence by our Examples let us adorn our Profession by our Conversations and shew the Purity of our Faith by the Purity of our Actions Thus much for the necessity of Offences that thus would arise It must needs be that Offences come The Third Sermon MATTH XVIII 7. Wo unto the World because of Offences for it must needs be that Offences come But wo to that man by whom the Offence cometh I Come now to the second point viz. That Offences would do great mischief in the World. Wo unto the World because of Offences In speaking to which I shall consider I. What mischief is done by Offences II. Whence it comes that they are of so pernicious a Consequence 1. What mischief is done by them And in this Question I need not be large because the Answer to it has in some part been already given under those several heads of Scandal which I mentioned before it being impossible to shew where the Scandal of any Practice or Opinion lies without touching upon the mischief it is apt to do But to what has been said something may be added 1. The general mischief of Offences or Scandals is this That they are a prevailing Temptation upon many in the World to forsake the way of Truth and Piety For as good Examples and Encouragements good Counsels and Instructions are proper means of making others better so ill Examples and the Arts of Seducing must needs have a contrary influence God has put us into a kind of dependance upon one another and has thereby given us Opportunities of the greatest Charity and the best kinds of doing good viz. of leading and confirming one another in the way of Truth and Vertue But there is no help for it but the Society we have with one another may be abused into a means of doing one another mischief And therefore as where Truth is sincerely represented where Vertue is encouraged where Authority protects them where Wit and Learning are engaged to recommend them there abundance of good will be done upon those who are framed to learn and not to teach to follow but not to lead the way So on the other hand it is not to be expected but the abuse of all those Advantages will create Prejudices against Truth and Goodness and mislead multitudes And this is too evident from the Experience of the World in all Ages No Opinions how foolish and absurd soever how pernicious soever to the common Interest of Mankind if they have been set off with plausible Colours or supported by Authority or have been accommodated to the Interests of wicked Men but they have had Abettors and Followers and have very often taken such deep Root in the Affections of Men that 't is one of the hardest things in the World to convert them into the way of Truth But more particularly in the second place 2. The scandal of advancing Doctrines that give liberty to the Lusts of Men and ease to their Minds without effectual Reformation This Scandal I say has this pernicious effect that for the most part it fears the Consciences of Men and hardens their Hearts against all Reproof Although it be a terrible aggravation of Sin for a Man to venture upon the doing of that which his Conscience pulls him back from and for which he knows he must give a sad account at the last day if it be not prevented by Sorrow and Reformation yet such a Man is in a better condition than one that is well satisfied with himself and believes his condition to be good enough while he goes on in his sins without Reformation because he has another way to escape the damnation of Hell. For so long as a Man believes the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel as they are and knows the Terms upon which they are made it may be hoped that he will at length lay these things seriously to Heart and that some awakening Reproof from Men or some merciful Providence of God may make the Truth which he is already provided with the belief of effectual to his Conversion But there is little Reason to hope this of a Man whose very Principles are corrupted and has no fears within himself for a charitable Man to take hold upon And therefore that saying
reasonable so it is a safe Rule upon this account that if it be followed it will secure us from the greatest Offences as those Opinions and Practices are which are evidently contrary to God's Word 2. Let us keep close to the Ancient Creeds which our Church faithfully delivers for no Man has yet been so bold as to offer the least doubt against that nay all that we are challenged for is that we do not receive those additions to the Creed which in comparison were but of Yesterday These Ancient Forms of confessing the Faith shew what Articles of meer Belief were thought by the Primitive Church necessary to be known and held by all And because the Faith was at once delivered to the Saints no more can be necessary now than was then Now if we observe that the Profession of this Faith is sufficient to make a Christian or a Member of the Church we shall be the better guarded against all erroneous Doctrines which are propounded to us by any Party under the Notion of Necessary Truths For whilst we are sure we profess all that was thought necessary at first we shall be at ease and feel no disturbance in examining what is moreover propounded and determining to receive it if it has Authority from the Scriptures and to reject it if it has none much more if it be contrary thereunto Which Rule I hope you perceive is to take place in judging what you are to believe not in judging whatsoever is to be done for even in the Worship of God there are several things of an indifferent Nature for which there is no particular Precept in the Scripture and in which we may be and ought to be concluded by the Custom of our Church and the Will of our Superiours And he cannot miscarry greatly but is in great measure secured from the mischief of Offences who in matters of Faith will be determined by nothing less than Divine Authority and who in matters of external Order which are no way determined by the Authority of the Scriptures is still ready to be concluded by the Authority of Man. But then 3. Let us keep our selves always in the proper disposition and preparation to judge and conclude aright for our selves i. e. by Sincerity which consists chiefly in a vehement desire to understand the Truth and to do our Duty We must lay our Hands upon this that we will be honest and good and then we shall use all good Rules well to be sure we shall not be a whit the more inclined to embrace Doctrines for our Belief or Practice because they make for our worldly and carnal Interests And this goes a great way to enable men to distinguish between Truth and Error Good and Evil. Offences from without would not stumble us if we were not weakned and blinded by the Offence of a vitious disposition within our selves And therefore our Saviour having given warning against the former in the words of the Text doth in the very next words proceed to direct us how to secure our selves against them and that by preventing the latter Wherefore says he if thy right hand or foot offend thee cut them off And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee That is subdue thy dearest Lusts and if there be any one that is harder to part with than the rest and is grown a part of thy self though it cost thee as much pain to divide thy self from it as it would to cut off thine hand or pull out thine eye for that very reason do thou mortifie it in the first place For when the World will be full of Offences i. e. encouragements to Sin and of deceitful Errors if thou also art an Offence to thy self for want of a sincere and honest heart and purifying thy mind from worldly and carnal Lusts thou wilt not be able to withstand the Arts and Force of outward Temptations Now the way to gain this Honest Mind is to fix our thoughts steadfastly upon the Life to come which is the means our Saviour directs to the use of in this place too And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than to be cast into Hell-fire Lastly Let all our other care be begun continued and ended in earnest Prayer to God that he would enlighten the eyes of our minds and purifie our intentions and lead us in the right way and keep us in it by his Grace For the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much for another but much more for himself and most of all when he asketh the best things when he asketh those things that please God best a Mind purified from worldly Lusts and an Understanding enlightned with the knowledge of the Truth He that doth these things shall never fall The Fourth Sermon MATTH XXVI 41. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak IN these words are contained an Exhortation to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation and a Reason upon which the Exhortation is made The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak In the Exhortation we may observe a Direction to the use of means watch and pray and then the end why we should do so That we enter not into temptation As to the means watching and praying the use of them both supposes a great concern for the event For if I am not only to be careful my self but to get all the help I can nay if I am to go to the God of Heaven and Earth for his help and to seek it constantly to be sure as the end I aim at ought not to be in it self trivial so neither ought I to be trivially affected with it A great concern for the end is supposed in the use of such means as Watchfulness and Prayer But more particularly as to watching That signifies such a care of our selves as supposes danger and that was the case of the Disciples to whom the Exhortation was immediately given Our Saviour was now preparing them for his approaching Passion he would therefore have them consider before-hand what a terrible Temptation it would be to see their own Master forsaken and contemned and almost every body ashamed or afraid to own him he would have them reflect upon their own Infirmities and examine their own Hearts and to consider whether they were likely to hold out against such a Temptation as was coming upon them He would have them furnish their minds with all the Powers of Faith with all the Reasons of Constancy which they might infer from the Holy Doctrine he had taught them they were now to consider the value of their Souls the vanity of the World the promise of Everlasting Life and what-ever they had learnt from Jesus which was proper to confirm them in that good mind they were in at present he would have them to
that defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man i. e. doth not by any means affect his Soul or his Conscience for in this respect he is neither better for washing nor worse for letting it alone and to think otherwise is a Superstition hurtful to your selves and dishonourable to God and of very bad consequence though it be not so impudent and notorious an abuse as the making void of God's Law by the other leud Tradition that I mentioned before It is to this purpose that we are to understand the method and design of our Saviour's Discourse in this place in answer to the Objection of the Pharises brought against the Disciples From which answer there are some things to be gathered well worth our observation 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition that it is contrary to the Commandment of God. 2. That if there be one Traditionary Doctrine that notoriously contradicts the Law of God that one instance is sufficient to overturn the credit of that Tradition which pretends to deliver unwritten Doctrines of equal Authority with those that are written 3. That the universal consent of some one Age or more that such and such Doctrines were delivered by word of mouth many Ages before is no argument that they were so delivered 4. That we have a great reason to stick to the word of God delivered to us in the Scriptures and to examine all Doctrines and Rules which are said to be necessary to Salvation by that Rule and to reject the Authority of unwritten Traditions 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition that it is contrary to the Commandment of God For if when Tradition is pretended for any Doctrine or Practice it be not enough to shew that the same Doctrine or Practice is inconsistent with what is plainly required in the Scriptures which are acknowledged by all to contain the word of God I say if this be not enough then our Saviour used an insufficient Argument against the pretended Tradition of not suffering the Son that was under a Vow of the contrary to relieve his Father or Mother that it made void the Commandment of God. But doubtless our Saviour was so far from using a bad Argument that he used the best and most convincing of all And truly if we did not in this case consider our Saviour's Authority yet it must be a monstrous prejudice that keeps any Man from discerning the strength of this Argument against the Authority of any unwritten Doctrine that it is contrary to what is written for nothing is more certain than that Contradictions cannot be true and yet they must be true if that Doctrine for which unwritten Tradition is pretended can be of God though it contradicts the written Tradition which is by all acknowledged to be Divine But as plain as this argument is yet it is very well for us that we find our blessed Saviour giving such Authority to it because there are Christians in the World bearing up themselves upon the Tradition of the Church that are loth to admit this Argument which we have no cause to be amazed at because it is an utter Confutation of all their pretences We charge them with having brought into the Church new Articles of Faith and new Doctrines of Worship which are not only very different from what was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles but some of them contrary thereunto as we can shew them out of the Scriptures But this way of proceeding doth by no means content them and they insist upon it that the Cause may be tryed otherwise For say they You acknowledge that our Church was once a pure Church and taught the Gospel sincerely but if as you say she departed from the pure Faith and Worship which the Apostles left it is impossible but this must have been very notorious because it could not have been done without opposition and resistance from some that must needs observe it Tell us therefore when were these new and false Doctrines introduced Who were the Men that brought them in Who were the first that made the discovery What Council condemned them after they were discovered For if none of these things can be shewn it is absurd to think that any such alteration should have been as you say Which reasoning amounts to thus much that it is impossible we can be sure that in the compass of a thousand Years there was a great alteration happened in the state of Religion unless withal we can tell how it came about and just when it came about the precise time and the punctual manner and circumstances thereof which is just as if a Man almost desperately sick of a Disease that had been for some Years growing upon him should prove to his Friend that he is as well as ever he was in his Life for says he You know I was well once and if I am now so ill as you say pray shew me the time when this Disease first happened the manner how and what Physitians were called about me which kind of arguing would certainly prove no more than that the Disease had taken his head When the Servants came and told their Lord that the tares came up with the wheat it was excusable in them to say We sowed good seed whence hath it these tares But when their Master told them An enemy hath done this if they had disputed and told him It was impossible there should be any Tares at all because he could not tell punctually that very Night when they were sown and who the Persons were that took the malicious pains to sow them then they had been very inexcusable thus to renounce their own certain knowledge for the sake of a vain Speculation Now we are very sure that the Apostles did at first sow nothing in the Church but good and true Doctrine Our Fathers that lived about fourteen hundred Years after found quite another sort of Doctrine gotten into the Church and some of them contrary to what the Apostles taught as the Scriptures manifestly shew and yet there have been a long time and still there are certain Disputers that go about to stagger others with such like questions as we have been speaking of and teach them to defie all reasoning out of the Scriptures till these questions are satisfied What Age What Year of our Lord were these Errors brought into the Church Who were they that brought them in and who first complained of them Now although a very reasonable account both may be and hath been given of the Persons the Time and the Manner and the Degrees by which such Corruptions got into the Church yet it is very unreasonable to expect that every Christian should be able to answer these Questions punctually because it requires more Labour and Reading than generally they have either leisure or ability to go through with but withal it is very needless because
been so which is notoriously false And whereas it is said that almost all Heresies have come of Mis-interpreting Scripture this doth not prove that Christian People must not read the Scriptures for it cannot be denied that those Heresies which have given any considerable disturbance to the Church of God were begun not by Laicks or illiterate Persons but by such men as the objectors do allow to have a right of reading and studying the Scriptures i. e. by Bishops or Priests Wherefore In the last place The Arguing of these men against the common use of the Bible concludes against the Priest as strongly as against the People For if to prevent Heresie the Scriptures are to be kept from Lay men who may bring Heresie into the Church by Misinterpreting the Scriptures then for the same reason men in Orders should not be suffered to read them since they have actually been the founders of Heresie Nay the reason is something stronger since the wresting of the Holy Text by men of Office or Learning will be of greater Authority and do more mischief than the mistakes of private and unlearned Persons But if the danger of perverting difficult places be a good reason to deprive men of all use of the Bible this reason hath a particular force upon some men that they should never look upon a Bible more For the best way to Judge how the Scriptures are likely to be used by any sort of men is to consider how they have constantly used them heretofore and let any indifferent man judge of them by these following instances Because God said Let us make man after our own Image therefore it is lawful to fall down before an Image of Wood or Stone Because Christ said to Peter Feed my sheep Therefore his pretended Successors have power to depose Heretical Princes Because Peter said to Christ Lord here are two Swords therefore they have a Temporal as well as a Spiritual jurisdiction Because Jacob in Blessing Ephraim and Manasses prayed that his Name might be Named on them Therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints Because it is said the Disciples met together to break Bread therefore the Laity may be deprived of the Cup. Because St. Paul saith of him that prayeth in a Tongue not understood by others Thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified therefore it is in it self good to appoint publick Prayers in a Language unknown to the People that is Because he that understands what himself says doth well for himself because he understands therefore he doth well for others that understand not a word and are therefore not edified Because the Apostle saith we must Glorifie God with one mouth therefore in all publick Offices of Liturgy there is to be but one and that the Latin Tongue in all places of Christendome Because that many Languages at Babel caused confusion therefore for God to be served in the many Vulgar Tongues of Christian Nations would breed Schisms in the Church Because the Beast that touched the Mountain was to die and because Christ said Give not that which is Holy to Dogs therefore ordinary People are not to have the Bible These expositions are not invented but there are good Authorities for them and for a great many more of the like sort I know not what can farther be objected but this That if Priests and Learned men have been so foully mistaken in the Interpretation of Scripture how much more are the Unlearned in danger of falling into mistakes which though perhaps will never come to be Heresies in the Church may yet prove damnable to themselves as St. Peter plainly saith To which I answer That St. Peter's Vnlearned Men were such as had not yet attained to the knowledg of the necessary Doctrine of Faith and good Life as appears by his calling them unstable not yet fixt in a persuasion of the plain truths and great ends of the Gospel and such as those whether they were men of good parts or not were likely enough to Interpret the hard places of St. Paul's Epistles to a sense conttary to the plain and open truths of the Gospel But if a man be instructed in the necessary and plain Doctrine of Christianity and moreover furnished with Modesty and a sincere Love of the Truth and willingness to learn qualities that ought to be common to all he shall be as far from wresting the difficult Scriptures to his own destruction as one that hath vastly greater abilities Nay I will add one thing which if it be true there is no force at all in the objection and that is this That the service of a Cause and espousing the Interest of a by-Party doth more fatally lead to Misinterpretation of the Scripture than bare weakness of understanding and there is this plain reason for it because Modesty and Love of the truth will secure a man of no great abilities from rash concluding upon the difficult Places of Scripture but Partiality and the service of a by cause shall engage a man of parts and learning to trouble the clearest and to pervert the plainest Texts as the forementioned instances evidently shew So that either the danger of Misinterpreting Scripture is no sufficient reason to prohibit the Laity from reading it or else it were better that no Order of Men were trusted with it at all and if that be true I think it will follow that it had better never have been written at all which no man will say whatever he thinks But to speak to the thing the Scriptures were written for an universal good and in order thereunto for common use Here are all Divine truths and reasons of Christian Faith and Practice that are necessary to be known of every man plainly exprest for the use of the meanest Capacities Here are also difficulties and mysteries of several sizes fit to imploy the Industry of the Learned according to the several degrees of their abilities and to exercise the Modesty the Humility and the Reverence of all But still we confess that they may be perverted and abused and if this be a sufficient reason to Interdict the general use of them then farewel at once to all the Comforts of this Life and to all the means of grace in order to a better with every one of which men in their folly and wickedness may and very often have hurt themselves and others St. Peter was aware of this that some men wrested those hard things in St. Paul's Epistles and in other Scriptures to their own destruction but did he therefore dissuade the Faithful from reading them No but in 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
compares the Body of Christ The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you v. 21. Now it being the Apostle's design in this Chapter to press the Christians to Charity and Unity and mutual serviceableness one to another as Members of the same Body he assures them in the Words of the Text which I have chosen That they were indeed Members of one Body and he tells them what it was that made them so For by one spirit says he we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles and have been made to drink into one spirit That is by being Baptized they were made Members of the Body of Christ and united one to another under him the Head and this whether they were Jews or Gentiles bond or free i. e. whatever worldly circumstances made any distinction between them yet all they were one in Christ who professed his Faith and were by Baptism admitted into his Church And this Union of one to another under Christ was testified and declared by their Communion in the Table of the Lord. And whereas he says that by one Spirit they were baptized into this one Body and were all made to drink into one Spirit the meaning is that the Grace of the Holy Spirit was given in Baptism and in the Lords Supper to all the Faithful who do not receive unprofitable signs but one as well as another receives the quickning Grace of God to make them living Members of that one Body So that although there was a diversity and an equality in the Spiritual Gifts that were distributed among the Faithful in those dayes yet they were all equally Members of the same Body of Christ in as much as they were all Baptized into his Body and were all equally Partakers of his Table And thus I have explained the meaning of the Text with the relation it hath to the design of the Apostle in this Chapter That which remains is to speak to the particular design of the Text which is to shew that Christians are one Body or Society of Men and wherein the Vnity of the Church consists and what our part is to maintain it and how we may in this divided state of Christianity be satisfied that we are within that Unity Before I enter upon which I may well make two observations upon the Text in behalf of the Doctrine and Practice of this our Church of England 1. That St. Paul thought the observation of the two institutions of our Saviour viz. Baptism and the Communion of the Holy Table was a sufficient proof that believers were one Body And we have reason to believe that if he had known there were other Sacraments or outward badges of Christian profession instituted by Christ for the Church which is his Body he would not have omitted the mention of them here where he proves the Unity of the Church by Baptism and Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ We know that the Evangelists mention no other outward signs and visible tokens of our profession and God's Grace but Baptism and the Lord's Supper And it is something to our purpose that St. Paul owns no more than these where he industriously proves that Christians are one Body by these 2. I observe that the Communion of the Lords Table is described by drinking into one Spirit i. e. by one part of the Sacrament as sometimes it is by the other of breaking of bread But then nothing can be more plain from such expressions than that one part or kind is as necessary as the other because sometimes one sometims the other is put for both which had been against all rules of speaking if it had been allowable to separate the one from the other But as to that of Drinking the Cup it is most evident that it belonged to all for says St. Paul We have all been made to drink into one Spirit All who All the Priests of the Christian Church only No all that belong to the Body of Christ whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free But now if St Paul had known that it was not necessary for the Christian People to drink of the Cup in the Communion but that it was sufficient for them to have received the Bread only Can we think that he would have described their receiving the Sacrament by receiving a part of it which did not necessarily belong to them and not rather by that which did I do not make this observation to prove only that the People did at first universally receive the Cup for that is not denied by any but by those who have disputed themselves out of all Modesty and even these may be convinced beyond all doubt by this very place that all the Faithful in St. Paul's days received the Cup for otherwise how could he with truth have said that they had been all made to drink into one Spirit But that which I chiefly observe is this That though the Faithful did in those days drink as well as eat at the Lord's Table yet if the Apostle had known and surely he knew it if it was true that however it was the practice then yet it might without injury be altered in after times he would not have used an argument to satisfie the Faithful of his time that they all belonged to the Body of Christ which might afterwards be quite out of doors viz. when the Church should please to alter the Institution of our Saviour in this matter but he would rather have insisted upon receiving in that kind which could not be justly taken away from them and have said that all had been Baptized into the Body of Christ or made Members of his Church by Baptism and all that are of his Body may claim to eat of that one Bread. This by the bye I now address my self to the main business I propounded which is to state the notion of the Vnity of the Church to shâ—w what is meant by it and to make some Inferences from it for our farther instruction And in the first place it is evident that St. Paul here speaks not of any one particular Church but of the Society of all Christians whatsoever that are Baptized and have a right to the Holy Communion whether they be Jews or Gentiles And it is concerning the Unity of this Church that we are to enquire or what that is which makes it one Body as the Apostle here calls it To which purpose we are to consider distinctly what are the several grounds or notions of Unity which are laid down in the New Testament or what those things are that belong in common to all Christians as their Duty or their Priviledg and in respect of their joint performance of the former of which and their enjoyment of the latter they may be said to be One. 1. Therefore all Christians do unite in their profession to submit to one Head who is our
these harangues is this That Christians are not United into one Body or Church in all respects but in some they are There is the Unity of one Lord and one Faith and one Baptism which makes them one Body But then alas they are not always one Body in respect of Unity and Affection and good will towards one another nor in respect of Unity of Communion in the Service of God or of Discipline and Government as they ought to be But now the profession of the same Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and Admission into the state of Christian Duties and Priviledges by Baptism is that which makes a Christian and which Unites all Christian Societies into one Body They indeed who are defective in this are no Christians and they who come thus far are so because we are all Baptized into one Body But then we grant there ought to be a farther Unity and in particular an Unity of Communion for the uniting of the Members of this Body more strictly to one another But though there be not Unity of Communion they do not therefore cease to be Members of one Body but all that can be truly said is that some of the Members are contentious and either give just cause of offence or take offence when none is given which is indeed contrary to the duty of the Members of the Church but not utterly inconsistent with their being Members of it And for this we have the Authority of St. Paul in the two verses next but one to the Text. If the foot shall say Because I am not the hand I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body That is if the Members of the Body of Christ do contrary to their duty in some respect it doth not follow presently that they are no longer parts of the Church and if one Church will have no Communion with another but upon most unjust and unreasonable Terms it is very certain that Unity of Communion is not likely to last between them But so long as there is an Unity of Faith i. e. a consent in professing the necessary Articles of Chistianity they are yet one Body though one part of it doth not perform the duty incumbent on it as it is a part of the Church but will perhaps be the whole or nothing and is not content to profess the first Faith but moreover adds new Doctrines thereto contrary to the Scriptures and would impose them upon the rest of the Christian World. We may therefore in respect of Faith and Baptism grant That Church which would be all in all to be within the Unity of the Catholick Church though we are not in Communion with it but then in respect of Unity of Affection and Charity and Unity of Communion in the Service of God and in opposing all dangerous errors and Unity of Government in these respects I say she is not within the Unity of the Body in as much as she doth contrary to her Duty in all these respects So that though the Church be one in respect of Baptism and the principal Articles of Christianity yet because it is not one in other respects I am by no means startled at that charge You and we are two Churches because we are of opposite Communions and therefore if you grant us to be a True Church you must conclude your self not to be so For I have this to answer That Faith which you profess with us That Baptism which you administer and receive with us is that which makes you to be of the Church and thus far you are one with us 'T is true indeed there ought to be Unity in maintaining Communion in all Christian Offices and to that end no false Doctrines are to be added to the profession of the Faith nor any unlawful practices to be brought into Gods worship but this is that which we cannot help though you can and by such things as these you have departed from the Unity that ought to be in the Church but we have not To make which answer more plain let it be remembred That one instance of that Unity which ought to be in the Church is keeping all the Commandments of God. Now all unholy Persons professing Christianity do depart from this Unity yet inasmuch as they are Baptized and profess the Creed we own that they are visible parts of the Church But now because they are so if they should charge all those that take not the same liberties they do with being out of the Church because the Church is one Body and they are granted to be of it I think nothing could be more ridiculous and it is little better that they say who under the Protection of this Principle That the Church is but One would exclude all from being Parts of the Church who do not run into the same enormities about Doctrine Worship and Government with themselves In a Word the Church is one in respect of the Common Faith which is professed every where amongst Christians and it ought to be one but is not in respect of Purity of Profession and of Worship and Government But it doth not from hence follow that they who are in the right must go over to those that are in the wrong in order to being a part of the Church for that they are already but they that are in the wrong should learn to do their duty better that they may become a purer part of the Church which yet they are not 2. We are born in hand also That where there is most Unity there must of necessity be the True Church and this because there is but One Body Concerning which I say That if by Unity be meant Agreement in all points of any great consequence they that advance this Principle have advanced it against themselves for it must be a very uncomfortable one to those that in many matters differ notoriously amongst themselves But 1. The Principle it self is false for there may be Unity in Error as well as in Truth and there hath been so The False Prophets in Elias his Time were at Unity so were the Scribes and Pharisees that consented to our Saviour's Death no nor is Satan divided against himself It is not merely Unity that is a mark of a True Church unless it be Unity in the True Faith nor is Unity the mark of a Pure Church unless it be upon Terms of Obedience to God of Charity to one another of keeping the Faith unmixed with Errors and Innovations and the Worship of God free from material defects and forbidden Practices Unity in Error and Sin is to be broken Unity only in Faith and Goodness is to be preserved 2. It is possible that where there are discords there may be yet more truth professed than where there are none and that for the former reason Because there may be Unity in the worst Errors Besides the Common Faith that is professed by all Christians one part of the Church may
maintain the Purity of that Profession against another that hath superadded New and False Doctrines to it and yet the Reformed part may labour under discords that affect their very Communion while the other doth not There may be on the one side disobedience to Authority overvaluing of questions of no great moment a greater stress laid upon Opinions or Practices than the Cause will bear and this shall be sufficient to break Christian Communion and at the same time whilst gross Errors are maintained on the other side with one consent the differences that happen by the bye may be so over-ruled by Authority by Force and Power and by the sensible Interests of this World that how wide so ever they are they shall not yet rend Communion But in such a case it were the fondest thing in the World to chuse a Doctrine by the mark of Unity among those that profess it Therefore in this divided State of Christendom it is easie to see what Christians are to do to preserve the Unity of the Body of Christ as much as in them lies and to be sure that they are within the Unity of the Church in all respects 1. I need not say that they are to stand fast in the Faith which was first delivered to the Saints in the Common Faith of Christians for without this they could not so much as continue in that Body into which they were Baptized only I may add That they are to lay it up in their hearts and to value it as the greatest Treasure and to proclaim their esteem of it and to acknowledg all that profess it to be of the same Body with them This being that Faith which Christ came down from Heaven to establish in the World and which he sent the Holy Ghost to inspire his Apostles withal to reveal it to us and to confirm it for us by the Writings and by the Miracles of inspired Persons 'T is by this Faith and this Profession therefore which includes Baptism that they are Christians who will not allow us to be of the Church 2. Let them keep themselves from entertaining any corrupt or false Doctrines not only any that are contrary to the Scriptures but any as necessary to Salvation which are not to be proved by the Scriptures for thus they will be sure to keep themselves from any dangerous errors and continue not only true but pure believers and they sure are not the less but the more in the Unity of the Church who receive nothing as necessary to be beleived in order to Salvation but what by the undoubted Records of our Christian Faith appears to have been taught by Christ and his Apostles 3. Let every private Christian be most careful to observe the Commands of our Lord Jesus in the Government of all his Affections and all his Actions for Unity in this thing ought to be amongst all Christians since without obedience no man how qualified soever he may be in the Church upon other accounts shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not every one that saith Lord Lord Without this it is not the being of the one Church it is not the professing of the One Faith no nor the being of a pure Profession and a pure Communion that will unite us really and effectually to our Lord Jesus the Head of the Church but we shall be cut off from him as Branches that bring forth no fruit 4. Let him maintain an Universal Charity to all Christians Good will to those that are misled and seduced in endeavouring to reduce them as he hath opportunity in Praying for them readiness to be beneficial to all his Brethren to forgive injuries and to overcome evil with good compassion to the miserable pleasure in that which is for the particular good of any one of his brethren and much more in what is for the general good of all Thus he shall preserve himself in the other Unity which is the Duty of the Church the Unity of Charity and Good will. 5. Let him live in strict Communion with the particular Church whereof he is a Member in subjection to the Authority of it in observing the Rules of it for the guidance of Religious Assemblies for the ordering of all things that fall under human Authority i.e. the Authority of the Lawful Guides of the Church in order to the Edification and well Governing of it Thus he shall maintain an Unity of Communion with his Brethren and his Guides and so in effect with the whole Christian Church where the Parts of it do as they ought to do and most undoubtedly we are not to be united to any of them in things wherein they do as they ought not The Sum of this Advice is easie to be understood and to a good man as easie to be practised There is no need for him to trouble his own mind with nice and intricate Questions about Unity because he will maintain his part in order to the Unity of the Church by doing his plain Duty by sticking to the Faith which is professed by all Christians the Faith into which we were Baptized by rejecting whatsoever is contrary to the Scriptures and making them the Rule of his Religious Persuasions which all Christians ought to do by observing the Rules of the Gospel for the Government of his Life and Actions in which yet undoubtedly all Churches and every Member of every Church ought to conspire though this part of Unity is hardly remembred when men talk of the Church by bearing Christian Affection towards all that name the name of Christ whereby he performs the duty of Unity towards them which whether they do or not they ought to perform too Finally By frequenting the Service of God in Publick Prayers and Exhortations in the Administration of Sacraments according to the Order of the Church whereof in particular the Grace and Providence of God hath made him a Member and which observes the Institutions of our Lord Jesus in all the Publick Offices of Religion For thus he performs his part of Unity towards the whole Church with respect to Communion nor is he nor can be to blame if others will not be perswaded to it It is a fond thing to think of seeking a True Church that is the only Church in opposition to all others or to be scandalized at the divided State of the Church which we cannot help and under a pretence of seeking for Unity to mind nothing else We are to preserve our selves in the Unity of the Church by professing true Doctrine and by leading good lives by a Charitable Spirit and Behaviour towards all Christians by frequenting Prayers and Sacraments and submitting to the Authority of our Lawful Guides in all things of Indifference and Prudence and then we may be sure that whatever others do we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace And though after all the Church is not that One Body which it would be if all men did their Duty yet
all such cases the temptations to unbelief and apostacy are very great and likely to prevail upon many of those that believe so that this is the meaning That in such a wicked Age as calls for the coming of the Son of man the open enemies of God which are the greater number will be void of all regard whatsoever to his word and to his Providence or if they take any notice of it it is that of the Scoffers mentioned by St. Peter who will say Where is the promise of his coming Many of his professed Servants will be weary of depending upon him and give way to Temptations and depend more upon the arm of Flesh than upon the promise of God and the Faith of many good men will be very much weakned and abated so that when he cometh he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And thus I persuade my self to have given you a true illustration of these remarkable Words of our Blessed Saviour and that upon the two significations of the Son of man's Coming which seem to be both intended in this Text and indeed it is very hard to know which was principally intended the Day of the General Judgment or the Destruction of Jerusalem The Day of General Judgment is in it self the principal meaning of Christ's Coming and therefore ought not to be excluded but yet the Parable with the Application of it being manifestly intended to stir up that Generation to pray to God and not to faint and to give a firm Faith to the Promises of God notwithstanding the great troubles they were like to meet with from the unbelieving Jews therefore neither could the Coming of the Son of man to be avenged of these his enemies and to deliver his Servants be excluded but was as directly intended as the other And now I proceed to observe the two main Points which the Text supposes besides those which it affirms and the considering of them will not a little contribute to a more perfect understanding of this Place 1. It is supposed manifestly that after the first Coming of Christ to call the World to Repentance and to be offered up for our sins there would yet be degenerate Ages sometimes and a most corrupt state of things before his Second Personal Coming to Judg the World. 2. It is also supposed that his Providence would then appear to set all things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church 1. That his first coming would not infallibly prevent the degeneracy and corruption of future Ages For notwithstanding that evidence of Truth which he taught many false Prophets would arise and deceive many and notwithstanding the Power of his Doctrine iniquity would abound and the love of many would wax cold and notwithstanding both these advantages yet his own servants would sometimes be reduced to that state that it should be needful to them to cry unto God day and night which is a matter that may cause some wonder if we do not consider the reason of it That the Principles and Manners of men were so often and so generally corrupted before the Coming of the Son of God into the World is that which might not appear strange at all to those that consider the weakness and folly of mankind That after the Creation the Earth should so abound with Luxury and Violence that God swept all mankind away with the Flood but Eight Persons That after Noah's Family had peopled the Earth again men should fall into Idolatry so universally that God called Abraham out of his own Countrey and entred into a particular Covenant with him for the maintaining of the true Worship in his Family and Posterity That Pharaoh should oppress the Israelites after his Country had been saved by them That the Israelites should fall to Worship other Gods after that the True God had wrought so many miraculous Deliverances for them That when not without much ado they were cured of Idolatry they should fall into scandalous ways of Hypocrisie and Immorality These and the like things perhaps are not so much to be wondred at because God had not as yet used the last means to instruct mankind and to oblige them to Piety and Virtue but that there should be Times as bad as the worst of those after Christ himself had appeared in the world to die for sinners and to bring the Doctrine of Salvation to mankind with the most convincing Evidence that could be desired and with the most powerful Motives that could be thought of that notwithanding all this Oppression Violence Fraud Hypocrisie Error Superstition Idolatry and scandalous Examples should for some Ages reign no less than before the Times of Christ and to that degree as to shake the Faith even of good men and if it were possible to deceive the very best of all this seems to be an amazing Consideration and tho the noble Examples of Christian Piety and Virtue that have appeared in the World and the affured expectation of a larger Progress that Christianity will make in the earth and of better effects that it will produce may answer the Objection yet that the World that the Church should be so bad under the last means is what may raise some Admiration But you are to consider That when our Lord first came into the world he came not to establish a Religion which should either by its Truth Convince or by its Power Reform Mankind whether they would or no but what was sufficient for both purposes if they would be wise and honest and suffer the concernments of Eternal Life to prevail with them above their worldly Interests and therefore there was as much reason to expect an Universal Reformation as to expect that men would not resist the evidence of Truth in matters of the greatest concern to them in the whole world but to bring them to this the Gospel was furnished with no irresistible means but left them under the natural liberty they had before with a provision of grace that might be resisted and therefore it was in it self likely that the Truth would be opposed by some and corrupted by others and by many held in unrighteousness that several to whom it was propounded would not believe it and several that believed it would not obey it and in time that it would be mixed with Errors and Superstitions and framed to the designs of Ambition and Covetousness nay the better and more Divine a Religion that of the Gospel is the more violently it would be opposed by some and the more certainly corrupted by others So that if we consider the Excellency of the Gospel with the Purpose of God not to overbear the World into the Faith and Obedience of it by forcing the natural Liberty of men it had rather been much more strange if it had escaped opposition and corruption than to have been both opposed and corrupted as it hath Thus our Blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles foretold that it
following Truth and Goodness and this we know will put us upon strugling with our own Judgment and straining points against our clear knowledge of what we ought to do All the while we are gaining his Favour we are sure we do well and when we have done it we shall thank our selves instead of being plagued with a fad and black remembrance of the way we took to get it Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace with him and so shall good come unto thy Soul. 5. There lies no Flattery nor false Accusation nor outward accident against us to put us out of God's Favour or to make us lose what we have wrought to turn his mind or to blot our services out of his remembrance No change of Fortune shall bring us into disgrace which consideration St. Paul laid great strength upon in pursuance of the Text. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword v. 35. I am persuaded says he that neither death norlife nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord v. 38. Nay says the Apostle in all these things we are more than Conquerors that is we get by being Condemned by others because by that we are made more dear to God who will consider not only that we served him but under what discouragements from the World we did so Lastly 6. Whom God justifies them he also glorifies For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren v. 29 30. i.e. Those whom he foreknew to be his most faithful servants he did before time decree that by suffering for righteousness they should follow so glorious a Pattern as their Elder Brother the Lord Jesus Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called i. e. he brought them to the profession of the truth in a hazardous time that they should shew their Integrity and whâ—m he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Which is so sure that the Apostle mentions it as if it were done already Then he proceeds in the following verses What shall we say to these things If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The conclusion is this That whoever Condemns we are not to be discouraged if God justiâ—ies But it may be said That all this is very true indeed but it serves the turn of all Parties even of those who are most severely Condemned by each other while each of them pretends to have God and Truth on their side And therefore that this Subject might have been more usefully pursued by shewing particularly what that Faith and that Practice is with which they must be qualified whom God justifies and how we are assured of it Now I considered all this at first but then I knew that I was to speak to persons who are neither ignorant of the Doctrine of this Church nor of the evidence whereby it appears to be the very Truth of Christianity by which whoever Governs himself in Worshipping God in behaving himself to others and in all his ways shall be assuredly Justified of God though all the World should Condemn him for it But I considered also that of all things which are apt to shake the constancy of modest Persons nothing is more likely to do it than the mighty confidence wherewith they of the Roman Church Condemn us and Exclaim against us For to those who are acquainted with the History of the World and of the Church it must needs be a surprize that men who are said to be Learned and known to be Zealous do pronounce against us with no less severity than if we were mere Infidels One would think there must be some deep reason for it when they make us nothing at all and themselves all in all For thus they will not allow that we are a Church or that we have any certainty so much as of that True Doctine we profess for they know us better than we do our selves and as for our Salvation they are as sure it belongs not to us till we are converted to them as if they kept the Keys of Heaven Nor do they sink us more than they raise themselves who are not only a Church but the whole Church and not only not deceived but even Infallible They talk as if there were no safety with us and no danger with them which may raise such doubts in weaker minds that I thought it not unseasonable to bring to your remembrance how violently the Apostles and their Christian Brethren were Condemned by men of whom yet these men will grant that they were justified of God. If it shall be said This is a common-place Argument of which all men serve themselves I Answer That the Argument is so much the stronger For if these men themselves will tell you that confidence is not to be trusted you will I hope make this application That neither is their confidence to be trusted and therefore that you ought to consider what they are before you believe them to be what they call themselves and examin what they teach before you think the worse of your selves for what they call you And this is all that we desire of you That you would weigh the reasons of things and not mind swelling words Brethren it is by no means a new Artifice to talk in a very high strain when Argument runs very low Thus Jews and Gentiles exclaimed against our Fathers the Apostles and the Primitive Believers condemning them for going against Antiquity Universality Authority Tradition Philosophers Law-makers Kings and Nations And yet when all was done all this was but empty noise and vain pretence and the Cause of Christianity was the Cause of God. Foul Errors have been drest with glorious appearances of Truth and Truth has been opposed with Confidence and God suffers it to be so to try the Sincerity of men that while they who are willing to be deluded fall by the Temptation men of Probity and lovers of Truth should upon diligent examination hold it faster than otherwise they would have done This is one of the great Advantages to which that opposition tends which Truth has met with in the World. And therefore the more lofty those pretences are by which the other Church would bring us to an intire
Authority and Infallibility of the Church much less to that Exploded refuge of Oral Tradition but the Controversie Ended And when all was done they were content to hope well of those of our Church who being sincere in their Enquiries and willing to be led by Truth whereever it was still continued to differ from them Instead of calling Vs Hereticks or Schismaticks or Thundring out Damnation against Vs as such a mutual Charity concluded the discourse We hoped and prayed for the Conviction of the Erring Party which ever it was but made no question but that the same Heaven might receive us All tho we should continue to disagree to the last But this was not the Temper of Mr. Gooden and the rest of the little Herd of that Church who gave so much Trouble and Disturbance to their own and the Nations repose and have contributed what in them lies by their Heat and Folly to ruine both themselves and us As for the Occasion of the present Conference it was this A Gentlewoman of a Goood Estate and intimately acquainted with divers R. Cs. was by a frequent Conversation with them wrought up by degrees into an Extraordinary Opinion of the advantages of a Recluse Life for the better performing the Exercises of Religion Insomuch that the desire she began to have for such a sort of retirement made her almost willing to leave our Church and go over to the Roman Communion but that she still look'd upon their Doctrine in those points wherein they differ from us to be False and Dangerous and to one so perswaded as she was Destructive of Salvation Being thus prepared for their Seduction they let slip no Opportunity to finish their work and gain their Proselyte For which purpose care was taken first by one of Her Acquaintance to represent to Her all the Popular Pretences of that Church by which many are Prejudiced in Favour of it and the Advantages it Had in point of Antiquity Unity Universality Infallibility and what not beyond Ours and them in the next place to get Father Gooden brought to Her as one that would give Her a fuller satisfaction in all these matters if she would but afford him the Opportunity of Discoursing with Her. And to the End his Arguments might make the deeper Impression upon Her it was thought fit to set forth the Priest to Her not in the Glorious Idea of the Great Master of Demonstration one who had devoured all Mr. I. Ss. Principles and was thereby become such a Mighty Man of Controversy that none of our Divines durst Cope with him He in whose hands the Dean of Pauls himself was nothing who had a certain Paper that in a few lines baffled all that could be said or written in favour of the Reformation which was a greater thing than the Representer's answering in a few sheets all the Books and Sermons that had ever been publish'd or preach'd against them But in the humble Character of a Countrey Priest a little inconsiderable man amongst them and his Dress was accommodated to hâ—s Character that so under this disguise he might talk with the greater Advantage to â—er But Mr. Gooden forgetting the person he had put on presently fell into his usual strain He began to talk of nothing but Infallibility Antiquity Demonstration That all the Fathers and Councils were on their side That he had baffled our most considerable Divines and particularly the Dean of Pauls who had in truth all of them so little to say for themselves when he came amongst them that he desired nothing more to convince her of the Truth of their Doctrines than that she would pitch upon some Point and bring one of our Men to meet him and she should see what work he would make with him Such a noise as this from one of the little inconsiderable Priests of the Church of Rome amazed the poor Lady and had he prudently contented himself with the Boast of the Victories he had already gain'd without aspiring after the Honour of adding one more for the increasing his Triumph he might possibly have saved himself from the shame of that discovery the following Conference made of his Abilities and have gain'd his Proselyte But as great Wits are too often a little inconsiderate and before they are aware run themselves into difficulties out of which they cannot tell afterwards how to extricate themselves so it fell out with Mr. Gooden on this Occasion For the Lady presently took hold on his Offer and applied her self to Dr. Clagett and the Time and Place and Subject being fix'd Mr. Gooden and the Doctor met accordingly at Grays-Inn Feb. 21. 1686. I shall say nothing of the Menage of the Conference its self but that it was with much Noise on Mr. Gooden's side who in Discourse let fall some very extraordinary things and which might have pass'd into the Abstract too had not another Person who was with him and seem'd much more modest and understanding than himself observed what pass'd and corrected his Blunders After the Dispute was ended which lasted about Four or Five Hours a new Discourse arose about the Paper which Mr. Gooden made such Boasts of about the Town and had so often represented to the Lady and others as unanswerable He was very unwilling a great while to let the Doctor have a Copy of it tho he promised to give him an Answer to it till at last it was declared That if he refused to let him have it the Company would look upon it as an idle Paper that had nothing in it and that therefore he durst not trust him with it Vpon this he gave him a Copy of it and the Doctor in pursuance of his Promise the next day sent him the following Answer to it For what concerns the Sum of the Conference here Published it was taken in Writing and signed by both Parties upon the place so that there can be no cause for any one to question the sincerity of it And tho the Abstract be very short yet I am perswaded it is enough to satisfie every impartial Reader why Mr. Gooden did not care to make any boasts of it And those who were present at the Meeting and heard all that pass'd between them as well as the Lady for whose sake they met were very well satisfied that he would not force them to publish the History of it But tho the Doctor was willing to let this matter die and shew'd himself as careful of Mr. Gooden's Reputation after the Conference as he was of the Ladies Conviction in it yet being now by the Providence of God removed from us I thought it a just debt to his Memory to subjoin here a true Copy of these Papers there being several of them abroad both to prevent an imperfect Edition from some other hand and least Mr. Gooden and his Friends who were so silent in his Life-time should take occasion to raise any false Reports of this Encounter if they thought they could not
not take me to be Infallible and yet I am confident he would be angry if I should say his Paper was not to be understood without an Infallible Interpreter let him answer this if he can The Reason he gives why Scripture sensed by a fallible Authority cannot be the Rule of Faith is because all such Interpretations may be false That is to say because there is a bare Possibility of any fallible man's mistaking the sense of plain Texts Which kind of Reasoning makes impossible that every man should come to be a Believer unless himself be first Infallible And this I shall Demonstrate so plainly that no man who has any share of Understanding and modesty shall be able to deny it There is no possible way for any sort of Christians to make known either the Articles or Reasons of Faith to those that are yet Ignorant of them but by words or sentences written or spoken He who hears or reads the words and Sentences cannot tell either what is to believe or why he should believe till he understands or in the Disputers Phrase till he Senses those words and Sentences but as yet his Authority is but fallible and words sensed by a Fallible Authority can never give a man certainty either of the Rule or of the Reason of his Faith If this Disputer be in the Right therefore 't is impossible to make him a Believer unless you can make him Infallible first that it may not be Possible for him to be mistaken in Sensing the words which he hears or reads And thus farewell to all Advantage that any man can have by the Infallibility of Popes and Councils or Oral Tradition as well as by the Scriptures Nay and to all Possible means of arriving to certainty in any matter of Faith unless every body be Infallible first so that upon supposition that God would have all men to be saved and therefore to believe it inavoidably follows from the wild Reasoning of this man that God has made every Man Infallible But if it be evident that men are fallible Creatures then this Disputer has Advanced a Principle the most destructive to all certainty of Faith that ever was heard of in the world But the comfort is that 't is so very absurd that no body well in his wits can be misled by it Pap. And therefore Faith cannot be obtain'd by any such means Ans Which is as much as to say that Faith cannot be obtain'd till a man have the gift of Infallibility And if every man has it before he can be taught to any purpose what need can there be of an Infallible Interpreter to teach him But as I observed before 't is impossible to make Believers of those that are not Infallible unless the Disputer or his Church has a way to make known the Doctrines and Reasons of Christian Faith without words Pap. For that which is doubtful can only create opinion which is also doubtful Ans Therefore since all words are doubtful to him that has but a fallible Authority to sense them as no man has more before he believes 't is impossible for the Disputers Church to create any thing more than opinion which is also doubtful in those whom she teaches unless as I have already said she can make them Infallible first and teach them afterwards And even then there would be no need of teaching them at all because they are now Infallible themselves Of all the Papers that ever I read I never met with any thing more absurd and contradictious than the Reasoning of this In which the Disputer out of a vehement desire to overthrow our Faith and the Grounds of it has laid down Principles that do effectually overthrow all ways of making men sure of any thing and in particular the use of those very methods by which his own Church pretends to lead men to Faith. Pap. And he that doubts in Faith the Apostle saith is Infidelis and a company of Doubters are not a Church of Faithful but a society of such as the Apostle calls Infidels Ans What Apostle says this if the Disputer refers to Rom. 14.23 as I think he does he has shewn his skill in the Interpretation of Scripture to be equal to his mastery in Reasoning If in the Infallible Church they can Interpret Scripture no better than thus give me the honesty and industry of a Fallible Church before it The Conclusion AND now after all this Paper is as absurd in the design as it is in the management for the business of it is to prove That Protestants have no Faith but are Infidels and that by this Argument they are and must be doubters Now whether I doubt or do not doubt is a Question concerning a matter of Fact that I have more reason to know the truth of than the Disputer can possibly have and if I know that I do not doubt and he can yet prove that I do doubt he is an extraordinary man indeed For then I am sure he can prove That Truth not onely may be but is false which perhaps such a man as he can Reconcile with what he said at first That truths are impossible to be false And this alone had been a sufficient Answer to his Paper for nothing can be more frivolous than to go about to prove to a man by fine Reasoning that he does doubt of a thing when he is as sure that he does not doubt of it as he can be of any thing in the World. But the design of this Paper seems to be as Impious as 't is Absurd And that is to bring weak Persons to Infidelity first that they may afterwards be setled upon Romish Grounds I do acknowledg 't is a very proper way to bring us over to the Church of Rome to make us Infidels first But this they will not find so easy a matter for we trust that we are not of those who draw back to Perdition but of those that believe to the saving the Soul. I have omitted nothing in the whole Paper but to take notice of that little and mean Reflection in calling the Protestant a Parliamentary Protestant I have told this Disputer the Reason and Ground of our Faith If we moreover are Protected in the Profession of it by the Laws of the Land I suppose 't is no more then what he would desire for the Profession of Popery and he would think never the worse of himself for being a Parliamentary Papist Thus I have Answered this Paper through every clause of it And I am confident destroy'd all that little Appearance of Reasoning that it made Let the Disputer build it up again if he can I promise him by God's Grace that I 'le pull it down again FINIS BOOKS Printed for and are to be Sold by William Rogers BIshop Wilkins's Fifteen Sermons 8º Dr. Tillotson's Sermons and Discourses The Third Volume 8º Dr. Wallis's two Sermons of Regeneration 4º His Defence of the Royal Society 4º Mr. Hodges