that is in the degrees of goodnesse and perfection among the Creatures The variety is a great piece of the beauty of this lovely frame There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon another of the Starres A suit of Arras Hangings cannot be made without severall colours and those laid differently upon worsted silk silver and Gold formed into divers Images Musick would be a pitifull thing if there were but one note or tone without higher and lower sounds we should want the delectablenesse of Harmony which is more grateful as the notes of which it consists are not the same but tunably different Those things which seem but little in comparison of others have much as to their own capacity and are often more admirable then greater for in instances where it was not expected as he said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i.e. They show an Almighty skill in little In the highest things God ascends far above the reach of our eyes and in the lowest he stoops to the remotest proportions of possibility and his Glory shines through them all whilst he fills each measure of reception with due participations of goodnesse which is his own Image and his goodnesse is over all his works By this we see That God made the world for his glory out of meer grace willing to bestow happinesse upon others He was not oppressed with the fullnesse of his blessednesse but like a voluntary spring poures forth the waters of life upon the world I will rejoyce over them to do them good He is pleased wiâ—h being a Benefactor and is delighted when he makes others happy Hence God was most justly worshiped by the Church throughout all generations as the Benigne Father of the Creation Father being a known name of Love which he expressed in his uninterrupted care of all things in the respective ages of the world but especially in the fulnesse of time when to make up the sad ruines of the lapsed Creation he put the breaches of it under the hand of his beloved Sonne who came upon the stage as the expresse image of his person and the brightnesse of his glory which hath been mentioned for in him it shined most clearly He brought salvation in his Name Good will in his Nature His Errand which we call the Gospel what was it but the Love of the Father proclaimed by his beloved Son As we have it epitomized by the Evangelist Ioh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life This word our Saviour verified with works of transcendent charity for he went up and down doing good expressing a great pity to the bodies but much more to the souls of men and after the service of his whole life which was an Exemplary performance of charity he made his death also a great proof of his love which being stronger then sin and death he offered himself upon the Crosse by a powerful spirit of benignity and became the Redeemer of miserable sinners so that the Angels Hymne was extremely pertinent when they sung Glory to God on High for the good will which was expressed below by the appearance of Christ Jesus whom not only Angels but wise and good men saw and acknowledged his glory to be as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth The fulness of true goodnesse was the glorious Image of the Father shining in the face of the Son When he went away just upon his return he said Father I have glorified thee and verse 26â— he tells us how I have declared thy Name what name but that which was proclaimed long before as the glory of God withall he leaves this title Love as his own remembrance by which he would be acknowledged in the world and the badge of his Disciples Hereby shall all men know you to be mine if you love one another One that well knew the truth of this Glory as a genuine follower of Christ his Lord adorns himself with it Having expressed all love and good will in endeavouring the salvation of the Gentiles he pleaseth himself in the good of others which he had furthered after this manner What is our Hope or Crown of rejoycing are not even you in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his coming for you are our Glory and Ioy Divine Paul but never more then now Divine for the glory of God shined out of his mouth as Porphyrie said that Plotinus his soul did when he spake So much being premised concerning the right notion of Gods glory it remains to be spoken next how we may glorify God or do all things to his glory Divines use a distinction of glorification which is not improper to be mentioned in this place One is Perfectio objecti glorificati the perfection of the object glorified and to glorify in this sense is to produce some perfection in the object glorified and thus God doth glorifie his creatures The other is Perfectio subjecti glorificantis a perfection in the person who is said to give glory by which he is able to take a due notice of the excellencies which are in the glorified object but addes nothing to it and thus we are said to glorify God By which we see that the word glorify is of a quite different signification when it is applyed to God and to us For it is a true rule Talia sunt praedicata qualia permittuntur à subjectis What is said of God and us in the same words puts on a vast difference of sense when it is referred to his acts and ours What belongs to God I have discoursed already that small matter that we reach to I shall explain in a few particulars 1. We do honour to God if we preserve alwayes in our minds a right notion of his glory and thrust farre from us all low poor thoughts of God We cannot do a greater disparagement to the highest worth then to think meanly of it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Father said God may be represented to his disparagement by the unwise Therefore whensoever we think or speak of God we should be sure to use no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no poor groveling expressions or creeping imaginations which fall utterly below the worthinesse of so glorious a person Since he can receive no glory by addition of any thing to what he is let us not foolishly endeavour to take away from him by obscuring that which he hath revealed himself to glory in by attributing to him any Temper Disposition or Design that is unworthy of him Let us raise our thoughts of God as high as we can for by that which hath been said already it appeares how far all unworthinesse is removed from God He neither made the world at first or preserves it now for any self-interest what Iulian said of AEsculapius in his fortieth
A SERMON Preached at St. PAULS Church in London April 17. 1659. And now Published at the desire of the Lord MAYOR and the COURT of ALDERMEN By NATH. INGELO D.D. and Fellow of Eton Coll. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iustin. Martyr Printed for L. Fawn at the Sign of the Parrot in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. Dr. Ingelo's Sermon TO THE Right Honourable The Lord MAYOR And the Court of ALDERMEN of the City of London Right Honourable Right Worshipfull IT was an excellent saying of a Martyr {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is Of all things by which we most industriously design the advancement of Gods service there is none so acceptable unto him as those endeavours by which we strive to make men better He needeth not any of our services but he accepts what we do in conformity to his God-like actions And as they do naturally terminate themselves in the happinesse of his Creatures in which the Divine goodnesse pleaseth it selfe So He takes our hearty diligence in good part when we shew our selves true Co-workers with Him This is the greatest Honour of which a Creature is capable and the highest instance of subserviency to our Maker Our Saviour hath said this in other words My Father worketh till now and I work My Father though He rested upon the Sabbath day from the works of Creation having made the world such as He had designed it to be yet He continues the work of the gracious preservation of his Creatures And I having nothing of my own to do work with Him In his great love to me He hath shown me what He doth made me partaker of his Counsels and is always with me in rare instances of His Presence because I ever do what pleaseth him Our Lord knew with what great desire of restoring the state of the fallen Creation He was sent into the World And being fully fatisfied in the worthinesse of the divine appointment rejoycing that it was so acceptable to the Father that He should become a Saviour He omitted no fit meanes to bring that purpose to effect For which He received publickly great approbations from above declared not onely in words but other most significant Testimonies It was my design to throw a mite into this Treasury by the preaching of this Sermon which exhorts us unto the pursuit of Goodnesse that by it we may attain a noble conformity to God and do honour to Him by the lively expressions of it in our actions As men can be made good only by resemblance of that Archetype Image so I know nothing by which one may so plainly manifest the excellency of Goodnesse as by making it appeare to be the Glory of God and that none do truly worship him but such as are like Him in disposition and practise All the world hath acknowledged the Imperfection of Humane Nature And those which have had the happines to understand better than others have perceived that its defects are onely to be made up by a participation of a Divine Nature Neither have they more clearly discerned that the perfections of God are the infallible patterns of all worthy imitation then they have confidently pronounced that the chief thing in Divinity is Goodnesse In the early dayes of the Heathen world this notion was so deeply implanted in their minds that when Pythagoras had raised the Italians out of the miseries of vice by his excellent precepts and formed them into the happinesse of a well-governed life whilest their neighbours wondred at their felicity which they themselves perceived to be true by their inward sense and general experience what said they {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Thenceforth they reckoned him among their Gods they took him for a good Doemon and lover of mankind And whilst every body gave their opinion some said he was one of the heavenly Gods come down in the shape of men to teach the world and to reform humane Naure being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an happy spurre to prick on sluggish men to vertue and happiness than which a greater good could not come to men So the Lycaonians as we read in the Acts of the Apostles seeing one of Lystra which was a creeple from his Mothers womb enjoy the use of his feet by the charity of Saint Paul cryed out The Gods are come down to us in the likenesse of men As they esteemed God to be the Authour of all Good they were right but thinking every good thing to be God by a grosse mistake they brought in Idolatry being not able to distinguish between the giver and receiver or between Him that was the Original spring and such as by the Fountains leave derived the streames to others taking every good thing for the best of all Whether there had a tradition continued to them from the beginning That God in the similitude of mortal man should bestow great blessings upon the world I know not If they had it was made good in Christ or God manifest in the flesh But they plainly declared How much they believed Goodness convertible with God as also in that rather than they would attribute any evill to Him as indeed they ought not being ignorant to answer the Question {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they would needes set up another Principle for the Authour of â—vill not discerning it seems that the Creature upon which goodnesse is derived but not immutably fixed might degenerate into evill by its own will and so bring in mischief without setting up an Anti-God As these things do sufficiently declare that inseparable connexion that is between the Nature of God and supreme Goodnesse So concerning his worship it hath been pronounced on all hands that there is no instance so considerable and proper as the imitation of his goodnesse They said of old {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Then we worship God best when we imitate him most This is a most reasonable service For how highly must they needs honour the Divine Nature that count themselves and all things else utterly contemptible so far as they are unlike unto it And have no Standard by which they estimate worth besides the resemblance of that Holy Image and knowing that to be such do carefully endeavour to make themselves and others partakers of it By these things we see what need we have to acquaint our selves well with the Divine Nature and to take care that we understand God aright not only because true apprehensions of Him are necessary to bottome a good confidence and are the roots upon which Love and Adoration grow but also because if we form wrong imaginations concerning God we shall quote him for a defence of our own unworthinesse and make the blasphemy of our errour very hardly curable It was an unanswerable Argument by which the ancient
Epist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may be justly applyed to the true Saviour viz. That he doth not heal men in hope of reward but doth every where expresse his own goodnesse by way of discipline He gaines nothing by the exercise of his native goodnesse but whilst he relieves those that need him he teacheth them to do likewise What glory or lovelinesse is in the Creation which he had not before in himself what could he attain out of himself It is true the works of God do praise him it is but decent that they should it is impossible that they should not All excellent things honour their Authour The heavens declare the glory of God Wheresoever the voyce of the Creatures is heard they sing his praise This is no greater wonder then that the fire burneth Who can conceale the light of the Sun or confine the sent of sweet odours {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The beauty of excellent good things cannot be hid But though all wise beholders will praise God the Authour of all good works yet we must not think that God aimed at such a thing as being ambitiously desirous of his creatures applause which is below the Temper of a virtuous man Clemens Alexand. hath informed us better {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i.e. God shewes himself freely to his Creatures he doth not sell his truth It is true he accepts the love of his creatures and is well pleased with just adorations not that he receives any advantage thereby or is tickled with praise but he rejoyceth that his creatures do as they should and conform to originall goodnesse and truth We pay what we owe though he needs it not as the same Father {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. We return to God who needeth it not the worship of well-composed souls as a grateful acknowledgement of the great Land-Lord and a small rent for the habitation which he hath given us in this world Whatsoever we do in affectionate worship of God is but a just imployment and a rare improvement of our faculties What are our understandings and affections good for but to know and love God He accepts our guifts not that he wants them but to comfort us with his acceptance and that he may have opportunity to reward sincere expresses of duty when as we ought we give him his own Our most spirituall devotions adde nothing to God but they do enlarge our capacities for him whilest we worship God as we ought {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} said the Philosopher we grow bigger and are filled with God The more we submit our selves to God in due posture of obedience the more we are exalted in wisdom and goodnesse Our Saviours words are incomparable to this purpose when the blind Pharises made such a shew of zeal for the religious observation of the Sabbath in honour of God that they would needs look at it as a great crime in the Disciples who when they were hungry pulled eares of corn to satisfie the necessities of Nature our Lord answers The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath i. e. Though the Law of the Sabbath and other exercises of Religion scem to be made for the glory of God yet they were indeed designed and appointed by God for mans bodily and spiritual good For neither man nor Sabbath can advance his glory a jot but the great Lord of the Sabbath hath respected our happinesse in all his institutions It is fit that all the world should appear before God in humble reverenâ—e by the right of his nature He is to be had in reverence of all that dwell round about him but all the use which he makes of such opportunities is to bestow his blessings It is a vain thing to offer ought but empty Pitchers to the Fountaine of Life {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. Thou canst not honour God by giving any thing to him but by making thy self meet to receive from him If we think to poure out our own fulnesse upon his Altar we make our selves richer then God and him beholden to us So the Apostle convinced the Heathens of vanity in thinking that they did God a courtesie by presenting their oblations He is not worshiped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things A good man adores God the more affectionately because that though he needeth not us yet he was so good as to make all things happy and then takes delight to see their natures made partakers of his beauty and to rejoyce in the proportions which they bear to his goodnesse and symmetries with his truth It is a great part of our doing honour to God to think that he is exalted above all blessing and praise as Nehemiah said What are all our names of praise to God Iust. Martyr hath expressed this in my mind excellently {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. as it was the custome to honour God with the most pretious of material things so also in names of praise not that God doth need them but we do to declare our thoughts of him And he needs not them neither It was a noble saying of Simplicius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. God needeth not our good life nor our best apprehensions of him In our best thoughts we do not comprehend him and if we could think more honourably of him by an hundred-fold what is he better for our thinking of him neither doth he need our holy life If thou dost well what profit is it to him Thou maist do good to a man as thy self but thy goodnesse extends not to him And if he need not our holinesse much lesse doth he want our sins to advance his glory If thou sinnest what is it to him Thy disobedience will hurt thy self and may prejudice thy neighbour but it reacheth not to him and if he lose nothing by our sin what can he get by our punishment It is true sin is in the world but God brought it not in It is as he said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and men and devils had never been permitted to bring it in but that God can make a good use of evill but that use is not to advance himself They are pitiful people that need the faults of others to set off their own low perfections But he will get glory by punishing it that is by making the sinner miserable Truly it is fit that sin should be punished but alas if God need not our happinesse to make him glorious much lesse will our misery contribute any thing to such a purpose What glory is it to the God of Israel to hunt a flea upon the Mountains It was Domitian only that pleased himself with killing flyes God delighteth not in the death of a sinner His
will be worshiped only in Spirit Truth Hypocrites are not only impotent in their thoughts but sordid extremly if they should think that God is of such a Make that he is pleased with flatteâ—ies or that he doth not see and contemn the wickednesse of such as feignedly court him The Heathen world looked sometimes upon their gods as implacable Tyrants and reviled them at their pleasure which was a strange foolery to daigne to worship what they durst reproach At other times they looked upon them though as angry things yet easily to be pleased again and then they would kill a swine or a sheep and all was well In which they shewed themselves wicked ignorant of God and base flatterers This absurd Religion was by some wise men of their own condemned and rejected for vain superstition Maximus Tyrius in the Chapter which he wrote of the difference of friendship and flattery hath these words in reference to Religion {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. i. e. if there be any fellowship between God and men we may say that a truly good man is the friend of God but the superstitious a flatterer only The true lover of God is blessed but the superstitious is miserable For the first knowing his true love to God cometh boldly to him him the other dejected with the conscience of his Hypocrisy comes with servile fear devoid of trust and dreads God no otherwise then as a Tyrant When such worshipers come to God will he accept them no neither will any wise man receive a Gift which he knowes to be given with a wicked mind Those which with feigned submission in outward ordinances pretend to acknowledge God but do not love and obey him in their soules are superstitious flatterers no true lovers or worshipers of God And as they have small comfort in their soules for what is the Hope of an Hypocrite so with God they have no estimation for he accounts their applications as they are a disingâ—nuous flattery and a meer superstitious addresse The Emperour was not out when he said we should not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that we should not flatter God but worship him discreetly and in another place he gives a very good reason {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. for God regards not fine words but truth It is very observable that when David became sensible of the abuse which he had put upon the Divine Majesty by his scandalous disobedience he attempted not to make reparation of Gods honour by slaying a beast more worthy to live then himself yet a very poor compensation but saith expressely for he knew Gods mind Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt offering An hypocrite would have made his cattel bleed and thought he had made good sarisfaction for his own with the lives of others and have pleaded the commands given in this point to Moses But David understood his duty better and was loath after so grievous sins to make such an unacceptable repentance and therefore he offered his own broken heart crushed with ingenuous shame and sorrow If any demand why David wav'd external oblations and made so light of outward applications since the Ceremonies of the Iewish Religion were instituted by God and as yet the Lawes which enjoyned them were in force I answer his meaning was that they were never appointed or accepted for the principal instances of Gods worship or so to be looked upon by religious persons They were not from the beginning Enock was not circumcised neither was Noah yet one of them was translated to glory without seeing of death which was an eminent Testimony that he was acceptable to God and the other was saved in an Ark of wood when all the world besides his family perished by water Abraham himself was declared blessed before he was circumcised Upon which consideration the Father told Tripho the Iew who thought himself some-body because he was under the discipline of Abraham {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. If one be a Scythian or Persian and have the knowledge of God and Christ and observe the indispensable rules of everlasting righteousnesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} He is circumcised with a good and profitable circumcision so that whâ—n Christ pulled down the Iewish hedges he brought things to the first state and made external ceremonies of no lesse value then they were at the first We may adde to this that when they were in use God made no very great reckoning of them neither did he esteem any justified for the bare observance of them When they pleased themselves highly in their external rights they were so far wide of the divine intention that he tells them that it were all one if they had let them alone I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices c. I am so far from demanding a scrupulous account concerning these performances that I am rather cloid with them So he told them by the Prophet Isaiah To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices I am full of burnt offerings of Rams Bring no more vain oblations c. And because they urged the Divine command by Ieremiah he tells them that he spake not to their Fathers nor commanded them in the day that he brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices One would think that these words should strangely amuse the people and that they thought the Prophet mad to speak against the known precepts wherein God had commanded these things Unto this two things may be said God accepted them by way of condescention and in regard of the hardnesse of their hearts they were a stiffe-necked people and therefore God put a hard yoke upon their necks which as the Apostle saith they were not able to beare {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. neither doth God receive sacrifices from you neither did he command you from the bebeginning to offer them as if he needed them but for your sinnes What he meant by sinnes he expresseth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by reason of their idolatries Since they had such a mind to offer sacrifices that they would offer them to God or Idols he commanded them to offer them to him This Chrysostom takes notice of and sayes it is no wonder that he abolished them quite by Christ Iesus for he did not care for them from the beginning {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} How then did he require them by way of condescension to their weaknesse The Authour of the Constitutions affirms that till the provocation of the golden Calfe and their other idolatries sacrifices were not imposed and then it was only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that being clog'd with these troublesom yokes they might be forced from Idolatry He never did allow of them as commutations or dispensations
for inward goodnesse true righteousnesse the Love of God Charity Humility and such like which are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} everlastingly good of their own nature excellent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as our Saviour calls them the weightier matters of the Law upon which God looks with a regard sutable to their intrinsecall value and worth The externals were at the best but figures of heavenly things and shall God accept of the sign for the thing signified they are at the best but carnal and therefore poor rudiments as the Apostle calls them but when they are separated from inward goodnesse they are not only beggarly but false like wooden boxes with nothing in them If God made no more account of external significations when they were so many so pompous so costly shall we think that he will now accept those few which he hath left in his Church and hath revealed to us the necessity of a spiritual worship since the new Law hath required a perpetual Sabbath or rest from elvill works shall we reckon it godlinesse to be idle one day in a week shall we think our selves clean from sin which we affect and practise by being once baptized with water This made the Iewish oblations and rites so abominable to God they made account by the performance of externals to make a supply of inward disobedience and ungodliness When you fasted did you fast to me no but to themselves for by the bodily fast they thought to commute for the spiritual which was to relieve the oppressed to feed the hungry to cease from sin to mortify the old man When they thought by carnal circumcision to dispense with themselves for the inward which is the purifying of the soul from all foul affections God declared constantly to them by his Prophets that he would punish them in the same rank with the wicked Gentiles because they also that is the Jewes were uncircumcised in heart God is so far from accounting himself honoured with fair pretenses that he doth abominate them as the coverings of Hypocrites who being loath to be at the pains of true goodnesse think to put off God whom they pretend to worship with that which costs them nothing The forementioned Iew being hard put to it in this point confessed ingenuously {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. The precepts of your Gospel are so wonderfull great that l suppose no body is able to keep them No Hypocrite can because he hath not resigned his heart to God but to a truly good man they are easie so the Apostle and his Commandements are not grievous But he that doth not love God nor hath submitted his will to the divine government being conscious to himself of base defects would make them up in an easier way This is manifest in the Pharisees whom our Saviour hath branded for notorious Hypocrites they were more scrupulous then others concerning Gnats that they might more quietly swallow Camels That they might be thought not to omit what was indeed indispensable they made great conscience of the Ceremonial Matth. 12. 1 2 3. for the keeping a ceremony they would have an act of mercy omitted whilest our Saviour doth reprove their Hypocrisy he doth also convince them of ignorance for have you not read what David did when he was an hungred and they that were with him how he entred into the house of God and did eat the Shew-bread which was not lawful to be eaten but by the Priests If you had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltlesse At that time when those Rites were most in force God permitted his bread to be taken off from his Table to relieve the hungry alwayes preferring mercy and goodnesse before a ceremoniall observance and if you had understood what God would teach you by such his actions you would find your selves much reproved for your Hypocrisy So it is still the way of Hypocrites with pretenses of regard to God whom they have not seen to neglect known duties to their brethren whom they do see to stand in need of them But they are grossely mistaken for God is content that positive rites and institutions should give way to moral eternal duties but that outwards should be put in the room of inwards is most odious to him Doth any wise man prefer a show to the substance Therefore when these deceivers thought to impose upon God on this fashion in Malachy's time he bids them offer their corrupt sacrifice to the Governour See if you can delude any man of place and understanding and make him believe you have done him much honour by fair words though you think unworthily of him in your minds and are disaffected towards him in your hearts We do honour to God if we chuse instances that are fitly expressive of regard to him and then perform them in the best manner that we can Though when we have done all we are unprofitable servants that is we have not in the least inriched our heavenly Master yet if we chuse the fittest instances we can find to do honour to God and present the performances of our dutie with all integrity of soule though we do not then reach his height of glory yet he will accept us because he doth regard his creatures according to what they have Though we present nothing that is strictly worthy of him yet we are accepted because we have no better God is so gentle that he doth often accept lesse then the very best from Honest soules and if he would not take our best addresses in good part we could have no intercourse with him in worship I will name five instances by which we may do honour to God acceptably First If we carefully labour for such a knowledge of Gods Nature and will as may lay a sufficient foundation for those many acts of Religion by which we are to acknowledge him True Religion hath many excellent things in it which have no support in ignorant soules as for example The highest Love the most perfect Trust the greatest submission of our wills c. How shall a man perform these if he be ignorant of that Goodnesse which makes God most lovely that Truth which makes him faith-worthy that Authority and Righteousnesse which require our perfect obedience God hath made it one characteristical expression of irreligious persons They know not the Lord Ignorance is a note of wicked carelesnesse in men because they seek not the knowledge of so Noble a Benefactor and it carries along with it all Irreligion in other instances And therefore it was well said by the Philosopher the true worship of God is founded upon a right apprehension of him The Argument of our Saviour by which he disproved the Samaritan worship goes upon the same ground You worship that which you do not know Joh. 4. 22. It is no wayes likely that the sacrifice should be proper
of seeming devotion But those which really put out his Spirit and expresse his Image do truly glorify their Lord and so our Saviour sayes he was glorified in his true followers Joh. 17. 10. and he sayes that in his next coming he will be glorified in them again 2 Thes. 1. 10. when he will reveal to all the world that his admirable holinesse was the only pattern of all true worth and excellency The true appearances of this divine Image are of such wonderful effect sometimes that they dazle the eyes of those which behold them and make them confesse as Marcus Antonius saith in his Epistle of the Christians of his time {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. That they had an in-dwelling God formed in their souls We do honour to God if we do heartily promote his knowledge and love in the world The words of Galen are excellent to this purpose which he hath in the speech which he makes as a hymne in praise of the Creator {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. This I esteem to be true worship not to sacrifice to him Hecatombs of Bulls but if I know him my self and declare to others the greatnesse of his wisdome power and goodnesse The Italian glosse is much to the same purpose in which doing all to the Glory of God is thus expounded Rendendogliene voi ogni honore è procurando che tutti gli altri facciano il simile i. e. Giving all honour to him your selves and endeavouring that all others may do the same But of this I shall speak more largely in the fifth instance We glorify God if we resign our selves to the Government of his will for by so doing we honour it above our own self-will and the examples of all others that contradict it This is performed in two things In following the divine precepts as indispensable rules Then we truly give honour to God when we obey his Lawes as the orders of the great Father and Governour of all things and as he said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} simply co-will with God and plainly sympathize with his pleasure The Commentator upon Pythagoras his golden verses doth excellently interpret that precept of performing all due rites to our Ancestours thus If children do follow those holy directions which their parents left them they do them more honour then if they offered solemn sacrifies When Achan had sinned and through covetousnesse slighted the Commandement of God he was bid to confesse and give glory to God Men give glory to God when they confesse the folly of their wilful deviations from the righteous commands of God but they honour him much more when for the regard which they bear to the wisdom and goodnes of his most just appointments they will not deviate By chearfully submitting to those conditions of life and estate that he is pleased to allot to us If we quarrell with his dispensations towards us we accuse him of rigor and harshnesse in his government and when we have begun to think that God useth us hardly in his dealings with us we think dishonourably of him and have prepared our selves to hate him What honour and preference did our Saviour give to the Divine will when in such famous instances of tryal he said not my will but thine be done How well did his Scholar great Paul follow his steps who had learned in every condition to be content with Gods allowance I may fitly adde to these the golden words of Epictetus which Arrianus hath recorded {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. And now ô Lord do what thou wilt with me I will find no fault with thy appointments If thou wilt have me sick I am content or well or poor or rich or publick or private to stay or go and addes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I will not only submit unto thee but also defend the righteousnesse and wisdom of thy doings Lastly we do honour to God if we endeavour as much as we can to further all the noble designes and excellent works of God in the world by this we shall declare that we value his ends as the most worthy and desirable things in the world What is his chief design but to advance Goodnesse Righteousnesse Knowledge Equity Charity Purity Benignity Peace and Love The righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse The Kingdom of God is in Righteousnesse Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost His delight is in goodnesse and mercy pleaseth him above all burnt offerings and sacrifices He rejoyceth in the prosperity of the children of men O that there were such a heart in them as that they would fear me that it might go well with them and their children after them The counsels of God do show a plain way to these ends and he facilitates our correspondence with his advice by taking in our interest and he takes himself honâ—red when we become Co-workers with him as the Apostles word is or as the Philosopher varies it but a little {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Co-workers of all good which is all one for his works are all good He is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works This is to honour God when in correspondence with him in his God-likeâ— designes a man makes account of it as his proper office in the world to do good to all men to take care of all men and as a common father teacher and helper to further them in the participation of God to promote their happinesse and comforts It is worthy of a good man to make himself as it were a common Priest to offer up prayers continually for all the world It is observable that when our Saviour commended the imitation of his fathers perfections he instanced onely in Charity Mat. 5. And when he condemned the world for their ungodlike carriage he mentioned only uncharitablenesse Mat. 25. By this spirit and practise we make a return to God of what we have received from him and employ his liberality to his honour by making it redound to his praise not from the second or third but from many hands When thou art converted go and strengthen thy brethren Or if there be any thing done to thee for which thou owest a love to me pay it by feeding my sheep and who are Christs sheep all poor miserable creatures for he was the good shepherd that came to seek and to save what was lost There is a passage in Trismegistus that is a lively representation of this point After he had been made partaker of the divine light he heard a voyce saying to him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be thou a guide to such as will follow thee that mankind may be saved by God upon which he began presently as he saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to discover the beauty of holinesse and to preach {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. O worldly
given for marks of such distinction as Paul Apollo Cephas with what earnestnesse doth Paul put himself in this breach Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you Is christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized in the name of Paul Clemens Romanus in his Epistle to the same Corinthians speaks excellently to the same purpose cur inter nos sunt contentiones irae simultates schismata c. Why should there be contentions anger and warre amongst us Have we not one God and one Christ Is not the spirit of Grace one which is poured forth upon us all and is not our vocation one in Christ Iesus why do we pluck off the members of Christ and by moving sedition against our own body show that we are come to that madnesse that we have forgotten that we are members one of another so he By means of the great precept of our Lord to love one another and the industry of some of his wisest disciples the practise of love held out so eminently downwards till Tertullians time that he sayes Dilectionis operatio notam nobis meruit penes quosdam vide inquiunt ut invicem se diligant i. e. Their exercise of love made them remarkable with many see say they how the christians love one another Then christian Religion was in Honour but when the professors of it grew disobedient to the fundamental law of Love and became fierce they tore off their Masters Badge and by hating one another became odious to Heathens But what made them so quarrelsome Four things are manifest They were not content with the plain revelation of Christs will in the holy Scriptures and therefore when they began to wax wanton against the doctrine of Christ in the Apostles days intruding into things which they had not seen they would needs bring in a voluntary humility as the worship of Angels and through the pretense of great wisdome and free-will offerings and austerity to the flesh brought in many foolish doctrines and perverted the institutions of Christ both in point of marriage and meats and being vainly pufft up with fleshly imaginations swerved from the infallible Rule of wisdom and holinesse into foolish enormities by which they separated themselves from Christ and his Church both at once as appeares in their story at large written by Irenaeus Epiphanius and others Eusebius in the fifth book of his Ecclesiastical History cap. 25. gives an accompt of the cause of that great schisme between the Eastern and Western Churches out of Irenaeus that it was long of those of the West who not holding simply what was delivered from the beginning that is by Christ fell into other observations either through ignorance or carelesnesse Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians praising their Vnity of which he had heard by Onesimus gives this for the great reason of it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. they all lived according to the truth of the Gospel neither had they any distinct sect among them neither did they hearken to any but only Christ Iesus the true Shepherd and Master and yet there were such among them as he saith a little after that would have brought in amongst them things unworthy of God and contrary to the doctrine of Christ When that Holy Rule is neglected which whilst it is kept to brings peace upon all that walk according to it men fall into by-paths and when one takes one way and another a different they fall to disputing which is the right But whilst they have abandoned the only rule they may dispute long enough before they be resolved and unlesse they will rest in the plain determinations of the Scripture their controversies about Gods will can never be decided For if there were no other hinderances yet that self-love which swayes men so strongly to their own opinions would make their mutual consent impossible That which a learned man said in another case is very true here {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It is not any mortal man but God only that can judge concerning those differences because the self-love which is bred in every one will not permit them to give way to another Men being apt to admire themselves and to despise others To prevent the inconveniences which arise from this ground in matters of Religion God hath not only instructed our ignorance but restrained our curiosity by the revelation of his will but when we have once passed that bound it is no wonder at all if we wander into infinite differences and make Religion contemptible by multitudes of uncertain pronunciations They would not bear with one another in the exposition of doubtful places of Scripture nor allow that difference of opinion which is not dangerous in things not necessary nor allow difference of practise in things indifferent nor indeed permit to others the liberty which they took to themselves in these matters and this must needs administer occasion for quarrels break the peace of the Church The Primitive christians were aware of this danger and knowing how easily the Devil would take occasion by their difference in opinion to divide their hearts beat him where he most hoped for victory for so the peaceable Irenaeus told the angry Pope Victor that he had pitifully consulted for the good of the Church or the honour of Christianity by his excommunicating of such as differ'd from him and therefore with many other sober Bishops advised him to study the peace of the Church that he might perceive their advise practicable acquainted him that there had bin differences before amongst good men both about Easter day also the manner of Fasts yet they agreed in love both among themselves with others which Eusebius expresseth thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i.e. and the difference of their fasting did not break off but commend the unity of their faith So Ignatius compared the Church to a Chorus where all do not sing one part but with different voyces some higher some lower being tun'd into good harmony by love make sweet melody to God So Iust. Martyr in his Epistle to Zena and Serenus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. We must take care that we maintain peace and love with those which differ from us lest being carried away with the heat of anger we say we are of that nature that we cannot but be angry and sometimes break the communion of prayers And a little after We know some that have advanced this angry humour to such a height that drawing the Gospel towards this peevishnesse they would accommodate the Oracles of our Saviour to their own rash opinion and if they had obtained power to deliver men over to hell they would have destroyed the world nay as much as in them lyes they condemn