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
is disgraced with the company of Follies and Lies Thus the Pharisees recommended their absurd Traditions to the People because in the same breath they taught them the Law of Moses Thus some of the Gentiles were ready to reject Christianity when they were made to believe it necessary for them also to observe the Mosaical Law if they would be Christians And this is one of the common Scandals of the World that Truth is so often insincerely represented and false Doctrines propounded still by the same Authority that holds forth some necessary Truths And for this reason the Gospel does not allow but command us to use a Judgment of Discretion not to reject that which is good because it comes from the same Authority that requires evil nor to admit Error because it is accompanied with Truth but to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 4. All Popular Artifices that are used to recommend either wicked Errors or Practices are also great Offences and lead many silly Souls astray of which kind the most obvious are these An external shew of Strictness and Piety without real Virtue and Godliness at the bottom of it And of this the Pharisees were the first notable Instance who placing Religion in abundance of nice Observations seemed to be the most strict and devout People in the World and therefore our Saviour knowing the wickedness of their Hearts and Lives compared them to whited sepulchres that within were full of dead mens bones and all uncleanness And this Offence would be so powerful whenever it should happen that it seemed good to the Spirit to foretell it expresly viz. That in the latter times some should depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Another Offence of this kind which was also expresly foretold is pretending the Testimony of Miracles For says our Saviour himself There shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect Behold says he I have told you before Matth. 24.24 25. And thus St. Paul foretold that when that wicked one should be revealed his coming should be after the working of Satan with power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness I shall name but one other popular Device for the supporting of Error and that is to denounce Damnation peremptory against all Gainsayers with which Artifice the Judaizers secured themselves against the Gentile Christians saying Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses ye cannot be saved Now although every man that has a Tongue may if he please lay this weight upon his Cause as to exclude all from Salvation that are not of his way and therefore the Threatning be not worthy of a wise man's thought till the Merits of the Cause be examined yet it has two notable advantages that it is framed to work upon the Passions of men more than upon their Judgment and in most men their Passion is stronger than their Reason and it may be so used as to bear the World in hand that 't is not Uncharitableness but mere Pity and Tenderness to the Souls of men that compels them to speak so harsh but so necessary a Truth And 't is a wonderful thing to observe how easy men are to be managed when on the one side there is a positive Sentence of Damnation to work upon their fears and on the other an appearance of serious Charity to win their Affections for by this Art men of contrary Parties have with strange success served contrary Opinions and Practices I cannot if I were willing reckon all the Offences of this kind that is popular and plausible ways of deceiving But that there would be such our Saviour did not only foretell in the general when he said It must needs be that offences come but in particular also when he said Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheeps cloathing Matth. 7.15 5. To this I may add what St. Paul observes 1 Tim. 6.5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness That any thing may be defended as a part of Religion which makes for worldly Interest It is no such hard matter to perplex things that are plain to find colours for denying things that are evident to hide the weakness or the strength of an Argument to divert from the Cause to the Person so artificially as if the Cause went on still to lose the matter in debate to make Truth look like Error and Error like Truth to those that are willing to be deceived if a man is resolved to bend all his Wit this way for something may be said for any thing 6. And lastly Bad Examples of men professing the true Religion are another most dangerous Offence since I doubt most men are so framed as to take up their Opinions more easily from Authority than from other Arguments and they understand more easily the difference between good and evil Manners than between strong and weak Reasons And then they will be apt to judge of the Truth or Falshood of a Way of Religion by the good or bad Fruits of Practice it brings forth in those that profess it Which doubtless our Saviour intimated in those words Let your light so shine before men that others seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven But to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness is not only a Scandal to those that are in Error confirming them that are in the wrong way but likewise to those that are in the way of Truth by encouraging them to Sin in like manner especially when Evil Examples are set by those that are particularly obliged to set none but good ones whose Place or Office Wealth or Quality makes them more conspicuous and gives others any kind of dependance upon them And because of the pernicious Influence of Bad Examples we find St. Paul often calling upon the Christians with whom he had to do to fix their observation upon those that were good Brethren says he be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ Thus I have very briefly considering the largeness of the Subject shewn what Offences were to come by laying before you the principal and most obvious Offences which we know by the Predictions of the Scripture and alas for the World by too sad experience And now I proceed to the second Point which was to consider why it must needs be that Offences should come that is why it was not to be expected but that these or such Scandals as these would be given to the World And this Enquiry is necessary to be
it and speak to it and desire it to bless him and believe that it will do so and he must withal take it for his Supreme Deity and then he shall be allowed to pass for an Idolater nay more for one that is not fit to live upon the Earth but to be cut off from the people as those Israelites were once to be served who enticed their brethren away to serve other gods Now for my own part I do not think that even these kinds of Worshippers if there are any such to be found in the world as I believe there are not ought to be thus served for it were barbarous Inhumanity to kill those who ought to be taken care for in an Hospital proper for them For what greater madness can be imagined than for a man at the same time to worship a sensless thing as the Supreme God and to believe that it is a sensless thing as he must do if he excludes all apprehension of an invisible and spiritual Godhead For by the Supreme God all men understand something that is able to help or to hinder and that knows when to do the one and when the other and is willing to do accordingly And therefore to worship either Sun Moon or Stars or any visible or corporeal Deity and at the same time to exclude all sense and apprehension of a spiritual and invisible Godhead is to worship a thing because I am sure it knows something while I am as sure at the same time that it knows nothing at all for that which has nothing of a spiritual and invisible Nature has no knowledge of any thing no more than a Block has and if to worship such a thing knowing it to be such be all the Idolatry that ever was in the world I do believe you will all grant that there never was an Idolater in the world who might not have been easily persuaded to fall down upon his knees to a Tree to believe it to be his Father and to ask it Blessing only there is this difference in the case that such a distempered man might possibly believe that Tree capable of blessing him but it seems the Idolater must be more mad than so for he must at the same time believe that what he worships knows nothing of him and is not and cannot be concern'd about him because he excludes all sense and apprehension of a spiritual and invisible Godhead in his corporeal Deity But if the Maker of this Notion did really think that his Idolater was a man in his Wits then he has really made the Idolater to be the very same with the Atheist whereas they are two Persons This Rule of the Text hath two parts as I have shewn one that we are to worship God which he that doth not is an Atheist another to worship God only which he that doth not is an Idolater But now he that hath no sense and apprehension of a spiritual Godhead and yet worships for the Supreme God sensless Matter does not if he be in his Wits believe that there is any God at all and if he pretends to worship the Sun or the Moon or Leeks and Onions without any reference to any thing that can see or hear help or hinder understand or chuse any thing it is manifestly in derision of all pretence to Religion and Worship whatsoever So that the true and only Notion of Idolatry is only at last a true Notion of Atheism very odly represented and so as an ingenious Atheist would have done it much better for himself We are therefore to look upon this True and Only Notion of Idolatry to be an over-strain'd Repetition of what has been to much better advantage pretended by those of the Roman Communion viz. That a man cannot be an Idolater who doth firmly believe there is One God the Maker of Heaven and Earth and who doth worship him as the Supreme God and Lord of all This indeed is something that is it is what we understand but then this is very false as I shall demonstrate by plain Testimony of Scripture And in the first place The Text seems to give clear Evidence against it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only c. For they all say that this speaks of Divine Worship and at other times they grant that to give Divine Worship to any thing that is not God is Idolatry But now the Text supposes not only that a man ought to give Divine Worship to God but it expresly says that he should give it to him only It is therefore possible to give Divine Worship to God and to give Divine Worship to something else too which is not God and to do that they themselves confess to be Idolatry and therefore it is possible to acknowledge and to worship One God the Maker of Heaven and Earth and yet to be guilty of Idolatry which is a Point that I think fit to insist upon something more particularly because I perceive there are many that are very loath to have it believed And first I shall insist upon that Instance which was the occasion of these words The Devil promised our Saviour That he would give him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them if he would fall down and worship him Now I think there is no question but that to worship the Devil is Idolatry but the question is Whether the Devil was so arrogant as to desire to be worshipped so as to exclude the belief and the worshipping of God who is the Supreme Lord of all But indeed it ought not to be question'd that he did not desire any such thing but that himself acknowledged the Being of God For in his very first Temptation he said If thou be the Son of God c. which was a plain acknowledgment of the Being of God And so in his second Temptation he said If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down for it is written He shall give his angels charge over thee c. So that he did not only acknowledge the Being of God but he acknowledged also the Truth of the Scripture Nay when he promised to Jesus the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them if he would fall down and worship him it appears by St. Luke that he did by no means pretend to be the Supreme Disposer and Governor of the World i.e. to be the Supreme God but acknowledged him that was truly so for thus it is said Luke 4.6 And the devil said unto him All this power will I give thee for it is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give it Now here the Devil plainly acknowledged that this Power was but delivered to him and not originally in him and this was as plain a signification as could possibly be given that he did not design to draw our Saviour to worship him as the Supreme Deity since he confessed a Superior Whereas therefore our Saviour answered him Get thee behind
wanting to maintain it When all Flesh had corrupted their ways God came and swept away Mankind with a Flood and saved Noah to be the Father of a new and better Generation When their Prosperity had corrupted their ways he called Abraham forth to preserve true Religion in him and in his Family and these and the like Providences are Pledges of the same care to interpose in behalf of Truth and Righteousness when the Faithful seem to fail from among the Children of Men. While God seems to let the World alone and to suffer all Men to go on in their own ways as if he took no notice of them nor were at all concerned at what they did he is all the while trying and proving what they are not indeed for his own Information for he knows all things but for the instruction of those that are to come after If he at every turn should interpose when we think it needful we should very seldom know who are sincere and who are Hypocrites it is very fit that it should be sometimes seen whether Men are what they pretend to be whether indeed they are concerned for that Truth for which they have once pretended a mighty Zeal whether they are governed by Conscience as they say or by mere worldly and politick Considerations for such Discoveries as these are very instructing and serve for the bringing about of much good in the World and in the Church which we may reasonably presume to be one cause why when the Son of Man comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth because while he suffers the World to go on as if he minded it not he is trying those that pretend to Faith and upon the Tryal many are discovered not to have it In short Divine Providence is so far from being regardless of the Affairs of Men that it then most of all shews it self when Men are tempted to think that it regards nothing i. e. when there is but little Faith to be found in the Earth and this will be abundantly demonstrated at the close of all things that is at the Day of Judgment which will be the most convincing Act of Providence that ever was in the World and one Forerunner of it will be that Question Where is the promise of his coming And now the use of all ought to be that which is the declared intention of our Saviour in the beginning of the Parable And he spake a Parable to them to the end that men ought always to pray and not to faint For the true Ground of Prayer is Faith in the Providence and Promises of God and if there be no time when these fail then ought Men always to pray and not to faint i.e. they ought always to depend upon God's Providence they ought always to believe his Promises they ought always to be certain that their Prayers are heard and will turn to good account for them that God is gracious to all and much more to them that love and serve him and if they do all this then they will always pray and not faint i.e. and not be discouraged And if they ought always to pray then also when they are most apt to be discouraged and when there is but little Faith to be found upon the Earth nay then most of all because when Temptations to Unbelief are greatest we should the most of all strengthen our selves by recourse to God and dependance upon him To this Instance in Prayer there are two things must go 1. A stedfast Resolution to walk in all the ways of God and not to be diverted out of them by any worldly Interest whatsoever For he can have no Faith to go to God who thinks of taking care for himself without regard to his Duty to God A Man is not in a condition to seek the Favour of God or to commend his case to him that contrives how to shift for himself without him 2. A perfect resignation of himself to the Will of God for by this also it is that a Man entitles himself to his Favour and Blessing The most effectual way to obtain the particular Blessings we pray for at any time if they are such things as may prove evil as well as good for us is to leave the matter after all to the disposal of Divine Providence for then if we obtain them we get his Blessing with them too if we do not we are sure to get his Blessing without them which is the general thing we pray for always With these Dispositions we are in a fit case to present our Prayers to God for Spiritual Blessings for our selves and for the Church of Christ which will assuredly come accompanied with Temporal ones too if it be best for us and if God sees that it is better for his Church to be prosperous than to be afflicted in this World and then it is better so to be when Men are sufficiently prepared for it by God's Correction and their own Repentance Men ought therefore always to pray and not to faint for their Prayers thus qualified will not fail of obtaining what they ask which our Saviour thought good to illustrate by an Example in the Parable delivered before the Text viz. of an unjust Judge that neither feared God nor regarded man who nevertheless upon the importunity of a Widow did what was right in her case much more shall God hear the Prayers of his faithful Servants For 1. He is the Just God and is of himself ready to right those that do at any time suffer wrong 2. He is also the merciful God that regardeth Men and when we desire things of him that are needful he is of himself ready to grant what we ask or at least that which is more needful than what we ask 3. Whereas the Judge in the Parable seem'd to contemn the Poverty and Meanness of that Person that sued to him for Justice for which reason she is represented here to be a Widow one of a destitute Condition that wanted a Patron to assert her Right God who is Just and Good to all is particularly gracious to his Servants and esteems them highly and no Circumstances of Meanness and Distress which he suffers them to fall into can alter his Favour towards them for all which Reasons if the Judge in the Parable granted the Widow's Suit merely because she lay upon him and was troublesome to him much more will God to whom we are never troublesome when we make our Requests known to him grant what we ask because he is Righteous and Gracious and loveth and pitieth us as a Father doth his Children The Fourteenth Sermon AN ASSIZE-SERMON PREACHED at St. Maries in Bury 1678. Levit. XIX xii Ye shall not swear by my name falsly THE Religious Use of an Oath depends chiefly upon the Matter and the Discharge The Matter must be worthy of that Obligation which an Oath implies in promising it must not be unlawful that we may swear in Righteousness
few to the prejudice of all others And therefore while it was pure they could not bear it whose Gain was their Godliness and who had been used to tell Lies in Hypocrisie 3. The proneness of Mankind to Superstition is another cause of disapproving what God approves The true Disciples of Christs are according to their Religion for a plain Faith a pure and simple Worship and for a few Mysteries no more than God has made And for making Charity and Purity the end of all these But generally speaking people are for being saved by a multitude of Ceremonies with a Priest to administer them They love to be amused and to have their Imaginations entertained with Mysteries that they do not understand and then to believe that their Souls have received a great deal of good by it On the other side Christianity does very little gratifie the Fancy and labours very much to inform the Understanding and therefore has been thought a Religion fit only for Philosophers being not accommodated enough to the Vulgar unless it were dressed out with more Mystery and Pageantry But then the ancient Fathers made no doubt to call it a Philosophy and such a one as was designed to make Plowmen and vulgar Persons Philosophers i. e. to cure them of Superstition and to inform their minds with the knowledge of the most profitable Truths This is the true business of Christian Priests not to make gain to themselves by deceiving people that were to be deceived nor to get power and dependencies by those Doctrines whereby the people get ease and liberty and ignorance but instead of nourishing and encouraging to repress and correct the proneness of Mankind to Superstition 4. These two opposite Infirmities a fondness of any thing that is new on the one hand and a passionate Zeal for that which has some Antiquity on the other do by turns promote this Mischief Some Errors have very successfully taken place at first when they were Entertainments to those that loved Novelty and the same Errors in process of time are hugged by others because they have the appearance of great Antiquity They are few in comparison that had not rather be told what is Late and what is Ancient than what is True To which we may add 5. The vast influence that prejudice and prepossession has upon Mens understandings which is very often so great that it will not allow any thing to be said on the other side and so condemns him that offers Truth before he is heard or if a hearing cannot be avoided it is able sometimes to divert the attention or if attention be given it can corrupt the Judgment Men in those circumstances are but ill Judges whatever their natural Abilities are They love one side of the Question they bate the other and they judge accordingly 6. In many Persons the impatience of considering and weighing things and the ease of letting others judge for them without examining Particulars is the cause of false Judgment For the ease that a Man gets this way inclines him to believe that there are Judges who cannot err and will be sure to tell him nothing but Truth and this disposition is a mighty friend to those that pretend to so high an Authority because it gives them an opportunity to say what they list and to determine what they please Whoever therefore comes with truth on the other hand against an Authority that must not be thought capable of mistaking 't is like to be welcome neither to those that teach nor to those that are taught for in effect he comes to the former to tell them that they must quit their power and to the latter that they must quit their ease These are some of the causes of Men's condemning those whom God justifies by which it appears that it is an Evil which comes of Evil. And the conclusion we are to make of them it is this That we do by no means square our Professions and our Actions by so false a Rule as that of pleasing Men and gaining the favour and good Words of Men for they may and they often have and I doubt not but they often will condemn those whom God justifies and by the same reason they will justifie those whom God condemns To get Favour and to avoid Disgrace is a happiness which he that scorns is not wise but 't is no rule for a Man to live by and he that makes it so cannot be honest Man may condemn those whom God justifies That is the first Point The second is this 2. That to be condemned by Man is tolerable if God justifies A Truth so clear that more Words cannot make it clearer but they may serve to fasten it more upon our Minds Let us consider such things as these 1. The infinite disproportion between GOD and Man St. Paul's meaning was that GOD justifies and Man condemns and to shew that in comparison no body condemned in this case he puts his meaning into the form of a Question It is God that justifies who is he that condemns A wise Man will not be much troubled to be rail'd at by a Slave if he be honoured by a King 2. We can cetainly tell how to please God because we know what profession and what practice he approves for he hath told us what they are and we may believe him We are secure also that what will please him to day will do so to morrow and that what he accounts good service now he will always reckon to be so For God changes not and can by no means contradict himself He conceals no part of our Duty from us and therefore to gain his Favour we need not go forward and backward nor contradict our selves neither If we study to approve our selves to God as we have but one Lord to please so he is ever constant to himself our way is one and plain and our rule the same yesterday to day and for ever 3. God knows the very secrets of our hearts and the springs of all our actions and therefore they whom God justifies are truly worthy He that can bear the All-seeing Eye of God is in reality all that he appears to be he is that Just Faithful and Unbiassed Man and he has that pure and clear Mind which if we could see with our bodily Eyes we should as Plato fancied be ready to fall down and worship it Man justifies only by the outward appearance and sometimes happens to be pleased with profession and service where nothing is meant of that which is so well taken A Knave and a Hypocrite may win thanks from Man but where God justifies there is Faithfulness and Integrity and whoever condemns such an one disgraces himself more than him 4. If God justifies us our own hearts do at the same time acquit and absolve us says St. John If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And 't is true on the other side that if God condemns us not
then have we confidence of our selves By doing those things that please him we are sure to please our selves By making him our Friend we shall infallibly make one Friend more and that is our own Consciences which is infinitely more to us than the opinion of the World 'T is a plain case that we approve our selves to God by following Truth and Goodness and this we know will not put us upon struggling 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 plagu'd with a sad 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 that 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 nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height 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 he 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 whom 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 discourag'd if God justifies 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 Doctrine we profess for they know us better than we do ourselves 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 examine 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 sweling 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
Faith we argu'd it upon the same Principles and with the same Calmness that we did any other Subject whatsoever by Arguments drawn from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures or from the Testimonies of the ancient Fathers as the Nature of the thing required us to do If these did not Convince they never flew off to the Common-place Topicks of the 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 where-ever it was still continued to differ from them Instead of calling me a Heretick or Schismatick or thundring out Damnation against me 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 good Estate and intimately acquainted with divers R. C's 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 persuaded 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 then 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. S's Principles and was thereby become such a mighty Man of Controversie that none of our Divines durst cope with him He in whose Hands the Dean of Paul's 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 answering in a few Sheets all the Books and Sermons that had ever been published or preach'd against them but in the humble Character of a Country Priest a little inconsiderable Man amongst them and his Dress was accommodated to his Character that so under this disguise he might talk with the greater Advantage to her 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 gained 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 Gray's-Inn Feb. 21 1686. I shall say nothing of the Menage of the Conference it 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 pas'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 persuaded 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
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 both as to the Accidents and nature of bread I grant that the Accidents of bread would be the Body of Christ and if it be not the same both as to the Nature and Accidents I deny it This I profess not to understand Fath. As to the Doctor 's Argument it includes a Sophism as will appear when brought into form because it involves four Terms because he supposes in one Proposition for the Accidents of Bread and in the other for the Nature Dr. In the Argument I used I went upon this Supposition That the Accidents of Bread were only to be understood as the Answerer supposes and therefore I have not confounded the Nature and the Accidents of Bread together Besides the Distinction between the Nature of Bread and the Accidents of Bread was not to be remembred any more by the Answerer because I proceed upon his Supposition that the Accidents only are broken Now if St. Paul speaks of nothing but what is broken and Accidents only are broken and yet if he speaks of the very Flesh of Christ too then the Accidents of the Bread are the very Flesh of Christ And whereas the Answerer by his last Answer means the nature of Christ's body as he says I understood him of the Nature of Bread And now once more I desire him to shew me where the four Terms are Fath. The Text of St. Paul the Dr. takes for his Medium and argues from a double Supposition as first taking it for the Accidents of Bread which were broken and afterwards for the substance of Christ's Body under the Accidents in which latter sense it signifies the same that is meant by our Saviour in St. John Dr. I observe the Answerer will allow nothing to be broken but Accidents I observe also that nothing is said to be the Body of Christ or the Communion of the Body of Christ but what is broken If therefore nothing is broken but Accidents then Accidents are either according to the Answerer's long proof the very Body of Christ or according to the Apostle the Communion of the Body of Christ But neither are the Accidents of Bread the Body of Christ nor the Communion of the Body of Christ And this I say is not answered and believe will not be answered by any Man that maintains that St. Paul does not here speak properly of Bread Fath. All along in my Discourse I have supposed that when St. Paul speaks of this Bread he spoke of the H. Eucharist in which were contained both the Accidents of Bread and the true body of Christ How the Doctor has disproved this Doctrine so clearly as to justifie the Reformation I understand not Because I conceive no private Persons or particular Church ought to pretend a Reformation without clear Evidence whether the Doctor has given such I leave to the consideration of the Readers And whether having broken off from the great Body of the Vniversal Church and its Testimony he can possibly have any certain Rule to arrive at Christian Faith If Scripture be pretended interpreted by a fallible Authority how Certainty can be obtained or why a Socinian following Scripture for his Rule of Faith is not to be believed as well as any other Reformer following the same Rule I see not Signed W. Clagett Peter Gooden Dr. CLAGETT's Answer TO A PAPER Delivered to Him By Father GOODEN The Paper ARticles of Christian Faith are Truths Truths are impossible to be False Therefore Articles of Christian Faith are impossible to be False Therefore those who obtain Articles of the Christian Faith must have some Rule to acquire them by which cannot deceive them To a Parliamentary Protestant the ancient Fathers cannot be such a Rule because they are accounted Fallible Nor Councils because they also are accounted Fallible Nor Scriptures sensed by a Fallible Authority because all such Interpretations may be False And therefore Faith cannot be obtained by any such means For that which is doubtful can only create Opinion which is also doubtful And he that doubts in Faith the Apostle says is Infidelis And a Company of Doubters are not a Church of Faithful but a Society of such as the Apostle calls Infidels Signed Peter Gooden The ANSWER Pap. Articles of Christian Faith are Truths Ans The Design of the Disputer is to prove that we are Doubters and therefore Infidels But never did any Man begin a Business more unluckily for at the very first dash he takes it for granted that we do undoubtedly believe Articles of Christian Faith to be Truths for otherwise he ought to have proved that they are so But there is another Misfortune he is faln into no less than that For his Argument to prove that we must needs be Doubters is that we want an Infallible Rule Now if he is sure that we want an Infallible Rule and that without such a Rule there can be no Faith I am sure he does notoriously contradict himself by supposing that we believe all Articles of Christian Faith to be Truths though we have no such Rule This is a very hopeful Paper and like to make wise Converts which ends in making us Infidels and begins to prove it by an Argument that manifestly supposes us to be Believers which also pretends that we have no infallible Rule and therefore can be sure of no Point of Faith but yet manifestly supposes us to be assured of some without it which shews the Paper to be a trifling Paper and worth no more Consideration But because the Disputer is said to boast so much of the Argument contained in it I will go on with every Clause of it to convince him if he does not already know it that there is not a Line in it but is either false or nothing to the purpose Pap. Truths are impossible to be False Ans By Truths the Disputer means the Truth of Things or of Propositions and therefore this is a vain and fulsome saying which does not advance his Reasoning one jot farther than it was before For this is no more than to say That which is true is true and it cannot possibly be but Truths must be Truths I think he applies himself to us as if we wanted not only Christian Faith but common Sense Pap. Therefore Articles of Christian Faith are impossible to be false Ans There is no doubt of this supposing that they are Truths So that the Argument he begins with being put into the right order and into other Words is this It is impossible but Truths must be Truths but Articles of Christian Faith are Truths Therefore it is impossible but they must be Truths The ancient Fathers had made wise work with Christianity if they