THE HAZARD OF BEING SAVED IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.

A SERMON,

By the Rev. John Tillotson, D. D. Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 17th Century.

I. COR. III. 15.-But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.

THE context is thus. (10-15. vs.) "According to the grace of 'God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid 'the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man 'take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundations can 'no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if 'any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, 'wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for 'the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire: and the 'fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's 'work abide, which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward. 'If any man's works shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: yet he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."

In these words the apostle speaks of a sort of persons, who held indeed the foundation of Christianity, but built upon it such doctrines or practices a would not bear the trial; which he expresses to us by wood, hay and stubble, which are not proof against the fire. Such a person the apostle tells us, hath brought himself into a very dangerous state, though he would not deny the possibility of his salvation, he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

That by fire here is not meant the fire of purgatory, as some pretend (who would be glad of any shadow of a text of scripture to countenance their own dreams) I shall neither trouble you or myself to manifest; since the particle of similitude (oos) plainly shews that the apostle did not intend an escape out of the fire literally, but like to that which men make out of a house, or a town that is on fire. Especially as very learned persons of the church of Rome do acknowledge that purgatory cannot be concluded from this text,

nay all that Estius contends for from this place is, that it cannot be concluded from hence that there is no purgatory; which we never pretended, but only that this text doth not prove it.

It is very well known that this is a proverbial phrase used not only in scripture, but in profane authors to signify a narrow escape out of a great danger. He shall be saved yet so as by fire, dia puros, out of the fire. Just as dia udatos is used, 2 Pet. 111. 20, where the apostle speaking of the eight persons of Noah's who escaped the flood, diesoothasan di udatos they escaped out of the water. So here this phrase is to be rendered in the text, he himself shall escape, yet so as out of the fire. The like expression you have, Amos Iv. 2. "I have plucked them as a firebrand out of the fire." And Jude 23. "Others save with fear, plucking them out of the fire." All which expressions signify the greatness of the danger, and the difficulty of escaping it: "as one who when his house at midnight is set on fire, and being suddenly waked, leapt out of his bed, and runs naked out of the doors, taking nothing that is within along with him, but employing his whole care to save his body from the flames," as Chrysostom on another occasion expresseth it. And so the Roman orator (Tully) who, it is likely did not think of purgatory) useth this phrase; quo ex judicio, velut ex incendio, nudus effugit, from which sentence or judgement he escaped naked as it were out of a burning. And one of the Greek orators (Aristides) tells us, that "to save a man out of the fire, was a common proverbial speech."

From the words thus explained, the observation that naturally ariseth is this: that men may hold all the fundamentals of the Christian religion, and yet may superadd other things whereby they may greatly endanger their salvation. What these things were which some among the Corinthians built upon the foundation of Christianity, whereby they endangered their salvation, we may probably conjecture by what the apostle reproves in this epistle, as the tolerating of incestuous marriages, communicating in idol feasts, &c. And especially by the doctrine of the false apostles, who at that time did so much disturb the peace of most Christian churches, and who are so often and so severely reflected on in this epistle. And what their doctrines was, we have an account, Acts xv. viz: That they imposed upon the gentile Christian circumcision, and the observance of the Jewish law, teaching that unless they were circumcised, and kept the law of Moses, they could not be saved. So that they not only build these doctrines upon Christianity, but they made them equal with the foundation, saying, that unless men believed and practised such things they could not be saved.

In speaking to this observation, I shall reduce my discourse to these two heads.

I. I shall present to you some doctrines and practices which have been built upon the foundation of Christianity, to the great hazard and danger of men's salvation. And to be plain, I mean particularly the church of Rome.

II. And I shall enquire, whether our granting a possibility of salvation (though with great hazard) to those in the communion of the Roman church, and their denying it to us, be a reasonable argument, and encouragement to any man to betake himself to that church.