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A51980 The vanity, mischief and danger of continuing ceremonies in the worship of God humbly proposed to the present convocation / by P.M., a minister of the Church of England. P. M. 1690 (1690) Wing M68; ESTC R19138 38,859 48

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as much instruction as ever and so much the more in that they are apt to think now the name of Christians will carry them to Heaven c. Men must be beat off from more things which they are apt to trust to for Salvation now than in those times men could not think so much then that diligence in Publick Assemblies and attendance at Publick Prayers was the main Religion Few would profess Christianity in those times but such as were resolved beforehand rather to let go their lives than their Profession but the more Profess it now without understanding the terms of Salvation by it pag. 335. the greater necessity of Preaching to instruct men in it The Lords day hath met with many and great Enemies among the Ritualists This is a gracious injunction and gift of infinite Wisdom and Goodness necessary for us to rescue our Souls from Levity of mind carnal affections and worldly cares and to feed nourish and strengthen them with Spiritual Meditations and Heavenly Joys They that seriously endeavour to converse with God and their own Souls know the truth hereof But Formalists are ignorant of the Divine life to them the Sabbath is a burden Amo. 8.5 they say When will it be gone Pleading some years since with a grave Ceremonious Don of our Church for the sanctifying of the Lords day by spending it in Religious exercises he was so far from understanding me that his return was Shall a man be a whole day on the rack Such a mystery is the Spiritual life to a man that spends his Zeal on Rites and Ceremonies To ease such animal men from the rack a book for sports on the Lords day was injoined Ministers to read in the time of Divine Service Here we may wonder at the Fantastical humour of a sort of men they persecuted the people for working in their lawful callings on the Festival days and silenced conscientious Ministers for not reading a book for sports on Gods Day It was pretended in that sportful book that the superstitious observation of the Lords day did render his Majesties Subjects unfit for his Service in the Wars But what kind of Fighters those sportmongers on Gods day were the event shewed not long after Jer. 44.21 Did not the Lord remember them and came it not into his mind The Lords day duly observed is a mighty instrument for the promoting the Life of Godliness in the Souls of Christians The serious observation of this begets in people another Spirit than is in Christians of other Reformed Churches They are much more above the carnal World than most of them and than any that slight that day in our own The Scripture hath its share of contempt from Ceremonialists of the truth hereof the Impositions of Rome are a full proof We need not go so far For other Imposers are guilty of the same in a lower degree while they injoyn on Ministers and People terms of Communion not warranted by the Word of God And this is the worse because when Scripture is urged foolish preciseness and impertinency hath been charged on them that have pleaded against such unscriptural Impositions Our holy Religion hath been mightily exposed to the scorn of evil men when they see pretenders to it spend all their zeal on little things Force and Rigorous Impositions make men suspect the weight of the thing it self Dr. Stilling Iren. Pref. pag. 11. when such force is used to make it enter When people are very earnest for trifles as if the whole weight of Religion depended on them some may be tempted to suspect that all is but a cheat a trick of cunning Churchmen to form people to serve their purposes especially when one that hath written books for Conformity shall say that is the best Body of Divinity that enables a man to keep a Coach and six Horses Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath suffered so much for sinners suffers again by the mockery of Ceremonies without the heart All the pomp of them is to him a Crown of Thorns if persecutors for them wound the weak consciences of his members One may conform to the use of the transient sign of the Cross and Scoff at the knowledge of Christ a book so called Parker of Religion and Loyalty Par. I. Pag. 28 29. Lon. 1684. ridicules the Title it bears Another is much more bold takes upon him to dethrone the King of Kings and set him at the footstool of Crowned dust It is but a crude expression not to call it prophane because it is so common by customary mistake to affirm that Kings are Supream Governours under Christ They are and ever were so under God but so as to be Superiour to Christ as Christ is head of his Church within their Dominions II. Mischiefs in promoting an increase of all kind of wickedness The most immoral men if they did pretend zeal for Ceremonies and were furious against Dissenters did pass for good Christians and true sons of the Church This false measure hath hardened abundance in their evil ways mightily cherished and increased vice in the Land Conformity to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy abominations The continuance of them in the Worship of God will be a gratification of the worst Christians and a grief to the best A Ceremonious service is apt to corrupt people with sensuality It is easy to the flesh not crossing any of its interests Holiness requires the subjection of the thoughts and imaginations of the heart unto Christ that we should be pure in thought word and deed But a ceremonial worship is only a bodily exercise which tho it profiteth little as the Apostle saith yet it serves to silence natural conscience and to represent men to imposing Governours as good members of the Church This is all that sensual men look for and if they obtain this they let loose the reins to all excess of riot How much did sensuality increase when it was connived at if not incouraged and tender conscience as the only bug-bear was every where hunted with a full cry People are regardless of the power of Christianity when they find that their Superiors are contented with a conformity to the externals of it The most vicious people cry The Temple of the Lord the Church of England to cover their Immoralities Away then with these mighty Engines of mischief Let us all chiefly mind and pursue those things which tend most to the promoting the work of Regeneration in the world If this course be taken Hypocrites will lose their advantages of seeming religious by zeal for those things wherein Religion doth not consist Corbets Kingdom of God Pa. 74. and carnal designs and interests that now rend the Churches and trouble all things would be defeated and abandoned Of all things that should most be regarded which qualifieth for heaven Mat. 5.8 that is holiness Without it there is no entring into that glorious Kingdom
the continuance of Ceremonies and that in respect of the account we must give to our Judge Honour Plenty and Ease may harden the hearts of some of us against tenderly considering the danger of Souls excluded from our Communion and thereby exposed as a prey to Sectaries but all the glory and pleasure of this world will be contemptible when the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven Mat 24 30. Ac● 26.13 His glory at mid-day was unto Paul a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun That sign may be such a glory filling the whole World with the brightness thereof every where seen by amazed mankind He who hath created the glorious body of the Sun which is 139 some say 166 times bigger than this Globe in which we live can spread a more Glorious Light over this point of earth or particle of dust for so it is if compared with the vast extent of the Heavens Whatever that sign shall be it is like it shall be visible to all not only to the righteous for their comfort but also to the wicked for their terrour Mat. 24.30 Gen. 49.5 It is said that all the tribes of the Earth shall then mourn They of the Tribe of Levi who are for instruments of Cruelty shall have their share in the mourning What trembling will seize upon them 1 Thes 1.16 17. when the mighty blast of Gods Trumpet shall awake all the Sleepers in the dust them that have not lodged six days in the Grave 1 Cor 15.52 and the Sleepers of 6000 years His power shall raise all the dead and change the living in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye An universal flame shall embrace the heavens and the earth the God of our proud and covetous Formalists melt the frozen World in the Laodicean State 2 Pet. 3.10 The Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Rev. 20.12 The dead small and great shall stand before God to be judged according to their works Then mocking Ishmaels that have scoffed at the pure in heart as Puritans Precise Fools and Melancholy dull Souls shall take the Fools cap unto themselves and they repenting Wisd 5 and groaning for anguish of Spirit shall say within themselves This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints Some among us are angry with Calvin for calling humane rites tolerables ineptias Epist Anglis Fran●●ford p. 98. They will not at the great day be such unto rigorous Imposers who made them terms of Communion How will you at that day lift up your faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you What is become of those his Lambs which you drove into the Wilderness by needless Impositions He requires you to pray unto the Lord of the harvest that he would fend forth more labourers into his harvest and you keep away many worthy labourers from his work because they cannot comply with terms that he never appointed We may think it a light matter to offend weak Christians but it will not be always so Wo unto the World because of offences Mat. 18.7 For it must needs be that offences come but wo unto that man by whom the offence cometh Offences will hereafter be as heavy to the Imposers of humane inventions as they are now to the weak The punishment of them that offend one of Christs little ones will be more dreadful than being cast into the Sea with a milstone about the neck Luk. 17.2 If Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shall be the lightest punishment inflicted on them that feed not the hungry and do not cloath the naked how deep will their lodging be in the lake of Fire and Brimstone who lay Stumbling-blocks before multitudes of Souls to their so great Scandal that they forsake the Ordinances of Jesus Christ how terrible will it be to be punished with everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.9 from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power This will be heavier than many Milstones For all the works and Mountains in the world will be light in comparison of the weight of the wrath of the Lamb. The ravening Wolves that have worried Christs Flock the great Clerks that have troubled Church and State with their stiffness for very little things the mighty Nimrods that have desolated the earth shall in vain cry for a covering to the frighted and flying Mountains and the molten Rocks that could not save themselves from the power of the Judge who made the Heaven to depart as a scroll when it is rolled together Rev. 6.14 15 16 17. And the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains c. hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains and said to the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand FINIS