written upon it but he that receives it and secondly because the very person himself that should pretend to it could not secure himself from illusion but might easily mistake the Idols of his own phancy or the very illusions of the Devil for the dictates of the Divine Spirit as we find by sad experience that many have done unless there were withal a constant succession of Miracles to assure their minds that it was the divine impression Therefore forasmuch as those who pretend to the Spirit can give no assurance of it and natural reason cannot pretend to discover sufficiently the Divine Will it remains that only the Holy Scripture is that which must be our guide in the way to please God and attain the Salvation expected in another World The holy Scripture then is that provision God hath thought fit to make for our weakness and ignorance This is the transcript of the divine mind a light that shineth in darkness and by which divine wisdom designed to guide us through all the maze of disputes and to resolve us of all the important questions that concern our eternal interest and this is that which he hath so fitted to our use that whosoever consults it with a mind free from prejudices and anticipation he shall not miss his way to Heaven Nor shall such a man as is disposed to receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child i. e. comes with a mind willing to learn and be convinced and with that temper applies himself to the holy Scripture need either the pretended infallibility of a Pope or the Authority of a Church to interpret it to him For it is certain God is as able to express his mind to us as either of these are whensoever he thought fit to do so and where he resolved to be obscure it is not to any purpose to consult them in the Case who are no more privy to his secret counsels than we our selves are And it is not consistent either with the goodness or wisdom of God to order matters so that he should be betray'd to any capital error so as to indanger his Salvation who applies himself to the holy Scripture and comes qualified with an honest heart and in the use of such ordinary means as are afforded for the understanding of them It is indeed not impossible but that such a man notwithstanding both the perfection and perspicuity of his rule may erre in some smaller matters but there is no reason to fear they should be either such as will abuse him in the great Doctrines of Faith or the rules of a good Life he can neither mistake the Object of his worship nor the manner of it nor indanger the glory of God or his own Salvation For this will direct him to a Religion plain and easy humble and peaceable reasonable and hearty a Religion that neither imposes an implicit Faith nor countenances a bold presumption that will make men devout without superstition and holy without arrogance or pretending to merit at Gods hands in a word the holy Scripture impartially consulted will bring us to a Religion that shall neither consist of speculations and be opinionative and fanatical on the one side nor made up of external shew and pomp as that of the Church of Rome on the other side but such as that of the Church of England which manifestly avoids both extreams CHAP. VI. More particular Directions for the setling a mans mind in Religion ALthough it be never so certain that the holy Scripture was both composed and preserved by the providence of God for mens guidance in the way to Heaven and notwithstanding its great perspicuity and sufficiency in that case yet as I intimated before prejudice of mind is able to defeat the ends of it therefore for the removal of that it will be of great use that the following particulars be considered First He that would make a right use of the holy Scripture and thereby discover the true lineaments of Religion let him make inquiry after the most antient and the most Catholick Religion and not indulge his curiosity so as to be taken either with novelty or singularity for each of those will lead him aside both from the truth of Religion in general and from the Christian Religion in particular As for the former of these notes of Religion viz. Antiquity the oldest Religion must needs be as much the truer as God is before the Devil therefore the Prophet Jerem. 6. 16. directs the people to inquire for the good old way and walk therein and they should find rest to their souls and for Christianity in particular forasmuch as that depends upon Divine Revelation it is impossible that After-ages should add any thing to it or make improvement of it without new revelation Whilst God is of the same mind Heaven of the same nature and the Gospel of the same tenor there can be no new Christianity Therefore let all new lights go for Ignes fatui and mere meteors that serve to no purpose but to bewilder men he that seeks for true Christianity let him neither content himself to look back to 41 or the last Age as some do nor 500. years backward to a dark Age as others but let him inquire for a Religion as old as Gospel and observe in what Rules it was delivered and in what Examples it first shew'd it self in the World As for the other note of Religion viz. Universality It is certain the true Religion is the most truly Catholick For it is evident that our Saviour intended but one Church and one Religion in all the World and to that purpose he instituted Christianity in such sort that it should agree with all times and ages fit all Countries and Climates suit all Constitutions and conditions of men and subsist under whatsoever form of Government or Civil polity it should meet with Those therefore who model Religion according to the peculiar fashion of some one Country or frame a notion of it which requires a certain complexion and temper of Body as for instance that make some austerities essential to it which all cannot comply with or that describe a Religion for the Cloyster and not adequate to common Life or that model it so as that it must have the Civil Government submitted to it or it cannot subsist or in a word that confine it to narrow bounds or Canton it into separate parties none of these understand the true genius of Christianity nor take the measures of Religion from the holy Scripture Secondly He that would make a right choice of his Religion must not take it upon publick Faith or be determined by common fame or so much as regard the loud shouts and acclamations of the vulgar For they are generally sworn Enemies to sober reason as being moved more by heat than light and governed by sense and phancy and consequently cannot entertain any great esteem for a modest sedate manly and rational Religion but on the contrary
the formal acting of a part with the observance of abundance of nice Rites Ceremonies and Punctilio's that it is not a thing which looks beautifully and promises fairly in publick but is forgotten or laid aside at home nor is it immured in a Closet and never sufferd to take the air in Conversation to say no more that it is not mere morality nor mere devotion but both these in Conjunction together with all that is brave and noble and wise and good all that can better the minds and tempers and lives of men and all that can improve the state of the World all this is within the Verge of Religion especially the Christian Religion For so the Apostle intimates Phil. 4. 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest or grave whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely or friendly whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think of these things i. e. Count them branches of Christianity for true Religion is nothing less nothing I mean of no narrower extent than a wise and worthy conduct and manage of a mans self in all those Relations we stand in namely towards God our Neighbour and our selves This I take to be the true notion and the just Province of Religion but I can neither think it possible to handle all the parts of so vast a subject in this short Treatise nor indeed do I apprehend the discoursing of them all to be equally necessary to those for whose use I principally intend these Papers Therefore omitting but not excluding all other branches of Religion I will here only speak of these three things First Of secret Devotion or those acts of Piety which are transacted only between Almighty God and a Mans own Soul Secondly Of private Piety or the exercises of Religion in every particular Family Thirdly Of the more publick acts of Religion and concerning a mans governing himself so as to consult the honour and service of God in the Parish wherein he lives I begin with the first viz. of secret or Closet Devotion That this is an essential branch of true Religion and a necessary and universal duty appears by the command of our Saviour Mat. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy father who is in secret c. in which words it is not our Saviours meaning to forbid or put a slight upon all but Closet Devotion for he himself frequently prayed publickly and taught his Disciples so to do nor though he speak of a Closet doth he intend to confine this duty to the strict formalities of a Closet but that it may be done in the Fields or in any recess or place of secrecy whatsoever as he himself practised nor lastly though he use the word Prayer only doth he make that strictly taken to be the whole office of secret Piety for it is usual in the Scripture and in common speech also to express all the acts of immediate worship by the name of Prayer whether they be Praises or Adorations or Confessions or Thanksgiving or Meditation or Self-Examination all therefore which our Saviour here intended was to represent the necessity of secret Devotion as well as publick and to press that upon his Disciples which the hypocrisy and ostentation of the Pharisees had laid aside because in truth they sought not Gods glory but their own And this is further recommended to us by the universal practice of all good men in all Ages and Countries of the World and of whatsoever opinion or perswasion otherwise There have perhaps been those who under some pretence or other have neglected Family worship and those also who have been abased by some scruples into an omission of publick worship but I verily think that none but flat Atheists or gross Hypocrites which are much the same thing could ever dispense with themselves in the common and habitual neglect of secret worship for a man cannot believe there is a God or much less have any worthy apprehensions of him but it naturally puts him upon some act or other of adoration towards him Acts of publick worship are to the Soul as exercise is to the Body it may live and subsist though not long and healthfully without it but secret Devotion is like the motion of the heart and lungs without which a man is presently choaked up and destroy'd if his heart do not move towards God and as it were by circulation return in praises all those benefits which it continually receives from him it is stifled by repletion and if by Prayer he do not breathe out his griefs and as it were ventilate his spirits he is strangled by his own melancholy for the publick performance of religious offices cannot make a supply in these Cases because every man hath his secret sins to confess to God which it is ordinarily unsafe to make other men privy to and his peculiar infirmities and temptations his griefs and burdens which it is in vain to lay open to men seeing only God can relieve them and every man hath received sundry personal mercies and savours from the hands of God in answer of his Prayers which require a personal acknowledgment to the Divine Goodness And the opening of a mans heart in any of these Cases is commonly attended with such affections and passionate expressions as would be indecent to the Eyes of men though they are very becoming towards God in respect of which last thing we find 1 Sam. 1. 13. Hannah was thought to be drunk by the holy and wise man Eli the Priest when yet as the truth appear'd afterwards he saw in her only the devout symptoms of a sorrowful Spirit Besides these acts of secret worship are very necessary in order to publick worship both as they dispose and fit a mans heart for it before he enters upon it by composing the thoughts and raising the affections and as they make application of it afterwards pressing home upon the Conscience the instructions there received and improving and confirming into a stable resolution those good affections and inclinations which were stirred up by it insomuch that that man will either have no mind to Gods publick service or no suitable temper in it or be little the better after it that hath not first fitted and prepared his heart for it by secret Devotion And herein lies the true reason as well of the lamentable unprofitableness as of the common irreverence of publick performances because men rush into Gods House without the due Preface of secret preparation and they turn their backs upon God when they depart from the Church never attending to or improving those good motions which the spirit of God had kindled in them Moreover these devout offices of Religion though they are by no means to supplant and supersede the publick as we have intimated already and shall demonstrate at large by and
ingenious persons consider of that passage of the Gospel Luke 11. 1. where in the first place we find our Saviour was at Prayers and that it was not secret Prayer but with his Disciples is more than probable since they were present at them and accordingly when he had concluded one of them asks him to instruct them how to pray Now if this be acknowledged then here is our Saviours Example for what we are discoursing of forasmuch as the Disciples with whom he was at Prayer were his Family But that which I observe further is they ask him to teach them to pray as John taught his Disciples that is to prescribe them a form wherein they who were his Family might join together as the Family or Disciples of John did or not only to pray severally or secretly but in Conjunction and Society and this our Saviour gratifies them in by prescribing to them the well-known and admirable form in which these two things are further remarkable to this purpose first that the Prayer is in the plural number which renders it far more probable that it was intended for a social office For though some other account may be given of his using that number yet nothing is so natural as this reason which I have intimated Secondly The very petitions themselves if they be considered will incline a man to think that though the Prayer was contrived with infinite wisdom to fit other purposes yet it was primarily intended for the use of a Family or Society especially such an one as this of our Saviours Disciples was but so much for that 2. The next instance of Family Duty is the sanctification of the Lords Day and other days and times set apart for his service As for the Lords Day though it be undoubtedly true that as the Jewish Sabbath which is our Saturday is not obliging to Christians at all so neither are we bound to observe any day with that Sabbatical nicety and strictness which for special reasons was required of that people yet that the first day of the Week or the Lords Day be observed piously and devoutly is recommended to us by the constant practice of the Christian Church And the sanctification of it principally consists in this that we make it a day peculiar for the offices of Piety and Devotion as other days are for common and secular affairs for though the business of Religion must be carried on every day of our lives and that be a profane day indeed in which God hath not some share allowed for his service yet as God hath not required that it be the whole work of those days but after a little of the time be consecrated to him the residue be applied to the common affairs of Life so on the Lords Day we are allowed to consult our infirmity to provide for necessity and to do works of humanity or mercy but the proper business of the day is Religion and to that the main of it must be applied And there is great reason for this namely by this interruption of the course of Worldly affairs in some measure to take our hearts off from them for we should hardly avoid sinking absolutely into the cares and business of this life if we went on in a continual course and were not obliged at certain intervals of time to retreat from them and betake our selves to things of another nature by which means also we begin to practise an Heavenly Sabbatism and inure our selves by degrees to those spiritual imployments which we are to enter upon and be everlastingly performing in another World Let therefore the pious man thus sanctify the Lords Day by applying it to holy uses that is besides publick worship to reading Meditation singing of Psalms and grave Discourses of Religion and let him according as he hath Warrant from the fourth Commandment oblige all those within his Gates to do so too and not only restrain his Family from common labours but from lightness and folly tipling and gossipping idle visits and impertinent talking of News and use his indeavour to ingage them to be as much in earnest about the service of God and their Souls on that day as they are about their business or pleasure on other days As for other holy days set apart by the appointment of the Church there is very good use to be made of them too for besides that the great Festivals are the ignorant mans Gospel and bring to his mind all the great passages of our Saviour and his Apostles it is certain also that God hath not so strictly tasked us to the labour of six days as that he will not be better pleased if we now and then apply some of them to his honour and make a sally towards Heaven but then the observation of these days is not to be made merely a relaxation from servile work nor much less a dispensation for looseness and profaneness but God must be served on them with greater diligence than can be ordinarily expected on other days And this is another branch of the pious mans duty in his Family 3. There is another thing I would mention in the third place amongst Family exercises which I do not call a necessary duty but would offer it to consideration whether it be not adviseable in some cases for the promotion of Family Piety that in every Family where it can be done some persons should be incouraged to take notes of the Sermons which are preached in the Church and repeat them at home forasmuch as this course would not only afford a very seasonable and excellent entertainment for the Family in the intervals of publick worship on the Lords Day but would also be very advantagious both to Minister and People For the Minister it would incourage him to study and to deliver weighty things when he saw his words were not likely to perish in the hearing and be lost in the air but be reviewed and considered of by which means one Sermon would be as good as two and might serve accordingly For the People it would put the most ordinary sort of them upon considering and indeavouring to remember and make something of that which is delivered to them when they observe that some of the ablest of the Congregation think it worth their pains to take so exact notice of it as to write it down at least they would be ashamed to snore and yawn when others are so intent and serious And as for the Family in which the repetition is made they would have further occasion to observe with what clearness and evidence the doctrine was inferred from the Text opportunity to weigh the arguments used to inforce it and be put upon making application of all to their own Consciences But I foresee several objections such as they are will be made against this it will be said this course is unfashionable and puritanical that experience hath discovered that writing after Sermons hath taught men to be conceited and captious and
presently sets up men for Lay-Preachers and in a word that repeating Sermons raised the Rebellion But In answer to the first of these I observe that it is neither unusual nor under any ill character in Courts of Judicature for men to take Notes of the reasonings determinations and even the opinions of the Judges and surely Religion is of as much moment as the municipal Laws and Cases of Conscience are of as great consequence as meum and tuum but if the Discourses of Preachers be not so considerate their reasonings not so close and weighty nor their determinations so well grounded as to be worth noting the more is the pity to say no more As for the second objection I answer that if the Preacher handle only the indisputable Doctrines of Christianity and press them home and close upon the Consciences of men these will afford little scope for conceitedness or captiousness but some men that are of such an humour will be pragmatical and profane whether they write after Sermons or no and therefore let us lay this blame where it is due To the third objection it is answered that though writing after Sermons might perhaps furnish men with materials for Lay-preaching yet it was impudence which disposed men to it and the dissolution of Government which gave opportunity for it and if the last of these three things be taken care of the second will be curbed and the first harmless and innocent But lastly whereas it is objected that writing and repeating of Sermons was accessary to the late Rebellion I answer that it is evident it could be neither the writing nor the repeating but the seditious matter of the Sermons that was in the fault for it is certain that good and pious Sermons are the most effectual way to prevent all mischief of that kind tending to make good Subjects as well as good Christians and the writing and repeating of such Sermons is a means to settle such Doctrine the deeper in the hearts of men and therefore I see not but that it would be good prudence to apply that to a good end which hath been abused to a bad one unless we will countenance the humour of some late Reformers whose method was to abolish things for the abuse of them Upon the whole matter I see no just discouragement from this instance of Family-Devotion however I will say no more of it but proceed to such as are unexceptionable 4. It is certainly a Family Duty to instruct all the young and ignorant persons in it in the substantial Doctrines of Religion and rules of good life The obligation to and the advantages of this office have been sufficiently represented before in the foregoing Chapter now therefore only to speak briefly and plainly of the manner of discharging it it comprises these following particulars First That care be taken betimes to subdue the unruly wills and passions of Children which is ordinarily not very hard to do if it be minded time enough whilest they are tender and pliable but the defect herein like an errour in the first Concoction is hardly remediable afterwards accordingly the wise man adviseth Prov. 19. 18. Chasten thy Son whilest there is hope and let not thy Soul spare for his crying By breaking his stomach now we prevent the breaking of our own hearts hereafter for by this means with the blessing of God upon it we shall have comfort in a Child and the State and publick Society a governable Subject whereas contrariwise stubborness and malapertness in youth grows to contemptuousness of Parents to faction and sedition in the State in age In pursuance of this Secondly Let them learn and be accustomed humbly to beg the blessing of their Parents and Progenitors this as meanly as some inconsiderate people think of it is of mighty use for it not only teaches Children to reverence their Parents but wonderfully provokes and inflames the affections of Parents towards them and besides this it is the usual method of conveying the blessings of God upon them for though it be only God that bestows the blessing yet his way is to use the intervention and designation of Parents and generally those whom they bless in this case are blessed and those whom they curse are cursed Thirdly Then let them learn to read to pray and especially to say their Catechise for though these things are not throughly understood by them now yet they will stick by them and be remembred when they are more capable of improving them insomuch that it will be uneasy to one that hath been well principled in his minority to be impious and profane hereafter or if he should prove so there will yet be some hopes of reclaiming him because these things will some time or other revive and awaken his Conscience Fourthly after this let them be brought to the Bishop that he may lay his hands upon them pray over them bless and confirm them For if the fervent Prayer of every righteous man avail much as St. James tells us undoubtedly the solemn Prayer and Benediction of Christs immediate Substitute and the prime Officer of his Church is not inconsiderable Besides when men have understandingly and solemnly addicted themselves to the Christian Religion and made it their own act by a voluntary and publick choice it will ordinarily have a great influence upon them in modesty honour and reputation as well as Conscience that they shall not easily go back from it and renounce it and though it is too true that many have miscarried afterwards in point of practice yet it is very observable in experience that few or none who have been confirmed as aforesaid have apostatized from the profession of Christianity Fifthly and lastly After such foundations are laid it is no time yet to be secure but these beginnings must be followed with further instructions that such persons may be brought to a savoury sense of Piety and to understand the reasons of the Religion which they have imbraced and so neither be debauched with Examples nor tossed to and fro by every wind of new Doctrine nay further these young persons ought to be put upon all the ingenuous learning they are capable of receiving and we are able to afford them for the improvement of their minds that they be the more serviceable to God both in Church and State by the intent prosecution of which they will not only be kept out of the dangers which rash and unimployed youth is ready to run upon but become an Ornament to themselves and to their Relations and which is more be able to imploy and enjoy themselves in elder years without the usual diversions of drinking and gaming which commonly are the silly resorts and refuges of those who wanted Education in their youth 5. There is a principal branch of Family Discipline yet remains to be taken notice of and that is the curbing and restraining first of all profaneness and contempt of things sacred whether it be by cursing
instruct Moreover it was also the intention of our Saviour that this Church of his should be but one and Catholick imbracing all the true Believers all the World over and therefore it is called his Body and his Spouse from whence it follows that every man who will partake of the benefits which flow from him must be a part of this Body and thereby hold Communion with him by Conjunction with that which is otherwise impossible to be done than by joining with that part of the Catholick Church where it hath pleased the Divine Providence to settle our abode and habitation that is in the Parish and Neighbourhood where we dwell for without this though it 's possible we may retain the fame Faith in our hearts with the Catholick Church yet we cannot perform the offices of members nor serve the ends of such a Society The result is therefore that it is ordinarily every Christians Duty to communicate in all the offices of Christianity to submit to the Officers to be subject to the censures ahd to comply with the orders of that part of the Church amongst which the Divine Providence hath placed him I say ordinarily because it may happen that the Society of Christians amongst whom a man lives may be heretical in their Doctrine or Idolatrous in their Worship and then it will not be his sin but his duty to separate from them but bating that case and where the Doctrine is sound and the worship free from Idolatry I see not what else can acquit him of Schism that separates or what can be sufficient to dissolve the obligation of joining with the Catholick Church by Conjunction with that particular Society or Member of it where he is placed Therefore let not the good Christian without flat necessity suffer himself to be alienated from the particular Church lest by so doing he lose the comforts and benefits of the Catholick Church but let it be his care and indeavour so far as it is in his power that there may be but one Church in the World as was the intention of our Saviour to this purpose let him not hearken to the fond pretences of purer Ordinances and double refined worship or to the vain boasts of greater edification in other Assemblies for besides that a man may justly expect most of Gods blessing upon those means which are most his duty to apply himself unto it is also evident that if such suggestions be attended to it will be flatly impossible that there should ever be such a thing as unity or order in the Christian Church nay these conceits will not only distract and confound the order of the Church but they serve to fill mens heads with endless disputes and their hearts with perpetual scruples about purity of administrations so that they shall rest no where but under pretence of soaring higher and higher shall ramble from one Church to another till at last they cast off all Ordinances as the highest attainment of spirituality Nor let him give ear to any peevish insinuations against the Church and publick worship upon account that there are some Rites or Ceremonies made use of which are only of humane institution for it is not only reasonable to hope that God will be well pleased with humility peaceableness and obedience to humane Laws but certain that there is no Church in the World that is or can be without some observances that have no higher original than humane institution But against these and all other such like principles of separation let him indeavour to secure himself First by dismissing the prejudices of Education and the unnecessary scrupulosities of a melancholy temper and above all acquit himself of pride and pragmaticalness and then he will easily and comfortably comply with any sound part of the Christian Church In pursuance whereof 2. He must diligently frequent all the publick offices of Religion in that Society whether it be Prayers Preaching or reading the word of God or Administration of the Sacraments c. For it is a mighty shame that a man should pretend to be of the Church who cares not how little or how seldom he comes at it and who slights the advantages of its Communion For such a man however he may hector and swagger for the notion of a Church manifestly betrays that all is but humour or interest and no true principle of Christianity at the bottom and really he doth more dishonour to that Society than the professed Schismatick doth or can do For besides that he incourages them in their contempt of it and discourages good men in their zeal for it he foments the suspicion of Atheistical men that Religion is but a politick trick to catch silly persons with whilest those that are privy to the plot keep out of the bondage of it I need not adde That he defeats the institution of our Saviour that he baulks his own Conscience if he have any and aggravates his own Damnation which are all very sad things On the other side the blessings and comforts of frequenting the offices of the Church are so many and great that it is not imaginable how any man who is convinced of the duty of Communion in general should be able to neglect the particular instances of it For besides that the Church is Gods House where he is especially present and where we meet him and place our selves under his eye and observation and from whence he usually dispenses his favours it is a great furtherance of our zeal and piety to be in the presence of one another where the example of holy fervour and devotion in one powerfully strikes and affects others There is also an extraordinary majesty in the word of God when it is not only fitted to our peculiar condition but authoritatively pronounced and applied to our Conscience by Gods Messenger Above all in Prayers when our Petitions and requests are not only put up to Almighty God by his own Minister appointed for this purpose but our weakness is relieved our spirits incouraged and we are inabled notwithstanding our private meanness or guilt to hope for acceptance and success in our desires by the concurrent Devotions of so many holy men as there join with us in the same suit and in the same words and whose united importunity besieges Heaven and prevails with Almighty Goodness for a blessing Wherefore let no man permit the private exercises of Piety it self such as Prayer reading or Meditation to supersede or hinder his attendance upon the publick offices of the Church seeing that as these yield more publick honour to the Divine Majesty so they are more effectual for our own benefit much less let sloth or too great eagerness upon the affairs of the World make us forget or neglect them but least of all let any lukewarm indifferency or Atheistical carelessness seise upon any man in this particular but let the man who glories to be of the Christian Church be sure to be found there in
express his apprehensions of the infinite distance between him and the Divine Majesty by the lowliest postures of his body 6. Next to this let the pious man think it his duty to pay some measure of reverence to Gods Minister as well as to the Divine Majesty and for his sake In the Old Testament God took special care of the respect and dignity of his Ministers as well as of their maintenance for indeed all contumely towards them redounds upon himself And the new Testament is very full and express in this particular they are those that watch for our souls and must give account for them they are Gods Embassadors and workers together with him those by whose hands he pardons and blesses his people and therefore he holds them as the stars in his right hand and those who slight them that speak in his name on earth affront him that speaketh from heaven but amongst the many passages in the New Testament to this purpose that of the Apostle to the Thessal 1. Ep. 5. 13. is very considerable the words are these We beseech you brethren to know those who labour amongst you and are over you in the Lord and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake The last words are so emphatical they cannot be expressed in English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give them greater esteem than otherwise is due to them for their work and office sake i. e. to value them above their parts and merits and quality in other respects for the sake of that relation they stand in to God and for their office and usefulness towards our Souls And indeed touching that last particular it is evident in experience that all those who have any regard to their own Souls are such as indeavour to raise in their hearts an esteem for their Minister not only that they may incourage his studies and sweeten his labours to him but that they may render themselves the more capable of following his counsels and receiving benefit by his instructions and on the other side those that slight and vilify the persons of such neither do nor possibly can ordinarily receive any benefit by their Ministry and therefore the Prophet Hosea 4. 4. speaking of a profligate and hopeless sort of people useth this expression this people are as those that strive with the Priest q. d. they are not only horribly vicious and profane but they are incorrigible too Therefore the piously disposed man will be sure to reverence Gods Ministers both for Gods sake and his own too and this leads me to another duty of kind to the former viz. 7. That the good Christian account it an office of publick Piety as well as of common justice to pay truly and faithfully his Tithes and Church dues to the Minister this the Apostle intimates by the expression of double honour 1 Tim. 5. 17. Natural reason and the common sense of mankind requires that they which serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar And in the Old Testament when God himself setled the provision for his Ministers he did it most amply and honourably and under the Gospel pious antiquity took care that the Christian Church and Ministry thereof should be liberally indowed till the envy and rapacity of after-times deprived it of a great part of its rights but now after those depredations it would be an horrible sin and shame to rob the Church of any part of that remainder or fraudulently to diminish or impair it For it is evident that no man can pretend any right to it as having neither purchased it nor hired it nor had it descend upon him by inheritance the Churches due being a reserved estate or a rent-charge upon every private estate And it is notorious that it is what pious Ancestry consecrated to this use and therefore no part of it can be invaded intercepted or incroached upon without Sacriledge and the Curse of God And for proof of this we need no more than to observe the common success of such men as purloin from the Church and as their own phrase is are always pinching on the Parsons side They are generally a querulous uneasy lean hungry and unthrifty sort of people God Almighty blowing upon and blasting their other labours for the sake of this accursed thing in their Tents or if any of them thrive for the present yet one time or other a Coal from the Altar will take hold of and fire their Nests Whereas on the other side those that are just to God in this particular ordinarily find the benefit of it in the success of their affairs and they are commonly chearful in their spirits and prosperous in the World But the good Christian will not need these arguments for he loves God and his service and his Ministers and thinks it fit that he that reaps spiritual things ought liberally to sow temporal things at least he will rather abridge himself than wrong the Church although it may be never so cleverly done under the countenance of a corrupt custom or prescription So far from it that 8. In the eighth place he will be an example of pious munificence and put himself to some voluntary cost for the Ornaments of Religion and the House of God and that his publick service may be performed with gravity decency and solemnity For he thinks it very fit that the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth should not only be worshipped with sincerity and devotion but with grandeur and magnificence He will not therefore humour the profaneness of degenerate times so much as to forswear building of Churches if it be in his power nor much less will be backward or stingy in repairing of them when there is occasion for he cannot find in his heart to let Gods House lie waste when he builds his own nor frame his mind to think that is good enough for the uses of Religion which he could not be contented with for his private accommodation if better were in his power and therefore will in all Parish-meetings about these matters vote for God against his own Purse for he is of Davids mind who had no fancy for a cheap Religion nor would serve God with that which cost him nothing 1 Chron. 21. 24. And as he Psal 84. verses 5 6 7. blesses those that took pains to repair the ways and to make the passage easy towards God House at Jerusalem so the pious Christian will indeavour by his counsel and example that the whole external face of Religion may be lightsome beautiful and decorous in the place where he dwells to the end that not only his animal spirits may the more chearfully comply with the devotion of his mind but that those also may be invited to frequent Gods House and worship who have not yet experimented the spiritual ravishments of it In further pursuance whereof 9. The pious man we speak of will together with all the aforesaid allurements use also his utmost indeavours by
perswasions incouragements and all other fit means to prevail with the whole Neighbourhood or Parish to frequent the Church For as he would not go to Heaven alone nay knows assuredly he shall not come there if he do not indeavour to carry others along with him so neither is he contented to feed upon the fatness of Gods House alone but would have others partake with him He hath a holy indignation to observe Theaters to be filled Exchanges and Markets thronged and Gods House unfurnished with Guests He wonders at the inconsiderateness of men who incur such a guilt by the contempt of Religion and pitties their folly that deny themselves so many comforts and advantages as Gods House affords above any other place of resort whatsoever Besides he considers that not only God is more honour'd by a general confluence to his service but that his own heart is more inlarged and chearful and his affections more raised as it were moving in Consort when there is a brave concourse in Divine Offices Psal 122. 1 2. I rejoiced saith the holy man when they said Come let us go up to the House of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem Well-disposed persons it seems then were wont to call upon and provoke one another and to flock together in Companies towards the Temple and it was a pleasant spectacle to the Psalmist to behold it And let good Christians be ashamed to be outdone in any thing of this kind since our Church and worship is so incomparably more excellent than theirs What was it that a zealous Jew could provoke his Neighbours to go up to the Temple for to see a Beast slain and a smoke made with the fat and entrails or to muse upon the obscure Hieroglyphicks in the Fabrick the Utensils the Ornaments and Service of that House But a Christian goes to the Church to hear the lively Oracles of God to see Heaven opened in all its glories and to be shewed the way thither Therefore he that is sensible of the great odds on the side of the Christian worship and who hath so much Prudence and Charity as to render him serviceable amongst his Neighbours to such a purpose will jog and awaken them out of their sloth and negligence of going to the Church by wise and manly Discourses and friendly and familiar Exhortations from the considerations of the scandal to Religion and discouragement to the Minister by the peoples remissness and of the duty and benefit of diligent attendance and he will with the same zeal and care indeavour to answer their objections and remove their scruples about it and especially considering that this is commonly better taken and sinks deeper into such men as need it when it is done not only by the Minister who is presumed by these incogitant persons to do it for his interest or the reputation of his person or profession but by those who are upon the same terms with themselves To all this the pious man aforesaid will wisely improve the interest of his Charity to oblige the poorer sort to their duty dispensing most liberally to them who are most inclinable to follow his counsel in this particular and for the middle sort of men he will trade and buy and sell upon choice with those that are best affected to the Church and Religion But if all this should not do and that he cannot prevail upon all yet 10. In the last place he will not fail at least to over-rule his own Family that they shall universally and constantly frequent the Church and so be an example to the Neighbourhood This I have shewed before every Governour of a Family hath authority from God to do and the holy Scripture affords us several instances of the efficacy and success of making use of it to this purpose amongst the rest by virtue hereof Joshua undertook for his House that they should serve the Lord and Cornelius prevailed upon those under him so that he is said to fear the Lord with all his House And indeed a Master of a Family will be able to give a very sorry account of his Family if he cannot oblige them to go to Church with him for we find by woful experience that where under pretence of scruples about the publick worship inferiours have claimed the priviledge of exemption and been permitted to resort to Conventicles the effect hath been that such persons have not only grown captious and insolent and by degrees to despise their Superiours but having by this means gotten from under the Eye of their Governours have made no scruple to run into Debauchery Therefore let the pious man strictly charge himself thus far and look upon himself as very insignificant in his place if he do not so much publick honour to God and Religion as to bring his Family to the House of God CHAP. VII Of Civil Piety Or How a good man may carry himself so as to promote Gods honour and the publick good together with his own peace and comfort in the Parish considered only as a Civil Society or Neighbourhood WHen our blessed Saviour Mat. 5. 13. saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the earth he did not direct himself only to his Apostles or to them and their Successors the Pastors of his Church as some have imagined but to all his Disciples in general For besides that the Beatitudes which he pronounces in the former part of the Chapter and his other Discourse pursuant of them which immediately precedes these words apparently concern all Christians so far as they are qualified for them It is evident also by S. Luke Chap. 14. comparing the 25 Verse with the 32. that it was his intention to apply this title of being the salt of the earth to the whole body of true Christians And then the importance of that expression will be this That the true spirit of Christianity is and ought to be a principle of activity and the Professors of this Religion are not to content themselves with passive innocency and that they escape the contagion of evil Example nor be corrupted and debauched by the temptations or customs of the World But that they must look upon it as their duty to better and improve the state of Mankind to influence upon it to season and preserve others from corruption as well as themselves Nor is this activity of true Christianity to be strictly confined within the limits of the Church or to display it self merely in the great duties of Religion properly considered For as our Saviour designed not only to shew men a way to another World above but also to amend the condition of this present World below and to make it a more quiet and comfortable habitation so doubtless when he calls his Disciples the salt of the whole Earth he intended to require that every good man should within his whole sphere indeavour to promote humanity morality and the civil and political happiness of mankind The