Truth in love may grow up to him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joined together by that which every Ioint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the Body to the edifying of it self in love The Christian Church is a House and Building and Temple of God but this House and Building is not raised with loose and incoherent Stones but all the Building fitly framed together groweth into a Holy Temple in the Lord. All those Expressions whereby the Scripture describes the Unity of the Christian Church signify one Communion as our Saviour prays for his Disciples that they all may be One and for all those who in after Ages should believe on him That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me From whence it appears that our Saviour speaks of an external and visible Union which may be seen and taken notice of in the World How frequent are the Exhortations to Christian Love and Unity Fulfil ye my Ioy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord and of one mind This was that new Commandment which Christ gave to his Disciples as the badg of their Discipleship A new Commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another And wherein this mutual Love expressed it self we learn from the first Pattern of the Christian Church And they continued stedfast in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and of Prayers that is in all the Parts and Offices of Christian Communion this is essential to Christian Love to continue in the Communion and Fellowship of the same Body that there may be no Schism in the Body but all firmly united by the common Bonds of Love and Peace and therefore in St. Iohn's Time those Hereticks who separated themselves into distinct Conventicles are said to go out from among them They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us that is in our Fellowship and Communion but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Now if this Argument be good it necessarily infers that indispensable Obligation which lies upon all Christians who will be owned for Members of that one Body of Christ to live in Communion with each other The Unity of Mind and Spirit of Love and Affection and the Unity of the same Faith is necessary to Christian Union but this Union is made external and visible by Christian Communion and our daily experience tells us how impossible it is for Men to love like Brethren like Members of the same Body who are not of the same Body but divide themselves into distinct separate Churches under different Laws Government and Discipline Now if Christian Love and Union be so necessary a Duty of Christianity consider what the Evil of Schism is which rends the seamless Coat of Christ and divides his Church into so many little Parties and Factions Christ has but one Body and those who separate from the Body of Christ are no longer of his Body and the Ancient Christians did believe Schism to separate Men from Christ and to put them out of a state of Salvation It was an acknowledged Principle among them That there was no Salvation out of the Church and that Schismaticks were out of the Church I dare not judg any Man's final State as not knowing what merciful allowances a merciful and compassionate Lord may make for the Errors and Mistakes Frowardness and Peevishness of his Disciples but yet I wish that all Persons concerned would seriously consider that St. Paul makes all other Attainments whatsoever of no value without Charity that this is that Divine Principle which unites us to God and to one another that he makes Schism a Work of the Flesh and when he reproves the Corinthians for that Schism which was among them though it was not broke out into actual separation yet he calls them Carnal For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you envyings and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men So far is Separation from being an Argument of more perfect and excellent Christians that it is a Work of the Flesh and the Symptom of a Carnal Mind But I do not intend to discourse this fully but it is a certain Argument that that Man does understand nothing of Christian Religion who makes light of Schism without so much as considering what guilt he involves himself in nothing could be a more effectual Cure of Schism than a serious consideration of the evil and danger of it That pain we feel in tearing one Member from another and that mischief the whole Body suffers by it which becomes maimed and imperfect by the want of the least and most inconsiderable Member makes us careful to preserve our natural Bodies from any Rent or Schism and were we living Members of the Mystical Body of Christ had we that natural love sympathy and fellow-feeling for each other as the Members of the natural Body have we should find Schism and Separation as painful to us as it is to part with one of our Members and be as sensible of the want of Christian Communion and the discharge of these mutual Offices of Charity in exhorting admonishing reproving comforting praying for and with each other which cannot be performed in a state of Separation as we are of the want of the service of any Member which we have lost It is a certain sign that Member does not belong to the Body which feels not the pain of such Convulsions and Schisms Thirdly Another Question I would ask these Men is Whether they do in their Consciences believe that Communion with our Parish Churches is unlawful And there is some reason to ask this for it is easily observed that there are a great many who are Christians at large and as occasion serves can either go to Church or to a Conventicle Now if they make Conscience of any thing we may conclude that when they come to Church they do not think it a sin so to do or that there is any thing so unlawful in our Worship as is sufficient to justify a Separation for if they may lawfully communicate with us once they may do so always by the same Reason from whence it follows that there can be no necessity of Separation and then Separation must be a sin Some indeed say That it is a sufficient reason to separate even from a True Church and a lawful Communion to join in fellowship with a purer Church and to enjoy purer Ordinances
But I would desire such Men to consider First That this Notion of a purer Church and purer Ordinances varies with every Man's fancy as having no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity when you distinguish a purer Church from a pure Church I would desire to know what greater degree of purity they find in a Presbyterian or Independent Conventicle than in our Parochial Churches If this Purity consists in Doctrine Government or Worship that Doctrine and Government which is most Ancient and most Apostolical is purer than some novel and upstart Opinions Church Forms and Models and that Worship which retains all the Institutions of Christ and administers them with the greatest order and decency and most to Christian Edification is as pure a Worship as that which is slovenly and unbecoming the gravity and solemnity of Divine Worship That Church wherein Christians may enjoy all the means and conveyances of Grace without any corrupt Mixtures to spoil their Vertue and Efficacy is a pure Church such a Church wherein a Christian may communicate without doing any injury to his Soul is a pure Church and has all the degrees of purity which is necessary to External Communion If by a purer Communion they mean only the Communion of better Men and of greater Saints they ought to consider that it is impossible to exclude Hypocrites out of any Church unless they pretend to a Gift of discerning Spirits nor is it fit they should be excluded while they are not openly scandalous for to shut such Men out of the Church deprives them of the Means of Grace and all hopes of proving better Men. And I hope Christian Communion is not confined to any single Congregation but every good Christian who lives in the Communion of the Church enjoys the Communion of Saints in all the World is a Member of the same Body which consists of all the true Disciples of Christ. Nay I would desire them to consider that the Glory of the Christian Communion is this That our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ with the glorious and triumphant Church in Heaven as well as with the Church Militant on Earth But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudg of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel This is the Church-Fellowship which those enjoy who live in Communion with the Universal Church and which Schismaticks have no right to and those who think to meet with better Company at a Conventicle let them take it But must not the Christian Church consist of all ranks and degrees of Christians as our natural Body does of several sorts of Members of different honour and worth and is it fitting for strong and well-grown Christians to separate from the weak and imperfect as if the eye should separate from the Body as despising the Communion of the Foot and yet if St. Paul says true that Schism is a work of the Flesh and the sign of carnal Men we have no reason to look for the best Christians in Schismatical Churches But secondly it was never till of late days thought lawful to separate from a lawful Communion tho as the state of the Church in this World is it were subject to some defects and therefore the Brownists who separated from the Church of England pretended that her Worship and Government was Unlawful Idolatrous and Antichristian and the old Nonconformists who though they could not conform as Ministers yet very religiously conformed as Lay-men both in Prayers and Sacraments condemned this Schism and proved that Communion with the Church of England was lawful and therefore Separation was sinful and I dare challenge any Man to shew me from the first beginnings of Christianity that ever it was thought lawful to separate from a Church where we might communicate without sin And thirdly let these Men consider that this Notion of separating from a lawful Communion for a purer Communion lays the foundation of eternal Schisms for there being no certain rule for the degrees of this Purity every Man according to his own fancy may refine for ever Fourthly If they do indeed think the Communion of the Church of England to be unlawful and sinful I would desire them to enquire how they came at first to think so for this is a very material Enquiry if Men desire to know their honesty and sincerity in this Matter for if Men are at first by their own fault ensnared in an Error and drawn into Schism how firmly soever afterwards they believe their Separation to be lawful and necessary it will not excuse them It is impossible to know all the several ways whereby Men come at first to be engaged in Schism but I shall take notice of some few which seem to be most common Such are these 1. Education 2. Lightness and giddiness of Mind 3. Some distast at Publick Affairs 4. Some quarrel with the Ministers of Religion 5. Interest or the Perswasion of Friends 1. Education when Men have been nursed up in Schism from their infancy and have been taught to despise the Common Prayer before they could read and to call the Church Antichrist and the Ministers of it Baal's Priests as soon as they could speak Now it must be acknowledged that this is the most pitiable case and the fairest Excuse and Apology that can be made for any Man for we all know what the power of Education is and how hard it is to deliver our minds from the first Impressions of Childhood and Youth but yet this will not excuse a Man when he has attained to Years of discretion and has opportunities of being better informed for if it would Pagans Mahometans and Papists who labour under the same prejudices of Education have the same excuse We must offer up to God a reasonable Service and that requires the exercise of our Reason in the choice of our Religion as well as in the discharge of Religious Duties Nay Papists Mahometans and Pagans have a better excuse upon this account than our Dissenters because their Prejudices may reasonably be thought more invincible as will appear if we briefly consider three or four things First That theirs is the Religion of their Country which they have been in quiet possession of for many Ages and thus that reverence they pay to the wisdom and memory of their Ancestors adds to the prejudices of their Education whereas every one knows that this present Schism and the pretences whereon it is founded are but late Innovations a Novelty which is not yet grey-headed And tho Antiquity in it self considered is no Argument for an ancient Error nor Novelty any
World And yet it is much worse than this too for such Men will not only miss of Heaven but sink into Hell a place of endless Torments where there is no ease and no hope So well might our Saviour ask that Question What shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And can any thing in the World deserve more of our care and industry than to obtain eternal Happiness and to avoid eternal Misery And yet this cannot be done without a sincere and devout performance of all the Acts of Religious Worship Those Persons do not deserve to be God's Friends and Favorites who do not worship him and those are not capable of the Joys of Heaven who cannot relish the Pleasures of Religion and the Worship of God CHAP. II. Concerning those who forsake Christian-Assemblies for want of a due sense of the Nature and Necessity of Publick Worship Several proofs of the Necessity of Publick Worship from the Nature of Religious Worship from the Nature of the Mosaick Worship from the Institution of a Christian Church and the Nature of Christian Worship and Discipline OThers there are who either wholly or in a great measure forsake our Communion for want of a due sense of the Nature and Necessity of Publick Worship They acknowledg it is their Duty to Worship God but they think they can worship God as well at Home as at Church that it is not the Place which makes their Prayers more or less effectual but God hears us where-ever we pray and is always pleased even with the single and private Devotions of good Men and the World is now so well stored with good Books that they can spend their time in reading at Home to as good purpose as if they went to Church to hear a Sermon And I need not observe how many there are who Act according to these Principles i. e. who seldom or never come to Church though how they spend their Time at home I know not but have great reason to suspect that with too many a warm Bed in the morning and a bottle of Wine in the Afternoon serves instead even of their private Devotions Now before I proceed to shew what a great and dangerous mistake this is I shall briefly expostulate the Case with these Men supposing it to be as they say That we may serve God very acceptably at Home without attending the publick Assemblies of Christians Supposing the Case to be equal in it self considered yet I beseech you Why should you prefer your own Private before the Publick Devotions of the Church Cannot you serve God at least as well at Church as you do at Home And Publick Worship having bin the universal Practice of the World in all Ages and under all Religions does it become a modest Man to affront so general a Custom which if it be not expresly commanded by God yet at least has no hurt in it And since the generality of Mankind have not only consented in such a Practice but have believed it to be their Duty to pay their joyn'd and publick Acknowledgments to their Universal Lord and Father and are apt to suspect these Men of Atheism and Irreligion who deny or neglect it What Reason can be sufficient to perswade any Religious Man to oppose so universal a Belief and to incur the publick censures of Insidelity and Irreligion Especially since the publick Exercise of Religion is enjoyned by Humane Laws and to neglect it is an affront to the publick Wisdom and Authority of a Nation which though other things were equal makes publick Assemblies a Duty and private Devotion when we ought and may attend on publick Assemblies to be a Sin And indeed we cannot imagine that God should take it well of any Man how devout soever he be in private who will rather affront the Universal Practice founded upon as Universal a Consent of Mankind will rather be thought an Atheist or an Insidel will rather trample upon all Humame Authority than joyn with his Fellow-Creatures and Subjects and Neighbours in the publick Acts of his Worship Put the case any of you were the Father of a very numerous off-spring and that without any express Command from you most of your Children should agree by a common consent to visit you together once a week to ask your Blessing and pay their thankful Acknowledgments for your great care of them in their Education and in that liberal Provision you have made for them but one or two of your Children should chuse to come alone to you in private when no body sees them and obstinately refuse to come with the rest of their Brethren though they were censured by them with undutifulness and ingratitude for such a Neglect I am apt to think there is none of you would accept of such private Acknowledgments from those who refused the more publick and solemn Addresses and we have as little reason to expect acceptance from God when we refuse to worship him in the Congregation of his Saints how devout soever we are alone Nay though we should grant that private Devotions were as acceptable to God as Publick supposing they were performed with equal Zeal and Fervency of Mind yet upon this account Publick Worship has much the advantage good Company in all Cases is apt to give us greater briskness and vigour of Mind the very presence of devout Souls who breath forth their ardent Desires to God is enough to fire our cold and chill Spirits and good Men receive warmth and quickness from each other and grow into greater ardours and transports Hypocrites have no other sense of Devotion but what they receive from good Company but good Men themselves who have a true and constant sense of God many times experience a great difference in this respect between their private Retirements and the more publick and solemn Acts of Worship Thus you see that tho we could produce no express proof of the necessity of publick Worship yet there are sufficient reasons to prevail with every wise and good Man not to withdraw himself from the Communion of Religious Assemblies and therefore indeed we shall never find that a truly wise and good Man does Private Devotion may be a pretence to justify the neglect of publick Worship but I dare appeal to these Men's own Consciences that it is never the true Cause for Men who do heartily desire to worship God will chuse to worship him in the best and most solemn manner that is in the publick Assemblies of Christians But yet to take away this very pretence from them I come now to consider our Obligations to publick Worship 1. And first I shall argue from the Nature of Religious Worship and the fundamental Reasons of it Now Worship signifies all that part of Religion which immediately respects God as it is distinguished from Sobriety and Righteousness and is commonly known by the
and lay them aside again when they please but this seems to be a plain and easy way to satisfy our Consciences that since the Law of God is their Rule we must never scruple the lawfulness of any thing which is not either expresly forbid by God or by such evident and necessary consequence as every honest Man may discern without using any great skill and subtilty While Men do not judg of things by the Law of God but by arbitrary Rules of their own inventing or by Fancy and Humour Prejudice or Interest they may like or dislike just what they please and call it Conscience when they have done but the observing this one Rule would soon cure all Fanaticism and restore the Church to Peace and Unity To make the Scripture a perfect Rule not only of Faith and Manners and all the essential parts of Worship which we readily grant and prove against the Church of Rome but also of all external Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies when we find no such thing said in Scripture nor any such entire and perfect Form of Discipline and Worship prescribed in it is the true cause of all our Divisions and fills peoples heads with endless and infinite Scruples but to make the Commands and Prohibitions of Scripture the Rule of our Consciences and the certain measure and standard of what is lawful and unlawful so as neither to condemn nor scruple what is not forbid in Scripture would infallibly heal our Breaches and restore us to Peace with our selves and with one another Fourthly I observe further That neither a mistaken nor a scrupulous Conscience can justify our Disobedience to the Commands of our Superiors We may indeed oppose the Authority of God against any humane Power a Conscience informed and governed by the Divine Laws will not cannot ought not to stoop to the greatest Prince who commands any thing contrary to God's Law because the Power and Authority of God is most sacred and venerable absolute and supream but an erroneous mistaken doubting scrupulous Conscience in a word a Conscience which is not governed by the Laws of God is not armed with his Authority neither and therefore cannot justify our Disobedience to Princes for it is only the Opinion of a private Man and therefore cannot justify Disobedience to publick Authority Which shews us how necessary it is to inform our Consciences aright and to keep close to our Rule not to neglect any thing which God has commanded nor to do any thing which he has forbid and where God has not determined us by his Authority in those things which he has neither commanded nor forbid to submit our selves to our lawful Superiors for nothing but the Authority of God will justify our Disobedience to Humane Authority and where we cannot pretend God's Authority as we cannot in those things which are left undetermined it is a sin to disobey our Rulers though they be but Men. I shall not determine that Question now Whether a Man who is under some Doubts and Scruples ought not to obey his Governors notwithstanding those Scruples because he that doubts is only supposed not to be satisfied about the evil of the thing commanded but in the mean time he is certain that it is his Duty to obey his Superiors and therefore not being sure that he shall sin in obeying because he is not sure that what they command is sinful and being sure that he shall sin in disobeying them if their Commands be lawful and being withal under a necessity of doing one or t'other whether he ought not in prudence to take the sure side that is to wave his Scruples and obey his Prince I shall at present only observe this one thing without drawing any peremptory conclusion from it That Obedience to our Superiors is a plain and express Law and so the proper Rule of Conscience and therefore if what our Prince commands us be not forbid by as plain and express a Law as that is which commands our Obedience we seem to oppose our private and uncertain Opinions against the express Authority of God and chuse rather to follow our Consciences where they are not evidently directed by a Divine Law than where they are No Humane Authority must be set up against the Authority of God but a Divine Authority that is a Divine Law is a more certain Rule than private Opinions The sum of all is this That no Man acts out of true Principles of Conscience but he who keeps his Eye fixed upon his Rule who directs and governs his Conscience by the Law of God other Men live by their private Humors and Fancies are turned aside by every Novel and groundless Conceit And tho they may be pleased to call this Conscience yet it will not excuse them from the guilt of Schism if they divide the Church and rend themselves from the Body of Christ Conscience will never justify us but when we obey and observe our Rule Secondly Another Question I would propose to these Men is Whether they ever seriously consider the hainous nature of Schism Now there is great reason to ask this Question if we observe with what little consideration most Men engage themselves in it how wantonly they forsake the Communion of the Church as if it were perfectly indifferent whether they come to Church or go to a Conventicle as if it were no more than to leave their own Parish Church and go to another where there is a Preacher whom they like better It is plain that such Men as these never understood what Christian Unity is nor ever considered what the danger of Schism is that is that they have not acted honestly and sincerely in a Matter of such vast importance The Christian Church is represented in Scripture as one Body united to Christ who is the Head of his Church and the Saviour of the Body This St. Paul makes a powerful Argument to Unity endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all What does this Bond of Peace signify but the external Communion of the Christian Church when Christians live together as Members of the same Body and united to each other as the Members of the natural Body are by Nerves and Sinews For Christians are called one Body with respect to their external Communion which is represented in the Lord's Supper by their eating of one Bread as St. Paul argues The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread So that we become one Body by external visible Communion by being united into one Religious Society for the Worship of God and our mutual edification But speaking the
help them but on the terms of the Covenant and so Church-Alterations came on and the Parliament thought it was better have no Bishops than such as did prevail against them This is fair warning and let the Church and Churchmen have a care how they oppose Rebellion any more 4. Every Miscarriage of the Bishops or Clergy or every thing that is thought a Miscarriage tho it be none is presently made an Occasion of Separation as if so be the Constitution of any Church were ever the worse because some of the Ministers of it neglect their Duty abuse their Power or do some things which do not please every Man's Humour As if the Miscarriages of some of the Ministers of Religion which will sometimes happen under the best Government in the World would justify Men in pulling down an Apostolical Church modelled according to the Pattern of Primitive Government and Practice And yet nothing is more common than to see Men forsake the Church and run to Conventicles if their Minister do not in every thing comply with their Desires if he be so ill-bred as to reprove them for their Sins or so stiff as not to make the Laws and Constitutions of the Church yield and bend to their Humours I suppose no Man will think that such Persons separate out of tenderness of Conscience who date their Separation from some little pet quarrel or peevish fit Nor fifthly are those very consciencious Men who separate from the Church out of Interest and the perswasions and importunities of some dissenting Friends who forsake the Church for the sake of a good Trade or a rich Wife or in hope of some great temporal Advantage unless it be a sign of a tender Conscience to make Gain Godliness not to serve Christ but our own Bellies I do but just mention these things which tho I am sure are great Truths and necessary for all Men to consider who would try their honesty and sincerity in this Matter of Separation yet I fear the very naming of them will be very offensive to guilty Persons who when they feel their Consciences smart are very apt to revenge themselves upon their kind and faithful Monitors Fifthly I would desire those Persons who plead Conscience for their Separation from the Church of England to consider whether ever they impartially and throughly examined the Reasons of their Separation We must be fully satisfied that it is unlawful to communicate in such a Church before Separation from it can be lawful for it is as great a sin to separate from a pure Church as it is to hold Communion with a corrupt Church and a truly honest Man is equally careful to avoid every sin and is as much afraid of the sin of Separation as the sin of a corrupt and idolatrous Worship Now when we consider how few there are that do this and how much fewer there are that are capable of doing it it is too plain an Argument that most Men separate from the Church without knowing any just cause and reason for it as to explain this Matter a little more at large First How few are those who do examine the Reasons of their Separation Not but that there are a great many who furnish themselves with some popular Talk against the Bishops and Forms of Prayer and Ceremonies c. but to examine the reasons of Things is very different from being able to make some slight Objections which have been answered an hundred Times For to examine things is impartially to weigh and consider both parts of the Question to avoid no difficulty to consider what is said for and against Separation and to hold the ballance so equal that Interest and Affection do not turn the Scales instead of Reason Now there are two great Faults which Men are commonly guilty of in this Matter First That they do not carefully examine both parts of the Question possibly they read such Books as are writ against the Church of England and so justify a Separation but do not with the same care read those Books which prove the sinfulness of Separation and justify the Communion of the Church of England They have the Arguments for the Church of England only at second hand from those who pretend to answer them but never look into the Books themselves And I do not wonder at this rate of examining that Men continue Separatists after all that can be said against it for it is rare to find any one Argument against Separation or for Communion with our Church fairly represented by those who pretend to answer it who commonly pick out such things as are least material or do not concern the main Controversy and make a great noise and flourish with seeming to say something which is nothing to the purpose but silently pass over what they know they cannot answer Now whoever separates from the Church without a thorough and impartial examination of the Reasons of it tho he should happen to be in the right is yet guilty of Schism that is tho his separation in it self considered be no Schism because there may be sufficient Reasons to justify such a Separation yet this being more than he can be presumed to know he contracts the guilt of Schism for he separates without cause who does not know the cause of his Separation and he cannot know whether there be a just cause for it who separates before he understands what is said on both sides as we all reckon that Man perjured who swears nothing but what is true but without knowing it to be true Secondly Another great Fault is That Men's Minds are commonly byassed by some Interest and Affection which weighs much more than any contrary Reasons can do by one means or other they fall in love with Schism and Separation and then set their wits on Work to defend it and those must be mighty evident and powerful demonstrations which can force Men to believe that which they have no mind to believe If it be objected That this is a Fault common to both sides There are few Men which side soever they are of but are greatly inclined to favour it and to help out a weak Argument which is too light with some grains of Allowance I Answer Possibly with most Men it may be so and in many cases it may be so far from being a Fault that it is both innocent and useful and an Argument of great Vertue and Goodness but the Fault and the Danger is when the Byass stands the wrong way As for Instance a good Man is as strongly inclined to believe that there is a God and to wish and hope that there is one as a bad Man is to believe that there is no God and to wish that there were none Here are Inclinations and Prejudices on both sides and yet it is a vertue in a good Man and a great sin in a bad Man because the one is a natural Byass and Inclination and a sign of Vertue the other
and curious Speculations but on the authority of Miracles which is so sensible an Argument that the meanest People understand it as well as the greatest Philosophers those Miracles which were wrought by Christ and his Apostles the knowledg of which is conveyed down to us in the Writings of the New Testament and which have been owned in all succeeding Ages of the Church till our days do as certainly prove the truth of that Religion which Christ and his Apostles taught as if we had heard God speak in an audible Voice from Heaven to us and this is a sufficient reason to believe whatever he has revealed though we cannot perfectly understand all the difficulties of it And when we have once embraced Christianity we have the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles to be the Rule of our Faith and Practice and therefore whatever is expresly forbid in those Writings every Man without any great skill in Controversy knows to be unlawful as being contrary to the revealed Will of God and by this means the plainest Country-man may understand the difference between Popery and Reformed Christianity the peculiar Doctrine of the Roman Church being expresly contrary to the Doctrine and Institutions of our Saviour for what can be more expresly contrary to the Gospel than worshipping Images praying to Saints and Angels praying in an unknown Tongue the half Communion where the Priest drinks the Wine by himself and gives nothing but a Wafer to the People these things require indeed great subtilty in the Church of Rome to defend them but may be understood and confuted by the plainest Man who is no Master of Subtilties But the Case is quite different in the Dispute between the Church of England and Dissenters we desire no more from them but to shew us where any one Doctrine or Practice of the Church of England is expresly condemned in Scripture or by such a natural and easy Consequence as every honest Man tho no Schoolman nor Philosopher may understand it Where do they find that the Office of a Bishop is Antichristian which has been continued in the Church ever since the Times of the Apostles and whose Successors they were if we will believe the Ancient Fathers Where do they read that a form of Prayer is unlawful when Christ himself gave a Form of Prayer to his Disciples and the Book of Psalms consists of an hundred and fifty Forms of Prayer and Praises which were used in their Publick Worship Where do they find that the Ceremonies of our Church are Idolatrous and Superstitious when they can produce no Text of Scripture where they are forbid unless they think that because God has forbid worshipping Images in the second Commandment therefore he has forbid all external Circumstances of Worship instituted for decency and Order which is so subtil a Consequence as will make a very Metaphysical Head ake to discover it Now when there is no direct and positive proof but Men argue wholly from some uncertain and far-fetcht Consequences How shall the common People who understood none of the artificial Laws of Reasoning judg of such Arguments It is possible indeed to make some terrible impressions upon their Fancies by great confidence and an uncouth sound of words which they understand not As that our Ceremonies are Symbolical that they are new Sacraments not meer Circumstances but parts of Worship Now how few are there of our Separatists who understand any thing of this talk How long time will they take to teach a Countryman who is not Book-learn'd what a Symbolical Ceremony is or to understand how our Ceremonies are transformed into Sacraments And yet whoever separates upon such Accounts as these without being able to understand the true meaning of those terrible Objections is most certainly a Schismatick And yet there is a great deal more than this to be known before Men can justify their Separations for suppose they should discover some Faults in our Constitution they must further inquire Whether these be only some tolerable Defects and Imperfections or whether they be Sins Whether they Pollute the Communicants and make Communion unlawful Whether they be only active or passive in it Whether supposing the wearing of a Surplice were superstitious all that are present at the Publick Prayers who disown such Superstition are yet guilty of it and must separate to preserve their Innocence and to declare their abomination of such Superstitions whether the Child who is signed with the sign of the Cross at Baptism be ever the worse for it or whether the Parents who dislike such a Ceremony sin in submitting their Children to it in Obedience to their Superiors or whether the Fault be theirs who enjoyn it These are Matters beyond the reach of every ordinary capacity to determine and therefore tho Separation were in it self lawful very few Men can separate lawfully 6. I shall add but one thing more with reference to the trial of these Mens honesty Whether they separate upon true Principles of Conscience and that is by considering how they behave themselves towards their Governors The Conscience of any honest Man especially when it dissents from Publick Constitutions is a very modest and peaceable Principle such Men think it very well if they have leave to dissent and quietly withdraw tho they have not leave to vilify the established Religion nor undermine publick Constitutions and tho they cannot obtain thus much favour but are persecuted for a good Conscience yet they suffer patiently after the Example of their great Master who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously But a Schismatick whose Conscience serves an Interest must miss of his end if he suffers patiently such are indeed as little in love with Sufferings as other Men but yet they love to have some pretence or other to make a great noise and clamour about their Sufferings as it is observed of the Schismatical Donatists that there were several Laws made against that by Theodosius the Emperor and tho none of those Laws were scarce ever executed yet they set up a mighty cry aggravated every little matter to cast an odium upon the Government complained that they were injuriously handled that their Cause was never fairly heard and determined by its intrinsick Merits but oppressed with Force and Power And how parallel this Story is to the case of some in these days I need not tell you I am sure there are a sort of Men who separate from our Church and for that reason are reckon'd among the Godly Party who take as little care to govern their Tongues or Pens tho St. Iames makes this the Character of a perfect Man as any Schsmaticks in the World ever did who neither express any regard to Princes nor to Truth and Honesty if they can but serve their Cause by casting dirt upon the Government or blasting the Reputation of vertuous and peaceable Men who will not
run headlong into the same Excesses with themselves I will not enlarge upon this Argument lest telling plain Matter of Fact should be called Bitterness and Railing for some Men out of a pretence of Conscience are guilty of such vile and lewd Practices as they are not willing to hear of again and think themselves slandered if they do All that I shall say of it is only this That a tender Conscience never teaches Men to revile and reproach their Governors but this has been the Practice and Character of the most infamous Hereticks and Schismaticks ever since the beginnings of Christianity St. Iude gives a great many hard words to some Men in his days which I am not willing to apply to any in ours who despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities Yet Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing Accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee But these speak evil of those things which they know not Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the Error of Balaam for Reward and perished in the gain-saying of Core these are spots in your Feasts of Charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear Clouds are they without Water carried about of Winds Trees whose Fruit withereth without Fruit twice dead plucked up by the Roots raging Waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever I shall conclude with that admirable Rule of St. Austin in answer to Parmenianus the Donatist Whoever corrects what he can by Reason and Discourse and shuts out or lays aside what is not capable of amendment as far as this may consist with the preservation of Christian Peace and Unity and modestly disallows and yet upholds what cannot be parted with without breaking the Peace of the Church this is the true Peace-maker SECT II. Containing some general Considerations in order to remove those Prejudices which some have entertained against the Worship of the Church of England I Shall now lay down some general Principles which may contribute towards the satisfaction of Men's Minds to remove their Prejudices against the Worship of our Church The things commonly objected to drive away our People from the Communion of our Parish Churches are the Government of the Church by Bishops the unlawfulness of Forms of Prayer the Surplice the Cross in Baptism and Kneeling at the Sacrament and such like which concern the use of some indifferent and uncommanded things in Religious Worship For we have always challenged our Adversaries to produce any one express Law of Christ which is contradicted and broken by the Constitution of our Church or the Administration of our Religious Offices they could never produce any yet and I am sure never can And if Men will abuse and scare themselves with some fancyful Applications of Scripture and remote and illogical Consequences there is no help that I know of since it is an endless work to answer all such cavils For Men who can make Objections without any just Reason may at the same rate return answers too without end Therefore the best and shortest way I can think of is to lay down some such general Considerations as may satisfy all honest and teachable Minds that tho it is possible to raise Objections against any thing yet those Objections must prove fallacious which contradict other great and apparent Truths And I shall reduce what I have to say to these four general Heads First The Consideration of the Nature of God Secondly The Nature and Design of the Christian Religion Thirdly The Example of Christ. Fourthly The Example of the Apostolick and Primitive Churches in the first ages of Christianity First Let us consider the Nature of God for God is the Object of our Worship And that is the best Worship which is most suitable to his Nature Thus our Saviour teaches us to argue God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth And thus the wise Man argues God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few Now to apply this briefly to our present Case can any Man who considers what God is imagine that he will be displeased with his Creatures for offering up their Prayers and Thanks-givings to him in a pious and sober Form of Words Can God be pleased with the volubility of the Tongue or quickness of Fancy or variety of Invention more than with devout Affections than with a Soul enflamed with Divine Love and possest with a Reverence of the Divine Majesty and offering up it self to him in few grave and considerate Words Will a Father reject the Petitions of his Child if as often as his Wants require he uses the same Words when he asks the same thing Does a Prince like a long extemporary Harangue when his Subjects come to beg a Boone of him or a short and well composed Petition The wise Man I am sure tells us that few and becoming Words are more agreeable to the Majesty of God and more expressive of that distance which is between him and us and therefore are more agreeable to the nature of publick Worship which is only an external signification of the Reverence and Devotion of the Mind Prayer is a necessary part of natural Religion and was a Duty incumbent on Mankind before God made any other revelation of his Will than by Natural Reason and therefore the Reason of Mankind is a very proper Judg in what manner we must pray to God unless there were an express positive Law made about it Revelation may suggest new matter for our Prayers and direct us to pray to God in the powerful and prevailing Name of the Holy Jesus But Words and Postures and other external Circumstances of Prayer which are not expresly determined by Revelation may be determined by humane Prudence for there could be no other rule for these Matters before God revealed his Will and if God have not altered this Rule by a plain positive Law it must be our Rule still for we have no better And therefore we cannot imagine that God who is our Supream Law-giver and discovers his Will to us partly by the Light of Reason and partly by Revelation should be angry with his Creatures for following the best Reason they have nay for governing themselves by the publick Reason and Authority of Church and State Whoever only considers the Nature of God and the reason of things must certainly judg it fitter to meditate before hand and to take Words with us when we approach the Presence of so great a Majesty than to venture saying any thing which comes next and neither the Nature of God nor the Reason of Man condemns any external Ceremonies for Decency and Order and an useful Signification but have taught all Mankind to use them in all
Ages of the World and under all Forms of Religion Whatever Religious Rites are a Dishonour and Reproach to the Divine Nature or unbecoming the Seriousness and Solemnity of Worship natural Reason condemns as Idolatrous or Superstitious but whatever is no Dishonour to God and may be useful to Men is so far from being condemned that it is little less than the Law and Voice of Nature At least thus much we may certainly conclude that there can be no intrinsick evil in these things which are neither repugnant to the Nature of God nor the Reason of Man much less can it be Idolatry or Superstition to use a Form of Prayer and some significant Ceremonies in Religious Worship for Idolatry and Superstition are not made so by positive Laws and Institutions but to worship a false God or to pay such a false Worship to the true God as is a reproach to his Nature is Idolatry and Superstition consists in false Notions repugnant to the Nature of Worship and Men may be guilty of Superstition in using or not using very lawful and indifferent things when by an abused Fancy and ill instructed Conscience they imprint either a religious or sinful Character upon them either think they shall please God or fear they shall displease him by doing things in their own Nature indifferent and neither good nor bad but according as they are used And this is no small advance towards satisfying Mens Minds in the lawfulness of those Religious Ceremonies which tho indifferent in their own Nature yet are enjoyned by the Publick Authority of Church and State for the Order Decency and Solemnity of Worship For that which does not contradict the Light of Nature which has no repugnancy to the Nature of God nor is forbid by any plain positive Law is the matter of Christian Liberty and falls under the Government and Direction of our Superiors as will more evidently appear if we consider Secondly The Nature and Design of the Christian Religion which I shall discourse of only as it concerns the present Debate and if it shall appear that Liturgies and Ceremonies do no more contradict the Nature of Christianity than they do the Nature of God let us all seriously consider how we shall answer Disobedience to our Governours and Separation from the Church upon such accounts as these to our great Lord and Master when he comes to judg the World And here I shall do these two things 1. Shew you what that Worship is our Saviour instituted and how far it is from condemning the use of sober Liturgies or decent Ceremonies 2. What there is in the Christian Religion which countenances both 1. What the Worship is our Saviour Instituted Christ came into the World to reform Religion and there are four things he seemed principally to design 1. To Spiritualize our Worship 2. To strip it of all Types and Shadows 3. To deliver Religion from the Incumbrances of Superstitious Observances 4. To put a difference between the Substance Circumstances and Appendages of Religion between what is Natural and Moral and the Instrumental and External parts of Worship 1. Our Saviour's great design was to Spiritualize our Worship The Jewish Worship consisted in so many external Rites and Usages in Washings Purifications Sacrifices Oblations and the like that the generality of them placed the Worship of God in the Homage of the external Man If they did but worship God at the right place and with such Sacrifices and Ceremonies as he had appointed they took little care of inward Devotion But now our Saviour teaches the Woman of Samaria to worship God in Spirit and Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Which our Saviour does not oppose to external and bodily Worship which is the only visible Worship God can have in this World but either to a typical Worship of which more presently or to such external Worship as is separated from the Devotion of the Mind when Men draw nigh to him with their Lips but their Hearts are far from him So that if we can offer up a devout Soul to God in a Form of Prayer if the external Ceremonies of Religion do not hinder the Devotion of the Mind and Spirit so far we do not contradict or oppose the nature of Christian Worship and if Men do sink down into an external Form of Religion and never raise up their Hearts to God the Fault is not owing either to Liturgies or Ceremonies but to a carnal and earthly Mind Extemporary and conceived Prayer has indeed usurped the Name of Spiritual Prayer but for what Reason I know not for I suppose few Men will pretend to pray by Inspiration and tho extemporary Prayer may more heat the Fancy there may be more serious Devotion and Piety in using a Form when we have nothing to do but to offer up our Souls to God without setting our Inventions upon the Rack what to say An extemporary Prayer is as much a Form and does as much confine and stint the Spirit in all but the Speaker as a Book-Prayer does and that is a very sorry Devotion at best which owes its Heates and Passions not to an inward Sense of God but to a musical Voice earnestness in the Speaker surprising Invention or popular Rhetorick 2. Our Saviour's design was to strip Religion of Types and Shadows He did not indeed do this while he was upon the Earth because the Jewish Oeconomy was not ended all things were not fulfilled which were necessary to put an end to that State till Christ died nor did his Apostles do it immediately at least not in all places but yielded to Jewish Prejudices and indulged Jewish Converts in their Observation of Circumcision and other Mosaical Rites Tho St. Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles would not suffer the Gentile Churches to be brought under that Bondage which occasioned a great many Disputes with the Jews as you may see in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians But the abrogation of Mosaical and Typical Ceremonies does not infer a prohibition of all significant Ceremonies in the Christian Worship because the Reason and Nature of them were very different The Mosaical Ceremonies were Types of Christ who was to come in the Flesh and therefore to retain them in their proper Nature Use was to deny that Christ was come in the Flesh for when the Antitype appears there is no longer any use of a Type But now a few innocent Ceremonies which are neither burthensome for their number to encumber Religion and clog and shackle our Devotions nor signify any thing contrary to the Nature Design of Christianity but add to the external Decency and Solemnity of Worship and may withal suggest pious and devout Thoughts to us are far enough from a Typical Nature and therefore cannot be presumed to be shut out of the Christian Church together with the
Mount But the Christian Church is arrived to a full Age and set at liberty by Christ from the Yoke of Bondage and therefore is not under servile restraints but has the Government of its own Actions according to the general Rules and Prescriptions of the Gospel Not that every particular Christian is at liberty to worship God as he pleases which could bring nothing but confusion and disorder into the Church but is to be under the Government and Direction of his Spiritual Guides and Pastors while they keep within the General Rules of the Gospel But the Christian Church enjoys that Liberty which the Jewish Church had not that they can institute and appoint change and alter the external Circumstances of Worship as the Necessities of the Church and the Edification of Christians require So muâ—â— are those Men mistaken who argue from Moses to Christ that Christ is as faithful at least as Moses was and therefore since Moses gave them an exact platform of Worship from which they must not vary in the least punctilio therefore they conclude that Christ hath done so too tho they cannot shew where he has done it that he has prescribed such an exact Form of Government Discipline and Worship in the Church as perpetually obliges all Christians whereas we must observe that there was no Christian Church formed in our Saviour's Days but he communicated with his Disciples in the Jewish Church while he lived and gave them Authority and Power to form Churches after his Resurrection But we must observe the difference the Apostle makes between Moses and Christ that one was faithful as a Servant the other as a Son Now a Servant must exactly follow his Rules and Orders but a Son Governs his own House with greater freedom and Moses being a Servant signifies also the servile State of that People whom he governed that they were in Bondage under the Rudiments of this World and had their task exactly set them but Christ who is the Son and Heir and Lord of all has made us Sons and Freemen too and therefore does not give such particular Laws about every little Circumstance but expects from us a more manly and generous Obedience And indeed there was great reason why the Jewish Worship should be exactly prescribed by God because it was typical of Christ and the state of the Gospel it was a visible Prophesy of things to come and therefore could be drawn by no other hand but that which was guided by an Omniscient Eye whence the Apostle observes that Moses was faithful as a Servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But in other Matters the Jews themselves were not under such confinement their Synagogue-Worship where they performed the Duties of Natural Religion was ordered by their own prudence and directions They ordered the baptizing of Proselytes without any command or direction in their Law for it which our Saviour made the Sacrament of our Admission into his Church and that Bread and Wine which by the same Authority was added to the Paschal Supper was consecrated by our Saviour as a Festival Commemoration of his broken Body and his Blood shed for us and therefore we have little reason to doubt whether the Christian Church has the same liberty which the Jewish Synagogue had to appoint such Circumstances and Ceremonies as are most suitable to the several parts of Religious Worship 3. The Apostles who were authorized by our Saviour to make Disciples and to gather them into Church-Communion give general Rules for Order and Decency and enjoyn Obedience to our Spiritual Guides Let all things be done decently and in order and let all things be done to edifying which is even the Rule of the Apostolical Power which God hath given us for edification and not for destruction Now general Rules leave Men at liberty as to particular Instances because a general Rule may be complied with different ways which are supposed to be in his choice who receives such a Rule Thus we are commanded to obey our Spiritual Guides Obey them who have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief Which when there is no fixt and setled Rule of Government supposes that many things are left to the prudence and discretion of the Governours the natural Inference from which is that tho there be no express command for a Form of Prayers or significant Ceremonies yet when they are ordered and established by the united Wisdom and Authority of Church and State it is the Duty of every Christian willingly and chearfully to comply with them while they agree with the general Rules of Gospel-Worship 3. Let us now consider the Example of our Saviour while he conversed on the Earth which is a most admirable Pattern for all Christians to follow Now I observe that though our Saviour lived in a very degenerate Age of the Jewish Church when their Priests Scribes and Pharisees by those Characters which he himself gives of them appear to be very vile Persons yet he lived in the Communion of the Jewish Church tho he were the great Reformer of Religion yet the time of the Jewish Church not being yet expired he formed no new Churches but observed their Publick Assemblies of Worship preached in their Temple and in their Synagogues and observed all their Religious Festivals as punctually as any of themselves which Consideration ought to give some check to those Men who forsake the Communion of the Church under pretence that there are bad Men in it Thus our Saviour conformed to all those laudable and innocent Customs of the Jewish Church which were of humane Institution and were not founded on the Authority of a Divine Law He celebrated the Feast of Dedication which was appointed by Iudas Macchabeus and his Brethren and the Children of Israel to be observed annually for eight days in remembrance of the cleansing of the Temple from the prophanation of Antiochus and the regaining their liberty of publick Worship This Feast though it were of Humane Institution our Saviour no where reproves but graces and countenances the Solemnity with his own Presence Thus he conformed to the Synagogue-Worship which was all of humane Order and Appointment as you heard before Thus he who so severely reproved the superstitious abuse even of Divine Institutions who despised their Sacrifices and Oblations and all their external and solemn Hypocrisies their broad Phylacteries and their frequent and religious Purifications when they placed their Religion in the bare doing those things without attending to the end for which they were commanded does both practise and allow those humane Institutions which served a good end in Religion which is a plain Argument that our Saviour did not think it such a prophanation of Religion to appoint any Circumstances of Religious Worship not commanded by God as
prevail with some honest but less thinking Men to forsake our Communion And I shall only mention those which concern the Rites and Ceremonies of our Church and all that I shall at present do here shall be to answer some hard Words and ill Names which are given to our Worship and shew how ignorantly and injuriously they are applied to the Church of England Such are these Will-Worship Superstition Idolatry Popery These are hard Words which very few People understand and therein the great force of the Objection lies as will appear from a particular examination of them First Will-Worship Now when Men charge the Church of England with Will-Worship they generally understand such a Worship as is not commanded by God but is originally owing to the Will and Invention of Men. Now this I absolutely deny that there is any such thing as Will-Worship in the Church of England The Worship of the Church of England consists in publick Prayers and Praises in reading the Scriptures and expounding them to the People and instructing them in the great Articles of Faith and Rules of Life in singing Psalms and administring the Supper of our Lord and such like Exercises of Devotion All which are expresly commanded in Scripture and therefore cannot be Will-Worship in this Sence for they are not the Inventions of Men but the Institutions of Christ. It is true there are some Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship used and enjoyned in the Church of England which are not commanded by God but these are no parts of Worship and therefore not Will-Worship We do not think wearing a Surplice to be an act of Worship nor expect to please God by any external Dress or Habit but we think it a decent Garb for those to use who minister in holy things We do not think kneeling at the Sacrament to be an Act but a Posture of Worship as it is of Prayer and therefore not kneel to the Bread and Wine but receive them kneeling as expressing that Reverence and Devotion of Mind which becomes such a mysterious Worship and as a Posture suitable to those Prayers which in the Act of receiving we put up to Heaven The Cross in Baptism is not designed as any act of Worship to God but as a visible Profession of our Faith in a crucified Saviour it is not a dedicating and covenanting Sign which respects God but at most an engaging Sign which respects the Church and therefore is not an Act of Worship much less Will-Worship To institute any new Kind or Species of Worship is certainly unlawful as to make any new object of Worship whether it be a visible representation such as a Picture and Image or invisible Beings as Angels and deisied Men a numerous company of whom are worshipped in the Church of Rome or any new Acts of Worship such as frequent Washings Purgations Sacrifices Pilgrimages c. But the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Actions which are no where determined by God may and must be determined either by our own Prudence or by the Prudence of our Governours without the least suspicion of Will-Worship because they neither are nor are designed for Acts of Worship But we must observe further that this Word Will-Worship is found but once in all the Scripture and some very wise and learned Men question whether in that place Will-Worship be condemned by the Apostle as an ill thing the Words are these Which things have indeed a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility and neglecting the Body not in any honour of satisfying the Flesh For they observe that Will-Worship is joyned with two other very good things Humility and neglecting the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies external Severities and Mortifications to keep down the Body and bring it into Subjection not to pamper it with high Nourishment nor to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof which seems to be the meaning of what follows not in honour in satisfying the Flesh for Honour as St. Hierom observes signifies taking Care of and making Provision for it So that we may as well say that Humility and bodily Severities Strictness and Austerity of Life in suppressing all the Motions of Lust and the least inclinations to sensual Pleasures are forbidden or censured by the Apostle as that Will-Worship is for there is as much appearance of his condemning one as t'other And besides this the Apostle says that these things have a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now we expound this to signify only a false appearance of Wisdom yet that supposes that Will-Worship and Humility and bodily Severities are in themselves good things and parts of Religious Wisdom when other things which are not good gain a Reputation of Wisdom by being like them for that which makes these things to have a shew of Wisdom is that they are mistaken for Will-Worship Humility and neglecting the Body And therefore according to this way of expounding the Words by Will-Worship we must understand voluntary Worship which answers to Free-Will-Offerings under the Law which were not commanded by God but yet were very acceptable to him when Men do something more than God has expresly commanded and deny themselves those Liberties and Enjoyments which God allows in order to some Spiritual End to refine and purge their Souls that they may arrive at more perfect attainments in Goodness And there is so much to countenance this Interpretation that all the Superstitions in the World do deceive and abuse Men and pass for excellent attainments in Religion under the shew and appearance of voluntary Worship and Free-Will-Offerings of doing something more than God has enjoyned them whereby they think they so highly merit of God as to obtain the pardon of their Sins and become his peculiar Favourites Thus the Pharisees thought to do by observing the Traditions of their Fathers by their frequent Washings Purifications Fastings and Tything even Mint and Cummin Thus the Papists do by their Fasts Pilgrimages and Penances but the mistake is that this is but a false appearance of Wisdom because tho at first it looks like the noble generous Worship of Free-Will-Offerings yet it is not so For tho under the Law Free-Will Offerings were not commanded which had destroyed the Nature of a Free-Will Offering yet there are directions given what such Persons shall offer to God in case they do offer at all and in particular that there shall be no blemish in it which signifies that this voluntary Worship must be confined to such Instances as we know are acceptable to God and therefore when Men spend their Zeal in some voluntary Superstitions which cannot please God such things have only a shew a false appearance of Wisdom in voluntary Worship because tho their Worship be voluntary and so far commendable yet they do not make a wise choice of the Acts of Worship do not worship God in an acceptable manner And this is
Remains of its antient Piety and Devotion which was buried in the midst of Rubbish and Idolatrous Superstitions Consider then what the proper work of a Reformer must be to pull up Root and Branch to pull up the Wheat with the Tares This would be not to reform a corrupt Church but to make a new one This would be to cut off the sound with the rotten Members and is like pulling down a well constituted Government to correct Abuses I pray God preserve us from such Reformers as these In a Word if these Men who accuse the Church of England of Popery can shew any thing practised among us which is peculiar to Popery which cannot be justified by the Precepts and Examples of Scripture and the first and purest Churches I will heartily joyn with them in calling for a Reformation In the mean time I would desire them to consider that they do Popery too much Reputation by giving up the Church of England to it and make the name of Popery a less formidable thing when it is thus indifferently applied to a corrupt and to a reformed Church I wish with all my Soul they were half so free from Popish Principles and Practices in matters of Civil Government as the Church of England is from a Popish Worship PART II. Concerning those Disorders and Miscarriages which some men are guilty of in Church-Communion CHAP. I. Concerning those who ordinarily forsake the Communion of their Parish Churches HAving discours'd thus largely of those who wholly separate themselves from Christian Communion who either communicate with no Church or forsake the Communion of the Church of England I now proceed to correct those Miscarriages which some who profess themselves of our Communion are too notoriously guilty of And I shall first begin with those who ordinarily forsake the Communion of their Parish Churches This has been an old and inveterate evil of long use and practice especially in this great and populous City and it may be thought a daring and fruitless attempt to oppose it however I have this satisfaction that no man can reasonably suspect that I serve any other interest by this but the interest of Peace and Order and the better edification of the Christian Church which must reasonably engage all men the more impartially to consider what I shall now offer which shall be comprized under these two General Heads First Our Obligations to Parochial Communion 2. An Answer to some Objections against it First Our Obligations to Parochial Communion which will appear in these particulars 1. That Parochial Communion is in it self an excellent Institution for the more regular Instruction and Government of the Christian Church We do not indeed pretend that the division of an Episcopal Church into several Parishes with their distinct Pastors set over them is in a strict sense of Divine Institution for Christ and his Apostles did not by an express Law determine the Bounds and Extent of Bishopricks much less of Parochial Communions nor indeed was it possible to do it in those dayes when the greatest number of people were either Iews or Heathens Nor was there any need of this it being at last an acknowledged Principle among Dissenters themselves and those of the greatest note That the directive Light of Nature is sufficient to guide us in such things as these the times and seasons of Church Assemblies the order and decency wherein all things are to be transacted in them the bounding of them as to the number of their members and places of habitation so as to answer the ends of their institution And therefore if this Parochial Communion be of great use to the edification of Christians it not only justifies the Wisdom of the Church in the first Institution of it but severely condemns those who break and violate so useful an Institution The whole Christian Church is but one Body and Society of Christians united to Christ who is the Head of this Body and therefore were it possible should all worship their common Father and Saviour together but since the number of Christians and their great distance from each other will not admit this they are divided into less Societies for the more convenient Administration of holy Offices and the exercise of Christian Discipline and Government How can any thing in a Christian Nation be more useful for all the ends of Church Society than the distribution of Christians into Parochial Communions To enjoy the liberty of publick Assemblies near our own dwellings without being forced to seek for it at a distance would have been thought a great priviledge in former Ages like the Heavenly Manna falling round about the Tents of the true Israelites To have a fixed Pastor who is particularly entrusted with the care of your Souls to whom you may at all times freely resort and disclose your spiritual wants whose neighbourhood and conversation may contract a particular friendship and familiarity and beget a mutual confidence and endearment is quite a different thing from some publick and general exhortations and the reason why men do not more value the benefit and advantage of a Parochial Guide is because generally they make so little use of him This is the truest emblem of Catholick Unity when we hold personal Communion with those Christians who are our neighbours and so in the nearest disposition for it for our obligation to Christian Communion extends it self to all Christian Societies which live in the Communion of the Church and to pick up a Church for constant and Ordinary Communion here and there from stragling members who live in remote and distant places is to make a Schismatical difference between Christians as if all Christians were not of the same body nor fit for personal Communion and though forsaking our Parish Churches for other Churches in the same Communion be not so formal a Schism yet it has some tendency that way it being a forsaking the Communion of our neighbour Christians and Parochial Guide There is no other Rule that I know of for personal Communion but cohabitation or dwelling together in the same neighbourhood for then we communicate with the Catholick Church when we communicate with that part of it wherein we live but when without just cause we ordinarily forsake the Communion of Parochial Assemblies we disturb the most convenient Order of Church-Communion and make a Rent and Schism in the Church as total Separation makes a Schism from the Church Neighbour Christians have the most frequent occasions of conversing with each other and therefore many great ends of Christian Communion are best attained among them they may exhort and reprove one another and provoke unto love and good works they may watch over one anothers souls and when they observe each others miscarriages which they cannot avoid observing when they live so near and converse so often together they may apply such timely remedies as may help up those who fall or prevent the fall of those who trip and stumble and
than can be contained in one Church The complaint is too true and worthy of the care of publick Authority to redress it but this is no just reason for Separation though it be a reason for such persons who are shut out of their own Parish Churches to go to others where they can be received for where publick Authority has not made sufficient provision for Parochial Communion men who love their souls must provide for themselves in the Communion of the Church CHAP. II. Concerning Irreverence in Worship ANother great miscarriage which many professed Christians are guilty of is an irreverent performance of Religious Worship if that may be called Religious Worship which is not attended with all the solemn expressions of reverence and devotion There are so many instances of this that the very naming of them will be thought sharp and satyrical There are but few Christians who put on that true gravity and seriousness of looks and behaviours as becomes the presence of God and the solemnity of Religious Worship You shall see some gazing about them with a roving and wandring eye as if they came only to see and to be seen to observe every new face or new dress and garb and therefore too often set themselves out with that fantastick gaiety which more becomes a Play-house than a Church You shall see others talk or whisper or laugh to the great offence and scandal of all serious and devout minds Others instead of worshipping God sleep away the Prayers or Sermon or both as if they were not concerned in either It is possible indeed for very devout men sometimes to be surprized with sleep but it is a great indecency when ever it is so and requires great care to prevent it in our selves and others and is a great contempt of God and of his Worship when it grows into a custom and men as naturally dispose themselves to a sleeping posture as if it were the design of their coming to Church You shall see others sit all the time of Divine Service which would be thought a very great rudeness when we put up a Petition to an earthly Prince this was unknown in the ancient Church wherein for some Ages they did not so much as sit either while the Scriptures were read or expounded and Eusebius relates a famous Story of Constantine the first Christian Emperour that when he made a Speech to him in his own Palace concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour he heard it standing though it were very long and would not be perswaded to sit down saying That it was not fit to consult our ease while we hear any discourses concerning God and that it was more agreeable to piety to hear Religious discourses standing And what would that Religious Emperour have thought to have seen Christians in publick Assemblies pray sitting And indeed I have often thought what should be the reason of that universal practice of sitting when we sing Psalms for Psalms of praise and thanksgiving are as much the worship of God as Prayer and therefore equally require a posture of Devotion Thus uncovering the head has at least among Christians been alwayes accounted an act of Reverence as pulling off the Shooes was among the Eastern Nations and therefore becomes the presence of so great a Majesty But I shall not take notice of every particular instance of such miscarriages but endeavour to convince you of the great evil and undecency of such irreverence in Worship and that from these two considerations 1. The nature of Religious Worship especially considered as publick 2. From the peculiar presence of God and holy Angels in Christian Assemblies 1. From the nature of Religious Worship especially considered as publick Now Religious Worship consists in a great awe and reverence for the Divine Majesty when we are possest with a great sense of that infinite distance which is between God and us and our constant dependence on him which makes us approach his presence with great humility of mind with a profound admiration of his infinite perfections with thankful acknowledgments of his many and great blessings bestowed on us and with souls devoted to his service and obedience hence Religion is so often called the fear of God because Religion is founded in a great awe and reverence for God So that where there is no true reverence of God there is no true Worship of him and where ever the mind is thoroughly affected with this religious fear it will discover it self in our words and looks and actions Our souls have the government of our outward man and our passions discover themselves in our looks and behaviour It requires very great art either to conceal those passions which we have or to counterfeit those which we have not for there is such a sympathy between our souls and bodies that they powerfully affect each other and our wise Maker so contrived our frame that though the secret motions of our minds cannot be seen yet they discover themselves by those external and visible impressions they make on our bodies without which mankind could never know one another nor have any pleasure or security in mutual conversation For no wise man cares to converse with those who can so artificially diguise themselves that you can never know what their inward resentments are Which shews that according to the frame of our natures an inward reverence for God will shew it self in external actions and therefore that it ought to do so for as God has united the soul and body into one man so he has united their motions and actions too without which there can be no one perfect act of Religion or Vertue to worship God with the body without the soul is hypocrisie to worship God with the soul without the body is either impossible because our inward passions will discover themselves by some external signs when we have no design nor interest to conceal them or is very lame and imperfect and unbecoming this state of life We must glorifie God both with our bodies and with our spirits which are Gods he made them both and united them for his service and for the same reason redeemed them both with the blood of his Son But we shall better see the necessity of this by considering the nature of publick Worship for publick Worship consists in publick signs of honour no man has a Window into our souls to discover the secret devotion of our hearts and therefore visible Worship must be expressed in visible actions in the external reverence of our words and gestures and behaviour that is in such actions as express the great humility of our minds that great sense we have of the infinite Majesty of God and our own meanness and worthlessness and all those passions and affections which become Divine Worship and therefore rude and unmannerly approaches to God such as would not become the Majesty of an earthly Prince whatever inward devotion we may pretend to is not external and
witnesses of the decency and reverence of our Worship and this is the most plain and obvious sense of St. Paul's words For this cause ought the woman to have power over her head because of the Angels he was a discoursing the decency of mens praying uncovered and women covered because the woman ought to be in subjection to her husband and therefore it was undecent to appear with her head uncovered and much more so in religious Assemblies wherein we are to have a greater regard to decency because of the Angels that is those Angels who attend our Worship and carefully observe our behaviour though we do not see them and as St. Chrysostom sayes If we reverence men much more the Angels of God From whence we learn these two things that the Angels attend our Worship and that for that reason we ought to be very careful of all decency and gravity in our Worship And certainly did men heartily believe and seriously consider that God and his holy Angels look on and take special notice of every action and are greatly offended with a light and trifling carriage with any gestures or actions which unbecome so great a presence it would compose them to greater seriousness and devotion and either make them afraid to come to Church or more reverent when they do CHAP. III. Concerning the neglect of the publick Prayers of the Church A Nother great miscarriage which some are guilty of who do not forsake our Communion is a great neglect of the publick Prayers of the Church A great many come to Church when the Service is half read others when it is near a conclusion and think there is no great hurt in it neither if they do not lose the Sermon At other times when there is only the Divine Service read without a Sermon few persons think it worth their attendance but the Worship of God is exposed to contempt and the Minister laugh't at for reading to bare Walls and empty Seats These things I grant may happen sometimes where there is no designed neglect the mistake of time may occasion some persons coming late who want certain notice and on the Week-dayes necessary business may hinder others who are glad to take all the opportunities they can get of publick Worship but where there are not such reasonable excuses the fault is very great though few people are convinc't of it and therefore my business at present shall be to endeavour to convince you of the evil of this neglect 1. If you will acknowledge it your duty to worship God together in the Assemblies of Christians I need not multiply words to prove such a neglect of publick Prayers to be a great fault for they are the principal part of the Divine Worship there we confess our sins to God and beg his Pardon and receive a Ministerial Absolution from the mouth of his Minister there we praise him in divine Hymns and Anthems and put up our joint Petitions and Thanksgivings to him and this is properly divine Worship because it is our address to God in Supplications Prayers and Praises To hear the Word of God read or preached is so far an act of Worship too as it signifies an acknowledgement of his authority over us and our desire to be instructed by him but this is but a secondary act of Worship which consists in hearing God speak to us either immediately in his inspired Word or mediately by those men whom he has authorized and qualified for the instruction of his Church but the Worship of God properly consists in our offering something to God the Sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgivings which are highly pleasing to him when they are offered up by a devout soul in the name and merits of our great High Priest and Mediator Jesus Christ. So that those who neglect the Prayers of the Church neglect publick Worship and those who slight the opportunities of publick Prayers when there is no Sermon to invite their presence plainly discover that they prefer pleasing their curiosity with hearing some new discourse before the more solemn acts of Worship which is a great sign that they hear to very little purpose when the end of hearing is practice and the most excellent part of practical Religion is the immediate Worship of God 2. Because some men think they worship God sufficiently if they come time enough to Church to joyn in the Pulpit Prayer I would desire them to consider that Church Communion principally consists in joyning in the publick Prayers of the Church These men would not be thought nor do they intend to renounce the Communion of our Church and yet in effect do so while they neglect its publick Worship for Church Communion consists in meeting together for publick acts of Worship and then we joyn in the publick Worship of the Church when we worship God according to that Rule and Form prescribed by the publick Authority of the Church wherein we live The Prayer of the Minister before Sermon is not so expresly provided for by our Rubrick though it be favoured by a Canon made for that purpose and is now usefully introduced by long custome with the connivance if not the express allowance of our Governours but the Liturgy is the form of publick Worship and administration of Sacraments there the Church offers up more especially her publick Prayers and Praises this is the great bond of Church Communion and to neglect or withdraw our selves from this Worship is in effect to forsake the Communion of the Church as to the principal part and exercise of it When you joyn in the Pulpit Prayer though it be never so well composed grave and serious pious and ardent yet it looks more like the Worship of a particular Congregation than of the Church for you joyn only with those who are present at such a prayer but when we offer up our souls to God in that publick Form of Prayers prescribed by publick Authority we joyn with all the Congregations of England who at the same time offer up the same Prayers and Praises in the same words as if they were but one Congregation and had but one heart and mouth and those men do not understand the reason and nature of publick Worship who make light of this Why is the Worship of a Religious Assembly more acceptable to God than the private Devotions of good men when they might as well stay at home and about the same hour which in ancient times was observed for private as well as publick Devotion offer up their private Prayers to God for themselves and one another for God can hear them all where ever they are and their prayers may ascend up to Heaven together and this one would think should be as acceptable and prevalent as to pray to God in a great company and yet we see that our Saviour has instituted publick Assemblies for Worship has appointed his Ministers to offer up the publick prayers of the Congregation to God in his
all the publick solemnities of Worship 4. Publick Baptism is very much for the edification of the Church It minds Christians of their Baptismal Vow which I fear too many are apt to forget it puts good thoughts into them when they see what a grave and serious thing it is to be a Christian it sets their consciences on work to review their past lives and to consider how they have kept their Baptismal Vow it minds Children and Servants of their duty who are seldome at private Baptism and are many times more affected with such a sight than with the best counsels It minds those who have been God-Fathers or God-Mothers what charge they have undertaken which they are to look upon as somewhat more than a complement to a friend or matter of ceremony even a trust and a trust of the highest nature an obligation to God and to his Church to take care of the Vertuous and Religious Education of such Children Which may convince all considering men of what great use it is that Baptism should be administred with all the aweful and publick solemnities that may be and not be huddled over in private as a thing that must be done though it matters not how 5. For this we have the example of the Primitive Christians who always administred Baptism in publick places and in the presence of the Congregation At first indeed they baptized in Rivers or Ponds as Iohn the Baptist did in Iordan where our Saviour himself was baptized which made many in the Primitive Church ambitious to be baptized there also as Eusebius reports of Constantine the Emperour though he was disappointed in it afterwards they built Fonts near the Church then in the Church-porch and at last in the Church it self and never allowed of private Baptisms but in danger of death And to make the action more solemn they had publick times for Baptism which in most Churches were Easter and Whitsunday when all their Catechumens who desired Baptism and were judged fit to receive it were admitted into the body of Christians and made members of Christ and of his Church And thus it continued in following Ages and so it ought still to be according to the Rubrick of our Church I mean as to the publick administration of Baptism though it be not now confined to such certain times which allows of no private Baptisms but in danger of death So that this is a plain transgression of the Rule and therefore such a disorder as no man should be guilty of who professes himself a member of our Church CHAP. V. Concerning the publick Instructions of Youth ANother great miscarriage is that few men are so ready and careful as they ought to be to submit their Children and Servants to publick Instructions Of what mighty concernment the Religious and Vertuous Education of Youth is I need not tell you for in a great measure their happiness in this World and in the next depends on it when Children are brought up in ignorance and folly it layes a foundation of Atheism and Debauchery in their riper years Unless they be tâ—ught to know and to fear God betimes they are in great danger of laughing at God and Religion and making a mock of sin as they grow in years and wickedness I doubt not but the Atheism and lewdness of this present Age has been as much owing to the miscarriages of Parents and Governours in the Education of Children and Youth as to any one cause besides How many Children have never been taught any other Catechism than some flattering Complements modish Oaths and obscene talk How many have been instructed in prophane and impious Jests and all the topicks of irreligious Wit and no wonder there are so many great Proficients who are wicked above their age and can as pertly and confidently laugh down God and Religion as the gravest and most studied Atheists Others are not so industrious to corrupt Youth but yet take no care to instruct them better to possess their tender minds with the knowledge and love of God and true goodness and then there is no great need to teach them to be wicked If the ground been't tilled and cultivated you can expect no good fruit but weeds will grow of themselves Others possibly do take care to instruct their Children in the Principles of Religion and to train them up to the practice of Vertue and I only wish there were greater numbers of these men we might then hope in time to see the World reformed and Religion grow into fashion and credit again at least the next generation might see the blessed effects of those seeds of Vertue and Piety which are sown now But there is one great neglect of very mischievous consequence easie to be observed among us and we can expect no great good till it be reformed and that is the neglect of publick Catechizing which may be sometimes the neglect of the Minister but is oftner the neglect of the people who cannot be perswaded to submit their Children and Servants to publick instructions nor to give any incouragement to it by their own presence and attendance That this is so is too evident and yet I cannot make any probable conjecture what should be the cause of this For 1. No man certainly can think it an indifferent thing whether his Children be thoroughly instructed in the principles of Christian knowledge for knowledge must be both the rule of practice and the motive of obedience the Laws of the Gospel must be the rule of our life and practice and no wonder men do amiss who know not what they ought to do the Articles of the Christian faith are the motives and principles of obedience to enable us to conquer the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the allurements and temptations of this World and no wonder men are conquered who understand not the use of their spiritual armour who are ignorant of those things without the belief and knowledge of which they cannot conquer Such as the being and nature and providence of God the incarnation death and sufferings resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God the influences and assistances of the Divine Spirit the Judgement to come and everlasting life after death Nor is it sufficient to be able to say over these words without some competent understanding of the sense and meaning of them the Articles of our Creed do not work like Spells or Charms by the Magical power or sound of words but as arguments and motives that is as they convey such a sense of things to our minds as govern our affections and subdue them to the obedience of Christ and therefore no man can be the better for his faith who does not throughly understand what he believes And though hearing Sermons may help somewhat towards the instruction of Youth yet this cannot be so effectual as Catechizing for the first principles of knowledge ought to be taught by few and plain words and instill'd
and all the Vessels of the Ministery were sprinkled with blood nay not only this general Covenant was confirmed by Sacrifice but all good men when they offer Sacrifices to God are understood to make renew or confirm their Covenant with him whence is that expression in the Psalms Gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice Thus the death of Christ did ratifie and confirm the Gospel Covenant between God and men and therefore the blood is called the blood of the Covenant and to feast on the memorials of his death and passion is a signification that we are in Covenant with God and God with us that we still own our Covenant and are resolved still to do so it is to put God in mind of his Covenant with us and us of our Covenant with him and if we have been guilty of any breach of Covenant with God by venturing upon the commission of any sin when we have with tears bewailed our sin and renewed our repentance here we must renew our Covenant and by approaching the Table of our Lord declare that though we are sinners yet we are not Apostates that we still own our Covenant and by the Grace of God which we now implore and hope to receive resolve to continue stedfast in it while we live And is not this an inestimable priviledge to be in Covenant with God and to have this Covenant as it were signed and sealed to us as often as we please by a foederal Rite of God's own appointment especially is it not a mighty favour for such frail sinners who are so exposed to temptations and so often conquered by them to have liberty granted upon their sincere repentance to return to Gods Table and to renew their Covenant and to be received again into Covenant by God Is it not a mighty affront to God when he invites us to his Table as those who are in Covenant with him to live in so great a neglect of it Is it not a kind of renouncing our Covenant when we refuse to own it by such publick solemnities as he himself has appointed for that purpose 2. These Religious Feasts signifie a state of Peace and Friendship with God and therefore those Sacrifices of which the Sacrificers were allowed to eat are called Peace-offerings in the Law of Moses Under the Law it was not permitted to them to eat of the Sin-offering that Sacrifice which was offered for the expiation of sin but when they had offered a Sacrifice for sin they might then offer a Peace-offering and feast before the Lord on the Sacrifice as a token of peace and reconciliation with God And thus it is under the Gospel Christ offered himself once for all a Sacrifice or Offering for sin and has obtained eternal redemption for us and therefore there is no more expiatory Sacrifice to be offered for sins but when through the frailty of humane nature and the powerful temptations of flesh and sense of the World and the Devil we have defiled and polluted our consciences with sin and guilt instead of those particular Sacrifices for sin which the Iews were directed to offer we must offer up the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart to God that is we must truly repent of our sins and turn from them and arm our selves with powerful resolutions against them for the future and then we may approach the Table of God and receive the pledges of his love and the fresh assurances of our pardon and acceptance through our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not use to receive and entertain any at our Tables but those who are our Friends or at least are not our enemies others are intruders and if they be not turned out again yet must make themselves welcome and indeed a Covenant made by Sacrifice alwayes signifies a Covenant of Peace and such to be sure the Gospel Covenant is of which the Lords Supper is the Seal and Sacrament a Covenant of peace and reconciliation between God and men None ought to come to this Table but the Friends of God as all holy men and all true humble penitents are and such men shall be sure to receive a joyful welcome and all the peculiar marks of Gods favour for such this holy Supper it self is to all worthy receivers 2. In the Supper of our Lord we do not only eat at his Table but we feed on his body not as if in a carnal sense we eat his natural flesh and drink his blood as the Church of Rome teaches contrary to the common sense and experience of mankind and without any colourable pretence from Scripture or Primitive Antiquity but we eat his flesh and drink his blood in such a spiritual manner as they are exhibited to us in the Sacrament of his own Institution As to explain this in as few words as may be The Lords Supper I told you before in General did answer to a Feast upon a Sacrifice in the Jewish Law And now I add that it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ who dyed upon the Cross and bore our sins in his own body upon the Tree and therefore it is called eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. For under the Law the Iews did in a literal sense eat the flesh of the Sacrifice for part of it was burnt upon the Altar and part they eat and this eating of the Sacrifice did give them a right and interest in the vertue of the Sacrifice and all the blessings purchased by it Now though Christ dyed upon the Cross for us yet he could not in a literal sense give us his natural flesh to eat for he was to rise again from the dead with a glorious and incorruptible body and ascend up in the same body to Heaven and there to continue united to this humane but glorified body till he return again to judge the World This Sacrament of his body and blood was to be celebrated in all parts of the World where a Christian Church should be planted and though he himself who is over all God blessed for ever more is present also in all places and especially in all the Assemblies of his Disciples who meet to worship him yet his body though glorious and perfect as a body can be yet is but matter still and therefore confined to one place and cannot at the same time be at Rome and Constantinople nor in ten thousand places at once more remote than they and this Sacrament is to be celebrated his flesh eat and his blood drank as long as the Church and the World lasts and it is contrary to the nature of a body to be so often eat and yet continue the same body and at best were the thing possible it would be no better than an inhumane and barbarous Rite to eat the flesh of a man and of our Friend And therefore since by the Institution of God a Sacrifice for a Peace offering was to be
Law of Moses For we may observe that the Apostles themselves in compliance with the weakness of the believing Jews did use a great many Mosaical Rites only stripping them of their Typical Nature St. Paul was a zealous opposer of Circumcision and yet did not scruple to circumcise Timothy not in token of God's Covenant with Abraham but to prevent Scandal And those Christians who lived at Ierusalem worshipped in the Temple kept their Religious Festivals and observed their Law but no Christian could do this according to the Original Institution of those Laws for that had been to renounce Christianity but they observed them in complyance with the custom of their Nation and to avoid giving offence to believing Jews And if the Apostles might lawfully observe those Jewish Customs when they were freed from their Typical signification it cannot be a Fault to use some such innocent Ceremonies and Circumstances in Worship as are no way prejudicial to the Nature of Christianity If the belief of Christianity made the Observation of those Jewish Ceremonies Innocent which in their own Nature and Original Institution are inconsistent with Christianity as signifying that Christ was not yet come How much more innocent is it to worship God in a white Garment to kneel at the Sacrament and bend our Knee to our Lord at whose Table we eat and to sign our Children with the Sign of the Cross in honour of our crucified Lord and as a visible Profession of a suffering Religion 3. Our Saviour rejects all Superstitious Observances which were not any part of Religious Worship and yet were thought to have an extraordinary Sacredness and Religion in them such as he calls the Traditions of their Elders and charges them with teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such as washing Cups Platters and Hands before Dinner thus touch not taste not handle not are by St. Paul called the Doctrines and Commandments of Men which refer to their abstaining from certain sorts of Meats and the like So that these Doctrines and Commandments of Men which Christ flings out of his Religion were not any Ceremonies or Circumstances of Worship but some Customs they take up with a great Opinion of their Religion and Merit As the Papists have great numbers of them such as Pilgrimages and Penances c. And St. Paul tells us with respect to such Customs as these That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost that is that Christian Religion does not consist in such sorry things as eating or not eating such and such Meats but Christ expects from us true and sincere Piety as the only thing that can recommend us to God Such Superstitious Customs as these are very different from the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship unless we think it the same thing to hope to merit Heaven by going a Pilgrimage by professing Poverty Celibacy and blind Obedience by abstaining from Flesh in Lent and such kind of vain Superstitions as it is to wear a Surplice in the time of Divine Worship or to receive the Lord's Supper upon our Knees as an external Expression of Devotion not as meritorious Superstitions The Ceremonies of our Church have been often declaimed against under the Notion of the Doctrines and Traditions of Men but it is plain that neither our Saviour nor St. Paul meant any thing like them for they do not speak of any Circumstances or Appendages of Religious Worship but of such arbitrary Superstitions as they turned into formal Acts of Religion The fourth does not much concern our present Argument the difference Christ put between the Substantial and the Instrumental parts of Worship any otherwise than to mind us that we must not look upon any Ceremonies as parts of Worship but a decent manner of performing it That our acceptance with God depends upon nothing that is meerly external but on the Devotion of the Heart and Soul expressed in such becoming Words and Behaviour as may make it visible and exemplary to others and this is exactly the Doctrine of our Church and if any Men think that such external Expressions of Honour will please God without the Worship of the Mind and Spirit they must answer for themselves for she owns no such Principles but takes care to instruct her Children better And methinks this should be no small satisfaction to Mens Minds that the established Worship of our Church has nothing contrary to the nature and design of Christianity from whence it follows that Men may be very good Christians while they live in Communion with our Church and then I doubt they cannot be very good Christians when they forsake it for nothing but an apparent and manifest danger of sin can justify such a Separation 2. But let us now further consider how the Worship of our Church is justified by the Principles of Christianity We do not pretend that there is an express command to pray always by a Form or to institute and appoint significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God but there is enough in the Gospel of our Saviour to justify such Practices as briefly to point to some few things 1. Our Saviour himself taught his Disciples to pray by a Form Our Father which art in Heaven c. And if you will allow that it was lawful for them to pray in these words though you should suppose that they were not always bound to use it it plainly proves that the Christian Religion does not forbid praying by a Form for if it be lawful to pray by a Form even of Divine Institution then a Form as a Form cannot be unlawful 2. Our Saviour has no where prescribed the particular Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet no Religious Action can be performed without some Circumstances or other he has commanded us to pray to God in his Name to commemorate his Death and Passion in his last Supper and has commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost But how oft we must pray and celebrate this Heavenly Feast in what Place in what Posture in what Time he has not told us He has prescribed the Form of words in Baptism but not any one Circumstance and yet it is certain there must be some Circumstances for every Action for the more decent performance and greater solemnity of such mysterious Rites and therefore we may well conclude that our Saviour left all such to the order and direction of his Apostles and their Successors in all Ages as may tend most to the preservation of good Order and the edification of the Church For we must consider the difference between the Law and the Gospel Under the Law the Church was in an Infant State like an Heir under Age which is under Tutors and Governors and therefore every part of that Typical Temple-Worship was exactly framed according to the Pattern in the