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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ability_n	able_a	appear_v	19	3	4.7672	4	false

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

SEVENTEEN SERMONS Preach'd upon Several Occasions By WILLIAM CLAGETT D. D. Late PREACHER to the Honourable Society of Grays-Inn and one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary With the SUMM of a CONFERENCE on February 21 1686. between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden about the Point of Transubstantiation The Third Edition VOL. I. London Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIX THE PREFACE THere will need no more to Recommend the following Discourses to the Reader than only to assure him he is not imposed upon by the Title Page but what is here presented to him as Dr. Clagett's Sermons are really so being published from his own Papers and by his own Brother And indeed the Sermons themselves do sufficiently speak their Author for they every where express the Spirit the Judgment and the Reasoning of that Excellent Man though some of them perhaps want that Finishing which his Masterly Hand would have given them had he been to have published them himself The first of these Sermons he meant to have Printed if God had given him Life being prevailed upon by the Importunity of several of his Friends who then judged it very seasonable The last in this Collection was the last Sermon he Preached It was Preached at St. Martins in the Fields on the day of his Lent-course there And that very Evening he fell into that Sickness which put a a period to his Life twelve days after No Man perhaps in this Age of so private a Condition died more lamented For as he had all the amiable charming Qualities to procure the Esteem and Love of every one that knew him So God had bestowed upon him so many great and useful Talents for the doing Service to Religion to the Church to all about him And he so faithfully and industriously employed those Talents to those purposes that he was really a publick Blessing and he had that Right done him as to be esteemed so He was Born at St. Edmunds-Bury Sept. 24. 1646. being the Son of Mr. Nicholas Clagett then Minister there His Vniversity Education was at Emanuel College in Cambridge His first publick appearance in the World was at his own Native Town of Bury where he was chosen one of the Preachers Which Office he discharged for several years with so universal a Reputation that it might be truly said as to him That a Prophet had Honour in his own Country From thence at the Instance of some considerable Men of the Long Robe whose Business at the Assizes there gave them Opportunities of being acquainted with his great Worth and Abilities he was prevailed with to remove to Grays-Inn And indeed it was no small Testimony given to his Merits that he was thought worthy by that Honourable Society to succeed the Eminent Dr. Cradock as their Preacher In this place he continued all the remainder of his Life and he behaved himself worthily in it and the Gentlemen of that House took all Occasions of declaring that he did so by the constant Kindness they expressed to him while he lived and the Respects they paid him at his Death He had indeed at the time of his Death two other Preferments besides that of Grays-Inn The Lord Keeper North his Wives Kinsman had given him a Living in Buckinghamshire but the other Place was that which he himself most valued next to Grays-Inn and that was the Lecture of Bassishaw to which he was chosen by that Parish about two years before his death It was the Lecture which Dr. Calamy had immediately held before him Never was there two greater Men successively Lecturers of one Parish nor ever was any Parish kinder to two Lecturers Dr. Clagett dyed of the Small-Pox March 28th and was buried in the Church of St. Michael Bassishaw His Wife Mrs. Thomasin North a most Vertuous and Accomplished Woman dyed eighteen days after him of the same Disease and was buried in the same Grave with him There is this little Passage not unfit to be mentioned here The last Sermon Dr. Clagett made tho not the last he preached was that which is the Sixteenth in this Collection upon this Text Shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil This Sermon he made upon occasion of the death of a Child of his that happened a little before And he had writ it fairly out I suppose for this end that his Wife might read it And accordingly she did so but upon a much sadder Occasion For it was after his death that she got this Sermon into her hands and then she made it her continual Entertainment and a seasonable one it was as long as her strength would suffer her But to return to Dr. Clagett We owe it to the Society of Grays-Inn that he was brought to this City But after he came hither his own Merits in a little time rendred him sufficiently conspicuous For so innocent and unblameable was his Life such an unaffected Honesty and Simplicity appeared in all his Conversation so obliging he was in his Temper so sincere in all his Friendships so ready to do all sorts of good Offices that came in his way and withal so prudent a Man so good a Preacher so dexterous in untying Knots and making hard things plain so happy in treating of common Subjects in an uncommon and yet useful way So able a Champion for the True Religion against all Opposers whatsoever and lastly so ready upon all occasions to Advise to Direct to Encourage any work that was undertaken for the promoting or defending the Cause of God I say all these Qualities were so eminent in Dr. Clagett that it was impossible they should be hid The Town soon took Notice of him and none that intimately knew him could forbear to love and admire him and scarce any that had heard of him to esteem and honour him If the Reader would know more of Doctor Clagett let him peruse those Writings of his which he published himself By them he will in some measure be able to make a Judgment of the Genius and Abilities of the Man If a Friend can speak without partiality there doth in those Writings appear so strong a Judgment such an admirable Faculty of Reasoning so much Honesty and Candor of Temper so great plainness and perspicuity and withal so much spirit and quickness and in a word all the Qualities that can recommend an Author or render his Books Excellent in their kind that I should not scruple to give Dr. Clagett a place among the most Eminent and Celebrated Writers of this Church And if he may be allowed that it is as great an Honour as can be done him For perhaps from the Inspired Age to this the World did never see more Accurate and more Judicoous Composures in matters of Religion than the Church of England has produced in our days The Discourses writ and published by Dr. Clagett are these that follow A Discourse concerning the Operations of

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 amuse 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 there would grow very great Excesses in this kind as there did even in St. Austin's days who complained 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 Virtue 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 easy 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 Human 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

he went and served Baal and worshipped him From all this it is plain that whereas in the New Testament the Apostles bid us beware of Idolatry My dearly beloved flee from Idolatry Little children keep your selves from Idols and the like they being Jews must necessarily by Idolatry mean the worshipping of the true God by Images or giving any Divine Worship whatsoever any Honour due to God only giving that I say to any other Being how excellent soever although they that do so do believe and worship the Supreme God the Master of Heaven and Earth all the while For by Idolatry they could understand nothing but what went for Idolatry under the Law seeing the Notion of it was not in the least altered but it continued just the same that it was before as these very words do witness Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve But as I entred upon this Argument by distinguishing between Atheism and Idolatry so I shall now close it by comparing them together Idolatry is indeed a very heinous sin because it gives away the Glory of God to another but Atheism is a worse because that is a renouncing of the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Creator of the World They who do not serve the Lord only are guilty of great Impiety but they who do not serve and worship him at all are guilty of a greater Impiety To worship God and to worship Angels to pray to God and to pray to Saints to adore Jesus Christ and to adore the Virgin is in part to forsake God and our Saviour but neither to worship or pray to Saints and Angels no nor to God himself this is utterly to forsake him and to live without God in the World Which I do not say to extenuate the Crime of Idolatry but to give every thing its due and to leave this Impression upon our Mind That by how much more we inveigh against the Idolatry of others because it is no less than giving some of God's Glory to his Creature by so much the more we oblige our selves to be constant and devout and in very good earnest in the Worship of the only true God lest by degrees we fall into a Spirit of Irreligion and Atheism and be wholly estranged from God which is a worse Case than Solomon's was who falling into the Idolatry of his Neighbours fell under this Character That his heart was not perfect with the Lord and he went not fully after him To conclude since through the Grace of God it is our Happiness to worship the Lord our God and to serve him only let us have a care that we go on to worship God only and to be sure let us remember that we worship him that we be not slothful in Religion but earnest and fervent lest we forsake God by a Spirit of Irreligion which is every whit as damnable as Idolatry Let it appear by our whole Conversation that we do indeed worship the God that made Heaven and Earth who only hath power to bless us to protect and keep us in this Life and to reward us with the enjoyment of himself for ever The Sixth Sermon GEN. XXII 12. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me IN these words we may observe Two Things I. God's Testimony concerning Abraham Now I know that thou fearest God II. The Fact upon which this Testimony of God concerning him was grounded which was his offering his Son Isaac to God Because thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me 1. The Testimony of God concerning him I know that thou fearest God this I say was God's Testimony concerning him For whereas it is said That the Angel of the Lord called to him out of Heaven it seems plain that the Angel of the Lord was no other than the Angel of the Covenant the Son of God himself who did sometimes appear to the Patriarchs for the words are Seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from Me i. e. from God it was God that fpake to him and who said Now I know that thou fearest God The matter God testified of him was That he feared God that is that he believed in God that he was fully persuaded of his Infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness and all his Infinite Perfections and that he was affected suitably thereunto This is the meaning of the Fear of God in the Scripture which is a Phrase used to comprehend all pious Affections towards him and is therefore of the same latitude with Faith the Praise whereof is ascribed to Abraham by the Author to the Hebrews The only thing to be added is this That we must remember that to fear God is to fear him as God that is before and above all other things and consequently to love him and to trust in him and to rely upon him incomparably and infinitely more than upon all the World besides inasmuch as the Perfections of all others are finite God only is infinite in all Perfections Now this was that which God testified of Abraham in saying of him that he feared God and in the understanding of this there is no difficulty at all But it may seem strange that God should give this Testimony of him in that manner wherein we find he did Now know I that thou fearest God Now i. e. now thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me For did not God know the integrity of Abraham's Heart before Is not God the Searcher of hearts And doth he need our outward Actions that he may judge of our Tempers and Intentions by them It is true we have no other way to come to the understanding of one anothers Thoughts but by our Words and Deeds But hath God no other way Yes without all doubt he that knoweth our thoughts afar off even before they are born within us cannot be ignorant of them when they are But why then doth he say Now I know that thou fearest God I answer That this is one of those Sayings of God by which he is pleas'd to condescend to the manner of our speaking and conversing with one another For we with great propriety use such expressions as these upon such extraordinary occasions If from my Friend that hath always professed great kindness to me I receive some notable benefit in my distress not without hazard to himself it is very proper for me to say Now I know that he loves me Now I know he is indeed a faithful and sincere Friend though I had great reason to make no doubt of it before yet this is so great a confirmation and strengthening of my belief that in comparison thereto I might be said to know little or nothing of it before In allusion to such expressions it is that God useth these words Now I know that thou fearest God Not in intimation of his having now gained greater assurance of Abraham's