III

John Tillotson was born in 1630. He was a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. In 1660 or 1661 he was ordained by Bishop Thomas Sydserff. After holding various posts, and being successively Dean of Canterbury and St. Paul’s, he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691. He died in 1694. He was strongly opposed to the doctrine of Transubstantiation on the grounds that it was taught neither in Holy Scripture nor in the fathers, and is contrary to reason, and gives rise to scandals and absurdities. His own opinion appears to have been that those who communicate worthily keep in memory the death of Christ and receive the benefits of His work. In the preface prefixed to the Discourses which he himself published, he wrote:—

“Supposing the thing to be believed to be Transubstantiation, this indeed is a very profound mystery, and is … of its own nature so seemingly impossible that I know no argument in the world strong enough to cope with it.”

In his sermon On the Hazard of being saved in the Church of Rome he spoke of Transubstantiation and adoration as follows:—

“The doctrine of Transubstantiation. A hard word, but I would to God that were the worst of it; the thing is much more difficult. I have taken some pains to consider other religions that have been in the world, and I must freely declare that I never yet in any of them met with any article or proposition imposed upon the belief of men half so unreasonable and hard to be believed as this is. And yet this in the Romish Church is esteemed one of the most principal articles of the Christian faith, though there is no more certain foundation for it in Scripture than for our Saviour’s being substantially changed into all those things which are said of Him, as that He is a rock, a vine, a door, and a hundred other things.… If the testimony of sense is to be relied upon, then Transubstantiation is false; if it be not, then no man is sure that Christianity is true. For the utmost assurance that the Apostles had of the truth of Christianity was the testimony of their own senses concerning our Saviour’s miracles; and this testimony every man hath against Transubstantiation. From whence it plainly follows that no man (no, not the Apostles themselves) had more reason to believe Christianity to be true than every man to believe Transubstantiation to be false.… Supposing the Scripture to be a divine revelation, and that these words ‘This is My body,’ if they be in Scripture, must necessarily be taken in the strict and literal sense, I ask now what greater evidence any man has that these words ‘This is My body’ are in the Bible than every man has that the bread is not changed in the Sacrament. Nay, no man has so much; for we have only the evidence of one sense that these words are in the Bible, but that the bread is not changed we have the concurring testimony of several of our senses. In a word, if this be once admitted that the senses of all men are deceived in one of the most plain sensible matters that can be, there is no certain means left either to convey or prove a divine revelation to men, nor is there any way to confute the grossest impostures in the world.”

“The worshipping of the bread and wine in the Eucharist out of a false and groundless persuasion that they are substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ. Which, if it be not true (and it hath good fortune if it be, for certainly it is one of the most incredible things in the whole world) then by the confession of several of their own learned writers they are guilty of gross idolatry.”

In the sermon entitled A Persuasive to Frequent Communion Tillotson mentions the belief about the Eucharist which he himself held:—

“If this be the end and use of this Sacrament, to be a solemn remembrance of the death and sufferings of our Lord during His absence from us, that is, till His coming to judgment, then this Sacrament will never be out of date till the second coming of our Lord. The consideration whereof should mightily strengthen and encourage our faith in the hope of eternal life so often as we partake of this Sacrament, since our Lord hath left it to us as a memorial of Himself till He come to translate His Church into heaven, and as a sure pledge that He will come again at the end of the world, and invest us in that glory which He is now gone before to prepare for us.”

In the sermon entitled A Discourse against Transubstantiation Tillotson maintains at length that the language of Holy Scripture and of the fathers does not mean more than that the Sacrament is a sign and pledge of the body and blood of Christ; that the doctrine of Transubstantiation causes scandal through its “stupidity” and “barbarousness” and “cruel and bloody consequences” and “danger of idolatry”; and that it is absurd as being contradictory to sense.

“Infidelity were hardly possible to men, if all men had the same evidence for the Christian religion which they have against Transubstantiation, that is, the clear and irresistible evidence of sense. He that can once be brought to contradict or deny his senses is at an end of certainty; for what can a man be certain of, if he be not certain of what he sees?”

In A Discourse to His Servants Concerning Receiving the Sacrament, which was published after his death, Tillotson shortly explains his positive belief.

“It is the most solemn institution of our religion; and, as we are Christians, we are obliged to the frequent receiving of it, and we cannot neglect it without a great contempt of our blessed Saviour and His religion. He hath appointed it for a solemn remembrance of His great love for us in laying down His life for us; and therefore He commands us to do it in remembrance of Him; and St. Paul tells us that ‘as often as we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we do show forth the Lord’s death till He come’. Both the comfort and the benefit of it are great. The comfort of it, because it does not only represent to us the exceeding love of our Saviour in giving His body to be broken, and His blood to be shed, for us, but it likewise seals to us all those blessings and benefits which are purchased and procured for us by His death and passion, the pardon of sins, and power against sin. The benefit of it is also great, because hereby we are confirmed in goodness, and our resolutions of better obedience are strengthened, and the grace of God’s Holy Spirit to enable us to do His will is hereby conveyed to us.”