for St. Paul to declare to the Corinthians this great and hidden mystery if there were any But he declares the contrary telling them it was Bread which they did eat 1 Cor. xi 26 As often as ye eat this bread and the Bread is eaten after the words of Consecration If then it be Bread when we eat there is no change at all And I pray you let us observe also St. Paul's manner of Consecration First he tells them that he delivered unto them what he had received of the Lord to shew his fidelity in the business then proceeds to the form of consecrating the Bread And when he comes to the Cup he saith This Cup is the new Testament in my blood Mark I pray you He doth not say This Wine but This Cup. I here ask the Papists is this a literal or a figurative Speech If literal then the Cup is changed into the Blood so saith the letter Wine is not here mentioned And if you talk of God's Power God can as easily change the Cup into his Blood as the Wine The Papists then will needs have a figure in this Consecration so we in that of the Bread for it were absurd to take one literally and the other figuratively And I presume the Papists will not dare to say that St. Paul here prevaricated in delivering what he received from the Lord yet St. Paul's words differ somewhat from Christ's but if we take them figuratively they are in effect the same which plainly shews all here is figurative The Papists then having no Scripture expressing any substantial change of the Bread and we having a Scripture clearly expressing that it remains Bread after Consecration I suppose their figment of Transubstantiation is sufficiently confuted For had we ten Scriptures declaring the same they were of no more force than one In Humane Evidences many are of more weight than one because Man may erre God cannot Yet there want not other Scriptures strongly implying a denial of Christ's Corporal presence in the Sacrament First Our Saviour at the Institution of this blessed Sacrament commands his Disciples to celebrate it in Remembrance of him and it seems very incongruous to desire men to remember that person who is present before them Secondly Acts iii. 21. St. Peter tells us That the heavens must receive Christ until the times of restitution of all things And therefore we see Acts vii 56. when he was pleased to shew himself unto that blessed Martyr St. Stephen he did not descend from Heaven but opened the Heavens and strengthened the eyes of Stephen to behold him at that great distance Thirdly Ioh. xvi Where our blessed Saviour discourses largely to his Disciples of going â—rom them and their great Sorrow caused thereby he uses several Arguments to allay it and in conclusion promises to send them the Holy Ghost the Comforter of whom they had then but a very obscure notion and could not receive any present comfort by it But had our Saviour promised to return again presently and be daily in the celebration of his last Supper which we find was daily celebrated by the Apostles this would doubtless have been the greatest comfort imaginable to them Who then can doubt but that our Saviour would have given them this great comfort by telling them so had he intended any such thing as the Papists groundlesly believe But of this we find not one tittle 'T is a common saying Facilè credimus quod volumus We easily believe the thing we desire Wherefore were there I do not say a clear expression but any good intimation of that the Papists would have us believe what Christian would not most gladly and readily catch at it and believe it with all his heart For sure it would be a great and daily comfort to us to go to the Altar of our blessed Saviour Jesus that died for us there corporally present as they believe and there with Mary Magdalen adore him kiss those blessed feet that were pierced for us wash them with our tears and receive them and his whole Body into our breasts If it be said All this may as well be done now by Faith I grant a lively Faith of this affords great comfort to the Soul but whil'st our Soul is united to the Body we cannot so refine and spiritualize the affections of it but that we shall still hanker after some bodily comfort And I verily believe the bodily part of the Papists Devotions to this Sacrament as also to the worshipping of Saints with their Shrines Reliques Pictures and such like is a great means to gain People to their Religion To worship God in Spirit and Truth only though it be the only true Christian Worship yet it is a sublime and difficult thing and requires the Spiritual sublimation of Hearts by Grace And this is the reason of the Jews so often and so easily falling away to the gross Idolatry of the Heathens And in a great measure operates in like manner on the Papists And could we find any warrant in Scripture to save our Souls with such bodily worship I believe very few of us would be found so spiritual as not to encline to it Wherefore Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall All this while I have said nothing of their Idolatrous adoring their consecrated Wafer which they will needs have to be Christ's real Body But if it be not then they themselves confess an evident truth without their Confession That they are as great Idolaters as any Heathens adoring a dead Wafer for the ever-living God And I desire them also to remember the Determination of their Council of Constance mentioned before in the Supplement That the intention of the Priest in Consecration of the Host is requisite to effect their supposed Transubstantiation wherein if he fail they grant that there is no substantial change in the Bread nor any Consecration at all Now considering how many careless dissolute yea and villainous Priests are amongst them 't is more than probable that many of them intend not at all this business when they are about it and some as I said before in their Hearts laugh at it as a meer Mock shew to gull the Spectators who notwithstanding with all reverence adore the unconsecrated Wafers of those villainous Priests All which makes their case so dangerous that no man of any tolerable Reason or Conscience would venture without clear Scripture-warrant for it Wherefore I beseech them to consider that we have a plain text of Scripture against Transubstantiation viz. That it is Bread which we eat in this Sacrament after the Consecration of it besides many other Scriptures intimating the same we have both Reason and Sence also on our side which two latter we are bound to follow unless forbidden by some plain text of Scripture which they can never shew bringing only one figurative speech viz. This is my body which they will needs have to be literally spoken whereas there are many more the like
same which it was before Consecration so Saviour's Body after the Resurrection remains the very same both in form and substance as it was before Which words are as plain in themselves and as flatly contrary to the present Romish belief as any Man can express What I have here produced out of these two Fathers is found in those Books of theirs which the Papists themselves allow to be their own authentick Writings not out of any controverted Books as the Papists often do cite many things out of spurious Books which bear only the Name of Fathers but are not their own genuine Writings and acknowledged by Bellarmine and other learned Papists to be supposititious And now I desire the Papists first to produce any one cotemporary or later Father or Doctor of the Church that condemns St. Austin's or Theodoret's Opinion or Arguments in this Matter and what they wrote was published to all the Church Certainly then if they had published this flatly contrary to the received Opinion of the Church some or rather many would have reproved them but none ever did ancient or later Assuredly then the Church did not believe Transubstantiation for that expresly declares the substance of Bread to be changed and also necessarily infers that Christ's Body is in many places at once and that his whole Body is contained within the compass of a little Wafer all which St. Austin flatly denies It is most evident that St. Austin and the Church then believed directly contrary to what the Papist-Church now believes And I farther desire the Papists to consider That what I have set down out of St. Austin is not a Sentence fallen from him as it were by chance but a serious Affirmation in Answer to a Question concerning this very Matter and the thing not only barely affirmed but proved by many convincing Arguments Secondly I desire the Papists to produce any one Father or Doctor of the Catholick Church within four I may say five or six or more hundred years after Christ that by way of Doctrine and in a continued Discourse plainly affirms That the substance of Bread is changed into Christ's Body or any accidents of Bread hanging in the Air without real Bread to support them as their subtil fanciful Schoolmen now talk or that Christ's real Body can be in many distinct places at once or that his whole Body can be contained within the compass of an inch as it is now believed by the Papists And had the ancient Church believed such strange mystical things of this blessed Sacrament as the Romanists now do who can doubt but some one or other of the many famous Writers in those days would have some where explicated and declared the same I know full well that some of the ancient Fathers have in their Rhetorical Discourses expressions that carry some colour for them and as many for us which truly I value not much on either side for a very good Reason which Valentia the Jesuit gives being urged with some Arguments out of the Fathers against himself concerning Transubstantiation That before this Question of the Sacrament was agitated 't is no wonder if some of the Fathers minùs consideratè rectè hac de re senserint scripscrint did not so considerately think and write of this Matter but took great liberty of speech not fore-seeing the ill use would be made of it And therefore to stir up the People's Devotion to the Sacrament which was fallen much from the primitive zeal to great coldness they used high Rhetorical expressions such as the Papists themselves will not allow of in a literal sence As when Chrysostome telleth the People That their Teeth are fixed in the Flesh of Christ their Tongues bloudied with his Bloud and that the Assembly of the People was made red by the same Which strange expressions in the Papist's behalf and some other as much against them Bellarmine is forced to excuse by a Rhetorical Hyperbole but are really inexcusable And if the Papists will not go home with us to the uttermost of their expressions why should we be bound to foot it just according to their measures here to move there to stop just as they please to lead the Dance And I shall make this further Use of Valentia's and Bellarmine's Sayings That if the ancient Fathers did write so inconsiderately of our Matters in Controversie how is it possible for any Man to settle his Conscience and build his Faith upon the Writings of the Fathers they having so many Sayings so contrary one to the other And still I pray you remember that not one of them writes directly of this Subject All which will force us to adhere close to that only true and safe Foundation of our Faith the Word of God who is one and the same to day and for ever I have written all this to give some satisfaction to those Papists who are so inclined to hearken to the Fathers whom by Saint Austin's Rule we are to believe no farther than they can prove what they affirm from Scripture Having as I humbly conceive fully answered the Papist's Pretence from Scripture for their Transubstantiation I shall now very briefly answer two or three Scriptures more which they likewise pretend for some other Errours For Purgatory that of 1 Cor. iii. where there is mention of trying Men's Works by fire and saving by fire c. which relates no more to their Purgatory-fire than to a fire swilling a Hog as appears most evidently by the subject Matter in hand Saint Paul discourses there of his own and Apollo's preaching the Gospel and building up the Corinthians in the Faith whereof Christ is the only Foundation You must remember that Apollo was a Jew mighty in the Scripture as 't is said Acts 18. but converted to the Christian Faith mightily convinced the Iews proving that Iesus was Christ yet it seems did some-what adhere to the Iewish Ceremonies and as I humbly conceive did thereby cause some Divisions among the Corinthians which Saint Paul doth there gently hint not willing to disgust a new Beginner yet a great Labourer in the Gospel For there Saint Paul accuses the Corinthians of Divisions some crying I am of Paul others I am of Apollo That is I am with Paul against Iewish superstitious Ceremonies I am with Apollo for them Now Saint Paul desirous to unite all in Christ tells them that neither Paul nor Apollo was any thing but Christ must be all in all for he is the only Foundation and all Doctrines to be preached must be built on him and all tend to Edification in the Spirit as Christ told the Samaritan Woman that we are no more to worship God either at Samaria or at Ierusalem that is we are not to worship God either after the Samaritan or after the Iewish Customs and Ceremonies which Saint Paul here calls Wood Hay Stubble but only in Spirit and in Truth which he calls Gold Silver precious Stones All those external carnal
Fathers but by this and the following discourses you will find the doctrine of man is no sure ground to build your Faith and Salvation on but only on the Word of God Moreover were the Doctrines of the Fathers of far more Authority yet among their Writings there are many spurious Books foisted in by idle Monks who were the common transcribers of the Fathers Works before Printing Bellarmine the great Champion of the Papists doth acknowledge this and hath written a Book to distinguish the true from the false yet hath reserved some in his Catalogue for true making for their Doctrines as spurious as those he hath cast out You see then 't is very difficult to know which are the genuine Books of the Fathers and when you know that 't is as difficult to know what is the clear sence of their Writings and thirdly to know which are their Orthodox Opinions which their Errors for there is no learned Papist but will acknowledge they had Errors and after all this we have no warrant to build our Faith and Salvation on their Doctrine Wherefore to save all men this great labour both needless and fruitless I resolved on this short easie plain way to prove That in the Scripture alone without any other Book in the world we have clear full and compleat instruction for matters of belief and practice in summ all things necessary for our salvation in Scripture and that there is no need to consult any other Book but the Bible alone for all And Secondly I do here further prove that it is both dangerous and impious to affirm the Scriptures are not compleat in themselves for our Salvation And Thirdly that 't is both irreligious and idolatrous to believe in any man or assembly of men in matters of Salvation which saves all men the labour of looking farther than the Bible for it And because the Papists pretend Scripture which we acknowledge to be our Rule of Faith for some of their Opinions differing from us I have here I hope fully Explained and Answered those Scriptures especially what they pretend for Transubstantiation and Corporal Presence of our Saviour Christ in the Lords Supper which I shall add at the end in a short Tract by it self because it is not at all contained in that Text whereon my three Sermons depend And thus I hope this little Book if not confuted subservient to Scripture may without any other satisfie and settle any one in all the Controversies we have with the Papists First by having proved we are not to believe any thing with divine Faith but what is plainly contained in Scripture Secondly by having Answered what they pretend from Scripture Thirdly because for all other differences with us they have no Scripture Now if any Papist can confute me in any one of these material principal things I shall heartily thank him and promise in the word of a Christian I shall readily acknowledge my Error and embrace his Truth But if he only cavil or scurrilously scoff at trivial things as some to their own shame and reproach have formerly done I shall thank them also for this for thereby they prove their own Errors and confirm my Truths I have this one thing more only to trouble the Reader with The first of my three Sermons on that Text Search the Scriptures was Preacht in September 1677 and in June 1678. comes out a little book to the same intent of that Sermon expressing several things in it and in the very same manner by what means I know not but this I and many others know that my Sermon was Preached almost a year before that Book came forth and therefore I could not have them from that Author called The same Author that wrote the whole Duty of Man who it seems must countenance Books to the worlds end However I thought it fit to Print that Sermon with the other two first because it contains several things not in that Book and secondly the other two would be very defective without it And now good Reader I beg your favourable Censure if you find any small Mistakes or Errors for you know and I confess being a man I may err humanum est errare sed in errore perseverare belluinum est therefore I abhorr it I conclude all with my Prayers for you and begging your Prayers for me that God in his great mercy by the light of his holy Word and holy Spirit would guide us all into all saving truth And to his Divine Majesty from whom cometh every good and perfect gift be ascribed as is most due all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON JOHN V. Ver. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life WHEN I last appeared here my business was to arm you with Christian Courage and firm resolution to fight manfully the good fight of Faith with full assurance of a glorious reward from the sure hand of our most gracious God who never fails to reward those that seek and serve him And this our fight must be not with the arm of flesh and sword of steel which is often subdued and broken by a stronger but with the power of the Word and Sword of the Spirit which no power upon earth or under the earth can subdue because he that is with us is stronger than all that are against us Now for the present I shall endeavour to shew you what we are to fight for And this we learn from the Apostle St. Iude who commands us to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints once for all the faith which was delivered by our Saviour and his Apostles once to remain to all future Generations for the Salvation of all Mankind Which Faith is contained in the Holy Scriptures and written there for our Learning as the Scripture it self tells us Search therefore the Scriptures for it for in them ye have Eternal Life In these words we have two things set forth unto us First A Command Secondly The Reason of the Command The Command to Search the Scriptures then the Reason of this Command for in the Scriptures we have Eternal Life Both these things are so plain in themselves that they need no explication But the perverse wits of evil men who can find nodum in scirpo have invented some difficulties in them to excuse their pernicious practices clean contrary to them The Governours of the Romish Church guilty of such practices have invented these difficulties For they having many things in their Church Devotions quite contrary to Scripture as I shall shew you e're this business be ended find it necessary to shut up the Scripture from the Laity who would not so blindly be seduced into them had they the light of Holy Scripture to discover the grossness of them And therefore First They will have it that this command of our Saviour to Search the Scriptures belongs only to the Clergy and they are to teach the people out
great examples and leaders to piety and godly life but I say it only to prevent our being led into errors by their Authority who though they were very learned and godly men yet still were men and being men were subject to error and for this cause no assurance can be had in the word of man alone but of him only who was God and man for God only is truth And as for the miracles pretended to be wrought by the Fathers of the Church in confirmation of their Doctrine I answer First We find in no authentick Author any miracles wrought by the prime and principal Fathers of the Church in confirmation of any Doctrine taught by them St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Ierome St. Austine St. Chrysostome St. Gregory Nazianzen and such like Secondly For the pretended Fathers of the Church in later Ages and Mothers also it is sufficiently known what gross and ridiculous impostures have been in later Ages noised abroad for great miracles Our learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath sufficiently set them forth in their proper colours These fine devices began about the six hundredth year after Christ and in a few years after they grew as familiar as jugling feats especially in the female sex of whom I find none that wrought them in the Apostles days when true miracles were frequent among men and when there were women certainly as holy as any whatsoever in future Ages We do not find that the blessed Virgin her self ever wrought any miracle though now the Papists will tell you of a thousand wrought daily by several images of hers But this we know that in the later days lying wonders shall be wrought to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and we also know that whatever seeming miracle is wrought contrary to the word of God is a lying wonder for Gods word is truth and all liars that speak against that But these miracles which they pretend to be wrought at the images of the blessed Virgin and other Saints are apparently contrary to the word of God which commands us not to bow down to nor worship any images and consequently these must needs be lying wonders wrought to deceive the people who are thereby induced to worship those images and do daily visit them and prostrate themselves before them with as much reverence and devotion as if Christ himself were there present This is fully known to every man that hath travelled those parts But the Popish Priests here surely ashamed of their own Devotions will boldly deny it and finding us too strongly fortified with Scripture truth to be seduced by their supposititious Saints with their lying wonders and too quick-sighted to be catched with such stauking horses they come upon us with a whole Army of the Church Militant the Universal Catholick Church meaning the Romish Church falsly so called yea and back'd with Scripture too and so fight us at our own weapon and thence thunder out irresistable Cannon Shot He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publicane Matt. xviii 17. Beloved my time would fail me should I now engage in a fresh battel I shall therefore refer this to another time and for the present add only a few words of direction for those who take comfort in reading the Scripture and desire to improve their knowledge therein but meet with many obscure and difficult places which exceed their capacity in which they would gladly be farther instructed To this I answer first That I conceive it fit to advise with some learned orthodox sober and godly Divine if they have any such in their Neighbourhood for give me leave to say men so compleatly qualified are not every where to be found in these unfortunate days But if they can find any such let them desire his assistance and if this godly person can by other plain places of Scripture and clear reason make the sense of that doubtful place evident to his understanding then he may well conclude that to be the true meaning of the Holy Ghost But if this godly Counsellor makes use of any human Authority that is any one or many Fathers of the Church or Councils or the like to make good his exposition and cannot do it by clear places of Scripture or such circumstances as make that doubtful place clear to your understanding but require you to submit meerly to their Authority then you are to afford him no more than a human belief which helps you nothing forward to your salvation for that wholly depends on divine faith and belief in God not in man as I have shewed you And as for the doubtful places pass them over as doubtful and the clear knowledge thereof not necessary to your salvation God requires of no man beyond the talent which he hath given him and in his infinite goodness hath so provided that all things necessary for salvation may be understood of all What can be more plainly set forth to common understanding than it is in Scripture That there is one God Creator of Heaven and Earth one Saviour Iesus Christ the Son of God who dyed for all men rose again the third day ascended into Heaven and shall come again at the last day to judge and reward every man according to his deeds And then for the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and such like necessary things they are also plainly set forth in Scripture even to vulgar understandings And lastly for our course of life what can be more plainly prohibited than fornication adultery all lasciviousness murther striking railing cousening What can be more plainly commanded than to do justice shew mercy charity c. and in sum to do unto all men as we would have them do unto us Now whosoever shall believe and practise all these plain things my Soul for his he shall never miss of his Salvation though he miss the understanding of a hundred places of Scripture many whereof the most learned understand very little better though they can talk more of them When our Saviour represents unto us the great Judgment day Mat. XXV He doth not call any to his right hand because they understood these and these dark places in Scripture nor curse any on his left hand because they understood them not but the whole Judgment depends on doing or not doing Come ye blessed for ye have fed the hungry cloathed the naked c. and go ye cursed for ye have not done so Wherefore the question in the Gospel is Good Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life and our Saviour's Answer is This do and thou shalt live And S. Paul tells us though we understood all Mysteries yet this profiteth not without Charity Charity and the deeds thereof with a firm belief of so much of Scripture as God enables us to understand would undoubtedly bring us to Christ's right hand in that great day Were but our practice according to the measure of our knowledge it