impossible to please God. They are the words of S. Paul to the Hebrews ch 11. v. 16. 2. That there is but one Body one Spirit ... one Lord one Faith. They are the words of the same Apostle to the Ephesians ch 4. v. 4. 5. 3. That we ought to follow the Direction of this one Lord to find out this one Faith. This Direction is written in the Prophet Jeremy ch 6. v. 16. Thus says the Lord stand in the ways see And ask for the Old Paths where is the good Way walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls T is natural for men to please themselves with thinking how much they are wiser than their Predecessours Nothing is more agreable to Man's proud inclinations than to be always finding faults giving magisterial directions for the mending of them And this is that which makes the very Name of Reformation pleasing delightfull To give it its due Reforming is a pretty Thing if it were well applied If every Man would make it his chief business to reform himself O! what a Happy Reformation should we live to see But this alas is much the smallest part of all our Business There is no Vanity no Pleasure in Reforming of our selves We only gain a Victory where we desire it not only triumph over our own faults A proud man would as willingly sit out as play at such small game as this All his delight is to reform his Neighbours And here I must confess if Men were only a little overbusy in reforming of their neighbours Manners the Folly of their Pride were in some measure tolerable But when our insolence attempts the Reformation of their Faith of that Church to which Divine as well as Human Laws require Obedience and Submission the specious Name popular Pretence will never sanctifie the Crime If they who in the last Age undertook the Reformation of our Church were known to be infallible some grains of blind Obedience might be easily allow'd But since they may perhaps be grievously mistaken it very much behoves you to consider it T is a common saying if a man cheat me once 't is his fault but if he cheat me twice 't is mine T is not the first time that a considerable Party in the Catholick Church has separated from the whole upon these plausible pretences of Reformation to correct Abuses Innovations Errours Did not the Arians thirteen hundred years since begin to separate upon this popular pretence Did not they in the same manner amuse their Proselytes with plausible stories of errours innovations and abuses crept into the Church Did not they make as great a noise against the Consubstantiality of God the Son complain as much of Spiritual Tyranny inveigh as much against the Council of Nice for making introducing and imposing a new unheard of Article of Faith quite contrary to the belief of three preceding Ages plainly opposite to Holy Writ All This you know was false You know that though the word was new the faith was old plainly prov'd by Scripture And yet these popular noises which then the Arians buzz'd into the peoples ears amused them so They never entertain'd the least suspicion of their being cheated Had our Reformers been the first you had been deceiv'd The fault had then been theirs But since the same trick has been playd so often in the Church if now you are deceiv'd the fault is yours I have laid before your eyes this day a prospect of the eight first Ages They accuse the Catholick Church of making a new Article of Faith And by the most Authentick Records of Antiquity it has been plainly prov'd that they themselves are guilty of unmaking an old Article of Faith as ancient as Christ his Apostles Remember the days of old Consider the years of many generations Ask thy Father he will shew thee thy Elders and They will tell thee Stand in in the ways see and ask for the old paths where is the good way walk therein There is no other Way which can conduct you safely to the Joys of Heaven which I wish you all in the Name of the Father Son Holy Ghost Amen * VVhen this Sermon was preacht before his Majesty several paragraphs which are all marks with a * were omitted for brevity sake but are here printed as they were found in the Author's papers A SERMON Preacht before their MAIESTIES AT WHITE-HALL April 23. 1688. Printed by his Majesty's Order Sine me nihil potestis facere Without me you can do nothing Iohn 15.5 THe principal difference betwixt the daring Boldness of a Heathen the true Valour of a Christian Sacred MAJESTIES consists in this The first is grounded in Pride the second in Humility The first begins from a vain Imagination of our own Sufficiency as if we were able to do all things The second from a true Idea of our natural Weakness who are able to do nothing of our selves This was the reason why our Saviour Jesus Christ instructing his Apostles those great Hero's of the Church was pleas'd to settle this foundation for the superstructure of their great glorious Actions Without me you can do nothing That they might better understand it He compar'd them to the branches of a Vine which being separated from the Root immediatly fade wither without bringing fruit I am the Vine you are the Branches Without me you are fruitless Without Humility all that seems great glorious is but a splendid Bubble a meer empty Nothing All this you 'l say is very true Humi'ity is never out of Season But why so much of it in this Day 's Ghospel Why is it now in Season more than any other time The Reason is Because no Virtue is so apt to puff us up with Pride as Fortitude A Hero among men is too often like Lucifer among the Angels From the Meridian of his aspiring height if he look down 't is with Contempt if upward 't is with Emulation of being like the Highest No wonder whilst he lives and flourishes if he desires to be like God For even when he is dead Posterity is apt to make him so Hence 't is the Hero's of Antiquity have peopled an imaginary Heaven with so many Deities and Mankind was so ignorantly Superstitious as to offer Sacrifices to them Had we not been instructed better by the Word of God and particularly by the Ghospel of this Day Our Nation for ought I know might have been guilty of the same extravagance S. George might then perhaps have been a God among us But since all Catholicks are well acquainted with this great fundamental Truth contain'd in the words of my Text Without Christ all the Apostles all the Saints in Heaven can do Nothing The Knowledge of this Truth has dasht the hopes of Hell the Gates of it can never prevail against us We cannot if we do not quite renounce our Faith We cannot be in
Sacrifice of Mass in memory honour of S George * Council of Trent sess 22. chap. 3. we offer not the Sacrifice to him but to God alone who crown'd him with immortal Glory offering our humble Thanks to God both for his Victory his Eternal Triumph By our Thanksgiving we direct the Sacrifice no more to this great Saint than to your Sacred MAJESTIES for in the selfâ—ame Sacrifice we offer our most hearty thanks to the same God for the inestimable Blessing of your Sacred MAJESTIES Coronation upon Earth the Annual Solemnity of which returns this Day with that of S. George's Coronation in Heaven We joyn our Thanks with his He joyns his Prayers with ours If it be such an Honour to this great glorious Saint that we poor Sinners bear him Company attend wait upon him to the Throne of Grace to offer up our Thanks with his Consider well and tell me whether or no it be not a great Honour to us miserable Sinners that this great glorious Saint appears before us introduces us presents us to our God his offers up his Prayer his Petition his Address with ours Can you imagine a more honourable Testimony of our Excellency than that the Blessed Saints in Heaven notwithstanding all their glorious advantages above poor Sinners nevertheless esteem so much set so great a value on God's Image in us as to offer up their humble Supplications for us and to interpose with such profound Humility betwixt our angry God us as if in Heaven they so highly prised us as to solemnise Humiliation-Days in favour of us This I confess appears to me enough to counterballance all our Holy-Day-Thanksgivings upon Earth But I have yet more weight to put into the Scale which will not fail to bear it down If it be such an Honour to the Saints above that Sinners here below keep Holy Days to celebrate their Victories with marks of joy thanks surely we must allow that 't is no little Honour to repentant Sinners that the Angels and Saints in Heaven celebrate with jubilation and thanksgiving all the Victories of Grace by which we overcome our Enemies on Earth I do not say They keep our Holy Days because all such expressions transferr'd from Earth to Heaven loose their sense and we are always at a loss for words when ever we pretend to talk of things so far above us But yet I am inclin'd to think that all those Days in which a Sinner is converted are Thanksgiving-Days in Heaven * Luke 15.7 10. There is Ioy in Heaven There is Joy in presence of the Angels Saints of God over one Sinner that repenteth Consider this and you will easily conclude that we receive great honour whilst we give it and that we are ungratefull if we think we give too much In the third last place if the Honour we allow to Saints be of the self-same kind with what we do to one another We cannot then be reasonably scandaliz'd at the excess we cannot surely be so vain as to imagine that a Saint in Heaven is not as deserving as a Sinner upon Earth We dayly pray to one another as we pray to them The Honour is no more Divine when we desire the Prayers of a Saint than when we beg the Prayers of a Sinner We injure Christ no more when we demand their intercession there than when we ask the intercession of our Neighbours here The Mediatourship of Christ is still the same whether the Prayers of our Friends be interpos'd on this side or on t'other side of Heaven I cannot but reflect whilst I am talking thus it may perhaps appear a little strange that I employ my time to shew how little honour we allow our Saint when many people are in expectation of a Panegyrick to persuade them that they cannot honour him too much But 't is enough for me if I have done him justice I am sure our Saint desires no more than he deserves And I have said enough to prove that he deserves as much as we allow him By our desiring of his intercession we do him no more honour than we do to one another By our Thanksgiving for his Happyness we only are so gratefull as to honour God in him who honours God in us By our Consideration of his Merit we conceive as humble an Idea of him as our Saint dos of himself and are in that respect as innocent as he O! what a Joy it is to a dejected Sinner that S. George himself was once a Man infirm frail as well as we that the Difference which now we so admire betwixt him our selves is not in any Excellency he can boast of but a pure effect of God's great Mercy to him T is true here what S Bernard saies upon the like occasion This Man was once like us fram'd of the same clay cast in the same mould and subject to the same infirmities of Flesh Blood We have reason to rejoyce to be asham'd rejoyce that He is gone before us be asham'd that though we may we will not follow his Example Which is an Obligation incumbent upon All particularly those of his Profession as I shall shew you in the second part of my Discourse SECOND PART As Nothing is more difficult than for a man to be a Souldier and a Saint So there is Nothing which our God appears more zealously concern'd for than the Reputation of so great a Work Nothing of which He is more jealous than least the admiring World whose eyes are dazled with the splendour of Heroick Actions may rob Him of the Honour assume it to themselves He will not allow the Branch 'to glory in the Fruit it bears because it cannot bear fruit of it self Divide it from the Vine it withers without Fruit Men gather it make fire burn it But though the Branch be fruitless when t is separated from the Root Yet nevertheless as long as it remains united to the Vine it flourishes fructifies * Iohn 15.5 He who abides in me brings forth much Fruit * 1. Iohn ch 5. v. 4. This is the Victory says the Apostle by which we overcome the World Our Faith I mean Our Faith in this our Saviour's Doctrine that though without Him We are able to do nothing Yet with his help we may be able to do all things * Iohn 15.7 If you abide in me if you place all your trust your hope confidence in me ask what you will it shall be done A Diffidence in our own strength A loving Confidence in God is so agreable it charmes him so He in a manner lends us his Omnipotence and by his Grace enables us to conquer all things S. Paul of all men living had the least opinion of his own sufficiency He confess'd he had not of himself the power to think so much as one good thought And yet he doubted not but he
body at the same time be in several places Shew us but this deliverd plainly in the Scripture and then wee 'l grant that Transubstantiation is repugnant to it Some upon this occasion produce the Angel's words who in the last chapter of S. Matthew told the women at the sepulchre He is not here for He is risen where the Angel seems to conclude that because his body was in another place therefore it was not in that place All the whole stress of this argument depends upon a word of so little moment that the last of S. Mark quite leaves it out the last of S. Luke not only leaves it cut but puts another in the place in S. Mark the Angel says He is risen He is not here in S. Luke he says He is not here but is risen But however if the Angel's Reasoning in S. Matthew must be so much magnified when they have made the best they can of it 't will amount to neither more nor less than this He is not here because he is risen that is He is not here because he is gone from hence which inference is not a jot the worse although we should suppose that the same body may be at the same time in a thousand places Let us suppose his Body at the same time if you please in millions of places yet if it be true that he is risen gone from hence it follows evidently that he is not here The second Text is found in the 3. ch of S. Paul to the Colossians where he gives both them us good counsel bids us * v. 1.2 seek for things above things which are only to be found in heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God joys which are heavenly everlasting which in the same chapter he calls the * v. 24. reward of our inheritance He bids us raise our hearts above the world above the vanities the pleasures temptations of it Alas all this is nothing to our present purpose all this we believe although we know his body is as really on earth as 't is in heaven Did not our Saviour preach the same to his Apostles And yet he lived amongst them upon Earth The third Text lies before us in the 14. of S. Mark where our Redeemer makes a plain Antithesis betwixt him the poor compares himself with them shews the difference betwixt their case his * v. 7. You have the poor with you always says he and when you will you may do them good but me you have not always as if he should say you will always have the poor in a condition of doing them good but as for me you will not always have me in that indigent condition you will not hereafter be in a capacity of doing me any good When he was visible amongst us before his resurrection he was subject to our natural necessities and it was in our power to relieve ease him But in the Sacrament he is immortal impassible incapable of being injur'd by the malice of his enemies or betterd by the service of his friends This Text not being able to support so weak a cause a fourth is borrowd from the 1. Cor. in the 11. chapter where the Apostle says * v. 26. We shew the Lord's death till he comes therefore he is not come yet and if he be not come How is he really present in the Sacrament Let us reflect a little examine the sense of these words till he comes This coming of our Saviour is repeated frequently in Scripture in the 1. ch of the Acts we read * v. 11. He shall come in like manner as you have seen him go in the 14. of S. Mark * v. 62. You shall see him coming in the clouds in the 24. of S. Math. * v. 30. They shall see him coming in power great glory Every man that can but say his Creed is well acquainted with this coming which is so much celebrated in the Scripture we all believe that this his coming is so judge the quick the dead When they read in the Bible we shew the Lords death till he comes they inferr Therefore he is not come yet Very true The Lord's Day is not come the Day of judgment is not come and onely God knows when it will come But is it therefore evident that in the Sacrament there is no Transubstantiation no Real Presence because the Day of judgment is not come I am inclin'd to think that when it dos come when Christ comes to judge the world calls all those to an account who have pretended every one according to their fancy to reform his Church they then will wish too late that either they had let the Church alone or else had had much better evidence than this to justifie the Reformation The fifth Text seems to promise more yet performs as little as the rest We find it in the 22 of S. Luke where our Saviour says * v. 19. Do this in remembrance of me Now say they we cannot remember any thing but what is absent and therefore the Body of Christ must of necessity be absent from the Sacrament cannot be really truly present in it Pray cannot I remember God take delight in thinking of his goodness Remember my own sinfull soul pity her condition And is not my soul present in my Body Is not the Almighty present every where * v. 1. Remember thy Creatour in the days of thy youth says Solomon in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes and yet this great Creatour is not absent from us S. Paul says in the 17. ch of the Acts * v. 27. He is not far from every one of us Though He is always present yet we easily forget him because he is not present to our senses And I am afraid because we do not see the invisible body blood of Christ I am afraid we now then forget how great a treasure we receive when we approach the Sacrament I am afraid because we neither see nor feel our souls we oftentimes neglect almost quite forget the great concern of our salvation differring it from time to time till by God's judgment death surprises us and we are lost for all Eternity The two last Texts as they have most appearance so they have the least of substance when they are examin'd S. Paul says in his 1. Cor. 11. ch * v. 28. Let a man examine himself so let him eat of that bread Our Saviour says in the 26. ch of S. Math. * v. 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine Both of them speak thus after consecration Both of them call it bread wine And therefore after consecration it still remains true bread wine You see how fairly I propose the difficulty and now I humbly beg your best attention to the Answer S. Paul dos not say This is Bread
Iohn 6. ch writes Jesus the Son of Joseph S. Luke 3. ch explains it Jesus being as was supposed the Son of Joseph Our Saviour frequently invites the thirsty to him promises them living water S. Iohn in the 7. ch explains it He spoke this of the spirit which they who believd on him should receive But these words which we read in all of them are not explain'd by any one of them From whence 't is easy to inferr that all these sacred Pen-men never understood our Adversaries figurative sense They literally understood it as we do believd it as they understood it writ as they believ'd it S. Mark 4. ch 34. v. says of our Saviour that when they were alone He expounded all things to his Disciples If then our Saviour us'd a Figure when he said This is my Body 't is certain that when they were alone at least he expounded this figure to them Perhaps the four Evangelists the Apostle knew well enough this exposition but forgot to write it This will not serve the turn Our Saviour promis'd them their memory should ever be assisted by his holy Spirit In the 14. ch of S. Iohn * v. 26. the Holy Ghost says he shall bring all things into your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Perhaps they every one thought of it when they writ but did not think it worth the writing But if our Adversaries well consider the sixth Article of Reformation which tells us all things necessary to Salvation are contain'd in Scripture they will scarce find room for this reply because this exposition would have been so necessary to prevent the Idolatry which they accuse us of consequently necessary to Salvation Since therefore this Interpretation never could have been forgot if ever they had known it Since it could not be omitted if they had remember'd it it follows clearly that this explication was never known amongst them but only is a new invention of the modern Reformation directly contradictory to Scripture I cannot but admire when I reflect how thick a mist mens passions and prejudices raise before their eyes And this is undoubtedly the reason why so many able men of the reforming Party study Transubstantiation in Scripture search with diligence great appearance of sincerity yet never find it If they were equal impartial judges of the Texts which lie before them they soon would see how grievously they are mistaken in the true intent meaning of them By the example of this instance they would judge the rest acknowledge the injustice of the Reformation return home joyfully to their old Mother-Church full of admiration of God's mercy to them * 1. Pet. 2.9 shew forth the praises of Him who call'd them out of darkness into his wonderfull light which guides us through this vale of misery to the everlasting joys of Heaven Amen A SERMON Preacht before the KING AT WORCESTER August 24. 1687. Interroga Majores tuos dicent tibi Ask thy Elders They will tell thee Deut. 32.7 T Is now no less than six thirty years Most Sacred MAJESTY since our City of Worcester has been honour'd with the Presence of our King. Our Loyalty was then sufficiently try'd and now it is aboundantly rewarded ward Our Loyalty which then was so well known to all the world invited your Royal Brother to this Refuge And we employ'd our best endeavours to preserve his sacred Person But 't was too great an Honour for us The Almighty took it wholly to himself and by a surprising miracle of Providence afterwards granted to our earnest Prayers what He before denied to our unfortunate Arms. As we have never forfeited the credit of our Loyalty we hope your MAJESTY is well assured we shall be always ready to expose our lives fortunes in your MAJESTY's service It is not in the power of Subjects to give their Prince a more convincing assurance that they always will be Loyal than that they always have been so I only wish with all my heart that we had ever been as Loyal to the Church as to the State and that we had as zealously opposed the Reformation of our Faith as we withstood the Alteration of our Government When I first appear'd in this Place I made it my business to prove that according to principles of Natural Philosophy the Mystery of Transubstantiation is neither contrary to Sense nor Reason In my second Sermon I endeavour'd to shew it is so far from being contrary to Holy Writ that no judicious Reader who is free from prejudice can understand Scripture without it And this being my third appearance where it is expected I should finish what I have begun I now undertake to prove it is so far from being contrary to the purer faith of the first Ages that for the first eight Centuries the Fathers universally believ'd it Remember the days of old says Moses Consider the years of many generations Ask thy Fathers they will shew thee thy Elders they will tell thee My time is short considering the work I have before me But yet I hope it will not be accounted losse of time to spend one moment on my knees in begging the assistance of my Saviour and desiring his Virgin-Mother with all the Blessed Spirits to accompany my prayers upon Earth with theirs in Heaven FIRST PART * Before I enter upon our proofs of Transubstantiation it will be worth observing how almost all our Adversaries are mistaken upon a groundless supposition that if they can find expressions in the Fathers which import that the Sacrament is a type a sign a figure They need not seek any farther The question is already decided The Fathers never believ'd the mystery of Transubstantiation Now I must needs conless if we denied the Sacrament to be a type a sign or figure we ought to stand corrected Or if all this were inconsistent with the mystery of Transubstantiation we ought to own our Fathers Belief was contrary to ours But if in both these points our Adversaries are mistaken we must beg their pardon if we still persever in our ancient Faith. * If they would only consider the difference betwixt the inward substance the outward form betwixt the infide the outside of the Sacrament They would easily reconcile the different expressions which they meet with in the Fathers writings When the Fathens were intent upon the outward form They call it a type a sign a figure They say it is not his Body Blood but that it signifies it represents it contains it * S. Austin in his 23. epistle to Bonifacius says the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is in some manner Christ's Body .... as the Sacrament of Faith is Faith. The parity is good betwixt the outward form of bread and Baptism in this respect that both are signs Only this difference there is the first contains what it signifies the other dos not So in his book against Adimantus