observations we are Christians still and in a secure condition Nay in this reformed Age do not they who pretend to the purest reformation of doctrine teach we are justified by Faith alone without works and good works are only necessary as tokens of gratitude and not as having any influence no not as a condition to our justification before God And thus long if we may have Heaven and so much of the pleasures and licentious converse of this World too why should we abridge our selves of either All this is certainly a diabolical Stratagem the old trick again practised and a fine plausible giving God the Lye as at first to our Mother Eve Yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every Tree of the Garden Is any pleasant liberty or latitude of life forbidden you Ye shall not surely dye For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil That is in words more apposite to our age and purpose affecting and practising the more unconcerned and aery Religion you shall be Christians of a freer and more generous strain than the narrow-sould Orthodox or Devotes Sect. 5 Now for the preventing or dispossessing this wicked conceit it will be necessary First That I do what I can for the rational satisfying my self of the truth of Scripture and the indispensable necessity which lies on us who have Scripture to conform our lives to the commands and rules thereof Somewhat hath been spoken to this purpose in the discourse before of which the sum is that supposing the providence and justice of God it is necessary that he have revealed his will to Mankind and especially for their direction by what acts and how he will be worshiped that the holy Scripture pretends to have given us direction in this case and that it is most reasonable to admit what it to this purpose prescribes For we find it in possession of an infallible authority in matters of Religion We find it ever hath been so since known to be extant This Authority it hath gained not only by the sublinity of its matter and style from its harmony and particularly the concord of events with the predictions of them but especially from its Authours who were known in their generations for inspired men most of them by the miracles done by them who themselves saw what they related or received in command from God what they prescribed This the Christian Church in those daies who saw the miracles and had opportunity to search into the truth of every circumstance receiving and delivering down to us and in many especially more primitives ages sealing the truth of what they saw and delivered with their own bloud nothing of what Scripture in such Cases propounds to us ought in reason and equity any more to be doubted by us than if we our selves had seen these very miracles done or heard these commands promulg'd from Heaven And as to all objections which diabolical Agents have brought in against Divine Oracles we find the Devil hath thereby only destroyed his own work they ly strong against the old Heathenish Oracles and the way of their delivery against Mahumetan and such like impostures but holy Scripture either they cannot assail at all or if they do their assault only bespeaks first its Authours malice and then impotence Further as to the indispensableness of obedience to Scripture can I think that my Creatour in whose hands I am as Clay in the hands of a Potter hath made a Law and signified nay and justified it too to the World from Heaven by Miracles and that I poor trifle may safely choose whether I will take notice of it or no and when I have notice of it possibly whether I will or no may securely pick and choose out of it obey it only in what I please or perhaps at pleasure disobey and neglect the whole These are extravagancies which will find no Harbour or reception in my serious thoughts If this remedy seem needless because the poison hath not yet so prevail'd as that the Antidote needs to be taken in so deep then secondly Let me from holy Scripture satisfy my self of the undoubted necessity of good works in order to my acceptance before God and future bliss and that that Faith which justifies is not such a trust which regards not but includes the endeavour of impartial obedience as a formal and essential part of it that is that if this endeavour be not in the Faith which I have is no longer a justifying Faith And particularly under obedience let me consider how undispensably due unto God is a daily homage from me which is directly contrary to what the Devil by this suggestion would possess me of And for the See Method of Pr. Devot Part. II. Ch. 1 2. enforceing these truths upon me it is very probable I am not or need not be destitute of means proper and particular enough if I will be at pains to use them It may be proper thirdly for any whom this suggestion attempts to consider how far the present age comes short either of the Primitive or middle Christian Ages in the matter of Devotion How much time and pains have ancient Christians spent in Prayer and self-denial and mortification in comparison of what we do And should Devotion but so decrease proportionably in a future Age or to as it hath done of late into what a nothing would it dwindle Nay let us but at present look over Sea and be taught our interest even from our enemy What watchings what fastings what prayers what mortifying discipline in the Roman Church Many walking Skeletons almost instead of men amongst them Certainly diligence is not Popery too and as our Saviour forbids not the Pharisees Righteousness when he condemns their ostentation and superstitious will-worship so neither if the Roman-Catholicks are more severe to their flesh than needs can we seriously view their conscientious observance and constancy in their Devotion but it will truly upbraid the laxness and negligence of most of our people Let us blush therefore that having a purer Faith and Order of Worship than they we should be so far the worse observers of it Lastly It may not be improper to oppose also to this suggestion our thoughts when we are in our gravest most impartial and clear state of mind And do we at such times imagine our selves guilty of over-doing our Duty in point of Devotion When we have considered how many years we have spent without any serious Devotions or thoughts of God how many and grievous interruptions our present course suffers how difficult it is by all to keep our selves but in tolerable temper Do we think we have taken upon our selves too hard tasks of Prayer and penitence and such performances Alas we think the contrary And are we not then wont to accuse our selves of vile Unchristian sloth worldlyness vanity and manifold vitiousnesses of mind
respect gallantry being still honoured First I say honour thus gained is the most trivial thing in the World being given only by some foolish Women and Children or persons as weak and contemptible and therefore not fit to be put in the Scales with our Duty to God and our Souls And secondly that it is sinful for people to affect respect and honour above their degree for a Citizens Wife or Daughter or haply a Chamber-Maid to expect to draw by their proud bravery the honour due to a Lady or some noble personage is no less an iniquity than it is ridiculous and foolish Let 1 Cor. 7. 20 every one abide and keep themselves within the same calling wherein they are called Now these being the most colourable Pleas this Vanity can pretend too and none of them holding I conclude the question must be answered by every impartial considerer in the negative the sollicitous gawdy artificial dressing of the Age can have no good end And will any persons in their Wits spend their time in that which they cannot imagine any good end off Add hereto secondly that it is certain it hath many ill ends and effects It is designed by many though few in this case guilty have so hardy faces as to confess it to quicken and incite wanton lusts it hath actually betrayed the chastity and honour of many a before-innocent Beauty which whiles it hath exposed to the gaze and set off in a way suiting the humours of lustful men it hath put those men upon restless importunities and plots by which the resolution of the weaker sex of force possibly sufficient to have withstood less rampant temptations or addresses hath been at length overcome and once baffled hath never recovered it self but become debauched to eternal infamy Where this doth not follow yet is it evident it breeds in them pride and a vain admiring of themselves and scorning others with several like evils no wise tolerable Again thirdly let it be considered that it certainly hath much guilt in it though those sad consequents should not come to pass It partakes of prodigality ambition envying or vying others robing the poor and more sins than it is easie to enumerate The meer extravagancies persons of good condition have been guilty of in these costly Vanities make them think sometimes find all too little for themselves and while they thus sumptuously array themselves they almost starve those whom they should relieve not seldom those whom they should maintain for even the Family sometimes fares worse for the luxurious pride of the Mistress or Master To conclude Lastly we ought and must account these part of the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World which in our Baptism we did renounce there being scarce any thing imaginable which we can more properly style by these names than such fruitless excess in this Case To sum up all then Can any person who considers these things get leave of Conscience and reason to besot themselves on a practice which can have no good design hath many ill ends and effects is besides in it self fraught with guilt and most sacredly renounc't by the person peccant Can any I say do this when besides all the mentioned injuries done unto themselves and others this also is added to the sum that hereby they are induced to neglect God and their Souls To be guilty of this through employment otherwise and in it self good or innocent being not tolerarable can it be excused that any becomes guilty hereof for that which is manifestly wicked Chap. IV. § 1. The sum of Impediments arising from corrupt Nature § 2. Sloth and sensuality § 3. Remedies hereof § 4. Perswasives to the former practice § 5. Vnsetledness of mind and employment impediments § 6. Their Remedies § 7. Passion and Inordinate affection Impediments § 8. Their Remedies Sect. 1 THE third order of impediments unto Devotion and the Divine Worship is of such as spring from our selves and our own corrupt nature And here chiefly we are to reckon sloth and sensuality Levity or Vnsetledness and Lust or any kind of inordinate affection Sect. 2 First Many persons who either not have or not are capable off business to detain them from the daily and orderly worship of God do yet so give themselves over to ease and grossness that they cannot find in their heart to give disturbance or interruption to their beloved lazy quiet by so much imployment and intention of Spirit as Prayer Meditation and other divine offices do require 'T is long possibly before they can leave their Bed Well is it if eight or nine a Clock see them up and drest Then a full Breakfast or a large Mornings Draught presently makes them unfit for any thing but a walk to get them a stomach for Dinner That perhaps is ended by two or three a Clock And the rest of the afternoon passeth partly in idle talk partly in sleep or haply a game at Cards or Tables And in the end a little airing themselves is necessary the better to prepare for a delicate Supper which hath been one of their greatest studies in the day to devise or which is now more the mode to them who dine especially in City for some collation or Evening debauch And having thus entertained their senses till night is far come on sleep is ready to lock them up when they betake themselves to Bed or what further sensuality they can contrive And so having only so much to prove them alive as moving in such an idle circle imports the next day a little before noon a man may find them perhaps ready to come out of their Chamber Now most certain it is whoever yields himself to or truly affect this kind of life if it be not a wrong to so worthy a name to bestow it on so dull a state will scarcely ever be fit for divine offices or step so much out of his road as to attempt to undertake them Though therefore it may deservedly be feared lest such persons are too stupid and gross to admit of good advice and reason and therefore past cure yet for their sakes who may be only in a condition of temptation to such a life we will consider what remedy this evil is capable off And it is certain if men have but a mind to be cured hereof the cure is more then half effected I mean if they will but stir up their spirits and attempt the mastery of this Lethargy they have lived in if they will but consider they have noble active sprightly powers and set these powers on work the slothful sensuallife just like a drowsy fit by rising and stiring a turn or two is thereby shaken off And those who say they are not able to do so bely God and Nature and themselves Albeit it is not wholy and mainly in our own power as considering us in a pure natural estate to rescue our selves out of that vassalage which we are in by sin yet no sober
holy Duties such as are a tender Heart a watchful and resolved Conscience the preventions and assistances of Grace Joy and Peace through Hope besides those which are more common blessings preservation success of our affairs and the like all which he who thinks not an unvalueable loss is uncapable to value any thing and utterly devoid of Christian sense And secondly we are hereby involved in as great a guilt as the negligence of God and our greatest concernments can carry in it together thirdly with the dismal consequents of that negligence disorder of mind decay of our spiritual estate an heedless and senseless spirit fit for any yea the most outragious temptations to fix upon together with other evils not easie to be reckoned up The consideration of all which so great and various mischiefs as it should awaken and excite us to a diligent search and examination what hinderances we commonly meet with and to all conscientious care and diligence to lay aside every weight to remove or prevent every impediment or disturbance so it may suggest to us whence all these come and be in some degree helpful to us not only to discover what in particular are our proper lets and impediments but also more generally to take a survey what may be obstructive in common to us and others For could we at once see each Numerical let which we and others have been infested with it is certain we might say of every one an Enemy hath done this None but such who design our ruin would wilfully hinder us in the greatest means of our safety Sect. 4 In order then to the taking a full and impartial view of the common and more frequent hinderances of Devotion and Divine Worship though to each particular man his own Conscience is the best guide and the search and examination of that the surest mean to find out his peculiar Plagues in this Case yet to us who must search as neer as we can for all it seems likely to be the most successful and comprehensive method to enquire what each of our spiritual Enemies contributes to keep us off or divert us from our duty in this behalf And according to the discovery we can make of any particular evil we shall forthwith endeavour to apply its cure or proper redress Chap. II. § 1. The Devil one Authour of the Impediments of Devotion § 2. 1. By prepossessing mens minds with Atheistical Fansies Such as 1. that of the Vanity or uncertainty of Religion § 3. Remedies against this prepossession § 4. 2. Of the Needlessness of so much Religion § 5. Remedies against this conceit § 6. Of the hindrances the Devil gives us in divine worship 1. by extravagant thoughts injected § 7. Their Remedies § 8. 2. by instilling spiritual pride § 9. Its remedies Sect. 1 OF our Spiritual Enemies the first is the Devil touching whom it is certainly true that men ordinarily in the estimating the Original of their own sins are apt to give the Devil more than his due and as if they would pay him in his own Coin turn false accusers even of him Though therefore we must beware of this Injustice yet is it most justly resolved that there are some hindrances of Devotion of which the Devil is the Authour As an Argument of which it is observable that the Prophet representing Joshua the high Priest standing Zach. 3. 1. before the Angel of the Lord or addressing himself to God brings in Satan also standing at his right hand And the same enmity that brought him thither to resist him was not undoubtedly wanting what it could to hinder him Now of these impediments of Devotion which we may with justice impute unto the Devil there are two sorts the one precedent by which he hinders us from it the other concomitant by which he hinders us in it Sect. 2 Of the first sort as far forth as I can see is his possessing us with incredulous and Atheistical Fansies and Notions Such as first Of the Vanity or uncertainty of Religion He suggests to us that all Religion is but a crafty design upon credulous Mankind for some secular and politick respect or at least that it may be such and that it is not evident it is not such And then why is all this wast of good time and pains Why this retrenching our selves of freedom and pleasures And on the contrary macerating our selves with devotional and mortifying endeavours and continual watchfulness and sollicitude of mind Why should I abuse my self into vexation and exchange real delicious enjoyments for the Dreams of a future and imaginary bliss These things though we hear often from some of degenerate mankind yet came they originally from the great father of lies and he it is who both often suggests them to our remembrance and imploys many agents to disseminate and vent them in the world under the most taking methods Sect. 3 Of this poyson the most proper and effectual Antidote or remedy will be a solid and rational satisfaction and conviction of our own minds touching the great Foundations of Religion particularly Of the being of a God the reality of what we call good and evil virtue and vice the immortality of the Soul and different estates in that immortal life I confess my self not at all of their minds who think it needless or nugatory by natural reason to demonstrate such common principles of all Religion I love dearly to find my reason baffled into Faith and enforced to conclude either Religion real or contradictious propositions together true This takes from none the advantage of a freer or as some may please to style it a nobler Faith Any may believe on other inducements who can or will but secures such whose natures are more averse from credulity in a firm perswasion of the truth of Christianity which perswasion thus founded may stand unshaken in a thousand shocks as well of temptation as opposition when the credulous Faith may either totter or undermined sink Possibly what I direct to may by some be thought unpracticable by the common sort who are presumed unable to conclude these fundamentals upon principles of meer natural reason a thing which they so little understand But to that I say there are very few or none to whom this temptation is incident and consequently whom I direct thus to oppose it who have not natural Logick enough from such premises as I would have them propound to conclude what I would have them rationally satisfied of Though I could not artificially make Syllogisms yet in a serious and considerative state of mind I could in a silent Evening walk forth and view the Earth adorned with Herbs and Flowers and Trees and Fruits furrowed with Channels wherein run Rivers and Brooks and Springs to water its best and most needy parts inhabited by variety of living Creatures for all which its fruitful Womb brings forth proper nourishment I could after behold in the vast empty over mine head a multitude of
moving glories distinguishing most exactly times and seasons and by their influence on Earth causing Spring and Summer Autumn and Winter I could contemplate all these as one while bright and open-faced so at other times veild by Clouds the sweat of that mass which they surround which Clouds when fully mature I could conceive certainly directed by so uncertain a Convoy as the Winds to discharge themselves sometimes of an happy and impregnating burden on the thirstier and more parched places of the Globe from whence they ascended where they fall as a wellcome blessing sometimes as a dreadful and vindictive load on more guilty coasts and persons whom yet not seldom they only threaten and diverted spend themselves on Rocks Seas or Deserts to the warning and joy of their trembling Spectatours All this and much more while mine Eye and mind run over it would be hard for me not to think with my self of all this vast and wondrous Fabrick and of me who contemplate and in a great measure enjoy it there must certainly be some other end than that I and a Company like my self should come into this so glorious Theatre to eat and drink and sleep and play some other odd pranks for threescore years and ten and then go out in darkness and uncertainty leaving our room to such succeeding trifles as our selves Some other end sure there must be of us than that this noble intelligent reasoning part of us which we call a Soul should after experiment and judgment of some sensations upon which it hath built so great variety of Sciences and conjectures only set in nothing and our so curiously wrought and Organized Bodies meerly become meat for the Worms which they breed and those Worms presently dying in dust the Ashes of all be but the sport of the next Wind before which they happen to be driven Some other end of Heaven and Heavenly bodies of Earth and Sea and all their motions and influences than to be only spectatours or contributaries to such pitiful events as these And yet no other end is there except there be a God and Virtue and Immortality Again That glorious Man by a blind lucky hit of rambling dusts should come to be and by the same all this goodly provision for his accommodation when I who am an intelligent being and all the wisest studied persons of the greatest insight into Nature and the differences of Bodies are not able by all contrived or as far as I can yet see contriveable mixtures of matter to produce one blade of grass will not cannot enter into my head And yet all this must be true except there be a God Though haply every one is not able thus to express or set down his reasoning yet few or none I say apt to be infested with this suggestion who are not able to think the substance of this and much more to the same purpose and after all to return home again with all their Atheistical ratiocinations baffled and non-plust themselves wrapt into admiration of the incomprehensible Creatour of all and his almost alike incomprehensible works which temper if it be attain'd for this time the temptation is dasht and devotion is likely to proceed If this remedy seem above the reach of any who is infested with the evil we design to cure let him consider his own thoughts of such suggestions as these when he is in his most serious and sedate temper and so a more competent judge of such matters than at other times Is he not then as really perswaded of the being of a God and a World to come and his concernment touching such things as touching his own being Doth he make any more doubt to repent and pray and use all holy means to secure to himself a portion in that future immortal bliss than he doth at other times to eat and sleep for the maintenance of this present life Nay is he not ready to account the present life and all accidents and circumstances of it Dreams scarce realities at all in comparison of that to come and its weightier concernments And doth he not almost with amazement wonder at those men if any such he know who through their oppressions of Conscience and Gods just permission and judgment have arrived at that unnatural state that they perceive and as they pretend at least seem to put no difference at all between good and evil Virtue and Villany What have those men done with their reason thinks he and common sense What hellish black Arts have they found out and used to metamorphose reasonable Souls into such Monsters Devils nay into worse than Devils For Devils have some remorse of evil though fruitless and possibly only penal whereas these men avow themselves even beyond that Besides are not these his most constant as well as his most serious sentiments Whereas the contrary ramble into his mind as strangers upon some strange occurrence or disastrous temper of mind the other dwell there as Natives and sway not only his Soul but as is professed at least in a manner Mankind In sum then If in our best hours and temper we are so deeply convinc't in our own brests of the reality of Religion that we are amazed any should be void of the sense of it which we both have and cannot but judge natural to all men as hath by experience of all ages been found and therefore stands as ever a concluded Maxim If this I say we cannot but find by consulting our own mind and reflecting upon its better and more constant state shall we suffer our selves to be led away or debauch't with that suggestion which we shall instantly wonder that either our selves or any of mankind could make a shift to be so contradictious to themselves and nature as to admit Shall we not rout and conjure away the fiend upon its first appearance and so much more vehemently pursue our course of Piety and Devotion by how much more monstrous the diversion of it was which Satan attempted upon us We have then thus a double remedy and both rational both effectual if applied home to this first evil Sect. 4 To this possession of the nullity of Religion a kin is that of the needlessness of so much Religion Supposing Religion a reality yet general virtue that is to be fair and honest men is as much as God requires of mankind or men need concern themselves to perform and as to the Scriptures requiring more those Books may either not be what they pretend the word of God but only the Advices of some good old men and so will not enforce the necessity of so laborious a Religion Or if all Scripture should be true yet we see several Doctors of several professions in all ages differently interpreting it Many of the stricter passages which seem precepts may be only counsels and belonging to some in an higher degree which if we follow we may be eminenter Christians but if we do not provided we keep to some easier
Souls with the beauty of holiness and replenish our Consciences with serenity and glorious joy We shall be able to see Heaven though not with St. Stephen opened yet with St. Paul prepared for us and bless God not so much for making it as making the way thither piety and virtue We shall so transform our lives as well as our selves that to live will be but to Conquer and we only seem to pass as it were from one Heaven to another The End THE REASONABLENESS AND NECESSITY OF A POSITIVE WORSHIP And particularly of the Christian Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl LONDON Printed for John Martyn at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXI A DISCOVRSE OF THE Necessity and reasonableness of a Positive Worship and particularly of the Christian Worship The Introduction propounding the general heads of the discourse REmembring that all conclusions beget so much the fainter perswasion by how much in their deduction we have proceeded to a greater distance from first and necessary principles I shall endeavour in the cause undertaken to keep as near to indubitable or allowed foundations as I can And if I shall make it evident upon the admitting the justice of providence that we are enforced to believe some such revelations as Christians pretend to must have been and by them the institution of a positive worship and further upon view of the supposed positive worship if it appear in all its parts to be such as that the supreme God proceeded not arbitrarily and by a meer Sovereign power or humour in its institution but therefore appointed this or that rather than another Office because aptest to secure the good of man that is to plant and radicate virtue in him between which and humane happiness there is according to the order of nature which himself before such institution had framed a necessary connexion I conceive I have done enough to perswade any rational person that he ought in all reason to pay such positive worship which by such institution and its own natural conducency to his happiness he perceives to oblige him that is I have evidenced the necessity and reasonableness of a positive worship and of such an one as we pretend to And more particularly as to the Christian doctrine and worship if it shall appear that the very frame of its History lies so that we cannot with any tolerable sobriety disbelieve either the History or the doctrine which it implicates the very tradition it self carrying in it self so convictive evidence of its truth I may then conclude that we have the greatest reason to receive and practice particularly every such particular office of worship as that Christian doctrine prescribes and none other And though I shall not adventure to call these demonstrations yet I hope by such time as I shall have done they will be found for the most part to come as little short of such as the nature of my subject will admit Briefly and distinctly I suppose it will be allowed that positive worship is to be paid if there be any such by the supreme God instituted and commanded Now I pretend that first the institution of some positive worship follows admitting the justice of Providence That Secondly in that positive worship supposed by Christians obligatory there is such conducency to virtue on all hands acknowledged the principal necessary as renders that worship most fit to oblige us and every way most just and reasonable That Lastly besides this the Divine institution of this particular Worship de facto is irrefragably evident from the certainty and undeniableness of the History of Christianity and of the Scriptures Chap. I. § 1. A fuller proposal of the first point viz. That some positive worship there must be and three propositions to evince it § 2. The first proposition proved § 3. An objection answered § 4. A second answered § 5. An illustration of the insufficiency of reason to bring men generally to virtue out of History § 6. A third objection answered § 7. The second proposition proved § 8. The third proposition proved § 9. Objections in common against revelation and divine records answered IT is not unusual for stubborn dogmatists when forced from some beloved principles by their detected absurdity to seem liberally to grant what they are no longer able to deny and notwithstanding all their concessions in common appearance to the prejudice of their cause to pretend their cause no whit enfeebled and their perswasions as unshaken as ever Thus to omit the tracing this practice in men of other interests than those we have to deal with many pretended Masters of reason who a long time would fain have perswaded themselves and the World that the Being of a God or provident Creatour and Governour of all things the Difference of good and evil the Immortality of the Soul and different Estates in that immortal life were but the frauds of Priests or stratagems of some deeper Politicians seeing now that they can no longer maintain their doctrines against that convictive evidence which enforceth their contraries are content at last to admit a Creed consisting of these Articles named and generously allow what against their wills they see demonstrated But in the mean time they stifly contend that the only worship of this God and sole condition of such immortal happiness is virtue Nor do men need Prayers or Sacraments or Priests or what they would be content to have named appendant Cheats And then as to the name of virtue that they will be sure so to explain as to leave a Latitude for their own vices So that in fine though some of the outworks of this Troy be yielded upon constraint yet the body of the City is kept strongly the Helena still held in fast embraces they may be as pretended by the Warranty of Reason as profane and scornful of Religion at least of the Christian Worship and so in the end of all virtues purely Christian such as mortification Self-denial c. as ever they were Against these we say that if they will be reasonable and impartial and admit the same evidences in this case as they do in others of like nature besides that Natural Worship of God which consists in virtue and purely natural acknowledgments of him both they and all men must confess Offices of Divine Worship by Positive right such as in Christianity are Prayer and the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments Which thing we trust to make out by these following propositions 1. That it is but Reasonable to believe that God hath revealed his will to man touching such things which he requires of him in Order to his happiness 2. That it is but Reasonable to believe such revelation should determine the Offices of Divine Worship 3. That holy Scripture or that revelation which acquaints us what God requires of us in order to our happiness pretends to prescribe to us by what acts God will be worshiped and it is but reasonable to