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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

the Church any more than the Errors of Pergamos made her cease to be so nor that it is impossible the Reformed and the Unreformed part of Christendom should be within the Pale of that one Church which we profess to believe in the Creed any more than it was impossible for the Church of Pergamos to have been a part of the Catholick Church both before and after her Reformation And thus I have gone through the Task I set my self and I hope need to make no Apology for entertaining you with a Controversy of this nature which indeed ought to be no Controversy amongst us But if it were needful I have this to say Whereas the Church of England does not pretend to be an Infallible Guide or Judge and yet requires the People to believe as she believes to profess what she professeth and to do what she enjoineth it is very fit that her Ministers should sometimes make it plain that she requires this because she has reason so to do and is not in these Points deceived though she does not pretend that she cannot err in any I know not whether I have made the things I have discoursed plain enough to every Understanding but whether that be so or not yet every one may perceive that we appeal to his Reason for the Truth and Honesty of our Cause and for my own part if I understood nothing else of the Merits of it I had rather be of a Church which pretends to guide me with Reason than of another that would govern me without it and that because the former is likely to take more care not to mislead me than the latter needs to do which when it has gained me to an implicit Faith and a blind Obedience may lead me whither she pleases As for what I have now said I declare in the Presence of God that I have offered nothing to you but what I believe my self and farther that I am not conscious to my self of any reason why I am fixed in the Communion of this Church in opposition to the other but a full Conviction of the Errors of that Church which if I should profess or practise I could not entertain the least hopes of Salvation And we who are thus convinced are as I take it bound in Conscience to take seasonable opportunities of confirming our Brethren in our Communion and enabling them as well as we can to make it appear that the Arguments and the Answers of the other side are unsatisfactory and vain as I have in some part endeavoured to shew at this time We should indeed not be unwilling to take pains to recover those to the knowledge of the Truth that are educated in damnable Errors but there is much more reason to do all we can to retain those in the profession of the Truth that have been educated in it seeing if they revolt we cannot have that hope of their Salvation which we would fain have of theirs who want sufficient means to discover them It were a blessed state of the Church indeed if all being united in true Faith and Worship we had nothing to do but to persuade and exhort men and to take care of them that they live answerably thereto but since we have two Works upon our hands to guard you against Error as well as to warn you against a wicked Life I do not see how we can discharge our Duty but by doing one as well as the other And that I may not say nothing to the latter I am to tell you in the Conclusion That we do not make the Communion of the best Church in the World to be all in all a man may go to Hell in the Communion of a pure Church and without true Repentance and Reformation the best and purest Church that ever was since the Gospel began could have done him no service And I take it to be as great a Corruption as can be readily thought of for any Church to pretend to save men by a Trick and send them to Heaven any other way than the plain way of keeping the Commandments of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Keep therefore the pure Profession of the Christian Faith but withal keep a good Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Hold fast the form of sound words But still remember that if your Works be not answerable your Faith is vain For not the hearers of the Law but the doers thereof shall be justified Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of our Father which is in heaven The Second Sermon MATTH XVIII 7. Wo unto the world because of offences for it must needs be that offences come But wo to that Man by whom the Offence cometh THE great End of the Gospel is to bring Mankind to Salvation and in order thereunto to convert them from Sin and from all dangerous Error and to lead them to a right Faith and a Holy Life But it is too evident that this End is not attained Universally And if any one should be tempted to suspect that the Christian Religion is not therefore a Divine Revelation because it has in so great part failed of the End which it pretended to pursue he may be easily brought to assurance again by considering the vast good which Christianity hath done in the World but especially by observing that the Gospel hath foretold that all men would not believe and obey Our blessed Lord himself testified that many were called but few were chosen and that strait was the Gate and narrow the way that leadeth to Life and few there be that find it Nay inasmuch as he hath forewarned us of a Day of Judgment and hath told us beforehand That the Word which he hath spoken the same should judge us at the Last Day This was a manifest Declaration that he did not pretend to lead men to Faith and Repentance by such means as could not but be effectual but only by such as were sufficient if we would in any measure comply with his gracious Methods and it was also a plain intimation that a great many would be never the better but the worse for these means that God had provided for their Salvation and that some for not receiving them others for not improving them would fall into greater Condemnation But our Saviour did not foretell these things only but the Causes of them too and what it was that would obstruct the Progress and Design of his Religion For this is the importance of those words of his which I have now chosen for my Subject Wo be to the world because of offences for it must needs be that offences come By Offences or Scandals we are here and almost everywhere in the New Testament to understand those Temptations to Sin and Inducements to Error which some men lay in the way of others They are sometimes otherwise express'd Snares Stumbling-blocks and occasions of Fallings for the

be taken do suppose that when Men suffer for their sins they are not to be accounted greater Sinners meerly for that reason than those who at the same time escape and suffer nothing for when he said that neither should they escape that heard him unless they repented it was implied or at least not denyed that those things happened to the aforesaid Galileans and Jews as a Punishment of their Sins and a plain case it is that in this Life where the Tares and the Wheat grow together that by the same Afflictions God punishes the Sins of some while he manifests the Sincerity of others And in this Case it remains true that those who are punished are not to be accounted greater Sinners than all those that escape of which we need not desire any other Proof than our Saviour's Word for it But in some Cases we have very evident and sensible demonstration of it For sometimes God punishes the Sins of some Men by the Hands of others that are worse than they whom he reserves for far greater Punishments in this Life as the Histories of the Church do abundantly testifie Now by the same reason that it must not be concluded of those that suffer under the Oppressions of others that they are worse than those that oppress them it ought not neither to be concluded of those that do not suffer by them that they are worse than those that do for the former observation is an evident Proof that they do not suffer first who deserve it most Which is a Doctrine that our Saviour thought fit to deliver in his days and will be of constant use while the World lasts to keep Christians at the greatest distance from that Jewish Error That Men may discern God's Love and Hatred by what befals them in this World I will therefore never suffer my self to be run into an ill opinion of any Man or any People by any adversity how great soever it be which happens to them before my Eyes much less will I enter into comparisons I will not conclude from the Affliction I see that there must needs be some great Sin at the bottom which Vengeance has found out And when I see the Sin and cannot forbear acknowledging the Justice of God I will not go on to suppose there is something more than I do see and make him to be a worse Man than he seems to be nor will I conclude that he is worse than those that do not suffer such things And what construction I will forbear to make of a single Person I will much more forbear to make of Multitudes Because I know the Reasons of God's Proceedings with Peoples and Nations and great bodies of Men are by me unsearchable and that time discovers that Wisdom of his Counsels which my Reason cannot fathom In a word I will conclude ill of none because they suffer but rather well of them if I know no cause to the contrary because it is often God's method to afflict his own best Servants and when he punishes for Sin to begin with those that do not most of all deserve it Shall I conclude for instance that the French Protestants have been the greatest Sinners of all the Protestants in Europe or greater than our selves because they have suffered such things God forbid I speak not of those who to their Glory in this World but alas that is little worth it becomes me to say and you to hear it who to their Praise with God and to the encrease of their Reward hereafter in a better Life have suffered the loss of all things to keep a good Conscience but of those whom the Terrors of this World have prevailed with more than the Terrors of the Lord in whom the desire of ease here hath been too hard for the desire of Salvation hereafter I will not say and we must not say that even these were greater Sinners than our selves who have not fallen into their Temptations Such instances as these Brethren do best explain the intention of our Saviour in these words and will affect us with the true sense of them and the more that we look abroad into the World and consider the unsearchableness of God's Judgments and that his ways are past finding out as we cannot but do if we ask our selves the reason why this and that happens the more sensibly we shall acknowledge the Truth of our Saviour's Doctrine in this place and shall forbear passing Judgment upon the unhappy meerly because they are so But yet to take notice of what God doth of this kind in the World is not an unprofitable observation and that because the second point of the three which I have mentioned is as true as the first and that is this 2. That one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who are equally Sinners is That while some are visited with the Rod of God others may take warning by it This Proposition I lay down with great confidence not only of the Truth of it in general but also of the pertinence of it to the Text For you may observe that our Saviour upon mention made of the former of the two tragical Stories observes the latter himself and takes occasion from thence to divert his Hearers from censuring those miserable persons as they were ready to do and to imploy them in reflecting upon themselves I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish He imployed them in reflecting upon their own sins for says he except ye repent and upon their own danger except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And now I am sure it will be granted that our Saviour did not wander from the true intent of God's Providence in the things that happened to those Persons nor make an application of them which was not to the purpose and therefore since he gave warning by their examples it remains true as I said that one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who equally deserve them and I will add who equally need them is this That while some are corrected others may be instructed I rather keep to the case of punishing Sin than trying Virtue because that is the case of the Text tho' I might say too that the reason why all that can bear a tryal are not tryed at the same time is because the tryals of some righteous Men are not only profitable to themselves but the examples of them also are profitable to other good Men to encourage and fortifie them But when God punishes he doth not at one and the same time punish all that deserve it equally but he punishes some that the rest may take warning for if the Sufferings of a few in comparison would instruct all the rest God's end is gained which is that we should learn righteousness when his judgments are abroad in the earth And this is one of those arguments

some awakening Reproof from men or some merciful Providence of God may make the Truth which he is already provided with the belief of effectual to his Conversion But there is little reason to hope this of a man whose very Principles are corrupted and has no fears within himself for a charitable man to take hold upon And therefore that Saying of our Saviour may be well applied to such a Person If the light that is in him be darkness how great is that darkness Moreover as there is little hope to reform that man's evil Practices whose Persuasions make him secure and easy all the while so there is no little difficulty to be met with in trying to undeceive him for men will hold comfortable Errors as long as they can find the least pretence for it And which is not the least mischief of this Offence though such Errors are not laid down without a great trouble yet they are taken up with much readiness they are apt to spread far and wide And to this I believe the experience of the world agrees viz. That although there are mistakes that lead to Trouble of Mind and over-much Restraint yet for one that is led away by such Mistakes an hundred there are that believe comfortable Lies which either wholly take off the Restraints of Religion or in such part as to render them ineffectual 3. Perverse Disputes and an obstinate maintenance of Error by all the Arts of Sophistry has this lamentable evil commonly attending it That it renders many persons utterly careless to examine on which side the Truth lies Perhaps they are but few in comparison that are framed to an inquisitive Spirit and they who are not so framed by Nature or by Education must force their Tempers to Patience and take pains with themselves which is an Employment that men soon grow weary of and commonly they break off pretending it is to no purpose to search any farther but that when there is so much to be said on both sides when there is such an appearance of Reason for and against the same thing it is time for them to give over being Judges for themselves And indeed in things that are either really disputable or of less moment this were not much to be blamed But in matters of high consequence and questions that touch the very Vitals of Religion it often happens that men grow weary of searching Truth and give up themselves wholly to be led by the Authority and Judgment of others after the Controversy is stifly maintain'd for some time on both sides And it were well in this case if it were an even Lay whether they chuse the true Guide or not But when a Guide is to be chosen and followed with an implicit Faith the false Guide hath this Advantage always that he exceeds in Confidence in lofty Pretences in swelling Titles in positive denouncing Damnation to all that are not of his way And though a modest man that speaks justly of things and claims not to be infallible deserves the most credit yet 't is great odds that the other has most Followers amongst those that understand not the Merits of the Cause 4. The same Cause has too often a yet worse Effect and that is to run some persons into Infidelity and an utter neglect of Religion as if no Certainty could be had of the Principles of Religion seeing there is so much Controversy about it And some have said That it will be then time enough for them to believe in God and to worship him when they that pretend to oblige them to it are agreed about it The truth is were it not for that secret Impression of his own Being which God hath left upon our Nature it is not improbable but the monstrous Errors that have been obtruded upon a great part of mankind under the name of Faith and the Force and the Fraud wherewith they have been maintained had let in Atheism like a Deluge upon the world especially considering that there are those in the world who are so full of Zeal for their own way that they have no tenderness for the common Principles of Faith but are rather content that all should sink together than that their own Doctrines should not stand We have been born in hand that no assurance can be had of the Truth of Christianity but from the Authority of such and such men and they that believe upon other Grounds had as good have no Faith at all That if it were possible for them to propound any thing that is false we cannot be certain of any one Article that is true That the same exceptions may be made to the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that are made against the Stories of latter Miracles And finally That by the same reason that any of their Traditions are rejected the Holy Scriptures may be rejected too and indeed we have lived to see the utmost that can be done by Wit and Learning to diminish the Authority of the Bible Now this I say is a most dreadful Offence and has done infinite mischief in the world that men who are violently engaged in a wrong way of Religion care not for the most part what they venture in the service of their own Cause for whilst they lay the same stress upon false or at least disputable Points that they do upon the most necessary and acknowledged Principles of Religion and bend all their Wit to shew that no difference ought to be made they give occasion to men that would fain be Atheists to deceive themselves into what they would be For a very little Consideration will serve to satisfy them that something is false which is propounded to them as an Object of their Faith and they know they have then leave given them to conclude that nothing is true 5. There is another great mischief of Offences that are given by Errors in Doctrine or Practice and a mischief that often happens in the world which is that of running into a contrary Extreme The Church found this by sad experience in the Fourth and Fifth Ages when men of no small Note disputing against one Heresy fell into another of an opposite nature to the no small trouble of Christendom Truth sometimes as well as Virtue lies in the Mean and they that transgress on any one side do not only this mischief to give what authority they can to the wrong side they are of but they do this mischief too of giving occasion to others to offend on the other Extreme Thus the abuse of Church Authority on the one side has bred in some men contempt of all such Authority on the other The Scandals that have been given by propagating Opinions by Force and Violence have produced in many a fond persuasion that there ought to be no restraints whatsoever in matters of Religion Superiors have required unlawful things in Divine Service and to be revenged upon that abuse it has been said that they are not to

themselves allow That there shall be a resurrection of the dead And herein do I exercise my self to have a conscience void of offence towards GOD and men St. Paul and such as he believed all things that were written in the Law and the Prophets those very Writings which the Jews themselves acknowledged to be Divine and tho' to this Faith they added the Doctrine and Practice of a good Life yet they were esteemed Hereticks because they undertook to see with their own Eyes and to judge for themselves instead of submitting to the Authority of the Council that had betrayed and murdered the Lord Jesus 2. They were accused of Sedition too as if they designed to make Stirs and Commotions and to alienate the People from theia Governours Thus when Paul and Silas had converted a multitude of Devout Greeks and not a few of the chief Women at Thessalonica the Jews who believed not moved with Envy took unto 'em certain lewd Fellows of the baser sort and drew some of the Brethren to the Rulers crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also who do contrary to the decrees of Coesar saying That there is another King one Jesus Acts 17.5 6. And yet they never made one step by Word or Deed towards deposing Princes and changing Governments Jesus indeed who had commanded them to pay Tribute unto Caesar had also forbidden them to be of the Religion which Caesar was then of and this was drawn into an accusation of Faction and Disloyalty Thus also the same St. Paul being brought before Foelix at Jerusalem the Jews complained by Tertullian their Oratour That they had found him a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes Acts 24.5 3. They concluded them under a sentence of Damnation as far as they could do it Indeed they would have it thought so impossible for a Christian to be saved that some of them after being converted to Christianity were strongly persuaded that they still ought to keep the Law of Moses and would have mingled Judaism and Christianity together as if there was no hope of Salvation out of the Synagogue Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Acts 15.1 4. As 't is usual in such Cases to damn first and then to kill they delivered the Disciples of Christ to death and pretended the service of God for it For which we may take those remarkable Words of St. Paul describing the Temper of the Jews then and what his own once was Says he I was taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers and was zealous toward God as ye are at this day And I persecuted them even unto the death binding and delivering into prisons both men and women Acts 22.3 4. And in chap. 26. v. 10 11. he declares That he persecuted them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them he persecuted them even into strange cities Such was the entertainment they had from the Jews to whom the Word of Salvation was first delivered But when it was carried amongst the Gentiles they condemned it too For 1. It was run down as if it had brought Irreligion and Atheism into the World insomuch that the ancient Apologists were fain in good earnest to set themselves against this absurd Accusation and to shew that it was not all one to serve God at all and not to serve many Gods That there might be Devotion without bowing down to Images and Religion and Worship without Idolatry and better a great deal without these things than with them It was exclaimed against as a late upstart Religion that began but yesterday and was fitter to be hissed than argued out of the World They used to ask the Christians what sort of Men they could name either Greeks or Barbarians that made their Profession and had their Rites and Worship before Jesus appeared You have forsaken say they the Customs of the Fathers that had been observed of old time in all Cities and Countries you have revolted from a Worship which has had the Tradition of all Ages and the Approbation of Kings and People Law-makers and Philosophers and by almost all the World till such as you appeared who are but of yesterday 3. They try to overwhelm it with the most gross and palpable Untruths they gave it out that the Christians were Worshippers of the Sun nay that they adored an Asses-head and sometimes a Cross They did not stick to say That in their solemn Assemblies they kill'd a Child and committed Incest They also upon no occasion in the World disarm'd them as a seditious and disloyal People and accused them of Treason tho' none ever set better Examples of Fidelity to their Governours To conclude Our Predecessors of the Primitive Church were now and then condemned to several sorts of deaths and it was often a great deal more safe to be some notorious Malefactor than to be a Christian In a word The Gospel met with that Opposition which no Religion ever did before The Gods of other Nations new Gods every day were admitted into a Temple at Rome with some formality and without trouble But when the Disciples of Jesus came to call Men to the Worship of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent Jews and Gentiles conspired to extinguish their Religion and to blot out their name for ever insomuch that the Jews at Rome could tell St. Paul As concerning this Sect we know that it is every where spoken against Those therefore whom God justifies have been and may be condemned by Men Which will not seem strange to any of us if we consider what the Causes of it are For instance 1. That hatred of truth which reigns in a great part of Mankind They cannot bear sound Doctrine nor can they therefore bear those that profess and practice it Truth is against them and therefore they will be against the Truth and all that follow it So long as Pride Lust Avarice Revenge Luxury and such things remain there will be so many Causes of condemning that which God approves To which we must add 2. The inflexibleness of true Doctrine and of those that maintain it to the designs of Worldly Men. Christianity was said to be a perfect Scheme of Religion that would suffer no additions or alterations It was stiff and would not bend to the Pleasure of Priests or of States-men as all that would which the Heathens called Religion among themselves Whilst it was kept in wise and honest hands and truly represented there was no room for Cheating no Allowances for pious Frauds no place for convenient Inventions Innovations could not be brought into the Faith of Christians or the Substance of their Worship but they would be corruptions of both without tampering with it it could not serve the ambition of a