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A48836
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A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, on Decemb. 1, M.DC.LXVII, being the first Sunday in Advent by William Lloyd ...
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Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing L2702; ESTC R20395
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16,283
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37
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nay to invocate them more then God for God is not so often pray'd to as the Virgin Mary but that these blessed Creatures themselves as well as their deluded worshippers have been abused intolerably by the forgers of Miracles I shall instance but in one Doctrine more I might do it in many for there is hardly any one of their upstart Doctrines which has not been taught or promoted this way but this is the transcendent foppery of all the Doctrine of Transubstantiation A Miracle it self they call it in their Manual which teaches them to say thus at the Elevation Oh Miracle Oh the Goodness c. This is done by no Iugling but in the open sight of all the lookers on And what do the Lookers on Discern Do they see any visible change of the Elements no not the least shadow of alteration But what is it that they believe a Miracle Nay more than a Miracle flat Impossibility and Contradiction A subject to be without accidents and accidents without any subject They believe the same body to be at the same time in so many several places and whole in every place in Heaven upon Earth both here and at Rome and in both the Indies Oh monstrous belief had not this need to be supported with Miracles It was propagated by them and Bellarmine proves it by them because some have seen the Host to bleed others have seen a Child in the place of it and he tells us that St. Anthony of Padua's horse forsook his Oats to go and worship it I am sensible that these things are very ridiculous and therefore I am ashamed to mention any more of them And yet I hope you will excuse us if we mention in our Sermons such things as have been the chief Arguments of theirs and such Arguments as their great Masters of Controversie despair not that some may possibly be fools enough to believe them But if I should proceed into their Legends and Lives if I should spread before you the filth of those lewd Romances I should seem to have too little regard to this Place and to this Presence They are stuft with such absurd Tales such idle and extravagant Prodigies as if the Devil had invented them in a wanton humour being not content to have affronted the true Miracles of God and to have had his Will upon the Doctrine of Christ but he must insult also and sport himself with the Ignorance and Superstition of Men. I cannot think of these things without some wonder at those men who knowing that these things are written in their own Books and that some of us are able to Read them can yet be so impudent as to revile and scoffe at the Reformation That happy Recovery of Christian Religion without which their old Tales would have been Gospel still and the Cheat would have proceeded farther still and 't is hard to imagine what a Monster by this time Christianity would have grown I know some of them say that they themselves are the better for it which yet may be a very great Question For though the Crafts-men among them are grown more wary of late daies in shewing of their Tricks and the Writers of them bring their Matters more within compass than their Predecessors did yet they can never wipe off the shame of their Old doings while they read Lessons in their Churches collected out of those Legends and while they Retain those Doctrines nay they make them part of their Creed that owe some their Being and all their Reputation to those gross and palpable Impostures For us we have great cause to bless God for the Reformation which like Christianity when it first appear'd in the world has chased away these Demons and their Oracles from among us I do not hear they work any Miracles among us of late daies unless this be a Miracle which I think is no Wonder that some persons for some causes are won over to so corrupt a Religion For our parts we pretend to no new Miracles nor have any Occasion while we content our selves with the old Doctrines While we hold to the Prophet that God has sent us we may rest in those Miracles that He wrought for us God grant we may be wrought by 'em into a due Faith and Obedience First we owe a duty of Faith to the Doctrines of our Prophet to all that have been taught by him and his Apostles and are left written for us in the Holy Scriptures In which Scriptures though there be many things hard to be understood which ignorant and unstable Souls wrest to their own Damnation yet all those things are Plainly deliver'd which are Necessary for us to know Which were therefore collected by the Apostles into the Creed and own'd by the Fathers under the name of the Apostolical Tradition the Profession of which was necessary for every man at his Baptism to make him a Christian and was sufficient for any man that was Baptiz'd to be known by as a Member of the Catholick Church This is the Tradition not of one or two but of all Ages This is the Faith not of this or that but of all Churches as far as Christianity goes it is the same Faith and Tradition still This has the seal of God to it in all the Miracles of Christ and of his Apostles and of the Primitive Christians Whosoever Adds to it or Varies from it especially if he pretend to Miracles of which the Scripture has forewarn'd us we are bound to defie both Him and his Doctrines If we hold our selves close to this Faith and if This should happen to deceive us what have we to say but with St. Victor Oh Lord it is thou that hast deceiv'd us Thou hast given such plain Demonstrations such visible Testimonies of thy Almighty hand to it that if This should be false we know not what can be true For there is no possible way of certainty of things removed from bodily sense no way to make any thing surer to our belief then that is by which we are made sure of this that this Faith this Christian Doctrine was taught by that Prophet that was sent from God Lastly we owe the duty of Obedience to his Precepts to those Rules of life which he has given us in the name of God Rules that like their Author are full of Justice and Goodness then which nothing can be more fitly contrived to make us live happily here in This world and to prepare us for a Better life in the world to come Nor do they provide only for the Private but also for the Publick They both Direct and Secure every man in his own proper Station So that he were neither a Friend to Himself nor a Lover of humane Society that should not heartily submit to these Laws though he were led to it by no other consideration but that of their own Goodness and Utility But withall when we consider from what hand they come and by whom and in what manner they were sent how can we acquit our selves in the breach of these Laws of the highest Ingratitude and Rebellion against Almighty God That good God that has been pleased to require nothing of us but such things as of themselves are truly best for us and yet as if that were not enough to oblige us has recommended 'em by such a Prophet and confirm'd them to us by undeniable Testimonies Unless we Obey these Laws what can we expect from Him what Ought we to think of our selves If the Iews out of a misunderstanding of God's Counsel did oppose and reject it If that whole Generation of men were overwhelmed with such Calamities as no other Nation ever felt no other Age ever knew If their whole Posterity were sent wandring about the World to make us fear that great God that has sent these Examples to our doors How shall We ever hope to escape if we neglect so great a Salvation as is now offered to us What Examples may God make of us in This World What Judgments must we look for in the Other What Penalties what measure of Wrath can be too much for such ungrateful Wretches such Rebels against the Supream Majesty of God I beseech you pardon me this great Vehemence if any degree of Vehemence can need pardon in the pressing of things that so infinitely concern you That these things do so we shall be more sensible hereafter It is but a little while and He that is now our Prophet shall come to be our Judge and shall call us to a strict Account before him Then will the Observation of his Laws be a Comfort and a Joy Then will the Neglect of them cause Horror and Desperation 'T will be a restless Grief to reflect how easily we were won to Neglect them how easily we might have Observ'd them We have yet the Opportunity before us Good God give us Hearts to Consider it Now in this time of Advent so to remember the First coming of thy Son when He came to be our Prophet that we may be prepared and ready for his Second coming when He shall come to be our Judge To whom c. THE END * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 9. * In their Comments on the place * In their Comments on the place * In Teshuba Cap. 9. * In their Comments on the places * In their Comments on the places * De veritate Christ. Relig. l. 5. §. 14. a L. 1. Epist. 1. l. 2. de Divinatione b Eclog 4. c De Vespasiano c. 4. d Hist. l. 4. * Act. xiii 27. * In Sanhedrin c. Chelek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Deuter. xxviii 28 29. * Joh. iv 49. * In Hilcheth Melachim c. 11. * Ibid. in Sanhedrin †In Berachoth c. Meemathe korin * Israel's Conciliator Part. 1. Q. 11. in Deut. * Joh. xxi 25. Luk xviii 8. v. Rycaut of the Ottoman Empire l. 2. c. 2 3. * In Aboda Zara. * Iustin M. in Apol. 2. Tertull. in Apol. c. 21. v. Euseb. Hist. l. 2. c. 2. * Mat. xii 39. * Mat. xxviii 20. * Mat. xxiv 24 25. Which Text is thus applyed by the Fathers Chrysostom Austin c. v. Ambros. in 1 Cor. xii in fine * De Civ Dei l. 22. c. 8 9 10. * de Sacram. Eucharistiae l. 3. c. 8.
to all this which I am about to say That a poor Young man of the Meanest birth and breeding of a most hateful Nation and hated himself by that Nation for taking upon him to be a Prophet sent 'em from God for which he was laid hold of and put to a bitter and most shameful Death That after his death a few Fishermen and others as Mean as himself in all Circumstances should still Proclaim that he was that Prophet and confirm it with a Story of his Resurrection and with loud boasts of Miracles wrought by him and his Followers all which were utterly False Promising all them that would believe in him nothing in this world but Affliction and cruel Death which their own Sufferings prov'd to be True That such men with no other Charms should work such a Faith in all the Wisest part of Mankind and that with so lasting an Impression as Time has not been able to deface no nor Vice neither which is the thing that makes Them desire to deface it That so Impregnable a Faith should be bottom'd on so foul an Imposture Pardon me great God that I lend breath to their Blasphemies 't is a thing so prodigiously Incredible that it could never enter into any man's head unless he were for his Lust's sake as great a Monster of Credulity as I have shew'd him in other respects to be a very Monster of Unbelief I fear this Discourse may have been larger then the Occasion nay I hope it rather in this place and would to God that it were wholly Superfluous that there were no more Unbelievers in This world then there will be in the Other and then I am sure there would be Few enough But I have now done with Them and am to speak to your selves to You that believe the holy Scriptures desire to make a profitable Use of ' em And the Use of this Scripture is to observe what these men in my Text did according to Reason and allowing for the difference of Circumstances to do the same Thing our selves Namely if we have any Prophet yet to come and the promise of Miracles to know him by then it is our Duty when we see those Miracles to acknowledge that Prophet but if we have no such Prophet to expect and no more Miracles to look for then it behoves us to make much of those Miracles and that Prophet that we have already and to look for No other This appears to be the natural consequence of my Text. It hath been proved that Christ is that Prophet of whom God has foretold us from the beginning of the World and this Prophet has told us Behold I am with you to the end of the World But have we any other to look for any other Prophet to come any farther Miracles to know him by It should seem that we have For Christ saies words to that purpose and he saies it not lightly but he laies great weight upon it Behold saies he I tell you of this before There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall show great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Particularly 2 Thess. ii 9. That Son of perdition whose coming shall be after the working of Satan with all power and Signs and lying wonders So likewise 1 Tim. iv 1. The Spirit speaks expresly that thus it shall be in the Latter times All which things are confirmed by other places of Scripture and are applyed by St. Iohn to the second Beast that hath horns like a Lamb but speaks like a Dragon Whose Miracles are set forth Rev. xiii 13. xvi 14. xix 20. c. That the first Beast which St. Iohn there describes with seven Heads was the Heathen and Imperial Rome I think all Interpreters do agree Whether the second Beast be the Papal Rome it is not our business now to enquire let them see to it that are her Worshippers and Followers But it is our business to know whom to beware of and Christ has warn'd us of some body that shall pretend to Miracles and we know of none but the Papal Rome that does pretend to them She makes it one of her Marks and vaunts that she is to be known by her Miracles But what then did not Christ promise Miracles to his Church and ought not His Promise to be made good It is most true that he did promise and that he has perform'd we have sufficient proofs of it both in Scripture and in the Records of the Primitive Church For it was necessary that our great Prophet should be made known to us as well in his Doctrine as in his Person that the Christian Faith should be planted and setled by Miracles But when this Doctrine was written and publisht and where this Faith was planted and generally received Then there was no such necessity Then it was enough to say thus it is written which Writings were as obligatory to all them that had received this Doctrine as if they had been preacht to them severally by persons risen from the dead Of which those Fathers were so throughly satisfied that lived in those times when most part of the world was already converted that they plainly profest that now the time of Miracles was at an end They are few and rare now if any saith Chrysostome in Hom. 4. on Mat. There are more feign'd ones amongst false Christians then true ones amongst the true saith the Author of the Imperfect work Hom. 49. 'T is enough for Christians that the old Miracles are read to them saith St. Austin and for Heathens that Miracles are yet done by us though not so Frequently nor so Manifestly as in former times Little did these good men think that within some Ages after they were dead and in those places where there were no Heathens to convert there should arise a sect of Christians more abounding with Miracles in some one age than were ever seen in all ages of the world before and the Reason is plain for those Fathers never dreamt of those new Doctrines and designs that would have need to be usher'd in and supported with new Miracles nor of the wickedness of those men that holp the Devil to invent them nor of the gross ignorance of an after-age that fitted the people to receive ' em All which things had they not conspired together it had been Impossible for such monstrous Absurdities to be imposed upon the Faith of so great a part of Mankind How could those strange Fictions of Purgatory have ever obtain'd if men had not been fool'd into the belief of them with pretended Visions and Revelations and Apparions Who could ever have been so Sottish as to adore the works of the Pencil and the Chizzle unless the dumb things themselves had been made to move and sweat and talk and weep for it What Believer of the true God would ever have stoopt to the Invocation of his fellow-creatures