THE Indispensable Necessity OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE IN ORDER To MAN's Eternal Salvation and Ignorance therein The Mother of Idolatry and Superstition Asserted IN A SERMON PREACHED by JOHN TILLOTSON D. D. and Dean of Canterbury MATTHEW xxiii 13 â—o unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Imprimatur C. A. Nov. 17. 1685. LONDON â—â—inted for Will. Norris at the Maiden-head in Holbourn 1687. Price Stitched three pence MATTHEW xxiii 13 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves nor suffer ye them that are entring in THE Scribes so often mentioned in the Gospel were the great Doctors among the Jews the Teachers and Interpreters of the Law of God. And because many of them were of the Sect of the Pharisees which above all others pretended to â—kill and knowledge in the Law therefore it is our blessed Saviour does so often put the Scribes and Phaâ—isees together And these were the Men of Chief Auâ—hority in the Jewish Church Who equalled their â—wn Unwritten Word and Traditions with the Law â—f God Nay our Saviour tells us they made the Commandments of God of none effect by their Traditions They did in effect assume to themselves infallibility â—nd all that opposed and contradicted them they brandâ—d with the Odious Name of Hereticks Against these â—ur Saviour denounceth this Woe here in the Text Woe â—nto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up â—â—e Kingdom of Heaven against Men c. All the Difficulty in the Words is what is here â—eant by shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men â— Luke expresseth it more plainly ye have taken away â—â—e key of Knowledge ye entred not into your selves and â—â—em that were entring in ye hindred By putting these â—â—o Expressions together we shall the more easily â—â—me at the meaning of the Text. Ye have taken away 〈◊〉 key of Knowledge and have shut up the Kingdom of â—â—aven against Men. This Metaphor of the 〈…〉 Knowledge is undoubtedly an Allusion to that known Custom among the Jews in the admission of their Doctors For to whomsoever they gave Authority to interpret the Law and the Prophets they were solemnly admitted into that Office by delivering to them a Key and a Table-book So that by the key of knowledge is here meant the Interpretation and understanding of the Scriptures and by taking away the key of Knowledge not only that they arrogated to themselves alone the Understanding of the Scriptures but likewise that they had Conveyed away this key of Knowledge and as it were hid it out of the way neither using it themselves as they ought nor suffering Others to make use of it And thus they Shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men which is very fitly said of those who have lock-the Door against them that were going in and have taken away the key By all which it appears that the Plain meaning of our Saviour in these Metaphorical Expressions is that the Scribes and Teachers of the Law under a Pretence of Interpreting the Scriptures had perverted them and kept the true Knowledge of them from the People Especially those Old Prophecies 〈◊〉 the Old Testamant which concerned the Messias Anâ— by this means the Kingdom of Heaven was shut againâ—â— Men And they not only rejected the Truth themselves but by keeping Men in Ignorance of the true meaninâ— of the Scriptures they hindered Many from embracinâ— our Saviour's Doctrine and entering into the Kingdoâ— of Heaven who were otâ—erwise well enough disposeâ— for it Having thus Explained the Words I shall from thâ— main Scope and Design of them observe to you thesâ— two things I. The necessity of the Knowledge of the holy Scriptures in order to our Eternal Salvation It is called bâ— our Saviour the key of Knowledge that which lets Meâ— into the Kingdom of Heaven II. The great and inexcusable fault of those who deprive the People of the Knowledge of the Holy Scriâ—â—tures They shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Meâ— and do what in them lies to hinder their Eternal Salvation and therefore our Saviour denounceth so heavy a Woe against them I shall speak briefly to these two Observations and then apply them to those who are principally concerned in them 1. First I observe hence the Necessity of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures in order to our Eternal Salvation This is by our Saviour called the key of knowledge that which lets Men into the Kingdom of Heaven Knowledge is necessary to Religion It is necessary to the being of it and necessary to the life and practice of it Without Faith says the Apostle it is impossible to please God Because Faith is an act of the Understanding and does necessarily suppose some knowledge and apprehension of what we believe To all acts of Religion there is necessarily reqâ—ired some act of the Understanding so that without Knowledge there can be no Devotion in the Service of God no Obedience to his Laws Religion begins in the Understanding and from thence descends upon the heart and life If ye know these things says our Saviour happy are ye if ye do them We must first know God before we can worship him and understand what is his Will before we can do it This is so very evident that one would think there needed no Discourse about it And yet there are some in the World that cry up Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion And to shew that we do not wrong them in this matter Mr. Rushworth in his Dialogues a Book in great vogue among the Papists here in England does expresly reckon up Ignorance among the Parents of Religion And can any thing be said more absurdly and more to the Disparagement of Religion than to derive the Pedigree of the most excellent thing in the World from so obscure and ignoble an Original and to make that which the Scripture calls the beginning of Wisdom and the Excellency of Knowledge to be the Off-spring of Ignorance and a Child of Darkness Ignorance indeed may be the cause of Wonder and Admiration and the Mother of Folly and Superstition But surely Religion is of a nobler Extraction and is the Issue and Result of the best Wisdom and Knowledge and descends from above from the giver of every good and perfect Gift even the Father of Lights And as Knowledge in general is necessary to Religion so more particularly the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures is necessary to our Eternal Salvation Because these are the great and standing Revelations of God to Mankind wherein the Nature of God and his Will concerning our Duty and the Terms and Conditions of our Eternal Happiness in another World are fully and plainly declared to us The Scriptures are the Word of God and from whence can we learn the
the ancient Heresies uyon the ill management of things by our Saviour and his Apostles and the Holy Fathers of the Church for so many Ages and their imprudent dispensing of the Scriptures to the People This indeed is to charge the matter home and yet this Consequence is unavoidable For the Church of Rome cannot justify the Piety and Prudence of their present Practices without accusing all these But the thing which they mainly rely upon as to both these practices in this That though these things were otherwise in the Apostles times and in the Ancient Church yet the Church hath power to alter them according to the Exigence and Circumstances of times I have purposely reserved this for the last place because it is their last refuge and if this fail them they are gone To shew the Weakness of this Pretence we will if they please take it for granted that the Governors of the Church have in no Age more Power than the Apostles had in theirs Now St. Paul tels us 2 Cor. 10.8 that the Authority which the Apostles had given them from the Lord was only for Edification but not for Destruction And the same St. Paul makes it the business of a whole Chapter to shew that the performing the Publick service of God and particularly praying in an unknown Tongue are contrary to Edification from which premises the Conclusion is plain that the Apostles themselves had no Authority to appoint the Service of God to be performed in an unknown Tongue and surely it is Arrogance for the Church in any Age to pretend to greater Authority than the Apostles had This is the Summ of what our Adversaries say in justification of themselves in these Points And there is no doubt but that Men of Wit and Confidence will always make a shift to say something for any thing and some way or other blanch over the blackest and most absurd things in the World. But I leave it to the Judgement of Mankind whether any thing be more unreasonable than to tell Men in effect that it is fit they should understand as little of Religion as is poshble that God hath published a very dangerous Book with which it is not safe for the People to be familiarly acquainted that our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles and the ancient Christian Church for more than Six hundred Years were not wise Managers of Religion nor prudent Dispensers of the Scriptures but like fond and foolish Fathers put a Knife and a Sword into the hands of their Children with which they might have easily fore-seen what mischief they would do to themselves and others And who would not chuse to be of such a Church which is provided of such excellent and effectual means of Ignorance such wise and infallible Methods for the prevention of Knowledge in the People and such variety of close Shutters to keep out the Light. I have chosen to insist upon this Argument because it is so very plain that the most ordinary Capacity may judge of this usage and dealing with the Souls of Men Which is so very gross that every Man must needs be sensible of it because it toucheth Men in the common Rights of humane Nature which belong to them as much as the Light of Heaven and the Air we breath in It requires no subtilty of Wit no skill in Antiquity to understand these Controversies between us and the Church of Rome For there are no Fathers to be pretended on both sides in these Questions They yield we have Antiquity on ours And we refer it to the common Sense of Manking which Church that of Rome or Ours hath all the Right or Reason in the World on her side in these Debates And who they are that tyrannize over Christians the Governours of their Church or ours Who use the People like Sons and Freemen and who like Slaves Who feed the Flock of Christ committed to them and who take the Childrens bread from them Who they are that when their Children ask bread for Bread give them a Stone and for an Egg a Serpent I mean the Legends of their Saints instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make Men wise unto Salvation And who they are that lie most justly under the suspicion of Errors and Corruptions they who bring their Doctrine and Practices into the open Light and are willing to have them tried by the true Touchstone the Word of God or they who shun the Light and decline all manner of Trial and Examination And who are most likely to carry on a Worldly Design they who drive a Trade of such mighty gain and advantage under pretence of Religion and make such markets of the Ignorance and Sins of the People or we whom Malice it self cannot charge with serving any Worldly Design by any allowed Doctrine or Practice of our Religion For we make no Money of the mistakes of the People nor do we fill their heads with vain fears of New Places of Torment to make them willing to empty their Purses in a vainer hope of being delivered out of them We do not like them pretend a mighty banck of Treasure and Merits in the Church which they sell to the People for ready money giving them Bills of Exchange from the Pope to Purgatory When they who grant them have no reason to believe they will avail them or be accepted in the other World. For our parts we have no fear that our People should understand Religion too well We could wish with Moses that all the Lord's People were Prophets We should be heartily glad the People would read the Holy Scriptures more diligently being sufficiently assured that it is their own fault if they learn any thing but what is good from thence We have no Doctrines or Practices contrary to Scripture and consequently no occasion to keep it close from the sight of the People or to hide any of the Commandments of God from them We leave these mean Arts to those who stand in need of them In a word there is nothing which God hath said to Men which we desire should be concealed from them Nay we are willing the People should examine what we teach and bring all our Doctrines to the Law and to the Testimony that if they be not according to this Rule they may neither believe them nor us 'T is only things false and adulterate which shun the Light and fear the Touchstone We have that security of the Truth of our Religion and of the agreeableness of it to the Word of God that honest Confidence of the Goodness of our Cause that we do not forbid the People to read the best Books our Adversaries can write against it And now let any Impartial Man judge whether this be not a better Argument of a good Cause to leave Men at liberty to try the Grounds of their Religion than the Courses which are taken in the Church of Rome to awe Men with an Inquisition and as much as is possible to keep the common People in Ignorance not only of what their late Adversaries the Protestants but their chief and ancient Adversary the Scriptures have to say against them A Man had need of more than common Security of the Skill and Integrity of those to whom he perfectly resigns his Understanding this is too great a Trust to be reposed in humane frailty and too strong a Temptation to others to impose upon us to abuse our Blindness and to make their own ends of our voluntary Ignorance and easie Credulity This is such a folly as if a Rich Man should make his Physician his Heir which is to tempt him either to destroy him or to let him dye for his own Interest So he that trusts the care of his Soul with other Men and at the same time by irrecoverable Deed settles his Understanding upon them lays too great a Temptation before them to seduce and damn him for their own ends And now to reflect a little upon our selves What cause have we to bless God who are so happily rescued from that more than Aegyptian Darkness and Bondage wherein this Nation was detained for several Ages Who are delivered out of the hands of those Cruel Task-masters who required Brick without Straw that Men should be Religious without competent Understanding and work out their own Salvation while they denied them the means of all others the most necessary to it Who are so uncharitable as to allow us no Salvation out of their Church and yet so unreasonable as to deny us the very best means of Salvation when we are in it Our Forefathers thought it a mighty Priviledge to have the Word of God restored to them and the publick Prayers and Service of God celebrated in a known Tongue Let us use this inestimable Priviledge with great modesty and humility not to the nourishing of Pride and Self-conceit of Division and Faction but as the Apostle exhorts Let the Word of God dwell richly in you in all Wisdom and let the Peace of God rule in your hearts unto which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful It concerns us mightily with which Admonition I conclude both for the Honour and Support of our Religion to be at better Union among our selves and not to divide about lesser things And so to demean our selves as to take from our Adversaries all those Pretences whereby they would justify themselves or at least Extenuate the Guilt of that heavy Charge which falls every whit as justly upon them as ever it did upon the Scribes and Pharisees of taking away the key of Knowledge and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven against Men neither going in themselves nor suffering those that are entring to go in FINIS
Will of God so well as from his own Mouth They are the great Instruments of our Salvation and should not every Man be acquainted with that which alone can perfectly instruct him what he must believe and what he must do that hâ— may be saved This is the Testimony which the Scripture gives of it self that it is able to make Men wisâ— unto Salvation and is it not very fit that every Man should have this Wisdom and in order thereunto the free use of that Book from whence this Wisdom is to be learned Secondly I observe the great and inexcusable fault of those who keep Men in Ignorance of Religion and take away from them so excellent and necessary a means of Divine Knowledge as the Holy Scriptures are This our Saviour calls taking away the Key of Knowledge and shutting the Kingdom of Heav'n against Men That is doing what in them lies to render it impossible for Men to be saved For this he denounceth a terrible woe against the Teachers of the Jewish Church though they did not proceed so far as to deprive Meâ— of the use of the Holy Scriptures but only of the righâ— Knowledge and Understanding of them This alone iâ— a horrible Impiety to lead Men into a false sense and interpretation of Scripture but much greater to forbiâ— them the reading of it This is a stop to knowledgâ— at the very fountain head and not only to lead Men into Errour but to take away from them all possibility of rectifying their mistakes And can there be a greater Sacriledge than to rob Men of the Word of God the best means in the World of acquainting them with the Will of God and their Duty and the way to Eternal Happiness To keep the People in Ignorance of that which is necessary to save them is to judge them unworthy of Eternal Life and to declare it does not belong to them and maliciously to contrive the Eternal ruine and destruction of their Souls To lock up the Scriptures and the Service of God from the People in an Unknown Tongue what is this but in effect to forbid Men to know God and to serve him to render them incapable of knowing what is the good and acceptable Will of God of joyning in his Worship or performing any Part of it or receiving any Benefit or Edification from it And what is if this be not to shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men This is so outragious a Cruelty to the Souls of Men that it is not to be excused upon any Pretence whatsoever This is to take the surest and most effectual way in the World to destroy those for whom Christ dyed and directly to thwart the Great Design of God our Saviour Who would have all Men to be Saved and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth Men may miscarry with their Knowledge but they are sure to perish for the want of it The best things in the World have their inconveniences attending them and are liable to be abused but surely Men are not to be ruined and damned for fear of abusing their Knowledge or for the Prevention of any other inconvenience whatsoever Besides this is to cross the very end of the Scriptures and the design of God in inspiring Men to write them Can any Man think that God should send this great Light of his Word into the World for the Priests to hide it under a Bushel and not rather that it should be set up to the greatest advantage for the Enlightning of the World St. Paul tells us Rom. 15.4 That whatsoever things were written were Written for our Learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And 2 Tim. 3.16 That all Scripture is given by the Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness And if the Scriptures were Written for these Ends can any Man have the face to pretend that they do not concern the People as well as their Teachers Nay St. Paul expresly tells the Church of Rome that they were Written for their Learning however it happens that they are not now permitted to make use of them Are the Scriptures so useful and profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Instruction in Righteousness And why may they not be used by the People for those Ends for which they were given 'T is true indeed they are fit for the mosâ— Knowing and Learned and sufficient to make the Maâ— of God Perfect and throughly furnished to every good Worâ— as the Apostle there tells us But does this excludâ— their being profitable also to the People who may reasonably be presumed to stand much more in neeâ— of all means and helps of Instruction than their Teachers And though there be many difficulties and obscurities in the Scriptures enough to exercise the Skill and Will of the Learned yet are they not therefore eitheâ— useless or dangerous to the People The Ancient Fathers of the Church were of another mind St. Chrysostome tells us that Whatever things are necessary are manifest in the Scriptures And St. Austin that all things arâ— plain in the Scripture which concerns Faith and a good Life and that thâ—se things which are necessary to the Salvation 〈◊〉 Men are not so hard to become at but that as to those thingâ— which the Scripture plainly contains it speaks without disguise like a familiar friend to the hearts of the Learned anâ— Vnlearned And upon these and such like considerations the Fathers did every where in their Orations anâ— Homilies charge and exhort the People to be conversant in the Holy Scriptures to read them dayly anâ— diligently and attentively And I challenge our Aâ—â—versaries to shew me where any of the ancient Fatherâ— do discourage the People from reading the Scriptureâ— much less forbid them so to do So that they who do it now have no cloak for their Sin And they who pretend so confidently to Antiquity in other cases are by the Evidence of Truth forced to acknowledge that it is against them in this Though they have Ten Thousand Schoolmen on their side yet have they not one Father not the least pretence of Scripture or rag of Antiquity to cover their nakedness in this Point With great reason then does our Saviour denounce so heavy a Woe against such Teachers of old in the like case God by his Prophets severely threatens the Priests of the Jewish Church for not instructing the People in the Knowledge of God Hosea 4.6 My People are destroyed for lack of Knowledge because thou hast rejected Knowledge I will also reject thee thou shalt be no more a Priest to me Seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy Children God you see lays the ruine of so many Souls at their Doors and will require their Blood at their hands So many as perish for want of Knowledge and Eternally miscarry by being deprived of the necessary means of Salvation their
Destruction shall be charged upon those who have taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. And it is just with God to punish such Persons not only as the Occasion but as the Authors of this Ruine For who can judge otherwise but that they who deprive Men of the necessary means to any End do purposely design to hinder them of attaining that End. And whatever may be pretended in this Case to deprive Men of the Holy Scriptures and to keep them ignorant of the service of God and yet while they do so to make a shew of an earnest desire of their Salvation is just such a mockery as if one of you that is a Master should tell his Apprentice how much you desire he should thrive in the World and be a Rich Man but all the while keeps him ignorant of his Trade in order to his being Rich and with the strictest care imaginable conceals from him the best means of Learning that whereby alone he is likely to thrive and get an Estate Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites By what hath been discoursed upon this Argument you will easily perceive where the Application is like to fall For the Woe denounced by our Saviour here in the Text against the Scribes and Pharisees falls every whit as heavy upon the Pastours and Teachers of the Roman Church They have taken away the Key of Knowledge with a Witness not only depriving the People of the right Understanding of the Scriptures but of the very use of them As if they were afraid they should understand them that they dare not suffer them so much as to be acquainted with them This Tyranny that Church hath Exercised over those of her Communion for several Hundreds of Years It grew upon them indeed by degrees for as by the Inundation of Barbarous Nations upon the Roman Empire the Romans bought their Language by degrees so the Governours of that Church still kept up the Scriptures and the Service of God in the Latin Tongue which at last was wholly unknown to the Common People And about the Ninth and Tenth Centuries when by the general Consent of all their own Historians gross Darkness and Ignorance covered this part of the World the Pope and the Priests took away the Key of Knowledge and did as I may so say put it under the Door for several Ages till the Reformation fetcht it out again and rubbed off the Rust of it And I profess seriously that hardly any thing in the World was ever to me more astonishing than this Uncharitable and Cruel usage of the People in the Church of Rome And I cannot tell which to wonder at most the Insolence of their Governours in imposing upon Men this sensless way of serving God or the patience shall I call it or rather stupidity of the People in enduring to be so intollerably abused Why should reasonable Creatures be treated at this rude and barbarous rate As if they were Unworthy to be acquainted with the Will of God and as if that which every Man ought to do were not fit for every Man to know As if the Common People had only Bodies to be present at the service of God but no Souls or as if they were all distracted and out of their Wits and it were a dangerous thing to let in the Lights upon them But to speak more distinctly There are two things we charge them withal and which they are not able to deny Their performing the Publick Service of God in an Unknown Tongue and depriving the People of the use of the Scriptures And I shall first tell you what we have to say against these things and then consider what they pretend for them 1. As for their performing the service of God in a Tongue Unknown to the People And I begin with St. Paul who in his first Epistle to the Corinthians hath a whole Chapter on purpose to shew the unreasonableness of this thing and how contrary it is to the Edification of Christians His Discourse is so plain and so well known that I shall not particularly insist upon it Erasmus in his Annotations upon this Chapter breaks out as well he might into admiration at the Church of Rome in his time Hâc in re mirum quam mutata sit Ecclesiae consuetudo It is Wonderful says he how the Custom of the Church is altered in this matter St. Paul had rather speak five Words with Vnderstanding and so as to teach others than Ten Thousand in an Vnknown Tongue Why does the Church doubt to follow so great an Authority or rather how dares she to dissent from it As for the practice of the Ancient Church let Origen bear Witness The Grecians saith he in their Prayers use the Greek and the Romans the Latin Tongue and so every one according to his Language prayeth unto God and praiseth him as he is able And not only in Origen's time but for more than Six Hundred Years the Service of God was always performed in a known Tongue And this the Learned Men of their own Church do not deny And Cardinal Caietan as Cassander tells us said it was much better this custom were restored and being reproved for saying so he said he Learned it from St. Paul. And Bellarmine himself confesseth that the Armenians Aegyptians Aethiopians Russians and others do use their own Language in their Liturgies at this day But it is otherwise now in the Church of Rome and hath been for several Ages And it seems they lay great stress upon it not only as a thing of great use but necessity For Pope Gregory the Seventh forbids the Prince of Bohemia to permit to the People the Celebration of Divine Offices in the Sclavonian Tongue and commands him to oppose them herein with all his forces It seems he thought it a Cause worthy the fighting for and that it were much better the People should be Killed than suffered to understand their Prayers But let us reason this matter a little calmly with them Is it necessary for Men to understand any thing they do in Religion And is not Prayer one of the most solemn Parts of Religion And why then should not Men understand their Pâ—ayers as well as any thing else they do in Religion Is it good that People should understand their private Prayers that we thank them they allow and why not the publick as well Is there less of Religion in publick Prayers Is God less honoured by them Or are we not as capable of being Edified and of having our hearts and affections moved and incited by them Where then lies the Difference The more I consider it the more I am at a loss what tolerable reason any Man can give why People should not understand their publick Devotions as well as their private If Men cannot heartily and devoutly pray alone without understanding what they ask of God no more say I can they heartily and devoutly join in the