of Testimony exactly according to knowledg and then we Swear in Truth All which conditions of using an Oath religiously are put together by the Prophet Jeremiah c. 4. v. 2. And thou shalt swear The Lord liveth in truth in judgment and in righteousness In Righteousness not profaning an Oath by making it the bond of Iniquity in Judgment not exposing it to Contempt by using it rashly and improperly and in Truth not violating the bond of an Oath by breaking Promise or giving Testimony to a Falshood Swearing in Truth is that part of the Religion of an Oath which I shall at this time press upon you omitting the Consideration of what things an Oath may be conversant about and that the rather because I shall apply what I have to say upon the former Point either to such Oaths as fasten any Duty upon us required by the Laws or to Swearing in Courts of Judicature where the end of Swearing viz. the Judicial deciding of Controversies does always make the matter enquired into worthy of so high a Testimony Therefore have I chosen these Words of God for my Subject Ye shall not swear by my name falsly A Law which if any is written upon the very hearts of men and yet it pleased God that it should be written in our Bibles too I would to God there were no occasion given by the present age to urge it in our Sermons at least in the way of Complaint and Reproof But since Perjury Perjury I say that monstrous sin which strikes even at the Majesty of God and betrays the Throne of the King which undermines the very Foundations of Religion and Justice which does most sensibly grieve the hearts of all good Christians and threatens the safety of every good Subject which does not only work mischief to the Innocent but also damns the Guilty almost without remedy If Perjury as 't is commonly said be grown the crying Sin of our Land and it appears that the Penalties of the Law are not terrible enough to prevail against it we are then bound in Allegiance to God in Loyalty to the King in Love to our Country in Charity to the souls of men to bring in all the assistance we can from Religion to expel this Fatal Mischief and to remove this foul scandal from among us by instructing plainly by reproving impartially by exhorting and perswading most vehemently In contribution to which good end I beg your Patience while I endeavour to shew First of all Wherein lies the peculiar Obligation of an Oath Secondly What are the several ways of Violating this Obligation or incurring the Crime of Perjury Thirdly What are the usual Temptations and Inducements thereunto Lastly Some of the Fearful Aggravations that belong to the sin That an Oath induces the utmost obligation to speak the Truth is confessed by general Practice which has made or rather received it to be the end of Controversie For if a man could be obliged yet more deeply than by swearing surely the final resort would not be had to an Oath if any thing could confirm a Testimony more assuredly which is in our Power this should not be the last Confirmation Therefore let it be considered that the very end of an Oath implies a peculiar obligation to discharge it truly for the greater that trust is which I cause another to repose in me the greater treachery I am guily of if I then deceive him But if the end of an Oath obliges men not to swear falsly much more does the nature of it With very good reason may an Oath be rested in as the highest security that men can offer for their Honesty and Truth For the nature of an Oath consists in this That it is an appeal to God as to the Witness of Truth and the Avenger of Falshood for the Confirmation of our own Testimony 1. God is appealed to as a Witness he who is the God of Truth and Knowledg the faithful and infallible Witness of every thought and action he whose Testimony alone needs not to be confirmed by any other since for him only it is naturally and eternally impossible to deceive or to be deceived I ought never to lye or dissemble or break my Word because I know my self always to be in the Presence of God This ought to restrain me from being guilty of Falshood at any time that I am within the sight and hearing of the God of Truth But most of all am I bound to be sincere when I have appealed to him as present for the confirmation of what I say It is a grief to a good man to hear a lye told to his face but if the lyar should call him to witness his falshood this he would take in foul scorn and with greatest indignation And what an height of impudence must it needs be to put the like affront upon God himself by appealing to his knowledg for our unrighteousness in a matter wherein we deal falsly What is this but to impute our own baseness and falshood to his most Holy Majesty and to do what is in us to make him a liar like unto our selves 2. God is not only called upon as the Witness of Truth when we swear but also as the Avenger of Falshood And indeed 't is the adding of this which makes an Appeal to God's Testimony by Invocation a most forcible Obligation to Truth and the utmost Security which we can offer for the same When we pretend that there is a man present who knows that to be true which we affirm it would be superfluous to wish that he were revenged of us if it be not true because he may be called forth openly to attest the Truth or discover the Falsehood of what we say Where the Witness is visible and the Testimony credible it is sufficient to appeal to his knowledg only But when God is taken to witness by us there is no voice or sensible appearance by which he does either confirm or disown the matter What is it then which makes an appeal to God the silent and invisible Witness to be of greater force to oblige our selves and confirm others that we speak the truth What is it but this that we do appeal to his Justice as well as his Knowledg and call the Vengeance of the Almighty down upon our heads if he discerns any Falsehood and deceit in our Testimony And 't is impossible that any obligation to speak the truth or to discharge a trust should be greater than this That if we are now guilty of lying or unfaithfulness we do not only consent but desire that the Indignation and Curse of God may fall upon us I do not think that the invoking of Divine Vengeance if we swerve from the Truth is only consequent upon Swearing according to the Opinion of some Learned men but also that it belongs to the very Essence of an Oath for that should seem to be essential to it which if it were removed the fear of Perjury
Church for the Reformation took away nothing that belonged to the Nature and Essence of a Church but only the Shame and the Corruption of it So I say still admitting what yet can never be proved that there was none for 500 Years together that declared against the Abuses and Errors that were crept into the Church admitting this I say that our Church before our Reformation or even before Luther was even amongst our selves where the Roman Corruptions had prevailed only it was then a corrupted now it is a reformed Church That which makes Rome a true Church is that she retains the Profession of the Creeds and the Administration of the Sacraments That which makes her a corrupt Church is that she has added as many more Articles of Faith as there were before and brought in Idolatrous Practices into her Worship Such a true Church and such a corrupted Church was this of England before the Reformation but the Truth we have reserved and the Corruption we have cast away and so have added Purity to the Truth of our Christian Communion we have kept that which is ancient thrown aside that which was lately introduced and so are a Church built upon the same Foundation that we were built upon before but have thrown away the Hay and Stubble that was laid upon it But if the instance of the Church of Pergamos be not sufficient to answer this Question I shall add another to it and that is Hezekiah's Reformation who took away the High-places burnt the Images and cut down the Groves which had stood in all probability four or five hundred years for this was the abatement of the commendation of good Kings before him that nevertheless the High-places were not taken away And moreover this Corruption had spread itself from one end of Judah to the other Here was universality of Places and the Prescription of some Ages to give Authority to it notwithstanding which Hezekiah to his immortal honour made a Reformation And now the Question Where our Church was before Luther is just such another as this would have been Where was the Church of Judah before Hezekiah And indeed such a demand was made But by whom do you think Truly by none of God's Church but which is little for the credit of such Questions by Rabshakeh that great Blasphemer of the God of Israel For thus I find him speaking to the Jews But if ye say unto me We trust in the Lord our God is not that he whose High-places and whose Altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem Ye shall Worship before this Altar in Jerusalem 2 Kings 18.22 By which Question it is most apparent that the corruption amongst the People in this matter had been so general and ancient that their Neighbours took this false Worship of theirs for their Religion and therefore reckoned that Hezekiah had introduced a New Religion because he had but reform'd the Old. I need not make any application of so plain an instance 5. They sometimes say That since we confess them to be a true Church and consequently to hold no Fundamental Errors we ought to have tarried in a Church in which we granted a possibility of Salvation and we may now without danger return to their Communion But it is plain that not only those Errors which do unchurch a People but even those that make their Salvation hazardous are to be reformed Pergamos was still a Church notwithstanding her Errors but yet was obliged to reform them 6. And lastly Since we grant them to be a true Church and Christ can have but one Church upon Earth and there is but one Church out of which there are no ordinary means of Salvation we must conclude our selves to be no true Church nor part of it because we are separated from them and consequently to be cut off from the hope of Salvation I answer That there is indeed but one Catholick Church as we confess in our Creed whereof the Church of Rome is one part and one of the worst in the World and the Church of England another and perhaps one of the best I do grant also that Salvation is not to be ordinarily had out of the Catholick Church but then I add that in that part of it which is best reformed it is to be obtained with great safety and assurance and in that part of it which is very corrupt and refuses to be reformed not without great difficulty and danger And though these parts of the Church are separated in Communion from one another it does not follow that either of them must be the Catholick Church and the other no part of it at all but that there is but one part which can free herself from the blame of the separation and that it concerns every Man as much as his Soul is worth to chuse that Communion which does not only afford him the means that are absolutely necessary to Salvation but those also without the mixture of such false Doctrines and unlawful Practices which nothing but invincible Ignorance or Infirmity that is very pardonable can reconcile with the hope of any Man's Salvation But if they will not receive this Answer but still contend that because we charge each other with Heresie and Schism 't is impossible both parts can be within the Unity of the Catholick Church and therefore that we granting them to be a true Church must confess our selves to be none I know not what they will get by this but that if this be true we must revoke all that charitable hopes of their Salvation which we would fain nourish If either they or we must needs be quite out of the Church and can have no benefit by the Promises of the Gospel and the Covenant of Grace doth it follow that therefore we must go over to their Communion No But it follows on the other side that we have greater reason than we thought we had to stay where we are because it seems as they say one part must needs be out of the Church and want all means of Salvation For we confess our selves to be much more sure that our Communion is a safe way to Salvation than we are that theirs is a way at all And if they will not let us believe both together instead of giving us a reason why we should be Papists they give us a new one why we should not This I say to shew only what Answer they may get by trying to make an unreasonable advantage to themselves by our charity and moderation not that I believe their Errors have made them cease from being a part of 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 Controversie of this nature which indeed ought to be no Controversie 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 injoyneth 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 whether 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 Errours of that Church which if I should profess or practice 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 Errours 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 perswade 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 Errour 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 foretel 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 every-where in the New Testament to understand those Temptations to Sin and Inducements to Errour which some men lay in the way of others They are sometimes otherwise exprest Snares Stumbling-blocks and Occasions of Fallings for the thing meant by all these expressions is the same Now concerning Offences our Saviour affirms two things in the words I have read First That they would come nay that it must needs be that they would come i. e. that men would arise who should hinder the prevailing of Christianity as much as in them lay or pervert the Design of it
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 judg 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 their 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 Orator That they had found him a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader 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 perswaded 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 2. 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 killed 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 Governors 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 practise 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 Innovatious 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 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 hypocrifie 3. The proneness of mankind to Superstition is another cause of disapproving what God approves The true Disciples of Christ are according to their Religion for a
submission to her Authority in every point of Religion so much greater reason there is to examine every one of her particulars and if I find that she is mistaken in any of them I am verysure that she is not infallible in all And if she will not allow me to make a Judgment of the Particulars 't is just as if a man should try to hinder me from castingup my own Accounts by going about to prove that he cannot possibly mistake in doing it he might indeed shew some Wit in working his Demonstration but I should shew a great deal more folly in trusting him To conclude We have a Rule whereby to try the Doctrine I will not only say of a Church or a Pope or a Council but even of an Angel from Heaven if an Angel should come and Preach to us and that Rule is the Holy Scripture especially the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles These are by all Christians acknowledged to be the undoubted and the most ancient Records of our Holy Religion and they have had a Tradition so uncontroulable as no Books in the World ever had the like Whoever therefore is our Guide it is very reasonable that this should be our Rule And of all Churches in the World I will never trust my self to her discretion that will not trust me with the Knowledg and Study of this Rule Here we may if we please make our selves very sure that we are of those whom God will justifie for here we may discern what kind of persons St. Paul and the Christians of whom he speaks in this place and what all the Apostles and Primitive Disciples of our Lord were For those Books which acquaint us with their Names and which were written by some of themselves do also discover to us what Faith they profess'd what Doctrine they taught and what Lives they led Now if we profess that very Faith and teach no other Doctrine and frame our practise by their Rules and good Examples then without all question we are such kind of Christians as they were and then altho we should be used by the world as they were too yet the encouragement and comfort which they had will also belong to us and we too may say Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Having therefore the Infallible Rule of God's Word whereby to guide our selves We beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more that while evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived ye may continue in the things which ye have learned knowing of whom ye have learned them even from the Sayings of our Lord Jesus and his holy Apostles delievered to us in the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through saith which is in Christ Jesus Let us remember that it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us not forgetting by any means that 't is a way of righteousness we have been made to know and an holy Commandment that hath been delivered to us from which therefore we may depart as damnably by an impure Conversation as by letting go our pure Profession in which case we are so far from being justified that we shall be the more condemned by our Faith We have no false Principles to save our hearts from condemning us if we allow our selves in any way of wickedness and God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Whoever else condemns us that is more than recompence enough if God justifieth But who is he that shall justifie us if God condemns FINIS THE SUMM OF A CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the Point of TRANSVBSTANTIATION LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXIX The SUM of a CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the POINT of TRANSUBSTANTIATION Introduction IT will perhaps appear to some a little strange that I do not say almost Incredible that there should have pass'd a Conference above two years since in which Mr. Gooden was concern'd and the World yet to learn the Substance of it The Vanity of that Gentleman to thrust himself upon all Occasions into Disputes with the most Learned Men of our Church first and then to boast of his own Performances in them was fogreat that there is scarce a Coffee-house in the Town that has not been filled with the Noise of his Impertinent Vapours And if those of the Other Communion have been always remarkable for an Assurance becoming the pretended Infallibility of their Church I may venture to say that next to Father P the Jesuit and his friend Mr. M I scarce know any among them that have ever talk'd so loud or made such Heroical Defiances of the Champions and Armies of our Israel in all Places and upon all Occasions as Mr. Gooden these late Years has done among us But thus shallow Waters always run with the Greatest Noise and Violence and little Sophisters who either want Capacity to see into their own Fallacies or think they have forehead enough to carry that off with Clamour and Confidence which they cannot do by Reason and Argument delight to expose themselves and their Religion to the most dangerous Tryals whilst Men of Learning and Judgment are modest and ingenuous and know it to be neither for the Honour of their Church nor their own Reputation to challenge all Mankind to answer Paradoxes and to shew that not to be Demonstration which when brought to the Tryal is hardly sence See Mr. G's Pap. p. 10. I hope this will not be thought too severe a Reflection on the late Pretenders of this kind among us which I speak out of a just respect to the more Learned and Charitable Persons of the Church of Rome who have been no less Scandalized at these forward Zealots than our selves and to whom I ought to give this Testimony That during a long acquaintance with many of them I never met with any thing of the Vanity of those I have before mentioned Our Differences in matters of Religion made no Disturbance either in our Friendship or Conversation with One Another If the discourse at any time led to a Controversie of 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 Topic's of the